26 replies to this topic

[Bouncin]

Dear PGI,

This letter is intended to 1) point out, and 2) attempt to provide possible lore-based solutions for, the unbalanced nature of Faction Warfare. The premise is simple: Nothing that has been done up to this point to attempt to mitigate the Clan advantage over Inner Sphere has worked. In a few rare cases, the perk system has given an unexpected overadjustment in the Inner Sphere's favor, but this has been the exception to the rule for the most part. As well, implementing longer burn times, and other weapons adjustments, has had limited and temporary success. The core issue is that the Clans are technologically superior, as they are supposed to be, but there is no mitigation in the form of Clan adhearence to the ideals of resource preservation. I am not advocating a complete and absolute enforcement of Zellbrigen, but I am advocating, in Faction Warfare, limiting clan forces to a binary per drop (for a total of four binaries per FW engagement), rather than having them drop in companies. As well, implementing an inter-Clan bidding system, where the Clan force that bids the lowest drop weight to take a planet, is the Clan unit that gets to drop against the (now sparsely participatory) Inner Sphere forces seeking to take that planet. Once that clan has exhausted their bidded forces, the next lowest bidder would have an opportunity to start fighting the Inner Sphere forces on that planet. This could be done for multiple planets at once, allowing for maximum participation potential while bringing this aspect of Battletech lore into play. To further encourage the Clans to take the bidding system seriously, perhaps offer a bonus for every (x) tonnage they bid under their maximum. I do not believe these suggestions are unfair, or violate the spirit of the game in any way. In fact, this would breathe new life into a system that is slowly killing the Inner Sphere playerbase's desire to participate in Faction Warfare.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter from a long-time MWO player and avid Battletech fan.

Sincerely,
Bouncin, Aces Wild, Delta Company Commanding Officer

Edited by Bouncin, 03 October 2017 - 12:47 PM.

[Grus]

You would need to take a pass at all of the mech's IS and Clan to make this work. Due to the fact that both are currently ballences for 12v12 play.

[justcallme A S H]

I can't even...

[MischiefSC]

Why not just balance IS and Clans ton for ton - like PGI promised they would do back when Clans were originally going to be released.

They've gotten close a couple times, then backed off in favor of Clans. It was a terrible introduction of Clan tech, OP AF, and they've just scaled it down a bit sometimes since then. Having a faction vs faction game in a FPS where one faction is clearly superior is terrible and incompetent game design. Always has been, always will be.

The fix is the same it's always been. There's a thousand threads with a thousand ways to do it. It just needs done. Closest we've been was just before KDK release.

[Appogee]

@OP: I recommend you condense that to 140 280 characters and post it somewhere PGI might see it.

[Naglinator]

I see you are having problems beating the Clans. Try gettin' Gud.

[Commander A9]

Have you dropped in Faction Warfare in a group recently?

There will never be matches of 12 vs 10-ever. That's another artificial balancing attempt, much like the mismatch in tonnage available to both sides.

I recommend you drop alongside a unit and learn how they do things.

Edited by Commander A9, 03 October 2017 - 02:33 PM.

[Rhino272]

I think it's a fair lore based suggestion. However, from what I've seen, the average MWO really doesn't seem to care about the lore.

[justcallme A S H]

Rhino272, on 03 October 2017 - 02:47 PM, said:

I think it's a fair lore based suggestion. However, from what I've seen, the average MWO really doesn't seem to care about the lore.

I'd care about it if it had relevance to MWO, a FPS.

Fact is TT and it's rules/values - do not have as much relevance as people *think* it should. Which, would then not make this game as balanced as it is. Not saying it's perfect, but it's not too bad bar a few big items, which oddly enough are somewhat caused by lore... IS XL etc...

Edited by justcallme A S H, 03 October 2017 - 03:14 PM.

[Grus]

I think if you wanted something like what you suggested you would have to have a 3rd mode (4th after 1v1 arena patch) to have the settings recalculated. Something like what Warthunder does with Arcade, Realistic, and then Simulator.

Edited by Grus, 03 October 2017 - 04:19 PM.

[Bouncin]

Thank you all for your comments. While I do not believe something like this will ever be taken seriously, I also believe that if you do not speak when you have the ability, you should keep your mouth shut when things go south. Take care, have fun, and kill stompy robots!

[Quintus Verus]

Balance has been broken since the nerfs to quirks with release of Civil War. That being said, Clan tech broke BT when it was released. Their solution was to double down and get stupid with the Jihad insanity.

If PGI is going to run their war game based on spread sheet management, nothing is going to get fixed. The best solution, since they can't seem to get it fixed is to increasing IS weapon damage to the the same as clan damage or just .5 pts below and up range of IS weapons. Lore unfortunately won't work in a FPS. Right now it makes no sense to play the IS factions when clans can drop 2 waves of 50-70pt alphas laser vomit and 8mg lights to mop up.

Something needs to change, or IS needs to get pre-nerf Long tom strikes back.

[G SE7EN7]

Just make the game into: Any faction can use any mech and tech. No one cares for this lore BS and due to crappy coding the game cant make it work like it should.

This would get rid of all the imbalance issue. Its a simple solution really. Lets face it the game is doomed as it stands.

[Rhino272]

Actually you make a pretty good point G SE7EN7. By this point in lore, captured clan mechs are not unheard of, so your suggestion of any faction any tech, could satisfy lore enthusiasts.

[Bud Crue]

G SE7EN7, on 03 October 2017 - 07:08 PM, said:

Just make the game into: Any faction can use any mech and tech. No one cares for this lore BS and due to crappy coding the game cant make it work like it should.

This would get rid of all the imbalance issue. Its a simple solution really. Lets face it the game is doomed as it stands.

I like where your head is at with this, but for one big issue:
If we could all drop with whatever mech tech we wanted, then everyone would just drop 90% clans I fear. I’d prefer they just make a few more of 180ish IS mechs I own more competitive rather than just effectively incentivizing my replacinging the whole lot with about 8 Clan mechs.

[Nightbird]

It's hard to know how much of the gap is due to an imbalance of experienced pilots. The last time IS was even with clans, there was such a stacking on IS side that it made IS appear OP when it wasn't, leading to nerfs that weren't quite necessary.

[Grus]

Bud Crue, on 04 October 2017 - 06:55 AM, said:

I like where your head is at with this, but for one big issue:
If we could all drop with whatever mech tech we wanted, then everyone would just drop 90% clans I fear. I’d prefer they just make a few more of 180ish IS mechs I own more competitive rather than just effectively incentivizing my replacinging the whole lot with about 8 Clan mechs.

I disagree, if the premise is all tech all mech then I'll use the ANH for an example. If for said example you could have clan eng and wep installed with clan hs that thing would be a faster and still very durable powerhouse with better weapons and now the equipment to keep it cool. You would have to do a full reset/wipe of quirks across the board to even get started to see when and where any tweaks should or could be made... but here's the kicker, if you did what I suggest, there will be a huge shift in the population twords IS because "shinny". Not necessarily a bad thing but now you have the argument of overpopulation of one side vs the other... So there is a lot of different vectors you have to look at it due to the dynamics of this game... and programming is hard.

Edited by Grus, 04 October 2017 - 10:43 AM.

[Bud Crue]

Grus, on 04 October 2017 - 10:41 AM, said:

I disagree, if the premise is all tech all mech then I'll use the ANH for an example. If for said example you could have clan eng and wep installed with clan hs that thing would be a faster and still very durable powerhouse with better weapons and now the equipment to keep it cool. You would have to do a full reset/wipe of quirks across the board to even get started to see when and where any tweaks should or could be made... but here's the kicker, if you did what I suggest, there will be a huge shift in the population twords IS because "shinny". Not necessarily a bad thing but now you have the argument of overpopulation of one side vs the other... So there is a lot of different vectors you have to look at it due to the dynamics of this game... and programming is hard.

I took it to mean either tech can run any mech. Not that we could mix and match any tech within any mech. Cuz yeah, if I could do the latter I would take the “over quirked” IS variants with clan XL engines, etc. That seemed silly so I assumed that wasn’t intended.

[Grus]

Bud Crue, on 04 October 2017 - 10:55 AM, said:

I took it to mean either tech can run any mech. Not that we could mix and match any tech within any mech. Cuz yeah, if I could do the latter I would take the “over quirked” IS variants with clan XL engines, etc. That seemed silly so I assumed that wasn’t intended.

always assume that players will go to the extream. Look at ppfld. It also dosnt help the argument that rewards are skewed to doing the most damage/kills and hardly anything for objective play. Might as well get rid of all game modes save skirmish. The only reason they have objectives right now is to force players to have to deal with it.

[MischiefSC]

NlGHTBlRD, on 04 October 2017 - 07:07 AM, said:

It's hard to know how much of the gap is due to an imbalance of experienced pilots. The last time IS was even with clans, there was such a stacking on IS side that it made IS appear OP when it wasn't, leading to nerfs that weren't quite necessary.

Back before KDK when balance was pretty close we all switched about weekly. Now that tech favors Clans and there's LP to farm as Clan loyalist there's no good reason to play IS.

If balance was better population would be better.