65 replies to this topic

[Temu]

guess it also depends on the effectiveness of the defense turrets and such that are on the map too helping the defenders... i try no to make any decisions until i try it.

[TWIAFU]

El Bandito, on 04 December 2016 - 08:13 PM, said:

Or watch as one guy Narcs the VIP and then the rain comes.

Will that AI Atlas complain about LURMS?

[El Bandito]

TWIAFU, on 05 December 2016 - 03:53 AM, said:

Will that AI Atlas complain about LURMS?

You bet it will. IMO a way to get a good picture of how balanced the mode is, is to strap Paul into the spectator seat of the VIP Atlas. For an entire day. That will teach him something.

He might make LRMs more useless than now.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

Did some digging to look for this

[Unnatural Growth]

Hopefully at least the AI bot can be controlled by the drop commander with the command wheel? Maybe be able to set the waypoints that the Atlas takes to get to it's destination? And being able to "halt" him before he crests a hill, etc?

I can just see this thing walking across the top of Polar, sky lining itself for 2Km. Or marching across the open valley in Alpine.

Who knows, maybe the AI will be able to fire back, and PGI will have hosed the targeting code, so it always hits, and always hits CT (like dropships used to do in FW).

This is yet another example of REALLY needing to be able to select the mech we drop in AFTER the game mode is chosen. 2 ECM triple AMS Kit Foxes would be a help, walking on either side of this thing, but they're gonna get hammered by incoming long range fire. ERPPC/Gauss bait. I think the "defenders" are going to have to play aggressive as hell to plow the road in front of this thing as it trundles along.


Maybe this, with AMS overdrive maxed out:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d419190eefac94f

Edited by OldOrgandonor, 05 December 2016 - 05:29 AM.

[Metus regem]

Gas Guzzler, on 04 December 2016 - 07:44 PM, said:

What do you guys think? My prediction is defense is going to be VERY difficult...

Real world VIP escort, through hostile territory is difficult.... Also one of the mission profiles I hated pulling. Too easy to get out of position, leaving the VIP vulnerable. Too easy for a suicide attacker to make it to the VIP.... Ugh, this is one mode I will avoid....

[meteorol]

HF&GL keeping an AI unit alive when 12 people are either sniping it from 1km or suicide rushing it.

It will be just as bad as people predicted years ago when demands for escort missions came up.

If they slap some crazy HP values on the Atlas so quickly focusing it down won't be an option it will turn out as... You guessed it... 12v12 TDM with killing an AI unit afterwards.

Hoping on pgi proving me wrong, but i don't believe it until i see it.

Edited by meteorol, 05 December 2016 - 05:40 AM.

[StarSauron]

Well if one Atlas is easy to kill, why not simply 3 or more ?

[Kotzi]

Or, just frikkin designate one of the defenders. This way you have a billion ways you could play and dont have to mind a "stupid" AI. You could built an massive mechwall around the VIP, or isnt it the VIP? You could splitt up in several groups etc. Voila no need to balance the weak AI.

[Karl Streiger]

Simple place Captain Invincible Adams in the cockpit of the VIP.... problem solved.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

Karl Streiger, on 05 December 2016 - 05:57 AM, said:

Simple place Captain Invincible Adams in the cockpit of the VIP.... problem solved.

I don't believe we've been properly introduced.
My name is Julias H. Adams.
I am in charge of this Academy.
I am God in here.

[naterist]

I wish theyd decided that the slowest playercontroled mech was the mvp so i could troll people in a stock urbie. Woulda been great....

[SirNotlag]

Yeah I'am wondering how this atlas is going to work, hopefully it will not be a dumb pile of bricks that walks straight into enemy lines.

Just a guess on the loadout but think its gona have ECM, 3 AMS, probably something like an AC10 and LRMs slow as a glacier, but with 5x the normal health.

[Potatomasher69]

It could also work if the Atlas were powered down and being transported. And whatever huge train is transporting this cannot be targeted because of some awesome ECM and is at a speed like 100 kph. Maybe even the Atlas is a super Armored car, requiring train to be stopped. Once the train is disabled Atlas goes online with hopefully not terrible capabilities. It feels more appropriate as a 4v4.

[Autologus]

It will be an Atlas with the Death Blossom attack mode enabled. For defense it will boat AMS's with 14 tons of ammo.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

Autologus, on 05 December 2016 - 07:55 AM, said:

It will be an Atlas with the Death Blossom attack mode enabled. For defense it will boat AMS's with 14 tons of ammo.

Make that 2 AMS with 28 tons of ammo

[Potatomasher69]

The attackers could also be forced to bring equipment that might not be ideal for atlas exploding, for example, being hot dropped way in the air near enemy anti air missiles due to the limited window they have to stop the train. Thus, forcing excissive JJ to help soften the fall, then ams to keep the enemy anti air fire from doing signifigant damage on the way down. Lots can be done, and I hope will be done, to make it more difficult then "best loadout to alpha an atlas at 1000 yards"

[Wiley Coyote]

TWIAFU, on 05 December 2016 - 03:53 AM, said:

Will that AI Atlas complain about LURMS?

Better yet, the VIP assault will only be a LURM boat itself.

[Lucian Nostra]

My honest prediction is that the Atlas won't have any hitboxes but an overall HP value like generators so that it can't be legged or get head capped or any of that. I feel that the exploding limbs we saw at Mechcon where just the Atlas hitting certain HP totals causing limb destruction.

I also feel like PGI will set the limit to low at the start BUT good defense teams might still realize they win when all 12 attackers are killed and it should be easier for the defenders to get kills as attackers are focusing the Atlas (IE no player is taking much fire).

I just hope the escort Atlas has a fatter engine than stock and won't actually take the entire match duration to reach the extraction point.

[Rebas Kradd]

Numerous problems with this kiddie concept.



1) All the attackers will need is a few seconds to get a bead on the Atlas and take out its legs. Scouting and counter-attacks from the defenders aren't going to be enough to stop them from tapping their "fire" buttons a few times.



2) The more open the map, the more awful for the Atlas. (Are they designing new maps for this mode? They never said.



3) The singular target will likely just cluster everyone in the same area, causing the same frustrating problems that Skirmish and Domination have. It's inherently designed to do that, no matter how many balance passes it gets. This isn't going to change until we get a gamemode with multiple simultaneous objectives.



4) Most of all, this shows (as I've been saying for a while) that the people with the best gamemode ideas aren't being listened to. Escort is one of the most common ideas in "new gamemode" threads, so that gets listened to. So was Domination. They're both awful. But the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We need to start coming up with better ideas and shouting down the underhive kiddie proposals with them.

Edited by Rebas Kradd, 05 December 2016 - 09:37 AM.