dervishx5, on 24 January 2015 - 12:59 AM, said:
(1.) To be honest the Clan Front is really like the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa...
(2.) ...It's going to take a coordinated effort to overcome that handicap on the part of the Lyrans and Dracs (and I guess that other faction I constantly forget exists) to effectively push back at you...
(3.) ...This is a beta right now though, so this obvious curbstomping will hopefully draw PGI's attention to the matter and things can be rectified a bit.
(4.) I'd like to clarify that I'm not saying the organized Clan units have it easy or that they're unskilled. It's just something that needs to be looked into.
Excellent points all, and thank you for ensuring the first contribution to this thread was not a simple mass of flame!
1. Having a bit of a military background, I quite see your point and agree with you. The various encirclements and pocket reductions became very workmanlike during Operation Barbarosa, with great swaths of ground rapidly changing hands. In CW this dynamic continues, the three FRR planets in CGB Space are a good example. But more to your point I believe is the incredibly difficult time that personally proficient gamers have when they Solo in a disparate and non-TeamSpeak collection of twelve individuals when they go up against a practiced, proficient, TeamSpeak-enabled Team of twelve. How can there be any other outcome in 95 out of every 100-matches than for the pre-made team to win, and win decisively. As decisively as some of the outcomes that constituted your example.
2. It is not a stretch of the imagination to extend the principles of a Common Defense from my link above for use as the Defensive Component of an Inner Sphere Offensive along the Clan border. I trust many gamers have seen this already - if Davion, Marik and Liao 12-man Faction Drops DEFEND Steiner, Kurita and FRR worlds, it would free up the 12-man Faction Drops from Steiner, Kurita and FRR to go on the Attack, ALL THE TIME AND ON EVERY CLAN PLANET WITHIN REACH. But all to often parochialism holds sway and the rivalries of Lore intrude on MWO CW gaming. Oh what a glorious struggle it would be if CLAN UNITY were to be met by a UNITED FRONT of Inner. Sphere Houses... but alas, I fear that can never be, to many gamers have immersed themselves in lore and assumed some of the same preconceptions, biases and identify too readily with Lore-centric dialectic struggles.
3. The problem is that thee will ALWAYS be a qualitatively decisive advantage to a practiced and proficient 12-man Team who have not just optimized their personal drop decks BUT have also realized critical synergies with regard to integrating and complimenting the capabilities set of their first wave of 12-Mechs. As well as having a "play-book" of 12-20 option sets of tactics / follow-on Mech choice. The tactical overmatch is just too strong in a situation like this. Even when a 12-man Solo-based team finally gets MWO-integrated VOIP, sure communications can be crucial, but 12 strangers all talking at once, with not very much rhyme and reason to their maneuvers and no real practiced Hunter/Killer binaries , NARC Scout/2xLRM trinaries, etc relationships will quickly find that VOIP only gives voice to their frustration and failure. Now that goes BOTH ways however. The Antares Scorpions of House Steiner have defeated every Solo-centric Team I have been a part of, whenever we have met them, on each map and in all four modes (in the early days of CW, I found myself defending planets being subjected to a great degree of House Steiner aggression.) I readily admit that Clan Mechs can be superior, but Inner Sphere Lights in general and some quirked Mechs are more than capable (if used competently and in ground of their choosing) of achieving Inner Sphere victory after victory... Antares Scorpions are just one example of just such an elite Unit.
4. I understand and agree, there is a lot that PGI can further develop, refine and add to the game we all so enjoy already. Especially here in the last 6-months I believe PGI has embraced their now solo-role in the crafting of MWO and have produced some amazing results. The new PvE AI and its potential to make a Ghost Drop actually entertaining (if not potentially too challenging!) is one dual-use of upcoming game mechanisms I sincerely hope we see by mis-summer.
In the meantime, I think our biggest challenge is to contribute to a healthier MWO gaming community. Let's face it, every time our newest of new players joins a march and makes a series of mistakes, more often than not textual (and soon FIOP abuse is liable to be heaped upon them. Half of this now disillusioned gamers will never play MWO again and many of the remainder gain a negative impression of the game/community with every repeat of belittling insults, etc.
All we can do is come up on the chat/VOIP and proved constructive feedback, encouragement and recognition when an exceptional performance is turned in.
I try to do this, I can only hope more people do as well.
Let's work to retain gamers and build a healthier gaming. I think the billions (
) PGI earned with the upcoming release of the Urban Mech will keep them solvent at least through the Steam-release this late Spring/Summer. Now it is up to our Community to reinvite MWO-original gamers and retain current gamers all the while trying to get sane enough to stop allowing small elements of our community from in-game flaming new gamers out of ever trying MWO again.
(Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of this #WallOfText.
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