3 replies to this topic

[stormblade002]

Since the dev's are looking at adding weight limits to the match making process why not give clan units a lower tonnage limit. The clans bid to use the minimum force necessary to complete a mission and this was used against them several times in the novels. You could play with the percentages but a 10 to 25% disadvantage in maximum tonnage per team could work well but they would have to play with it to see what works depending on how much more powerful the clan mechs are.

[Uncle Totty]

I think just lower numbers (8 IS to a max of 5 Clan) and VB (Clan 15-35% less than IS) will do the job.

Edited by Nathan K, 16 February 2013 - 11:09 PM.

[stormblade002]

you could do that, I was thinking along the lines of how we should be getting weight balancing soon in matchmaking. if you run a combined weight 600 ton lance of clan you will get paired against 8 100 ton atlas' or something to that effect. or if you run 300 ton clan unit you will face a 400 ton IS unit. you could do the reduced numbers I guess too. both Ideas would be dependent on making clans a separate faction then the IS and giving them either exclusive access to clan tech or severely increased cost for clan tech to IS pilots.

[FupDup]

The thing about 8v5 is that it assumes all 8 IS units will be able to coordinate successfully against a single clan unit simultaneously. Getting 8 mechs to concentrate fire on one mech is harder than it sounds, especially on our tiny maps. The clanners, on the other hand, only need to get 5 mechs to concentrate fire. If the IS is only able to get 7 mechs on-target at the same time against clanners using all 5 of their mechs, the clanners would be at an advantage. They will have a much easier time playing to their strengths than the IS will.

Asymmetrical army sizes works fine in strategy games like Starcraft and Dawn of War because they don't affect the number of players in a match. A Zerg commander may use high-quantity low-quality units against a high-quality low-quantity Protoss player, but in the end it's still just a 1 on 1 fight between the two commanders. Here in MWO, people seem to be forgetting that each player only controls one single unit.


Zellbrigen would certainly stop clanners from concentrating fire, but that would be annoying as heck to enforce. Plus, it would be hella easy to exploit. I can already picture myself, in my TrollRaven, getting a clanner to challenge me and then running behind cover so my pet Splatapult could eat him alive.




The clans will be a PITA to balance, that's for sure. It might not even be humanly possible TBH. On one hand, stuff like the 8v5 will please the "hardcore" fans but annoy the average joe who likes playing balanced games. On the other hand, adding stuff like tradeoffs (i.e. slightly longer laser beam duration) to the clan tech would make the hardcore folks take up arms and bomb PGI's headquarters IRL and murder their families. There is simply no way to win this situation. Trying to stick to a timeline 1:1 was a bad idea from the start because it severely limits what you can do without messing up history. This is the exact flaw that historical games like WW2 games have.

Edited by FupDup, 17 February 2013 - 08:46 PM.