83 replies to this topic

[Kanatta Jing]

Keep in mind attackers will have as much time as they need to prepare and get their act together, even if some will insist on waiting till the last minute.

How long should the delay between the declaration of aggressive intent and the commencement of murder be?

Keep in mind, higher wait times favors defenders and encourages pilot elitism. Shorter times favors attackers and putting any warm bodies available on the field.

Edited by Kanatta Jing, 14 May 2012 - 11:12 PM.

[Aelos03]

i think we have thread like this but wth... no longer then 5 mins but 2-3 mins is more then enough

[Gun Bear]

Long enough to get to the killing!

[BenEEeees VAT GROWN BACON]

Anything longer than 5 minutes is ridiculous. No public game will hold players in a lobby that long.

[Aedensin]

5 minutes sounds reasonable but I'd accept 8 minutes max.

[Steelpoint]

Five to Ten minutes seems resonable. It gives the defenders enough time to prepare a defence while not boring out the attackers.

Anything 10+ minutes would start to get tedious.

[barry reno hendrix]

anything more than ten minutes would put me off the game and could potentially last longer than the battle itself.

[Pvt Dancer]

If you have to wait longer than 30 seconds to a minute, the game will die a horrible death as players will leave in droves.

Seriously? 5 minutes to HALF AN HOUR?????

[beloc rosnak]

less than five minutes for me. a good warrior thinks and adjusts plans on the fly

[Grokmoo]

Most likely, there will not be much pre-battle time. It has been confirmed that there are no "custom" matches.

In the game, the players will click a button to play the gametype they want. The servers will then do a matchmaking process to come up with the 4v4, 8v8, or 12v12.

Players will probably have at most 5 minutes at the start of the match to customize their loadout based on the pre-selected team.

It is also possible that there won't be any prebattle time, and the mechlab will only be usable outside of matches.

I can see advantages to just getting right into the game, but then again having the chance to customize based on the team you have been paired with would be nice.

[XTRMNTR2K]

Pvt Dancer, on 15 May 2012 - 03:52 AM, said:

If you have to wait longer than 30 seconds to a minute, the game will die a horrible death as players will leave in droves.

Seriously? 5 minutes to HALF AN HOUR?????

Quoted for truth.

90 seconds is all you're ever going to need. Public games won't be getting more organized and players won't stick (closer) to the battle plan (if there is any) just because they had to wait for longer. Those with a grasp of basic tactics will apply them as they see fit, and those who just want to rush will rush in mindlessly either way (and die a horrible, painful death in the process). No amount of pre-battle time is going to change that fact.

Edited by XTRMNTR2K, 15 May 2012 - 04:12 AM.

[Carl Wrede]

This is where the lone wolfs come in, you make your team and click the button and any place not taken will be filled with lone wolfs (or other House pilots).

[Pvt Dancer]

Grokmoo, on 15 May 2012 - 03:53 AM, said:

Most likely, there will not be much pre-battle time. It has been confirmed that there are no "custom" matches.

In the game, the players will click a button to play the gametype they want. The servers will then do a matchmaking process to come up with the 4v4, 8v8, or 12v12.

Players will probably have at most 5 minutes at the start of the match to customize their loadout based on the pre-selected team.

It is also possible that there won't be any prebattle time, and the mechlab will only be usable outside of matches.

I can see advantages to just getting right into the game, but then again having the chance to customize based on the team you have been paired with would be nice.

Actually Grok, the thing I fear is people using certain mechs for certain maps. "Oh, this is a city map? Here comes the Hunchback. Oh, it is a wide open map? Here comes the Catapult." Great, so you never see the Hunch on the open map and you never see a long range mech in a city fight.
Also, from what I know, there will only be 12 vs 12 matches, and the possibility of a 'hot drop' match mode, where each player has 4 mechs and you drop in a new one as the old one dies. How many vs how many, I do not remember.

No... the best thing really is you know what planet your on, but you don't know what kind of maps you will be fighting. Thus if you know your on a ice planet, you can run mechs that run hot... but you shouldn't know if it will be a city fight or open map. This will lead to more well rounded Mechs that can deal with different maps and still be useful.

[Grokmoo]

Quote

Actually Grok, the thing I fear is people using certain mechs for certain maps. "Oh, this is a city map? Here comes the Hunchback. Oh, it is a wide open map? Here comes the Catapult." Great, so you never see the Hunch on the open map and you never see a long range mech in a city fight.
Also, from what I know, there will only be 12 vs 12 matches, and the possibility of a 'hot drop' match mode, where each player has 4 mechs and you drop in a new one as the old one dies. How many vs how many, I do not remember.

No... the best thing really is you know what planet your on, but you don't know what kind of maps you will be fighting. Thus if you know your on a ice planet, you can run mechs that run hot... but you shouldn't know if it will be a city fight or open map. This will lead to more well rounded Mechs that can deal with different maps and still be useful.

We know that there will be two game types - a base capture mode with one mech per player and a dropship mode where players can respawn up to 3 times in a total of 4 different mechs.

I think I recall seeing the devs at least imply that there will be some matches smaller than 12v12, but I did make up the 4v4 and 8v8 part

Edited by Grokmoo, 15 May 2012 - 04:22 AM.

[Blind Baku]

Times ought to depend on the mission type. If you foot slog in then time to set up and plan sounds fine to me, but on a hot drop map it should be pandemonium.

[Redshift2k5]

I don't think there should be any "milling around in a lobby for 20 minutes while everyone squabbles over role/chassis/variant/loadout/i wanna be the leader and waiting for the other 23 participants to hit a 'ready' button". There certainly won't be any time to go to your mechlab and customize your mech or we'll never get the match started.

You should either choose your mech then join the queue, or join the queue then pick one of your ready-to-go mechs which you've already built in the mechlab. There may be some time to choose which mech you will bring, but more on the order of a minute, not five or ten.

Obviously if a full merc team of 12 is forming they will want to have roles/chassis/complimentary loadouts set up, but you'll have to get that prepared before you queue, not in a lobby for half an hour.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Devs said a while ago in a similar thread that matches would "range from 1v1 up to 12v12" and could also be asymetrical, presumably depending on BV/tonnage.
Matches will either be House v House or Merc v Merc with Lone Wolves filling in. At least that is what we know so far, changes may well occur.
Groups within a House can drop together.

[Volume]

15-30 seconds. I'm not even kidding. Maybe 60.

60 seems reasonable. It's not like LoL where you're picking and counterpicking in a draft or something. I think you're picking your mech -before- getting in battle (a la WoT "I am queueing with my HBK-4G" rather than "I am queueing. Now I'm in a match, what should I pick?)

If you are picking within the battle, 90 seconds should be enough to pick which mech and config you're toying with.

If you want to wait 5 minutes, you can watch lots of people (not me, but lots of others) quitting. Many people want to jump in and play, and having to wait 5 minutes cuts into someone's lunch break pretty bad

[El Loco]

I agree with everyone suggesting something from 60 to 90s. Even in games like LoL most people become impatient if the heroselection takes more than 20s. But we have to keep in mind that the players (and especially those playing commanding officers) need enough time to lay out a battle plan, but that's something that could be done at the very beginning of a scenario, before the real action starts.

[Kanatta Jing]

Okay I can see there being like an open D rank defense Contract for Lone Wolves and stray Mercenary Company lances to defend a world, when the company doesn't have enough online forces to do it themselves.

And I can see those slots being filled up in the last 60 seconds.

But I'm still leaning towards 15 minutes for the people that would be all invested in the conflict.