Coming late to the thread, but a paricular faction's success / failure rate isn't what I personally find discouraging about CW play.
In no particular order, my disappointments with CW are:
(1) It is not worth the wait.
If you have a full 12 player group, you will be waiting up to 10 minutes for your attacking drop, longer in a defensive drop. Your defense could wait forever for an attacker to come offer battle, attack may get you a ghost drop which is largely a giant waste of time - 10 minutes wait for 3 minutes of running about against static AI defense. Getting a drop against a live unit can get you 15-20 minutes of good battling, if both sides actually offer battle which isn't often the case. Even then, you are looking at about 20 minutes fighting and 30 minutes of waiting in queues and 10 minutes of player-based nonsense in each hour. Solo or group dropping gets you more combat per hour with less waiting in queue.
(2) CW is all "Assault" game mode.
This is what it was like originally, and results in some objective based strategies that don't feel fun for most involved. People would get annoyed with cap rushes back when, and some of the CW strategies feel similar. Other game modes for more variety could help - with the map support as well. I don't think a CW-sized "Conquest" mode would appeal to me, but something akin to "Skirmish" might if the map were open and large enough. An attrition mode could be interesting as well - one side gets their full dropships (defenders), the other (attacker) drops in the same selected mech over and over ad infinitum until the defense side is fully eradicated.
(3) Maps need to be more open for variety in game play and strategies.
If Boreal were shaped differently - one large Nascar loop with attacker drops at one end and the defense networt 180 degrees opposite around it, and Boreal had to defend two entrances linearly opposite one another, that could be interesting. Better still, something akin to Terra Therma where the defenders are set up in the center will several (3+) viable entrances and the attackers have free run of the perimeter would also be better. What we have are defenders locking into a cul-de-sac that means nothing since the attackers are funneled strongly into one ot two (Boreal) or three (Sulfur) attack vectors that are easilty covered by the defenders.
(4) Ghost drops aren't helping anyone.
Wait 10 minutes for 3 minutes of play and a pat on the head for defeating AI. Rinse repeat, knowing only that each ghost drop counts the same as a match win for territory. Defenders queue where attacks happen, may face a battle while two others ghost drop around them. They either win the match, and lose two ticks on the planet, or lose the match and lose three ticks on the planet. If you don't have overwhelming numbers to bolster your defense, there is not much you can do about it. Attackers spend a lot of time waiting for litte reward, defenders are deincentivized to fight, and the populations taking part in CW dwindle which exacerbates the ghost drop phenomenon. It would be nice if ghost drops turned tickets a neutral color (yellow?) for "contested", requiring a second drop (ghost or active) to turn it over. Deincentivize the ghost drop as a strategic goal, help funnel players into actually contesting with one another.
Edited by Murphy7, 30 January 2015 - 12:14 PM.
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Dawnstealer, on 30 January 2015 - 11:46 AM, said:
