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I liked the idea of a Solaris VII mode for MWO...see my post here http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__4738825
So I did like to bring Solaris VII specificly back to attention without the casual aspect but as its own gamemode.
I did like to toose some ideas around and develop them here to be later suggested to PGI.
Lets start simple and then develope it further as we go on....
PS: At the end you can look at pictures of a prototype of the Marik factory map of the original Solaris VII boardgame turned in to 3D.
What I like to see in a Solaris game mode.
1) You are able to create your own stable. To do so you go into a new menu or via the MWO Website and select a name.
Then you would select a weightclass you want to fight in and a mech from your currently owned mechs. This mech would no longer be avaible to your normal fights so select with care!
PS: When you later aquire more mechs for your stable you can also fight in other weightclasses.
Now you can either go solo or you invite your friends to create a team.
Each teammember selects his weightclass independently from the rest or founder.
When you are going with a team, you share your income, expanses and equipment except for your mechs. (No one touches my little Bonaparte!)
For Solaris solo players and teams will have a seperate wallet and inventory to their normal stuff.
2) Fights
Fights will fought in the Arenas of Solaris. These are designed for small, fast matches so 4-8 people, I think, would be a good number.
You will fight inside your selected weightclass and clans are excluded from it for the time beeing as I think currently the balance would be quite problematic in "free for all" fights.
Also I doubt that a Clansman would be fighting in Solaris anyway.
The map will be selected at random.
Soloplayers will just queue up with a "fight now" button. Then the usual matchmaking will be used. Other idea could be that the matchmaker looks for the closest ranked online player and puts these into a group. (I think its currently similar to that just with your pilotinskill)
Soloplayers will allways be in a free for all match of their weightclass. No teams, no rules....just bloody carnage.
Teams will first select the size of their team. 2 or 4 people, then the matchmaking takes place.
Depending on the map they will either fight in 2vs2, 2vs2vs2 or 4vs4 matches.
The team will only be valid if all teammember share the same weightclass.
3) After the match
Matchpoints, C-Bills, XP, etc will be given the same way as it is now. Matchpoints will count towards your ranking in your weightclass.
Here comes a point where I am not certain its a good idea. I would like to have repaircosts but I fear that solos/teams that are unlucky, bad or just new to MWO will be left behind because they can't effort the repairs.
As realistic as this would be its just no fun. Solutions to this could be
A) that when you don't have any more money left you will be repaired for free.
transfere money from your normal account to your solaris account or buy C-Bills with MCC) find a sponsor. Be it a another stable/player or an in-universe company or one of the great houses. In-Universe companys could come with costum paints (advertisement) you have to paint your mech with for a set amount of matches.
Who wouldn't like his mech painted in the black and green of Razor or Nvidia...they surely still exist then! Just kidding... but I think you get the point.
These contracts could also be bought for MC as a temp paintjob. Granting a C-Bill bonus when you win a match or get at least under the first three.
So there are ways to get someone or a team back on the track....maybe it will be a mix of these things but for now...I like C the most.
Gives the game something lorefriendly to tie it more into the BT universe.
4) Great houses
A stable will be able to fight in the name of one of the greate houses. This will be the same as the CW "Faction Loyalty" System and could be easly combined so it dosn't matter how you get your faction loyalty...be it fighting in the arena of Solaris or in the CW.
5) Ranking
Each player will be ranked for each Mech seperatly. So if you have a light and a assault mech, each of these would have its own ranking.
Not certain how one should go up. I guess by collecting matchpoints would be the best solution as there is allready a system in place for counting these points.
Kill/Death ratio could also be a thing....
6) Betting
Before someone gets the idea of realworld money betting...thats not it !
I doubt that would be allowed/legal anyway. Still this would need some good thinking as I fear people will try to exploid it.
My idea would be that people, even those who aren't playing in Solaris, can place C-Bills bets on stables or single fighters for the outcome of the next match.
Since we don't know when this next match will be, these bets can only be placed in advance and can not happend as long as the player, you are betting on, is online. Only offline players can be bet on.
Also you can't bet on your own team or yourself but I fear people will just create dummy accounts to bet on themself. So there should be some kind of hurdle to keep this in check. Maybe a bet is only valid if it comes from an active account who either bought a certain amount of MC or has a certain number of mechs. Something that makes dummy accounts more troublesome then just not to cheat.
The other option would be that you can only bet on winning, not loosing. So to get something out of betting you have to win or else it was just wasted money and time.
For the Solomatches this would mean that you have to pick the one winner over the 3-7 who lost the match.
For teams you bet on the team that has the last standing mech.
I also like the idea that people get maybe 1% of the money that people spend on the bets....and this extra reward would be announced at the beginning of the match....no pressure at all
PS: You won't know how much money has been bet uppon you winning the match until it starts.
7) Events
There should be quartal events. A big show where the top 10 would get a chance to fight it out for an extra nice price. This event would be recorded, edited and commented and placed on the website, youtube, facebook, whatever for everyone to see.
At the end of the year there should be an chrismas battle royal similar to the quartal events but instead of just the top 10 fighting, everyone gets a chance of fighting in a big tournament.
Starting with a big "King of the hill" battle it will later be seperated into smaller arena fights.
8) Gamemechanical change
Similar to the boardgame I did like to test out the higher heat generation of the Solaris rules.
It could lead to quite a differance in weapons to be used.
Also I would like to see the original Solaris Mechs brought to live.
Thats it so far for my ideas.
Why would I like to see this happening? Beside a fresh gamemode and new maps I think that this could lead to a quite compettetive game and with some finetuning maybe even to a new eSport title, resulting in more attention for the game overall.
With more people playing the game it could very well make CW a more interesting mode as the waiting times could be lowered and in general more people are allways good for a game.
As for PGI, there is also a good chance to make some more money in the long run.
Beside all that...I have started to create the Marik factory map in 3D. Mostly because I wanted to try out if its even an interesting map in 3D. In 2D it's interesting but what works in 2D dosn't mean it works in 3D too.
Here are some images of the current state. I have stopped working on this since I don't even know if there is enough interest in this to further work out the details or if I just wast my time. Well if there is enough interest I will progress further and might even try to get this running. I haven't worked with the Cryengine so far but I worry about that when it comes to it.
I like the factory for there is basicly no spot where you can't be shot from two sides. So you have to be aware of your surounding and allways on the move.
So if you have suggestions, feel free to comment.
Edited by Nesutizale, 14 October 2015 - 02:48 PM.
