AdamBaines, on 20 April 2016 - 04:59 AM, said:
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So this is where I'm confused. Where does it say you have to join a faction? Your unit will take a faction contract for 7 days, which you already have to do in current CW to play in CW. In old CW, you cannot play unless you take a contract with a faction at the very least, either as a solo or as a unit. I dont see what has changed.
Before Phase 3, to play in CW you had to either:
1) Take a contract (solo or as a unit) for 7, 14 or 21 Not sure if it was 21) days. Now you can play CW as a Solo or as a unit, or a solo that drops in a group.
2) Become a loyalist and do the same as #1.
With CW 3, from what I can understand, to play in CW you have to either:
1) Take a contract (solo or as a unit) for 7 days. No more 14 or 21. Now you can play CW as a Solo or as a unit. The thing I don't know is if as a solo, or as a player in a unit, can create a group (not of players from your unit) and drop?
2) Become a loyalist and do the same as #1
Is your point, my open question from #1? otherwise I dont see any issue still.
What Dirk is getting at, and you definitely missed, is that... If you're playing as a Solo FreeLancer (
previously titled a "Mercenary"), then you can't do contracts at all. You're forced to either 'Pledge Loyalty', 'Join a Unit', or 'Create a Unit', even if you didn't want to do any of those. This is something that "Beta 2" (aka "Phase 2") had over this ugly failure of a new phase, and is a sore point for a fair chunk of the MWO Community.
Also, Contracts don't come in the Specially Incentivized "14-day (+15%)", "28-day (+30%)", and "True Loyalist (+50%, without regard to faction population)" edition flavors anymore. Worse, there's now a "penalty (-50%)" for True Loyalists who try to rejoin their proper Faction, should the population be quote-unquote "Too High". Doesn't matter if you're a Mercenary/FreeLancer, or a Loyalist, that's just rude to force anybody who didn't go Loyalist to slog through the mud, and rude to Loyalists for penalizing them for being loyal while the population was quote-unquote "Too High", as there are Units who are trying to adhere to the BT Lore regarding their names.
Further, Casual-class players are now screwed over from enjoying Faction Warfare, and therefore a fair chunk of the MWO game and environment/atmosphere. They need to be able to come and go as their Real Lives permit, and should not be penalized out of being a part of the whole game and having something to evidence their ability to enjoy MWO from that part of the game. But, a large chunk of achievements (and rewards) that any Casual Completionist would need to finish the game's content -- or even do well in playing -- have now been ripped out from under them. Unfortunately for MWO, and therefore PGI, this means a fair chunk of the Community has once again been harmed and punished for not being able to follow a specific mould.
There are plenty of issues I can see many people are blind to. Hopefully this gives you some rather helpful insight into what has needlessly been shunned/harmed.
Personally, I'm rather sick of failures by developers as I have moved from one game to another over the years, and right now PGI is just one slap to my face short of me leaving. I have broken my ties with games before, even while not wanting to leave people behind, and if I'm forced to do it again, I will. Screenshots of Uninstalls? Oh, I can feel the pain those people have been through, because I've been there as well. I can already feel the outflood of players from this game coming... MWO is going to die, if PGI doesn't get their collective heads on straight.
~D. V. "
PGI's digging its' own grave..." Devnull