18 replies to this topic

[Ciypherr]

Reading into some of the things about the actual game will or should it have the rules of territory gain and lost in combat, I,m curious in the sense if its the case or its me looking to far into it that with this rule set that one the factions battle it out over however long the game exists and possibly altering the battletech timeline all together apart from obviously the clan wars and two does it mean a Merc corp has territorial rights and that they themselves can expand and expand until they become a house themselves?

[Davoke]

The Merc Units can apparently fight over periphery worlds, but the Great Houses all look even enough that they can relatively hold their worlds.

[Ciypherr]

The idea of planetary control makes me want to play this even more

[Hexenhammer]

I do hope there are plants, moons, and what not that can exchange hands. I want a reason to log in, look at the map and say, "Crap! They took over Planet #9 again. Well time to get it back!" And actually do it or die trying.

[Ciypherr]

I think this will happen at some point not at launch but down the line more towards the clan invasion maybe

[AgentHarbinger]

I can't think of too many games that have pulled off the conquest "map" game function well. Global Agenda and World of Tanks have this but both have some serious draw backs and require much time be spent working behind the scenes to form alliances to game the systems in order to take and hold any meaningful amount of territory.

Be nice if MWO was able to find the mix that works well. This is not to be easily accomplished. If they pull it off I can see A LOT of money coming thier way....

]-[arby

[MechRaccoon]

AgentHarbinger, on 07 July 2012 - 05:59 AM, said:

I can't think of too many games that have pulled off the conquest "map" game function well. Global Agenda and World of Tanks have this but both have some serious draw backs and require much time be spent working behind the scenes to form alliances to game the systems in order to take and hold any meaningful amount of territory.

Be nice if MWO was able to find the mix that works well. This is not to be easily accomplished. If they pull it off I can see A LOT of money coming thier way....

]-[arby

What about Star Wars Battlefront II? The Galactic Conquest mode in that was pretty awesome!

[Morashtak]

The devs are the ones that will decide which planets we fight over. The borders may change slightly as time goes on but I seriously doubt they will allow/enable any player controlled House unit/MercCorp to dominate the entire map.

[AgentHarbinger]

MechRaccoon, on 07 July 2012 - 06:21 AM, said:

What about Star Wars Battlefront II? The Galactic Conquest mode in that was pretty awesome!

Played the first SWB but never got into the second game. Sounds like I may have missed out. Care to share the short summary of the system and what made it work?

]-[arby

[AgentHarbinger]

Morashtak, on 07 July 2012 - 06:26 AM, said:

The devs are the ones that will decide which planets we fight over. The borders may change slightly as time goes on but I seriously doubt they will allow/enable any player controlled House unit/MercCorp to dominate the entire map.

For sure on this..., if the devs can allow enough flex in the gameplay and give the territory controllers perk(s) that are not overpowered and allow for territories to change hands (...with a concentrated effort but not ridiculous), that will have alot of appeal to players.

Key is to find the mix of conquest vs. defense when it come to changing hands. In Global Agenda for example, only the large clans (say 50 -100 very active players) we able to take and hold territories. Meaning if you didn't belong to a large clan you were pretty much Sh*t outta luck.

It looks like if conquest was along House lines (merc corp. assistance allowed of course), this would ensure a large player base at each house and deal with the numbers game.

[MechRaccoon]

AgentHarbinger, on 07 July 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

Played the first SWB but never got into the second game. Sounds like I may have missed out. Care to share the short summary of the system and what made it work?

]-[arby

This will probably be a ****-poor description, but here goes:

You move fleets around and invade planets. Conquering planets, defending them, and generally winning in battles earns you credits which you can use to purchase more classes and some bonuses. (sabotaged enemy vehicles, CPs with turrets on them, better guns, etc.) You can also use these credits to purchase more fleets, which get more expensive as more are built. Also, you can get into space battles with enemy fleets if you end up in the same space as them.

Wait...that gives me an idea...what if there were very occasional space battles where you could fight ON THE SURFACE OF THE ENEMY'S JUMPSHIP!? THAT WOULD BE AWESOME! However, it would probably be implemented after release. STILL AWESOME THOUGH! I think there was a scene in the BT cartoon where this kind of thing happened.

Edited by MechRaccoon, 07 July 2012 - 06:49 AM.

[CHBanger]

I think the toughest part in all of this, given the WoT Clan Wars and LotRO PvMP in my experience, is time zones. I don't know how many times I've seen the map switch over night because there's simply not enough defenders online.

And people know this and take full advantage of it.

I'll be interested in seeing how MWO does it.

[Furniture]

Mercs will fight alongside the various houses in regular matches, or will be able to fight against each other in tournaments and such. That's what I heard, but I expect that any House players will sometimes find the ranks filled by extra Mercenaries or Lone Wolves whenever there aren't enough of them to fill every match for their House.

[Bodha]

CHBanger, on 07 July 2012 - 06:55 AM, said:

I think the toughest part in all of this, given the WoT Clan Wars and LotRO PvMP in my experience, is time zones. I don't know how many times I've seen the map switch over night because there's simply not enough defenders online.

And people know this and take full advantage of it.

I'll be interested in seeing how MWO does it.

several possible options.
1. Some parts of the front are in different time zones. After a few weeks the time zones for each sector shift.
2. Less represented time zones can get smaller segments of the battlefields to fight over. Could be combined with #1
3. Major shifts in the battle lines can only happen on the weekends. Preferably Eastern time noon to 1 am. That particular swath of time should be available in some part to most players who want to participate in major battles.
4. Planets could have several battles that have to be fought with some designated for peak server hours and some for off peak hours. The winning side for each battle accrues points to overall victory.
5. To balance server pop on off peak hours the dev's could give a slight c-bill boost or other perk to people to who play underrepresented factions in off peak hours. That way off peak hour players have more opposition and less of one faction rules that hour. This should be aimed mainly at the asian/pacific play time hours. Those guys tend to work together in WoT and I would hate to see them all migrate to one faction house in MWO. They need to have an incentive to spread out a bit.

[Bishop Katana]

Very interesting approaches / ideas Mr. Bodha and especially point no. 4 sounds promising. I hope we will get anything as soon as possible as I don't like to fight for nothing...I want to take worlds for House Liao or at least hold existing ones

[AgentHarbinger]

Bodha, on 07 July 2012 - 07:20 AM, said:

several possible options.
1. Some parts of the front are in different time zones. After a few weeks the time zones for each sector shift.
2. Less represented time zones can get smaller segments of the battlefields to fight over. Could be combined with #1
3. Major shifts in the battle lines can only happen on the weekends. Preferably Eastern time noon to 1 am. That particular swath of time should be available in some part to most players who want to participate in major battles.
4. Planets could have several battles that have to be fought with some designated for peak server hours and some for off peak hours. The winning side for each battle accrues points to overall victory.
5. To balance server pop on off peak hours the dev's could give a slight c-bill boost or other perk to people to who play underrepresented factions in off peak hours. That way off peak hour players have more opposition and less of one faction rules that hour. This should be aimed mainly at the asian/pacific play time hours. Those guys tend to work together in WoT and I would hate to see them all migrate to one faction house in MWO. They need to have an incentive to spread out a bit.

Some solid ideas there Bohda, #5 especailly.

[Schtirlitz]

I want a Star League Faction and possibility to seize all Houses to reform a united Star League

[Lord Ikka]

Hopefully more info on this topic will come out before the Founders beta in Aug.

[bechiir]

I suggest you read dev blog#1. It outlines the community warfare (galactic conquest)part of the game.

If i recall correctly there was an anouncement that this part of the game will not be part of initial release but within 90 days of release.

It will answer many of your questions so that you do not have to speculate the intended scope.

Cheers!