33 replies to this topic

[Tincan Nightmare]

Ok I tried to run a search to see if this topic had already been covered, and either I was too specific or not specific enough because I didn't find anything, so don't bite my head off if this has been covered by 10 or more pages of posts already .

So from what I understand, the game will start out with the 6 Inner Sphere nations, with players interacting either as house units, mercenaries, or lone wolves for those factions. However in BT there were more numerous factions than just the House Lords, and I was wondering what other people would like to see and/or play. The Clans are one that is practically guaranteed, but there would also be Comstar and the Comguards, the Periphery realms like the Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus, and the various pirate bands that plague both the Inner Sphere and the Periphery together. Heck after Tukayid you would also have the Word of Blake breaking away and becoming a potential faction, and in the future the various small groups that came to be in the Chaos March (at least for a short duration.) Some of these would be fairly challenging, especially the Periphery as they were always struggling to survive and had generally lower tech than the Inner Sphere.

[Sychodemus]

DC, CC, FS, LC, FWL, FC*, FRR, SIC, TC, MoC, MH, CF, OA, CS, WoB, CW, CSJ, CJF, CJW*, CGB, CDS, CSV, CNC, CCoy, CBS, CGS, CSR, CFM, CIH, CHH, CB, CCC, CSA, CWiE, CSL, GBD/RD*, AMC, KH, WD, ELH, NWH, ns-Mercs, RWR, NSL, CM, MM, NA, LL, KR, CP, FiltC, FroncR, IP, TD, RC, CI, ARDC, Alf, HL, UC*, RotS, plus 10 post-Jihad groups/splinters (SW, SC, BR, DF, SH, TTU; DTA, MSC, OP, RF) and Pirates (everything is better with pirates.)

The OP pretty much covered it all: Inner Sphere, Clans and Major Periphery. Any additional faction would seriously require the stretching of believability - which few people would opt for anyway aside from those of a MLE (My Little Empire^tm) mentality.
In any case, they need to release them gradually (if at all) or risk diluting faction bases; many of the above were pretty much extinct after the Jihad/WoR (or didn't exist until then obviously.)

I could be all right with subfactions as well (Skye, Warrior Houses, etc) but it is still too early to tell how or if any of it will matter. By and large anything "cool" is pretty much covered by the main three (IS, C, MP) and anything else is quaint (until they create a super-mega-death-army.)

Edited by Sychodemus, 12 May 2012 - 12:55 AM.

[Thorn Hallis]

I'm ok with the factions we have so far.

Seriously, who wants to join a faction that goes to war only once in the next three years (Comstar) or has no access to Level 2 technology (Perephery realm) for about 9 years?

[neodym]

Klingons!




oh wait ( facepalm )

Sychodemus, on 12 May 2012 - 12:54 AM, said:

DC, CC, FS, LC, FWL, FC*, FRR, SIC, TC, MoC, MH, CF, OA, CS, WoB, CW, CSJ, CJF, CJW*, CGB, CDS, CSV, CNC, CCoy, CBS, CGS, CSR, CFM, CIH, CHH, CB, CCC, CSA, CWiE, CSL, GBD/RD*, AMC, KH, WD, ELH, NWH, ns-Mercs, RWR, NSL, CM, MM, NA, LL, KR, CP, FiltC, FroncR, IP, TD, RC, CI, ARDC, Alf, HL, UC*, RotS, plus 10 post-Jihad groups/splinters (SW, SC, BR, DF, SH, TTU; DTA, MSC, OP, RF) and Pirates (everything is better with pirates.)

The OP pretty much covered it all: Inner Sphere, Clans and Major Periphery. Any additional faction would seriously require the stretching of believability - which few people would opt for anyway aside from those of a MLE (My Little Empire^tm) mentality.
In any case, they need to release them gradually (if at all) or risk diluting faction bases; many of the above were pretty much extinct after the Jihad/WoR (or didn't exist until then obviously.)

I could be all right with subfactions as well (Skye, Warrior Houses, etc) but it is still too early to tell how or if any of it will matter. By and large anything "cool" is pretty much covered by the main three (IS, C, MP) and anything else is quaint (until they create a super-mega-death-army.)

[Stormwolf]

Yeah, it should be:

- Houses
- Clans
- Major Periphery
- Mercs
- Pirates

[Kanatta Jing]

But if we count major periphery then it cuts into space the player Merc corps can scuffle over.

[GuntherK]

Hello Kitty Brotherhood

A nasty cutthroat bunch they are...

[Thorqemada]

I would like Periphery - where a Mechpilot is still a Mechpilot (and not an Electronics Warfare Specialist or Clonewarrior).

[Nakir]

I would like to see Periphery Realms , Deep Periphery , and Pirates!!!

[Togg Bott]

i expect to see limited factions to begin with. major houses. then player made merc units. we all know the clans are coming next year. but what we dont know is what/how many joinable factions the Devs will create between the start of Beta and the clan invasion.

i would Guess along with the maps and mechs the Devs will CONSTANTLY be working on, and the game play balancing act they'll have to preform. this is gonna leave precious little time for creating more than a few additional factions for us to join/hate.

[Kreisel]

If you dilute factions too far it will start becoming trickier to find games, it will also make things more complex for the Merc Corps who are trying to juggle loyalty between different groups in order to get the best contracts. I'm pretty sure they picked the number of join-able IS Factions the way they did for a reason.

I honestly hope that none of the cannon mercs become a joinable faction, but rather we get a system where your created merc group can get 'sponsored' by a cannon group, much like in the campaign of MW4 Mercs. That way people can get the flavor of being attached to these cannon groups, without further complexifying the way players or organised into groups.

The Clans are a concern, I think players would really like to be able to play in more than just the main invading Clans, but if you separate them all out, you dilute your pool of players a massive degree. Even if just all the Clans in the activated for Invasion are used (Jade Falcon, Wolf, Ghost Bear, Smoke Jaguar, Nova Cat, Steel Viper) you double the number of player factions. When I start to think about it... I get suspicious, 6 IS houses, 6 Clans, it would line up evenly, each side having the same number of groups to join if they did it that way. That would offer some explanation for the particular number of IS houses you can join. Since I know much of our community is highly attached to Clans other than just those 6 I hope there is some way for them to play as their clans of choice.

There is some chance, (just to avoid overly diluting Clan player base, and reduce the amount they have to fill slots with Lone Wolves) that 'The Clans' might be a single faction, with each individual clan being treated as a 'sub-faction' much in the same way I'm hoping they will do with house units. (pleas, please, please make joining a unit more than just decals and a name!)

Honestly it sounds like the periphery both isn't mapped out and is relativity weak in the scheme of things, so I doubt they will get their own factions, unless it's just considered all one big giant combined faction, and that would lack the flavor that makes Houses interesting.

Claiming to be Pirates can pretty much be covered by playing as a Merc corp or Lone wolf. I suppose you could have a different mechanic other than contracts, where they 'raid' planets, but honestly I don't think gameplay wise it would be meaningfully different enough to warrant it's own faction.

All and all I think we have a pretty good mix, we start to get too much more than this and it's going to get real complex and burdensome system to keep in balance.

[Thorn Hallis]

Maybe they'll add the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus later as somekind of low-tech county for people who want to slug it out with tech level 1 only.

[Tincan Nightmare]

Well Comstar gets to fight the clans at Tukayid so that would be pretty fun to get in on, plus they stayed in what was left of the FRR afterwards so they could almost act as a sub faction for the FRR, plus the whole WOB attack on Terra and their participation in Bulldog and Serpent to wipe out the Jaguars, so the Comguards get to see quite a bit of action in a few years. Plus they have all those SLDF 'Mechs!! Pirates would be an interesting faction if they let them attack anywhere and everywhere, with the price you pay being that anyone can hunt you and maybe that you have to rely on salvage and loot vs. access to the typical 'store' system like house or mercs. I don't want to see the player base diluted across too many factions, but these could be ideas for the future if the game gets big enough.

[eZZip]

There isn't much point to putting more and more factions in, especially when most will have only the most minor differences, if any.

[Arbhall Sommers]

I would be all for seeing what can be added after we see what we already get with the current ( and massive selection) factions. BEyond what we have, Id like to see an in depth system for mercs and pirates. Comstar would be boring till the major battles later on, no one messes with comstar.
But yeah all in all i think it looks real good.

[Deathz Jester]

Does Comstar count as a faction?

[Arbhall Sommers]

They certainly seem like their own faction in the fiction. They politic like everyone else, but they control the long range communications between worlds so they get away with a lot.

[Insidious Johnson]

All of the periphery and the ability of any merc unit with a low rating to GO pirate.

[Deathz Jester]

I'd totally join Timewarnercable, I mean Comstar.

[Carl Wrede]

The only faction that is inner sphere (i.e. not clan, periphery state or pirate) and missing is the St.Ives Compact.