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And good to see PGi is willing to invest their time into this, too.
So, i will try to throw something towards PGi, hoping it is useful.
First of all:
As CW is supposed to mimic "real" warfare, i would like to see "real" objectives.
Of the 3 old game-modes - Assault, Conquest and Skirmish - ironically only Skirmish looks remotely realistic to me.
Why ?
Because in a real war it could happen from time to time, that two enemy forces would come across each other (probably on the way to their actual objective) and start fighting.
Also, when, for instance, invading an island, the ultimate goal of each sides was to... well... to defeat the enemy.
In the end this often meant to simply fight until the enemy either surrendered, was not able to fight back anymore, or fled.
So, in short, it was more or less a huge death-match. Literally.
The other game modes (Assault and Conquest) are ~basically~ identical:
- go to a cap point
- stand there until you capped it
- (assault is won at that point; Conquest not)
- do the same to more points then the enemy, and keep them longer
- while you do all that, prevent the enemy from doing the exact same thing
While i consider these two modes (especially Conquest) overall more fun and more tactical then Skirmish,
i also consider "standing at a specific location for a certain amount of time, doing nothing else for this time"
to be rather... unrealistic.
These two modes are essentially Arena-Style game modes, and people who have played Call of Duty should be familiar with them (Conquest is more or less the same as CoD's "Domination" game mode, but with two more points to cap).
I am certain these game modes are available in other shooters as well, but i personally have only played all in all 3 CoD-Titles, have played EverQuest (1) several years before that, and before THAT i played a lot of CounterStrike.
(And before THAT i had only an analog modem, so i was only able to play "watch the Homepage loading"; Worst. Game. Ever.)
Speaking of CounterStrike (CS):
I think MW:O could learn a bit of how CS and CoD differ.
In CoD, the most popular mode (to the people i played with) was "Domination", which has symmetrical goals for both teams, and you had unlimited respawns.
In CS, on the other hand, you have asymmetrical goals and NO respawn.
I think the asymmetrical goals are THE way to go in CW.
In CS, we had 4 different modes:
Counterstrike (CS_Maps) - Hostage rescue
Defuse (DE_Maps; often referred to as Demolition) - Bomb planting scenario
Assassination (AS_Maps) - one of the "good" guys (randomly picked) was the VIP and had to make it to an escape zone (mode was not very popular)
Escape (ES_Maps) - the baddies had to escape to an escape zone (mode did not made it out of Beta and was highly unpopular, anyway)
The interesting part her are not the game modes themselves, but rather that each map was designed with one of these 4 modes in mind.*
(*Yes, there where conversions where for instance someone turned a CS_map into a DE_map. But that was not sooo common.)
That being said:
As of now i have no idea what game modes we could add to the existing maps.
But i would suggest to take a good look at each of the maps and see, what would work best on each one.
Ok, i DO have a few ideas. Here we go.
>>> Viridian Bog could make a nice "Destroy the Radar-Outpost"-Style map, so the enemy had no warning from WHERE the Gauss-Cannon would be attacked
(Also suitable would be maps like the Alpine or Tourmaline... get creative.
)>>> Two Objects to defend: the Radar outpost itself, and a Power Generator somewhere else (but ~relative~ close by, maybe not more then 1 km).
Winning Objective is to destroy any one of them.
>>> It would also be nice here if the attackers would all start at randomly picked spot somewhere at the edge of the battle-grid (they walked to this point, BEFORE the map started to avoid their Dropship being picked up by the Radar; so no Dropships and NO RESPAWN this time).
>>> They have no idea where the Radar-Outpost is.
>>> The Defenders would have no idea where they attackers are.
-> Deploy scouts to find them!
Probably good for 8vs8 (or even 12vs12), if you want to really dig into the idea of players needing to do actual scouting.
>>> Due to the nature of this game mode, i suggest NO respawn (remember: no drophips; and if you would say "ok, after you died your next mech will arrive just in time at the edge of the battlefield for you to take command", this would raise the question "why didn't they waited until ALL the reinforcements arrived, so they could go in with all 48 mechs at once ?" So again: no respawn this time)
^This in turn would make it necessary to modify the current Invasion-Style maps:
>>> The current Invasion maps could be re-designed, so you would have like 4-5 routes leading to the Cannon.
>>> No gates.
>>> The defenders would need to send out scouts to find out, from were the enemy would be attacking. (again, finally something else for the lights to do, other then brawling or sniping !
)>>> Because the attackers Dropships would fly in so low they could not be seen, this would create an opportunity: the company commander could/should decide where the Dropships should land, and even if they would drop all at the same point or different ones. Tactics !
>>> That is, IF enough Radar outpost would have been destroyed prior to the Invasion.
Otherwise the Defenders WOULD get info where the Attackers are going to land.
(No, I have no idea how this could be implemented into an Planet attack cycle.)
Also, since PGi is working on a new UI, i would like to suggest the following:
For selecting game modes, we currently have:
- the [Play] Button for regular maps
and
- the Faction-Tab for CW (how does a new player know behind [Faction] is yet another game mode wating for him ? It's as intuitive as the [Start]-Button in the original Windows leading you to the only way to actually switch off your PC.)
Instead, I imagine the players could pick from something like this:
[Solaris VII - the Arena] <- this is not selectable, but the two [Buttons] below are.
(-> Here we have symmetrical goals; this is the "Call of Duty"-Part of MWO)
- [Indoor]: (we do not have maps like that at them moment; for inspiration, take a look at the BattleTech Novel "En Garde", describing some arenas in detail.
Some arenas are described (although not in much detail) here as well: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Solaris.
- [Outdoor]: essentially all the current maps in the PuG-Queue.
[WARFARE] <- again, this is not selectable, but the two [Buttons] below are.
(-> Here we have asymmetrical goals; this is the "CounterStrike"-Part of MWO)
- [Free for all Warfare] (i can't think of any better name right now)
>>> basically Community Warfare, but more tailored to the casual gamers.
- Battles just for fun.
- No influence on the Inner Sphere map.
- No Loyalty Points earned (only EXP and Money)
- Players do not appear on any leader-board.
- Players only need to select what side they want to fight for (IS or Clan), as the battles are still Clans Vs IS.
[Community Warfare]
- the "real deal".
- only players that have a Faction chosen can fight here (so there would still be a place for Solo players).
- (my original idea was that only players that are in a UNIT could fight here; but i am uncertain about this, as i am not so involved into CW in the moment, anyway, so, you guys have to decide on this)
- nuff said.
(Personal Note:
In MWO, we have the modes with symmetrical goals and NO respawn,
and the maps with asymmetrical goals with (4x) respawn.
I have to admit that i personally like no respawn, as it makes the game more interesting, and is simyple more rewarding if you survive after a ferocious battle, with almost nothing of your mech left.
But thats probably only me.)
Thank you for your patience, reading through all this.
