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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  The Gaming Graveyard  |  MechWarrior Online  |  Topic: Community Warfare - Phase 3 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Community Warfare - Phase 3  (Read 7821 times)
Falconeer
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a polyamorous pansexual genderqueer born and living in the wrong country


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on: April 19, 2016, 06:08:29 AM

A huge patch goes live today. It introduces the CW phase 3 which is nice on paper.

The patch notes are really vast ( http://mwomercs.com/news/2016/04/1525-patch-notes-1465-19apr2016 ) but in short we can say that:

- it allows players to choose three careers, Freelancer, Mercenary, Loyalist. The three careers give different reward and offer different mechanics to join Faction Play. Units have to choose between being Faction units or Mercenary Units, and unit coffers will play a role in expanding your roster and in a unit ability to buy defenses for a planet they own (basically, they buy more 'lives' that planet has to lose for another unit to conquer it).

- Leaderboards for all. Units, and single players. Including separate leaderboards for Mercenaries, Freelancers and Loyalists.

- Freelancers are players without a unit who can join whatever Faction match is in urgent need of players. Mercenaries supposedly get the better economic rewards, while Loyalists get to vote on what planets to attack next.

- it introduces the Scout maps, which are 4v4 with only 'mechs of 20 to 55 tons. And that's great. Scouting missions give specific advantages to the faction of whoever won them. There are three different "Planetary Advantages" that factions can earn from Scouting Missions, including Long Tom Artillery!

Quote
Planetary Advantages



Combat Identification

Intel requirement: 55% or greater

If your Scouting forces have acquired 55% of the Intel for a Planet under contest, your Invasion Forces will have access to Intel regarding the chassis and variants the Enemy Forces have brought to the fight. This Intel will be visible through the Drop Preparation screen and the in-match Scoreboard (TAB).



Satellite Sweep

Intel requirement: 70% or greater

If your Scouting Forces have acquired 70% of the Intel for a Planet under contest, your Invasion Forces will have access to the Satellite Sweep Planetary Advantage. This will allow them to receive Intel regarding Enemy 'Mech positions.

A Satellite Sweep icon on the HUD will inform both your forces and the enemy's forces when the next Satellite Sweep is approaching.

Once a Satellite Sweep has been completed the controlling Team will receive Sensor Data for all Enemy 'Mechs on the field for a duration of 5 seconds. After 5 seconds all Sensor Data derived from the Satellite Sweep will disappear.
All Enemy 'Mechs will receive a brief warning when they have been tracked by a Satellite Sweep.



Artillery

Intel requirement: 90% or greater

If your Scouting Forces have acquired 90% of the Intel for a Planet under contest your Invasion Forces will have access to the 'Long-Tom' Artillery Strike Planetary Advantage. This will allow them to execute powerful Artillery Strikes against Enemy Forces.

The Artillery Strike works in consort with the Satellite Sweep, and is engaged during the 5 second window in which data from the Satellite Sweep is available to the Invasion Forces. The Artillery Strike uses this Sensor Data to target the largest grouping of Enemy 'Mechs on the field. For example, it will target a cluster of 5 Enemy 'Mechs instead of another cluster comprised of just 3 Enemy 'Mechs.

Mechanically, the 'Long-Tom' Artillery Strike works similarly to the existing Artillery and Air Strikes. Once engaged, the strike area is marked with purple smoke to distinguish it from the other strike types. After a brief delay the Artillery reaches its target and deals a heavy amount of splash damage against any 'Mechs within its strike radius.



Also, the Marauder is now available for c-bills.

If you care at all, you should really take the time to read the patch notes. Not gonna copy paste them here as they are full of pictures of the new interface
« Last Edit: April 19, 2016, 07:01:21 AM by Falconeer »

Kail
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Posts: 2858


Reply #1 on: April 19, 2016, 08:58:35 PM

Quote
For every Data Point that an Attacker captures during a standard Scouting match, 1 Intel Point will be contributed toward the Attackers Intel value for that Planet.
Likewise, for every Data Point that an Attacker captures during a Counter-Scouting match, 1 Intel Point will be contributed to the Defenders Intel value for that Planet.

Wait, so capturing data during a counter scouting match gives intel to the enemy team?  Or, when they say "attacker" do they mean, like, the attacking faction, or are they talking about the defenders who are attacking the defenders of the attackers defense which attaaaAAARGH MY BRAIN

Right now torn between Solo Loyalist (probably for Liao since that's where I was lurking during CW2) and Freelancer.  Not sure about the specifics of freelancers, though, like how easy it is to switch from freelancer to a faction (the other careers have penalties for switching, but nothing's mentioned for freelancer) or how their tech is handled (like, can they use clan mechs if they're working for an IS employer).  The new match types sound cool, time to dust off my Crabs I think, once I make my mind up on how to sign up.

Also, that Cyclops looks pretty sweet.
Falconeer
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Reply #2 on: April 19, 2016, 11:32:48 PM

Also, that Cyclops looks pretty sweet.

It really does!


Kail
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Posts: 2858


Reply #3 on: April 20, 2016, 04:09:58 PM

Hmm, I've gotta admit, my first impressions of this system are not super great.

On the plus side, it's nice for solo players to be able to contribute to CW in some way.

On the minus side, freelancing seems like a complete waste of time.  I mean, I'm not affiliated with Davion or Smoke Jaguar or anybody, so it doesn't matter to me who ultimately takes the planet and even if it did, I can't choose which side to support or even which matches pop up in the queue.  I don't get loyalty points or merc rep or anything like that, no extra 'mech bays or ranks or titles or anything.  I don't get anything but c-bills and XP, and even that is way lower than just doing quick matches because of the five minutes of dead time between each match and the fact that all I've seen pop up are scouting missions which so far seem like they have a much smaller payout than normal quick matches.

On the subject of scouting matches, ugh.  The idea sounded good, but so far they seem clunky and weird.  My first match, nobody knows what's going on, so someone says "there's 20 points on the map, if the attackers get 10 of them they can call a dropship and win" so we try to cap the points and fight the enemy, emphasis on "try" because this was polar highlands and finding four ECMd lights took close to ten minutes by itself but for some reason once we did find them they decided to deathmatch and all died to our Huggy who was packing machineguns and tearing everything up.  Second match, nobody knows what's going on, someone says "there's 20 points on the map, if the attackers get 10 of them they can call a dropship and win" so we try to cap the points and when we get 11, it turns out that calls the enemy dropship ANYWAYS so we try to kill them before they escape but fail and somehow lose the match even though we have 11 intel to their 3 and 3 kills to their 2 (and those were both from the dropship).  I am not seeing the fun in this mode yet.  4v4 light mechs sounded a lot more exciting before I realized it was going to be four light mechs plopped at random in a huge space with no direction just waiting for maybe something to show up on the sensors somewhere and then being instantly deleted because you have no armor.  Maybe it's just that nobody has figured out how to play this mode yet, but it feels like a disorganized mess.  I have no idea what to do as a defender, you're just dropped in to the map with no objective or goal to head towards.  If the enemy captures more than 10 points, they win.  If YOU capture more than 10 points, the enemy ALSO wins.  You don't get to see where the points are on the map or get any indication where anyone might be.  Once they call the dropship, you don't know where it's going to land or where you can cut off the enemy retreat.  And once it arrives, you're basically done, a fucking dropship hovering over the middle of the battlefield covering everybody in large lasers?  Yeah, no, my Urbie can't tank that.

Like, maybe if you're looking at the perspective of the Draconis Combine or something then I can see why this might be engaging, like you're raiding them for information or something, trying to steal as much as you can or whatever, but I don't give a shit about the people who are "employing" me, I don't even know who it is most of the time and when I do it's not like it matters to me how much intel this planet has.  All I know is that when the match tells me I've "lost" despite doing everything better than the enemy team, I don't feel like I was outplayed and I need to improve, I feel like it's a shitty mode.  I'm averaging something like 140 damage per round so obviously I'm doing something wrong, but no idea what.  Maybe I should just stick streaks on everything, but the only medium streak boat I have is a shadowcat and I can't figure out how to use clan 'mechs in my drop deck.

Maybe things are better as a loyalist?  I dunno. 
Evildrider
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Reply #4 on: April 20, 2016, 04:12:36 PM

To help with your Shadowcat question.  You can only have Inner Sphere mechs if you are on that side.  Shadowcat is clan and can only be used as a filthy clanner.
Falconeer
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Reply #5 on: April 21, 2016, 12:21:01 AM

Kail, about the scouting game mode, hotfix just released:

Quote
Scouting Game Mode
• Capturing 1 Data Point will now award you with 1000 C-Bills and 50 XP.
• The amount of Intel you collected is now displayed in the End of Round Player Stats screen.
• The primary result number in the End of Round Team Stats summary will now reflect the amount of Intel Gathered, not Kills.
• Victory Conditions for your Team will now appear momentarily when the match begins.

Kail
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2858


Reply #6 on: April 21, 2016, 03:23:04 PM

Yeah, finally bit the bullet and gave it a shot as a Loyalist, and it seems a lot better now.  You're actually helping out a team rather than just yourself, there's an actual community of players you'll be playing with rather than just dropping with a faceless crowd, things like intel points are actually relevant to your team even if they're not giving you points directly.  Seems to make a lot more sense.

To help with your Shadowcat question.  You can only have Inner Sphere mechs if you are on that side.  Shadowcat is clan and can only be used as a filthy clanner.

"Hmm, I should build an inner sphere streak boat, then.  I'll just head over to the store here, hmm, may as well buy the mastery pack because then I'll be able to skill them up and be a responsible team player, all right, credit card info and purchase done.  Now I'll just choose the new 'mech, head over to the lab, pull out these LRMs.  Now all that's left is to select the Inner Sphere Streak SRM6s and slot them in to... all that's left is to select... all... um, hmm.... oh, my, I appear to have fucked up."
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