11 replies to this topic

[Von Blumen]

While the flame war rages over mercs, contracts, ceasefires and RP, I am trying to figure out, as a gamer, to constructively put together some ideas that will help keep CW strong. I am sure PGI has some of these things in mind, but perhaps we can use this as a springboard to launch some ideas at them as well. Here are some of mine that have been influenced by other's ideas as well as through the endless arguments that have erupted:

1. Make planets worth something other than a place to park your name. Units that take planets should be able to make any of these worlds their home base, get cbills that flow directly into the unit's coffers, offer LP bonuses esp. if the home unit defends the world from attack.

2. Set goals for factions that spring massive but temporary LP boosts. This will add insentive and drive to offensive/defensive actions. For CSJ have one early goal be to take Turtle Bay. For Kurita it would be to defend Turtle Bay X amount of times or push CSJ back to Richmond. And overall goal for the Clans would be Terra, but the capture of Terra does not mean the end of the game, but it does give the clan holding it a boost to LP rewards. For the IS the overall goal would be to hold Terra and push out the clans. Once a clan pushes close enough to Terra, the faction that holds Terra gets a boost in LP and cbills to bolster defenses.

3. Coffers should be used to improve held planet defenses but they should also be used to contract out merc units.

4. Merc units should be kept as their own faction:IS has mercs, Clans have loyalists. Once merc units decide which house they will sign up for, they will have to fight like the rest of the unit and if they win, they will get LP, planets, and cbills to fill their coffers. Should a merc unit decide to leave a faction, they lose their planets (planet stays with the faction, but goes neutral), their LP bonus, and any added cbills.

5. Permcon and long term contracted units (28 days) have the ability to hire merc units out of unit coffers to fight for worlds either offensively or defensively. This does not mean that the merc unit is tied to the contracting unit, but it can play out for additional cbills and LP points for mercs. Can also lead to interesting unit dynamics. Contracts cannot last more than a week and must either be fulfilled or broken. Units will get PGI ratings for fulfilling contracts and successfully paying them off as well.

6. Permcon and long term contract units get a greater LP and cbill bonus from captured worlds. This will allow these units to hire out merc groups and therefore share the wealth.

7. Planets are taken not through ceasefire breaks but through win/loss percentage, through a minimum number of battles that is TBD by PGI. This was a point someone else brought up on another topic, but it sounds interesting.

What do you think? Any ideas to add? Take away? So many flame posts are hiding good ideas. Shows passion for the game, so can we as a gaming community give some voice here and help PGI make us happy....thoughts?

Edited by Von Blumen, 22 January 2015 - 06:00 PM.

[oldradagast]

Good ideas for the greater game, though I think the people leaving CW are doing so more for the problems within the game itself:

- Limited maps (2 so far)
- Poorly designed maps (how many times can one rush through the same obvious kill zones before it gets old?)
- Single, fixed objectives (no real need for long-range scouting, flanking, etc.)
- Heavy favor granted to the defenders.
- Lack of rewards in general; attackers really get boned on this since (unless they changed it recently) damage done to the objectives nets you nothing for cbills or XP, so you get paid more to brawl vs. actually complete your goals
- Lopsided matches decided at the dropdeck. The usual PUG's vs. teams nonsense because of a total lack of match-making.

I don't disagree with the above ideas, but in the end, no matter how much the victory may matter in the grand roleplaying sense of things, if the game itself is terribly dull / one-sided / repetitive, people will not stick around.

[Von Blumen]

I would have to agree with you on almost every point. The only thing I can say to counter your points (and it is a weak argument) is that it is beta and that things will change (although you can use that same argument to counter my points as well.) I must say I was thinking of the overall picture and not of the actual battles, so excellent points! Got me thinking outside of the "greater game" box now.

Edited by Von Blumen, 22 January 2015 - 07:06 PM.

[beerandasmoke]

The map and objectives encourage zerg rushes. Nobody wants to try too stop 12 firestarters or 12 timbers,stormcrows, hellbringers who zerg objectives. Ive played on both sides of the border. IS ive had FCs call for a 3 light,1 fast medium dropdeck. Clan side unholy trinity and dont shot at anyone just rush objective. Its just no fun because we really arent fighting each other most games and with the long wait times its not worth it. Encourage fighting and more pew pew and better objectives that dont involve a frantic rush too legfest an enemy team before they zerg the game out and people will return.

[Von Blumen]

Beer...I think the new counterattack mode is going to address some of those issues, making it a 12v12 skirmish with reinforcements. Some issues will definitely come out of this too, in particular spawn camping...

[slide]

I would like to see the goody grab bag like they used over Halloween and Christmas as an incentive to play, there were many more people playing over Christmas.

Maybe add a free mech (random) every 100 matches.

I agree with all of the above, but put simply , the rewards for playing simply are not worth the time invested, particularly if you get ghost drops with nothing to shoot at.

Edited by slide, 22 January 2015 - 08:38 PM.

[Von Blumen]

Here are some further ideas maybe to spice things up a bit (from a team mate of mine, can't take credit, good or bad for this), granted the implementation of some of these things might be far reaching or far off, but maybe this will help improve in game

problems within the CW stem from basic problems within the game itself - such as bad maps, 1 game mode, which is overly simplistic, and lack of features that players can interact with on the map. Take for example a mission to take over a base in Mechcommander - there are several objectives that the 3 lances have to accomplish first - eg. taking out HPG uplink to prevent re-inforcements, taking out the turret generators, or even take out pilot barracks to prevent mechs powering up on base - Mechcommander provides some great examples of what a base assault mission should be. (edit: mind you these are serving as examples of mission objectives, not that he is looking to get these features installed in game)

Some bases in Mech Commander are surrounded by walls - you can blow the multilayered walls and work your way in or do you try attempt a frontal assault? Bases could also include resource capture objectives - in some areas that are out of the way - but will give you some nice resource bonuses when captured - and also why not let one player be the Mech-Commander - ie. drop commander - specifically - essentially they'll be the strategist and commander of the assault lance just like you do when you play Mech Commander.

Even the old venerable Battletech 2 games which is bloody hard - gives some good idea for missions - you can go through jungles, water areas on base approach, burn some trees to increase enemy mech heat, or you can stand in the water to increase your heat dissipation, and realistically speaking base defenders do not drop from dropships .... they come from mech hangars.

My ideas:
One idea that I support for in game play would revolve around the concept that has been brought up before, what if the base was in the center of the map and the lances started off at three different corners, forcing communication and coordination of units to converge and distract enemy defenders.

However looking at the current maps with the situation being what it is why not:
For attack:
-have the gates be destructible, you must fight through the gate and the gate defenses, which should be multiplied, always active (never in a passive state) and slightly tougher than internal turrets.
-generator should act as an EMP, effectively shutting down anyone trying to jump over the wall (both sides)
-to perform a light rush, you must then take out the generator first (which also means engaging toughened gate defenses.
-to balance for the attackers, defenders are not dropped out of dropships, but come out mech-bays and hangers. These can be destroyed, thereby corralling defenders in limited spawn spots. If all hangers are destroyed, then reinforcement dropships are called in and they drop in one spot.
-the ability to declare Zellbrigen during CW. If a Clan team breaks Zellbrigen, all LP for the match is lost. How this would work is one Clan member would declare, a message would flash, and someone has to accept on the other side. Once accepted, only the declaring Clanner and accepting IS/Clanner could fire and hit with weapons, all other mechs are still active, but if one fires and makes contact with an enemy, Zellbrigen is over and all LP is lost for the team that fired for the match. Once the fight is over, CW resumes. Can only be declared during the last 5 minutes of match or when the last 12 mechs are on the field (on either side).

For counterattack:
I want to see what is released in February.

For balance:
I would like to see a CW vs Comp/pug set up (like PvE/PvP gear). In CW clan weapons are not nerfed, ghost heat is disabled, IS gets to keep their quirks, Clans drop in 2x5 man stars vs the current IS 3x4 set up, so it would be a 48 vs 40 - where as in normal game mode, ghost heat is enabled, clan weapons are nerfed, and drop decks are the same across the board. (don't know if this is possible, but I like the sound of it)

For "gifts"
I want to see what the rewards are, but I think a faction skin or warhorn for hitting certain levels, don't know about mechs though.

Thoughts?

Edited by Von Blumen, 22 January 2015 - 11:16 PM.

[Joseph Mallan]

beerandasmoke, on 22 January 2015 - 07:29 PM, said:

The map and objectives encourage zerg rushes. Nobody wants to try too stop 12 firestarters or 12 timbers,stormcrows, hellbringers who zerg objectives. Ive played on both sides of the border. IS ive had FCs call for a 3 light,1 fast medium dropdeck. Clan side unholy trinity and dont shot at anyone just rush objective. Its just no fun because we really arent fighting each other most games and with the long wait times its not worth it. Encourage fighting and more pew pew and better objectives that dont involve a frantic rush too legfest an enemy team before they zerg the game out and people will return.

A faulty generalization. I love the idea of standing against the tide, refusing to bend or break. I hate defensive objectives personally, and have for over 20 years, but they are a necessary bane.

[oldradagast]

slide, on 22 January 2015 - 08:38 PM, said:

I would like to see the goody grab bag like they used over Halloween and Christmas as an incentive to play, there were many more people playing over Christmas.

Maybe add a free mech (random) every 100 matches.

I agree with all of the above, but put simply , the rewards for playing simply are not worth the time invested, particularly if you get ghost drops with nothing to shoot at.

The goodie-grab bag should be part of the game permanently, IMHO.

Okay, maybe not giving away mech-bays or MC, but everything else, from weapons to little MC items (cockpit, etc.) can be considered salvage found on the battlefield. Odds of getting the stuff shouldn't be too high or too predictable, but every game should have a chance. It would also be cool if it was somehow linked to performance in the match AND if you destroyed enemy mechs in a way that increased the odds of salvage surviving.

[Rokollus]

Permanent drop ship or at least its defenses, even if the ship may not be constantly visible, would stop or at least minimize the spawn camps.

I look at it as a drop zone has been secured and the drop ship is in constant hold pattern.

Adding objectives suitable for smaller drops in order to secure the drop zone. (take a lance to secure communications array pre- attack) Then utilize the actual attack mode, etc.

[Joseph Mallan]

slide, on 22 January 2015 - 08:38 PM, said:

I would like to see the goody grab bag like they used over Halloween and Christmas as an incentive to play, there were many more people playing over Christmas.

Maybe add a free mech (random) every 100 matches.

I agree with all of the above, but put simply , the rewards for playing simply are not worth the time invested, particularly if you get ghost drops with nothing to shoot at.

oldradagast, on 23 January 2015 - 04:06 AM, said:

The goodie-grab bag should be part of the game permanently, IMHO.

Okay, maybe not giving away mech-bays or MC, but everything else, from weapons to little MC items (cockpit, etc.) can be considered salvage found on the battlefield. Odds of getting the stuff shouldn't be too high or too predictable, but every game should have a chance. It would also be cool if it was somehow linked to performance in the match AND if you destroyed enemy mechs in a way that increased the odds of salvage surviving.

DocBach used to talk about something similar but a bit less defined IIRC. I like where this is headed. Some "Swag" is almost always a good thing to keep players interested.

How much and how often will be hotly debated, but that would only prove it was a good thing to add in my book. It is an indicator of how passionate players are about it.

[Mirkk Defwode]

Von Blumen, on 22 January 2015 - 07:46 PM, said:

Beer...I think the new counterattack mode is going to address some of those issues, making it a 12v12 skirmish with reinforcements. Some issues will definitely come out of this too, in particular spawn camping...

A dynamic spawn system that utilizes "Bro-spawning" would probably work best to prevent spawn camping.

Edit: Don't think we'll see that though initially or ever potentially.

Edited by Mirkk Defwode, 23 January 2015 - 08:54 AM.