1
What to Keep:
A) Maps
B) Gamemodes
C) Faction Voting
What to Change:
A) Three Buckets
1) Inner Sphere vs Clan
2) Inner Sphere vs Inner Sphere
3) Clan vs Clan
B) Loyalty Points
C) Mercenary Contracts
D) Scouting Match Results
E) How and When results of an successful Attack/Defense are calculated
What to Add: *
A) Logistics/Economy
B) Player Investment
C) PGI involvement
Spoiler
What to keep is important. Using existing maps and gamemodes saves development time and money for PGI, and the players get to the improved product sooner.
I felt Faction Play / Community Warfare took a huge hit when Clan vs Clan and I.S. vs I.S. conflicts were made impossible by the 1 Bucket change. This can be done with minimal impact on the matchmaker and will hopefully bring more players back to FP to make up the difference. Here is how it would work:
1) Player brings up the Faction Play menu and is given the same Conflicts menu, it would show 3 Choices for Mercs/Freelancers and 2 for Loyalists (I.S. Loyalists cannot participate in Clan vs Clan and reverse for Clan Loyalists). 2) Player is then allowed to Choose between Scouting and Invasion mode as present.
3) Player is moved to queue for a drop lobby, same as now.
4) Player enters drop lobby same as now, can chat with teammates, see game mode and map and change dropdecks.
5) opposing team is found and ready, drop begins.
The difference is the teams will always be made of whatever Players queued first regardless of Faction. Only Contract status as a Clan or I.S. Faction would matter when the match maker builds teams. So in Clan vs Clan, 3 Wolves, 6 Falcons and 3 Bears might drop against 10 Falcons and 2 Vipers. Before anyone freaks out, the complications will be addressed later regarding Loyalty Points and Match Results.
Loyalty Points will no longer be lost upon Killing a Faction mech. In the example match above, the Falcon teams may freely engage each other as well as other Clanners without fear of LP loss. No other changes to LP.
Change Mercenaries so they no longer need "choose" a contract. They are free to drop in any of the 3 buckets at any time. Mercs go where the money is, most often the money is where the fighting is. Freelancers and Loyalists are unchanged.
Scouting Match results would change from the current "bar" to a cause and effect system. The effect would be an Event which would take place on all current Invasion matches on the server. Win with 1 to 10 Intel everyone in your faction gets a single Satellite Sweep. Win 11 to 15 intel and your faction gets Combat ID buff for 4 minutes. Win with 16 to 19 Intel, activates the Radar Jammer for 2 minutes. Win with 20 Intel and Russ can shoot the other team with Long Tom (beware both sides in Clan vs Clan or I.S. vs I.S. may be hit simultaneously). Ghost drops are worth a single Satellite Sweep.
How Results of Attack/Defense matter is a big reason why I got frustrated with the gamemode. The current system uses a single planet as the scale of a conflict, I propose changing this to a cluster of planets / sector. Keep the 8 hour window for calculating results. At the end of that 8 hours the server would compile results. Each player who participated in match which resulted in a Win gets 7 points for their Faction. Each mech lost in a match is -1 point for the Faction. As the example mentioned above if the 10 Falcon 2 Viper team won that would be 70 points for Falcons and 14 for Vipers, less mechs destroyed, say only 1 Viper was left of all the mechs on both sides.
ex: Final points Falcons 70 (10 team2 wins) -24 (team1 Falcon losses) -40 (team2 Falcon lost) = 6
ex2: points for Vipers 14 - 7 = 7
ex3: points for Wolves 0 (for loss) - 12 ( mechs lost) = -12
All Factions would have their numbers added up every 8 hours. Those with a postive number would advance along the path their membership voted for that phase, one planet changes status. Top contributing Units recognized for the victory. A negative total means no progress. If two Factions both voted to attack each other and both achieved positive point totals there is a draw and no changes to the map. Ghost drops are worth +1 point only per player the faction had in the ghost drop.
Additions are stretch goals. I think the changes outlined above would help bring Players back to Faction Play. I would love to see C-bill earnings adjusted for taking faction themed mechs; a return to locked Faction Loyalties but with a reset under a specific timeframe (ex: 3 months); and a return of PGI involvment such as the old Comstar Interecepts.
What to keep is important. Using existing maps and gamemodes saves development time and money for PGI, and the players get to the improved product sooner.
I felt Faction Play / Community Warfare took a huge hit when Clan vs Clan and I.S. vs I.S. conflicts were made impossible by the 1 Bucket change. This can be done with minimal impact on the matchmaker and will hopefully bring more players back to FP to make up the difference. Here is how it would work:
1) Player brings up the Faction Play menu and is given the same Conflicts menu, it would show 3 Choices for Mercs/Freelancers and 2 for Loyalists (I.S. Loyalists cannot participate in Clan vs Clan and reverse for Clan Loyalists). 2) Player is then allowed to Choose between Scouting and Invasion mode as present.
3) Player is moved to queue for a drop lobby, same as now.
4) Player enters drop lobby same as now, can chat with teammates, see game mode and map and change dropdecks.
5) opposing team is found and ready, drop begins.
The difference is the teams will always be made of whatever Players queued first regardless of Faction. Only Contract status as a Clan or I.S. Faction would matter when the match maker builds teams. So in Clan vs Clan, 3 Wolves, 6 Falcons and 3 Bears might drop against 10 Falcons and 2 Vipers. Before anyone freaks out, the complications will be addressed later regarding Loyalty Points and Match Results.
Loyalty Points will no longer be lost upon Killing a Faction mech. In the example match above, the Falcon teams may freely engage each other as well as other Clanners without fear of LP loss. No other changes to LP.
Change Mercenaries so they no longer need "choose" a contract. They are free to drop in any of the 3 buckets at any time. Mercs go where the money is, most often the money is where the fighting is. Freelancers and Loyalists are unchanged.
Scouting Match results would change from the current "bar" to a cause and effect system. The effect would be an Event which would take place on all current Invasion matches on the server. Win with 1 to 10 Intel everyone in your faction gets a single Satellite Sweep. Win 11 to 15 intel and your faction gets Combat ID buff for 4 minutes. Win with 16 to 19 Intel, activates the Radar Jammer for 2 minutes. Win with 20 Intel and Russ can shoot the other team with Long Tom (beware both sides in Clan vs Clan or I.S. vs I.S. may be hit simultaneously). Ghost drops are worth a single Satellite Sweep.
How Results of Attack/Defense matter is a big reason why I got frustrated with the gamemode. The current system uses a single planet as the scale of a conflict, I propose changing this to a cluster of planets / sector. Keep the 8 hour window for calculating results. At the end of that 8 hours the server would compile results. Each player who participated in match which resulted in a Win gets 7 points for their Faction. Each mech lost in a match is -1 point for the Faction. As the example mentioned above if the 10 Falcon 2 Viper team won that would be 70 points for Falcons and 14 for Vipers, less mechs destroyed, say only 1 Viper was left of all the mechs on both sides.
ex: Final points Falcons 70 (10 team2 wins) -24 (team1 Falcon losses) -40 (team2 Falcon lost) = 6
ex2: points for Vipers 14 - 7 = 7
ex3: points for Wolves 0 (for loss) - 12 ( mechs lost) = -12
All Factions would have their numbers added up every 8 hours. Those with a postive number would advance along the path their membership voted for that phase, one planet changes status. Top contributing Units recognized for the victory. A negative total means no progress. If two Factions both voted to attack each other and both achieved positive point totals there is a draw and no changes to the map. Ghost drops are worth +1 point only per player the faction had in the ghost drop.
Additions are stretch goals. I think the changes outlined above would help bring Players back to Faction Play. I would love to see C-bill earnings adjusted for taking faction themed mechs; a return to locked Faction Loyalties but with a reset under a specific timeframe (ex: 3 months); and a return of PGI involvment such as the old Comstar Interecepts.
Thank you if you read all this and participated in the polls.
