348 replies to this topic

[Sedmeister]

Most of the good ideas have been covered already.

I would add:

Cadet Unit Member
Create a category of unit member where the unit doesn't have to pay for the noob. Maybe use teir level as a requirement or give it a two to four week time limit. After that the unit pays for the ticket. That way units can recruit cadets, give them a chance to drop with the unit, get some skills, get advice on builds etc and more experienced players can help develop the newer ones. Also create an in game "looking for unit" or "unit xxx recruiting" recruitment set up.

Also, tie cadet bonuses to cadet unit membership. That way new players will get some good advice as to where to invest their early career CBill bonus.

Change Tutorial
Withhold the CBill payout for the tutorial until the newbs complete the whole thing. Ie: "Complete this tutorial to the end and get 6mill CBill's". It will encourage new players to learn some of the basics in the tutorial before hitting the live games. Tighten up the totorial to include more FW based skills, trading, peeking/poking, objective rushing etc. Develop their FW skills and concepts very early on rather than letting them develop bad habits that require unlearning and relearning when they move from QP to FW.

Training Rewards
Give small rewards to encourage players (particularly new ones) to practice. Maybe decals, paint colors, small amounts of CBills and MC. Hopefully encourages new players to learn some skills. Shrink the rewards as they increase in tier level and/or time online?

Change Amount of LRM's in the Academy Live Fire Zone
Change the kinds of opposition that players practicing in the Academy live fire zone face to be more energy and ballistic in nature. At the moment, if a new player tries hanging out there, they will get the impression that the opposition that they will face will be LRM rain. If you create a practice environment that looks more like what happens in FW, from the very beginning you are helping new players to develop the skills to shoot and deal with direct fire weapons.

Access to practice on all maps
Give us (or at least units) the ability to practice on the FW Invasion maps.

IS v IS
Give IS the option to fight regularly against IS. In Star Trek Online, they have introduced the ability to play the game in either The Original Series universe or The Next Generation universe. Is it possible to arrange FW so that it can be played in two eras? Pre and post Clan invasion? Give units the option to choose? Arrange tournaments for different kinds of encounters and/or eras? I would love to see more opportunity to fight IS v IS.

Merc Units
Try and figure out how to regulate merc unit movement.
- Severley disadvantage merc contracts to encourage taking on a loyalist contracts instead?
- Average out the merc unit W/L ratio per faction. If the figure rises above a particular threshold, that faction can no longer offer contracts. The merc unit needs to apply with a faction that has a lower collective W/L ratio figure?
- Create a voting system (like the attack system) to indirectly influence where the merc units can and cannot go

Unit Decals
Let units have their own decals!

[Falconer Cyrus]

I told this several times:
FW have no any meaning beyond a victory in the single match.
There will be no any progress in FW development until you (PGI) find the Meaning and establish the Goals of FW.

[justcallme A S H]

Also it needs to be made clear.

Is this round table about 4.1 and what needs to happen to improve it?

OR

Is it a round table about balance?

One is related to another, and yes the IS XL is an issue... Which really, has only come about since 4.1... Rarely heard bopeep about it before then, and I known why that is...

It needs to be very clear either way what it's about. Balance is probably for another time/place. Core issues with the mode itself need addressing first and foremost given the Tug of War, the last 3 weeks has barely seen wins either side and the population drop off that's already noticeably occurring because it's stagnant and without purpose or motivators

BluntObject, on 24 January 2017 - 11:32 PM, said:

Would it be possible to have some OC representation during the round tables? instead of just the usual NA suspects?

And the usual suspect, whom a lot, have barely played FP 4.1
How does one comment how things are, if one doesn't actively play?

There is only a tiny amount of Asia Pacific zone players I know that have played more than me

Edited by justcallme A S H, 25 January 2017 - 12:43 AM.

[Helios Norlund]

the biggest faction is mercenaries

that is a problem for balance and dont fit in any way to the lore

mercenaries should always only have access to IS tech

the freelancers should be the only one able play on each side and are limited to not able raise any faction ranks

once the unpredictable big junk of merceneries cant switch to clans any more

u can start push the weaker side (clan or is) meassured by lets say % win of factionplay pattles

idea would be

if ur side win 45-55% of games no effect
if ur side win 35-45% of games players earn 10% more xp and 10% more cbills and 10% more faction points
if ur side win 25-35% of games players earn 25% more xp and 25% more cbills and 25% more faction points

this way people might choose their faction or freelancers might choose the battle side for more profit

on the other hand people who stay through thick and thin with their faction also should have benefit

one way of benefit would be if i make it happen that gathering loyality with one faction always reduce loyality with other factions too

example u gain 10 kurita loyality u lose 2 davion 2 steiner and 5 with each clan faction

[Void Malign]

Add my little piece of thoughts, why FP looks like dead (at least for me. maybe somebody is a masochist and love to die on dropzones under focused fire of entire team, IDK). Probably devs read this and say their thoughts on round table stream.

So, FP/FW is a more or less competitive game mode, which ruins each time, when match going with premade ( 4-8-12 players from same unit ), who take command on rest of their team and wins. Especially if there are from notable units like Kcom, mj12 (and their forks sometimes), HHoD and others, not so important to list all of them. And with PUGs team on other side of players in match, which new to FP/FW game mode and trying to learn (or maybe didn't feel necessary to take a hard time to train and compete in this game mode, for any reasons, maybe as mentioned earlier in this thread).

Which possible ways out you see from this situation?

I see next:

• lock FW as "Elite" game mode, which will be avaliable only for thoose, who signed in unit and have a company for fight on a more-or-less equal conditions against same skilled players (almost same thing was mentioned in chat with Kcom and pair of other merc players on opposite side in last FW match I've played yet). Even if didn't this by yourself this done by units for you ATM.
  
• distinguish queues between units and PUGs , similar way, that it done for QP with tiers. Probably add ability to agree to fight against premade if someone want to try their skills in such conditions (PUGs vs premade unit/group). Or add mechanic, which will send you in general queue after some time of searching your queue. Yes, this may do some bigger search times, but may also make better population of FW matches.
  
• Make better reasons for wider part of players (both skilled and not) to play this mode. Ideas mentioned above, take some of them in development. Current - MCs for tags on planet and probably bigger c-Bills rewards for each match appears not convincingly.

Also want to say my thought about eternal howl in twitter/forums that 'clans are op' and iterational nerfs clans in something unplayable at all (as it is ATM) - this is wrong mention. Both sides have their pros and cons and almost all is depends from personal player skills as it proved not once by merc units, which are for few years in a row throw themselves on one or other side of IS conflict and causing them tonnage drops, nerfing weaponry and armor, but, what strange, almost only on one side - Clans. So, possible you can think about making merc and big populated units to have harder ways to changs sides. Probably this can stabilize situation in FW mode.

At this I will end.

Thanks all for time and reading, hope I can hear answers from developers.

[The Unstoppable Puggernaut]

Apologies if this has already been said but I dont have much time.

In FW, the Dropship MUST stay around longer. In addition to this. It needs to be kitted out like a real dropship !!!

LRMS, PPCs, L-Pulses, all long range nasties to FINALLY put a stop to base camping

That way if people really have the mechs to sacrifice to try base camping, they're gonna get trashed quick.

----

ALSO Please fix the standard assault by putting the base back in. At least there's something to "assault" instead of this lame cap fest where people peacefully end the game.

[Charon DOC Stock]

Hire a game designer...
Create better game mode.
Supress dropdeck concept,
transform faction play into a stock thing with era's, mech availability, faction list, battle value, factory on planet.
Balance the difference of Battle Value with a variable amount of dropship support (for the attacker) and defensive structure.

If you can read french, some suggestion about rewards:

Spoiler

Doc Shmol, on 29 December 2016 - 01:55 PM, said:

• Certaines planètes abritent des sites de production de mech, équipements et consommables. Si une unité possède une de ces planètes elle touche un pourcentage dès que le type de produit localement fabriqué est acheté en C-Bills par n'importe quel joueur de MWO. Si une unité possède plusieurs planètes produisant le même produit, ses gains sont multipliés. Les C-Bills ainsi générés sont distribuables entre les joueurs de l'unité ou peuvent participer aux besoins de l'unité (motiver les unités à participer pour un gain). En outre chaque planète est associé à un élément commercialisé en MC du jeu (couleur, décal, mech héros...). Chaque joueur ayant participé à la campagne victorieuse sur une planète jouira temporairement d'un rabais sur le produit associé à cette planète, qu'il fasse parti ou non de l'unité prenant possession de la planète (motiver des ventes par un rabais).

• Puisque la technologie du jeu en stock a été retrouvée par PGI, le Faction Play adopte ce format (motiver la participation par une expérience de jeu). Les joueurs ont alors l'opportunité de jouer n'importe quel mech même si il ne le possède pas. Le mach doit cependant appartenir à la liste d'armée de la faction de son unité (cf Master Unit List). Après X déploiements dans une variante avec une performance minimale à atteindre le joueur se voit offrir ce mech (motiver les joueurs à participer sur la durée par un gain) et un titre marquant sa maîtrise de l'engin.

[Lily from animove]

Scout Derek, on 24 January 2017 - 05:41 PM, said:

Mmm.

This will be interesting. I call upon Taro's assessment of a possible ideal to help supplement Faction Play:



The Underline Bolded is the main point of his suggestion to help complement and balance teams as far as players go.

except that both these underlined and bold lines would break CW even more as well as even breaking balance even more.
Taro may be a good player, but he is horrible at designing proper mechanics.

Edited by Lily from animove, 25 January 2017 - 02:02 AM.

[Appogee]

1. We need matchmaking in Faction Play.

Not matchmaking based on PSR - essentially useless because of its bias to moving players - but based on group size.

In my experience with FP 4.1, the side with the largest group almost always wins. The unsatisfying stomps and farming are because of mismatched group sizes. So, start matching group of similar sizes and the number of satisfying matches will be increased.

Some will argue that "there are not enough people playing FP to have matchmaking". But that is confusing cause and symptom. People have stopped playing FP because zero matchmaking is leading to unsatisfying stomps and farming.

2. Reset PSR and change the Tiering system.

Divide the population into five tiers, on a normal curve.
Each tier is a fixed number of players. If someone goes up a tier, someone in that higher tier comes down.
Make potential movement up and down equally weighted. No bias to upward movement.
Base movement in tiers on personal matchscore, and with less weight to win/loss.

(Yes, the above could be made more elegant through consideration of weight class played, revising the match score system to place less emphasis on damage and more on KMDs, and even the 'meta-ness' of the chassis played. But just get the basics in place and we'll be way better off now than we were.)

3. Stop quirking, start incenting

Instead of trying to make uncompetitive Mechs competitive using quirks, incent good players to use non-meta Mechs. Provide higher reward multipliers for the use of unpopular chassis.

Dynamically set the rewards each day by using your own Mech usage data. So: those who take OP Mechs like Kodiaks and Timbies get paid less, and those who take gimped Mechs like Vindicators get paid much more. And everything in between.

This gives us an incentive and reason to buy and use non-Meta Mechs, and will create much greater variety in the matches themselves. The players will do the balancing for you based on their choices between competitiveness and rewards.

(You can even provide the purchasers of new Mech Packs with a 30-day "increased reward" bonus, until the new Mechs find their own natural level in the Mech economy.)

Edited by Appogee, 25 January 2017 - 02:53 AM.

[justcallme A S H]

Helios Norlund, on 25 January 2017 - 12:52 AM, said:

the biggest faction is mercenaries

that is a problem for balance and dont fit in any way to the lore

What exact problem for balance does it give?

You said it's a problem, but have not stated what it actually is.
Population? Cause right now - its pretty even. Hardly any cycles are resulting in planets being taken in US and AP cycles. It's been like this for a few weeks now.

So I'm wondering, what other balance issue could there possibly be? Especially given the "balance" of population is outta whack the way PGI report it simply because it calculates on totally inactive players. Fix that, you'll fix the mercs because accurate numbers/payouts/contracts will mean movements will be more often. Not that it really matters with a single bucket now.

[Danjo San]

Some suggestions I have:

Loyalists:
- expand ranks/rewards, double or triple the number of ranks, keep the rewards/exp-needed at the same exponential growth.
- gain 25% above base payout
- give loyalists lore bonuses if they bring faction specific Mechs, like the Raven for Liao... buffs, quirks, bonus-cash, bonus MC or something else
- voting is a joke

Mercs:
- Contracts need to be redesigned. I suggest offering 2 different contracts, short term and long term contracts. Faction balance is no longer needed, only IS-Clan Balance is relevant
---long term contracts are 30 day contracts, offer base payout, contracts unlimited, gains 100% Reputation Points.
---short term contracts are 1 phase contracts, offer 10% above base payout, contracts are dynamically limited, gain 50% reputation Points
(if Clan has X Players [loyalists+long term] more than IS, X- Short Term Contracts are available for IS until the balance is met, if your unit has 25 members but only 15 Short Term Contracts are available, you will not see these short term contracts.)
Units:
- when disbanding or being kicked out of a unit, apply a week-long block from FP and the ability to join or create a new unit.
(people have been known for abusing the system and hopping from side to side, this behavior needs to be stopped)

New Player Gate:
- create a FP-Section in the Academy and make it mandatory to complete before unlocking FP. Make it hard enough to gate out players that haven't understood the mechanics fully. At the same time explain mechanics needed, scouting, protect, gather intel, bonuses applied, how to shoot and open generators and gates etc.

Maps/Modes:
- I like the idea of voting what mode you would like to play. From your Group you click launch, then you cast your vote.
Say you are a group of 12 and vote Invasion, the matchmaker will search for other players that want to play invasion. If not enough players are found after a predefined time frame it opens up to the next mode that got the second most amount of votes of players waiting in the bucket before being dumped into a match. this has the potential to act as a natural selection process dividing pugs from comps.

Spawncamping:
- Dropzones on the Quickplay maps need to be secured. Add Turrets, buff Dropships. Make it harder for an organized group to push into one dropzone and farm the respawning pilots one by one.

[Bud Crue]

Well this turned into a rant. Cathartic for me, but still a bit of a rant.


Round table? Okay. Here is my input into this oh so noble round table of equals lead by a man on record as saying he doesn't want out input. But since you are asking here in this thread, I'll give my input nonetheless:

Between the "all power creep all the time" mech sales model of late, the continuation of "lets buff and nerf with a maul rather than an scalpel and apply it to the wrong things", and yes also because CW has no place for loyalists and is only about "dots and a bucket" my desire to play the mode, support PGI or even care about this IP is approaching a "base line value" of zero.

So that being my current state of mind, here is my past: I only started playing this game for CW. I happily dropped more than $2000 before phase 3 on this game so I could support PGI and build drop decks for any and all the maps and modes. I hoped for the depth of game PGI kept promising. I accepted the limitations of play and took the excuses at face value (can't add feature X because of the engine, can't add depth because PGI is a small studio, can't have actual faction warfare because this game is about mercs, can't have what PGI originally promised because, well you just can't, etc.).

I still played and I still enjoyed it. I still was having fun win or lose.

Then phase 3. Then Russ with his 'the community needs to shut up and say thank you'. Then the Kodiak 3 and the population that hadn't fled from the long tom, fled from that. Then Russ and his 'the game is fine but we need fewer buckets'. Then 4.1 and that one bucket solution but with the added "see we listen to the community and added QP maps. Everything is fine now" attitude. Then I lost hope because he same problems that killed CW in every other iteration are still there:

1) lack of depth
2) total emphasis on merc play
3) tech imbalance
4) mech imbalance
5) skill imbalance

Those things killed CW in every other iteration and they are still present, and in some cases they are worse than ever.

#5 was enough to finally drive me out of CW. The awareness that as a middling player I am actively hurting my side of the bucket was enough. IS can't win planets because there are too many people like me still playing. The hard core players want them out: "did you not see the warning screen scrub, this is hard core mode!" yet when all the casuals do leave CW will be barren of population again. Why don't those casual scrubs get good? Well many play the game for other reasons than to be a top tier meta player...their called loyalists, some like to play faction specific mechs, some want to play the mechs they had in table top, some just want to play the mechs they like even if they are not meta. None of those people belong in CW and when they leave (and they will) the wait times will be just like at the end of Phase 2 and phase 3. Will yippie. Solution: CW must have a mechanism and a use to keep those middling, casual, loretarding scrubs in the game. They need a purpose in the mode. I don't know what or how, I'm not a game designer, but you better do something to keep them playing because even with your single bucket, a mode populated only by the elite is not going to have the population to be viable around here.

And that brings us to imbalance of #2 and #3. Hey PGI when even your metawhoring comp level players are complaining about tech imbalance, an even mech variant imbalance that ought to tell you something, yet every mech since April of 2016 has been pure power creep. This is unbalancing all aspect of the game. Expert players with the absolute best mechs of either tech are going to stomp all other players that they come across. That will not keep players in the game and this is totally exacerbated in CW (see what EVIL and specifically SCAR have been posting about). For skill you need a match maker...that actually works. Tonnage changes do nothing. For tech you need to make them roughly equal and stop dicking around every month with never ending and seemingly massive quirk passes. For mech to mech balance you need to stop with the power creep and give maps where all mechs can have a role. Failure to do these things just leads to greater imbalance with the top being able to dominate everyone not at their level not driving their mechs. Sure it drives sales (e.g."Oh man if I only had that latest mech, boyo then I'd show em!") but it is killing your mode by driving people away.

Finally immersion. You know the score here. Your mode is based on collecting dots. That is the win criteria. Dots. I'd say go back to your original CW presentation and start there but you can't or won't otherwise you would have sometime in the last couple of years. So here I have no suggestion for you. Your game and what little vision you provide is a total contradiction in this regard. On the one hand CW is the main attractant to the game for old loretards who want the ole mechwarrior/Battletech experience of yore. CW is all about that nostalgia of Factions and planets and intrigue. Yet you have created a mode wherein those players are in effect told not to play, as this is a mode for only the most "hard core' of fps gammers. The later, at least many of which could care less about lore, yet the former are the ones who want to play the most yet you actively tell them to go elsewhere from the "immersive" mode of the game. That is stupid, and is solely your creation, and that beings us back to where I started.

I believe you could, if desired fix or at least try to address all of these things, in a few weeks of dedicated effort. I believe that you chose not to because you don't honestly have a vision for this mode and what you want it to be. I hope I am wrong, but if your efforts or lack thereof can drive someone like me away...someone who came to this game -exclusively for this mode and spent the kind of money I have to play it- then I also believe that you will continue to drive out plenty more as long as you refuse to address these issue.

[WANTED]

I don't get where FW is killed cause I am impressed with everytime I log in I get a match at NA Central time 10:00-10:30 instantly. Never logged into FW before unless I was dropping with my unit as a twelve man. Even then long waits. Now much much nicer. I think that's an improvement with the new bucket system and I am a loyalist.

Also, I think the clan XL heat nerf should play out awhile before we do any more balance changes. If data shows clans really hurting cause of it, there should be a quick change to put it at maybe 25-30 percent instead of 40.

Finally, merc units control the flow of the game with the pugs following like lemmings to whichever side is doing better. I love lore with Merc units and still want them to reap benefits and many ideas in here are already good ones, except the mixed tech decks ( No clan and IS mix for Mercs ). Boost loyalty rewards as someone earlier mentioned with sustained cbill accumulation whether loss or win. Still like the idea of quirks for Clan and IS factions but I think that will throw what delicate balance we already have further out of whack. Will have to be introduced in 2.5 to 5 percent increments.

Yes there should be a hard gate for new players entering FW. Everygame I play has something like this and I don't get why it's wrong to gate new players to a certain number of active hours or games played. Will help with teams saddled with people who have no business in FW until they understand the basics. A message at the front end does not gate properly.

[Marius Evander]

justcallme A S H, on 24 January 2017 - 08:06 PM, said:

6 biggest issues.
1. Having people at a round table that are hardly active. People already commenting on stuff they clearly don't understand.
2. Eternal QP / Not enough Invasion. Just QP for 7hrs is driving people away. Look at how the population has dropped off in less than 2 months. PGI will have this data, and I can say that without a doubt, wait times are up and ghost drops are back - Population is down, cause there are still major issues with it
3. Quality of players is disgraceful since 4.1 - If a MM is implemented it should only be after the MM is actually useful and not a EXP bar. Fully redesigned/reset.
MORE DETAILED Match Maker discussion/point

Spoiler

QP PSR cannot be used in FP unless:
1. PSR is reset.
2. PSR "increase" conditions are changed. A win should be worth 50-75% less points that it is now, this would ensure Pilot Skill actually factors into it heavily. This would lead to far less T1/T2 players. Match score to rise should be increase slightly across the board as well.
3. There are T3/T2 players with a avg KDR/Match score of 0.8/150 - Such players should realistically be in T4 and no higher if you can't play at a 1:1 ratio. 1:1 should be T3, so it needs to be much tougher on how it calculates.
4. FP Performance must also contribute to the PSR bar in that instance. If you perform poorly, do less than 250dmg a mech etc you should be punished heavily because you are not a good pilot.
So yeah, apply the MM - But you gotta fix the damn thing first. Right now as long as you win, even if you play poorly - up you go. That simply should not be the case.

4. Domination mode is just pointless/crap. It's too easy for premades to win in 5mins. Skirmish is just a farm fest. Conquest is actually decent
5. Integration to actually help people to group up, currently it's all done out-of-game for the most part
6. Loyalists got shafted. PGI said they were going to do something about it. That was 4 months ago, nothing has happened. This is a massive part of the community that is being ignored time and time again, they are p*ss*ed off and you know what - It's absolutely NOT good enough.

1. Thats what companies do, invite people who say what they want the public to hear, ask what they want to be asked.
2. You cannot blame the pop going down on QP maps being added at most thats 1% of the causes.
3. Too much hard work for PGI to program a decent MMR system (they should ask LoL or Blizzard to make one for them, surely someone at one of those companies is a Mechwarrior fan).
In the meantime they need to at least split queue's to solo queue and group queue.
4. I like domination mode on every map but Alpine, but the circle needs to be 50% of current diameter bigger again, the mode is not the issue, players are. Replace Skirmish with the new incursion mode when its released please.
5. Pregame UI communication system is worthless junk (the out of matches where you work on mechs social tab) go look at a much older game league of legends and make something more like their old one (talk to people in games to find out how long they have left, sort by faction, sort by tier(not that tier means anything)
6. Loyalists are shafted compared to mercs atm agreed, only point of being a loyalist is mech bay tours or Roleplaying commitment of insane proportions. Hopefully some Loyalist vs Loyalist only events soon before I give up and go back to being a merc.

AnTi90d, on 24 January 2017 - 08:13 PM, said:

1.) Solo guys are dropping less. FP's population is in decline, again, and we're seeing ghost drops on both sides.

• Reward all players for each FP match with a pittance of MC to keep them playing, even when the're on a losing streak. 1MC for a loss / 2MC for a win would keep people playing to save up for mechbays / decals.

2.) Invasion goes days, in some timezones, without being played. People do want to play Invasion modes, but they don't want to be locked into them for hours if one side is losing early-on.

• Vote for game-mode -> randomized map -> ready-up screen to select drop decks -> drop

3.) Mercenary should be able to have mixed tech dropdecks, but it should be balanced.

• Mercenary dropdeck of 240 tons / Clan loyalist dropdeck of 250 tons / IS loyalist of 265 tons

4.) Invasion maps still have invincible trees.

• Fix Invasion maps to have trees that fall over.

5.) Loyalists are sad that they've maxed out their reward tree.

• Make a loyalist rank 21 that can be repeated over and over. Something like, "earn 10,000 LP = win X cbills and Y MC."

6.) Alpine map is is terrible in FP / dropzones easily farmed from mountain peaks.

• Remove Alpine from all of FP.

I like this guy,

1. What he said
+ MC for holding planets is irrelevant/should not exist during 4.1 theres too little planet movement, The way planets are taken and lost needs to be altered within the current number of buckets set up if you want to keep MC for owning planets. (1 - 2 hour planet phases?? (WITH THE BELOW SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED FOR MODE/MAP/TUG BAR (AND make less of the bar needing to be taken/larger % bar movement per game)) )

2. FTFY
USING THE EXISTING PROGRAMMING FOR QUICK PLAY, SLIGHTLY MODIFIED

Vote for game-mode (FROM domination conquest assault invasion incursion) THEN

pick from a random selection of maps available for selected mode THEN

ready-up screen to select drop decks GIVING BOTH SIDES 2 minutes to work it out rather than 1 side getting 10 mins the other 45 seconds THEN

start the 30 minute commitment to battle.

3. Not sold on mercs getting both techs on either side, I do like the idea of mercs getting slightly less tonnage (5 tons for each side?) than loyalists .......... in exchange for SLIGHTLY better (10%?) cbills ?

4. With all the other issues, really not a priority, shelf that indefinately.

5. Nice idea for the fanboys (personally I cant understand why you wouldn't go level your 2nd favourite loyalist group to 20)

6. Alpine is fine except for a few issues,
Domination circle still badly placed or not big enough,
It is a clan favouring map and we dont have 3 brawl(IS favouring) maps in FP/CW which we should do.

Sereglach, on 24 January 2017 - 09:43 PM, said:

1. Gameplay Windows and Match Voting:

- I think the game-mode voting while its in the QP game modes would be a good move as it helps bring over the feel of QP for the QP portion of FW. Once that window is breached then leave it to invasion . . . it's the "do or die" moment when you're trying to push the enemy out of your base-of-operations.

- All-or-Nothing needs to go away. I completely agree that 4 "buckets" -one for each planet- in the current system of combined IS vs. Clan should be completely doable even with a smaller population. Scouting could remain as one bucket to keep from splitting up a big solo-player attraction and/or keep everyone with a vested interest to fight for scouting bonuses.

2. Playstyle Rewards:


3. Faction Related "Quirks":

- Should NOT make mechs handle differently between QP and FW. QP is like the "practice grounds" to grind your mechs and learn how they play. Any benefit (like directly altering weapon properties) should be off the table.

- Should require FW participation to receive. For instance: Lets say that each faction provides discounts on lore-friendly chassis/variants to help people get what they want and play the mechs they like. Those discounts should only be active as long as you played at least 1 FW match that day.

- Consider offering drop-deck advantages to loyalists of 10-20 tons as long as three quarters of their drop deck is filled with faction favored chassis/variants. Give them a small MC bonus if they win the match and their drop-deck is filled exclusively with faction specific mechs.

- Consider offering Clan loyalists % bonuses to XP & c-bills the more their drop deck is under weight. Give them 1 MC per 10-20 tons that their drop deck is under-tonnage and they still win a match.

- Give hefty bonuses to Scouting drop decks that use faction-favored chassis/variants and extra bonuses based on lighter chassis tonnage (especially if the tonnage for Scouting is going to stay at 55).

If there's time for extra suggestions, I'll just link this recent post, HERE as it talks about possible changes to Scouting Mode to make it more lore-friendly and immersive . . . while offering a more exciting and role-related experience.

1. As I stated above replying to someone else, VOTE for Mode from 1 of 5 options then choose map then choose deck.
Worlds changing hands needs to work differently, (shorter phases? with above choose mode changing how tug bar works (bigger % effect on bar, lower threshold to take planet?))

2. reward based on rank is a TERRIBLE idea we want to be encouraging more people to play this game, that means low rank new people, not rewarding the people playing long term which penalizes new people.

3. Not sure i understand what your saying, but if your saying reward Battletech lore nerds for playing only mechs their faction mainly played in 1980's tabletop game terrible idea in my opinion, you might as well reward people for using standard loadouts to futher confuse new players and drive them away.

Big Tin Man, on 24 January 2017 - 10:00 PM, said:

1. FP needs a hard barrier to entry. The pop up box doesn't cut it, and pugs are ruining their fp experience for themselves by clicking the nag box away and then getting their teeth kicked in while dragging down their team. Here's some loose requirements as a start: 1. No tier 5, ever. Not sorry about that either. They just don't belong in hardcore mode. 2. Scouting requires 100 qp drops or tier 3, whichever comes first. 3. Invasion/whateveritscallednow requires 250 qp drops or tier 2, whichever comes first. People love unlocking achievements, so give them a new one to get. Maybe it's not drop numbers, maybe it's an equivalent amount of gxp. But whatever it is, it cannot be clicked away in seconds (edit: OR BOUGHT) .

2. In regards to mercs: https://mwomercs.com...jumping-around/

1. can we replace Tier with a K/D ratio ? since tier in this game MAINLY relates to how long/much you have played not how good you are.

2. refer to reply to next quote

Jman5, on 24 January 2017 - 10:08 PM, said:

This times a million. Davion, Steiner, and Wolf are drowning in innactive loyalists and it's artificially pushing their contract bonuses down. Meanwhile factions like Smoke Jaguar and Liao are perpetually offering a nice bonus because they aren't saddled with all these inactives.

You can see it too in the total faction leaderboard. The best contracts per side is Smoke Jaguar and Liao. The most games played per side has been Smoke Jaguar and Liao. The worst contracts are Davion and Wolf and they're both near the bottom in terms of total games played.

Nobody goes Davion because Davion has a perma -20% penalty. Nobody goes wolf because wolf has a perma -20% penalty.

07 Jman5, why are you talking about a 3.1 system which no longer matters instead of bringing it into line with 4.1 ?
Yes, people who dont play for ..... a month? less? need removing from being counted towards population balance, Mercenaries need to no longer be rewarded/penalized for which loyalist group within the Clan or IS faction they join, because it no longer has any effect, instead they need to be rewarded based on the entire Clan vs IS population balance (and this would work even better with single phase contracts vs 14 or 30 day contracts) OR make it when someone who is a Mercenary presses the fight now button, if they are on the High pop side, it offers them BASED ON HOW BAD THE WAIT TIME IS the option to fight for the other side for a bonus/additional reward.

Sedmeister, on 25 January 2017 - 12:01 AM, said:

Access to practice on all maps
Give us (or at least units) the ability to practice on the FW Invasion maps.

The Unstoppable Puggernaut, on 25 January 2017 - 01:19 AM, said:

In FW, the Dropship MUST stay around longer. In addition to this. It needs to be kitted out like a real dropship !!!

LRMS, PPCs, L-Pulses, all long range nasties to FINALLY put a stop to base camping

That way if people really have the mechs to sacrifice to try base camping, they're gonna get trashed quick.

So the score is 12/0 , the good team cant go near your base because dropships OP, so we all sit and waste time for the next 20 mins ? no thankyou, balance players instead.

Appogee, on 25 January 2017 - 02:52 AM, said:

1. We need matchmaking in Faction Play.

Some will argue that "there are not enough people playing FP to have matchmaking". But that is confusing cause and symptom. People have stopped playing FP because zero matchmaking is leading to unsatisfying stomps and farming.

2. Reset PSR and change the Tiering system.

Divide the population into five tiers, on a normal curve.
Each tier is a fixed number of players. If someone goes up a tier, someone in that higher tier comes down.
Make potential movement up and down equally weighted. No bias to upward movement.
Base movement in tiers on personal matchscore, and with less weight to win/loss.

(Yes, the above could be made more elegant through consideration of weight class played, revising the match score system to place less emphasis on damage and more on KMDs, and even the 'meta-ness' of the chassis played. But just get the basics in place and we'll be way better off now than we were.)

3. Stop quirking, start incenting

Instead of trying to make uncompetitive Mechs competitive using quirks, incent good players to use non-meta Mechs. Provide higher reward multipliers for the use of unpopular chassis.

Dynamically set the rewards each day by using your own Mech usage data. So: those who take OP Mechs like Kodiaks and Timbies get paid less, and those who take gimped Mechs like Vindicators get paid much more. And everything in between.

This gives us an incentive and reason to buy and use non-Meta Mechs, and will create much greater variety in the matches themselves. The players will do the balancing for you based on their choices between competitiveness and rewards.

(You can even provide the purchasers of new Mech Packs with a 30-day "increased reward" bonus, until the new Mechs find their own natural level in the Mech economy.)

1. Solo OR group queue, group size would be too fiddly
Very true it is a cause and an effect loop.

2. Hell yes, expecially the move people down more.

3. Nice idea, wouldn't prioritize it, pgi has enough to do just getting in game to lobby chat and balancing players done.

Danjo San, on 25 January 2017 - 03:53 AM, said:

Mercs:
- Contracts need to be redesigned. I suggest offering 2 different contracts, short term and long term contracts. Faction balance is no longer needed, only IS-Clan Balance is relevant
---long term contracts are 30 day contracts, offer base payout, contracts unlimited, gains 100% Reputation Points.
---short term contracts are 1 phase contracts, offer 10% above base payout, FOR THE LOWER POP SIDE contracts are dynamically limited, gain 50% reputation Points
(if Clan has X Players [loyalists+long term] more than IS, X- Short Term Contracts are available for IS until the balance is met, if your unit has 25 members but only 15 Short Term Contracts are available, you will not see these short term contracts.)

Units:
- when disbanding or being kicked out of a unit, apply a week-long block from FP and the ability to join or create a new unit.
(people have been known for abusing the system and hopping from side to side, this behavior needs to be stopped)

New Player Gate:
- create a FP-Section in the Academy and make it mandatory to complete before unlocking FP. Make it hard enough to gate out players that haven't understood the mechanics fully. At the same time explain mechanics needed, scouting, protect, gather intel, bonuses applied, how to shoot and open generators and gates etc.

Edited above quote instead of replying.

And finally!!!!

IGNORE EVERYONE COMPLAINING ABOUT BALANCE, THIS GAME HAS NEVER BEEN AS CLOSE TO BALANCED AS IT IS NOW WHEN IT COMES TO MECHS (havent watched bushwackers yet)
IGNORE ANYONE WANTING ANY MORE CHANGES TO ENGINES, ITS DAMNED ANNOYING AS IS, BUT THATS PART OF WHY WE GET STRUCTURE QUIRKS.

BALANCE THE GOD DAMNED PLAYERBASE INSTEAD PLEASE.

When you rescale mechs dont nerf them simultaneously (Black knight, many lights) do one then the other, pretty sure you overnerfed a lot of them with the comination of rescale AND nerfs.

When you add pay to win things like summoner high mounted torso energy pod and finally realise you've made pop tart pay to win only summoners OP dont nerf the Summoner as a whole, just add negative PPC quirks to the damned loyalty pay to win shoulder.

Same with the KDK-3 why nerf the weapon instead of just giving the 1 mech/variant negative quirks ?

Im sure you know this but just in case, People who dont spend much money are as important as those who do, because without them those that do wont have anyone to play with/against and will stop spending too.

Not priority, but more lore/story,finishing the text bubbles on worlds, (adding to immersion) incourages people to spend because they become more attached to their "escape reality" world, thats why the bigger games with bigger budgets bother to do it, because it does increase their sales.

Make Radar dep go off 15 ? 30? 45? seconds after scanner sweep and make it last slightly longer so you can actually use the location data to then catch enemy without sensors, not be looking at map to see where they are while radar dep is wasted.

Edited by Cadoazreal, 25 January 2017 - 05:47 AM.

[Marius Evander]

Oh and either ADD 2 out of the 3 (Canyon/bog/mining) brawlers maps you haven't put in CW/FP or remove Alpine/Polar to help balance maps to mechs, thanks =) (I would prefer the former option, add 2 more not remove 2)

Thankyou for reading.

Edited by Cadoazreal, 25 January 2017 - 05:52 AM.

[WANTED]

@cadoazeal....not.a good idea to gate on K/D would elimanate too many players and stress.the rest out. No gsme i can think of does this... most do it by ranking or tiers (ie overwatch )

[SuperFunkTron]

I've got 3 4 items here and it would be great to get feed back at the very least as to what is and is not possible from them. The first is a list put together from a discussion on how to improve immersion through all game types. The 2nd is an idea how to develop character and add meaning to the faction choice. The 3rd is a rough idea on how to add depth to FP by giving some objectives to fight for in each battle window beyond changing a planet to your faction's color.

The original discussion for parts 1 and 2 can be found here (there is a break down of sense on page 2, but it returns shortly after) https://mwomercs.com...on/page__st__60

edit: added a fourth idea, also very rough. Quirking (both positive and negative) equipment of each faction a little differently (preferably with a tie in to lore) so that a faction can be chosen according to both playstyle and an individuals preferred abilities. This would provide a huge amount of depth to FP and even incentivize becoming a loyalist as opposed to a Merc.

Immersion

Spoiler

Cockpit

• Cockpit glass damage effects (cracks, burns, charring)
  
• Cockpit heat effects when mech is running hot (steam, heat blur, etc.)
  
• HUD interference when hit by PPCs
  
• HUD show’s faction specific name for enemy mechs identified (i.e. vulture for is, mad dog for clan HUD)
  
• Rear view monitor
  
• Mini map displays should have ability to display grid overlays in various resolutions.

• The ability to change our mechwarrior pilot suit to match our faction.
  
• The ability to toggle cockpit item presence (Kill counter on/off)
  
• The ability to mute warhorns

Mech Lab

• TRO/Sourcebook entries for weapons and battlemechs

Environment

• More destructible objects (buildings, cars, etc.)
  
• Slow down passage of time on maps (lighting effects).
  
• Deep water should slow mechs down.
  
• Command Wheel

• Separate voice for IS and Clan pilots (Aff and Neg for Clan wheel)
  
• More options (Uav spotted!", "Good kill!" and "Sector clear"), with an IS and Clan version.
  
• One version for every faction in the game. (i.e Make Liao sound different from Davion.)

Mech/ Weapons

• Improve collision damage/ physics
  
• Weapon recoil based on caliber of ballistics, mech weight, and weapon location (including in air physics effects)
  
• Mech gyro recovery: mech react to weapon impulse based on weight/class
  
• Reticle movement related to mech stride
  
• Mechs falling down
  
• Melee combat
  
• Ammo explosion special effects (shockwave)
  
• Cursor sway/shake from walking
  
• Custom boot sequence: 8~10 key password set by the player, punch it in during dropship and the mech will power up before drop off, allowing faster mech powerup

Escort Mode

• VIP should give somehow information regarding his intended path.

Faction Warfare: Factions

Spoiler

The concept is to have players choose at least half of their drop deck reward players for choosing mechs based on their faction's typical mechs (lore based), while allowing them still to choose the remaining 2 as they please, but at a cost if they are choosing mechs not typical for their faction, but without said reward. The clearest example I can think of is as follows: A clan wolf player is making a deck. He chooses a Timberwolf, linebacker, and an Ice Ferret, all typical Wolf mechs. For his 4th mech, he wants to choose a Kodiak, which is essentially a Ghost Bear mech. Because this mech is atypical for wolf, both a limit to atypical mechs, as well as a c-bill cost bonus would not be awarded to reduce the incentive for non-faction or rare mechs would be applied.
The goal of this is to add depth to the different personalities of each of the houses and clans by showing their personalities through their preferred mech options. Leaving 1 or 2 spots to choose mechs from the same tech (clan vs IS) despite not being common to that faction will allow for "more competent" mechs to be used, but at an expense.

I strongly believe that by starting to define each of the houses to a certain degree that a greater sense of "faction" will be felt in the game and would even go so far as to potentially start developing faction specific tactics based on the mechs they can expect to see. An added benefit to it is the fact that newer players could come in with some sort of guidance toward fight styles as well as what mechs are doing well for the faction they step into.

This idea could be implemented as broadly as typical and atypical chassis or as deep as particular variants typical to each faction. Of course there are plenty of mechs that were common across many or all factions, but those would be just as readily available.

Faction Play IS map and planet significance.

Spoiler

This is still very unrefined and open to improvement but would be another way of adding depth, meaning, and significance beyond just changing planet color.
This is a bit of a direct attack on lore, but because MWO is essentially a player driven game with no real story line (beyond the lore that gave us our mechs), I have a proposition on how to make the the IS map an over all concept of Faction Play more compelling: Wipe the history and allow us to create it seasonally! The only context for this that is needed is that the Clans are working to reclaim Terra and control of the IS.

Fundamentals: Organize planets (or regions on a single planet) into small groups of 4 to 8 (half belong to faction A, the rest to the faction B ) and allow battle window to be an attempt to gain as many of those planets in the cluster as possible (clusters should not be permanent groupings but rather dynamic to each battle window). Within each cluster, planets should offer different benefits and key services (insert better ideas here) such as Industry (mech availability/ mech cost), Intel (scouting mode benefits), and Logistics (payouts). Different game modes can even be associated with particular planet types (Domination for Intel planets and conquest for logistics).

Through out the battle window, players are dropped onto the different planets/regions (to be voted on once a 12 man is formed, attacking team decides) in an attempt to take over as many of them as possible while gaining/losing the benefits each of them provide.

Planet/region benefits explained:

Industry planets could be implemented as the loss of availability of a certain mech to drop in (with trial mechs being the default replacement if a player lacks sufficient mechs) or the the allowance of a mech not specific to their faction (see above Factions) without any additional cost.

Intel - very similar to what we have now for scouting, but with any of the great improvement ideas many others have posted here.

Logistics- improves or harms c-bill payouts (or even MC) payouts. Eventually, ammunition availability/costs could be added here if mech maintenance becomes a thing

Which Planet/region is attacked?: This would be determined by a company (or binary vote) once the group is formed. They would be shown the attack progress on each of the planet/region types an given a 10 second window before the voting is started (this will give time for the more informed to make their case or direct other players) and another 10-20 seconds to vote. The voting is implemented so that there is some level of potential gain/loss for the type of planet/region they'd like to potentially gain.

As I said above, this is a very rough idea but provides the basis for making FP significantly more consequential immediately.

Faction quirking

Spoiler

A system of quirking based on faction (maybe even only on mechs typical to their faction) Some hypothetical examples are Steiner would gain extra armor but have slightly reduced speed, Liao gets improved ECM and UAVs, Davion gets AC benefits such as more ammo (rate of fire could lead to much upset) but more laser heat, Clan Wolf would get a slight speed/mobility boost at the expense of something else, Jade Falcon's get jump jet improvements at a some cost, etc... The quirks would need to be small, but significant enough to benefit trade offs. Of course there becomes a risk for "factionalized" meta builds, but with so many factions, there would still be a large variety of builds to be prepared for and with the current 2 bucket system, it would really be interesting to see how allied forces from the two sides of the tech tree start working together and have quirks that enhance their playstyle and potential to contribute.

Edited by SuperFunkTron, 26 January 2017 - 06:15 AM.

[Big Tin Man]

@cado: gating on kdr doesn't work. A good player that is new would have a kdr of 50 as they slaughter potatoes, while a solid tier 2 player that gets matched against tier 1 top teams all the time has a kdr of slightly over 1.1. It also leads to cowardice in gameplay instead of being willing to sacrifice for the win. And spiders facing a wall shut down trying to run out the clock.

[Sixpack]

Jman5, on 24 January 2017 - 10:08 PM, said:

This times a million. Davion, Steiner, and Wolf are drowning in innactive loyalists and it's artificially pushing their contract bonuses down. Meanwhile factions like Smoke Jaguar and Liao are perpetually offering a nice bonus because they aren't saddled with all these inactives.

You can see it too in the total faction leaderboard. The best contracts per side is Smoke Jaguar and Liao. The most games played per side has been Smoke Jaguar and Liao. The worst contracts are Davion and Wolf and they're both near the bottom in terms of total games played.

Nobody goes Davion because Davion has a perma -20% penalty. Nobody goes wolf because wolf has a perma -20% penalty.

********.

The Unit I am part of is SJ loyalist with 95 people. Maybe 20 of those are active (in a larger timeframe of 6 months because 10 of those probably only log in once or twice) and of those around 5 might still bother with FW from time to time, though that might only be 2-3 now, seeing as some of the more actives left for a mercenary unit.

Every faction suffers from attrition, it is just that Smoke Jaguar always was small in comparison to the other units (not being helped with their annihilation in lore).

So SJ only ever realy gets activity once some mercs decide to go clans and for the one that pays the most cause it always had the fewest players. The bigger factions are more likely to be able to field 12 mans without needing mercenarys in the first place.

Thus should all inactives get purged SJ might very well still be the best option, not to mention that any kind of FW resurgence will naturally fill up the popular factions first leading to mercs going for the small ones again thanks to the better payouts.


Other funfact: Also most mercenary units being insular and running their own TS is also not helpfull in keeping SJ activity up. And the loyalist units are probably no better for us.

Edited by Sixpack, 25 January 2017 - 08:18 AM.

[Danjo San]

Big Tin Man, on 25 January 2017 - 07:13 AM, said:

@cado: gating on kdr doesn't work. A good player that is new would have a kdr of 50 as they slaughter potatoes, while a solid tier 2 player that gets matched against tier 1 top teams all the time has a kdr of slightly over 1.1. It also leads to cowardice in gameplay instead of being willing to sacrifice for the win. And spiders facing a wall shut down trying to run out the clock.

Agreed. A gate needs to make sense. Also some players create Alt-Accounts to drop on the other side or to drop undercover or because they want to drop solo without having to justify it in front of their unit ... Or for whatever other reason there may be.
They have the knowledge and this skill to even make full trial decks perform well without having to play a set amount of matches.
IMHO the only gate that makes sense is a mandatory Academy gate. Something hard enough to keep players out that lack in basic piloting skill but loose enough to enable Alts to drop without having to grind to a certain point before being able to drop