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[TheoLu]

So you're queued in quickplay, either dropping solo with all the other squinty-eyed Pugs or in a group with bigger, louder squinty-eyed Pugs, and a match is found.

People vote for the map and the mode, and everyone goes in with who-knows-what they all chose. Sometimes, you get a bunch of clowns who all chose to use the worst fits imaginable for the map which ended up getting chosen, or even such gems as a domination match on Polar Highlands where the fastest mech on your team is a sub-60km/h Uziel while the other team's got an objective-driven Locust.

Enter the M.A.M. system.

As a basis, two MM modes would be available; one where the player's own mechs alone are taken into account, and one where their own mechs and trial mechs are taken into account. Selecting the former will make their available matches more narrow if they're lacking in mechs for some classes.

First, solo drops:
1. After the map and mode have been chosen, the person with the LEAST variety in available TONNAGES is given the opportunity to choose their mech for the match. Their min/max tonnage are uninhibited.
2. Thereafter, based on the total remaining tonnage and the current weight relative to amount of players available (let's say a full 12-man drop is meant to be a total of 720 tons, that'd mean on average every person could theoretically choose 60 tons worth of mech, or essentially a lighter heavy) min-max bracketing begins going into effect. If the first person to choose a mech chose something particularly light, the max tonnage may remain 100. If they chose something heavier, it might be 95 tons, 90 tons, etc.
3. With every successive mech selection, the person with the next-highest available choices gets to choose their mech, min/max tonnage again having been adjusted for a 'balanced' drop weight-wise.

With this sort of system, in an ideal world, one should still have a reasonably-decent spread of classes and, particularly, people can get closer to dropping based on the maps and modes they're aiming to play.

Whether communication between the people preparing for a match ought to be available at all or not while selecting their mechs would be debatable; personally I foresee it causing a lot of arguing and nastiness, so I'd avoid it being possible.

Second, for group drops:
1. Similar to solo drops in most regards, only now the rotation will focus on one person from every group to begin with. Smaller groups with less mech class variety get chosen first, then larger groups with more class variety.
2. That'd basically be it.

As for people who want to know with certainty they'll drop in the mech they chose (because, hey, if I want to use my LRMs even if I get dropped on Solaris then I want to use my LRMs even if I got dropped on Solaris, right?) give the option of dropping with yer MAM or without. Let people know how many are choosing to play with their MAMs and how many prefer going it by their own choices.