9 replies to this topic

[Scyther]

I find the Scout mode an interesting addition to FP, although of course it's primarily interesting due to the fast drops and varied teams/mechs encountered during the event.

Most of my Scout drops have ended up as '4v4 fast-ish brawling fights'. Seeing a lot of lasers and SRMs, not too much dakka or PPC. I saw one very good use of LRMs from a quite skilled player, other than that no LRMs at all.

The battles can go either way (IS or Clan), and quickly. Eg., you're brawling and thinking it looks good, then poof suddenly your side is down 2 mechs and it's 'run away!' time. I've seen a couple 'lost the brawl' matches turned into wins when the Gather Intel side broke off and went for the dropship. All in all it's been interesting.

My question is, would a heavy/assault 4v4 with objective work out? Say something like Domination on a few of the smaller maps. The heavies/assaults would head to a central location and take/hold./defend an objective. Wins are by control of objective, which happen if you chase off, delay, or kill the opposing 4.

There would be room for fast fatties, tanky fatties, DPS fatties... maybe even sniper or LRM builds in something like that.

The downside I could see would be that any players going into Scout or 4v4-Assault Mode queues would continue to split the overall FP queues - something we probably don't need.

So, what do people think? Horrible idea? Potential fun? Is 4v4 Heavy/Assault class inherently unworkable or would this be something you'd like to try?

Edited by MadBadger, 13 May 2017 - 12:27 PM.

[Nesutizale]

Quote

The battles can go either way (IS or Clan), and quickly. Eg., you're brawling and thinking it looks good, then poof suddenly your side is down 2 mechs and it's 'run away!' time. I've seen a couple 'lost the brawl' matches turned into wins when the Gather Intel side broke off and went for the dropship. All in all it's been interesting.

That is exactly why I think that scouting is the only objective based mode that PGI has done right.

As for your idea. I could imagne modes with a mixed team of 4. Means you can have a light, medium, heavy and assault per team.
Like Domination, you try to bring your assault into the circle, supported by the heavy and lights and mediums running around to find an opening.
I could also imagne that for other modes too.

Still we could run into the "small teams VS servercost" problem I think.

[Tordin]

It would be pretty interesting. Steiner all out assaults.
But then again how about Liao, Frr for example?
I know the Capellans are the clever shadow players so they could stay with lights only?
And Kurita, heavies?
And some other factions a mix of weight classes?

[Scyther]

@Tordin:

Just for clarity, 'Steiner Scout Lance' is a BT joke poking fun at the Lyran Commonwealths wealth and industrial might mixed with the somewhat slow plodding tactics of their political generals. So it isn't intended that each house would field different types of units. It's just another way of saying Heavy/Assault lance. 4 vs 4 mechs, minimum tonnage 65 or 70 tons, duking it out to see who gets the tasty prize.

For reference:

[TheArisen]

I think it could be fun but I think heavies would reign because they have enough firepower but substantially greater speed and agility.

[Khobai]

steiner scout mode would be fun

but it should only allow assaults not heavy. 80 tons and up.

its not a steiner scout lance if you have heavies

[Spheroid]

What would be more interesting is a 1-1-1-1 mode were deathballing would slow you down to much to win objectives leading to very interesting spread combat with more duels.

Also potatoes could bring their lurms and feel like they weren't completely useless.

[Trenchbird]

In this case, it'd be... Interesting.

On one hand, the brawl would be real. But a lot of assault pilots are bad at it. I mean, while speeds not as much of an issue as with scout mode, so LRMs may be at least a little viable, but... Not a huge amount. It'd turn into a brawl really quickly.

On the other, the metas for both would either be completely different or more or less the same. Focusing on raw damage output as opposed to DPS may end up being more valued; Heavies would be obsoleted by the presence of a good assault on either side. For example, a lot of IS heavies wilter and die when exposed to a KDK-3, but Clan heavies tend to go up like fireworks when a right and proper Atlas AS7-S or BNC-3M hits the field. At the same time, ganging up on assaults would be normal... It's a tricky thing to think about.

I think it's worth a shot.

[Dogstar]

Having 4v4 matches in a range of weigh brackets would be excellent

Lights, Mediums (this is the current scouting), Heavy, and Assault classes should all have a 4x4 mode with a suitable name:

Lights - Recon
Medium - Scouting
Heavy - Skirmish
Assault - Brawl

or something like that.

[TheArisen]

Spheroid, on 13 May 2017 - 12:33 PM, said:

What would be more interesting is a 1-1-1-1 mode were deathballing would slow you down to much to win objectives leading to very interesting spread combat with more duels.

Also potatoes could bring their lurms and feel like they weren't completely useless.

That would actually be pretty cool.