Posted 26 June 2017 - 04:01 AM
Do I want Solaris 7, yes. I liked the duels I had with my friend in private matches and I would like to see it flashed out to a full mode.
That said what would I like to see and how to pay or not for it.
1) Standalone or mode?
I don't like the idea of S7 being a standalone thing that you can launch through the portal. Just make it an extra screen like FW. Seperate from the rest of QP and 8v8 but still you just launch MWO once to get to all its different parts.
2) Modes
1v1 - to me this is the "must have" part of this mode. Basicly the Solo-QP of Solaris. Just get in and fire away.
2v2 - I would like to see this as a small team should be easy to create and gives some diversity to 1v1
FFA - Not certain about the number of players in a free for all envoirment but I think 8 to 12 should be a good number. It can very well serve as the startingpoint of a season to determin players starting positions for a tournament.
(In case Leagues would be implemented, this would be a restriction free fight)
2.1) Tournaments
Tournaments would be PGI set up events with certain win conditions and prizes. They would happen every now and then as they do now.
2.2) Leagues
This is kinda mixed bag for me. Lets first look at what I understand of a League.
Leagues would be set up by weight class and IS- and Clan- Tech. So there would be Light IS, Medium IS, Light Clan, Medium Clan .... and so on Leagues where only people with matching machines would face of against each other.
Maybe that could also be done without leagues and a working matchmaker but I bet that someone will then again start complaining about the tech differances and stuff. So seperating them from the start might be a good idea.
The problem I see with this is, will the leagues be filled with enough people to find a match? FW had to be reduced to a single Que to solve that problem...and while I think its harder to find 24 matching people then 2 it could still turn into a "Why is there no other light mech player?" kinda thing.
Personaly I would be so bold to put it to the test. Create the leagues to have fair matches and to see who is the best light, medium, heavy and assault pilot.
As an addition there should be a FFA league without any restrictions for those who think that they can take on anything, no matter what. Well that is what will happen anyway if the leagues don't find enough people.
3) Blackboard/Messageboard
Whatever you would call it there should be a way to leave notes for all other players to see. There you could anounce when you will be online to fight others. Maybe that way we can have more people online at the same time.
Optinal it could be handled over the Forums but I would prefer it to be ingame.
3.1) Challenges
While I would find it interesting to challange someone above me in the leaderboard to a duel I guess this would be to easy to be exploited. People could setup secondary accounts or ask friends to play bad just to climb the leaderbord. Only option I see to make it kinda worthless to cheat is that people can just change positions in the leaderboard.
For example a player is place 15 on the leaderboard but also has an account where he is in place 5. When he now playes against himself on account will still be at place 15 and the other at 5.
Same with asking a friend to play poorly...don't know if that guy would like to be placed down in the leaderboard for nothing.
Again, I like the idea of a challenging another player to a duel but its to exploidable.
4) "New beginning" or "Taking over old stuff"
This is to me a difficulte question. While I have also put some money in MWO I wouldn't have a problem to make a fresh start for Solaris. Other people have a "strong" opinion about not beeing able to use their existing rooster of mechs and equipment.
To me the fresh start would allow for a more even chance for everyone I doubt that S7 would have much of a chance if they would kinda "exclude" the people who paid a lot of money. So yah take over your old stuff and be done with that topic.
5)Stable
A Stable would be similar to a unit in FW. Here a group of players would fight under one banner. Basicly copy FW units system.
6) Contracts - These come in three flavors, see below
6.1) Loyalty
Tie in the Loyalty system from FW into S7. So when people don't play FW they could still pleadge their Loyalty to a house and receive the rewards for it. Since each battle might no bring in as much Loyalty points as a FW match progress would be slower but still better then nothing. Also you wouldn't have to create something new.
6.2) Sponsors
A Stable can have a contract with a sponsor.
These sponsors give out extra dutys you have to fullfill in a certain amount of time.
Like "Earn 500 Matchpoints in a single match to get 500.000 Cbills extra"
(Example to just get the idea)
Its kinda like the events we have now but you can pick the ones you feel beeing able to fullfill from the avaible contracts.
A stable can't have more then one sponsor.
Optinal:
If the contract is not fullfilled after its duration there will be a penalty. This penalty will be show in the fineprint in the contract
6.3) Advertisment
Here you can find contracts that ask you to paint your mech with specific colors or add specific decals to your mech.
They are also time limited but you can have more then one add on you mech.
For example you can have one contract asking you to use certain colors and two contracts for decals.
Adds pay you out a flat income in either CB or XP.after the contract is fullfilled
In the Example above it could be that you get:
250.000 for the Color
150.000 for one decal
2500GXP for the other decal
Question is if the contracts should come with the colors and decals, unlocking them for the time of the contract for the entire stable or if people need to buy these with MC.
While asking people to buy colors and decals for MC would keep a number of players from getting these contracts it's also a way for PGI to make money to support the gamemode/development.
It would also add a bit of value to either owning/buying a color/decal then you would normaly get from owning it.
Currently you pay the MC and get the color. Now you can have a CBill bonus with it to.
If it comes down to PGI asking themself how to make money of S7 I would prefere to have it this way then paying a monthly fee or paying a one-time prize for it.
6.4) Special Contracts
This is a special form of sponsored contracts as these are made by other players and with others I mean you can't give out this kind of contract to yourself!
Contracts of this kind will only be offered to the lower ranks of the leaderboard.
It has to be determined how complex these contracts could be.
My idea is:
The player selects from a template of contracts and fills in the values he wants.
Values would have a min/max limit to make them not unfullfillable or any other kind of crazy.
For example:
I select the "Weapon used" template.
Select the Gauss and fill in that the player should make 100 damage just with Gausshits.
For that I would reward him with 500.000 Cbills
Penalty: 250.000 Cbills
Then press "Send contract"
The money would be then taken out of my bank account.
If the contract is fullfilled the other player gets the money.
If the contract isn't fullfilled I get my money back and 250.000 Cbills.
The ideas behind this are:
- Getting player that aren't playing themself Solaris to be part of it in another way
- Get around calling it betting as I am not certain how the rules for online bets are, even if its just ingame money
- Give underperformer a chance to grab some extra money. As the board leaders most likely have enough anyway.
7) Including non participants
Even as people might not participate themself in S7 they should be taken into account.
The "special contracts" mentioned above is one thing. Maybe bets are another option or a "Black Market" where other players can sell weapons to S7 players.
Another greate option would be the demanded "match recording" option. I have seen that topic poping up at the "Features request" every now and then.
Basic idea is to have the server record a "textfile" of the match that gets send to the participants client. With that they could recreate the match on their PC and record it at a later point of time with all the spectator tools that are there. The ones that you used for the world champion broadcasts.
Add to this an option to post the vidoes, generated this way, to be easly broadcasted to PGIs "community" website. Then have PGI pick the top vid and broadcast it on the frontpage and put a link in the portal launcher for everyone to see. (Don't know how it would work with the steam version but if possible it should be mentioned there too)
8) Maps
Beside the current 1v1 Arena (personaly calling it the small Coluseum) I would like to see a diverse range of maps like with the original S7 Maps that came with the boardgame.
Also takeing over some of their unique features would be nice. Like Steiner Coluseum with its moveing (up/down) walls. I think it was DC tunnels or Marik Industrial complex with at least two levels of high.
I don't say they should blindly copy these maps..as it might also provide copyright issues but I doubt that they can say anything against taking over a general idea.
9) S7 Mechs
There are several S7 unique mechs. I think they would be nice for future mechpacks.
10) Paying for the development
I see the following possible ways:
1) For free - Yes I doubt that they would do it, else Russ wouldn't have mentioned other methodes.
2) S7 Mechpacks - As mentioned above there are several mechs that can only be found there and should become part of S7. So it would be a fitting way to sponsor it that way
3) Monthly subscribtion - if they do that I say they have to put a lot of work and manpower behind S7 to justify it for me. Their "normal" quality dosn't cut it. S7 would need a lot of more features and polish then what they have done so far.
4) Pay once, play forever - depends on the price and what they deliver. Wouldn't pay for it upfront and wait for other peoples review
5) Ingame transactions - Beside decals and colors the above mentioned contracts couild also be made Premium time only avaible.
Personaly I think 2 and 5 are the best options to attract the most people but PGI has, for me, lost my trust to pay upfront for something I don't know what I am getting...except Mechs.
They have become pretty good in creating them so I would pay for a S7 more likely, because I can still use them in normal gameplay, so that even if S7 becomes another FW I still got something usefull.
I know a lot to read but this was what was on my mind when I heard "we want to know what you would like".
7
Lightfoot, on 25 June 2017 - 03:23 PM, said:
The voting system is ok for quickplay now but Solaris may be better going totally random. Convinced of this.
