meeper
1841
Yeah, I’d be more apt to think March-April of 2014.
dtolman
1842
They’ve stated its coming out before Clans (summer is when the invasion hits), and it’ll be two phases - factions and then the actual warfare stuff (later in the year).
Back in late '12 they indicated March, and in December that they had a team working on it for a release that would take place after the current feature set was done, but before the clan invasion.
If not March, then I fully expect the faction stuff to begin rolling out April. I don’t expect the planetary conquest until the fall/winter 2013.
dtolman
1843
Just to clarify the above - when I say community warfare soon, I’m referring to the faction system (part 1) - not the fabled metagame. Back in December they listed a bunch of features, all but one of which is now in the game (Achievements - due in March according to the January feature update), then said they would be coding CW. So it should be work in progress with 6-8 weeks of development behind it by now.
Some other recent comments they;ve made indicating that Community Warfare is moving along internally:
-Free patterns will come with Community Warfare and Faction Ranks/Entitlements.
-Is there a plan for merc company or lance tagging in our player IDs. ie (merc name).(player name)? A: Yes with the first phase of Community Warfare.
-An interstellar map is coming with Community Warfare.
-Wouldn’t it be nice to have the option to take four of your favourite mechs, each with custom purpose built loadouts, and select which one to field depending on the conditions? I think this would create some pretty amazing tactical thinking and play. This concept also bleeds into our planetary conquest concepts in Community Warfare.
The most substantial post of recent days:
Q: [insert question about Community Wafare]
A: Community Warfare is coming in stages over the course of 2013. The first phases will include the concepts of Factions – Player run Merc Corps, and non-player run Houses. The second phase will include the territory conquest aspects, including the ability to fight for and control border worlds within the InnerSphere. Details will be forthcoming through a variety announcements (press and forum) later in the year.
So yeah 6 to 9 months out for anything meaningful, that’s at least what I was expecting.
Also in the last ask the devs they mentioned that pve is not even on the roadmap… But they also mentioned non-player controlled tanks, vtols, aircraft etc (maybe tied to consumable call ins??). They have hinted strongly also that clan tech is going to be delayed with respect to the timeline they are following.
dtolman
1845
They’ve definitely kept the clan aspect close to the chest - I think they would’ve been better off having it years down the road, but they’re stuck now.
No idea on NPC, but player controlled turrets, etc are all on the roadmap (thus giving the weighty command console bearing mechs something to do).
pg1
1846
A lot of their initial ideas have since been pulled off the website I think (or you have to google search to find them). I hope they stick to what they are doing now and keep the deathmatch feel going. They have a tendency to lock many topics that discuss the future of the game. A recent example - http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/101559-monetization/ which I thought was a good thread for the official forums, yet still locked. People have found various stuff in the game files that hints at what is to come but it seems almost as if they want to surprise us.
I’ve haven’t been playing much lately but I’ve been playing more eights. We rarely drop in eights vs what I’d consider a good team, most are pretty easy matches. We’ve beat a top RHoD team a few times and lost a fighting cap race vs a top undefeated RHoD team by a hair (we all thought it tied). So either my team is much better than we thought or eights aren’t that competitive compared to other FPS (which doesn’t surprise me). My KDR continues to go up, now at 2.12 (+.04 in a week) but I haven’t been playing as much. I don’t notice the effect of Elo much when grouped up. I don’t tend to notice many names anymore of good players. Not sure what that means. I do know some people who to steam roll in groups of four are enraged at how much more they lose due to Elo. I’ve encountered a few of them on large voice servers. I think it’s a good improvement overall still however.
Yeah regarding files -lots of future stuff in the files in there - much of the pilot tree for example:
UAV, Artillery Strike, magnetometer, vision mode disruptor, coolant flush, etc
Plus I see stuff in there for the faction play (options to setup merc corps, including assigning ranks, select contract - all caught my eye)
So some cute tidbits, but outside of the full pilot tree I don’t see anything too exciting.
_scout
1848
March Plan is out
http://mwomercs.com/news/2013/03/618-2013-march-creative-director-updateTesting Grounds
And see what’s in there …
This offline game mode allows player to launch into a random map and test out there currently selected BattleMechs. Each Testing Grounds match has 8 non-interactive `Mech targets for players to shoot and test damage, heat, movement and other strategies. This is just the beginning of a large set of training options for new and experienced players coming online in the next few months.
Consumables
An extension to the module system is being introduced on March 19th. Players will now be able to equip a variety of consumable module items. Upon release players will have access to Coolant Flush, Air Strikes, and Artillery Strikes. These new items will be available for C-Bill and MC purchase. Details will be forthcoming in an upcoming Command Chair post here www.mwomercs.com/forums/forum/102-command-chair/.
There they are.
pg1
1849
Initial reaction is negative to consumables, especially air or artillery strikes. Coolant will just make PPCs even more prevalent. I guess we’ll see how it is tomorrow!
JoshV
1850
Hmm, if implemented in a fair way, air and arty strikes could be a fun gameplay mechanic. As a consumable, it sounds a bit lame though. Coolants sound terrible as well. The wallet warrior factor on both sound awful.
Well there is no credit sink besides selling stuff right? There you go.
pg1
1852
Some of my buddies have ~160 million to spend with every mech already bought. Pretty crazy. If these are expensive to buy with CBills and offer a big advantage they’ll love it but it’ll be terrible for the game. I was hoping players or units could buy expensive stuff once CW rolled around. Drop ships sound expensive. I was thinking it’d be cool if units could pool CBills to buy expensive equipment or planets, etc.
Just had a great match, dropped solo. Alpine and lots of duels in my AS7-D-DC. Exhausted all my SRM and UAC5 ammo and was just down to PPCs. Got capped because I couldn’t fight everyone and live without running around, hill jumping, etc. Then I couldn’t chase because I was too slow and someone was behind me sniping the whole time. See the pictures -
A lot of fun actually even though it took forever. Can’t wait until I Master the AS7-D-DC. Right now it’s just on basics but it’s a beast. My KDR is up to 2.25 (+.13) in two days!
_scout
1853
Consumables
Initial reaction, looks like p2w, 2nd thought and reading it all, it offeres a different option, but still not sure if it’s well balanced.
This is really barely pay to win. You can get the same effect with cbills, but MC spending player will be mounting an extra module or consumable. Depends a bit on the ultimate costs involved also but this is much milder so far than many other f2p games.
Still … I’m on the fence about consumables. It’s not really what I am looking for in a battletech game. Again it depends on how dramatic they get.
Looks like I was overly optimistic about factions. Hopefully next month then.
People get all in arms about P2W with flush, but I’m more concerned about the lousy gameplay implications. Artillery strikes, etc should be tied to the commander ideally (to make up for the console mass). The coolant flush seems… barely worth it. Gets you out of trouble in one situation, paid. I suspect it’ll be marginal in actual gameplay.
Yet no one is talking about the implications of 8 team members calling in the hand of God to take out any mech, possibly even behind cover (artillery, airstrike, maybe both at once x 8)
Well the BIG patch is the 19th, so you can still hold out hope.
Regarding damaging call-ins, yes that is my concern also. This isnt Call of Duty.
On the positive side, I see the new end of game stats in the files from two weeks ago. They look cool:
HONOURS
TOP DAMAGE
TOP KILLER
MOST ASSISTS
LEAST DAMAGE TAKEN
DEFENDER XP
MOST TIME IN CAPTURE
FASTEST MECH
SLOWEST MECH
LONGEST SHOT
HIGHEST BURST
LONGEST AIRTIME
LONGEST FALL
KILL SHOTS
Commander
Also: HEAD SHOT KILL, SAVIOUR KILL
pg1
1858
This new turn of coolant, artillery and air strikes is terrible. Let’s exam this a little. MC modules which we can assume there will be versions of for these will take one slot, while the CBill version will take 2 slots if they follow the coolant system. This means given the few modules most mechs have that you’ll be able to take more consumables if you use MC. Also if you look at the mechs which have high module slots you’ll notice that the ECM mechs all have many module slots. Specifically the RVN-3L and AS7-D-DC all have 3 module slots (the most of any mech) and once mastered that goes up to 4 module slots. These are already top tier mechs and now they just got even better.
Consider the difference in a match filled with high module mechs outfitted with MC consumables vs low module mechs. They all have 4 slots while other mechs can has as few as 1, though most mechs have 2. Once mastered mechs get one more module slot. There could be a difference of 24 modules in a match currently. Currently all the modules are useful but not really needed. Coolant flush sounds like the first one which is a must have. Further more I can’t imagine that 8 artillery or 8 air strikes can’t kill a mech. Even if strikes just do 20 damage each, it’ll add up. Then if your mechs all have coolant and the others don’t that means an extra alpha strike each! It just sounds grossly bad to me. MWO is single spawn and small differences mean you win or lose. The best mechs just got even better via modules that actually do something.
EDIT: They are also heavily moderating the forum. Locking threads like crazy, moving threads, merging threads (one was up over 150 pages!) and other shenanigans. PGI just dumped all their goodwill earned with hard work and good decisions down the toilet.
EDIT2: Consider this -
dtolman
1859
I posted a thread about the potential OPness of consumable, real money arty and air strikes and they responded already:
-one airstrike and one arty module per mech
-CB is more powerful, but takes longer to arrive
-MC (real $$) is less powerful, but arrives quicker
-global cooldown timer
-one use per player, per game.
So at least in terms of called in strikes, it may not be as terrible as possible (still skeptical of a combined 32 strikes - 16 per side in a 5 minute match being fun).
JoshV
1860
I could see them being useful to prevent camping, especially if done via a simple method that announces it. “Incoming airstrike detected”, and then shows a countdown as well as the area on the map that would be hit.
I forget, does MWO not have repair bills after a fight? Is that why everyone has a ton of cash built up?
