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[WobblyShooter]

Hey all, been bouncing this around in my brain for the last week or so and figured i would toss it out for feedback: How MWO should look a year from now. I think this game at its core is great, but it under serves 2 of the 3 audiences i have identified:

Casual Stompy Mech Gamers
Battletech Fans
Competitive Players

I think for casual players this game knocks it out of the park! you can hop online, tweak your mech, do 3-5 drops in an hour, and go on your merry way. For Battletech fans and competitive players however, there is faction warfare, which on the surface serves both, but in reality serves neither. Competitive players find themselves often dropping against lesser teams/random players and while they get paid for it, they all have 25 million or more cbills, while the battletech fans get a map, and faction symbol, and their heads beaten in, whether clan or inner sphere. I, however, have a solution! Lets add a third leg to the game and overhaul FW!

So part one, we add solaris 7 mode to the game. This mode offers 1v1, 2v2 which can be played by anybody as well as 4v4 and 8v8 which is unit play only. 8v8 in particular is important as it can run the MWOWC ruleset allowing for groups to practice regularly. Im sure someone else has this mode far more thought through than I do, and thus i'll defer to a more robust set of suggestions. The important thing is that the competitive players have themselves a true home.

Faction Warfare is the mode that should be for the Battletech fan. The current tug of war system with QP maps and modes makes it an easier transition for casual players who may not know the background of the game universe. Changes to this mode to make it more for BT fans would include...

*Stock Mechs only - Fans know these mechs but cant really drive them in QP or they get stomped. This makes the mode feel like a fight truly in the BT universe. maybe allow for the skill tree...not sure about that.

*No duplicate chassis - no, you cant bring those 3 laser vomit black knights. you get one.

*Each Faction has access to a mech at each weight class no other faction can have.- Certain Mechs are known to be associated with certain Houses and Clans. If you play Davion for example, you would have access to the 3025 variant of the Javelin, Enforcer, Jagermech, and Victor. whether you own them or not.

*Limit group size to 4 - This will help keep pug stomps to a minimum. Will likely encourage more players to form small, lance size units.

*Each IS dropdeck gets 235 tons - This allows for once mech of each weightclass without overly punishing players who prefer lighter mechs

*Each Clan dropdeck gets 235 tons, but can gain a bonus for "bidding down" - Clans can come at you equal tonnage but "lose honor" for doing so (-10% to cbill earning and reputation points). Offer a X% cbill/reputation bonus for bidding down where X is the tonnage underbid. ex and clanner who drops at 200 tons gets a 35% cbill bonus,win or lose.

*Any balance issue should be addressed by lore first before any other method. for example,should the clans roll over the IS, make the mode 3 lances on 2 stars.

*maybe a bit a greedy here, but access to faction decals and paint jobs for mechs in your dropdecks. Have the faction loyalty mean something.

*Three possible paths for mercs - first path is allowing a mixed tech deck while limiting the dropdeck to 200 tons- the second is doing away with them altogether. - The third is leaving them as is. i tend to want to keep them around as mercs are such huge players in the BT universe and i really like the idea to letting them use what mechs they have. Maybe they have to serve with a faction before they get access to their mechs.

Thats my speil on MWO. lemme know what you folks think in the comments.
<3
Ubersuck

[Small Baguette]

I strongly agree with everything put forward here. I might still go for a hard limit on the clan side weight limit but the honor system is good. Perhaps the IS side has a few additional turrents or more drop zone defense to compensate.

The stock mechs only for FW is GENIUS. I would absolutely love to play stock mechs. I know many wouldn't so maybe have 2 seperate cues. Although FW is already a bit tough to get a match in so I'm sure they wouldn't want to split the players up even more.