After the release about the inability to name your groups after existing canon units, I think in addition to the block on using those titles, there should be some sort of way to affiliate oneself with certain canon units.
It has been noted by Bryan that the devs are considering adding the major canon Merc units as selectable NPC factions, which does help alleviate the problem, but also adds to both their upkeep work as well as
I would like to propose the selection of merc/house units as follows:
Once you've created a pilot and profile within MWO, that you are brought to a page.
On this page, at the top you are given the option of creating the name and selecting/creating the insignia for your merc or Faction company.
Next is the Affiliation Selection section. This section allows you to align yourself with one of the major Faction Houses or major Merc units.
This provides a tiered drop down box which populates the next drop down box - if, say, you select House Kurita, all the canon affiliated House Kurita units are displayed. This allows players to be aligned with certain units within the various factions, e.g. Death Commandos within House Liao. This obviously also prevents people from aligning units with canonically incorrect or unavailable units and groups, such as the Clanners for the moment or Comstar, or whatever the developers so choose as being off limits.
It could be a nice touch if the background changed to reflect the allegiance you select.
The next section allows you to fill out the contact details and recruitment information for the company. For example, who to contact and who's in charge, maybe show an auto populated organisation structure.
Finally, the last section will have a blurb about the company itself. It could be nice to have an auto-populated section which is automated across every custom company, providing a quick overview of the company's history and maybe even battle performance. There should be a section which allows company commanders and recruitment leaders to write in some extra info about the company, such as what their previous company name was in MW4 or whatever.
Hence the options on the page as follows:
1) Lone Wolves: By skipping this page, you will be a lone wolf.
2) In order to join a pre-existing, you can select the 'search' button, which populates a list, not dissimilar to a server list, that lists the units, the player count, recruitment leader and webpage. Selecting one and hitting "apply" would automatically send a join request to the recruitment leader.
3) To create a faction or merc company, follow the drop down boxes and type in information as required.
Obviously this is a very rough draft, but the main points I wanted to hit on is as follows:
1) System for selecting names, also to prevent undermining regarding unit naming system and insignia.
2) Affiliation to existing canon units, given we are not technically allowed to name ourselves after them.
3) Easy, all-in-one page for updating and viewing information regarding the various and multitide of companies.
Edited by autogyro, 04 May 2012 - 04:40 PM.