Today I want to talk to you about some serious issues.
More specifically Community Warfare and Merc Units.
So I have been wondering about the balance of CW for quite a while now, and personally I think I may have come up with a possible solution to the problem..
Or atleast a huge part of the problem.
For starters the elephant in the room - the Merc Corps.
Now some of this may be a little harsh, but try to bear with me.
If you are ready, then lets go right into the fray..
Both lore and game wise, it makes perfect sense to limit a Merc Corp so they only work for the Inner Sphere.
Now now, please hear me out here.
From a gameplay point of view, I get that it makes sense to have more options and not be limited from content, just because you decided to play as a Merc Corp.
However from a critical point of view, it makes no sense that a faction would hire or even consider to re-hire a merc unit that constantly changes side in a conflict, since they would be likely to be spies or saboteurs.
Plus as it is right now, it completetely removes the reason for loyalists to even exist in the game.
Now an added bonus of my suggestion, and possibly the biggest factor or reason behind my idea, is that it would limit large Merc Corps, I am looking at you "EVIL" as an example(I have nothing personal against you) and make them unable to jump from side to side, and constantly offset the balance of the game by pug-stomping on Clan one week and then IS the next week, when all the poor IS pilots change to Clan since they are tired of losing every game.
Now what I propose is perhabs a bit of a band-aid solution, and this is just an idea and, is as such, entirely up to PGI to balance out. But something needs be done before CW4.1 dies out, just like it's predecessors.
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So my actual solution,
- Loyalists gain more loyalty points with their individual factions.
This makes you gain ranks faster than a merc.
- Loyalists earn a weekly payout based on the rank they have within their faction.
This gives you a reason to get higher ranks and also gives you an actual salery for being in an army.
(makes sense since soldiers are not a charity foundation)
- Merc corps are limited to working for the Inner Sphere only, and as such use IS tech.
They are not clans - so why would they have Clan Tech.
(dont hate me)
- Mercs work on contracts instead of having an actual salery, as such they gain a win bonus based on rank.
NOT a battle bonus, since you wont get paid for losing a battle you were hired to win.
(This could be taken further by reducing the pay of merc when they lose, but let's not get unfair or give PGI bad ideas)
Now I know this all may seem rather harsh on Mercs, however I doubt the original plan for Community Warfare was Merc Warfare.
But I really want to hear your opinions on this matter and perhabs some feedback on my proposal.
So, Mechwarriors, what do you think needs to be done to make CW great again?