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1. Limits the type of matches thus reducing some of the enjoyment of MWO (IS v IS & Clan v Clan)
2. Makes much of the work PGI has done redundant on multiple levels.
I do however agree that something needs to be done.
For a change lore provides us with an answer that won't completely destroy work that has already been done or upset peoples choice of faction, it even introduces the possibility of introducing other factions such as St Ives and other clans without totally upsetting balance.
(please note any map references are based on a starting point of the IS, not it's current state with Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon having a foot hold in the southern half of the map and we know another map reset is coming.)
At the point in time that MWO is set we had the Federated Commonwealth as an alliance between Davion and Stiener, I know many were annoyed when PGI split these 2 up for reasons known only to them selves. This left a loose alliance of Kurita, Liao and Marik facing this juggernaut. The Rasalhague Rebublic were more or less neutral with enemies in both Lyran and Draconis space.
Meanwhile the Clans were not completely unified in their desire to capture the IS with them being split down the middle into Crusader and Warden Clans.
This allows us to split the warring sides into 4 rather than the 10 we have now.
Alliances.
Wardens - Clans Wolf and Ghost Bear
Crusaders - Clans Jade Falcon and Smoke Jaguar
Federated Commonwealth - Davion, Steiner and FRR (for balance)
Kepteyn Accord - Kurita, Marik and Liao
Currently any player can defend against an attacking team, but only players from 1 faction can attack. This led to a situation where none of the southern house could mount an offensive against the clans, leaving all of the offensive work to the 3 northern houses. This likely gave the northern houses a big leg up in experience against the Clans whilst the southern houses were relegated to defense or fighting among themselves. I believe in some cases this forced some people from CW as they could only get games on defense, for example.
With the above alliances it would give the southern houses an attack avenue to the clans, thus helping to keep them on the defensive (somewhat). It would also eliminate a bunch of fronts thus reducing the number of worlds open to attack/defense. The front between Marik and Liao would be eliminated for example. but the fronts between Liao-Davion and Marik-Steiner would stay.
Allowing allied players to form up attack groups would also open up new opportunities for games which aren't just IS defending against Clan (something that seems all to common right now). I would even go so far to say that only allowing allied groups to defend each others worlds would spice things up some what. It makes no sense that Liao would defend a Davion world from Kurita for example. And I am pretty sure Jade Falcon would rather shoot Wolves than help them most of the time.
Tags
Units that capture a planet still get tagging rights (and any benefits) but the planet goes to the faction whose front it is on. So if Robinsons Rangers capture Sudeten on the JF front they get to tag the planet but it turns Steiner Blue.
For mixed teams we use the current method of most effort to decide who get tagging rights.
Benefits
-maintains variety with IS v Clan, IS v IS and Clan v Clan match ups possible.
-gives faction Loyal units a reason to stay loyal by opening up match opportunities
-concentrates small player base into fewer fronts thus increasing opportunities for matches
-maintains lore based alliances
-encourages more co-operation between units and players leading to better communities
-no drastic changes to units or factions
-could be easily implemented with (I hope) small changes to the map algorithm, which could be easily combined with the voting option that is already proposed for attack paths
Downside
-some factions will no longer be able to attack each other. However some of the player made alliances have remained pretty solid throughout seasons 1 and 2. The Marik-Liao and Davion- Steiner NAP's for example. So in reality not much would change anyway.
I believe a plan like this would help with player/unit retention by allowing more variety for some players/units while allowing them to keep to their preferred faction, by not having to migrate to another faction just to get a game.
In the longer term I believe it would help with player retention in CW as well encouraging more players by reducing queue times and providing a wider variety of match ups.
Edited by slide, 14 April 2016 - 04:29 PM.
