Mech The Dane, on 14 June 2016 - 07:27 PM, said:
No one wants to give up their faction. Russ is right about that, but whats the point of being in a Faction if you never get games? I think it needs to be reeled in.
My idea though, to keep people sort of happy, would be to retain the factions as they are, but reduce the conflict zones to a single one. So lets say for example PGI resets the season and says,
"This season will be between CJF and Steiner. There will be victory conditions -
if CJF takes Tamar - they win. If Steiner is able to repulse CJF for so many turns they win"
Then all the other factions choose a side to enlist with. Maybe we using the voting system they already have in place for rivals and junk. So half the factions fight for CJF and half the factions fight for Steiner. They are "Allied troops" or whatever.
Then that season ends, the gains remain on the map and another flash point is chosen. Kurita invades Davion. Once more there are victory conditions and factions choose which side they want to support.
That way, I for instance, will always comfortably be an FRR faction loyalist - but as our faction sides with different ones, I am able to comfortably fight with or against our factions.
It would need to cycle through all the fronts so that everyone gets a chance to be their own faction once in a while.
That is just one idea for consolidating the player-base, but I think it can't be worse then the way we have it now.
This would be a little more realistic up until you have edge cases, Davion versus Liao. Who do the Clans fight for and who would let them funnel mechs out there?
A compromise that I thought and kinda think PGI has tried is a system with one planet contested for each faction. The real issue with faction warfare is that the battles Do Not Matter until two hours before a cease fire. No reason to play until then because a planet will not turn.
In the CW plan, it was going to be the best of one hundred matches. Bit excessive. There are 15 ticks. Best of 30 to 45 matches and regardless of the time the planet changes hands. This way it matters all the time.
Planetary rewards in MC only matter to big units who can take planets. Most of us have no stake in it and thus it doesn't matter. What about real tangible reasons to invest time into it? What if the normal small folk who fill in the ranks actually got something other than loyalty points? What if we got something when we lost too? Those fights are freaking hard especially pugs versus a group. Condolence prize? And for taking a planet, everyone who participated gets a shipment of loot sizable to the amount of participation given? Those who fail to get said planet still gets loot though maybe not as much. Dunno about everyone else but with over 190 mechs I'm always poor trying to equip them so shipments of parts for participating in faction wars would give me a reason to do it because, unfortunately, there isn't much winning to be had without big groups on our side and I'll never get the MC rewards for planets. I've got no reason to participate and the wait times are awful.
Allow us to do **** while waiting. Tinker in mech lab, launch academy/testing grounds (with it pulling us out of the sim when launching). Waiting is boring. Usually there is a 10 minute wait. I'd like to be able to queue for a drop and then jump into Quickplay, get a message saying that a match has been found and I will be shipped into that battle as soon as my match is done, so my quickplay match ends, loading screen, I'm in my mech in a drop ship getting deployed into a battle already in progress.
At that note, allow the FW drop as soon as both sides have four people and as players answer the call to arms, allow them to join mid match. There is no real reason every participant has to be there right off the bat. I could be content knowing that reinforcements are on the way and I just need to hold out until then. Of course only allow players in as groups of two (one per side) so that enemies and allies come in as pairs.
Combine this with scripted random placement of turrets and objective assets and you won't have early rush issues when the starting player count is low. (a number of 3 to 7 possible locations for each asset and each time the map is loaded the server chooses turret placement #s and thus turrets will change around. Generator is on the left instead of right, could be closer or further from the gate, etc.)
Resealable gates with controls either side could operate and destructible gates can also add dynamics to combat by allowing mechs more tactical options and risk versus reward. Destroying the gate is time consuming but there won't be any fiddling around in a tug of war. Or open the gate and storm in, knowing that either side could choose to close it at any time. An example of when attackers might close it is when defenders have pushed to the point of attempting spawn kills, this would prevent more defenders from pouring out after they get destroyed allowing attackers to regroup without being attacked. Of course keep classic gens on hand to permanently keep the gate open without the firepower required to destroy it and for a wider berth to enter.
Objectives beyond destroy gate gen, destroy armor door gen, destroy planetary cannon gen. I mean who the hell thought of something so lazy?
Optional objectives:
Destroy communications, create delay in defender dropship interval.
Destroy local mechbays:. Prevent defenders from spawning at strategic locations on the map as "mech power up detected" as opposed to having to spawn at dropship.
Destroy Aerotech marking turrets, prevents interval based defender Aerotech gun-runs (also allow fighters to be shot down with acs being a bit more effective at it). These turrets use TAG to mark you for an Aerotech fighter to make a strafing run with lasers or acs or missiles. No turret, no strafing run in that area.
Destroy conventional heliports, prevents conventional aircraft (helicopters) from spawning.
Destroy artillery spotter. In the instance that defenders have long Tom, destroying this will prevent further strikes. In the event that attackers have long Tom, perhaps require that a player sets up a spotter or have a limited number of strikes, one proposal suggested that every player on a team has 2 to 4 strikes that they can call between deployments by clicking a location on the map on mech select screen. That means attackers have 24 to 48 total strikes. Defenders would have unlimited until spotter is destroyed (maybe 10 or 20 hp and dynamically placed akin to dynamic assets above).
Destroy turret control facility. Cuts turret tracking speed by 30%.
Destroy turret power facility, disables energy based turrets or significantly reduces their output.
Destroy OR capture munitions resupply station. A facility or large vehicle that can load munitions into a mech. Use will allow mech to resupply in exchange for remaining stationary for a set amount of time to ensure risk for reward. Capturing takes time and thus is another risk versus reward, thus making its destruction a tactical alternative.
Destroy barracks. Makes sense if we ever get infantry and battle armor.
Destroy vehicle bays. Makes sense if we ever get vehicle support.
Combat would definitely be more dynamic overall.
So... reason to play through loot rewards for both winners and losers. Things to do while waiting. Mid match joiner that will allow the total number of players to increase in ally/enemy pairs. Turret asset placement limited randomization to keep the maps from becoming completely monotonous. And at the beginning, remove cease fire periods and dynamically turn planets on set victory leads out of 30 to 45 matches and one contested planet per faction with a designated ally able to assist in battles against the foe. And other objectives with some meaning.
Edited by Koniving, 15 June 2016 - 05:03 AM.