11 replies to this topic

[SirNotlag]

God no wonder FW is a ghost town unless there is an event going on. Now i don't normally play scouting cause as a light pilot i very quickly said "screw it!!!" as there was nothing but streak crows on the clan side. This go around i was thankfully on the clan side but the IS don't seem to have much in terms of effective firepower to bring and loose match after match. I mean its not even fun! My jenner IIC just pops one of their side torsos per volley which usually results in death.

So here are some ideas to make it more playable.

1) Randomise the Starts: Seriously why is the spawn point the exact same every single match! every time we played on caustic it was exactly the same both teams went counter clockwise met in the same exact spot every time and consisted of stormcrows on the clan side and centurions on the IS. Just randomise the spawn points a little! It make the matches different each time as people looked for each other instead of just shuffling towards these unspoken fighting arenas.

2) Share tonnage: This should be only if you group up with buddies, dropping solo can remain the same un shared with a max of 55. When people group up they should have 50 tonnes per person but it can be shared. So if there is 2 of you and you want to bring a stormcrow one of you has to take a 45 tonne mech. This would allow heavy mechs to be brought in if some of your partners want to take lights or smaller mediums. The 55 max for the solo droppers allows them to have a slight tonnage advantage when going up against an organised party.

3) grouping up outside of Faction: I really hate how i cant actually group up with all my friends when we try to play FW, that's one of the reasons i just do QP. I know it might be hard to do but making IS be able to partner with other IS or Clan with other Clan but i feel it would be worth it to allow a bit more community and shorten wait times.

Both these combined would actually make scouting my favourite mode as every fight would be different but there would not be huge teams clashing against each other so it would come down a bit more heavily on personal skill. You could run into a light spotting for a catapult or even an Atlas partnered with 3 lights.

[Tristan Winter]

The only way to fix it would be to redesign the game mode. Right now, there's no incentive to bring light mechs, because 55 tonners are usually fast enough to find and kill the light mechs pretty quickly anyway. Furthermore, running after stationary beacons is the most boring thing in the whole wide world. The only fun part about Scout mode is the part where you're a light mech being chased by a bunch of medium mechs. This is fun for both sides, because it's a dynamic objective as opposed to a stationary one.

Unfortunately, the defenders will often group up below the dropship (which has almost no weapons, for some reason) and smash any lights trying to break through their perimeter, which is really boring. This kills the cat-and-mouse dynamic that could be so much fun.



This is what Scout mode should be like. Unfortunately, it's absolutely nothing like this. Watch from 2:20. Also, notice how the Raven doesn't have to wait under the dropship for 30 seconds while waiting some arbitrary timer.

The most fun Scout mode matches I've had have been the ones where I've been trying to evade enemy medium mechs while trying to outrun them and outsmart them on a map like River City or Forest colony. But all too often, it's easy for them to locate my dropship and just wait for me to get into range in order to insta-kill me with SPLs and Streaks.

[Hashocky]

Tristan Winter, on 14 November 2016 - 07:27 PM, said:

there's no incentive to bring light mechs,

There would be incentive if the tonnage you didn't use could be picked up by your buddies to bring heavier mechs.

[SirNotlag]

Tristan Winter, on 14 November 2016 - 07:27 PM, said:

The only way to fix it would be to redesign the game mode.

Yeah there are a lot of things like that in this game. I just thought up the smallest and easiest things to do that would improve the game mode immensely from what we currently have.

[Jingseng]

Agreed, it's simply a 4v4 random pseudo conquest right now... and one that doesn't even incentivize grabbing intel =p

If there were a greater incentive to grabbing intel (esp. from a faction points reward perspective, but also intrinsic to the game mode itself), there would be a far higher emphasis on ecm, agility, and speed.

If there were a greater incentive (and impact) to grabbing intel in the big picture sense (e.g.: long tom, sat sweeps, combat id PURCHASED per activation by players using intel gathered by their unit, or some such), there would be more people playing scouting.

But right now, as it is, everyone just horde rushes the one planet in invasion... because you don't get much of anything (faction points, cbills, or impact on the course of CW) from doing scouting.

If players had a greater incentive to play with a unit, they'd do so (right now, it's pretty meh one way or the other... no real big reason to go either way, flip a coin). If planets within a given range of the front could all be attacked, you might have more widespread action in defending and grabbing planets... and more incentive to play with a unit and play cw.

But as is, it's just grinding out a different type of exp... faction exp... which wears thin very, very quickly. And is a strong argument against scouting at all.

[Spheroid]

I think the game mode should be replaced by 4v4 conquest with 1/1/1/1 weight rules enforced. Don't know if it should be called scouting though, perhaps raid.

It would lead to more dueling and more weapon variety which is not currently favored by the homogenious 55 ton deathblobs.

[Jingseng]

Spheroid, on 14 November 2016 - 08:46 PM, said:

I think the game mode should be replaced by 4v4 conquest with 1/1/1/1 weight rules enforced. Don't know if it should be called scouting though, perhaps raid.

It would lead to more dueling and more weapon variety which is not currently favored by the homogenious 55 ton deathblobs.

4v4 light mech only scouting, as it currently is.

add 4v4 medium mech only raiding - 'supplies' gathered increase, decrease respawn timer, or HP level of generator/MCV, or perhaps effectiveness of consumables?

Or perhaps split up the current scouting intel effects... like combat id and sat sweep for lights, artillery for mediums... and then add 4v4 heavy mech only... strategic strike? and 4v4 Assault mech only... Blitz? And give some kind of totally unabalanced random cw invasion effect for those too.

Maybe moba like infantry creeps =p Or infantry-TAG spotters.

or i guess not do any of that and keep things as they are *sigh*

[VorpalAnvil]

I'm a Merc and couldn't care less about getting intel and taking planets. What's not to love about intense 4v4 SRM brawling? Maybe you guys are just afraid of scratching your paint jobs?

[Sully McLiwenn]

Reduce the max weight to 45t. Then we could legally use the word"scouting"again...

[Davegt27]

sorry guys there is no fixing this mode

it is very hard to come up with a winning successful game
over the years FPS games have had the greatest success

still its hit or miss if a company missies the mark its better to go in a different direction instead of trying to make a pig fly

[nehebkau]

Sully McLiwenn, on 15 November 2016 - 12:38 AM, said:

Reduce the max weight to 45t. Then we could legally use the word"scouting"again...

This is a good FIRST start but it is a FIRST start. Once you reduce the weight and see more lights / fast mechs you will simply have a gather fest and a race to the dropship. Against a light mech the dropship is dangerous and given the low firepower of light mechs, the defending team would be hard pressed to kill a light rushing into the dropzone.

You remember light rushes in invasion mode -- you would simply end up having the same damn thing in scouting mode. What you would need to do is change the win condition for gathering mechs so that they have to stay in the dropzone for a specific period of time (how long does it take to load a mech) rather than being able to run in with only a second remaining. So you would need to change the dropzone to a capture point like in a conquest game.

Edited by nehebkau, 15 November 2016 - 09:58 AM.

[Magnus Santini]

I agree with Tristan. Streakboats killed scouting mode for lights (and all the lights).