2 replies to this topic

[Mechropanzer]

I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the 'This Is The Frustrating One - Sorry' event objective, where you need to win by capture in Assault mode.

Been in some very exciting matches where teams genuinely and desperately try to capture a base, and that is how the game mode should be played. As it is now with normal gameplay, the Assault mode is broken, teams often don't bother with capturing the enemy base (benefits are so low, points wise) because pilots are just focused on dishing out damage and try to win by elimination, treating every mode like it is Skirmish.

For the first time in a very long time, this event objective has brought some proper communication and coordination for pilots, even in public play, at least from what I have seen. In most Assault games during this event, I seldom see mechs all just go rushing forward to pound each other. There is some coordination to try to capture the enemy base, yet are reserved in committing to a full forward push for fears of the enemy doing the same. There is a sense of moving forward, yet looking and preparing to reverse back when the situation becomes dire.

I would love see Assault mode undergo some changes for normal play and I believe this will make the game more exciting:

1. Make the game time-duration for Assault mode shorter to bring out the urgency and desperation to capture the enemy base. I believe around 7 or 8 minutes is ideal.

2. Make it that if both teams fail to capture the enemy base, both teams will result in a loss instead of a tie, so that they know this can affect their stats if they are not focused on their objective to capture the base. How they go about it is up to them, they can try for a base rush or go for total elimination of the enemy mechs before capturing the base, but they must capture and hold the base before the timer runs out.

This will produce some very exciting moments if they decide to do skirmish style, destroying each other and each team with minimal mech presence and must decide what they want to do with the short timer ticking away, whether to capture or destroy then capture, but with so few mechs, that may not be possible as well with seconds remaining.

I believe with the two elements introduced, this will spice up and bring some new excitement to the current Assault mode and bring fresh gameplay into MWO. And bring back the true and real meaning of base capture.

[D V Devnull]

Instead of making the Match shorter (which can cause some unnecessary panic-linked bad decisions) or ensuring a Lose Condition if someone won't play the Objective at all, why not increase the "Capture Success" amount to a point where people consider the Assault Capture Objective to be actually worth completing? There has been too much of a "More Stick Than Carrot" approach used far too many times in MWO's History up to now, and any change from here forward should stick to a "More Carrot Than Stick" approach instead in order to improve interest from MWO's Community and by any other players who interact with them. Heck... I do not particularly like your "Stick-Heavy Approach" because of too many bad things in MWO's rather involved past, and would rather to get away from those kinds of methods being used anymore.

Right now, the "Capture Success" amount is only 15000 (C-Bills) while the "Conquest Bonus" in Conquest Game Mode is at least 50000+ (C-Bills) in size. That happens to only be a little bit over the payout for 4 Killing Blows — which are only a mere 3250 (C-Bills) each by the way, and around 13000 (C-Bills) total combined while requiring far more effort than capturing a base requires — in terms of what is earned by comparison of Killing Blows versus achieving the "Capture Success" item during gameplay. Perhaps the amount given by "Capture Success" should be instead increased to at least twice (if not bumped to three times) what it currently is, which would push it to either 30000 (C-Bills) or 45000 (C-Bills) that the player would be earning. Having an increase made upon that "Capture Success" amount would very likely provide just enough added incentive to make people prefer playing the Assault Capture Objective over merely taking the more visceral action of simply killing all Enemy Team Mechs on the various battlefields. Yeah... I would definitely prefer more of a "Carrot-Heavy Approach" given the past of MWO versus what you are proposing.

But, what would be the question now? It would be whether or not you would want to jump on this kind of a bandwagon. So what do you say to this counter-proposal, 'Mechropanzer', and the idea & mentality contained within?

~D. V. "Why apply more of a noose to Assault Game Mode here, when one can apply greater payment?" Devnull

[Mechropanzer]

Thank you 'D V Devnull' for the thoughtful reply.

At this point, the normal Assault objective is broken that I think any suggestion to improve it, including your 'more carrot than stick', is actually valid.

My thought/reasoning:

1. More c-bills is certainly welcoming. Heyyy, must be the mahnay!

However, the reason I suspect most do not bother with the capture of bases in regular Assault matches is because the game system is heavily skewed towards damage output. The time spent capturing a base diverts a pilot away from actual combat and from delivering quality damage output, and because of this pilots trying to fulfil the objective are often ranked the lowest and loses tier rating because of that. I'm not sure what conversation-discussion has been made about this, but if they do not fix this, maps objectives will always be redundant since everybody is going to treat every map mode as a skirmish first, and then the intended objective as secondary.


2. I particularly mentioned the shorter time duration for each round, and the non-tie, is because this will force teams to commit to the objective.

If given more time, I feel anything more than 10 minutes per match, and pilots will just engage in an all-out mech battle and only capture the base once they are the only ones left standing. Hence, the abundance of time will pull the gameplay style away from the intended objective, which is to base capture.

A shorter time will force pilots hands to commit to focus on base capture, and give teams a sense of urgency to change their playstyle from other map modes and invoke some form of desperation in their coordination and planning.


3. About the no-tie. Assault, or base capture, should literally mean that, forcing the gameplay to commit to capturing the base first and foremost.

The same scoring mechanic should not apply (e.g, more damage, higher score). If one team captures the base, everybody in the team wins and ranks in the top 12 of 24 pilots, regardless of their damage output. Even a pilot in the winning team with least damage contributed will still be sitting in 12th position. The other team, the bottom 12.

If no team captures a base, then both teams loses, and the normal scoring applies. (Better still if there is a way everybody gets some form of penalty, because they have failed in securing the objective)

Again, this is so that teams do not become complacent and fall back to their usual gameplay style of just skirmishing and trying to win by destroying all the opposing mechs. Assault should force pilots to think and react aggressively to base rush or base defending, rather than just lets all just go the center and duke it out.


Again, this is not about more stick than carrot. How should I put it... 'new conditions' must be introduced into Assault (and other map modes) so that it forces pilots to behave and play differently. Without it, all pilots will just go back to trying to skirmish and put on their biggest guns so they can rake up the highest damage scores and be on top of the standing at the end of a round. "Didn't capture base? Who cares, I scored 979 damage and am on the top!". This is what we want to avoid having.

The rewards and reception for this Assault event have been very positive and I have seen pilots really changing their gameplay styles as every side is really trying to win by capturing the base. However, once the event and rewards are over, new conditions should be introduced so that it keep up with this different and change of playstyle so that there is some variety to the matches.

PS: It's also amazing to see, as I have seen in several matches, that the last mech standing, knowing that they have lost due to overwhelming enemy mechs and the base capture is imminent, will resort to self-destruct by overheating themselves to deny the opposing team the objective win. Honor in sacrifice! Salute <o

Edited by Mechropanzer, 03 April 2022 - 08:10 PM.