108 replies to this topic

[Paul Inouye]

Objective:
Create a game layer for Faction Play players who wish to pledge loyalty to a particular Faction and be able to advance through loyalty ranks independent of their Faction's participation in a given conflict.

1) Faction Selection

1.1) Faction selection takes place on the Faction Select screen.

• The flag carousel will provide information about each of the Factions.
  
• The player will be able to select the Faction they wish to pledge loyalty to, on the Faction description panel. (Panel opens when clicking a Faction flag.)

1.2) Faction pledge warning and confirmation.

• The player should be warned about the action they are about to take.
  
• The player should be informed on Loyalty Points (LP) and what it does.
  
• If the player clicks through to pledge loyalty, a confirmation pop-up should appear in order to make sure the player has not clicked-though by accident.
  
• Upon confirmation, the player's account will be aligned to the Faction in question.

2) Faction Alignment Display.


2.1) Faction alignment will be displayed appropriately in all areas of MWO.

• A player who has pledged loyalty to a Faction, will now have that Faction's emblem displayed on their home screen.
  
• The emblem will be displayed on the player's Forum account profile.
  
• The emblem will be displayed on all screens that display profile alignment(Main Menu, Scoreboards, Leaderboards etc.)
  
• The emblem will not change if the player is participating in Faction Play for another Faction other than the one they are loyal to.
  
• Note: The design behind this is to allow the player to participate in all Conflicts under the banner of their chosen Faction even if their Faction is not involved in the current Conflict.

3) Loyalty Points (LP)

Note: Loyalty Points do not have any effect on C-Bill or XP gains.

3.1) Accumulation of LP

• A player gains LP for in-game actions such as Kill Assists, Spotting Enemies and protecting allies.
  
• A player gains LP for winning matches.
  
• A player gains LP as a bonus on top of C-Bills and XP.
  
• A player loses LP if they team kill an ally.
  
• Note: The amount of LP totaled at the end of a match will be referred to as LP-EOM. LP-EOM is the match result total PRIOR to any bonuses.

3.2) Rate of Accumulation

• A player earns 120% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for their Faction if their Faction is involved in the current Conflict.
  
• A player earns 100% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for an Allied Faction if that Faction is involved in the current Conflict.
  
• A player earns 100% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for the Inner Sphere if their Faction is part of the Inner Sphere and the current conflict is between the Inner Sphere and Clans.
  
• A player earns 100% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for the Clans if their Faction is part of the Clans and the current conflict is between the Inner Sphere and Clans.
  
• A player earns 80% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for the Inner Sphere if their Faction is part of the Inner Sphere and the current conflict is between Clan and Clan Factions.
  
• A player earns 80% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for the Clans if their Faction is part of the Clans and the current conflict is between InnerSphere and InnerSphere Factions.
  
• A player who plays sequential matches during a Conflict without changing Faction (die hard Loyalist) will get an additional 2.5% LP-EOM per match played to a cap of 25% (10 matches) to bring their total gain potential to 145%.

3.3) Loyalty Gain Potential

• A player should be shown the potential LP gain prior to selecting a Faction on the Faction Select screen.
  
• E.g. A player who is aligned with Kurita entering a conflict between Steiner and Marik, should see the potential Kurita LP gains if they participate by selecting Marik.

4) Participation in Faction Play


4.1) Faction Picking in a Conflict

• A Loyalist player can only pick their Faction or Alliance in a Conflict unless the conflict is Clan vs Clan or IS vs IS and the player is aligned to the opposing global Faction (IS and Clan respectively).
  
• Conflicts will not allow inter-Alliance fighting.
  
• Queue balancing will be left to Mercenary Units and Freelancers.

4.1.1) Queue balancing in FP

• If the current queue is skewed to one Faction at the time the Match Maker tries to create a match, a Call-to-Arms (CtA) will be issued to all players in the game client who are not aligned to the over-populated Faction/Alliance in queue.
  
• e.g. The Conflict is between Kurita and Davion. Kurita has 48 people in the queue, Davion has 11. The CtA will be issued to all players aligned to Davion and Davion's allies, as well as Clan players who would want to play as Merc/Freelancer.
  
• People entering the queue from the CtA will automatically be put on the Faction side that is shorthanded in the queue.

5) End-Game Reward Structure


5.1) Looping rewards after Rank 20

• An additional rank will be added to each Faction
  
• The title associated with this new rank is "Hero of X" where X is the name of the Faction in question.
  
• The LP requirement between Rank 20 and Hero is going to be substantial but with rewards given out at intervals between Rank 20 and Hero.
  
• Rewards will be functional rewards (not cosmetic) and include things like MechBays, GXP, GSP, MC and Drop Decks.

5.2) Switching Loyalty as a Hero

• If a player has reached the Hero rank and decides to switch Factions, they will not lose any rewards that they earned.
  
• If a player has reached the Hero rank and decided to switch Factions, they will lose all LP beyond the LP requirement for Rank 20.
  
• If a player has reached the Hero rank and decided to switch Factions, they will lose the Hero title.
  
• The player will retain Rank 20 for the Faction.

The Update:

Version 2 just fixes some typos and removes the reward from Call to Arms which cannot be implemented into the current system.

Tentative Roadmap:
Item 1 - Tentative July/Aug Patch
Item 2 - Tentative July Patch
Item 3 - Tentative Aug/Sept Patch
Item 4 - Tentative Aug Patch
Item 5 - Tentative Aug Patch

While there's a lot of 'tentative' in there, the devs feel that the items earmarked with a July target is highly feasible.

----- UPDATE July 19 -----
Adjustment to the Roadmap
Item 1 - Aug Patch
Item 2 - Aug Patch
Item 3 - Tentative Sept Patch
Item 4 - Tentative Sept Patch
Item 5 - Tentative Sept Patch

See this post for more info:
https://mwomercs.com...ost__p__6277098

Edited by Paul Inouye, 19 July 2019 - 04:39 PM.
Updating the Roadmap

[50 50]

Thanks Paul

[Nightbird]

If 1 and 2 is implemented without 4, can loyalists participate in FP in every event? If not, then put everything into one patch.

[BROARL]

so i can become a Steiner hero, then quit for a match, and then do it again just for something to do? (forgive the reiteration, i am slow and also i don't really trust PGI any more).
this will work like when i smurfed the LP the last times and then just earnt it again? i regain the title but am no longer rewarded.
will there be enough time left on the servers to achieve the next rank if it is another 1,000,000LP?
there are really only games on the weekends in my timezone...
*perhaps i could earn LP instead of Cbills in quickplay? (i am learning to quickplay slowly and reluctantly).

[Kinski Orlawisch]

We asked for improvements. The last 2 patches messed up a lot and now you have to repair it and this will take a long time.

Just patch back the last 2 patches and start to think about real improvements.

[tee5]

TOO SLOW.


You broke it you should fix it ASAP.
And if 2-3 months is ASAP. I shake my head in disbelief.

And by the way leaderboards are not working and what is with UNITS? So still Davion and Wolfs in one UNIT?
Scouting destroyed, Loyalists destroyed, Units destroyed. Everything working as intended?

PS: We still have symbols for Radar Scrambler, Combat ID, etc. The things you could earn in Scouting, to support the other guys in CW. Which is now rendered useless, because there is no Scouting more in its old form, so remove these symbols.

Edited by tee5, 04 July 2019 - 04:18 AM.

[Serial Number]

Thanks for update.

Any chance of incursion removal in July patch? Please?

[Charles Sennet]

Paul Inouye, on 03 July 2019 - 05:54 PM, said:

• Note: The design behind this is to allow the player to participate in all Conflicts under the banner of their chosen Faction even if their Faction is not involved in the current Conflict.

Huge thanks for this.

Can we get a big increase in Siege mode rotation in the next patch?

[Warning incoming Humble Dexterer]

"A player earns 80% LP-EOM payouts at the end of a match when fighting for the Inner Sphere if their Faction is part of the Inner Sphere and the current conflict is between Clan and Clan Factions."

I don't understand how the player is fighting for the Inner Sphere during a Clan vs Clan conflict...

Does that mean he stays Inner Sphere but can bring a Clan Deck to a Clan vs Clan conflict ? Or that he can bring an IS deck to a Clan vs Clan conflict ?

[Fae Puka]

Why penalise someone for not being in the exact faction at time of the bizarre system you've set up? I thought the idea was to attract players and not punish them . . same gain no matter what, unless you are looking at the contractual bonuses as they were in the previous iteration which is something you accept when signing up for the specified time.

Try and get something right, please?!

[C H E E K I E Z]

Serial Number, on 04 July 2019 - 06:44 AM, said:

Thanks for update.

Any chance of incursion removal in July patch? Please?

And increase conquest cap to 1500 at Minimum, but at max 1750

[Charles Sennet]

C H E E K I E Z, on 04 July 2019 - 09:42 AM, said:

And increase conquest cap to 1500 at Minimum, but at max 1750

Personally, I'd like Conquest to go away or be much, much less frequent.

[Nightbird]

Conquest is different, which is fine, the problem is 1250 ticks runs out in 10 minutes, what's the point of a 25min timer and 4 mechs?

[Aivazovsky]

Will there be an option to share c-bills in a unit in the next patch?

[dario03]

When is there going to be threads for the design spec of Merc and Freelancers? Because I still don't see why we need in game rewards that encourage players to stay on certain sides, when having players stay on a side can imbalance the queue. What is going to be done to balance rewards to encourage swapping sides and balancing the queue so matches can be played?

[Prototelis]

Why are we focusing on the extreme minority of FP players?

Edited by Prototelis, 04 July 2019 - 03:25 PM.

[Harper Steel]

I admit I have been less than helpful however I would very much like to
Thank Paul for all he has done and is doing.
you have been very very upfront about this and We loyalists are very Thankful for the effort.
Again Thank you.

[Nightbird]

Prototelis, on 04 July 2019 - 02:43 PM, said:

Why are we focusing on the extreme minority of FP players?

Because the only way to improve QP even more is to create a map with racing circles?

[Prototelis]

Dude I dunno; drag racing on siege maps is pretty compelling.

[Bowelhacker]

Prototelis, on 04 July 2019 - 02:43 PM, said:

Why are we focusing on the extreme minority of FP players?

Because they are the ones who make the most noise?