54 replies to this topic

[Brakkyn]

I'm unsure how much sense it makes for a pilot with no allegiance to have a world of their own, and there are obviously going to be drawbacks to playing as an independent MechWarrior with no ties to anyone or anywhere. This is one of them.

Then again, there's always Galatea.

[ShoveI]

Quote

How will it still be desireable for someone, to play as a Lone Wolf when there is no special content to be earned that way, or is there going to be other stuff which only a Lone Wolf can acquire? –Sesambrot

[BRYAN] While Lone Wolves do not participate in the faction aspect of MWO’s community warfare, they will play an integral role in lending their services to faction and merc units. Post launch, we plan to give lone wolf players a broader set of roles in the universe.

I think they'll balance it out some way. I don't think they forgot about lone wolves

[Darrin Thomason]

My take on Lone Wolfs,

I see the role, (on each specific battlefield) if you want to tie it into lore, as the old mechwarrior pilot who had retired and then has to be called back into action to help the save the planet (or to take it for the faction they support). Or if you wish it is a minor noble who has one mech and again goes in to help their desired faction


Why I am probably going to start as a Lone Wolf

I have been a BT/MW for 10 years since someone at Uni got me into it. I have played MW3, MW4 and MC1 & 2 and all of their expansions, however, never online. I don't know how good I am going to be compared to everyone else.
A further reason for choosing Lone Wolf (at the moment) over a Merc Company is this - It looks like the battles are going to be 12 v 12 and therefore if you are wanting your Merc Company to play the entire side of a battle you are going to need (somewhere at or above) 20 members - this is due to people at work, unwell, or just unable to log on and play at that moment. In addition living in the UK the times I am going to be able to play is at 8-10pm GMT which equates to late morning - mid afternoon in the US. This might be fine for finding Us Merc Co. for a weekend match but what about during the week when more people are unable to play? Would it mean that by joining a small Merc Co (say 8 members) am I actually going to end up as a Lone Wolf most of the time anyway?

As a parent and a husband I can not give masses of time to play (hoping for 2-3 matches per day) and I don't particually want to miss a match waiting for a further member of the merc co (or house unit) to log on so we can join a game. (I need the extra matches to get better).

Anyway that is my take on it.

[Polymorphyne]

If you want to see what kind of MMO MW:O woul be most like, I would look at world of tanks- your main screen is a garage full of tanks, you can be a member of a clan, but your average battle is you clicking the "random battle" button with a tank selected and you get thrown in with a bunch of random people, but have the option of being in a party with the party leader hitting random battle.
and then there is clan wars in which if you are part of a clan, you get to fight in a scheduled battle for territory.

So I imagine it would work alot like that- some of the games major devs even play world of tanks.

I imagine itd be:
Faction Battle: random pick up game but your team is all random people from your faction and the enemy team is likewise for their faction, contributes to a planet somewhere and who owns it.
Merc Corp Battle: Scheduled battle to claim a planet.
Lone Wolf: Filler for the faction PUG battles.

I personally will favour faction wars- instead of being a small group of players fighting to just take territory for themselves, I would rather be part of a large community of players fighting to take territory to give a bonus to everyone in the faction.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

=Outlaw=, on 11 February 2012 - 08:24 PM, said:

I think too many people are getting fixated on the "lone wolf" title and letting their imginations run wild on the type of gameplay to expect.

A lone wolf is simply a neutral player...wouldn't say causal player exactly...but Im sure a higher percentage of causal players will be lone wolf.

I think the main advangtage of being a lone wolf will be faster queue times, since they can fill in for any faction. Which is perfect for a causal player that just wants to log in, play a few games, then log out.

If people read this, they will understand the concept and the role the lone wolf will have.

[Lorcan Lladd]

We do get full salvage rights on any 'Mech we disable, though, don't we?
Don't we?

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Nothing has been said by the dev's about salvage. There has been a lot of discussion about it though. You have to remember that the previous games were PvE. In this game to salvage a mech means sombody else has to lose it. How much fun would ths game for someone starting out be if everytime you were "killed" you lost your mech. It also doesn't seem to make "economic" sense and would be extra work for the dev's to impliment. Say you have 200k people fighting and half have theyre mechs destroyed/disabled. How many "bits" of salvage would that make, and that would be happening every 20 minutes or so.

[Polymorphyne]

Id point again to world of tanks- in WoT when you lose a tank in battle, it merely remains destroyed and unusable until that battle concludes (you usually boot out of the battle and play a different tank until that one concludes) When the battle finishes, you pay a repair bill and your tank is fine again- all people take from the battle is xp, credit and medals.

Edit: perhaps we are looking at lone wolf the wrong way. So the general idea is that you choose a faction at character creation? I would guess that the options would be Davion, Steiner, Marik, Rasal, Kurita, Liao- and Lone Wolf. The Lone Wolf being the faction for players to then join a merc corp from?

Edited by Longsword, 12 February 2012 - 04:52 AM.

[DarkReaver]

Lone Wolf may be basically having a Faction/Merc Group Freelance in typical type missions or campaign missions in to benefit the Faction he under. PVP wise if he really like that it would better just join a merc corp.

[Razed]

Derick Cruisaire, on 11 February 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

@ Razed. Perhaps the advantage is already there. Lone Wolves are eligable to participate in any battle. Regardless of Faction or Merc Corp affiliation And ,it would appear, suffer no consequences for fighting on side A's team in one battle, and side B's team in the next. This could mean that a very dedicated Lone Wolf may gain experience slightly faster than his/her faction counterpart because of a larger availabilty of possible battles.

This may very well turn out to be true but it will depend on how long matches tend to last and how many matches tend to be available for each faction. If matches tend to run long, say 20 minutes, and there are a relatively small number for each faction, say a 10 minute wait between matches for a faction player but nearly no wait for lone wolves, then the lone wolves will have a clear advantage. Over 4 hours of play time a faction player will get 8 matches to the lone wolf's 12. However if there is little to no downtime for faction players between battles the lone wolf advantage vanishes.

I hope it does turn out the way you described, it'd be a damned shame if some people felt left out or disadvantaged just because they didn't want to join one house or another.

[Polymorphyne]

If you dont want to join a house and fight for ideals/ a bonus to a large player group, join a merc corp and take stuff for yourself and a small player group

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Razed, on 12 February 2012 - 07:59 AM, said:

This may very well turn out to be true but it will depend on how long matches tend to last and how many matches tend to be available for each faction. If matches tend to run long, say 20 minutes, and there are a relatively small number for each faction, say a 10 minute wait between matches for a faction player but nearly no wait for lone wolves, then the lone wolves will have a clear advantage. Over 4 hours of play time a faction player will get 8 matches to the lone wolf's 12. However if there is little to no downtime for faction players between battles the lone wolf advantage vanishes.

I hope it does turn out the way you described, it'd be a damned shame if some people felt left out or disadvantaged just because they didn't want to join one house or another.

There are 6 Houses, and How many Merc Corps that lone wolves can play for when they que up? a faction player can only play for their faction.
There is a clear and huge advantage to playing as a lone wolf.

[Opus]

Naduk, on 11 February 2012 - 06:44 PM, said:

this game is NOT a mmo or mmorpg
you do not spend your time prancing around planets picking flowers and crafting and grinding

Mechwarrior Online is a match based PvP combat game with some rpg elements
match results affect an over all universe and planetary conquest meta game

you do not load up your mechs into a space ship and go about exploring the galaxy
you dont recive quests from npc's

play older mechwarrior games to understand
or
something like League of Legends as the developers have cited it as a inspiration/resemlance to their own pricing and game launching models

please read through the FAQ's and dev blogs
this game is NOT a MMO and there is NO issues with players being a lonewolf

Well no snyt Sherlock.. your missing my point entirely. I know we ""Lone Wolfs" are stuck as Pug/pilots, and/or picking up with a MercCorp or House later down the line

My point is simply this, what are we gaining? Hence the title.....

I have read the FAQ's, and Blogs (didn't you read my post?) and LW's are being told they'll have an purpose in the canon story-line. I just don't understand why the devs would give extra LPs/benifits to affiliated pilots - - - and not have something that is equal for small MercCorps and LW's

Having been a fan of Battletech/Mechwarrior for over 23 years. I simply am not going through my hat in the ring with a bunch of clowns that are crashers and thrashers; I want decent game play, and something that involves those of us trying to avoid idiots as well.

But Yeah, this is not a MMORPG, we all know that...

Its a first person shooter, it's wolfenstien - in metal clad vehicle - dishing out pixel carnage....

[Opus]

DV^McKenna, on 12 February 2012 - 08:09 AM, said:

There are 6 Houses, and How many Merc Corps that lone wolves can play for when they que up? a faction player can only play for their faction.
There is a clear and huge advantage to playing as a lone wolf.

Yes, That's what I am hoping for ....
I keep hoping things will be made clearer, salvage rights ( if that is a part of this version of MW), skills gained, tactics and strategies that make sense..

But what I am seeing, is over blown battle servers with us as fillers so others gain more Loyalty Points and Ranks faster....

I am hoping reputation on the battlefield has it's equal in loyalty points, I guess is my drive in being a LW.

[SilentWolff]

Lone Wolf = Less than average social skillz ftl

[Brakkyn]

DV^McKenna, on 12 February 2012 - 08:09 AM, said:

There are 6 Houses, and How many Merc Corps that lone wolves can play for when they que up? a faction player can only play for their faction.
There is a clear and huge advantage to playing as a lone wolf.

Except that a Lone Wolf will have his attention, and therefore his loyalty/reputation, etc., spread out over multiple factions. There is a lack of focus. Not to mention the lack of information we have on precisely how certain gameplay elements (such as salvage) will be played out.

[Opus]

Darrin Thomason, on 12 February 2012 - 12:48 AM, said:

My take on Lone Wolfs,

I see the role, (on each specific battlefield) if you want to tie it into lore, as the old mechwarrior pilot who had retired and then has to be called back into action to help the save the planet (or to take it for the faction they support). Or if you wish it is a minor noble who has one mech and again goes in to help their desired faction


Why I am probably going to start as a Lone Wolf

I have been a BT/MW for 10 years since someone at Uni got me into it. I have played MW3, MW4 and MC1 & 2 and all of their expansions, however, never online. I don't know how good I am going to be compared to everyone else.
A further reason for choosing Lone Wolf (at the moment) over a Merc Company is this - It looks like the battles are going to be 12 v 12 and therefore if you are wanting your Merc Company to play the entire side of a battle you are going to need (somewhere at or above) 20 members - this is due to people at work, unwell, or just unable to log on and play at that moment. In addition living in the UK the times I am going to be able to play is at 8-10pm GMT which equates to late morning - mid afternoon in the US. This might be fine for finding Us Merc Co. for a weekend match but what about during the week when more people are unable to play? Would it mean that by joining a small Merc Co (say 8 members) am I actually going to end up as a Lone Wolf most of the time anyway?

As a parent and a husband I can not give masses of time to play (hoping for 2-3 matches per day) and I don't particually want to miss a match waiting for a further member of the merc co (or house unit) to log on so we can join a game. (I need the extra matches to get better).

Anyway that is my take on it.

Well said sir well said, as a Regional VP I have little time to sit down, and work though house siege battles. My family is all grown up, and I do tend to want to spend time with my grandson when I can.. so yeah, there are real world reasons for me as well for staying a lone wolf

[Omigir]

Meh, I'm sure that the Dev's will ensure that what ever the case, its balanced and fun. They seem real focused on that fun thing. Cant figure out it. Its like they are making a game or something. I just dont think the devs understand how serious mechwarrior is.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Brakkyn, on 12 February 2012 - 08:46 AM, said:

Except that a Lone Wolf will have his attention, and therefore his loyalty/reputation, etc., spread out over multiple factions. There is a lack of focus. Not to mention the lack of information we have on precisely how certain gameplay elements (such as salvage) will be played out.

It's possible i missed, or have forgotten amongst the filler fluff of the blogs, but i dont remember seeing this anywhere.
I was under the impression Lone Wolves gained LP/Rep as a neutral faction and not each and every faction.

I highly doubt salvage or a player driven economy will be incorperated by launch.

[Razed]

DV^McKenna, on 12 February 2012 - 08:09 AM, said:

There are 6 Houses, and How many Merc Corps that lone wolves can play for when they que up? a faction player can only play for their faction.
There is a clear and huge advantage to playing as a lone wolf.

Logically yes, but not neccessarily true. If there are enough matches starting at any given time all the increased options in the world won't make a practical difference. Let's say for the sake of argument and easier math that there are 12 factions, 6 houses and 6 merc companies, plus the lone wolves. Lets also say that at any given time each of the merc companies is loyal to one house so there are two factions on each side of a 12 v 12 battle. If there are only 300 matches to be filled and they're evenly distributed among the houses that's 4 factions in each battle and only 75 battles for each faction to choose from. In this situation the lone wolf has a clear advantage by being able to fill any slot as it opens up. However if there are 1200 matches waiting to be filled that's 300 battles for each faction at which point the advantage of being able to fill any open slot will be greatly diluted by the sheer number of slots available.