17 replies to this topic

[VyTeex]

Greetings Mechwarriors,

After ending the first season "M.B.O. meets I.S.W." we are happy to announce the start of a new season.

Scheduled start for season 2 is August 3rd, 2015!

In this unique League units play on a planetary map in the context of the known universe of BattleTech for the seasons’ victory. It's not a simple table ranking, each team has to fulfill individual strategic goals to win.
Each faction (and thus each active unit for them) receives individual missions that have to be fulfilled first. Contrary to the well-known MWO CW, units aren’t a small cog in a big machine. They act fully independent and have full control of their logistics and strategy. The whole is embedded in a dynamic economic system. You decide by yourself when, who and where you want to attack. Fight drops are done using the MWO lobby and will be reported afterwards in our planetary tool. If you succeed you make progress, otherwise you and your fraction will disappear. But no worries: If this happens you could continue as a pirate unit and start a second career with the possibility to settle old scores. If you are looking for an alternative for real BattleTech Community Wareware and you want to want to have your destiny in their own hands, you are exactly right with us!


What is needed to participate in the league?
A team of 8+ people being able and willing to drop at least once a week.
A person in charge as contact person and for the operation of the ISW-Tool.
Droptime is CEST (summer) 8.00pm - 8.30pm.


Which fraction / group could you play?
All! Several units could independently for the same fraction. We differentiate into mercenaries, small fractions and large fractions.


What is the difference between the fractions?
The difference is primarily in the administrative burden and the number of your direct opponent:


Mercenaries do not necessarily use the ISW tool. They get for each successful fight a reward and move up in the MRBC rating. Ambitions mercenaries could become active on the map taking orders and fight for other fractions. However they have limited season goals and could not win alone.

Small fractions are peripheral states and small clans. They own in average 1 to 4 sectors and could maintain more troops than mercenaries. Administration is manageable and they usually have only one direct opponent.

Large fractions are well-known IS-houses and Invasions clans. They need a higher administrative effort (approximately 3x 15 minutes per week in the ISW-tool). And will be confronted with more than one opponent. In average they should be able to play one or two drops per week.


Have small units any chance to win at all?
Definitely yes! Each units get individual goals based on assumed number of drops per week and drop strength. Additionally the economic aspect helps to keep smaller units competitive. The difference between small and large units is the number of direct opponents and the difficulty of their goals.


That sounds very extensive, should I worry about it?
No, not at all! We worked out a way to minimize the barrier to entry for new units. We offer a short version of the rules, a tutorial video for the ISW tool and we have engaged admins. Additionally, the experienced active units will help you getting started. All you need is someone who enjoys the strategic aspect of the ISW took, someone who negotiates the fights with other units and of course a good drop leader organizing the battle field.


What are the conditions for drops and what are the options?

• Drop strength of 4 to 12 players
  
• Maximum of 9 drops per fight (sometimes less)
  
• Whether and how often you drop a week is decided by yourself
  
• A large variety of drop rules. You could choose your favorites and you only play what you want to play (e.g. drop deck, joker deck, weight class, stock mechs, module restrictions ….)
  
• Pure tech or mixed tech[/color]
  
• Possibility of deputy fights: jumping in for others if needed

Where can I find more information?
Use this thread for questions or check out our website. And of course you could contact us vie PM. As an alternative you could reach our admins on our TS: 178.63.13.195 PW: MBOX_T8 (preferably on Monday and Thursday).


Important Links:
Website
Quickstart Guide
Full ruleset for experts


Sign up:
The registration is done either via the link "unit sign up" on our homepage or via application in our Forum. Please let us know how much drops per week and strength you may provide.

The deadline to register for season 2 is August 1st, 2015

Registered units until now:

Dudes Club
31st Hussar Regiment
331st Royal Battlemech Division

Hanseatic League of Free Mercenaries

5th Falcon Dragoons
Omega Galaxie GCGB
Alpha Galaxy Clan Snow Raven

Edited by VyTeex, 30 June 2015 - 10:28 PM.

[grayson marik]

+ Phoenix Legion
+ Hells Horses

Fear not, non German players and units! The reason the Blog posts are in German is simple:
We do not have English speaking units joining until now - or at least, the current ones are bilingual.

As soon as there is a English speaking unit, that will change of course ^^

Edited by grayson marik, 15 July 2015 - 02:25 AM.

[QueenBlade]

Then perhaps the issue is the presentation. The posts and league sound like its for EU units only. Unless I'm mistaken, my initial read through lead me to believe that NA units aren't welcome at this time for the league.

[VyTeex]

That's correct. The reason for this is simply the timezone issue. The usual drop time ist ~8pm CET. We guess there's no NA-unit that can drop weekdays on early afternoon...

Edited by VyTeex, 17 July 2015 - 09:55 AM.

[QueenBlade]

Ever think about opening an NA division to increase web traffic and word of mouth for the league?

[grayson marik]

QueenBlade, on 17 July 2015 - 10:25 AM, said:

Ever think about opening an NA division to increase web traffic and word of mouth for the league?

Point is: if we would open up for NA units, we would need a NA community admin as well.

There is no point opening, if we cannot affort to take care of people properly.
Also, we would have to create a water proof regulation about what happens, if a EU and a NA unit cannot find an agreeable appointment for a fight. Deputy fights could be a sollution but still, we would need that NA admin though ^^ And this guy would have to have the oppotunity to meet up with the rest of the admin team on EU times maybe once per month...

And last but not least, I am a selfish guy. I wrote this code to play it with my unit ... if there are lets say 70% NA units active, we would be forced to fight late at night or to leave more than 50% of our fights to be deputy fights... not a very desireable prospect.

Still, every unit which can do CET drop times at least once a week ( weekend for example) is very welcome.

Edited by grayson marik, 17 July 2015 - 10:50 AM.

[QueenBlade]

You misunderstand. NA division that only plays NA teams. Separate from EU.

Also you seem to think no one will stand up for the community admin position. Its like having two leagues running side by side but filled with different regions. Like MRBC divisions where EU plays EU teams only. NA plays NA teams only.

[grayson marik]

Ahhh well, that would not only require one NA admin but also someone able to do technical support.... we do not have the ressources to do so atm.

[QueenBlade]

I'm interested, I handle matters with Antonius Rex and Marik Civil War. I assisted Multitallented with his Proxis league doing both admin and tech support.

[grayson marik]

hmm I'd have to clone the database in order to have a second instance running for NA, also extra unit application forms .. hmm I am not sure if I want to do this work. As it seems now, overal interrest in the non German world is quite close to zero. To make the system work, you would need at least 10 active untis playing, better 30.

[QueenBlade]

Overall interest is near zero you say?

You are sorely mistaken and disconnected from the community if you believe this as truth.

Marik Civil War league was a planetary conquest type league that on average had 30 NA units playing in it that played through four seasons before Community Warfare came out.
MRBC, a league I'm sure you are familiar with since the 331st has played in it. This season the league is boasting 29 NA units.
RHoD had 13 (8v8) NA teams in its 6th season.

And after the large out cry of the current Community Warfare game mode, if anything the community's interest in a planetary conquest league that uses logistics and strategy (a game outside of the game) is relatively higher than that of the EU region.

[grayson marik]

Well, before you, we had 7 views of this thread in about 8 or 9 days so... and of course I am disconnected from the community... at least the NA one, because I usually goto sleep when they start playing ^^

Anyhow. If there is noteable interest, cloning the DB and adding an other form is not a big deal. Still, from here there are some questions:

1. enough interest to get more than 10 units to play? -> how to check?
2. whats your point to get onto this?
3. who will moderate forums, pamper users, if they have issues with the system or each other?
4. think you can do this all alone?

To be honest, I am currently waiting for the EU servers to go online, so we can reach the EU playerbase more easily than here int these near toxic and partly necrotic forums.
The disadvantage of English is, you never know where peaople come from until you ask them^^ Part of this will change with regional servers.

Edited by grayson marik, 17 July 2015 - 02:15 PM.

[QueenBlade]

The mwo forums is not the only method to getting your league out there. In fact its probably the worst way. There are two sub reddits with active members of units. Thanks to reddit's easy to use search engine, I can see that there have been zero posts towards promoting the ISW/MBO league. Heck, you may even be able to gain interest with more EU teams.

Where as if I look for RHOD, MCW, or MRBC posts on reddit, there a good amount of posting that is raising awareness towards players that are interested in league play. Other leagues that are no longer around are also on the search results for league play.

Leagues like Last Man Standing (LMS) and Proxis. Theres the current league Major League Mech Warrior that is a league designed with rewarding teams with money depending on their placement in the tourney along with other prizes.

So I believe the issue here is ISW isn't being promoted well. Along with promoting you could also give a heads up to available positions you would like to fill or need to fill in open to run said league/divisions.

www.reddit.com/r/mwo
www.reddit.com/r/outreachhpg

You could reach out to the admins of the other leagues and I'm sure they will let you promote the league on their forums/site. Heck they may even extend a helping hand.
www.mrbcleague.com
www.runhotordie.com
www.majorleaguemechwarrior.com

You can even reach out to Tina from PGI, they like to promote community events.

[VyTeex]

First of all thx for your commitment, Queen.

I'm not sure you got our concept in it's full extent - especially the duties of the admins. You can't compare us with the other leagues you mentioned. It's not just managing a simple ranking list and giving technical support. The main task is to establish a working system and to keep it running. A single person can't handle a full division on it's own.

You've to setup a fair system of goals for every unit. This system has to be as good balanced as possible. Therefor you've to know beforehand which unit plays how often, with how many players and what's their approximated strength. Means you've to know them or you've to contact them.

But after this the real work just starts. You've to follow the progress of all goals. You've to generate merc-contracts and you've to keep them actual. Next point is the duty defense, which means keep tracking the fights and their deadlines. In addition you've to check and confirm the battlereports of such dd-fights.

All these tasks have to be fulfilled besides the usual admin stuff, like referee support, technical support and general help. Believe me, it's a whole pile of work... to provide a nice planetary league experience... :/

I don't know your timezone or your real life commitments, but on the fly I would suggest the following:

Find some none german eu-units who may try out season 2 and join our admin team. Accompany us for a season and get comfortable with the system. After this we may talk about a NA-Division and of course more admins for such a project.

Edited by VyTeex, 18 July 2015 - 05:08 AM.

[grayson marik]

Some tutorials / previews for your consideration.

[grayson marik]

Startup situation for season II

[grayson marik]

<role play on>
It is the year 3053. The Clan invasion could be stopped for the time being. However, this does not mean that now peace will come to the Inner Sphere. Intrigues are commonplace and everyone seems eager to drag his advantage from the current situation. Even within the clan all indications are that there will be trouble.
It´s just a matter of time before the Jade Falcons begin to take action against the hated ceasefire. Clan Wolf and Clan Ghost Bear will not be inactive against such ambitions. However, other clans have already spoken out against the ceasefire and these clans are just waiting for their chance to fill the possibly vacant places. Accordingly, we can assume that there will be power struggles within these groups sooner or later. Infighting, which will most likely be held in the occupied territories.
While currently only minor skirmishes happens at the Clan front, there is a new threat on the horizon becoming apparent. Based on last reports from the periphery the Minnesota Tribe collects his forces heading back to the Inner Sphere. Though still no one can say exactly where the first strike will take place, however, it seems certain that he is about to happen.
Equally certain is the fact that the last remaining units of free Rasalhague Republic will not accept the current situation. Rumors say intrigues and plans are forged behind closed doors, which have only one aim: the reconstruction and expansion of the Rasalhague Republic! To what extent this will endanger the ceasefire must be seen.
As if all above is not enough, now it also seems that Comstar abandon his official neutrality. After the great success of ComGuards on Tukayyid they came to the finding to take the fate of the Inner Sphere finally into their own hands. We are anxious to see how Comstar’s aspirations conflict with those of the Rasalhagians and if the weakened Houses Steiner and Kurita are still able opposing something the approaching storm.
Fact is: the laughing third are the mercenaries of the Inner Sphere.
Their craft is war, not peace – and war will happen!
</role play off>


Mechwarriors,
Start your engines and checks your systems! Second season “MBO meets ISW” starts as planned on August 3rd, 2015. All COs will receive their mission objectives for the new season on Monday via PM (on the ISW-Portal). As soon as you receive the mail you could start! Before the time has come, however, we would like to highlight a few important things again:

1. Define your drop-Rules!
2. Be careful with your resources! Prices for Mechs and equipment will have only one way in the first few weeks – up. Something you could maintain without issues today could become tomorrow a problem. Foresight is important – this is particularly true for all mercenaries!
3. If your hire mercenaries formulate the contract as precisely as possible: What should be done? Until when should it be done? Do they have one attempt or several ones? At the end of the contract, both parties must confirm completion. Make sure at the beginning not having any discrepancies later!
4. It is the responsibility of each unit itself, to track their progress in meeting the mission objectives. A possible reward must be demanded by each unit itself (using the threat “Missions & Objectives” in the FFA area of the forum). If not, your claim expires after a week! In addition, we recommend you strongly to record important fights (date and outcome) accordingly. As some missions include several steps, it is otherwise quite difficult to check for the Admins your progress. If everyone contributes a little, the effort for all will be low.
5. Please note that the free attack slots at the start of Season 2 have been reduced to 2. Given the date constraints in some units in the last season, we want to make things a little easier this time. That means for you: choose your targets wisely! During fighting aimlessly around in the area, others might make significant progress…
6. Please inform us promptly in case of doubt and be not afraid to ask questions
7. We will create a summary soon which could be shared with your team mates and which will make progress visible even outside the command tool. The summary will be available on the official MWO forum.

Last but not least: We wish all units a successful, exciting and fair Season 2!

[grayson marik]

MBO meets ISW now has its own battle history feed!