9 replies to this topic

[50 50]

I have seen a few comments recently about favoritism towards the IS as a bit of a hang over from earlier days because the opportunity to go through the 4th succession war before the introduction of the clans was lost.
But is it?
It occurred to me that with some changes to faction play... and possibly quick play... that there is still an opportunity to realise these earlier game concepts and potentially develop faction play in a way that it can be repeated and tell it's own story.

What I am trying to get at, and I shall try to be brief, is changing the start point for faction play.

At the moment, the clans are already on the map... the invasion has already started.
But what if they weren't? What if it was a step back where the clans are preparing, bidding to attack the IS and the IS is still in the midst of their succession wars.

Here's the quick break down:

• Create the Clan homeworlds and their own territory outside of the Innersphere map.
  
• With a map reset, we put the clans back at their homeworlds where we can then have the factions doing their own thing bidding/fighting for the right to invade.
  
• The Innersphere factions in the meantime have the opportunity to push their own territories and basically have their 4th succession war.
  
• Once a clan faction has reached enough 'points' they can attack the Innersphere and get to select a planet and off we go.
  
• Should the clan faction be pushed back, they can be pushed right out of the inner sphere and the process starts again.
  
• Inner sphere goes back to their succession war.

There are other parts of the game and different outcomes to consider, but the more faction play can become a self governed and dynamic game mode the better it is.


If PGI would like to have their 4th succession war, lets do it, but lets set it up in a way that there could be a 5th, 6th, 7th etc.

There is a lot more thought to this idea, but I shall leave it at that for now.
Let us have a good discussion and see where we get.

Edited by 50 50, 13 April 2016 - 03:09 AM.

[slide]

Nice Idea and probably how the clans should have been introduced in the first place.

FWI all the clan home worlds are already on the map. Just go way north and zoom in until you find them.

Edited by slide, 13 April 2016 - 07:34 PM.

[VinJade]

I Think it should move along more like in the canon sources where they fight and then elect an illkhan(sp) and go from there and actually do bidding where both the IS & clanners can chose to do away with some of their forces(such as mechs in their drop bay) and actually make it one on one fighting each drop.

like lets say a warrior in a Timber wolf challenged an Atlas and the Clanner won, the greater the honor they gain and so on.

but if the IS breaks this one on one then it is a free for all.

There is so much that can be done, however makes me wonder if Russ and his team would even be willing to spend so much time on anything clan seeing their hate for clans.

[EGG]

+1 do want

Only risk is if one clan gets an invasion corridor and 10,000 mercs then all pile out of the other clans/houses into that one.

[iamsek]

Pgi.

[50 50]

Oooh, didn't realise the worlds were already there...... or I did and had forgotten.
Well, that makes it easier.

If we break from the lore a little there are other options that we could look at.
There are also some features coming in phase 3 that will help, specifically the voting.
We also want to keep in mind the relative population in the game and how many might be with the clan.
So to expand on the concept, let's consider these options.

1. We add the rest of the clan factions.
This at it's simplest can be the logo, name and a decal. Specific camo patterns would be nice, but can be left till later.

2. The clans bid for the right to attack the inner sphere.
Essentially this is a clan tournament where each of the factions go through matches and the winning faction gets the rights to attack. As a bit of aside note, the upcoming Solaris tournament mode in my mind should be exclusively for the inner sphere. The bidding process could be the clan equivalent as a story based tournament for faction play but it may be promoted in the same way.

3. The winning faction is the one that the other clans unite under.
By this I mean that faction gets the planets under their colour and with their flag.
The other clans are not excluded from the fight because there probably isn't enough players to do that and I don't see that as a good idea anyway. Instead everyone, regardless of their actual clan faction, fights under the one banner... like how it appears in the team screens now. Units still get to tag the planets etc but it's all for the greater glory of clan xyz.
The advantage of this is it tells a different story each time, so if a clan is pushed back, it might be a different one next time. Bit cosmetic maybe, but it gives some variety and could create other options down the track. Depending on numbers, it may be more than one clan on the invasion, we can work that out.

4. The starting planet for the invasion.
With the voting system, the various leaders of the units get to pick which planet to attack each cycle.
For the purposes of this I suggest that the starting planet could be one or two planets on the periphery of any of the IS factions.
Ok, that's not the lore, but it lets us as players change the game and tell a different story each time. In one invasion it might be Marik where it starts. In another it might be Kurita. Once again, this adds variety and therefore interest with different interactions.

5. The point on Mercenaries.
Yes, it may be that the invasion hits a brick wall and fails straight away due to overwhelming defences.
Keep in mind however that the new system in phase 3 means the loyalists have to pick which planet to attack/defend etc and they then also hire the mercenaries... or at least provide incentives. The dynamics of how this is going to work we are yet to see but we may find it plays out differently. As the invasion pushes through more territories more factions will become involved as well. The other aspect to consider is from point 3. If we have all the clan players fighting over the same goals there should be some pretty good battles.

What also needs to be discussed is what happens if the Clans prevail or should manage to eliminate one of the Innersphere factions, or for that matter if one of the great houses eliminates another.
No reason why there couldn't be a similar process.... The defeated house retreats out of the Innersphere and then selects a planet on the periphery to start rebuilding their territory from.
Some sort of rebellion/raid option?

The trick is how to keep the game moving without needing to reset.

Edited by 50 50, 14 April 2016 - 08:10 PM.

[dervishx5]

Bring in the wobbies so I can launch a jihad on you all.

[ice trey]

Should the clan homeworlds' activity be hidden from IS players? I think yes.

But the clan homeworlds (And the pentagon worlds) should also be made available for inter-clan fighting, as they have done for centuries.

But on the other hand, CW isn't exactly feeling a surplus of players, and spreading the thin numbers out even more will only make the problem worse. Maybe waiting until CW is a fun experience for players is the best way to go.

Edited by ice trey, 15 April 2016 - 06:58 PM.

[50 50]

Hiding the homeworlds from view unless you are aligned with a clan faction isn't something I had considered. Not sure it's necessary but it might add a little extra to it all.

The idea behind the bidding is the inter-clan warfare but serves a specific purpose.
The clan homeworlds were not as numerous as what is available in the innersphere, so the fighting might be better handled like the trials in the lore instead of a territory grab. Bit more like a Tukayyid event or the way the new MWO championships is going to be handled.... just purely a clan thing though with the 'prize' being the right to lead the invasion.
The advantage of this would be in allowing the 'prize' to be adapted to other things.
It would be a way to have trials for bloodnames etc.

While the population is not huge, there is probably enough for each of the inner houses to have a decent number of players to create conflict. Then only having one banner (or more depending on how it works out) for the clans to unite under should mean that the population isn't spread too thin.
We are yet to see how the new careers work out in the game and what effect this has on the populations.

Edited by 50 50, 13 May 2016 - 01:50 AM.

[50 50]

Another point to consider is it may be advantageous to further develop faction play while it is only IS vs IS and there are no balance issues..
At the same time we can work on a solid bidding system for the Clans and build in some features unique to each faction.