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[LordNothing]

knocked this idea around in several other threads and thought it needed fleshing out. the problem of too many modes is going to eventually run into the problem of not enough players in a way where some parts of the game are going to need to be shut down to reduce wait times to sane levels. when this will happen is debatable but its a good idea to think about it now. so rather than throw away those modes like the now defunct escort and old maps, we could do something to preserve them.

what im getting at here is that this game needs to be able to gracefully merge the dying modes into a super mode of sorts. custom games already exist and provide many of the features we need, but i think we need to support of these features (not nearly a complete list and some stuff in there is a blatant shoehorning in of features that i think are missing in the game):

all the modes
all the maps
map/mode combinations not currently supported (like skirmish on seige maps).
whether to use single mechs, dropdecks, or infinite respawn
support and team size, even asymetrical teams (one side may get less tonnage but bigger teams)
tonnage restrictions (including deck tonnage allotments and minimums)
weapon restrictions
skill restrictions (filter by tier/kd/wl/etc)
time of day (i think thats already in but not sure)
bring back the long tom (i dont see that box getting checked much, but it should be there)
legacy maps for 8v8 games
possible support for community contributed maps (unlikely but hey im putting it here)
control of objective variables (like conquest cap limit or size/location of the circle in domination)
hitpoints of destructibles (turrets/gens/walls)
ability to play on continuous rotation (through a map list)
ability to have live joining.

but thats not enough. this game lacks the social features to seriously make use of custom games as a primary (or more realistically secondary) mode. lfg is anemic and doesn't announce anyones intentions. so i dont know if the group im looking to join is going to fp or gq. its even harder to convince a bunch of players to join your game with oddball settings. so to that end i propose a lobby browser where you can go to look for games currently in the process of being formed.

so say i want to do fp conquest, 8v8 with a double length cap goal, with t3 players only, and using a deck with a 400 ton max and a 200 ton min and no lerms on terra therma with the long tom (game settings can be saved). you can type in a short discription of the game and make it public, once public it would be listed in the lobby browser, with the description, a list of game settings, and the number of players waiting/needed. you find one you like and click join. and if you dont roll your own lobby and see who joins.

the main benefit is modes may be retired into customs and players can also come up with their own mashups. it could also become the endgame mode when all other queues are untenable. it also provides a means to start to wean the game off of internal server dependancies so that when pgi does pull the plug the game can continue on community servers.

Edited by LordNothing, 27 January 2019 - 05:53 AM.