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As some of these ideas are a bit lengthy and each might warrant some specific discussion I have broken the ideas up.
However, please review these related topics before taking into consideration the purpose of the proposal below.
Faction Play - Move to an Open System
Faction Play - Using our points as a currency
Faction Play - Repair, Rearm or Loot
LOGISTICS
This is a brand new feature designed to work in conjunction with an open system where we have reduced restrictions on our drop deck to participate in Faction Play.
This is not about adding in supply lines.
As we cannot add travel time as an option to just get to a planet, the other measurement we have to work with is a cost. The concept here is to present an upfront 'Jump Ship' cost for committing a drop deck of mechs into a battle and there are several purposes to it:
- By adding in a cost with a new feature like this, we can also add additional features that can work with it such as owning our own dropships, NPC Logistic officers and more.
- The cost can also be a way to give each faction some differences and more depth base on one of the variables in the formula.
- An upfront cost may not be appealing, after all it costs us nothing at the moment, but it may act as a bit of a way to gate players who may not have the resources and need to prepare a bit more first. A minor point but the whole 'gating' concept is something many ask about. This is more like a speed bump.
- With a feature such as that suggested in the repair, rearm or loot post, to ensure players do participate more effectively (particularly defenders) there needs to be a counter cost to simply shifting from one scenario to another milking the system.
We keep it simple.
Number of mechs in drop deck * Total Tonnage * c-bill cost = Jumpship Logistics cost.
This is a simple upfront cost that gives us a clear and visible economic risk for deploying our mechs into battle.
We can then build on that with Clan/IS and specific faction differences, personal and unit based modifiers and so on.
For example:
Number of mechs in drop deck * Total Tonnage * c-bill cost * 1.2 Clan Modifier = Jumpship Logistics cost.
Or
Number of mechs in drop deck * Total Tonnage * (c-bill cost - 10% Davion Logistics modifier) = Jumpship Logistics cost.
Or
Number of mechs in drop deck * (Total Tonnage - 10% Steiner 'We like Assault Mechs' Bonus) * c-bill cost = Jumpship Logistics cost
Or
(Number of mechs in drop deck -1 for personal Dropship) * Total Tonnage * c-bill cost = Jumpship Logistics cost.
OTHER PARTS THAT MAKE THIS WORK
One of the points made in the post for moving to an open system for Faction Play is reducing the minimum requirements on our drop decks.
That is, allowing us to only take 1 mech at 20 tons if we want to.
I am heavily in favour of changing the concept of Faction Play from just being about 12 v 12 Capture the planet to allowing more freedom for players to drop into a scenario in smaller numbers and do some scouting, do some raiding and play the game.
At the same time I want to enable big units to bring some significant numbers and really get that epic conflict for territorial domination of a scenario and capture the planet.
We can achieve this.
Adding a logistics cost is not a major part of the process but ties in with some of those other ideas and will add another element and some depth to the mode and the game overall.
EDIT 07/06/2017: Logistics costs could also be modified by player actions such as rebellions as discussed under the Freelancer section of Using our points for currency
It gives a way for player actions to have some weight to them in the grander scheme and strategies that could develop for Faction Play.
Consider if a Loyalist group could reach out to some freelancers on a former planet the faction controlled to incite a rebellion. At the same time they could encourage some mercenaries to conduct some raids against the invading faction. All as a larger prelude to making a counter attack and trying to retake territory.
Creates greater interaction and dynamics between players and units and we create player driven missions.
EDIT 15/06/2017: A small point to make in light of how this suggestion is intended to work in an open format is discouraging imbalances of player numbers between two sides in a single scenario.
With an open system that allows a single player to drop onto a planet and create a bucket/scenario that others can join, we need to consider the potential for a large group to drop in against them. A logistics cost will act as subtle way to mitigate the 'overkill'. Why would a 12 player group or even a lance of 4 drop in to oppose a single player when there is very little chance they will recoup the cost of the drop? If it costs's you 1,000,000 c-bills just to commit your drop deck and you would only get back 20,000 because there is simply not enough targets to shoot at, it makes the economic risk for a defending team very real and promotes a gradual scaling up of the conflict in the scenario.
A small thought that goes along with this is the potential for players to create diversions and lure in a large group taking them off the front lines. In the larger scheme of unit v unit conflict along the different faction borders we start to setup up dynamics between players and groups on a different level.
Edited by 50 50, 14 June 2017 - 07:02 PM.
