512 replies to this topic

[Kraven Kor]

So, the "play it or lose it" aspect of rank... won't that kind of penalize those of us who may not get to play terribly often? It will take me months to work up in rank, as I will be playing, if I'm lucky, maybe a few hours per session and only getting to play such a session a few days a week.

Then I might end up not being able to play at all for two or three weeks.

There has to be some kind of permanent progress you keep, even if you don't login for a month, for players like myself, please?

[Butane9000]

I have a question. If I belong to House Marik but I am also part of a Mercenary group can I engage in play with both or do I have to side with one or the other? If I can, do the loyalty point systems remain separate?

[Lepidoptera]

This Is going to be Great when they getting going!

Question of terminology: if a faction is one of the Houses or the Free Rasalhague Republic, what would you call a group of players that wanted to stay together and Pledging Allegiance to a Faction as a group?

[DarkendMoon]

Butane9000, on 07 July 2012 - 09:27 AM, said:

I have a question. If I belong to House Marik but I am also part of a Mercenary group can I engage in play with both or do I have to side with one or the other? If I can, do the loyalty point systems remain separate?

Well on the first page it talked about how you could earn loyaly points towars factions if you are with a mercenary group. I imagine you could be part of a mercenary group that supports a certain house. AKA Yeah were a mercenary group but we are allies with house ____ so we are free agents exept we will not initiante hostilities towards house _____ and will support them when financially feasable.

[Butane9000]

DarkendMoon, on 09 July 2012 - 04:03 AM, said:

Well on the first page it talked about how you could earn loyalty points towards factions if you are with a mercenary group. I imagine you could be part of a mercenary group that supports a certain house. AKA Yeah were a mercenary group but we are allies with house ____ so we are free agents except we will not initiate hostilities towards house _____ and will support them when financially feasible.

Actually this was answered in another thread. Your either a mercenary or a member of one of the houses. If you want to fight for a specific house your mercenary group has to get the required loyalty points.

[Landeraxe]

Stahlseele, on 09 December 2011 - 05:36 AM, said:

Aaand the Lone Wolf Players like me get a Kick to the teeth again . .

Hey man, it's a rough life you lone wolfs have chosen... chosen being the word of import there. Would Malcolm Reynolds have been half as cool if he was a delivery-man for the Alliance out there in space? No way.

No guts, no glory, right?

[Landeraxe]

Stahlseele, on 09 December 2011 - 11:13 AM, said:

You have never heard of THE Bounty Hunter? O.O

"In 3034, the Bounty Hunter reportedly hunted down and killed Dale Sandstrom. Sandstrom, formerly of the 5th Regulan Hussars and piloting an Assassin, had apparently become a freelance mechwarrior/bounty hunter, and the Bounty Hunter did not like anyone stealing his "shtick"." -Sarna

So, emulate him, and end up on the hit-list. You lone-wolves have fun now, ya hear?

[Shammus]

I am so blown away and so excited to be a part of this game. I look forward to joining an active company and having an affect on this dynamic world!!

[Wicked001]

InnerSphereNews, on 07 December 2011 - 04:00 PM, said:

Mercenary Corp Players
As a Mercenary Corporation, all members’ earned loyalty points go to the Merc Corp. The Merc Corp must have a minimum amount of loyalty points with a faction before they are able to engage in planetary combat on behalf of that faction. Loyalty points also determine the type and level of contract a Merc Corp is permitted to bid on. These loyalty point restrictions mean that a Merc Corp’s membership, must remain active in order to maintain the required level of LPs.

Ranks are created within a Merc Corp by the Merc Corp leader. The naming of the ranks is entirely up to the Merc Corp leader who can assign Merc Corp level permissions to each rank.

Lone Wolf Players

As a lone wolf, the player can earn loyalty points through participation in random matches, however these LPs have no positive or negative implications. A lone wolf player does not have any ranks.

Hello everyone,

The faction thing interests me, but I would far prefer to be unaligned or unaffiliated with a faction in order to follow the money. However, it seems from the OP that there will be limited or no benefit to being a Merc Corp. affiliate. There will also be no benefit to being a Lone Wolf. This presents some problems that seem pretty obvious to me.

Merc Corp. organizations will basically be "neutral" clans run by a player "leader" instead of the basic plot devices of the game devs. This means that your friends and you can make a small guild and go free lance... Except, in order to get paying jobs... You have to work for a faction and earn faction LP. This means that as a neutral clan, you still have to pick an alignment and "These loyalty point restrictions mean that a Merc Corp’s membership, must remain active in order to maintain the required level of LPs." So the small group of friends now becomes a large group of randoms who come and go as there is technically no benefit for being part of a Merc Corp. "Ranks are created within a Merc Corp by the Merc Corp leader. The naming of the ranks is entirely up to the Merc Corp leader who can assign Merc Corp level permissions to each rank." This sounds cool, but there is absolutely no mention of any benefits, privileges, or otherwise for holding/maintaining these ranks. So in other words, Merc Corp. membership is pretty much a way to be a lone wolf but with a ton more responsibilities in order to get jobs... and instead of being assigned "random" jobs for "random" LP's, they will be specifically aligned with a specific faction; however, still retaining absolutely none of the benefits granted to similarly ranked members of said faction.

It is not however stated whether or not a player can join a Merc Corp. and gain LP's for multiple factions at the same time (if a player is allowed LP's of multiple factions at the same time at all). It is also not stated if a Merc Corp. may gain faction LP's for multiple factions at the same time. This would constitute a very small benefit of being allowed options to work for either faction at the same time, similarly to the "random" assignment of a Lone Wolf. However, if a Merc Corp. is only allowed to take jobs from a single faction at once... It would seem to me that there is even less reason to be a Merc (which as I stated before would be my preference).

Lone wolves seem to get an even shorter stick. They don't seem to be allowed to take jobs for a faction of their choosing, but rather assigned missions and LP's at "random." I would understand this better if perhaps a player who left a faction could not just get rid of their allegiance and would rather have to spend some time as a lone wolf to lose LP's of one faction and earn LP's for a faction that they are not allowed to align themselves with yet. However, if the assignment is "random" this would not work either... as a winning Lone Wolf would gain equal LP's with all factions at "random." I would love to get more clarity regarding the transition between factions and how abandoning one's faction and taking up another is handled/penalized.

I would prefer to see a system where Merc Corp. was a large external faction run by devs which allow ranks and benefits completely independent of the war and planetary ownership.

In summary, the faction system sounds interesting and intriguing. However for those of us who would prefer to stay neutrally aligned, there seems to be a vast limitation of benefits and/or rewards; furthermore, it seems as though being neutrally aligned is a penalty in and of itself.

-Wicked001

Edited by Wicked001, 27 July 2012 - 10:46 AM.

[Hawker]

I would like to include that the unit I am currently with is considering going merc because they feel that the unit cannot be aligned with a House and still gain reputation as a unit. I would like some specific clarification on that, because for personal reasons I am dead set against being a merc. It is a mental thing, and I will leave it at that.

So my question is: Can players create or otherwise run a House unit based on the structure the players have created? Or if not a specific House unit, at least be aligned with a Faction and get contracts based on that relationship?

For example: a unit pledging alliegance to House Davion (Federated Suns), they would get contracts obviously against House Liao and Kurita, but would not get contracts against Stiener or Davion. The players themselves would get LP for House Davion and maybe the combined ranks of all the members in that unit would add to the reputation of the unit itself.

I think the ability to do so would go a long way in promoting good RP in game and allow those who would like to defend their homelands rather than kill for profit.

[Hinder]

the game in it's original form seems to be a group of large factions and the warriors of those factions.
yes there are mercs, and even lone wolves.
however the game is primarily focused on the large factions and anyone else is not going to get the easier road that being affiliated with those factions offers.
i agree that lone wolf looks atractive, and so does mercenary, but i know that i will pay a price for taking that that much less subsidized route of progress through the game.
i intend to go lone wolf.
i love the smell of role playing in the morning.

[Droggy]

As an Original Multiplayer Battletech EGA on Genie Player and just got into the Beta Last night I can't tell you how happy I am to see this as a direction the devs are taking. I understand the need to do the drop and "deathmatch with robots" right now to work out the Mechanics but the long term success of this game depends on the implementation of the Inner Sphere world and the logistics behind it. Earning House ranks, Mercenary Contracts, fluctuation of planet control. These are the items that are going to add the Roleplaying element to the game, and will keep people coming back for more and more. I look back on my days playing Battletech EGA on Genie as some of the most memorable gaming experiences of my life...and that is going back over 22 years of gaming now! I certainly hope that Mechwarrior Online can recapture that.....If the Technology was there to design that in the late 80's early 90's it is certainly there now!! Good luck!! And if you pull it off you have a subscriber for life here!

[Morashtak]

Wicked001, on 27 July 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

It is not however stated whether or not a player can join a Merc Corp. and gain LP's for multiple factions at the same time (if a player is allowed LP's of multiple factions at the same time at all).

I would prefer to see a system where Merc Corp. was a large external faction run by devs which allow ranks and benefits completely independent of the war and planetary ownership.

Hawker, on 28 July 2012 - 02:41 AM, said:

So my question is: Can players create or otherwise run a House unit based on the structure the players have created? Or if not a specific House unit, at least be aligned with a Faction and get contracts based on that relationship?

From Bryan Ekman's post; http://mwomercs.com/...585#entry227585

Quote

HOWEVER, a new development is considering adding canon merc units to the faction list, and treating them as such. I think this is quite a good solution, fair, and concise.

In the same thread he talks about the possibility of canon House units and the ability for players to join a House and eventually the elite House units. These, and the canon Merc Crops, would be dev controlled but nothing would stop a small group of friends joining the same unit and dropping as a pre-made. Eventually one could be part of a canon unit without the drama of someone coming along and claiming to be <insert name of canon unit leader> and demanding that all should obey him.

See this thread for more info; Merc Corp Names - Bryan has Spoken (at least for now)

[Wyrd Wolf]

Is Community Warfare still slated for release with the live launch of the game later this summer??

[Morashtak]

Wyrd Wolf, on 04 August 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

Is Community Warfare still slated for release with the live launch of the game later this summer??

Last word we had was it would be implemented "soon™" after launch. Going to hope that it means within 90 days of launch. This isn't a bad thing as this would give people time to sort out drop groups, communications, tactics, and all the rest prior to fighting over planets.

[Verdic Mckenna]

I'd like to see it sooner than soon, but we'll see what happens.

[Tyrnea Smurf]

i'd rather wait a bit on Community Warfare and have a stable well rounded product where it is concerned, as opposed to a glitchy/clunky thing that will annoy more players than it encourages.

Like the concepts of fighting over control of some of the border worlds, with the devs able to control how much leeway/progress the players make as they direct the storyline in terms of what world can be up for grabs (FYI avoid Rasalhague 'north border' planets they might not be healthy longterm ). Still not entirely sure how it will work when 2 merc corps faceoff for possession of a world if say the controlling corp A is offline or only has 1 or 2 members on (the rest of the 12v12 gets filled with scrubs/lone wolfs?) or is entirely offline, does the challenging corp B win by default, or all those nomad lone wolfing scrubs get to fight to keep corp A's world for them?

[ZeuS MPBT]

I have a small, but maybe an important question: The community warfare rules looks familiar (far better ^^) to the old MPBT game.
(anno)There was a very annoying problem: Every player could participate in a fight, even the most unexperienced ones too (+the opposite faction with a fake registered account, losing battles in a row).

Faction lost control of their planet very fast thanks to these actions.
Will be here any protection to prevent this?

[Morashtak]

ZeuS MPBT, on 09 August 2012 - 12:33 PM, said:

I have a small, but maybe an important question: The community warfare rules looks familiar (far better ^^) to the old MPBT game.
(anno)There was a very annoying problem: Every player could participate in a fight, even the most unexperienced ones too (+the opposite faction with a fake registered account, losing battles in a row).

Faction lost control of their planet very fast thanks to these actions.
Will be here any protection to prevent this?

Did MPBT allow only one fight to decide the outcome or was it set up to tally up a large number of matches over a set time frame and the winner being the Merc Corp with the better win/loss ratio?

The latter would also allow smaller Merc Corps a fighting chance to defend/win a planet by spreading the planetary conquest "campaign" over several days.

And yes, just speculation.

[ZeuS MPBT]

Morashtak, on 10 August 2012 - 06:10 PM, said:

Did MPBT allow only one fight to decide the outcome or was it set up to tally up a large number of matches over a set time frame and the winner being the Merc Corp with the better win/loss ratio?

The latter would also allow smaller Merc Corps a fighting chance to defend/win a planet by spreading the planetary conquest "campaign" over several days.

And yes, just speculation.

Every fight changed the ownership of the planet with ~0,1%. anyone could join the battle with no limit.