429 replies to this topic

[-Spectre]

Paul Inouye, on 10 June 2019 - 04:04 PM, said:

*Looks for can of worms*

*Finds a couple*

*Opens them*

There are some things that are coming up that I find a little surprising, but while they make sense, it seems to go against feedback from long ago.

1) What is your thought on MC to switch factions from being a 'permanent' loyalist? To be 100% honest, I personally think this is a bit heavy handed. I know it has precedence in other faction based games (mostly MMOs).

2) Reduce FP rewards to a single tree to prevent reward chasing and flip flopping Factions. e.g. You earn that small laser you've been grinding for in Smoke Jaguar. You switch your Faction to Steiner (dunno why but let's roll with it), and grind your way up to that small laser reward level but you don't get it cause you already did with Smoke Jaguar. Thoughts?

Some thoughts to think about as well:

3) If we increase Loyalist ranks by another 20 ranks (Hero of Marik I, Hero of Marik II, Hero of Marik III... Legend of Marik X) as well as expand the reward table accordingly, is this something that would be of interest? Remember, these are additional ranks past the current Rank 20 and each rank is higher on the LP requirement curve.

4) Faction LP gains being 100% when playing for an ally instead of being reduced. Thoughts? The 'permanent' loyalist still gets a bonus for playing while their Faction is in a Conflict.

With those questions thrown out there... I'll be summarizing what we have so far in the overall discussion in the next couple of days.

1) I really like this idea, and as someone suggested, 1,000 sounds like a reasonable amount to me. Maybe 1,500.
2) I would personally be quite upset (understatement) if this idea was implemented, and I know many people that would feel the same way.
3) The idea isn't bad, but I think the current level set is a pretty good mix of grind and achievability. Adding 20 more levels would turn it into an infinite grind, which would certainly split the community at best, quickly frustrating and losing the interest of completionists like myself. I personally like the idea of achieving the max level, it's just that a lot of people are afraid of being stuck there. So something that continues to reward level 20 pilots for achieving said level, rather than simply adding more levels, would be best. Also adding levels doesn't actually "fix" anything, it just delays it (though it is admittedly a huge delay if you add them at the current pace (level 40 would require 3.3 trillion lp).
4) I think a full 100% would be best for permanent loyalists, if we go with the idea of a sort of "trial loyalist." If there is only one type of loyalty pledge, then maybe 90% earnings when fighting for allies and 120% earnings when fighting for your pledged faction, which would work out to roughly 100% overall.

[SeventhSL]

Thanks Paul for taking the time to gather community feedback. Very much appreciated.

[justcallme A S H]

Paul Inouye, on 10 June 2019 - 04:04 PM, said:

Spoiler

*Looks for can of worms*

*Finds a couple*

*Opens them*

There are some things that are coming up that I find a little surprising, but while they make sense, it seems to go against feedback from long ago.

1) What is your thought on MC to switch factions from being a 'permanent' loyalist? To be 100% honest, I personally think this is a bit heavy handed. I know it has precedence in other faction based games (mostly MMOs).

2) Reduce FP rewards to a single tree to prevent reward chasing and flip flopping Factions. e.g. You earn that small laser you've been grinding for in Smoke Jaguar. You switch your Faction to Steiner (dunno why but let's roll with it), and grind your way up to that small laser reward level but you don't get it cause you already did with Smoke Jaguar. Thoughts?

Some thoughts to think about as well:

3) If we increase Loyalist ranks by another 20 ranks (Hero of Marik I, Hero of Marik II, Hero of Marik III... Legend of Marik X) as well as expand the reward table accordingly, is this something that would be of interest? Remember, these are additional ranks past the current Rank 20 and each rank is higher on the LP requirement curve.

4) Faction LP gains being 100% when playing for an ally instead of being reduced. Thoughts? The 'permanent' loyalist still gets a bonus for playing while their Faction is in a Conflict.

With those questions thrown out there... I'll be summarizing what we have so far in the overall discussion in the next couple of days.

Bit late... My thoughts.

1. Agree - Feel that MC is a bit heavy handed. For a new-ish or casual, anything MC is basically out of the question. Don't want to discourage something that isn't a user value add (like warhorn, decals) to be MC costs.

2. I think you'll really piss loyalists off if you do that. They played for THEIR faction for their reasons. Taking that away by making it generic tree totally removes the identity for those players and there is a lot of those.

3. Increasing loyalist ranks is a good idea - make it happen. At the same time Merc Tree should also be extended by the same token. Many are Rank 10 there. I was Rank 10 Merc some 18 months ago for example and most peeps I play with are too. However there is a huge, huge caveat to increasing it - slide covered it in his post --> HERE <-- I think it is crucial that they are not doubled etc as he stated. Otherwise higher ranks are unattainable.

4. Agree. Playing for an ally should not see a reduction. As Nightbird said - please do not drop any lower than 90% LP, even 80% is quite a big hit given 20-25mins per match etc. A 200 point potential reduction per match is a massive hit.

Edited by justcallme A S H, 13 June 2019 - 11:55 PM.

[eddieb]

Thanks Paul. Could you possibly address using loyalty points as a currency to buy faction skins(patterns), colors and cockpit items? Or just use faction rank as a prerequisite to buying these items for cbills instead of MC?

[Paul Inouye]

eddieb, on 14 June 2019 - 05:17 AM, said:

Thanks Paul. Could you possibly address using loyalty points as a currency to buy faction skins(patterns), colors and cockpit items? Or just use faction rank as a prerequisite to buying these items for cbills instead of MC?

This was discussed a while back (using LP as a currency). This is a huge undertaking and the engineers were very direct in their feedback on this. However, using rank as a gate to purchase is a much smaller ask. My question to you would be, would the grind to higher ranks make this type of purchase gate worth while?

[Nightbird]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 09:35 AM, said:

This was discussed a while back (using LP as a currency). This is a huge undertaking and the engineers were very direct in their feedback on this. However, using rank as a gate to purchase is a much smaller ask. My question to you would be, would the grind to higher ranks make this type of purchase gate worth while?

MC of varying amounts, cockpit items for that faction, decals/boltons fitting with the theme, exclusive mech variants would be too much work at this point but people will still ask.

[Reno Blade]

Paul Inouye, on 10 June 2019 - 04:04 PM, said:

*Looks for can of worms*

*Finds a couple*

*Opens them*

There are some things that are coming up that I find a little surprising, but while they make sense, it seems to go against feedback from long ago.

1) What is your thought on MC to switch factions from being a 'permanent' loyalist? To be 100% honest, I personally think this is a bit heavy handed. I know it has precedence in other faction based games (mostly MMOs).

2) Reduce FP rewards to a single tree to prevent reward chasing and flip flopping Factions. e.g. You earn that small laser you've been grinding for in Smoke Jaguar. You switch your Faction to Steiner (dunno why but let's roll with it), and grind your way up to that small laser reward level but you don't get it cause you already did with Smoke Jaguar. Thoughts?

Some thoughts to think about as well:

3) If we increase Loyalist ranks by another 20 ranks (Hero of Marik I, Hero of Marik II, Hero of Marik III... Legend of Marik X) as well as expand the reward table accordingly, is this something that would be of interest? Remember, these are additional ranks past the current Rank 20 and each rank is higher on the LP requirement curve.

4) Faction LP gains being 100% when playing for an ally instead of being reduced. Thoughts? The 'permanent' loyalist still gets a bonus for playing while their Faction is in a Conflict.

With those questions thrown out there... I'll be summarizing what we have so far in the overall discussion in the next couple of days.

Personally, I think the big game would feel "big" when having resources to manage (gain/loss/spending).
Being Repair and Rearm or Loyalty in some way, well, up for discussion.

1) I would actually go back to the original idea (presented before CW/FP was released) - Using/Spending/Sacrificing LP when leaving a faction.

2) No. Having multiple "XP" bars or Collectibles/Goals is something that keep people play/grind (just see the completionists in MMOs such as WoW).

3) "infinite" progress alone might be worth, just for completionists. Having LP as a currency, or losing LP from switching (see other points) will reduce the gain and could make it even harder.

4) I would like to have the % matrix you presented earlier. Maybe the values can be tweaked, but in general I like to have more LP fighting for my faction, normal for allies and having some extra (something) fighting on the other side.



To make a bigger picture, I will try to write out my thoughts as an example that covers most.
The system can also be used for Mercs in general, but maybe with more money gains and less fame/LP losses.
If we had Repair and Rearm, it would go even further hand in hand… but that’s cherry on top of the cake J


BASIC LP
You are a Kurita Loyalist (fighting Davion)
- When fighting for Kurita, you get 150% LP for Kurita + 10% for each ally
- When fighting for allies, you get 100% LP for Kurita + 10% for each ally + 50% for the currently supporting allied faction
- When fighting for enemies you get only 50% LP on that faction (to be discussed) + 1/2 of the current % for Kurita

So this is the base LP gain, now let’s add "fame" for fighting for one side and staying loyal:


FAME INCREASE LP
Fame increases for the current side and decreases for the opposing side the longer you stick with one side in the current Conflict. LP can be used to keep your fame level, even when switching to the other side.
- When you fight for the same faction/side/group of allies, each battle of a single Conflict will increase the total % by additional 5% (maybe max +50% TBD)
- AND it will also reduce the % of the opposite side multiplier by 1% for each battle
- Switching reduces the current fame multiplier by 2% each, if you switch to the other side, or you pay X LP depending on rank (e.g. 5000 LP at Rank xyz)
- You can not go below the base % above


Example:
You start to side with Kurita as Kurita Loyalist and fight against Davion, so you get 150% LP in the first game for Kurita +10% for allies.
second game for Kurita in that Conflict gives you 155% for Kurita and 15% for allies, and third game 160% LP for Kurita and 20% for allies.
(This could max out at 200% for Kurita + 60% for allies)
Then you want to switch to the enemy side Davion
- You can either pay 5000LP (for your illegal papers from your local Kurita security agency to get inofficial allowance to go undercover)
- Or you just switch and face a hit to your "fame" in the Conflict by reducing your multiplier by 2% (from 160% to 158% for Kurita, once you fight for Kurita).

If you then keep fighting for Davion, you go from 50% Davion LP up to 55% and so on (+5% each) with losing 1% Fame bonus on your real faction side and allies.
While you fight for Davion, you will only get half of your own factions LP+Fame, so 1/2 of the 160% you had before for Kurita and your Fame bonus of Kurita and your allies drops down 1%. Makes it 79% for Kurita (and Fame of allies goes down to 14%).
Second game for Davion would put you to 55% for Davion and 78% for Kurita (with allies going down to 13% without gaining LP until you switch back to their side).

Switching back to Kurita will “cost” again (x LP or %Fame ).
You would now be back to 158% for Kurita and 13% for allies (lost 2 Fame% while fighting for Davion) while also reducing the Fame level for Davion for each game (if you should switch back).

Just switching back and forth would cost you flat LP or the Fame bonus %, but it will still always rise more than you lose.


Now add the next step and give some/more LP-sink:
Faction-Sales where you can get faction-specific items for LP instead of CB, or get discounts from faction loyalty.
e.g. you can buy the Draconis Heavy PPC, or Ferro Fiber upgrade for your Dragon when you have good amount of LP lying around that you don’t need.
Dragon = Kurita mech -> 20% discount
Loyalty Rank 10 -> 20% discount
Spending 5000LP to unlock another 20% discount
Buy that Dragon for 60% CB discount total

You could spend LP to get more “discount” or just outright pay with LP and save yourself some CBills, but using these “favors” will use up your standing in the faction (LP) if you are too greedy.

This system would reward loyalists without punishing side switching. Give something to do with high LP amount (beside endless mode levels). And it would make sense and feel immersive.


And using LP for (cheaper) shopping would allow players to use CB for skill points to get more "progress" (as you can currently not buy many skills/parts as new player if you want to skill and build your mech at the same time, for a good number of matches)
More incentive to play FP for more players also.

[Paul Inouye]

Well as all things Friday goes... will be addressing the update tonight.

Gonna do it from home so I can sit in a chair designed for lonnng hours and be able to pop out on to my balcony as needed.

Here's my plan for this by the way:
1) I'll start a new thread that will be locked until the OP is completed.
2) I'll be updating that new thread as each section gets finished.
3) Will be more technically detailed as this will probably be pass 1 at a design spec for technical review.
4) Once it's completed, I'll unlock it so discussion/feedback can start.

One big thing to keep in mind... this new spec is NOT locked in stone.. it's just a refreshed update after all the discussion happening here. I think this thread should get locked and we all move to the new thread when it's ready. Won't delete this one obviously as there is a ton of info in here.

[eddieb]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 09:35 AM, said:

This was discussed a while back (using LP as a currency). This is a huge undertaking and the engineers were very direct in their feedback on this. However, using rank as a gate to purchase is a much smaller ask. My question to you would be, would the grind to higher ranks make this type of purchase gate worth while?

Thanks again for responding. Got it, forget using LP as currency.

So it goes to thinking about reworking the rewards structure as it is now.
Allowing faction rank to gate C-bill purchase of faction related (but currently MC cost) items would be a step in the right direction, but I think only part of a larger reward consideration.

Current examples of reward silliness
Lucky cat,
hamster huey
cup of pop
Mech bays... easier to earn in 1 weekend event than many months grinding at faction for the higher ranks.
MC rewards:... Weekend events are WAY more rewarding than faction in terms of MC.


All that being said, I'd prefer PGI to bring more new mechs into the game over just about anything else.

Edited by eddieb, 14 June 2019 - 07:04 PM.

[Paul Inouye]

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

[justcallme A S H]

Well isn't that where Mercenary comes into it this thing for a level of queue balancing, to a degree?

15% hit I think is about the limit and a fair deal for going behind your brethrens back type deal. Can't slam people too hard for simply trying to play the game withe limitations that exist for various reasons.

[slide]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

I get what your saying Paul, but having been involved in running a unit in MWO for it's first four years I learnt 1 thing that is absolutely true. If you punish people for playing they will stop playing. Period. There is no stick, there is only carrot and perhaps the choice between a carrot and a cucumber.

Here are some other truths

Die hard loyalists will not change sides even to get games.
Gamers will do what ever it takes to get games, this includes temporary loyalists who are grinding an LP tree and/or Mercs.

The difficult part of this conversation is coming up with solutions that punish neither group and I think the start of that comes back to fundamentally defining what a loyalist is and what mercs are because at the moment being a loyalist is pointless and to a more or less degree they get punished for being loyal as well.

This is why I advocate the single LP tree, I know some are against this, but it simplifies things greatly by not punishing people for doing whatever it takes to get games nor does it punish players for doing what ever they were going to do anyway. For most people having a single tree will be indistinguishable from what they are doing now, Yes there are issues with OCD completionists but I doubt if anyone is anywhere near completing level 20 across all 13 factions.

Technical question Paul. Is it possible for MM to put mercs on either side of a conflict? Assume people have drop decks for both tech bases.

If so this greatly simplifies the balancing of side in a conflict on literally a match by match basis, it would define the loyalist role v's merc role and would allow us to more specifically look at how we on board people into FP and what role Loyalists would play.

[Deathshade]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

I think that you have to put some sort of limitations there. Maybe more time should be spent on resolving the imbalance which has caused the death of the loyalist in the first place.

It would probably be easier to create a bonus for NEW players coming into the conflict and choosing the unbalanced side. The more the imbalance, the bigger the bonus. That should nip that problem in the bud. The thing is though, it would only work for the players that haven't already joined the conflict.

edit: grammar

Edited by Deathshade, 15 June 2019 - 05:53 AM.

[SilentScreamer]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

This is an example of why it might be a better design to heavily guide majority of players to Mercenary or Freelancer career rather than Loyalist.

A true Loyalist is like a sports fan (short for fanatic):
- If your team is playing, you never root/bet against them.
- If your team's rival is playing, you always root/bet against them. (allowing for "Enemy of my enemy..." exception).
- As long as your team doesn't move, change names or disolve; they are your team. You NEVER switch.

The whole concept of having to be a Loyalist in order to reap full rewards of Faction Play means players who are more interested in maximizing profit (reward wise) switch from Loyalist faction to Loyalist faction.

Avoid this behavior by:
- Eliminating Faction choices from Freelancers and Mercenaries. Select Career only.
- Mercenaries and Freelancers would automatically be put in the queue for whichever side has less players actually in queue for a match at that moment.
- Loyalists queue for their Faction Loyalty, be it the actual Faction or the alliances you [Paul] outlined earlier.
- Changing the Reward system so everyone receives full Faction Point Rewards at all times:
a) Loyalist earn Loyalty points for only their Loyalist Faction, regardless of who they queue for.
b) Freelancers and Mercs earn Loyalty Points for whichever Faction they are fighting for that match.

Edited by SilentScreamer, 15 June 2019 - 07:12 AM.

[R79TCom1 Night Lanner]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

My two Kerenskys on this:

The simplest way would be to just give minimal (20%) Loyalty Points just so people do not feel they are missing out. I would suggest, however and if possible, make it so that switching to fighting against your own faction or against your ally in order to balance player numbers and get games gives the player an XP or C-Bill bonuses like -- but maybe at a lower rate than -- Mercs or Freelancers. Maybe let the player pick which bonus they get. In real life it incentives/rewards player willing to sacrifice role-playing and Loyalty Points to get games going, which is what I assume we all really want in the end. In role-playing it could be justified as you were "bribed" (C-Bill Bonus) or gathered valuable experience of the enemies fighting style (XP Bonus) while fighting against your allies.

[Natural Predator]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

Welcome to the inner sphere where within even the same houses there was Blue on Blue violence. They can lore off that. Tell them to pretend a they are the Michael Hasek to their factions Hans Davion.
The number one priority is to be able to play the game. Lore is secondary to that.

Edited by Ragnar Baron Leiningen, 15 June 2019 - 12:30 PM.

[Nightbird]

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

While I'm doing this... a notion came up...

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

I thought that when your faction or your allies are one side in a conflict, you are prevented from picking the other side?

Since 3/4 of all factions will not be in your alliance, hopefully the other people will switch. If they don't, it's the proper ankle weight of permanent loyalist that you've committed to. I'm sure all the lore-targeting folks that wanted this won't mind.

[Cato Zilks]

Cato Zilks, on 10 June 2019 - 05:52 PM, said:

a) Are loyalists forced to fight for their faction/alliance or only incentivized via LP earnings?

Paul Inouye, on 11 June 2019 - 04:25 PM, said:

a) Current plan is yes, you'd be locked into fighting for your Faction/Alliance. In the case of Clan VS IS, and you're aligned to an IS Faction, you'd be expected to fight for IS in the Conflict. You'd still earn a small amount of LP while doing so.

Paul Inouye, on 14 June 2019 - 08:57 PM, said:

You are aligned to Kurita, the conflict is Kurita vs Davion. The current queue is heavily biased on Kurita with 53 players on Kurita and 11 on Davion. You switch sides to kick off a match. What is your LP gain supposed to be in this scenario? You are helping Davion win the Conflict. You are killing your allies and more importantly you are also killing your loyalist brethren.

Just a thought... 20% of normal. Yes, you're trying to help the match maker kick of matches, but you're going against everything a loyalist is about.

So, at the risk of sounding like a broken record with this question...

Paul, are Loyalists FORCED to fight for their faction/alliance, OR are you only incentivizing via LP?

I swear to Jesus, I thought you answered pretty clearly that we would be locked in, then you come back with jumping sides thing and earning 20% LP. That sounds like loyalists are not locked to a side / loyalists that can jump to the otherside of the queue to fight their own faction. It sounds exactly like incentivizing faction loyalty via LP.

These are mutually exclusive options. We either get to jump on both sides of the queue as loyalists or we don't. What is your vision Paul?

Please be very clear, I want to give good feedback and this is an underlying system mechanic that really does effect how we all conceive of balance for loyalists versus mercs.

Spoiler

If they are locked to one side of the queue, loyalist may be giving up the opportunity for more frequent matches which may justify larger LP type rewards. Also, if they are locked to one side and therefore may get fewer matches, the single LP tree idea becomes very unfair to Loyalists.

Edited by Cato Zilks, 16 June 2019 - 07:44 PM.

[Paul Inouye]

Still filling out the design spec. Would estimate about 75% done.

When it came to my last post about jumping sides for a match to kick a match off... original intent was not to allow Loyalist players to play for Factions outside of their Faction/Alliance/Clan vs IS Faction. e.g. Conflict is Kurita vs Davion. You are loyal to Kurita. If the current queue is 23/9 for Kurita, you would not be able to switch to balance the queue. This would lead to queue balancing being in the hands of Mercenaries and Freelancers. The reason I asked that last question is, there were a few voices here saying you should be able to swap to balance the MM queue. To me and a few others, this isn't something a Loyalist should be doing. But at the same time, there's a valid point to kicking off a match so at least something is happening.

Another thing that I see in some posts and definitely needs clarification... Freelancers and Mercenary Units do NOT earn LP. Not sure where that notion came from or if it was just a miscommunication on the poster's part. Freelancers earn extra XP, Merc Units earn CB and RP (Reputation Points for their ranks).

[MiZia]

Ragnar Baron Leiningen, on 15 June 2019 - 12:28 PM, said:

Welcome to the inner sphere where within even the same houses there was Blue on Blue violence. They can lore off that. Tell them to pretend a they are the Michael Hasek to their factions Hans Davion.
The number one priority is to be able to play the game. Lore is secondary to that.

Pretty much this.
I dont give a f. about people that will stick to her/his loyalty but never plays a Match in FP. I would be happy to change / join opposite Faction if the one im in is overpopulated. We want games, not fluff.