287 replies to this topic

[Gyrok]

RustyBolts, on 15 January 2015 - 04:04 PM, said:

Or... you know... not sit in an attack que for over 20 mins and not get a match....

I play this game to PLAY, not sit and stare at a screen with a timer.

We drop in a 12 man, and we get matches pretty quick usually...especially attacking.

[Aresye]

Gyrok, on 16 January 2015 - 03:08 PM, said:

We drop in a 12 man, and we get matches pretty quick usually...especially attacking.

Note: He said "solo."

It's like texting a person who's flight is delayed that you don't seem to have a problem...while your plane's taking off the runway.

2 completely different types of situations.

P.S. You shouldn't be texting during take-off, flight, or landing.

[Gyrok]

Aresye, on 16 January 2015 - 04:16 PM, said:

Note: He said "solo."

It's like texting a person who's flight is delayed that you don't seem to have a problem...while your plane's taking off the runway.

2 completely different types of situations.

P.S. You shouldn't be texting during take-off, flight, or landing.

My point: join a group.

[RustyBolts]

Gyrok, on 16 January 2015 - 03:08 PM, said:

We drop in a 12 man, and we get matches pretty quick usually...especially attacking.

Good for you, but there may not always be a 12 man and even bigger, there may not always be enough attackers to defend against. It depends on your available play time. Hopefully after Tuesday, with more windows open, there will be more options.

[kf envy]

i think the best way to fix the merc problem is to make the merc's get contracts with Units an not fractions and the Merc's winnings "pay" comes out of the unit they have an contract with. no more faction contracts for the Merc's. also there needs to be bidding on contracts and/or an agreement on the amount the unit is willing to pay the Merc's per point of damage and/or Per win.

[CyclonerM]

kf envy, on 20 January 2015 - 11:28 AM, said:

i think the best way to fix the merc problem is to make the merc's get contracts with Units an not fractions and the Merc's winnings "pay" comes out of the unit they have an contract with. no more faction contracts for the Merc's. also there needs to be bidding on contracts and/or an agreement on the amount the unit is willing to pay the Merc's per point of damage and/or Per win.

I would say "per win" is better, otherwise merc units would just do attrition fights to get kills and damage and maybe lose an easy victory, which is not useful at all for the faction as a whole, aside from delaying tactics.

[LastKhan]

Had an idea while playing WoW and seemed like a decent if not better idea to distinguish Mercs from factions/clans.

Mercs dont get to pick the faction they want right off the bat, but have a random contract generator to provide a faction/ clan contracts to merc groups. Which would make more sense lore wise for a merc to get to pick what they want from a contract system being offered by a house faction.

~ Random Contract Generator; Once hit, two maybe three Randomly generated contracts come up and you must pick one that best suits you while talking with the officers / command of your group. No mulligans.

- The contracts can be based by the house's percentage and which faction has the highest or lowest depending on population. (Ex. House Liao has a higher percentage so they would be most common to come up in the RCG. (Random Contract Gen))
The least but still likely to come up are the higher populated houses/clans but not as common as the lower populated ones. Thus bringing some balance to factions mercwise instead of stuffing on a dominate group like Davion or CGB..

- When the three houses or clans are shown in the RCG they could also have XP and Cbill bonuses to them. and the longer the contract the more you get, ontop of the faction's buff to cbills or whatever.

-Could also have a toggle system (like the one for conquest, assault, and skirmish) for those mercs who play "Only" Clans or House factions.

This is what i got so far and it could be interesting . Havent hammered out how a merc would function in the house / clan but that can be another time .

Edited by LastKhan, 26 January 2015 - 09:40 PM.

[Baron Cunedda Kell]

Alexander Steel, on 10 January 2015 - 03:32 PM, said:

Except for the ones we let get blood names, make commander of our Alpha Galaxy, and eventually even let the merc become saKahn. Of course the wolf Khan at the time had spent 30+ years as a IS Merc as well so.. yeah. We hate mercs.. so much.. grr.. grr...

Point well taken, with my Kell Last name....

[Prussian Havoc]

LastKhan, on 26 January 2015 - 10:18 AM, said:

Had an idea while playing WoW and seemed like a decent if not better idea to distinguish Mercs from factions/clans.

Mercs dont get to pick the faction they want right off the bat, but have a random contract generator to provide a faction/ clan contracts to merc groups. Which would make more sense lore wise for a merc to get to pick what they want from a contract system being offered by a house faction.

~ Random Contract Generator; Once hit, two maybe three Randomly generated contracts come up and you must pick one that best suits you while talking with the officers / command of your group. No mulligans.

- The contracts can be based by the house's percentage and which faction has the highest or lowest depending on population. (Ex. House Liao has a higher percentage so they would be most common to come up in the RCG. (Random Contract Gen))
The least but still likely to come up are the higher populated houses/clans but not as common as the lower populated ones. Thus bringing some balance to factions mercwise instead of stuffing on a dominate group like Davion or CGB..

- When the three houses or clans are shown in the RCG they could also have XP and Cbill bonuses to them. and the longer the contract the more you get, ontop of the faction's buff to cbills or whatever.

-Could also have a toggle system (like the one for conquest, assault, and skirmish) for those mercs who play "Only" Clans or House factions.

This is what i got so far and it could be interesting . Havent hammered out how a merc would function in the house / clan but that can be another time .

EXCELLENT suggestion and one that I have added to a running tally of "good ideas" pursuant to correcting the currently inordinate impact "unconstrained" Mercenaries have in MWO:CW.

Have you submitted your idea to the "Features Suggestion" portion of the forums? I would highly encourage it and indeed would look forward to commenting positively and constructively to it.

[Tarl Cabot]

You are aware all of us are mercs atm, hai? Unless or until PGI Clan/Innersphere Loyalists will likely make very little changes on how often a person/unit changes factions.

The last suggestion would be akin to a merc unit co-oping with a merc unit. What happens if the employer merc unit changes factions, would the employee merc unit faction also change? If not what would happen with the contract? Simply pointing out issues with any suggestions dealing with mercs, as we are all mercs with different contract lengths.

Any suggestions/features currently being made should be approaching it from that viewpoint.

[CyclonerM]

Tarl Cabot, on 16 February 2015 - 07:22 AM, said:

You are aware all of us are mercs atm, hai? Unless or until PGI Clan/Innersphere Loyalists will likely make very little changes on how often a person/unit changes factions.

And that should change. Even if it pratically means very little since loyalist units will rarely if ever change faction. However, i would like to see a distinct "loyalist life" as outlined at the launch party..

[LastKhan]

Tarl Cabot, on 16 February 2015 - 07:22 AM, said:

You are aware all of us are mercs atm, hai? Unless or until PGI Clan/Innersphere Loyalists will likely make very little changes on how often a person/unit changes factions.

The last suggestion would be akin to a merc unit co-oping with a merc unit. What happens if the employer merc unit changes factions, would the employee merc unit faction also change? If not what would happen with the contract? Simply pointing out issues with any suggestions dealing with mercs, as we are all mercs with different contract lengths.

Any suggestions/features currently being made should be approaching it from that viewpoint.

I agree, something does need to be done to separate mercs and factions loyalists.

Not sure if you were talking about my post, but its a merc unit oping to a faction /clan ( the game controls), not to another merc unit. So since the factions / clans itself isn't a player ran thing, that other issue isnt a concern.

Edited by LastKhan, 16 February 2015 - 11:20 AM.

[FindersWeepers]

How about a bonus for the longer you are with a faction instead of a flat time period bonus?

[LastKhan]

Prussian Havoc, on 16 February 2015 - 07:11 AM, said:

EXCELLENT suggestion and one that I have added to a running tally of "good ideas" pursuant to correcting the currently inordinate impact "unconstrained" Mercenaries have in MWO:CW.

Have you submitted your idea to the "Features Suggestion" portion of the forums? I would highly encourage it and indeed would look forward to commenting positively and constructively to it.

I would like to but i dont think its fully well thought out. This is up to criticism and debate or maybe something to be added to.

Edited by LastKhan, 16 February 2015 - 04:42 PM.

[The Conquistador]

RustyBolts, on 01 January 2015 - 06:53 AM, said:

My issue with how PGI has done CW is that they said it was for "Role Playing, Lore Based, unit actions" yet you have Mercs taking Clan contracts which is against lore. These Mercs then conduct war as a Contracted Clan unit against other Clans. This is causing open warfare between Clans during the invasion which is also against the Lore.

We are 'rebooting' the franchise so to speak and this is OUR story. Every day is a new page in our story, and LIVING it (virtually) is a shiat ton better than reading about it in a dusty old book. In short: The only Lore is that which we create, so how about you get out of the library and onto the battlefield RustyBolts and help create new Lore with us.

Edited by The Conquistador, 17 February 2015 - 12:53 AM.

[Will HellFire]

You have to realize that PGI will never implement something that would lock players unwillingly to just playing their IS or Clan Mechs. The way they sold the clan mechs to everyone, they realize that they have to give every player the option of playing every mech.

Having said that, and regarding to MERC units, I think accountability is the way to go; and one of the the only ways to implement that is through player leadership. Give every pilot with a loyalist affiliation a vote to choose leaders in each faction, and leaders the ability to post mercenary contracts for specific actions: "1 week contract to fight on the Davion border" or "Invasion of Blue Hole". The MERC unit gets payed automatically once the conditions of the contract is fulfilled.

The Random Contract Generator would work as well I think, as long as the contracts specify clearly what is to be done.

[CyclonerM]

I like the random generator idea but it does not solve the merc issue as it could easily give them a contract that is directly against the direction the faction diplomacy is going toward, and mercs disrupting it and causing tensions would be justified by their contract.

[LastKhan]

CyclonerM, on 17 February 2015 - 06:49 AM, said:

I like the random generator idea but it does not solve the merc issue as it could easily give them a contract that is directly against the direction the faction diplomacy is going toward, and mercs disrupting it and causing tensions would be justified by their contract.

It still can yes, It solves the balance issue of over stuffing a certain group also a unique and lore-wise approach to contracts. The inner workings still needs a thinking about for sure. Maybe, a faction / clan can only votes on the planets they want to invade and it could have a star next to the planet's name on the star board. Then the mercs can see it and fallow with their attack plans without going against any ceasefires and so on? Its a start and i have to keep in mind the game's weird algorithms.

[Xander Grey]

I do not post often, because threads seem to get out of control more than I feel they add value. But, I am making an exception after having read this thread.

There are certainly changes that I could support, but one change that I am wholeheartedly against is any change that puts in place a mechanism for players to become leaders of an IS faction or Clan and be granted some form of in game control over what other players can or cannot do.

Players have an impact on matches as one of twelve participants. They can have an impact on unit level decisions and actions as one of many participants. Units can form gentleman's agreements, for ceasefires or alliances, to their hearts content. But, even those agreements are not binding and like the real world are subject to underhandedness and backstabbing if they are taken lightly or entered into with dishonorable partners. That is the price of playing politics.

I draw the line at allowing one, or even a council of players, deciding what should happen for the rest of us and being able to enforce that with in-game mechanics (like total player control over attacks and defenses, or penalizing mercs or even non-merc players and units for doing something in their self interest). I don't think the majority of us, as players, joined this game in order to cede control over our own fun and experience of the game to a limited group of roleplaying mega-unit politicians. Setting that up would be a huge mistake and would alienate more players than it would make happy, even within the expectations of CW rather than public queue play.

I do believe some changes would be positive, and I think they would get high levels of support from merc and non-merc units. Making the contracts longer would be fine with me, though I don't think the minimum contract should be more than 2 to 4 weeks. As has been pointed out already, PGI sold us all IS and CLAN mechs and as a customer I have enjoyed playing both in CW matches and maps.

I also think having Clan vs. Clan, Clan vs. IS, and IS vs IS, offers the most variation and interesting battles, so I would not entirely prevent Clan vs. Clan battles. I do agree that there has probably been too much Clan vs. Clan, but that is as much because of the algorithm leaving little other choice for us if we want to actually play and fight live players on some nights. This can be limited by altering the algorithm and not constantly giving Clan attack lanes to other Clans after each ceasefire. Make the possibility less frequent, but still part of the game. If you do not allow clans to fight clans, clans can simply attack across the front line of another clan, taking planets and blocking attack lanes toward Terra without repercussion.

The bottom line is that most of us just want to play the game, by the rules we are given, against other players (not turrets). No player, or player base, should be able to hinder that pursuit outside the limits of a drop or a unit (in my opinion). The other golden rule we should try to self-enforce and self-police, is to be respectful of each other as players (roleplay all the hatred and disrespect you want, but keep the non-roleplay stuff civil and respectful).

Just my two cents,
Xander Grey

[LastKhan]

I agree no one should be able to control the factions rather they be just game controlled. I just want PGI to separate the experiences and distribute powers accordingly.

Mercs get offered contracts and want to get paid C-Bizz and acquire fame for their group. In this game you still get the C-bizz. in the contracts so why not make it "the longer you are with the loyalists the more you get."

The factions and clans themselves fight for planetary conquest and territory . They should get the upper hand on planetary warfare cause they are the ones paying the mercs to fight for/with them.

(edited for the misconception.)

Edited by LastKhan, 18 February 2015 - 10:16 AM.