I think it’s time to start planning our early fall BattleTech Tournament. I’m looking for a general headcount and what people might be interested in.
Peasant Format - Use only Default Mechs
Mercenary Format - Create 1 or 2 Customized Lances
Noble Format - Create a custom lance before every match
Other
No interest, but have fun!
0voters
At this point, the format will depend on how many people participate. If enough people are interested, I might set it up in the same way as the World Cup. Everyone plans in their groups, and the winners continue on.
I voted for the peasant format as I am not expert enough to know how to min/max lance design in multiplayer. Keeping it to defaults will (probably) have the effect of allowing more casual players to be competitive, whilst keeping the matches strictly about tactical ability and good selection amongst the default lances.
That is sound reasoning. I prefer the Merc level. Make two Lance’s for the tournament and go from there, but I can see how that could be stressful with builds like the sleepy sniper in the game.
Yeah, I’m not that confident that the game mechanics don’t fall apart once you’re allowed to fully customize your mechs. I think using the default mechs would add class and charm to what would otherwise be an exercise in min-maxing.
Casual Player 1 “Oh, hey this looks awesome! I made this custom mech that i call the Shining Blade because, you see, it has both melee capacity with a small laser AND MG but it also has a long range punch with the…”
Pro Player 1 moves first.
Pro Player 1 firing.
Casual Player 1 “HOW MANY LRM DO YOU HAVE”
MECH KNOCKED DOWN
MECH KNOCKED DOWN
MECH KNOCKED DOWN
MECH KNOCKED DOWN
I understand the reasoning behind the Peasant format preference, but to my mind, mech design is an essential aspect of MechWarrior/Battletech games. Also, the recent-ish patch did a pretty good job of evening out the balance such that ML/SRM spam is no longer so ridiculous. I can now see roles for most weapons and most loadout concepts.
My preference is Mercenary, but I would play Peasant if that is the majority choice. But come on, folks, you know you want to design some mechs! Or do you fear my mighty min-max abilities? Wimps!
I was going to have so much fun with the Mercenary Level, where everyone must put together their lance and pilots, and every couple of rounds, you could update you mechs.
The best laid plans. I do understand wanting to shy away from the max min of custom mechs, and even standard mechs MP can be a lot of fun.
I’m going to go with the one with the most votes, so it looks like Peasant Tournament so far.
Format idea so far - Everyone will be in one of 4 groups and you will play everyone in each group. If we can get 16 players, that will be 3 games each.
The top two of every group will advance. Victory will be determined by the number of wins, but any ties will be resolved by the number of surviving mechs.
In the second round will be elimination, where every 1st place spot will go up against a 2nd place spot of competing group. That should bring it from 8 players to 4 players. Another game will be played, bringing it down to 2 players, were the top two will play for 1st and 2nd, and the both 2 will play for 3rd and 4th.
In the end, everyone will play 3 games, the top 8 players will play at least 5 games, the top 4 will play 6 games.
I think that roughly follows the World Cup format.
I fired up Battletech and tried setting up a lance using stock mechs and I just couldn’t do it. The stock mechs are so inefficient and just don’t suit my playstyle. I tried, but man, I am too min/max OCD to do it.
So I’m out on the Peasant tournament. If we have a Mercenary Tournament, I’ll join.
Oh, I only just realised the peasant format is creating a lance using any stock mechs. I thought we were going to go uber-peasant and only pick from stock lances!
Maybe Harebrained Schemes will create a multiplayer version of their game in the future? Not sure if enough demand for such a game exists, though. (Outside of certain discussion forums I mean.)
