284 replies to this topic

[Brauer]

AlinonMo, on 23 November 2020 - 06:27 AM, said:

Most likely unpopular suggestion.

Seeing as it's all the rage these days, add a battle royal mode. (just to split the queues further, but may bring more people in)
Drop 10 to 25 lances on a huge map, last surviving lance wins. Arty/air strikes, UAVs, cool shots are all pick ups on the map.
Lance leader can choose where on map your lance's dropship lands.

Huge map = stitch together Polar Highlands, Frozen City, Alpine peaks and Boreal Vault. (or just design a new big map)

To fix currently available game modes, just add infinite respawns so that the match ends when the objective is complete or time runs out. (except for skirmish, then dead is dead.)

FWIW PGI have said they can't do more than two teams in a game. Now whether that's because the game engine only supports two teams, PGI can't figure out how to code more than two teams, or PGI has decided that it would cost too much to do the work to make the game support more teams idk, but they've listed that as a hard constraint in the past.

Re: 10-25 lances in a game. Think for a minute about how poorly the game performs with 24 mechs in game at a time and consider how much worse it will be with 40-100 mechs in game.

[Forgeling]

AlinonMo, on 23 November 2020 - 06:27 AM, said:

To fix currently available game modes, just add infinite respawns so that the match ends when the objective is complete or time runs out. (except for skirmish, then dead is dead.)

This part I like but maybe with drop decks instead.

[Voice of Kerensky]

Aidan Crenshaw, on 23 November 2020 - 03:38 AM, said:

Would you rather drop on polar Highlands with 18 lurmboats and 6 AMS boats? I think any kind of drop deck selection after the map is chosen will nothing but reduce combat diversity. When have you last seen a short range defender on Boreal Defense? (Don't get me wrong here, FP is a good place for this kind of mechanic)

I would like to leave a short answer, "yes". But I can not.
Firstly, for some reason you put the question very narrowly. Why are only LRM and AMS boats mentioned in your question? You did not mention mechs with ECM, for some reason you forgot about stealth-mechs (among them, for example, it seems to me, exactly close builds prevail), you also did not remember about gauss snipers, AC/LB-2X snipers, ERLL and PPC snipers.
Secondly, you are considering this proposal from one side only. But what about the Lurm-warriors, for example, in Solaris City, where they are often even more useless than the close range builds on the Polar Highlands?
Thirdly, what I offer (and I'm not the only one, by the way) gives the right to choose. This does not oblige anyone to anything. If someone, for the sake of combat diversity, wants to play on the SRM, LB-20X or midrange mechs on the Polar Highlands and Alpine Peaks, they have this opportunity.
Notice that what you stand for is forcing players to do what they often don't like. What I propose - gives the right to choose to take the players what suits them in a particular situation. For some reason it seems to me that there is more positive in my proposal.
Will my proposal change the game? In a sense, of course. This right of choice will not give just one LRM premade team to spam their opponents with impunity on open maps. This will give Lurm-warriors and ERLL Snipers the opportunity to change mechs for a more suitable one in Solaris City and thus bring more value to their team. This will allow people on very hot builds to change their mechs to something colder, for example on Terra Terma. Once again, I draw your attention to the fact that this only gives the opportunity to choose, and does not oblige the player to abandon the already chosen mech.

With all due respect to you.

Edited by Voice of Kerensky, 23 November 2020 - 06:21 PM.

[Shortpower]

Faction play needs some kind of rework to be grindable again.

Tips for faction play could maybe be had from H&G's war map, cruddy mobile games, or planetside 2 in terms of making it feel more life like, that is:
moving ships/mechs between locations (and a lattice system) potentially making it so that more than just obtaining grind reward, people actually want to invest time into waging this war. Worrying about where to move resources to stop thrusts etc because I think a huge part of the issue for FP is it feels inconsequential/non-special whereas in Heroes and Generals even people that really shouldn't be in war join the queue to fight for the novelty of it (and some of these people've been riding the novelty a long time - especially considering the gameplay is outright awful and people just stick around because it has that 1 cool mechanic adding some coolness to the individual battles). Though I don't know the practicality of doing that/how easy or hard it would be to implement, I would like to say that look at H&G and PS2 despite being basically awful games they've done very well for themselves because they shake up the formula to be more than just matchmaking - there is a market of loyal people always looking for more games like that and I feel fairly comfortable in saying the current community wouldn't mind a more interactive faction play experience. This could also be good will towards the community since this was a promised feature that ended up being glorified matchmaking, 4 mech drops didn't do anything to make it feel different - there was no moving resources or actually needing to coordinate with other groups/faction members to ensure planets had everything they needed to hold.

Magshot could be a good addition for light mechs especially - more toys when building mechs is always appreciated.

Solaris should have a queue all option so you can get into fights faster.
Solaris if possible, should have stricter ghosting limits than base gameplay so you see more varied builds than SRM splat in certain divisions (basically inconsequential)

TL:DR
Faction play rework, Heroes and Generals/Planetside 2 have some good map flow ideas as to how to make an alive feeling war experience people WANT to get involved in - this single feature has kept 2 otherwise unremarkable games alive and growing for years.

Territory map:
Lattice Map (H&G and Planetside 2):
And then

More meaty suggestion (I'm an idiot so details are going to be awful here):
- Units get access to dropships, potentially unlocking 1 at 4 people and another one for every 5/6 extra people.

- Dropships have an available tonnage, so for example if IS had 3 dropships on a planet and Clan sent 4 the Clans would have a tonnage advantage - perhaps 300 weight per dropship since this would allow 2 max and 2 mid tonnage mechs.

- Matchmaking for battles that your unit has dropships in should prioritize you, but non-members can use tonnage available so long as priority doesn't fill the battle.

- A system would need to be in place to limit the number of dropships both/either per faction/per unit/total - Heroes and Generals shows not everyone needs to be a general just enough to keep the battles going and let the heroes ride fight their battles.

- Drop decks could still work similarly, but with tonnage tickets. You might only get to drop in your first mech if tonnage is too low. Speaking of too low battles that cannot field 12 people with 50-70(?) tons available to each can auto resolve and long ignored battles could also auto resolve. There should be a "front space" limitation so that both auto resolve and battles have hard caps as to how much tonnage they'll allow (This could be the current drop deck limit +/- 50 tons) before battle tonnage is capped and extra dropships retreat or sit by idle.

Edited by Shortpower, 24 November 2020 - 06:43 AM.

[Guile Votoms]

Just reduce Solaris to a 1v1 / 2v2 / 12 player free-for-all arena match without rewards and tiers.
It never needed to be more than that and the reason it's so bloated is why it's dead.

Faction Play improvements are what MWO needs the most.

Edited by Guile Votoms, 24 November 2020 - 05:28 AM.

[thievingmagpi]

Some kind of progressive spawn would be great in FP. But I think they'd have to apply to some extent to the defenders too. Once a defender's spawn is taken a new set of defensive spawns is unlocked and they're pushed back. Only reason I say this is because I think there would be a lot of passive defensive teams hanging back. Having "locked" defensive spawns and/or locked sections of map would be able to better control the action in the game rather than having it be a long drawn out, very passive timer-win. Could also mean better control over what parts of the map are fought in, rather than having huge swathes of wasted, never used map.

But in general, yeah, some kinda progressive spawn on large maps is a good idea.

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

Remove grouped players from solo queues. I realize that there are people that want to group up, and it takes a long time for them get a match in a group but almost universally these groups use the people that are solo dropping as cannon fodder and it just makes the matches suck for those who are just want to play a few matches to get event cookies or are skilling out a mech.

Perhaps a better mechanism is to improve how grouped players can find players who want to be in a group? Maybe have a tab of 'groups' and the group leader is listed there and other players can request to join the group if it is not full?

I know that there are people talking about going back to 8v8 but I remember the 8v8 matches provide more stomps than 12v12. Especially if one side is loaded with a coordinated group of players.

The changes with the tier/match making seemed to work for a while, but it seems that the match making has settled back into loading one side with 'potatoes' and the other side with 'good players' again.

[Fractis Zero]

Things that can be done now.

Conquest/Incursion:

Points for Kills
Points for Resources Gathered/ Damage to Base

Game ends on Time OR Points Gathered/ Base Destruction OR 12 Kills.

Whoever has the most points at that point wins.

[War Steiner]

Game mode: Fighting Retreat

One team must cross the map and exit out the other side a a predetermined location (LZ). The other team drops a lance every 30 seconds along the route until all 3 lances are grounded to prevent them.

Dropship comes after 30 seconds of a mech in the LZ.

Winner, team gets a mech picked up in the LZ. Points awarded for number of mechs in the LZ at pickup.

or

Defensive team is prevents evacuation.

[Odanan]

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

In this thread, lets discuss ideas for updating or adding to our current modes in MechWarrior Online, such as:

• Review / Update Game Modes
  
• Solution for Faction Play
  
• Solution for Solaris
  
• General Match Maker Improvements
  
• 8v8 vs 12v12
  
• Solo / Group Queues
  
• Examine Match Scoring (AMS)
  
• Remove 2 Minute Requirement for Reconnection
  
• Private Lobby Updates (More Options, Maps, Host Assignment, More Spectators)
  
• Dailies/Weeklies

• Add AI to the lobby.
  
• Add MOBA style game to Faction Play (base vs. base, each base spawns AI controlled vehicles over time that attack the enemy base)
  
• Add AI to the Faction Play (if no matches are found, you fight against AI)
  
• Solaris battle royale (free for all)

Edited by Odanan, 25 November 2020 - 07:32 AM.

[Alreech]

Hammer Hand, on 22 November 2020 - 02:31 PM, said:

I love the idea of removing groups from QP and group play is FW. The current FW wait times are a population issue.
More players in a que means shorter waits, in theory. A big complaint in QP is Nascar, and that does not happen much in FW. Weights limits manage themselves in FW. I do not think that group size should be limited in FW.

It's not only a population issue, it's also an issue of group sizes.
If most of the groups are 10, 9 & 5 players strong no match can't be formed until some solo players or smaller groups enter the queue.

Limiting group sizes to 4, 8 & 12 would remove that problem.

[Mercu]

I would love to see individual quests that enable you to gain private earned xp and c-bill bonuses plus equipments like the supply caches. This could replace supply caches and the need to create/market somany new events. I would love to login, see my weekly quests, headshots, kill a Flea, do 600dmg, scouting, etc.

That way big events would be rarer and more precious but without manipulating gameplay so much.

Also the idea that you choose a mech chassis, variant, loadout, etc. and then choose between several maps seems completely backwards. No mission would follow that pattern and it drives new users (and old) crazy when they get the mining collective in their favourite LRM boat. Or SRM brawling monster on polar highland?!

[BARBAR0SSA]

• Review / Update Game Modes; I'd love to see a base assault mode where team 1 tries to take over a fortification as fast as possible, then swap sides.
  
• Solution for Faction Play; Make it more of a base assault that does not use narrow corridors, the base should be in the middle of the map and approachable from all sides. Don't have it in separate queue, I don't get why I cannot queue for EVERYTHING from 1 spot, I love faction play, but waiting sucks. Really the normal game mode etc should all be "faction" play, then you have a goal etc.
  
• Ideal faction play would be more like an MMO with a persistent world, actual use for money with repairs, hiring ships for trade and parts, have actual weapons and chassis changes cost $ and need to farm the parts/import them in etc. Focus on it being 1 planet instead of trying to do a whole solar system, quadrant drops yada yada.
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Solution for Solaris; 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and I'd like to see no premades, all PUG. Also again, why 1 queue, just let me queue up all divisions in a "preference" order, and even better, from 1 queue. Also for the love of god remove the LONG startup time, if it was just drop in and out so much better.
  
• 8v8 vs 12v12 ----24 v 24 with 2 different spawns per side.

[Rolodius]

New to posting here but been playing from year 1.
also i do not know where to post this since it affects multiple aspects of the game.
One thing i noticed and that I think has been a issue is having the correct mech for the correct Quick Play Map/Mode. Is there a way to create a drop deck that we can chose a mech from after the Map/Mode has been chosen. I know that match maker is involved in setting up the drop based on what mech you have. but if we could create a drop deck that has specified weight limit could that not work with match maker.
Exampl.
Drop deck would be limited to class of mech.
lets say you chose a light mech but you can have 4 different light mech in that drop deck. and depending on the map you can select from those Mechs.
Please let me know if i need to move this to a different thread.

Edited by Rolodius, 25 November 2020 - 01:09 PM.

[ShaneoftheDead]

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

In this thread, lets discuss ideas for updating or adding to our current modes in MechWarrior Online, such as:

• Review / Update Game Modes

Game modes:

• All Game Modes - needs a review and update of the starting locations for the lances on all maps. Lances should not drop in bad, exposed areas, nor should they be very far from the other lances. If possible, make the starting areas different in each mode and use the large maps better. If this is to be a Game, then one side should not have an advantage over the other with staring locations.
  
• Skirmish - Fix some bad drop zones
  
• Assault - Lose one of the mini bases. 1 Team defends, 1 Team attacks. Defenders spawn near the base, Attackers somewhere on the other side of the map. Defenders win if base is alive when time runs out or if all Attackers are dead. Be smart about the base location. Give it extra health and or walls, if needed.
  
• Domination - There are a few maps where one team has a clear advantage due to placement of the antenna. Move it or remove that map from the rotation for this mode.
  
• Incurson - Getting batteries seems not worth the time and effort. Buff their abilities so that fighting over the batteries is important.
  
• Escort - Ditch the poorly driven robo-Atlas and in it's place, pick the slowest Assault 'Mech and that player is the VIP. If there are not slow Assaults, then perhaps this mode should not be available.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Solution for Faction Play

There needs to be a way for small units to get their tag on a system instead of only the large units sweeping across the map. I have previously suggested some ways to do that right here in the forums. Go find them if you are interested in the details.
It revolves around units being assigned worlds all along the front and virtualizing the matches.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Solution for Solaris

Solaris 7 should be special and limited. Not all classes should be able to fight at the same time. In fact, probably only 1 per season. Also, you need to make winning more special. It should be in the news feed when you launch the game who the leaders are. The Leaderboard should be prominently displayed on the MWO web page. It needs hype.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• General Match Maker Improvements

I have MANY previous posts about this, find them for the details. However, I will give you an executive summary.
PSR is only 1/3 of the solution. The other parts are the 'Mech and the Load-out. Winning should not be a factor.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• 8v8 vs 12v12

If you redesign your Match Maker properly, you should be able to do both. 8v8 when server has low population, then bump it up to 12v12 when you have enough players. Could also have 4v4 if the population really falls.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Solo / Group Queues

Not sure this is worth your time right now when the game has larger issues. In fact, if you fix the others then this may go away. Also, you cannot fix this without fixing the PSR issue mentioned above.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Examine Match Scoring (AMS)

Again, not really worth your time right now.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Remove 2 Minute Requirement for Reconnection

No comment.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Private Lobby Updates (More Options, Maps, Host Assignment, More Spectators)

No comment.

Daeron Katz, on 16 November 2020 - 01:00 PM, said:

• Dailies/Weeklies

Missions could be fun, but what are the prizes? Hopefully not the existing supply caches. In fact, you need to review the value of the supply caches and what you think the rarity and worth of your prizes are. Opening a Rare cache and having my Rare prize be a Lump of Coal is not fun. In fact, it is the opposite of fun. Remember, this is a GAME and prizes are supposed to be fun to win.

[Mycroft000]

Adding onto the need for Solaris to be special, it needs qualifier seasons so it's a big deal to be part of Solaris. It should not run year round. And when it is running, it needs to be streamed so it's actually noteworthy.

What Solaris is now is a setup for groups to drop together to get matches because otherwise there's nobody playing consistently.

[Horseman]

ShaneoftheDead, on 25 November 2020 - 02:23 PM, said:

All Game Modes - needs a review and update of the starting locations for the lances on all maps. Lances should not drop in bad, exposed areas, nor should they be very far from the other lances. If possible, make the starting areas different in each mode and use the large maps better. If this is to be a Game, then one side should not have an advantage over the other with staring locations.

Agreed. Keeping in mind that some modes already have differences in starting positions (if usually not huge)

Quote

Assault - Lose one of the mini bases. 1 Team defends, 1 Team attacks. Defenders spawn near the base, Attackers somewhere on the other side of the map. Defenders win if base is alive when time runs out or if all Attackers are dead. Be smart about the base location. Give it extra health and or walls, if needed.

"Giving it walls" is what resulted in the Incursion mode. But I agree, asymmetric could be a bit better than what we have now.

Quote

Escort - Ditch the poorly driven robo-Atlas and in it's place, pick the slowest Assault 'Mech and that player is the VIP. If there are not slow Assaults, then perhaps this mode should not be available

The mode has been retired something like a year ago.

[Alreech]

ShaneoftheDead, on 25 November 2020 - 02:23 PM, said:

There needs to be a way for small units to get their tag on a system instead of only the large units sweeping across the map. I have previously suggested some ways to do that right here in the forums. Go find them if you are interested in the details.
It revolves around units being assigned worlds all along the front and virtualizing the matches.

Fist, i agree with most of your suggestions. This is the one i don't.

Faction Play has the problem of long waiting times for a match and bad match balancing (coordinated 12 player premade vs uncoordinated team of smaller random groups).
How do a unit tag solve that?

Frankly, most small units just want to play with their friends, they don't care about a tag on a planet.
They may care about factions & Mechwarrior lore, but if you have to choose to fight for your faction and have to wait 20 minutes to get teamed up with random small groups and then get stomped by a 12 player premade "for hours"... you don't do faction play that often.

No kind of reward will make Faction Play more attractive to Players if the matches have long waiting times and bad balance / coordination.
PGI spiced up the rewards with easy to get Mechbays, and the only effect was that Solo Players tried to farming Mechbays and get stomped.

So PGI has to fix the waiting times, the balance and the coordination in Faction Play to make it more attractive, because even rewards like Mechbays don't work.

• Long waiting times can only reduced by increasing the number of aviable players / groups or reducing the match sizes to 8 vs 8 or 12 vs 12.
  
• Balancing can only be done by reducing group size. (This will also increase number of aviable groups).
  
• Coordination can only be improved by using ingame features like Commander, Lances & Lance Leaders, ingame VOIP & LFG to group up.

IMHO Faction Play needs also a quickplay mode with smaller drop decks and faster matches to make it an alternative for small groups that now drop in quickplay.

[Elizander]

The only solution for Solaris to keep it running 24/7 is adding bots/AI. You don't even need to turn all mechs into AI. Just have 1 mech per division run around as a bot for people to fight if no real players are available. Prioritize Player vs Player and pop AI in when no one is around after x minutes.

[ShaneoftheDead]

Alreech, on 29 November 2020 - 01:49 AM, said:

Fist, i agree with most of your suggestions. This is the one i don't.

Faction Play has the problem of long waiting times for a match and bad match balancing (coordinated 12 player premade vs uncoordinated team of smaller random groups).
How do a unit tag solve that?

Frankly, most small units just want to play with their friends, they don't care about a tag on a planet.
They may care about factions & Mechwarrior lore, but if you have to choose to fight for your faction and have to wait 20 minutes to get teamed up with random small groups and then get stomped by a 12 player premade "for hours"... you don't do faction play that often.

No kind of reward will make Faction Play more attractive to Players if the matches have long waiting times and bad balance / coordination.
PGI spiced up the rewards with easy to get Mechbays, and the only effect was that Solo Players tried to farming Mechbays and get stomped.

So PGI has to fix the waiting times, the balance and the coordination in Faction Play to make it more attractive, because even rewards like Mechbays don't work.

• Long waiting times can only reduced by increasing the number of aviable players / groups or reducing the match sizes to 8 vs 8 or 12 vs 12.
  
• Balancing can only be done by reducing group size. (This will also increase number of aviable groups).
  
• Coordination can only be improved by using ingame features like Commander, Lances & Lance Leaders, ingame VOIP & LFG to group up.

IMHO Faction Play needs also a quickplay mode with smaller drop decks and faster matches to make it an alternative for small groups that now drop in quickplay.

Valid points.

I have no solution for the long wait queues other than try to make the game better and hope people come back. Unless you would be happy with PvE when server population is not there. Would fighting Bots be acceptable?

In the past, planting your Unit Tag on a planet won you MC that you could give to your team in addition to the pride from seeing it on the map. It was not easy to do. You needed a lot of good players in the Unit, about 60 or so, to really be able to throw your weight around the Map. Of course, that was in the prime of Faction Play many years ago. I was just thinking that if it were easier for a smaller group to slowly grind out and plant their flag on a Planet and earn some MC that it would encourage more players to try Faction Play.