16 replies to this topic

[Lanancuras]

As many of you are aware the timeline shift to 3060+ means that MWO is bound to usher in a new era; an era in which a certain event will have occurred; Operation Bulldog. In accordance to the official BattleTech lore this means Clan Smoke Jaguar will be completely annihilated when the new timeline shift occurs.

But what if it doesn't have to be so? Many people that play Faction Warfare often have complained about the lack of a meaningful reward for winning FP phases since the planets are just "meaningless dots on a massive map".
Since it'd probably make sense for PGI to implement an event related to Operation Bulldog a la Tukayyid I wonder if the community would be okay by having the fate of Clan Smoke Jaguar in MWO rely on the outcome of said Operation Bulldog event rather than blindly following official BattleTech lore as this would allow players to have their Faction Play efforts be reflected in more than just some "dots".
This means that should the forces aligned with Clan Smoke Jaguar achieve victory during Operation Bulldog we would see the continued existence of Clan Smoke Jaguar (albeit with less relevancy than before in order to not to mess up too many other aspects of the lore).
Should the forces against Clan Smoke Jaguar win however, we would see the removal of Clan Smoke Jaguar as a faction from the game as per lore.

How does the community feel about this idea? We'd give the results of Faction Warfare (at least during events) more meaning and allow the community to actually play their part in the MWO-related BattleTech lore as this concept in general obviously doesn't have to be restricted to just Operation Bulldog.

Personally I'm very fond of Clan Smoke Jaguar so I'd be happy to see them existing beyond 3060.

tl;dr: should the results of a potential Operation Bulldog event determine whether Clan Smoke Jaguar continues to exist as a faction in MWO?

[El Bandito]

I'd be absolutely for it. Lore regarding the timeline is basically non-existent around here, aside from a few Tukayyid events. One of PGI's greatest failing. MWO is a Mechwarrior game without the Mechwarrior universe.

Heck, we had CGB conquering Rasalhague, and CSJ breathing on the neck of Luthien right now, and not a single mention of those in the news. WTF, PGI?

Edited by El Bandito, 19 January 2017 - 05:59 AM.

[jss78]

Probably not. I love the concept of a "persistent" FW where we really affect how things develop. But if we go there, there are just huge practical issues.

First, I'm troubled with FW having permanent effects when the balance is not very good. I think the consensus is that with the current balancing, the IS could never really stop the clans.

Second, I think it's unfeasible to remove factions when lots of people have paid real money for faction-related premium content (camo, deckles, cockpit items). I think this means we cannot really remove ANY faction, ever, even if they ceased to exist in the canonical timeline.

[El Bandito]

jss78, on 19 January 2017 - 06:03 AM, said:

Second, I think it's unfeasible to remove factions when lots of people have paid real money for faction-related premium content (camo, deckles, cockpit items). I think this means we cannot really remove ANY faction, ever, even if they ceased to exist in the canonical timeline.

The players can still keep their destroyed faction identity, as survivor splinter groups. The faction itself can be safely wiped from the map. Not to mention it would open doors to future events where if you succeed, you can bring back the destroyed faction. What CW players need right now foremost, are high stakes!

And no, this is not what I meant by that.

Edited by El Bandito, 19 January 2017 - 06:10 AM.

[jss78]

El Bandito, on 19 January 2017 - 06:06 AM, said:

The players can still keep their destroyed faction identity, as survivor splinter groups. The faction itself can be safely wiped from the map. Not to mention it would open doors to future events where if you succeed, you can bring back the destroyed faction. What CW players need right now foremost, are high stakes!

And no, this is not what I meant by that.

Good point, I agree that might work. Same way we could work in minor allied factions like the Canopians and Taurians: not on the map, but show up in the fights anyway.

But I'm still profoundly troubled by the fact that the fate of the Inner Sphere would rest in the hands of our Balance Overlord.

That's one happy-looking cow.

[Lily from animove]

we do not replay BT we have a BT based game. aSo of course what players do should decide how the MWO universe changes. And if the game needs it there is no reason to stick too tight to the lore.

look at the other mechwarrior games and how inaccuretly they sticked to lore.

[Lanancuras]

jss78, on 19 January 2017 - 06:16 AM, said:

Good point, I agree that might work. Same way we could work in minor allied factions like the Canopians and Taurians: not on the map, but show up in the fights anyway.

But I'm still profoundly troubled by the fact that the fate of the Inner Sphere would rest in the hands of our Balance Overlord.

That's one happy-looking cow.

I concede that the state of game balance during whatever event will influence the results of said event but I'm not sure if we will ever achieve perfect balance in MWO while retaining the asymmetrical tech bases, especially as new content will be implemented.

Would you rather have the game remain completely passive until proper balance is found or have fun events with high stakes despite the fact the game is not properly balanced yet?

[William Pryde]

If playing faction play influenced stuff like that, I would start doing faction play again. I would be all in for some high stakes scenarios.

Think of all the possibilities. They could do a fourth succession war event to decide the fate of the Capellan Confederation, just like Operation Bulldog would decide the fate of Clan Smoke Jaguar. They could do a Tukayyid event where Terra was given to the clans if the clans won. They could do Great Refusal between Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon. They could find other events that, while not having as high of stakes, would at least provide some motivation for more faction play.

[Tordin]

No... I dont think its for the best unless we the community can rewrite the worst parts of the Dark Age era so many complain about. Im no expert though. Still the one part I want to stay true are Free Rasalhague Republic -> Ghost Bear Dominion -> Rasalhague Dominion ( -> back to Rasalhague Republic or something) in the far future.

[JC Daxion]

I've made a bunch of post over the years talking about how PGI should run community events, then the winner/losers of said event play out in a single player campaign based on said event..


So player driven events, leading to single player lore, reflecting said events... in the mech warrior world this is a video game, and does not need to reflect what is going on in novels/table top..

Sort of an alternate universe if you will, based on said lore.. or even just expanded on it. But with Mech 5 coming, that is a possiblity, though would have to wait for further expansions for either A the time line to catch up, Or possibly stand a-lone expansions just adding a small say 10 mission campaign based on said events..

could get people interested in playing the CW aspects of the game, to help shape future stories..

[cazidin]

This is a great idea, but the next question you should ask is "Can PGI pull this off reliably well?"

[Vellron2005]

Lanancuras, on 19 January 2017 - 04:48 AM, said:

As many of you are aware the timeline shift to 3060+ means that MWO is bound to usher in a new era; an era in which a certain event will have occurred; Operation Bulldog. In accordance to the official BattleTech lore this means Clan Smoke Jaguar will be completely annihilated when the new timeline shift occurs.

But what if it doesn't have to be so? Many people that play Faction Warfare often have complained about the lack of a meaningful reward for winning FP phases since the planets are just "meaningless dots on a massive map".
Since it'd probably make sense for PGI to implement an event related to Operation Bulldog a la Tukayyid I wonder if the community would be okay by having the fate of Clan Smoke Jaguar in MWO rely on the outcome of said Operation Bulldog event rather than blindly following official BattleTech lore as this would allow players to have their Faction Play efforts be reflected in more than just some "dots".
This means that should the forces aligned with Clan Smoke Jaguar achieve victory during Operation Bulldog we would see the continued existence of Clan Smoke Jaguar (albeit with less relevancy than before in order to not to mess up too many other aspects of the lore).
Should the forces against Clan Smoke Jaguar win however, we would see the removal of Clan Smoke Jaguar as a faction from the game as per lore.

How does the community feel about this idea? We'd give the results of Faction Warfare (at least during events) more meaning and allow the community to actually play their part in the MWO-related BattleTech lore as this concept in general obviously doesn't have to be restricted to just Operation Bulldog.

Personally I'm very fond of Clan Smoke Jaguar so I'd be happy to see them existing beyond 3060.

tl;dr: should the results of a potential Operation Bulldog event determine whether Clan Smoke Jaguar continues to exist as a faction in MWO?

Well if we let events influence how the game is, then, sorry, the IS is not what it used to be, because Clan Wolf won Tukayyid TWICE, and Clan Jade Falcon has also held Terra.. so the clans would be controlling a lot more space, Terra, and so on..

So I'm guessing, no.. In-game events will not mess with lore..

I would really like to see a "War of Refusal" event, and an "Operaton Bulldog" event, after witch, there would be new factions like Raselhague Dominion, Clan wolf in Exile, and alike..

That would be soooo much fun.. to kick some Jade Falcon arse..

[Tristan Winter]

At this point, I feel like MWO is the equivalent of Star Wars Jedi Academy where you can play any random SW character like it's a game of Street Fighter 2.

Darth Maul vs Leia? Fine. Qui Gon vs adult Luke Skywalker? Not a problem. Emperor Palpatine vs Chancellor Palpatine? Go for it.

That is what MWO is now, and it's the way it always has been. So I don't care if CSJ sticks around after 3060. There is no timeline in MWO. No Fedcom, no Ghostbear Dominion, nothing like that. Most of MWO is Quick Play, where factions don't exist anyway. Why? Because this is just a Mechwarrior arena shooter, basically.

Remember ISN News updates on the front page of the MWO website?

[RestosIII]

Tristan Winter, on 20 January 2017 - 01:08 AM, said:

At this point, I feel like MWO is the equivalent of Star Wars Jedi Academy where you can play any random SW character like it's a game of Street Fighter 2.

Darth Maul vs Leia? Fine. Qui Gon vs adult Luke Skywalker? Not a problem. Emperor Palpatine vs Chancellor Palpatine? Go for it.

That is what MWO is now, and it's the way it always has been. So I don't care if CSJ sticks around after 3060. There is no timeline in MWO. No Fedcom, no Ghostbear Dominion, nothing like that. Most of MWO is Quick Play, where factions don't exist anyway. Why? Because this is just a Mechwarrior arena shooter, basically.

Remember ISN News updates on the front page of the MWO website?

You have to bring that came up today, just hours after my brother and me were talking about whether Kyle Katarn or Mara Jade would win in a fight. (Mara Jade easily) If only that game didn't despise modern computers, and had widescreen support...

[Tristan Winter]

RestosIII, on 20 January 2017 - 01:18 AM, said:

You have to bring that came up today, just hours after my brother and me were talking about whether Kyle Katarn or Mara Jade would win in a fight. (Mara Jade easily) If only that game didn't despise modern computers, and had widescreen support...

Kyle Katarn?



You mean the character Disney didn't put in Rogue One because they hate all that is good in the world?

[RestosIII]

Tristan Winter, on 20 January 2017 - 01:23 AM, said:

Kyle Katarn?

Spoiler

You mean the character Disney didn't put in Rogue One because they hate all that is good in the world?

I can't deal with Kyle. I always rushed force choke in Jedi Academy to pick up troopers and officers to force them to drop their guns and surrender, because I'm a huge softy in games that allow that stuff, but any mission he was in, he'd brutally murder all of the surrendered troops with force lightning while laughing maniacally. Then he'd tell me I'm going to join the dark side because I got 1 point in force lightning. Hypocritical little...

[Anjian]

I view MWO like any other games of this type like World of Warships and War Thunder ---- none of the events that happen in the game correlates and affects lore.