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I'd like to throw an idea of a different concept for CW out there for funs. The idea is to make every match count, and even make every single kill able to affect the outcome of the conflict.I havn't had near enough CW drops to have any idea about tuning something like this, but this is a concept I'd love to drop more in. I'll put all numbers in bold, these are just placeholders for something more appropriate.
What I propose is a system where a unit initiates a campaign when they want to invade an open planet. For a basic invasion, the unit pays N units of the resource X to launch an invading force of say 300 dropships. At this moment, the invading unit could choose the scale of the attack, pay more and launch say 330, or 360, or perhaps up to 600 dropships.
The defenders would have something like 150 dropsships worth of defending mechs for free, but could choose to reinforce a planet once each campaign by paying N units of resource X.
The first conceptual difference now would be that the attackers have a finite number of attempts
(dropships / 3 matches) to get a certain number of wins (territories). They way I imagine this, the defenders would be on the defending side throughout the campaign and need to deny the attacking force any wins. That means that every single match counts.
The second conceptual difference would be that every player can only use say 20 mechs in each campaign. When a mech has been destroyed it can not be part of the drop dock in another match. This would make things interesting imo. First of all, it would mean that if you are losing, it still matters if you manage to take a few of the opponents with you because these particular mechs will not be able to make any more attacks for the remainder of the campaign. If your side loses, all mechs are lost so you primary objective will always be to win the match, surviving will always come second and be more like a bonus. Not sure how to handle ejects, but ejecting and winning should give the mech a chance at least to remain available. Swapping modules from destroyed mechs to available ones should be allowed, but probably not equipment and engines for balance reasons (clans have to buy engines for all mechs). A campaign would last until all invading dropships have launched a game, or until the campaign time has run out. It could be say 11 hours from initiation + 1 hour of cease fire or 23+1. To make it fair over timezones, one could make it so that a campaign has to run over three phases, each being 7+1 hour in order to claim 3 regions of the planet.
At the end, either the planet was saved or invaded to keep it simple. Future iterations could allow for planets being contested if 1 or 2 regions were defended, and allow counterattacking or pushed attacks.
This has pros and cons, but I think the pros are a bit heavier
+ You get to use more of your mechs, not just your top 4
+ Every match counts, not just the last 2 hours
+ Every kill counts, you always have something to play for even if your team folds
+ An elite unit can't demand that other less elite units stay out of the campaign because they only drop a finite amount of times, i.e. until their players have run out of mechs
+ Factions need to work together and try to improve each other by sharing tactics etc, opens up for faction warfare
+ Adds some sense of resource management since you can choose the scale of attacks by paying
+ Spreading out cease fire periods (if it comes to that, in most cases they will probably not be needed)
+ More intuitive, easier to display the result/campaign progress graphically
- Some will feel they "must" buy 12 new stormcrows because they refuse to drop in anything else
- New players may only be able to get one dropdeck and thus only be able to drop once per campaign unless they keep winning cleanly (not necessarily a bad thing for the campaign or CW, but for these players personally for sure)
- Would probably not do anything about ghost matches
There are many many details that would need to be changed/tweaked/trashed, but I would be interested about what you think about the concept...
