No replies to this topic

[TheGreyWolfe]

A big issue that I’ve seen with PUG games is that unless you are part of a pre-established team (and I don't have VOIP), there’s rarely a conversation on tactics or strategy. It’s a real crap shoot as to whether your team will star burst, rush blindly, or scatter at the first group of enemy that it encounters. There are (of course) some basic team tactics that are covered elsewhere, but those don’t have as much to do with the map goals or specific team assignments based group makeup.

While I know that this is an online game and matchmaking and mechanics limit ‘realism’, etc, - I would hope that most players would agree; it’s highly unlikely that someone that would have command of 8 Mechs totaling 400+ tons worth 30+mil C-bills would have them fight an adversary without any sort of plan or command and control. Unless the team is already at the location and in defense mode, most commanders would have detailed intel about where they are dropping into and would work up a plan of attack/defense that was communicated to everyone.

So here's my suggestion: for each map there could be a set of 7-10+ text based strategic plans per side/start location. At the beginning of the match a team strategy is randomized and shown on the start page for the team to see (viewable via tab screen during the match). If players hate the given plan – at least it’s a starting point of a conversation as to what the plan should be. The plans could be labeled so that experienced players can quickly communicate different ones that they like better instead.

They would have to be somewhat varied as well. You could make them simple (heavies defend the base, meds take kappa/enemy base, lights harass), but you’d probably need to make them a little complex to provide the variety and so they aren’t easily guessed by the opposing team. Since the matchmaking system does have all of the information of the composition of the group, a more informed system could be created that would take generic map strategies and split 4/4 or A/H/M/L groups or slot different Mechs into roles for a more detailed strategy. Also, once you choose a presentation style, you could take suggestions from your players for new plans/strategies for maps. I think this would provide a cool additional detail to the game and provide a basic plan that has a chance of success were majority of PUG players to follow it.

Thanks for reading and providing a forum for suggestions.

TL;DR – In an attempt to improve the PUG experience; provide each team a pre-made randomized text based “plan/strategy” for the map that they could follow (or not) which would be displayed on the start screen/tab screen.