MovinTarget, on 15 June 2016 - 09:32 AM, said:
perhaps they should divvy up the actual planetary rewards amongst the victorious units, where no unit can acquire more than 15 MC per planet, but any unit with a positive W/L on the planet with some minimum representation get something, even if it's 1 MC per cycle (3 MC/day)...
Perhaps:
Best representation + W/L = 15MC/cycle
2nd Best = 10MC/cycle
3rd Best = 5MC/cycle
The rest = 1MC/cycle
This would then allow for both Mercs and Loyalists to be invested in holding a planet and possible improving one's rank on the planet.
I would still maintain that Unit caps would be *really* bad for some units that have lots of people that are in various comp teams and only a fraction play FP. Why should they be penalized? If you want to limit their impact in FP, make it by affect the active FP population, not the unit as a whole. This is why I propose that there be a realtime limit to unit players in FP at any given time. If they want to drop more, they have to splinter, if they splinter they will eventually start moving off on their own as they'll likely chase the contracts that are most lucrative at that moment.
I don't see the cap as penalizing large units. Most of the large units work in subdivisions anyway with separate commanders for each dropset. Now the community would not change, you'd still have your community but said subdivisions would have subdivison tags. Dislike FP be part of a subdivision that does not play FP ... etc. A cap of 52 Players (4 Dropships plus backup) should be sufficient for this. esp. if you say you only have 18 tops that play CW...
People often mistake that a cap is not meant to delete your friends, you can still be friends and drop together and do everything the same way as always. There however would be a chance of Communities not having their units move to the same faction and thus creating a more equal balance... so there are players that only play comp and not FP, they probably give two flying f's about what faction they belong to... they might even choose to stay "freelancers" no need to represent a faction if not for faction warfare or gaining loyalty rewards, which in return would reflect a clearer population balance.
It would also take all the wind out of the sails of players that say, this or that unit only wins by zerging planets with 500 players each timezone... Maybe their FP subdivisions are good, maybe they win by zerging. hiding behind numbers the casual outsider can't tell. so he assumes he stands no chance, he chooses not to participate. So the population remains small.
I mean don't get me wrong we are all on the same page. We would not be discussing issues like that if we weren't in it for the love of Mechwarrior and Community Warfare. I know I want it to succeed, I want the population to grow, and I want all players to be able to enjoy FP. that includes players in small Units, the casuals, the beginners, the competitives... etc.
PGI realized large Units are a problem. Players have been complaining about this for a long time. So they tried to mangage it softly and it did not work. The large Units are still large, and a whole bunch of casuals said eff that, we're out! And it is continuing to decline in the same direction. It's been complained about in Phase 1, and in Phase 2, it is still an issue in Phase 3.
So when you say why should the large units be penalized. Turn the point of view around, look at it from a casuals perspective. The impression they get is, they say they will do something about the large units, and they don't. why are we being punished for not wanting to play in large groups?
There are always two sides. And I believe the angle we need to focus on is not only to cater towards the established players and groups, but also to include all the new players and casuals and keep them intersted and willing to stay and fight in FP. We need to create incentive for them. And if three phases long a majority has been complaining about large units I say we should give the cap a go.