42 replies to this topic

[Jarl Dane]

Operation Great Dane:
IS 84 Wins
Clans 59 wins

One more thanks to everyone who participated.
General Alyward of the AFFS and CycloneJack of STEEL/Steiner were both instrumental in mobilizing and managing the main Faction hubs, units and players.

Thanks to all the Mercs: Marine Mechs, 42 Smoke Jays, Night's Scorn, 228th IBR, SwK, Storm Panda and D'C and many more who all volunteered to fight.

And thanks to the loyal units on my own hub; Majestic 12, 2323 Reggies, COMA, IDI, Sons of Odin, CSC, 1st Hussars...

And all the other units I have shamefully forgot to mention.
_________________________________________________________________________

And how do I feel about it all... well.. as I said on reddit...


Ah, we tried.
I know some guys want more events and it's not in the realm of impossibility, but the reality is the amount of teams I wrangled to participate will likely be lower next time around.

Maybe in couple weeks after everyone's had a break I could get a similar level of activity again.. but that just illustrates how impossible the situation is for IS at the moment. It took an entire community effort just to end up a little better than even? Something that could possibly be replicated maybe once every 2-3 weeks?

Sure, we can do more, but there are clearly some underlining issues on PGI's side that need to be looked at. I know towards the end the 12 man queues basically ground to a halt on the IS side.


Plus, don't forget I, and some other members of the ISENGRIM put in a lot of effort to make this event feel, well, real. Add some depth, some narrative, some organic texture to a normally faceless game mode. That level of effort is not easily repeatable either.

Not that it's bad, just something to be aware of, and in the future it's not something I'd want to skip on either. Because I want more from these faction events, so I tried to create the kind of event I wish PGI would do.

I mean..in one way or another I've been leading up to this event for weeks. Anyone reading reddit or the forums has had some experience with the idea that the FRR, under my leadership, has been fighting a hopeless battle against the clans. Which lead up to.. today.

And today was everyone's chance to get involved in that story.
Regardless of what side of the fight they were on.
An Inner Sphere pilot can proudly recall that on *this day* they helped win the scout war, or they went 7-1 against Clan foes! Or a Clanner can smugly recall the day they prevented the combined efforts of the Inner Sphere and various Mercenary units from retaking any worlds.

Sure you didn't get some tacky banner to prop up on your mech's dashboard, and I am not shelling out MC to teams I think did the best... but we don't play this game for MC or little dashboard accessories. We play it because it's Mech Warrior, because it's Battle Tech and because it's fun.

I think a lot of people enjoyed my event, I think most people did, and I appreciate everyone who contributed to it, or even believed in it.

Edited by Mech The Dane, 06 January 2017 - 03:26 PM.

[naterist]

hunchback squad was awesome last night. we lost 1 match, of around 15 or so in scouting, and the one we lost was when we were only a 3 man.

[justcallme A S H]

Mech The Dane, on 06 January 2017 - 03:24 PM, said:

Ah, we tried.
I know some guys want more events and it's not in the realm of impossibility, but the reality is the amount of teams I wrangled to participate will likely be lower next time around.

Maybe in couple weeks after everyone's had a break I could get a similar level of activity again.. but that just illustrates how impossible the situation is for IS at the moment.

You're talking the US cycle ye?

Remember when you guys started up it was already @ 100/0 - I know cause I logged on and no teams were really dropping. And then the avalanche started.

You guys got it back to what, 45/50. That is by no means a failure. If you started at the cycle beginning, it would've been max on the IS side.


I had my guys dropping and we did, 5 drops I think? We won them all, faced one 10-man doing the SRM/Med first wave (good fight, but we clinched it). The others were I think 6-man and too many LRMs (4-6 mechs per wave), those matches were a bit "meh". People need to stop with the LRMs...

But otherwise good fights were had talking to many others around the traps. Overall the best result FP has had, in a year - which is just good bloody matches, active community.

I just hope people (teams) see that FP is actually half decent when organised, and keep playing.

Edited by justcallme A S H, 06 January 2017 - 03:56 PM.

[Deathlike]

I'm happy to see some decent results... even though it's effectively rendered moot over time. I didn't participate, so I can't say that I contributed.

I did see however some activity from the unit as a response, which probably more than I can say for MWO in general.

With that said, the core fundamental problems still lie at PGI's feet and consequently why I didn't really put much consideration in participating (new FP doesn't interest me).

Community interest isn't sustainable when the core problems are not addressed.

At least someone tried to make the IS great again...

[r4zen]

You're a credit to this community, Mech the Dane. Seriously appreciate your efforts.

[Lyons De Flamand]

Operation "Walk the Dog" was the initiative to get some of the Euro players in on this by holding the front the first hours of the cycle. (For most of us Great Dane started at 4am, not viable to participate on that one). I meself participated in the first two hours of Walk The Dog.

From our unit fora:

"Operation Walk the Dog went very well for the first 2 hours, we did succeed in hold the clanners off. However, I think between 5-6:30ish Pacific quite a few of us took a dinner break and it was at that point that the clanners were able to log many victories. Yet, when Operation Great Dane commenced we were quick to push the invading clanners back."

Edited by Lyons De Flamand, 06 January 2017 - 04:28 PM.

[Clownwarlord]

See people proof IS op and clan mechs suck!

lol

OK actually what it points out is that the mechs don't matter, but team work does. So for every clan op thread out there can some one get me a flamethrower setup on my firestarter? Because those threads need burned down now.

[naterist]

clans are actually OP. with litterally everyone busting *** we couldnt do in 8 hours what the clans generally do in 3. sure the pugs are hellas skewing the numbers, but that isnt nearly all of it.

[Clownwarlord]

If that was true that clans are op then how come IS wins? 84 to 59. Numbers do not lie!

[Sjorpha]

Clownwarlord, on 06 January 2017 - 06:05 PM, said:

If that was true that clans are op then how come IS wins? 84 to 59. Numbers do not lie!

Because MtD coordinated a metric shitton of competitive 12 mans to make that happen for a few brief hours.

Edited by Sjorpha, 06 January 2017 - 06:20 PM.

[naterist]

Clownwarlord, on 06 January 2017 - 06:05 PM, said:

If that was true that clans are op then how come IS wins? 84 to 59. Numbers do not lie!

and do you really wanna associate yourself with that guy. he was wrong about everything that movie

[Clownwarlord]

He wasn't completely wrong he predicted that 3 would appear, and then he also was apart of the solution when he decided to go into the brain of a kaiju along with his colleague. Thus to find out that there was a verification process to transverse the rift.

[nehebkau]

naterist, on 06 January 2017 - 03:33 PM, said:

hunchback squad was awesome last night. we lost 1 match, of around 15 or so in scouting, and the one we lost was when we were only a 3 man.

Did you notice the clanners started bringing flamers... and we just kept firing! Then they brought streaks... and we kept firing, then they brought lights ... and we kept firing and when they brought their own hunchback squad...we kept firing!

Edited by nehebkau, 06 January 2017 - 06:35 PM.

[naterist]

nehebkau, on 06 January 2017 - 06:32 PM, said:

Did you notice the clanners started bringing flamers... and we just kept firing! Then they brought streaks... and we kept firing, then they brought lights ... and we kept firing and when they brought their own hunchback squad...we kept firing!

bro, ask starbomber about the locust rushes we did, and the 15 minute one on grim plexus. it was SO much fun, dang clanners almost gave me a heart attack on grim though, tbh. fun matches all night through.

as for the flamers, hahaha, ya. they brought some with them to caustic... once. it couldnt save them

[CK16]

It is a shame we did not drop against you...It was a good (although short) night for CGBI, guess adulting made most of us go into a short hibernation :/

Spoiler

(Victory but a bit sloppy at the end...Still we took their Salmon!)

[BLOOD WOLF]

Just lost a match to ISEN 36-48. Great match.

Edited by BLOOD WOLF, 06 January 2017 - 07:50 PM.

[50 50]

Well done to Mech the Dane for your efforts.
The community appreciates it.

[AnimeFreak40K]

I wanted to be a part of this... on the Inner Sphere side of things. Sadly, it was not to be. By the time my contract ran out and I was able to join the FRR, it was over.

I am glad that great fun was had by all however!

And I spent some time tonight dropping with some guys on the FRR/Kurita Hub tonight, while it was a mixed group, most of us are CW vets and, sadly despite our best efforts, we lost every match.

While this was fun (except for some bits with some PUGs we had filling out our numbers), the experience was... eye-opening to say the least:
I'm not going to lie, I honestly felt a significant portion of the Clans OP banter was, well, whining. Even after your video Dane, while I agreed with your assessment, I genuinely felt that maybe things were a bit off because experienced pilots know how to make the most of what they've got and could, therefore, be able to perform well despite the detriments to the various aspects of Clan tech (long burn-times, run hotter, etc). Also, the majority of my experience playing as both Clan and IS, I found that Clan mechs die just as easily as IS mechs. That is, Clans were glass cannons; they can dish it out, but they really can't take it. IS mechs, while lacking the damage output can take a hit.

That's what I remember from my games in the past in CW2 and 3.

What I experienced tonight was... exactly not that. While the fact that we had players in our group taking more damage from bad PUGs (I myself being killed by one, which hurt that particular wave because my brawling firepower was not in play when it was needed) and our Pugs were bringing terribad builds (a Gridiron with an LB10 and an Atlas S with 2x LRM20 and 3x Large Lasers for example) hurt things... a lot, I just could not shake the feeling that even against uncoordinated Clan Pugs, we were outgunned and outmatched and frankly, the extra tonnage we had to work with really didn't help much.

I'm not sure what to say other than that I now know the pain you guys have been feeling on a more personal level and I can really see how this can be moral-breaking.

This all being said, I will continue to do my best for the Inner Sphere for the duration of my contract. When I log on to play MWO, I will drop in FW instead of QP unless there's an event to farm. I will hang out in the FRR/Kurita Hub and try to get in one of the groups there. I will do my best to bring good battle to the enemy.

[Burt0n]

Good effort to all involved, sadly rl prevented me from participating. Dane, thanks for leading the way.

[TWIAFU]

Mech The Dane, on 06 January 2017 - 03:24 PM, said:

We play it because it's Mech Warrior, because it's Battle Tech and because it's fun.

Quoted for TRUTH.

MtD and Walk the Dog event showed everyone, PGI included, we want an immersive, a compelling reason, story, or Lore to go hand in hand with CW.

We do NOT need to be bribed to play CW with PGI Events - I do like and thank PGI for all events they do BTW.

There were no rewards for this event. No participation trophies. What we had here was a simple call to arms with a picture, a post, and word of mouth to various Unit leaders. Look at what that accomplished!

We need Lore, backstory, and exploit the vast and rich history that Battletech has to motive more participation in CW like we had with Walk the Dog.

I say we need that because it sure did seem and read like that there was far more participation in WtD then the last CW PGI event.


On a personal note;

Dane, thank you! You and those that helped you are a credit to this community. I consider what WtD did a resounding success. You have my utmost respect.

Thank you to all pilots that took part in WtD. Planetary tags or not, I had FUN and hope everyone else had some too!

Walk the Dog and previous player run events show what CW can be and should be.