Rameau, on 21 April 2015 - 12:51 PM, said:
My greetings to the MWO Community!
I’ve started playing MWO about 2 months ago and, as a new player, I’d like to share my first impressions of the game.
My very first impression was that Community Warfare looks extremely cool – but it’s quite pointless at the same time: in 30-40 minutes of game in public matches, I can earn at least three times as many credits as I would get playing a CW match. And as a new player, I am very hungry for credits as I still need to buy and customize a lot of mechs just to have a flexible dropdeck. Not to mention there is simply no point in conquering a planet besides the vague pride of conquering territory for your faction. No wonder most players are more interested in playing public games! It’s a pity, really: the game looks beautiful, but the CW system simply doesn’t work, as it doesn’t fulfill its main role, that is to motivate people to play! So I’ve put a bit of thought into this, and here are a few suggestions:
Welcome to the game!
I do not want to sound rude, but Russ consider CW end-game content - and i agree. To be as effective in CW as possible, ideally you should own and customize 4 mastered 'Mechs of different weight classes , all with modules and consumables, possibly even more to have different dropdecks at your disposal in case your drop commander asks you to run something else. This is simply too much for a new player.
And as you say, a new player's goal, beside learning the basic and the advanced stuff, is making money to build his own army of 'Mechs. Which is absolutely fine. But that is not what CW is for. As Russ himself said a while ago, the point of CW is
not making money, but fighting for territorial control. I am absolutely fine with it, because i can earn money (more money, actually) in pub drops, but after almost 2 years they get boring. All this time i had waited for a game mode different than random quick deathmatch, something where our victories and defeats mattered and we could immerse ourselves in the BT universe. That mode is CW. While i agree that the actual implementation is very bland and could have been done MUCH better from the start with more time and creativity, but it is still better than the nothing we had before. Nosense deathmatch, again and again.
Also, i do not usually experience such long wait times. If i have to wait about 10 minutes, fine. I read the forums or a book, text on my phone or watch an episode of Breaking Bad, when not/while enjoying a conversation with my unit mates (i like multitasking
).
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2 – Besides plain greed, nothing motivates a human being more than inflating his ego and showing his “superior” skills to his friends. MWO needs to learn the lessons taught by other successful online games, such as League of Legends, that centers the rewards of teamwork in the player's profile..
...
While i agree that some kind of stats could be showed in the player's profile, i take my personal pride in the planets conquered by my Clan, especially when i partecipated in those battles and gave my contribute. That may be just me, and while i still take pride in having a decent number of kills and damage, i mostly take pride in my Clan's victories and i get ashamed of my Clan's defeats more than my own performance sucking lol.
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3 – The way CW is structured right now, there is absolutely no difference between conquering a planet and conquering any other. Planets are just dots with names on the screen – and the fact that faction A has more planets than faction B means absolutely nothing. Every planet should offer its direct conquerors (and their entire faction) a unique reward. For example: Bergan Industries, the company that produces the Locust mech, has factory sites in planets Alshain, Ares, New Earth, New Oslo and Thule, so the faction(s) that controls those planets should be able to provide those mechs to its members/mercenaries at reduced cost – if my faction controls Thule, I should be able to buy a locust mech with, say, a 30% discount; or perhaps the discount could be better the longer my contract with my faction? Moreover, the players directly involved in the conquest of a planet should earn unique rewards. For example: a player that has played at least a third of the victorious matches that resulted in the conquest of Thule, where there is a factory of Bergan Industries, should earn a locust mech for free – and perhaps one with unique hardpoints, or with a unique paint job? That would make players dream about conquering a specific planet just so they can get a unique variant of that mech they love. Perhaps the very last battle to conquer a planet that has a mech factory could be in a map where the attacker team has to invade an actual mech factory? Can you imagine, fighting inside the assembly line of mechs in production? But since not every planet has a mech factory, other planets could provide discounts for buying specific weapons, equipment, or other advantages. For example, some planets could be financial: controling a rich planet gives a faction a stronger economy that allows it to pay its enlisted mechwarriors / signed mercenaries higher rewards for every mission. Thus, with a global bonus (extended to every member of the faction) for every conquered planet, every player will be interested in the success of its faction in CW, as it directly affects his pocket whether he is actualy playing CW or not!
Absolutely! If you have read my suggestions, there are a lot of ideas about how conquered planets can give bonuses, affect 'Mech, weapons and equipment cost and R&R.
Some planets should be strategically more important from a factory availability point of view; others would have a big population which would mean more income for your faction and more military budget and pay for regulars etc..
If we want to really go hardcore, some planets could have materials needed to build 'Mechs and weapons and they, togheter with the factories, would impact cost and
availability of 'Mechs etc.
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And I should add a 4th element – Roleplaying and imagination is a very important part of a player’s experience, especialy for a player that has played Battletech tabletop since childhood (as it is my case here!). I understand the CW maps are still being developed, but I hope some day every planet will have a unique environment and a unique aesthetic personality. Rich, populous planets should only have city maps, cold planets should only have white-cold maps, sulfurous planets should only have sulfurous maps, and so on. This way, we will always remember each planet for its unique environment. Thus, the conquest of each planet would produce unique memories, as opposed to just conquering another dot on the screen, the same as any other, as it is in CW right now.
Indeed, indeed. RP and imagination are the driving force that keep me playing this game
The only way to achieve what you say would be randomly generating thousands of maps, something Russ does not want to do because randomly generated maps would not be optimized for gameplay.. But i would not care. If having bases in maps with no easily defensible positions etc. is the trade off for unique maps , instead of playing the same all over , studying them and craft tactics for each of them, i would gladly take it.
About planets: many planets in the Inner Sphere are Earth-like, this means they are not just
cold or
hot. On the other hand, some marginally-habitable planets are settled by humans, but i think most planets have different environments, just like Terra. Having different maps makes sense, quiaff?
ShaneoftheDead, on 21 April 2015 - 08:21 PM, said:
Another Idea for CW Phase 3:
Add a game mode called "Patrol" which is Skirmish mode. No bases, no turrets, no Omega. Just 12 v 12.
Maybe just re-use the regular maps, maybe have new ones, or both.
Probably with the older maps, in order to have more variety.
That would be fine by me, but you need a way to integrate it with the current zone-taking mechanic. I do not think Russ would make a 12vs12 mode in CW, anyway. But that could be done imho. Maybe not in place of counterattack, though: attackers would probably defend it, so it makes sense to have counterattack in the same maps.
Idealsuspect, on 21 April 2015 - 12:39 PM, said:
People who aren't in love with BT universe don't care about thoses rewards also why they should play this mode a bit annoying ( long and freaky queue waiting time, 30 minutes match, need 4 mechs >>> some of Pugs have only trials ) ect ect.
Who does not care AT ALL about MCs and C-Bills?
As i said, i do not experience often such long waits usually.
Besides, 30min matches should be points in favor of CW imho.. Even if actual engagements in Battletech often last quite less time.
As i said, CW is end-game content, explicitely catering to units and experienced players. The shark pool. And i cannot blame it. The fact that you need 4 'Mechs is why new players should first get their 'Mechs mastered and ready before fighting in CW.
I mean, all the sort of scum like pugs or new players (
) are allowed in CW, but they must know they will not be 100% effective for the usual reasons. It is just impossible to make a game mode cater to experienced players who are part of big units and who have waited years to get CW (and among them there are those who just want the money and rewards and those who want to capture planets, the supposed point of CW), new players who drop with 3 Trial 'Mechs, pugs who want to be able to rambo, get their kills and c-bills and get out as fast as possible, imho.
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