11 replies to this topic

[razenWing]

1: Defensive towers. In the beginning, people didn't know to rush to disable them, so it's very advantageous for the defensive team to monitor the entire movement of the enemy team. Now? Not so much. It's always faster for offense to shut them down than for defense to have a chance at contesting the shutdown. It's becoming more of a liability on the defensive side. So some tweaking is required.

2: Offense/Defense balance. Yes, to a certain degree, a team with more skill will win. I don't dispute that. But assuming that both team have equal skill, the offense will win more often than not, for the simple fact that there are TWO ways for them to win, as opposed to one. Sure, I guess technically, defense have 2 ways to win as well, but offense doesn't have 2 ways to LOSE.

To balance it, defense needs to know the path of the VIP. No protection detail will ever escort someone without the route in mind. It's not like Donald Trump just "wing it" whenever he goes out in his presidential motorcade. Defense needs to know route to setup ambush or plan diversion. Right now, they can do neither because the VIP randomly walks all over the place like an idiot.

(Well, defense just have to be more aggressive in striking early)

True, but then, this is just another skirmish. What's the point of having a dumb baggage in the first place then? Isn't the whole point is to slow the game down to get a semblance of an intelligent battle? Or is it just to go all meta build to see who can f-up the other guys the fastest? Cause you can't have both, and you have to let us know which direction you plan on taking.

3: For the love of god, put Escort on small map. No one really give a crap about VIP Hide and Seek. The point is whether one team can protect, not whether your map is big enough to hide the VIP. (Then wtf, just make a new mode called Hide and Seek with just players... which, actually doesn't sound like that bad of a idea)

I echo McGral18 when I say this... I am so f-ing sick and tired of seeing the same big maps over and over again with some of the fan favorites (TMC, Canyon, HPG) appearing ever so infrequent because they aren't escort eligible.

You guys are literally creating a meta instead of diversification as people are mounting only weapons that will be effective in these settings. I thought the point is to bring back the awesome action you see on the loading screen. Will, this unnatural meta creation has the opposite effect.

//extra//
And for map designers, there's a reason why people like certain maps. It's because you didn't put ****** environmental effect over them 50% of the time. It's great that once in a while, you are like, "WOW, it's so cool to fight in the sunset!" But... over 50% of the time? It gets old real fast when you just want to shoot them up without going through those stupid night vision lenses.

(please nerf the chance of low visibility setting from appearing... I can live with 15-20%, not higher)
//end extra//

Edited by razenWing, 23 March 2017 - 09:29 AM.

[Ascaloth]

There are two ways of losing being the attacking force, if your mechs are killed or if the VIP reach the LZ and escapes. Also, the Dropship is SUPER OP with dead-aim large lasers and stuff.
I don't think most players actually care about escort and build their mechs thinking about this game mode. The only reason there is a lot of Escort mode choices lately is because of the current Tournament.

[razenWing]

Ascaloth, on 23 March 2017 - 09:37 AM, said:

There are two ways of losing being the attacking force, if your mechs are killed or if the VIP reach the LZ and escapes. Also, the Dropship is SUPER OP with dead-aim large lasers and stuff.
I don't think most players actually care about escort and build their mechs thinking about this game mode. The only reason there is a lot of Escort mode choices lately is because of the current Tournament.

Which is fine... with great quantity comes great data. And so far in my experience, defense loses about 80% of the time. Now, it could just be a coincidence that somehow... out of 30-40 games, I got crappy team 26~37 times. Or, it just highlights a general problem with Escort, since my w/l ratio in other game modes are about 50/50.

Go into any pug que and quick survey. Which side has more advantage in Escorting right at the very beginning of the match. I think the near consensus is that no one wants to protect a dumb VIP that wanders around aimlessly.

[Coolant]

let the VIP mech be able to fight back, that way the enemy team doesn't just stand in front of the VIP and let loose...

[Moonlight Grimoire]

I can say this, Escort on River City actually is really damn fun. Escort on HPG without changes to the terrain would be about as bad as Escort on Polar Highlands. As in, long sight lines on to the VIP. At least frozen city there is a chance the VIP will duck into the denser city areas.

As for showing the path, yes, this is a needed feature, even if it is just showing the current path and updates when the VIP decides to detour, this helps players via minimap keep an eye on what the VIP is doing and where to move along to set up an ambush.

Sensor towers maybe should be intermittent, like satellite sweeps or give seismic pings instead of locks, and be far less obvious. This lets the defense keep tabs on the enemy, but, not as effectively while also shutting down the "LRM at 1.5km because the sensor tower is letting me lock on" that happens early on.

I can see escort on Canyon working to a degree, bog should be fine, mining they could get away with, but, HPG, oh boy, I would not want to be on defense for that. But, hey, why not.

[Shiroi Tsuki]

I'd like to see a system that rewards players for being meatshields to the walking potato. I hear a lot of people complain both in game and the forums of how crappy the mode is when they literally let the VIP walk in first to the enemy firing line

[SuomiWarder]

Escort on Frozen City seems to lead to the VIP wandering into one of several open zones allowing fire to pour in from elevated cover.

[razenWing]

I think overall, I am not asking for a huge overhaul, but just a minor tweak to make balance more fair. (VIP path line and tweak to ECM tower)

If we take MWO as a thinking man's strategy, then we must accept that there will be different strategies to escort on big maps and small maps. PGI shouldn't be stuck on the mindset that they provide only a homogeneous style (big map, open terrain).

---------------

PS my idea to tweak on ECM tower is that make them visual like in scouting. So, you can see the ECM coverage zone, but not the tower itself on the minimap. It's a slight tweak, but I think it will put more emphasis on searching than to simply run head first into random tower that BY DEFINITION (since they are ECM tower), shouldn't even show up on minimap.

(I might even go a step further to take away the viewable ECM coverage zone, but that might be WAY too difficult on the offensive side. It's like trying to catch pokemon with the first iteration of the poke-radar on Pokemon Go... anyone that plays that game will know what I'm talking about.)

[Admiral Brad]

I agree with the map problem. I think that the map should show the main waypoints for the VIP and the current VIP path. The VIP should also let us know if he is changing direction "Duke Reginald the Third is now moving to Waypoint Charley".

I also agree that the defensive towers hinder the defenders as much as help them. If the towers were destructible instead of capturable they wouldn't be a liability to the defenders. In a addition the towers prevent scouting rewards which is minor but also doesn't encourage the scouting role.

It would also be nice if there was a "Protected VIP" reward similar to the "Protected Light/Medium" for getting shot near the VIP and for firing at enemies while near the VIP. There may be one, but I haven't noticed it.

Edited by Admiral Brad, 24 March 2017 - 08:31 AM.

[Amsro]

Yeah attackers have it easy;

1. Turn the closest ECM towers to your advantage.
2. Set up a firing line and wait for the VIP to derp into the firing line.
3. Collect overflowing salt
4. Farm map select multipliers to get Escort mode as often as possible.
5. Back to step one.

Defenders on the other hand.

1. Attempt to stop the changing of the ECM towers
2. Kill off everyone quickly
3. If you win pat yourself on back
4. Produce salt if you lose
5. Back to step one

This mode needs serious help to be sure, but I bet PGI thinks it's an overwhelming success.

Preview of the AI in MW5.

[razenWing]

Amsro, on 24 March 2017 - 09:21 AM, said:

Preview of the AI in MW5.

This literally happened 2 hours ago. Toumaline Desert. 11-2. Defenders "won" (and even with the score so lopsided, the VIP is like 15% from death). Dropship showed up with VIP mere 200 meters away. All it had to do was turned left, walk 200 meters, at most a 15 second trot, game over.

It decided to proceed to go right, made a HUGE circle, spent another 2 and a half minutes going around a hill before finally reaching the dropship.

[fearfactory]

I think PGI dropped the ball here... they could have introduced vehicles. It would be fun to transport a convoy or vehicles rather than one VIP 'Mech. Shoot, imagine if in some missions the convoy actually splits in 2 or 3 parts and it forces people to cover more ground.