18 replies to this topic

[Ron Kramer]

Stockup for phase 3? what is phase 3? I did buy some MC and I did spend it all converting XP's - but should I stock up on MP and GXP for some up coming event?

little vague.????

[Koniving]

Ron Kramer, on 17 April 2016 - 04:05 PM, said:

little vague.????

[Not A Real RAbbi]

^^^ Yeah, that.

Wouldn't recommend blowing the MC on converting XP, unless it's excess XP above the MASTER level for a mech, and even then there's that talk about a skill tree revamp that has me wondering if I shouldn't hold on to some extra mech XP just in case.

Phase 3? Community Warfare. The stuff behind the FACTION WARFARE tab. The reason for all those call-to-arms popups you see in the client, that get in the way of certain buttons in the UI. It's getting some big changes on Tuesday, 19 April. Among them, the addition of a 4v4 'recon' mode tied to CW/FW, and separation of unit and non-unit players. There'll now be some interesting reason to try to OWN a planet, if you're in a unit, and a second big CBill sink for those unit coffers. Now, you can PAY to break a contract, and you can PAY to recruit a new player to your unit! PRAISE BE!

Seriously, though. It's a pretty big deal, and a lot of folks are really looking forward to it. But since it's been out in the wild, information-wise, for at least 4 months, we've kinda gotten used to just talking about 'phase 3' instead of 'Faction Warfare Phase 3' (PRAISE BE!).

I'm on the edge of my seat, honestly. Have been for a month. It's either gonna be huge, or a total disaster.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Meh.
Ill be excited once it is all here and working.
There are still things from phase 2 that never came to fruition.

[Rogue Jedi]

we do not know precisely what it will involve until the patch notes or the patch whichever comes first.

in the year and a third since Comunit Warfare was acturaly introduced with phase 2 ^{(phase 1 allowed you to create units and join factions, that was it)} there has been a lot of talk about phase 3, about all we realy know at this point is;

There is a new 4v4 "scouting" game mode which can give advantages to people playing the invastion game mode.

The unit and non unit players will be seporated in an attempt to stop complaining from both sides about too easy or too hard games, so as long as you are in a unit you cannot play with or against players who are not in a unit in Faction Play.

there will be advantages to your unit holding a planet

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 18 April 2016 - 03:08 AM.

[ThatGuy539]

I wonder how that will work.

Will people in Units only see other people in Units in CW...whether or not they go in as a group or PUGing it? And the same for non-unit people.

Or will you have to be grouped up AND in a unit to only go against other grouped up units? And if you aren't grouped up (and in a unit or not) it'll be the same PUG type game.

Meh...we'll see.

[Ron Kramer]

I converted about 200,000 from a direwolf. Allowed me to then skill up other mechs like my archers.
thanks for the info.

[Rogue Jedi]

ThatGuy539, on 18 April 2016 - 06:29 AM, said:

I wonder how that will work.

Will people in Units only see other people in Units in CW...whether or not they go in as a group or PUGing it? And the same for non-unit people.

Or will you have to be grouped up AND in a unit to only go against other grouped up units? And if you aren't grouped up (and in a unit or not) it'll be the same PUG type game.

Meh...we'll see.

I am pretty sure ungrouped unit players will act as the fillers for unit groups, last time Russ ^{(head of PGI)} spoke about it he was very specific that no-one with a unit tag would be able to drop with people without, without solos it would be hard to form unit groups beyond a few very specific sizes e.g. 4, 8 and 12

[Koniving]

Rogue Jedi, on 18 April 2016 - 03:05 AM, said:

1) There is a new 4v4 "scouting" game mode which can give advantages to people playing the invastion game mode.

2) The unit and non unit players will be seporated in an attempt to stop complaining from both sides about too easy or too hard games, so as long as you are in a unit you cannot play with or against players who are not in a unit in Faction Play.

3) there will be advantages to your unit holding a planet

I do believe in the following things:
(EDIT! MISSING VIDEO INSERTED to define what the word "This" is referring to.)
1) If the current Factionwarfare mission of "drop on planet, storm gates, destroy planetary cannon generator" is akin to the Battletech "Planetary Assault" contract duty for mercs...

Spoiler

(The jumpship(s) warp in near sun, drive toward the target planet/moon/oversized-mining-asteroid and dropships launch to do this.

Finally, dropships land on the planet and deliver the assault force which then do 'The Invasion Normandy' to establish a 'Planet Head' from which to continue the invasion [usually multiple planet-heads].)

...Then the 4 vs 4 mission is part of a series of "Raid" contract duties.

Spoiler

Recon Raid.
Small unit, makes an assault on a planet to test local defenses and collect information for later strikes. High risk, high reward. Like a planetary assault, raiders travel from space to the planet's surface. Same force is expected to carry out the mission and then withdraw, no further support. Targets often are unsuspecting. Risk of being cut off or unable to escape is ever present. (4-man missions based on this?)

Objective Raid.
Limited attack to capture or destroy a specific target. Supply depot, convoy, scientist or political leader, specific installation or so on. Similar to recon raid but carried against heavier or better-organized and prepared opposition.

Diversionary Raid.
Draw attention to confuse enemy opposition from the real target of an interstellar campaign. Small forces launch planetary assaults on several worlds and simulate attacks, when friendly forces make their real thrust elsewhere the diversionary forces withdraw.
Resistance is incredible as information is leaked intentionally.

Of the Raids I listed, the trailer alludes to Recon Raid.

Future mission types are probably also going to be taken from the Merc Handbook in which...
Offense/Defense campaign duty. Basically attacks / defense on areas without planetary cannons such as resupply bases, factories, political facilities, training centers, etc. Typically under these circumstances the attackers march in on their own power and defenders are quickly shipped on location via dropship as well as power up (so spawn within mechbays) within the areas being contested. (Just a BT example of it).

2) That could be interpreted in a few ways. From the trailer and with a bit of college game design experience, I'll tell you right away that the following is happening for certain:
*Faction Loyalists are choosing which planet to attack through voting each 'session' which appears as though it will last 24 to 48 hours or possibly a full week (likely the full week to avoid 'rapid conquest of the entire map').
*Lone Wolves are going to be used in Call to Arms as a "Quick start" method to be rushed into a conflict zone, possibly without preference for faction (will need two dropdecks to pull this off though; Clan and IS) in order to hyper-seed missions to cut wait times to 5 minutes or less (as opposed to current wait times over 30 minutes).

Less certain but very likely.
*Mercs appear to be 'separating' from Loyalists in terms of how they are treated. The "big groups" tend to be mercs, meaning that if there is a big 'group / non-group' separated queue, it will be Loyalists in one queue (little / no groups) and Mercs (4 to 12 man groups) in another. This is a big if.

3) PGI will be late in implementing this with any actual meaning. (This is opinion not necessarily fact; but they are always a little late in full implementation).

2 continued) to use your words from the post after the one I quoted, in my "less certain" explanation I clarify: Mercs would be "unit tags" and Loyalists with be "no unit tags."

Edited by Koniving, 18 April 2016 - 11:32 AM.

[SeaLabCaptn]

Phase 1: collect underpants.
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: profit!

My question is what's phase 4?

[MechWarrior319348]

SHHH!!!!! we don't talk about phase 4.

[Morggo]

Humor aside, what I took away from the last town hall was that this is the last of the big "phases" releases meaning from here on out it will be incremental additions, features, tweaks, and content. Makes sense... IF phase 3 rolls out as truly a "major upgrade" to what we have now you would just move forward building on it's foundation. Keeps the flow of new shiny moving faster and interest up rather than waiting months or even part years for "the next big phase". Personally, I prefer the continuous incremental improvements over the "once a year Christmas gift" style.

[MechWarrior319348]

oops

[Rogue Jedi]

Koniving, on 18 April 2016 - 10:10 AM, said:

2 continued) to use your words from the post after the one I quoted, in my "less certain" explanation I clarify: Mercs would be "unit tags" and Loyalists with be "no unit tags."

There are loyalist units and Merc units, you could also be a non unit Merc, Loyalist or lone wolf, just to confuse things further. I do not think type (or lack) of contract will be any aspect in which queue you go in.

[Threat Doc]

To clarify something which has not been mentioned, here, but was in the last Town Hall, whether you are a unit or a pack of lone wolves, you will have the same effect on the map. In other words, if your Defense of Planet Hall is successful, you actually grab back a portion of that world, it's not superfluous.

Time to get my Drop Deck planned out.

[Koniving]

Rogue Jedi, on 18 April 2016 - 11:04 AM, said:

There are loyalist units and Merc units, you could also be a non unit Merc, Loyalist or lone wolf, just to confuse things further. I do not think type (or lack) of contract will be any aspect in which queue you go in.

I recall. I have the feeling that PGI will only go as complex as the original CW announcement.
Lone Wolves could be either loyalist or merc but probably won't be distinguished at all, just a non-committal "fill our lines."
Loyalists are likely to have units and non-units just because.
Merc companies are always going to have tags.

At this rate I think PGI won't have the ability to pull this off until water bends.


...Maybe they will pull it off. Btw we should see patchnotes today.

[XaxalAndou]

So, will the mech limitations remain? (IE, you have to be using clan mechs when being a clan loyalist/working a clan contract, etc)

[Not A Real RAbbi]

XaxalAndou, on 18 April 2016 - 07:43 PM, said:

So, will the mech limitations remain? (IE, you have to be using clan mechs when being a clan loyalist/working a clan contract, etc)

Almost certainly, yes.

[Rogue Jedi]

if you have a spare half hour you can read the patch notes
http://mwomercs.com/...20#entry5141025

they contain full details of Phase 3, be warned they are rather long patch notes