26 replies to this topic

[Damion Stranik]

The devs have recently clarified their stance on canon mercenary units being unavailable for MC registration by players. I personally feel like this is the fairest thing to do for all involved and I support their decision. However, I think it would be a shame if these famous units were not included in the game in some way - as such I think it would be awesome to see the following:

Every major faction has 5-10 Canon mercenary units associated with it. These units have special missions associated with them (Bonus c-bills, bonus salvage, bonus experience what have you) that can be played by anyone in the major faction 2-4 times a day. Perhaps there is some more interesting objectives to these missions, or maybe simply winning these missions alone provides a greater incentive for the players involved to be organized. Every month the 5-10 mercenary units rotate out with a different set of mercenary units with their own slight variations to the missions.

Example: The 12th Vegan Rangers are on Industrial Raid duty this month for the Draconis Combine, so all DC players can choose to play 2-4 IR missions with the 12th Vegans for a bonus to their mission salvage and light mech experience gain. This system could easily have some restrictions on it, say, once a house player locks into a mercenary unit for the month, they can only play with that unit's bonuses for the remainder of the month. This would add some flavor to the world and fit nicely with the rapid development schedule that PGI is intending.

[SquareSphere]

intresing twist. at least from a day to day variety stand point. That being said, the devs are taking into consideration to let certain large and famous merc units be "joinable faction" in the same why people can join houses

[Carl Wrede]

Yes, as i said in the other thread i think the easiest option for canon merc units is to assign them to the house they fought for just as a regular house unit and treat them as such.

That way people could become a mechwarrior in their favorite canon merc unit and actually have to earn the right to do so.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Why should House-loyal Players get the rights to play as Canon House Units AND Canon Merc Units, while the Mercenaries here in the game cannot play as either? That's Not Fair.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 03 May 2012 - 01:31 PM.

[Orzorn]

Excellent idea! It would sort of be like (forgive me!) daily quests from World of Warcraft. You can use these factions to build up special points, get extra C-Bills, unlock special skins or decals, etc. That would be really cool.

Edit: After re-reading it, I don't think it should be restricted to just faction players. Mercs should be able to participate as well.

Edited by Orzorn, 03 May 2012 - 01:32 PM.

[SquareSphere]

Orzorn, on 03 May 2012 - 01:31 PM, said:

Excellent idea! It would sort of be like (forgive me!) daily quests from World of Warcraft. You can use these factions to build up special points, get extra C-Bills, unlock special skins or decals, etc. That would be really cool.

Edit: After re-reading it, I don't think it should be restricted to just faction players. Mercs should be able to participate as well.

That's how I read the idea as well. They're "faction" based missions that you play in to improve your standing with said unit. Once you do enough, you get the options to "join" the merc groups.

Actually this could be a way to get the faction players organized offically. The House/Faction leader will always be someone at PGI (gives out the current mission, also reduces leadership infighting) and the folks that "join" the faction unit (after getting enough faction points to join said elite house unit/famous merc org) could organize themselves based on availibiilty and reputation on forum space provided by PGI.

[Felicitatem Parco]

So, the only way someone can play as a Member of the Gray Death Legion is to become a Steiner-Loyal player who completely avoids the Mercenary Meta game?

[Carl Wrede]

Prosperity Park, on 03 May 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

So, the only way someone can play as a Member of the Gray Death Legion is to become a Steiner-Loyal player who completely avoids the Mercenary Meta game?

Yes, if the developers like our idea. If they dont you will not be able to play as GDL at all, take your pick.

[Felicitatem Parco]

MechWarrior Online Mercs.

MWOmercs.com.

Mercs.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 03 May 2012 - 01:52 PM.

[SquareSphere]

Prosperity Park, on 03 May 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

So, the only way someone can play as a Member of the Gray Death Legion is to become a Steiner-Loyal player who completely avoids the Mercenary Meta game?

Let me clarify my addendum to the OPs idea. Lets say you want to join the GDL, well you first have to play several GDL based missions to build your reputation with them (basicly to show commitment to the unit). Once you join, you're part of the GDL but overall command still belongs to the Devs. That being said, the GDL players still need to coordinate to take on the missions GDL command (devs) hand down.

So the players still need to organize to complete missions, they just don't run the over all unit. Well how do they organize? By the board provided for the faction by the devs. These GDL players will get to know each other by repuation (maybe even some ingame mechanism based on stats and mission results) so folks can organize themselves.

[Pheonixwolf]

that sounds like the same path Cryptic took, develop one faction to the detremint of the other making it nearly pointless to play that faction.
in this case what reason would there be to play a free-lance merc?

[SquareSphere]

Pheonixwolf, on 03 May 2012 - 01:55 PM, said:

that sounds like the same path Cryptic took, develop one faction to the detremint of the other making it nearly pointless to play that faction. in this case what reason would there be to play a free-lance merc?

In this specific case, free lance mersc have the ability to target planets of their choosing, rank structure, access to HQ/planetry resources etc.

The way Bryan put it was

Free Lance Merc = Active Participation
House/Merc Faction Units = Passive Participation

From a leadership perspective.

[Bryan Ekman]

A simple example of faction play.

• I am a member of [insert faction].
• I wish to play a match.
• I select Faction Play.
• Click Launch
• [Matchmaking crunches away]
• I'm dropped in a [insert my faction] team vs [insert enemy faction].
• Match starts.
• Winning [insert faction here] Earns Occupation Points towards [target planet selected by devs/automatically].
• XP/C-Bills/LP awarded to players.
• Match Ends

[Kusiami]

Canon groups = NPC units (like NPC Corporations in EVE)

Non canon = player units.

[Gun Bear]

At the risk of sounding pathetically stupid where is the announcement regarding mercs

[Win44]

Prosperity Park, on 03 May 2012 - 01:52 PM, said:

MechWarrior Online Mercs.

MWOmercs.com.

Mercs.

It is a series reboot, get over it. You have months to go create a unique unit, feel free to leave your ego here, it might help channel your originality.

If PGI wants to call the player driven competitive metagame Mercenaries that is cool, it's just a label that fits.

I like the idea OP proposes, I think it fits in with what PGI seems to have planned for faction players.

EDIT: Bryan, you've been a busy guy today!

His comment fits with how I thought things might go with factions.

Edited by Win44, 03 May 2012 - 03:05 PM.

[Damion Stranik]

Quote

Let me clarify my addendum to the OPs idea. Lets say you want to join the GDL, well you first have to play several GDL based missions to build your reputation with them (basicly to show commitment to the unit). Once you join, you're part of the GDL but overall command still belongs to the Devs. That being said, the GDL players still need to coordinate to take on the missions GDL command (devs) hand down.

So the players still need to organize to complete missions, they just don't run the over all unit. Well how do they organize? By the board provided for the faction by the devs. These GDL players will get to know each other by repuation (maybe even some ingame mechanism based on stats and mission results) so folks can organize themselves.

This is a good addendum. I think some of the mercenary units definitely do deserve their own subfaction which could then have a pre-determined rotation between the major factions. The mission type bonus' could vary on a monthly basis, while overall unit bonus' stayed constant. The balancing factor would be that you could only play these bonus'ed missions a limited number of times a day; 2-4 maximum I would say so that people with infinite time can't abuse this. As someone pointed out, this is similar to the idea of daily quests for WoW.

[Damion Stranik]

Prosperity Park, on 03 May 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

So, the only way someone can play as a Member of the Gray Death Legion is to become a Steiner-Loyal player who completely avoids the Mercenary Meta game?

Sorry if this is a double post but I just read this;

I agree with one of the posters above who feels that these special missions be available to both house and player merc units.

[Insidious Johnson]

merge with claiming thread plz.

[Grimm Gunn]

Damion Stranik, on 03 May 2012 - 12:52 PM, said:

The devs have recently clarified their stance on canon mercenary units being unavailable for MC registration by players. I personally feel like this is the fairest thing to do for all involved and I support their decision. However, I think it would be a shame if these famous units were not included in the game in some way - as such I think it would be awesome to see the following:

Every major faction has 5-10 Canon mercenary units associated with it. These units have special missions associated with them (Bonus c-bills, bonus salvage, bonus experience what have you) that can be played by anyone in the major faction 2-4 times a day. Perhaps there is some more interesting objectives to these missions, or maybe simply winning these missions alone provides a greater incentive for the players involved to be organized. Every month the 5-10 mercenary units rotate out with a different set of mercenary units with their own slight variations to the missions.

Example: The 12th Vegan Rangers are on Industrial Raid duty this month for the Draconis Combine, so all DC players can choose to play 2-4 IR missions with the 12th Vegans for a bonus to their mission salvage and light mech experience gain. This system could easily have some restrictions on it, say, once a house player locks into a mercenary unit for the month, they can only play with that unit's bonuses for the remainder of the month. This would add some flavor to the world and fit nicely with the rapid development schedule that PGI is intending.

um.. I hate to say it,, but this is trolling and a really poor attempt at it ta boot....stop trolling and lets get on with the game plz...