3 replies to this topic

[catsonmeth]

Here're some ideas that'll never be implemented in my wildest dreams.

First, I have to say that the game is pretty one-dimensional. It's all PVP mechs fighting to the death all the time for nothing substantial, and everything else in the BT universe is kinda ignored. The most flavor you get is doing it four times in a match, which doesn't exactly help the repetitiveness. It's disappointing that FW's only claim to depth is a colorful map that changes shape sometimes.

So how could the game be spiced up, how could FW gain a little depth?

Now, these are large-scale suggestions, and I'm not under the illusion that the devs will ever consider any of them. I'm not as lore-savvy as many of you, but I've been playing MWO since open beta.

1. Time/Kill Unlimited Game Modes. As it stands, every game mode is a pitched battle between two teams with fixed numbers of players and a time limit. At its heart, every match is Skirmish, and that includes FW. There are no extended battles where actually completing a non-kill objective is the only way of winning. In a mode such as this, there would be no limit to the amount of drops either team gets. If a pilot ejects, it can choose another mech from its deck. If it dies, disconnects, or runs out of mechs, then it's replaced with another player. The win objective could be practically anything.

2. Crawlers. Some cannon-fodder would be nice. I believe this is the only BT game that has no tanks. I'm sure they've been discussed, but I'm also sure that they could be made to work somehow. Maybe a player could drop with a few AVs to command rather than one mech, or the attackers get a few AI-controlled tanks to counter the defenders' turrets.

3. Repair Bays. I know, repair bays would give the holding team a significant advantage over the other team, but that also makes them excellent strategic goals. Plus, it's really annoying when a Gauss sniper takes off all of your ST armor right out of the gate.

4. Travel considerations, the addition of JumpShips and WarShips. These would be the means of a warrior to get from place to place. They'd be owned by the factions or a transit company (or maybe a particularly wealthy merc unit), and serve as a sort of home base. A freelancer might need to pay for passage, a merc unit would be charged a discount fee, and it would be free for faction players. If the ship is destroyed, players would have to pay to salvage their inventory and store it on another ship. It gives the map more reason to exist, and gives players an incentive to remove orbital guns. It would also be nice to feel that I have a known location rather than some undisclosed point somewhere in the galaxy.

This could all be done in menus, animations, and little blinking objects on the map. Maybe add some ship-specific ambiance to the mechlab or something.

5. Purchasable DropShips. This would be mostly for large units. Buy a DS which has a fixed carry weight limit that the whole drop team shares. Now the guy who loves Locusts can run four of them and the assault specialist can have some Atlases. Those who aren't in a unit still have to use the Leopards along with the other peasants.

[50 50]

I like it.
Would love to see a more open style of combat but sadly don't think that will happen and going forward I believe Faction Play needs to basically use quick play as it's core but add out of combat features before and after it such as the jumpships, or having some sort of after battle effect at the player and faction level.

This might interest you:
https://mwomercs.com...-it-a-campaign/

[Insanity09]

1. People already ignore objectives, I'd rather not give them even more reason to do so.

2. Tanks, cool. essentially mobile turrets, yes? Perhaps a FW specific consumable, or activated, like a flag, on certain maps?

3. Repair bays. No thanks. Again, a nifty idea, but unless the way the game worked was changed (made more strategic, the way it should be), I don't see it being a value add at present. (if it worked more as 50 50's thread describes, repair/rearm bays might be fine)

4. While the jumpship/transit cost makes good sense, I'm not sure if just cutting into Merc profits will do anything other than annoy people.

5. Purchasable dropships... this has possibilities. I'd suggest it be a sort of enhanced drop deck functionality, giving greater tonnage ranges, i.e. it would/should cost MC to get this. You might also allow faster respawn with this, though I'm not sure why I'd want that personally, some folks might like it (might help to sync drops better?). However, I have grave concerns over how this could be balanced to avoid a P2W situation.

As an additional bit...
I'd suggest giving the planets some sort of meaningful utility.
Perhaps one planet would make certain weapon systems slightly cheaper, another makes engines cost less, etc.

There have been a couple threads on how to improve FW, to make it more like it should be. I think 50 50 authored a couple (more than just the one link here).

[Rick T Dangerous]

Repairing a mech takes some weeks, not some minutes. Even reloading should take a while, doing that in a hurry should come with the risk of some techs dropping a wrench in the missile tube or ammo storage, resulting in something worse than an ammo explosion. Or they accidentally might drop a missile, resulting in the whole reload bay to blow up - fracking the mech inside.