11 replies to this topic

[Emden]

Last night, a few of my unit mates and I dropped on an Escort mission. We had some discussion about "if this was real" and we came up with an idea..... In a real escort mission, the guards/security forces would know the path and pick up location. This way the area can be scouted/defended etc. If the planned route changes, well, the guards/security forces would be notified (Siri does this real fast if you miss a turn, easy to do I would think).

This should be added, thoughts? Security Forces running blind is just silly an a Merc or Volunteer unit would never sign that contract.

[PhoenixFire55]

Doing things that makes sense instead of doing it Our Way^TM? Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

Minimally Viable Product^TM.

I can only +1 you OP, but as of now, I'd rather see escort mode scrapped entirely. Not in small part due to the fact that playing it with a team of PUGs is utter torture.

[Bud Crue]

In group queue I have yet to see escort since it was reintroduced. Every time it comes up it gets zero votes. No one is even risking inflating their vote count by clicking it. Zero percent vote, every time.

[Emden]

In an Assault, I would pick it over conquest any day.

[SuomiWarder]

I totally agree and have made the same post. If the map screen just showed a line indicating the course the VIP was programmed to follow (for the defenders only of course) it would make a big difference and be much more immersive - "realistic feeling".

Such a simple thing appears to be beyond PGI though.

[Vellron2005]

Emden, on 04 July 2017 - 04:15 AM, said:

Last night, a few of my unit mates and I dropped on an Escort mission. We had some discussion about "if this was real" and we came up with an idea..... In a real escort mission, the guards/security forces would know the path and pick up location. This way the area can be scouted/defended etc. If the planned route changes, well, the guards/security forces would be notified (Siri does this real fast if you miss a turn, easy to do I would think).

This should be added, thoughts? Security Forces running blind is just silly an a Merc or Volunteer unit would never sign that contract.

Another great idea to add to the pool of unused great ideas about Escort.

Here's a few more:

1) Make the VIP a non-combat vehicle, like an MFB, instead of the most badass mech in the game. That way, people's minds will automatically identify it as squishy, immobile and difficult to maneuver and will treat it as such.The fact that the VIP is a full-health, non-combatant Atlas is killing immersion completely.

2) Make the VIP shoot back.

3) Yes, knowledge of the route before hand would be very very helpful. It would also add to immersion.

4) Make the defenders get the same penalty as if going out of bounds if they are more than X meters from the VIP, since it would be considered desertion. This would force the players to actually play the objective, instead of just doing skirmish. Think of the concept as a moving domination mode for the defenders..

5) It's silly that my team has no clue where the VIP is, but my commanding officer who's safe in his dropsip knows "it's a quarter of the way to it's destination".. like great.. wanna share it's location genius?!

6) If you gonna keep the VIP an Atlas, can you at least make it torso twist and actively avoid danger instead of rushing headlong into it?

7) Alternative to 4) - Make the VIP stop moving if no defenders are within X meters from it. Do not stop the clock.

[Pur]

I have a suggestion regarding Escort:

It should be removed from the game entirely, at least until PGI fleshes out a properly balanced concept for the game mode itself.

[Cy Mitchell]

I basically like Escort mode and enjoy it when I get to play it. IMO, anything that is not just pure Skirmish is an improvement. However, it could be better. It would be great if we could click on a grid point on the mini-map to designate where the extraction was going to be. Barring that, it would be good if the defending team was shown the location of the extraction zone at the beginning of the match and it was permanently highlighted on the mini-map for all defenders to see.

I also posted this suggestion for Escort in another thread:

Rampage, on 05 July 2017 - 12:52 PM, said:

I think they should make Escort into a moving Domination. How?

No more killing the VIP.

Make a capture zone around him with a countdown clock. As long as there is a friendly Mech in the circle the counter does not go down (or actually goes up if there is no attacking Mech in the circle but time has come off the clock from a previous occupation.). If there is no friendly Mech within the zone then the counter goes down. The zone moves with the VIP. If the counter reaches zero before the VIP reaches the extraction zone then he is considered captured and the capturing team gets a HUGE bonus. If the VIP gets to the extraction zone before the counter is depleted then the escorting team gets a HUGE bonus. Killing the VIP results in no bonus for anyone.

Edited by Rampage, 06 July 2017 - 06:50 AM.

[ChapeL]

I'll throw my ideas in this bucket too ( since no one bothers with the suggestion forum )

Quote

Just some thoughts while playing today...

Let's leave the premise the same: Escort VIP to extraction zone.

What currently happens is a heavily armored VIP is left to his own devices slowling making his way "somewhere" on the map while both teams play skirmish elsewhere.

Now I don't know if the coding for this is even possible but hear me out:

What if the armor on the VIP was dynamically unfluenced by the number of friendly mechs in a 100 or 200m radius? ( or whatever works best) So if the mech is alone with no escort, it's a regular Atlas with armor a single Locust can burn through relatively quickly.

The more friendlies are guarding him, the more his armor value goes up to the point we currently have in game.

Now here is where it gets more interesting: Across the map could be a few "objectives" out along the VIP's path that start out defender controlled. The attacker can take control of these in order to add time to the dropship ETA. ( Of course, the defender can retake control of these if they want ) Obviously those would need to be placed logically aka not clear across the map from the Evac zone to avoid some edge cases of trolling but that's not the heart of the matter right now...

So for the defenders, part of the job would be to find the correct balance of mechs to put on escort duty vs the front lines and the attacker would want to lure defenders away from the VIP by taking control of the objectives ( or plain old squirrel tactic ) to weaken him so he can be taken down faster / before the dropship arrives.

This way a defender team could opt to stick all 12 mechs near the VIP making him as heavily armed as he is right now ( or more, whatever balancing would show ) but doing so would leave the attacker to control ALL the objectives making the defenders vulnerable to attrition ( not to mention VIP death ) since the dropship will take quite a bit of time to get there. On the other hand they can devote just a few guards to the VIP ( to deter Locust drive-by shootings and soon Rocket Launcher trolls ), keep the attackers from controlling the objectives along the path and make sure the dropship shows up in a timely manner. Say, if they control all objectives the Dropship shows up just as the VIP arrives at the EVAC zone, with each objective currently in enemy hands a minute ( 2 minutes, whatever is painfull enough ) is added ?

Feel free to add your thoughts. I have by no means thought this through completely and fully expect holes to be found. I would welcome constructive feedback.

[zeves]

VIP becomes an Ares, with Weapons escort solved

[Humpday]

I like escort.
What i don't get is, why haven't they made him able to shoot back with...anything?
They have the codebase to do it, they have Dropships and turret that shoot back...Don't quite understand why the VIP doesn't shoot.

Just give him a 180 cone of engagement, anything that gets infront of him gets shot with...dare I say, AC20/srms?

I mean 99% of people say the same thing...simply, shoot back.
Theres got to be something in their code that needs significant refactoring to enable this to occur, otherwise I can't think of a reason why this hasn't been implemented...

But then again...the VIP has been know to get himself stuck on maps...still.

[Electroflameageddon]

Vellron2005, on 06 July 2017 - 05:14 AM, said:

Another great idea to add to the pool of unused great ideas about Escort.

Here's a few more:

1) Make the VIP a non-combat vehicle, like an MFB, instead of the most badass mech in the game. That way, people's minds will automatically identify it as squishy, immobile and difficult to maneuver and will treat it as such.The fact that the VIP is a full-health, non-combatant Atlas is killing immersion completely.

2) Make the VIP shoot back.

3) Yes, knowledge of the route before hand would be very very helpful. It would also add to immersion.

4) Make the defenders get the same penalty as if going out of bounds if they are more than X meters from the VIP, since it would be considered desertion. This would force the players to actually play the objective, instead of just doing skirmish. Think of the concept as a moving domination mode for the defenders..

5) It's silly that my team has no clue where the VIP is, but my commanding officer who's safe in his dropsip knows "it's a quarter of the way to it's destination".. like great.. wanna share it's location genius?!

6) If you gonna keep the VIP an Atlas, can you at least make it torso twist and actively avoid danger instead of rushing headlong into it?

7) Alternative to 4) - Make the VIP stop moving if no defenders are within X meters from it. Do not stop the clock.

I like your ideas.

The only thing I would change is 7. If the VIP is within 500 to 750m of the ship, keep it moving. This allows the escorting defenders to break away and attempt to bring down the remaining attackers. I've been able to do that and have had a ton of fun with the last minute fur ball.