58 replies to this topic

[Mcgral18]

Vxheous Kerensky, on 09 December 2016 - 05:49 PM, said:

It's basically gen-rush tactics....on a slow moving Atlas...i predict boring as hell

Alternatively, a mobile Dom circle

[Quxudica]

I assume it's an AI-controlled Atlas? Is it stat inflated? Because, frankly, a single Atlas with standard health doesn't seem like a difficult target to deal with.

[kuma8877]

Phil confirmed that the Atlas has a fair boost to survive-ability in the latest NGNG podcast. How much of a boost?...he didn't say.

[Jman5]

The real question is whether or not killing the VIP is well rewarded. If it's like Domination, Assault, and Invasion winning via objectives without first farming the enemy means you get almost nothing in rewards.

It's going to really suck if every time we get escort the attackers are yelling at their team to "STOP SHOOTING THE ATLAS".

Edited by Jman5, 09 December 2016 - 06:26 PM.

[nehebkau]

To escort a mech are we going to have to dress-up nice, put on lipstick or can we go all ghetto?

[RestosIII]

kuma8877, on 09 December 2016 - 06:12 PM, said:

Phil confirmed that the Atlas has a fair boost to survive-ability in the latest NGNG podcast. How much of a boost?...he didn't say.

+2 rear armor quirk. Only for the LT though.

[El Bandito]

Prosperity Park, on 09 December 2016 - 03:56 PM, said:

El Presidente from Team Fortress Classic disagrees. I remember playing as both the escort soldiers and the opposing snipers... the game worked because the escort team had a firepower and armor advantage, and the assassin team could not just bumrush or they would all die quickly...

I think Escort needs uneven teams to succeed.

Was El Presidente an AI or human controlled? That makes all the difference.

[Koniving]

Heya.

I gathered my thoughts on this onto a voice recorder, and among a few other MW and non-MW topics, I'm coming out of Youtube Limbo soon as I put footage together to go with it.

I'll share a few of the interesting points in here early, though.

1) From the obvious... it will always be an Atlas. This is kind of disappointing.
2) The voice acting. Everyone says "The VIP Mech." "Protect the VIP Mech." "Destroy the VIP Mech." "The VIP Mech." "You had one job, destroy the VIP Mech." "The VIP Mech." We heard one sentence from each where it was just called the VIP...

Why the heck is so monotonous!? That's annoying, frustrating, and irritating. How about "Kill the VIP!" (VIP as in YIP, not the acronym but as a single syllable word.) "Defend the rich ******* and we'll get our paycheck." "Everything's riding on this douchebag to get across the field." "10,000 cbills to the Mechwarrior that brings me that guy's head!" Anything really.
We get that there's an objective, it is announced when we start. We can use many names to refer to the objective, we don't need to run the term into the ground with every single line of dialogue.

And remember, these aren't just robots. They are supposed to be people behind the controls. This means that there should be somebody who could 'voice' his opinion in the VIP 'Mech.
"I'm under fire!"
"HELP!"
"Mayday!"
"Guys I seriously don't know how to use this thing, can someone get this 'Mech off me?!"
"I can't sign your paycheck if I'm dead!"
"Remember your contract, I need to live!"

Etc.
Fun example for the Start of mission for attackers:
"Destroy the enemy VIP."
"Uh, please don't. I kinda wanna live." (or one of several other random responses, including good chances of 'no response').

3) The AI shown is oblivious to attackers and most likely oblivious to defender presence (meaning it will keep trucking completely ignorant to the world around it). No defensive reactions. No attempt to navigate away from enemy presence. It will probably walk towards an enemy sniper, happy to keep its cockpit firmly in one direction while twin Gauss Rifles make their mark. Furthermore, it does not attack to thwart off enemies, either, despite having weapons.

There are more, but those are the important ones for fueling this discussion.

Jman5, on 09 December 2016 - 06:24 PM, said:

It's going to really suck if every time we get escort the attackers are yelling at their team to "STOP SHOOTING THE ATLAS".

"You had ONE JOB.. don't shoot the enemy VIP Mech until we farmed the enemies protecting it. You failed!"

Edited by Koniving, 10 December 2016 - 04:01 AM.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Hans Brackhaus, on 09 December 2016 - 03:53 PM, said:

My thoughts are that escort missions have been the worst part of video games for the last 30 years or so. As such, I really wish it wasn't coming to this one.

Escort is a terrible mode in a PVP setting, but done right in a PVE setting it works fine. That there lies the problem though...escorts are always set up poorly.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I predict that it will be the least popular game mode. Not because it's an escort mission, although that's bad too. Escort missions are horrible and always favor the attackers, but that's not why I see the mode failing on day one.

The main problem I see with escort as a mode in MWO is this:

One team will have to be on attack, and the other on defense... and unless they're planning to roll two matches into one so that each team gets a shot (doubtful; it would require more work to code in), then it's going to be completely up to RNG whether you get to attack or whether you get stuck defending the squishy match after match after match. I guarantee the forum will be drowned in a salty river one hour after the patch adds the game mode, because people will get stuck running defense multiple drops in a row. Those people won't even be wrong to complain. Being the punching bag sucks.

[Imperius]

I"ll play it with my gold dire wolf

[cazidin]

Koniving, on 09 December 2016 - 06:50 PM, said:

Heya.

I gathered my thoughts on this onto a voice recorder, and among a few other MW and non-MW topics, I'm coming out of Youtube Limbo soon as I put footage together to go with it.

I'll share a few of the interesting points in here early, though.

1) From the obvious... it will always be an Atlas. This is kind of disappointing.
2) The voice acting. Everyone says "The VIP Mech." "Protect the VIP Mech." "Destroy the VIP Mech." "The VIP Mech." "You had one job, destroy the VIP Mech." "The VIP Mech." We heard one sentence from each where it was just called the VIP...

Why the heck is so monotonous!? That's annoying, frustrating, and irritating. How about "Kill the VIP!" (VIP as in YIP, not the acronym but as a single syllable word.) "Defend the rich ******* and we'll get our paycheck." "Everything's riding on this douchebag to get across the field." "10,000 cbills to the Mechwarrior that brings me that guy's head!" Anything really.
We get that there's an objective, it is announced when we start. We can use many names to refer to the objective, we don't need to run the term into the ground with every single line of dialogue.

3) The AI shown is oblivious to attackers and most likely oblivious to defender presence (meaning it will keep trucking completely ignorant to the world around it). No defensive reactions. No attempt to navigate away from enemy presence. It will probably walk towards an enemy sniper, happy to keep its cockpit firmly in one direction while twin Gauss Rifles make their mark. Furthermore, it does not attack to thwart off enemies, either, despite having weapons.

There are more, but those are the important ones for fueling this discussion.


"You had ONE JOB.. don't shoot the enemy VIP Mech until we farmed the enemies protecting it. You failed!"

Might I suggest a few?

"Alright. Who scratched the paint?"

"You must not be too rich if you could only afford our protection."

"Don't worry, we'll keep you safe."
"Don't worry, we'll keep you safe. You don't need that arm, do you?"

"Expletive! The Escort's dead!"

"Hahaha! Expletive that rich *******!"

"Too good for him, I say."

"VIP? Sure, but you better pay us extra if you want us to wipe your expletive too."

"I wonder if we'd be paid more to just kill him."

Want more?

[Chuck Jager]

Could we put Donald Trump in a limo with a puppet head bobble on the front hood, or maybe just make the Atlas a CO model - CO stands for combover. You would get double rewards if you team kill it.

[Koniving]

cazidin, on 09 December 2016 - 08:29 PM, said:

Might I suggest a few?

"Alright. Who scratched the paint?"

"You must not be too rich if you could only afford our protection."

"Don't worry, we'll keep you safe."
"Don't worry, we'll keep you safe. You don't need that arm, do you?"

"Expletive! The Escort's dead!"

"Hahaha! Expletive that rich *******!"

"Too good for him, I say."

"VIP? Sure, but you better pay us extra if you want us to wipe your expletive too."

"I wonder if we'd be paid more to just kill him."

Want more?

Those are good, but they're from "us" to either each other or the VIP...
Rather than the guy signing our paychecks to make sure this scumbucket makes it alive, telling us to do our damn jobs.

[Koniving]

WrathOfDeadguy, on 09 December 2016 - 08:05 PM, said:

I predict that it will be the least popular game mode. Not because it's an escort mission, although that's bad too. Escort missions are horrible and always favor the attackers, but that's not why I see the mode failing on day one.

We'll see how it turns out...

Supposedly there are checkpoints or some other means in which the defending team is assisted through the use of turrets. I'd appreciate vehicles, air support (the occasional dropship passing by, some Aerospace fighters or bombers or conventional aircraft (it really isn't worthless, surprisingly).

But "extra work" isn't something PGI is keen on. Shame, too. I'd like to see the Ambasador mech, which I think would make a far better escort victim.

[Tristan Winter]

• All the good Escort game modes I have seen in other games have been instances where the VIP was either a player or a bot following the player. I have never played a good VIP escort where the VIP is a dumb bot walking along one or two predictable paths. I will be amazed if this game mode works out to be entertaining.
  
• The idea that a derpy potato player would assume command of the VIP and ruin the match for everyone else is a risk in other games as well. However, it tends to work out in most cases. Sometimes potatoes ruin the match, but such is life. That's the price you pay for having an interesting, unpredictable and dynamic game mode.
  
• I am happy that PGI has finally made a game mode where the objective is dynamic instead of static. I have been asking for this for years. However, since the path taken by the computer is pre-determined and since it will always walk forward and never stop or pull back to confuse the attackers, it's not a big improvement. The attackers can just set up a firing line and wait, when they figure out where the VIP is headed.
  
• I think it's good that this game mode has more voice acting than other game modes. The thing about voice acting is that neutral lines like "Our base is under attack" are boring, but they aren't very irritating. They're vanilla and neutral. Once you start replacing them with "All hands on deck, you filthy dogs! They're attacking our mobile base!" then you have spiced up the voice acting, but hearing that same exact line over and over becomes irritating. In other words, the more you spice up the voice acting, the more variety is required to stop it from becoming irritating.

[Tibbnak]

Considering this new mode is QP only, it's probably considered "training wheels for pugs" in the pgi office.

"Escort the assault mech. Stick by the assault mech. Protect the assault mech and prevent it from getting focused too much."

[The Unstoppable Puggernaut]

Lets see how many times the Atlas gets legged.

All I know is when people call targets, they drop like flies. The Atlas won't be any different unless a nice big co-ordinated barrier is formed... and that'll never happen based on how Domination works.

I hope the AI pads out the damage because the Atlas is one of the easier targets to be headshotted. I kinda get the feeling that might be why the gauss' long ranges were nerfed.

[Appogee]

It'd be really funny if the Atlas had a PGI logo on it.

Then the defenders could all hang back, and watch it die, and say "oops".

[Haakon Magnusson]

And why not make it a 100t vehicle, it would have MUCH lower profile and would be easier to cover (and have natural cover) from long distance sniping.
Tanks on btech stay on fairly even ground so no exotic pathing needs to be considered (Well, it's propably not going to be exotic pathing algoritm anyways, I guess VIP will follow a road anyways)

And yeah, mwo does not need to have vehicles through the armor crit chance.