19 replies to this topic

[UltimaWeapon]

I have been reading through each of the Inner Sphere Factions a little, but those who's Lore that interested me, I tried to "research" in detail to narrow down which one I'd join.



But... what I'm not sure of is that how different are the Free Rasalhague Republic and Free Worlds League? (the two that I have a hard time choosing between) Because what I've read so far, they have alot of similarities.

'Reason I'm asking is 'cause I'd want to look for a Unit to join, but first, I need to pick a Faction to join.



Sure, I could've been a Mercenary. But, let's say that I have morals, even if it's all fictional in this game.

Edited by UltimaWeapon, 12 July 2016 - 09:12 AM.

[Koniving]

In this game the difference is proximity to the Clans and who your allies are (FWL or Marik has Liao at its side in mwo. Do not know who has F.R.R.'s back.)

Lore wise.
Marik has vastly superior technology and well equipped Mechs. The M variants are Marik. Notice XL engines and double heatsinks on almost all of them? They didnt lose most of their stuff in succession wars like the other I.S. factions. They also have amazing healthcare, ungodly amounts of political red tape keeping their army from participating in most conflicts, a fantastic position to make crap loads selling their stuff to the other factions, and most notably.... the most long-winded, brown-nosing ambassadors you can imagine. (Chancellor Liao has canonically killed an ambassador because he just wouldn't stop kissing butt with empty compliments.

The F.R.R. can be summed up in one phrase.
Space Vikings.
There is a rallying cry from the first CW phase when F.R.R. was being crushed. It turned around quite a bit from near total defeat.

Edited by Koniving, 12 July 2016 - 09:33 AM.

[p4r4g0n]

Since you are asking about Factions, I will assume that playing Faction Play is important to you. In this context, the Lore is currently meaningless.

If Faction Play is important to you, you need to go where you can consistently get matches. Based on the current state of affairs in the game, I would suggest that you look to the FRR especially if you do not play NA/EU prime time.

In order to test the waters, I would suggest that you make a one man unit and get a mercenary contract with the FRR. Should things not be to your satisfaction, you can take a contract with the FWLM (Marik) or any other Faction that catches your fancy.

Edited by p4r4g0n, 12 July 2016 - 09:32 AM.

[Rhavin]

P4r4g0n is spot on, take a merc contract with FRR (or whoever). Even if you like it stay merc and grind out a couple of easy mechbays, then go loyalist. There are fewer merc ranks , and bays come a little bit quicker.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

UltimaWeapon, on 12 July 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

Sure, I could've been a Mercenary. But, let's say that I have morals, even if it's all fictional in this game.

If its lore your talking about... Historically, in the books, the houses of the inner sphere, tend to throw morals to the wind and favor taking advantage of people when they can get a one up...

Merc units tend to have more morals...

[BaconTWOfourACTUAL]

If you can deal with the elitist keyboard jockeys... then you'll be ok.

I tried my hand at a call to arms scouting mission for the FRR. Openly admitting this was my first time doing this, no advice was given, no Hey do this, go here etc...

Only "DON'T BRING A LIGHT MECH IN HERE AGAIN DUMB***" (even though I out damaged him). I didn't realize I had to go to their drop zone.


Yeah, no thanks, if Faction play is full of elitists like that, I'll stick to QP.
Sorry, not sorry.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Well if you like lore and dont like mercs, join the Razzle dazzles (FRR). As per lore they do not like mercs.

[Sadistic Savior]

UltimaWeapon, on 12 July 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

But... what I'm not sure of is that how different are the Free Rasalhague Republic and Free Worlds League? (the two that I have a hard time choosing between) Because what I've read so far, they have alot of similarities.

'Reason I'm asking is 'cause I'd want to look for a Unit to join, but first, I need to pick a Faction to join.

The Free World's League is basically a collection of a bunch of smaller governments, most of which are Monarchies or Oligarchies of some kind. IMO, they are probably the most boring of the 5 major IS states. They are not evil but they don't really stand for anything either. They have remained strong mostly because they don't get involved in conflicts, which is not terribly noble.

The FRR is a minor state in lore...basically an offshoot of Steiner. They have a history of bad blood with the Draconis Combine. They are frenemies with Davion and Steiner.

Most people like FRR because Space Vikings. The reason I chose them is because they are the closest thing in the Battletech universe to a true democracy. That makes them more noble than Davion or Steiner, even though they are often seen as "the good guys". In the Battletech universe, Military Oligarchies and Monarchies are the norm, followed by outright dictatorships. The FRR are the closest thing that we would recognize in the 21st century as "normal".

If you want to feel different, go with Marik. Honestly, I wish the FRR was less popular, lol.

[AmazingOnionMan]

Join FRR and slog it out against the clans.
Join FWL and join in glorious battle against the villainous forces of the Federated Commonwealth. If no one wants to fight us, we're no stranger to fighting amongst ourselves (and we have delicious space bacon).

All the factions have teamspeak-servers. If you can, jump in and see where you fit. Marik-time is primarily US-time (with a couple of handfuls of europeans). Not sure about FRR.

[Mazzyplz]

i will say... frr is more competitive i think - however
people in fwl are just nicer than nice and you won't find more chill people. it's a fun environment at the teamspeak and at the enjin website. you can drive whatever you want and nobody will knock you for it but you will pick up on battlefield tactics that you'll be able to use with most mechs.

i think the type of player is also different. many FRR players take powerful mechs to battle. but when i run with my faction i get the feeling we're hitting the enemy with speedy mechs and guerrilla tactics. the drop leaders from marik will often use a cicada because it's a marik mech for example, but oh man is it good. maybe it's because i love marik but it feels homely inside a cda and it's avery capable mech as well. i guess subconsciously since one of our big enemies is steiner we don't focus on fielding the biggest mechs we can. you see many skilled pilots on lighter mechs like a spider etc.
and other marik mechs are also underdogs like the orion or the awesome, very tricky mechs to drive but can work well.
also if you drop with marik you will be sure that even if you act like an idiot and step into danger your light mech lance will stick their neck out for you if at all possible. and when everyone is destroyed because of it they will just laugh it off and try to kick arse the next one.

there is no pressure in marik just good people that work to help new players like stingr4y- trust me and its easy to improve that way as well.
it's a nurturing place to hone mech warring skills.

Edited by Mazzyplz, 12 July 2016 - 05:00 PM.

[Podex]

Purple Chicken, all the way!

Marik is the wildcard of the bunch, fighting each other but pulling together to fight a shared enemy. In MWO, they are (were) more like the Delta Tau Chi frat in Animal House.

[Husker Dude]

I think lore is pretty irrelevant to how your MWO gaming experience will turn out, it's been quite a while since I've encountered people strongly role-playing their parts (beyond typed chat insults about someone's mother being a vat or whatever).

I think FRR and Steiner benefit the most from having a central Teamspeak hub where you can find groups and pilots to drop with. If you're looking for a unit to join, hopping on the TS servers is definitely the place to start.
I know there are servers for the other factions, but over the past few times my unit moved around there didn't seem to be much activity.
FRR also benefits from being on the front line with pretty much every Clan faction, so there will almost always be an attack lane active; Marik, Liao and Davion are both stuck behind borders with other IS factions, and there's far less attack activity between the IS houses, so mostly you'll be stuck in defense games.

Edited by Husker Dude, 13 July 2016 - 01:16 PM.

[Sadistic Savior]

Husker Dude, on 13 July 2016 - 08:30 AM, said:

I think lore is pretty irrelevant to how your MWO gaming experience will turn out, it's been quite a while since I've encountered people strongly role-playing their parts (beyond typed chat insults about someone's mother being a vat or whatever).

You're not wrong. But I wish it wasn't this way. Battle tech has an enormous library or lore going back decades. It is interesting and detailed. It definitely adds to the atmosphere, which IMO adds to the game.

But it also kinda ties PGI up, since they are basically replaying a story that's already been written.

[BaconTWOfourACTUAL]

Sadistic Savior, on 13 July 2016 - 11:08 AM, said:

But it also kinda ties PGI up, since they are basically replaying a story that's already been written.

Kind of the same thing with Star Trek Online. There is so much canon to work from, but they left it open ended, similar to a choose your own adventure book.
If they would have gone with the Canon story, they would have essentially painted themselves into a corner, and ended creative development.

[Leone]

Koniving, on 12 July 2016 - 09:25 AM, said:

The F.R.R. can be summed up in one phrase.
Space Vikings.
There is a rallying cry from the first CW phase when F.R.R. was being crushed. It turned around quite a bit from near total defeat.

I'll admit, I went Rasalhague, until Jade Falcon took me as bondman. Personally, I like FRR for their newbie assistance and Community Warfare presence, but I also know some good folk I respect in the Free World's League. (I actually, lore wise prefer the FRR, due to how messed up the free worlds politics makes things.)

~Leone.

[Dago Red]

Not terribly familiar with the Marik community in this game but I hear good things. In lore they're a load of merchants and beurocrats and I spit on them.

FRR has a quite active faction team speak and all the units get along well. Plus it has a LOT of international players so if you play outside of N.A. Prime times you tend to still have people to play with. There's a good mix of people being casual and having fun and serious business players and I've witnessed little friction between them.

For lore reasons it has both being the only proper democracy in the inner sphere and being the faction that caught the full brunt of the clan invasion and went down swinging in spite of being the smallest and newest. So if screaming your in defiance at the oncoming horde and bloodying clan noses is your thing it's hard to do better. Plus yeah the Viking thing.

I may be biased.

Edited by Dago Red, 14 July 2016 - 04:12 AM.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

My original unit were FRR partially for lore reasons: FRR was the scrappy underdog. Fedcom is so borring, prototypical white knight good guy BS. Liao are the (usually) bumbling bad guys (and this is coming from a Liao loyalist). Kurita is Japaphile nerd city. FWL is. . . I dunno, just plain borring?

[Mazzyplz]

oh also i should mention this:

if you join marik gunfighter alliance you can leave later if you want. it's cool. nobody makes any drama.
i recommend you try it out to see how much you like it it's no strings attached.

[TooDumbToQuit]

Where can you see who is aligned with who?

[p4r4g0n]

LikeUntoGod, on 14 July 2016 - 09:48 AM, said:

Where can you see who is aligned with who?

Essentially there are no "alignments" in FP. Those speaking of alliances and such are referring to Lore i.e. the stories in the books.

If you are referring to in-game alliances, that is normally evident only from who is attacking whom or not attacking as the case may be. Alternatively, check Faction TS3 hub where such information may be posted.

Having said that, since there are no official in-game Faction leaders nor any way to control the members of a faction, any such directives rely heavily on the goodwill and cooperation of the faction members.

The only thing Loyalist vote on is who to attack and that is all.

Edited by p4r4g0n, 14 July 2016 - 04:43 PM.