42 replies to this topic

[X a v i e r]

Faction signups for the NetBattleTech MWO league will open on July 18th (with the Civil War patch) and continue at least through the August patch.

I had originally planned to have the league running on the 18th, but due to the nature of setting up a faction in NBT and the strong likelihood of a significant set of balance changes to the new Civil War weapons and mechs in the August patch, I decided that it would be better if teams did not spend a ton of time setting up their factions and getting the league underway, only to have to reset a month into the league.

So what will happen on July 18th? Representatives for teams interested in joining the league will be able to register with the NBT automaton on that day, and indicate the faction(s) in which they are interested. Note that this is not a first-come-first-served proposition -- we will be spending much more time considering faction assignment this time than we did in the "alpha", in the interests of map, competitive and geographic balance. This is an additional reason we want a month to allow signups. Understand, though, that you won't have to wait a month to hear anything -- the map setup will be dynamic during the signup period and as teams express interest in the league and in particular factions, we may juggle things around and this will require regular contact between NBT Admins and the applicants.

It is important to understand that factions will be filled in a certain order; it is imperative that we have reliable teams in the Major House and Major Clan factions prior to start; no other factions will be filled until this happens. The reason for this is that the foundation of any successful NBT league lies in these factions being fully active at all times. Therefore we will not be filling applications for Minor Clans, Mercenaries, Pirates or Periphery Kingdoms until these major factions are filled and active.

Currently, the only specifics about the league itself are expressed in the draft ruleset we would like to start with. Those rules are posted (in rough form, in terms of presentation) on the NBT website:

http://www.netbattletech.com

Between now and the 18th, I will be adding additional data, such as the starting map (it will be a 3062 timeline, with potential slight customizations and deviations from canon as needed to fit the applicant pool) and rules corrections/clarifications.

Any questions anyone may have about anything NBT-related, please post on the NBT Forums (preferred) or here in this thread (may experience a delay in response time).

Thank you for your consideration, and may your victories be many!

Edited by BanditB17, 10 July 2017 - 10:58 AM.

[QueenBlade]

[Igor Kozyrev]

Is it the new admin tools or the old ones?

[QueenBlade]

• Dead links in the rules section
  
• FRR not a major IS House, inb4 Mad Jarl rage
  
• No discord? *recommend for added communications*
  
• *reserved*

Edited by QueenBlade, 10 July 2017 - 11:49 AM.

[Jarl Dane]

QueenBlade, on 10 July 2017 - 11:18 AM, said:

• FRR not a major IS House, inb4 Mad Jarl rage

What! But in the alpha the FRR and her dread-mercs ably defended her realm! Sigh.

i recall at the end of last season one of the goals for this one was reorganizing the major houses (such as th FRR!) in more hierarchical structures; That there would be a clear leader of a faction who would then manage the other units in it and assign territories and stuff. Was all this thrown out? Are we just returning to the old style of 'you get a military district and maybe you work with your other military districts and maybe you don't.'?

If you are going to gut the FRR and leave it for dead, what about the canon ISENGRIM merc unit, can they be added? And if that is a no.. well let's talk about the JarnFolk.

[Greyfoxx]

Skye Rangers will be there. We have been looking forward to it for a year and half already.

[X a v i e r]

Igor Kozyrev, on 10 July 2017 - 11:10 AM, said:

Is it the new admin tools or the old ones?

Brand new, all written from scratch (which is why it's taken as long as it has ).

QueenBlade, on 10 July 2017 - 11:18 AM, said:

• Dead links in the rules section
  
• FRR not a major IS House, inb4 Mad Jarl rage
  
• No discord? *recommend for added communications*
  
• *reserved*

* Yes, those will become live this week
* I already have The Jarl mad at me because FRR technically only has 7 planets in this timeline
* There is an NBT discord -- it should be in the rules (I will double-check). While the IRC server is still up and functional, that's like saying "you must all have an AOL account" at this point...and Discord is better for that anyway

Greyfoxx, on 10 July 2017 - 12:20 PM, said:

Skye Rangers will be there. We have been looking forward to it for a year and half already.

Thank you -- and I appreciate the initial playtesting you guys (and others!) did last year.

[X a v i e r]

Mech The Dane, on 10 July 2017 - 11:30 AM, said:

What! But in the alpha the FRR and her dread-mercs ably defended her realm! Sigh.

i recall at the end of last season one of the goals for this one was reorganizing the major houses (such as th FRR!) in more hierarchical structures; That there would be a clear leader of a faction who would then manage the other units in it and assign territories and stuff. Was all this thrown out? Are we just returning to the old style of 'you get a military district and maybe you work with your other military districts and maybe you don't.'?

No districts -- that turned out to be a qualified mistake (it worked in some ways, but failed miserably in many others). The Houses will be monolithic again. In time, there will be support for a hierarchical structure (so ISEN could run FRR, for example, and delegate some battles and some level of control to -SO- in parts of the same space). That is not likely to be ready for live action next month, however, so that will have to roll out over time.

Quote

If you are going to gut the FRR and leave it for dead, what about the canon ISENGRIM merc unit, can they be added? And if that is a no.. well let's talk about the JarnFolk.

I did say there were some liberties we were willing to take with the 3062 map...

Edited by X a v i e r, 10 July 2017 - 12:53 PM.

[Tarogato]

Is there / can there be some way for generic unit members and spectators to view the real time league map? Playing for the league last season, I felt very disenfranchised from what was actually going on - only the unit leaders get to see the map, and we are dependent on them to fill us in and screenshot the map and inform of of what is going on. Would be nice for us to be able to see things for ourselves to keep the hype flowing.

[MT Slayer]

X a v i e r, on 10 July 2017 - 10:08 AM, said:

Faction signups for the NetBattleTech MWO league will open on July 18th (with the Civil War patch) and continue at least through the August patch.

I had originally planned to have the league running on the 18th, but due to the nature of setting up a faction in NBT and the strong likelihood of a significant set of balance changes to the new Civil War weapons and mechs in the August patch, I decided that it would be better if teams did not spend a ton of time setting up their factions and getting the league underway, only to have to reset a month into the league.

So what will happen on July 18th? Representatives for teams interested in joining the league will be able to register with the NBT automaton on that day, and indicate the faction(s) in which they are interested. Note that this is not a first-come-first-served proposition -- we will be spending much more time considering faction assignment this time than we did in the "alpha", in the interests of map, competitive and geographic balance. This is an additional reason we want a month to allow signups. Understand, though, that you won't have to wait a month to hear anything -- the map setup will be dynamic during the signup period and as teams express interest in the league and in particular factions, we may juggle things around and this will require regular contact between NBT Admins and the applicants.

It is important to understand that factions will be filled in a certain order; it is imperative that we have reliable teams in the Major House and Major Clan factions prior to start; no other factions will be filled until this happens. The reason for this is that the foundation of any successful NBT league lies in these factions being fully active at all times. Therefore we will not be filling applications for Minor Clans, Mercenaries, Pirates or Periphery Kingdoms until these major factions are filled and active.

Currently, the only specifics about the league itself are expressed in the draft ruleset we would like to start with. Those rules are posted (in rough form, in terms of presentation) on the NBT website:

http://www.netbattletech.com

Between now and the 18th, I will be adding additional data, such as the starting map (it will be a 3062 timeline, with potential slight customizations and deviations from canon as needed to fit the applicant pool) and rules corrections/clarifications.

Any questions anyone may have about anything NBT-related, please post on the NBT Forums (preferred) or here in this thread (may experience a delay in response time).

Thank you for your consideration, and may your victories be many!

Mechwarrior done RIGHT !!!!
(PGI please learn from the masters )

[X a v i e r]

Tarogato, on 10 July 2017 - 01:10 PM, said:

Is there / can there be some way for generic unit members and spectators to view the real time league map? Playing for the league last season, I felt very disenfranchised from what was actually going on - only the unit leaders get to see the map, and we are dependent on them to fill us in and screenshot the map and inform of of what is going on. Would be nice for us to be able to see things for ourselves to keep the hype flowing.

Yes, the starmap has always been public, except for faction-confidential data. Items like battles, however, are publicly visible (whether factories are public data or not is TBD). Information such as positions and numbers of combat units (mechs, in MWO), jumpships/dropships, charge stations -- those are still faction-confidential. We will have a role-based ACL system however, that will allow teams to decide what of their information is visible,and to whom.

[X a v i e r]

QueenBlade, on 10 July 2017 - 11:18 AM, said:

• No discord? *recommend for added communications*

Just double-checked, the TS3 and Discord links are in the rules (under (9) Battle Procedures And Protocols). I need to add prominent links to them on the landing page, though.

[naterist]

dibs on word of blake. we kickstartin this jihad a lil' early yall! nukes for days, baby.

[GutterBoy5]

hey Xavier
this is old NBT automation? refitted with current MWO. so planetary assault with the slider bar thingy

guerilla raids
mech thefts
icome thefts
etc.

[Igor Kozyrev]

What about stock mode? Is there a chance we'll see that happen?

[X a v i e r]

GutterBoy5, on 11 July 2017 - 01:26 AM, said:

hey Xavier
this is old NBT automation? refitted with current MWO. so planetary assault with the slider bar thingy

guerilla raids
mech thefts
icome thefts
etc.

Negative -- brand new automation code, from the ground up. There are only two battle types, Sector Raid and Sector Assault. Sector Raids more or less roll up all of the effects of the previous multiple raid types into a single multi-drop affair, and Sector Assaults are for groups of planets at a time, instead of just one at a time. The rules are a bit TL;DR but the sections on Attacks And Battles and Sector Assaults cover this (I hope) fairly well. If anything there is unclear, definitely let me know!

Igor Kozyrev, on 11 July 2017 - 03:48 AM, said:

What about stock mode? Is there a chance we'll see that happen?

I don't see why not. It would be a small chance (10-15%) and probably only on raids. Those are subject to change, of course.

[Igor Kozyrev]

One more question. Does new automation support internationalization? If yes, I'd like to help with russian translation.

Edited by Igor Kozyrev, 11 July 2017 - 07:30 AM.

[Gonta]

Great news! Thank you Xavier!

[RJF Volkodav]

RJF is interested. Will be rolling in and hope you have a solution for problem of overloading units with battles. Sector system did not worked, but switching to monolitic only wont solve it. Hoping for some great NBT actions as your old NBT-HC player ).

[X a v i e r]

Igor Kozyrev, on 11 July 2017 - 07:29 AM, said:

One more question. Does new automation support internationalization? If yes, I'd like to help with russian translation.

My intention is to support i18n, yes. It may not be fully implemented by the time we go live but it should not be far after that.