160 replies to this topic

[IceSerpent]

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The battle for control over faction planets is a simple war of attrition. The faction with the most influence over a particular planet occupies it. By virtue of simply competing in online matches, faction players contribute influence points to target planets.

Could you please elaborate on this part? Can any faction participate in those matches or only attacker vs. current owner of the planet? What happens when one faction can field more players than another - does it automatically generate more influence? What happens when defending faction is practically inactive, i.e. doesn't have enough players for a match? Given that game is likely to be F2P (meaning that people will be able to create as many accounts as they want), what about people from the attacking faction creating new accounts, joining the defending faction and throwing the match?

This just brings up way too many questions, definitely need more info on this part of the system.

[armitage]

Seeing as that all loyalty points earned within a Merc Corp go to that Corp and as mentioned ranks and level permissions will be decided by the corp leader, will it be possible for a succesful warrior to achieve rewards beyond his rank or it his/her access to assets completely limited by the Merc Corps overall rewards and by the rank given by the Leader.

To put this another way... If I, as a merc memeber, do exceptionally well in a given period of time will I be completely at the mercy of my Merc leader allows me to have or will I be rewarded for my individual achievements. If left to the Merc leader, should I feel unappreciated will I have to start from scratch and leave the Corp in search of another corp/house

[Red Beard]

If groups organize OUTSIDE the existing structure, (assuming that is possible ), will we be able to integrate outside photoshopped insignia's into the game?

[Red Beard]

Will there be a "market" for used parts and such?

[ManDaisy]

Can we shoot down missiles with anything besides AMS?

[Supraluminal]

This topic has been touched on a bit, but I wanted to address it a little more thoroughly:

The Loyalty Point system, as described, sounds like it will reward playtime above all else. As I read it, people who play constantly will get ahead in the ranks while those who play moderately or rarely not only fall behind as a natural consequence of playing less, but are actively pushed behind by LP decay.

Is this the intent of the LP system? I understand wanting to promote active, regular play, but it's ridiculous to turn advancement in the game into not only a grind, but a competitive grind at that. Shouldn't players who play moderately but skillfully be rewarded as much as those who simply have all day to play?

[Hayden]

Are there plans for a 3025 Server, with era-appropriate equipment and borders?

[Tweaks]

My question is in response to the following statement:

Quote

Loyalty Points decay over time if a player is not active. Participating in negative actions can also decrease LPs.

Could you give us examples of negative actions which would cause of a loss of LPs?


Thank you!

[Alekseyev]

The legend at the top of the IS mapraises an important question we've talked about a lot on NGNG: Will the distances between planets come into play as a constraint on player action i.e. travel time? Or will it be ignored for gameplay purposes allowing players and units to engage in combat on any planet at any time with no drawback? If there is a travel time mechanic, will it be applied equally across the merc unit/faction/lone wolf divide?

[Gemini]

I have three questions related to community warfare:

1. Considering the unstable nature of internet gaming, (dropouts, severe lag, etc.), how will these be handled in regards to LP if a match gets disrupted? Will partial LP be given out or will the match have to be done over? What if several participants lose their connection and greatly unbalance the match in favour of one side?

2. As we all know, the Capellan Confederation and the Free Rasalhague Republic are hideously outmatched. How will the sizes of the various factions of the Inner Sphere be factored into the MWO experience?

3. Once players decide to join a faction or mercenary corp., is that the end-all be-all of their decision? Will players be able to change sides? Or heck, could a player completely start over from scratch if they wanted to experience the game all over again? Or waitaminute... if the Clans get involved, (becase we all know that's gonna happen), then being able to change sides would HAVE to be a factor, right? ;)

[Aidan]

Q1. How will the scheduling of battles be handled and the resulting battle results reported on the starmap? Will this be an interface within the game or will it be on a website external to the game user interface?

Q2. For battle scheduling, how will global timezones be handled by MWO?

Q3. Will the concept of pre-battle reconnoissance for military information be used in MWO? For example, a faction could reconnoiter a planet before attacking.

Edited by Aidan, 09 December 2011 - 09:07 AM.

[Ghost]

Since player rankings were brought up in direct comparison to games like the Call of Duty series or Battlefield series, what can we expect to see in terms of "special privileges" as you earn promotions? I know in the Battlefield games, for example, higher ranks not only unlock additional equipment, in several games they actually influenced your opportunities to become battlefield commander.

[Skwisgaar Skwigelf]

Devs, thank you for the Blog and the great work you're doing on this game. I know my questions have probably been asked in one form or other and if they have just use my post for emphasis.

1. Since Merc groups will fight for border world, does that mean the Merc groups ALONE will fight for border worlds? Or will Faction players get to fight for border worlds also and use the Merc groups for supoort.

2. Tying into that, since Merc groups will be under contract, even when they win border worlds will they ultimately be under control of the faction that the Merc group is under contract with? ie, will the controlling faction ALSO gain bonuses for planets controlled by Merc groups under the faction contract, or is it for the Merc group alone?

3. Will they be some point or rank at which LP attrition will decrease? Say you've worked hard to get to the rank of Captain (or equivalent) in your faction. Will part of the rank bonus be a lowering of LP attrition since you have already put the work in to get that far?

4. How will factions get to fight each other? Will they be able to bypass Border worlds and invade Core worlds, or will the factions use the Merc groups as "screens" to continue pushing the border into enemy territory?

5. Who controls how Merc contracts are put together and presented to various Merc groups?

[colodie]

Will there be any 'faction management'? Will there be any different advantages to joining the different factions, or will it be purely fluff based? If one factions gains an inordinate amount of players, will there be incentives for players to join other factions?

[Win44]

Quote

[color=#CCCCCC]
At its core, the territory battle is a fight for resources – planets. Planets are divided into three types. Each type requires a more active level of participation by the player and as a result earns a greater reward.[/color]

• Core Worlds – Are managed by the dev team. These are worlds that necessary for future planning and part of major historical events.
  
• Faction Worlds – Are fought over by Faction players. These planets buffer core and border worlds, and do not play a significant role in major historical events. Rewards for controlling these planets are directly linked to global bonuses and abilities associated with a player’s Faction.
  
• Border Worlds – Are fought over via a contract bidding system by player run Mercenary Corporations. These planets change hands on a regular basis, and have no impact on historical events. Rewards for controlling a boarder world are significant and go directly to the occupying Merc Corp.

How will this be implemented on the overall map? Meaning, will it be open sandbox where all of those worlds will be actively Faction/Border/Core? Or will it be more "hotspot" like, where certain worlds will be tagged for combat? Maybe something totally different and cool I didn't think of?

[Kotori]

My question is:
"Are MercCorps the only groups that can strike border worlds, and are Faction units that only groups that can strike at Faction Worlds; whereas a Neutral player has the freedom of being involved in battles involving both Border and Faction worlds?"

The reason I ask this is that the segregation between border worlds being merc only and faction worlds being between factions only feels really artificial. It doesn't make sense to me that House units don't get to fight Merc units within the game's universe. If the segregation is there, I'm hoping that MercCorps with good loyalty to a Faction (think Kell Hounds & Federated Commonwealth) could strike at Faction Worlds of an opposing Faction (i.e.: House Kurita).

Next set of questions are:
"What motivated the choice of Summer 3049 for being the timeline's starting point for the game's launch? Why was 3025, 3035 or 3045 not enough? Why take the risk of setting it just on the eve of the Clan Invasion just after one year of having gone live?"

The jump from Inner Sphere only conflicts to the Clan Invasion seems a drastic one, especially balance-wise. I, for one, am worried by it. I was actually hoping that with the previous 3025 timeline set that we wouldn't have to worry about the impact of clan tech - Inter-House warfare could've been a good enough focus point of a long time. During the Clan invasion, House warfare pretty much... died out.

Also...
"There is the distinction between the Faction player, the MercCorp player and the Lone Wolf player. Are these 'statuses' permanent, or can they be changed at whim?"

I could imagine it could get unsatisfying for a Lone Wolf to be stuck in Random Matches and not appear to make as much of a difference as someone in a MercCorp or Faction. I'm hoping people can choose to start as Lone Wolves, play the game and then be able to decide where they want to be rather than be pidgeon-holed on their initial choice.

I figure the same could go for MercCorp players transferring to Faction units, of Faction players leaving their House and then find employment at a MercCorp.

Last question:
"Assuming the Clan Invasion happens in 2013 and that Clan Factions will be playable, how have you Devs concepted so far the ideas of Border Worlds, Faction Worlds and Core Worlds in regard to Clanners? Core worlds could be a misnomer, considering the Clanners come from elsewhere. Since Clans don't like mercs and have none, how would the Faction/Border world distinction be made for them?"

As outlined in my above comments, I don't even like the Border/Faction world MercCorp/Faction unit segregation because it feels artificial. Clan units by contrast, if we could play them, likely wouldn't even make the distinctions themselves. It does make the present concept look a little 'iffy', if you'll pardon the word.

Edited by Kotori, 07 December 2011 - 08:06 PM.

[Cattra Kell]

Will mercenary companies be able to hire one another for missions? I know you mentioned bidding to fight, but say if one side is putting up 2 lances, but the attackers only have 1 lance active. Could the attackers pay allies to join them on contract for that mission?

[SaJeel]

Are there any plans of in-game voice chat within a lance/team?

[Felicitatem Parco]

How long will wait times be while attempting to join a match that hasn't started yet; I'm not talking about hot-dropping into an active fight]?

Edited by Prosperity Park, 09 December 2011 - 01:35 PM.

[Felicitatem Parco]

2nd question: If I have an irregular gaming schedule, should I bother to join a faction/clan? Will lone Wolves lose access to in-game hardware such as weapons, Mechs, and computational systems that are only available to faction/Merc players, or will everything *eventually* be available on the open market?

Edited by Prosperity Park, 07 December 2011 - 08:57 PM.