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For weapon mechanics there are several small adjustments I could suggest, but the only real current problem of note that I see is the dominant impact of front loaded, fast and precise damage. There are weapon loadouts across both technology bases that accomplish this. The "Ghost Heat" mechanic was a decent attempt to try and curb some of this problem, but more still needs to be done about it. I know that there is some form of new heat scale mechanic in the works, but do not really know any details of it. My suggestion is to just expand upon the precedent already established with the limitation of charging only 2 Gauss Rifles at a time. Use the “Ghost Heat” weapon groupings as a basis to set which weapon can only have so many of them fire simultaneously, imposing a 0.5 to 0.75 second pause before being able to fire further weapons in that weapon grouping. This would spread out the timing of outgoing damage as well as to spread the location of some of that damage as well. This would increase Time to Kill, and allow for a more attrition oriented feel of battle progression, as opposed to the often quickly decided outcome of an engagement. It’s a fairly simple solution without obscure penalties being applied, and as I mentioned, there is already a precedent for this type of mechanic.
Moving on to game mode improvements, there are several I would like to address. The first of which being Long Tom Artillery. I will say that it was both fun and entertaining to see the effects of it the first few times, but then the grim reality of its effect on the game and player base became quickly apparent. The main problem it causes is that it chases players away from queuing on a planet where the enemy has Long Tom Artillery active. It can’t be overstated just how much of an issue that really is for promoting a thriving Faction Warfare environment. Another aspect of where the Long Tom falls short in terms of game play, is that it is out of the player’s hands since it is automated. Adding facets to the game that players can use and control really helps put them more into the action and gets them more involved in the battle. The more involved the players are, the better the experience will be. My suggestion for this ties in with another idea for improving Faction Warfare. This is a bit more complex and would no doubt take a fair amount of time and work to accomplish. Shifting Quick Play matches to Faction Warfare matches in a Raiding/Defending Supply Line mode of 8 vs. 8 matches would help bring the majority of the player base into the immersion of Faction Warfare, which is really important to keep a player base interested and active in a game like MW:O. Both Assault Mode and Conquest Mode from Quick Play could be easily adjusted into a Supply Line Raid/Defense scenario, as well as Domination Mode, a supply cache would give an excellent reason to want to dominate an area on the map. Instead of raising or lowering a faction’s Intel like Scouting missions, it would raise and lower a faction’s Supply. The effects of Supply could be things like decreasing dropship timers (or increasing the enemy dropship timers), improved base and/or dropship turrets (perhaps even having some base defenses rebuilt on hold territory if your faction has high levels of supply for that planet), and the final Supply unlock should be a changed version of Long Tom Artillery. Long Tom Artillery should be changed to a free use of Artillery Strike for each player on the team, whether they have that consumable equipped or not. It’s tough to decide if it should be a free use per mech in each player’s drop, or just one free use per player overall during the match. I’m leaning towards starting with one per player overall per match and having those Artillery Strikes use a separate timer from the consumable item strikes. Free uses of other consumables could be potential benefits to having high Supply amounts from Raiding missions as well.
Eliminating Quick Play would not appeal to all players of course. I feel there does need to be a Quick Play style of play available in the game, and I believe it is most likely already in the works. Solaris can easily accommodate both leaderboard/competitive avenues of play, and also have more casual styles of play similar to what Quick Play offers now. Many PvP games have ranked and unranked play available to them and Solaris could incorporate that as well.
Lastly, I feel there could be some improvements of the rewards offered from Faction Play that could be implemented to attract more players into the mode. Top performers in unrewarded areas of game play and the player base could be given minor rewards as currently, only a very small portion of the player base will ever see any rewards (outside of rank achievements and match earnings) from Faction Play. There are many options for this sort of system. Weekly or monthly leaderboards for Scouting (and Raiding/Supply missions if implemented) could give small rewards to the top leaderboard players since you often have players from small units that will never gain tags on a planet contribute significantly to the conquest or defense of a planet through Scouting missions. Similarly, small rewards for Freelancer pilots on the top of their leaderboard could be a good idea.
Edited by Pihoqahiak, 13 June 2016 - 04:48 PM.
