31 replies to this topic

[Leartes]

ThomasMarik, on 03 February 2016 - 04:09 PM, said:

In fact the more I think about it the worse it will be in phase 3.

The perfect defense vs groups dropping on your planet is to defend with 12 unitleelss solos. Its not hard to make ansmurf account. The pugs would retake territory as fast as the groups could take them. Skill would be irrelevant.

I hear this argument a lot, but is it even known that pug games actually contribute in the same way unit games do?

[Sandpit]

Sami Starvixen, on 03 February 2016 - 02:14 PM, said:

A lot of this seems to be because the Marik regulars are mostly active late evening to early morning, while everyone they border is active during regular daylight hours.

and?
I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me what the players iN Marik active at that time are supposed to do besides ghost drop.

[Darwins Dog]

Leartes, on 04 February 2016 - 08:40 AM, said:

I hear this argument a lot, but is it even known that pug games actually contribute in the same way unit games do?

The latest from Russ is that the non-unit queue will not be able to take planets, or get rewards. It's still possible for 12 solo players with unit tags to form a team, but it won't be likely.

[Dawnstealer]

One thing would be to implement AI vehicles. Lore-wise/RP-wise, maybe the faction doesn't want to respond with more expensive mechs, so they defend these worlds with vehicles.

Attackers still get a fight (albeit an easier one), get a chance to earn XP, etc. Defenders, especially those on the Clan front (ie. Kurita, FRR, and Steiner) who are defending 2-4 fronts NOT including their southern borders, they can focus their attention without having an easy march on their undefended border. For low-population factions (or when the big merc units are on the flip side of the border), it allows them to actually defend and at least draws the conflict out.

Add to this, I'd have the window for a planet go at least two weeks, and have control of the planet rest on the TOTAL percentage of victories. What's more, make the threshold 60/40 in favor of the defender. Planets wouldn't trade hands as quickly, you could go away for a night or even a day or two, and not worry that you're letting your faction down. It wouldn't feel like an inevitable tide when a Faction gets on a roll.

That was one of the reasons CW2 died so fast. I went on a roadtrip for a long weekend. When I left, the borders were relatively similar to the start point, we were even pushing in some areas. Came back annnnnnd...JF and Wolf had blown through Steiner space and there didn't really seem like any point in continuing. I missed four to five days and everything changed - that's frustrating. Slow that pace down a bit.

Edited by Dawnstealer, 04 February 2016 - 09:31 AM.

[Sandpit]

Dawnstealer, on 04 February 2016 - 09:30 AM, said:

That was one of the reasons CW2 died so fast.

4 hours of ghost drops nightly is why CW2 "died out"

[Wild Pegasus]

Sandpit, on 04 February 2016 - 08:43 AM, said:

and?
I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me what the players iN Marik active at that time are supposed to do besides ghost drop.

That was my point. There's nothing to do because of the time zone difference, other than ghost drop or go do clan defense. It's something that needs to be addressed if CW is ever going to be meaningful in any sense.

[Sandpit]

Sami Starvixen, on 04 February 2016 - 10:17 AM, said:

That was my point. There's nothing to do because of the time zone difference, other than ghost drop or go do clan defense. It's something that needs to be addressed if CW is ever going to be meaningful in any sense.

Agreed, but the whole premise of this thread is berating people for ghost dropping.

[Monkey Lover]

The only thing i can see them doing is making the ghost drops more fun. Its time to use some of the AI they been programming.

[Sandpit]

Monkey Lover, on 04 February 2016 - 10:29 AM, said:

The only thing i can see them doing is making the ghost drops more fun. Its time to use some of the AI they been programming.

No, it's time for them to either learn how to run a persistent campaign or admit they don't have a clue on how to do it. A mode like CW is different. There's no amount of features, code, etc. that PGI can implement for CW that will take the place of a company that understands how to build a community and create an actual universe.

That's what CW really is. It's supposed to be the persistent "campaign" for MWO. Unfortunately PGI has zero clue on how to do something like that because it isn't a simple "code this into the game" situation.

[Wild Pegasus]

Sandpit, on 04 February 2016 - 10:20 AM, said:

Agreed, but the whole premise of this thread is berating people for ghost dropping.

Yeah, I misread the first post. I see he was saying that the problem was intentionally not trying to defend planets unless they were in danger of being flipped.

Aside from giving actual tangible value to holding and defending a planet, I don't know how to prevent such a thing. Especially with the "defending is not worth the hassle" mentality that's dominating CW right now.

[Darwins Dog]

Sandpit, on 04 February 2016 - 10:20 AM, said:

Agreed, but the whole premise of this thread is berating people for ghost dropping.

Actually the premise of the thread is to discuss the tactic of using ghost drops for defense. My intent is not to berate anyone. Waiting for your attackers to get bored and leave doesn't make for an exciting wargame.

So far the best idea I've seen is to either make ghost drops escalate (either happen faster, or take more territory) as they keep happening. It won't stop a faction from hiding behind them, but at least the planet faces the risk of flipping faster.

Depending on the reward structure for holding a planet, they could make it so that allowing a ghost drop interrupts payouts.

[Dan Nashe]

I'm basically new. My impression from the forums is that defense is for suckers and Call to Arms thing is a trap for the unwary.

Do people ever play as 12s to defend?

Also my understanding is factions are for chumps - cw is about mercenaries conquering planets to form kingdoms? Once more Mc rewards are in place units will want to defend but I'm not sure how they will stop ever declining numbers of units since it's more fun to own 20 planets than get small amounts of Mc and I just don't see how non me gas will hold planets for more than 2 hours.

So I don't know how to fix it.

But what I'm really trying to say is that my impression is that offense is where it's at for rewards and wins.

So it may not be a strategy, it might be a simple "I will not enjoy defending, so why bother."

Edited by DanNashe, 04 February 2016 - 01:52 PM.