<p>Review/Update Game modes</p>
<ul>
<li>Stronger base defenses for Incursion - This mode often plays just like Skirmish. Teams too often don't see any motivation to play defense at base until they are already losing, and base rarely has an impact once a team is down a few Mechs.</li>
<li>Stronger/different bonuses for batteries in Incursion - Similar to above, too often this is ignored. At best, some light Mechs will make a run for batteries early, but after a single drop off the game devolves back into skirmish. A boost to defensive turrets, better radar (like allowing near instantaneous targeting data), specialized defense (like AMS towers at base) or offense (Mortars or airstrikes against opponent's base wall, suppressing turrets.) would encourage players to utilize them and again promote more variety of strategy.</li>
<li>Mercy rule for match end in some game modes- I've seen similar mentioned elsewhere here. Once a match time is at least half way through, a 30, 60 or 90 second timer with no damage dealt should kick in. This will help end matches where the outcome is clearly not in doubt, but a single Mech or two on the losing side are simply trying not to die. It should be fairly lenient in certain games modes like conquest where a single Mech can still complete an objective.</li>
<li>New game mode: Breakthrough - One side defending a map edge against Attackers. Attackers score for getting Mechs across the line. Defenders score for kills and slowly over time. Once a Mech is across the line, it's out of the match, so attackers have to balance completing the objective vs leaving people behind. Defenders have to balance covering a wide front and 'giving up' on some targets to ensure they stop as many as possible.</li>
<li>New game mode: Scramble - Defenders have to escort multiple convoys across the map. Convoys start at random pre-determined times and locations that defending players can see. Defenders score for vehicles successfully reaching map edges along routes and kills. Attackers score for vehicle and Defender kills</li>
</ul>
<p>General Match Maker improvements</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Not sure if this is spefically what we are looking for here, but here's my take:</p>
<ul>
<li>Slight increase to tonnage limits when playing with a group - I love the concept, but see too many players in the factions I've belonged to avoiding group play just to play assault/heavy Mechs. While I don't want to see 4x100 groups in every QP match, I think the existing 255 ton limit is discouraging players from grouping up as much.</li>
<li>Group bonus XP/C-bills that inversely scales with tonnage - As a way to allow more flexibility, but still encourage variety, have a group XP/C-bill bonus that gets bigger the lower the group tonnage is. This combined with a naturally longer queue time a full 4x100 group would face, should allow people who want to play heavier groups to do so without unbalancing match-making.</li>
<li>Variant selection after map selection - Rater then continue to change maps to be more homogeneous, it would be great to allow players the option to have up to two possible load outs for a Mech saved. After Map select in the lobby, players would have the option to swap to an alternative load out. This would eliminate some Suicide/AFKing/Griefing. Players may not be able to avoid bad match ups, but having a team full of laser vomit on Terra Therma is not a fun experience, nor is having an LRM lance and getting stuck on Solaris. Allowing those players to swap to a different setup on the same chassis could improve player experience and improve matchmaking by allowing for more competitive games.</li>
<li>Company setup options in Pre-match lobby - In addition to allowing for map/game mode selections, a second match setup screen (or the pre-match lobby itself) could provide additional setup options, like allowing the team (Or a company commander) to determine strategic options like spawn points (Aggressive vs defensive spawn points, for example), or Lance configurations (Arrange Heaviest Mechs to one side, balanced tonnage, etc.) Giving a Company commander or the whole team a voice in strategic options like this could again encourage more team play, but also get more variety in the game for everyone.</li>
</ul>
<p>8v8 vs 12v12</p>
<ul>
<li>Great option, but I would not want to see this at the expense of 12v12. I think there would definitely need to be thought put into player counts and impact to queue times, as well as some maps and game modes playing very different, and not always better, at the lower counts.</li>
</ul>
<p> </p>
<p>Examine Match scoring</p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Decrease in winning bonus - Overall Match wins have too much impact on overall score. Reducing this slightly will allow for improved rewards elsewhere without too much overall balance impacts. While teamwork should be rewarded over just individual play. There's better opportunities to encourage better team play through other options.</li>
<li>Improvements to various 'non-damage' scoring opportunities - To encourage teamwork and playing more to the objectives than just 'kill all the enemies'. Increased bonuses for things like capping(Assault, Conquest), staying in the circle in Domination, and getting batteries in Incursion would promote completing these over just kills. Especially for light Mechs, my experience is the only way to skill them up or make C-bills fast is to focus damage only.</li>
</ul>
10
