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The 1st myth about 10 vs 12: No one would play IS "horde" if Clans were the low numbered "heroes"
The reason this is false is the following: Clans have a very high initial cost, meaning that many new players would have to grind out for a while to get enough clan mechs to matter. During this time frame, they would literally be locked into being the "horde" until they worked up the cbills (or spent the $ IRL) to have enough mechs to be Clans. This would be true of all incoming new players, and would just be a facet of the game. There is already another online game that does this particular style of implementation, and it works very well for them. Additionally some of the players that do work to be Clans will like the feel of the IS better because PP FLD and more customization. You will have some that play both sides because they want a challenge, and you would have some who refuse to go to Clans (or IS) because <reasons>. So, no, not everyone would go Clans.
Second myth about 10 vs 12: 1v1 would be imbalanced.
Not necessarily. Consider this...if Clans were made to be DPS heavy, and IS were PP Alpha strike builds, as was original intent, then would it not be quite possible to 1v1 a mech, especially considering that in 1v1 scenarios it is not actually DPS you want, but alpha strike damage and PP FLD damage above all else? Essentially, you need much less damage if you can put it all on one panel. Any top tier comp player can confirm this, as they understand the mechanics of the game.
Third myth about 10 vs 12: Solo queue/group queue would be imbalanced.
No, it would not...you would just have solo/group clans on one side, and solo/group IS on the other. They do this now for CW, why is it so hard to fathom this could be done across the board?
Fourth myth about 10 vs 12: You would be forcing people to choose a tech tree to play together.
Well, somewhat yes and no. First, you could always sit in teamspeak and talk like people do now all the time and even play *gasp* different games. However, if you want to be in the same group, yes. Though, I would point out to anyone who has paid any attention to online games lately, that in, literally, *every other game with factions* 2 factions cannot team up together to do anything. So, what do those guys do? Join the same faction, or make an alt account to play together depending on the game.
Fifth myth about 10 vs 12: Unequal numbers on each side would be too difficult to balance.
Not necessarily, there are a number of ways to approach this in terms of defining things. I personally think it would work if they basically took the nerfs clans have had to this point off and just left them as Wave 1 was when it dropped. Nothing further needed, truthfully. However, you could simply balance 5 vs 6 which would leave you making DPS about ~16.7% higher than IS to compensate. That would balance slightly uneven groups without drastically changing balance one way or the other for equal numbers encounters later in the game or via private lobby. There would also need to be some buffs for under performing stuff, like ACs.
Thoughts?
Edited by Gyrok, 05 March 2015 - 07:09 AM.
