33 replies to this topic

[Garfuncle]

There was some talk of a possible timeskip in the last town hall and I feel that Operation Bulldog
would be the logical choice. Yes, yes the Mad Cat mk.II isn't there, but here me out.

--It's the next major event in the timeline after Tukkayid, which we've already had.

--It's the IS pushing back, making the ebb and flow of the faction map make more sense.

--New iconic mechs. Bushwacker, Firefly, Owens, Strider, Cougar, Nova Cat.

--Most importantly, new weapons/equipment. Heavy lasers, IS ultra autocannons, IS streaks, IS ERmed, laser reflective armor.

I think this would breathe much needed new life into the game, while keeping to a coherent progression of time.

Edited by Garfuncle, 19 June 2016 - 12:11 PM.

[SmoothCriminal]

I think PGI have enough issues with trying to balance the game as it is. I don't believe any time skip mechs will include new weapons as they would need some considerable balancing thought going in.

But who knows eh? One can hope. IS UAC10s/20s in the current iteration (i.e. single shells) would be preposterously good - but thats not to say PGI/the community shouldn't try.

[Moldur]

SmoothCriminal, on 19 June 2016 - 12:10 PM, said:

I think PGI have enough issues with trying to balance the game as it is. I don't believe any time skip mechs will include new weapons as they would need some considerable balancing thought going in.

But who knows eh? One can hope. IS UAC10s/20s in the current iteration (i.e. single shells) would be preposterously good - but thats not to say PGI/the community shouldn't try.

Wrong. PGI will never balance the current game enough to everybody's liking. Once the game reaches whatever ethereal point you, me, or someone else personally deems it balanced enough, a ton of other people will argue that it is not. The cycle repeats. We never get timeline jump. PGI just needs to say screw it and do it because that is the only way they will ever be able to do it.

[CK16]

Best we can hope right now as Russ said are some future dated mechs (one he mentioned was the Mk II, and it was not to surprising to many.) The biggest thing is he said date wise its not so important (though I do not expect anything super far out, probably up to 3060's designs ect.) that the mech uses current weapon tech.

[WarHippy]

Seeing as they implied no new weapons types I don't see much need or point for a time skip.

[Aetes Nakatomi]

After the classics and the Kodiak I am moving toward team time jump. I am worried about the new tech, but I think the Bushwhacker, Sunder, Bloodasp and even the dreaded MKII would fit now.

[ScarecrowES]

I've been arguing for 3059 forever. Much better for FW than 3050. And I'm just talking the state of the Inner Sphere... not even tech. But let's face it, while adding tech brings in dozens of new things that now have to be balanced for, it finally puts us in a position where we don't have to do 1-for-1 balance parity on individual weapons. It would be ok for different types of weapons to be better or worse in the 2 tech trees, as they'd both have unique weapon types the other doesn't have.

[Trauglodyte]

I'm ok with new tech to an extent. Gyrok wants all of it while I am on the timid side wanting the IS to simply get its equivalents to what the Clans currently have. In my mind, doing that allows the removal of general weapon quirks and allows PGI to quirk mechs towards the objective around which they were designed.

I'm also ok with the addition of favorite mechs like the Bushwacker - I know that a lot of folks are pining for that one. Anything that brings flavor to the game is a good thing.

Edited by Trauglodyte, 19 June 2016 - 04:21 PM.

[Hit the Deck]

Introduce new weapons and fix MGs. I desperately need new toys to play with. Building meks in the lab is getting boring....

[Y E O N N E]

Operation Bulldog saw a lot of IS 'Mechs get equipped with Clan Tech.

[Malleus011]

I'm utterly uninterested in any time-skips - forward, anyway - but the good thing about an Operation Serpent time period would be homogenization of equipment - the IS have captured enough Omnis and reverse engineered enough Clan gear to make the two sides mix and match gear as needed. A few of the balancing issues would be reduced simply be allowing the IS to field a limited number of Clantech 'mechs in every action, plus the advanced tech stuff.

Of course, that also removes much of the flavor from the sides, which is a net negative.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

SmoothCriminal, on 19 June 2016 - 12:10 PM, said:

I think PGI have enough issues with trying to balance the game as it is. I don't believe any time skip mechs will include new weapons as they would need some considerable balancing thought going in.

But who knows eh? One can hope. IS UAC10s/20s in the current iteration (i.e. single shells) would be preposterously good - but thats not to say PGI/the community shouldn't try.

I imagine they'd be like clan ACs but will have fewer shots, the IS UAC10 might have 2 shots like the clan UAC5 and so on. I mean unless PGI is really REALLY dumb there's no way we're getting single slug UAC20s.

[Triordinant]

I'd rather go BACK in time to the game's original setting: 3015.

Edited by Triordinant, 19 June 2016 - 06:20 PM.

[Hit the Deck]

How if we introduce Cross Tech with penalties? For example, an Executioner wants to equip isAC/20. It can but the weapon now has 20% longer time to reload and causes more heat.

Probably a bad idea which will cause a lot of headache for us and PGI but I just wanna throw some ideas around.

[Y E O N N E]

Narcissistic Martyr, on 19 June 2016 - 06:13 PM, said:

I imagine they'd be like clan ACs but will have fewer shots, the IS UAC10 might have 2 shots like the clan UAC5 and so on. I mean unless PGI is really REALLY dumb there's no way we're getting single slug UAC20s.

There is a danger here. If you make IS UACs fire in multiples, suddenly we have a bunch of guns that are basically UAC/5 with decreaseing range and velocity in exchange for increasing weight and slots.

Like, watch this:

UAC/2 at one shot is 2 damage each.

UAC/5 at one shot is 5 damage each.

UAC/10 at two shots is...5 damage each

UAC/20 at four shots is...5 damage each. We go to three shots and its 6.67 damage each, so marginally better.

Honestly, anything less than every single IS UAC getting single slugs except the UAC/20, which gets two, would be terrible because they would be glorified-but-gimpy IS UAC/5.

[Imperius]

I'll just say this once there is no timeline in MWO. The only thing that may be added to the game is new tech ( I know we will never get) so prepare to just get mech skins of mechs from the future some of us love using current tech and maybe unique quirks to add flavor.

There will be no new tech added I'm quite certain of that. I don't even know why Russ said the MK II in the last townhall it honestly was more like a slap in the face by dangling a carrot in front of some of us here.

Edit: I've only pushed for the MK II because it's a mech that uses current tech and I obviously wanted it but some idiot in Battletechs past decided to make its production date way out there yet gave it old tech... Rolls eyes

Edited by Imperius, 19 June 2016 - 06:50 PM.

[Strum Wealh]

Garfuncle, on 19 June 2016 - 12:05 PM, said:

There was some talk of a possible timeskip in the last town hall and I feel that Operation Bulldog
would be the logical choice. Yes, yes the Mad Cat mk.II isn't there, but here me out.

--It's the next major event in the timeline after Tukkayid, which we've already had.

--It's the IS pushing back, making the ebb and flow of the faction map make more sense.

--New iconic mechs. Bushwacker, Firefly, Owens, Strider, Cougar, Nova Cat.

--Most importantly, new weapons/equipment. Heavy lasers, IS ultra autocannons, IS streaks, IS ERmed, laser reflective armor.

I think this would breathe much needed new life into the game, while keeping to a coherent progression of time.

I imagine that a much shorter range would be a more-realistic expectation.

For example, only going to 3057 gives PGI both Operation Guerrero (CapCon & FWL declare war on the FedSuns & Lyrans) and the Refusal War (the storyline of MW2, Falcons vs Wolves) as events for Faction Warfare & access to the chassis in TRO 3055 and a few from TRO 3058 (e.g. Falcon Hawk, Enfield, Bushwacker, Merlin, Maelstrom, Devastator, etc), while stopping short of the point where they'd have to introduce many new weapons all-at-once (as most of the new weapons and gear were introduced in 3058).

It's even not-unthinkable that PGI might be even more conservative, and go to only 3055/3056 for similar reasons (more chassis available, finally moving past Tukayyid, less/no pressure to dump a large number of new weapons into the game all-at-once or in quick succession, etc).

Thoughts?

[TheArisen]

Makes sense to me.

Strum's idea for operation Guerrero would also be quite epic.

Personally I'd just like more stuff to build mechs with. Defensive techs, more weapons would also be extremely good.

[627]

Don't forget it would be the start that we get rid of one of the clans which is good

[Mechwarrior1441491]

They should never have bothered with a timeline. Instead, do historical settings and events where people get extra rewards for playing with era specific mechs for that event.

One FP cycle it could be straight up Clan Invasion. Next FP event is 3025. What do the Clans do for FP in the past eras? Why, fight over the Clan worlds of course.

There is no reason to be restricted by a timeline since the grand strategic element of this game will never be a thing to warrant it.

Edited by Mechwarrior1441491, 19 June 2016 - 10:22 PM.