Community Warfare - Phase 2 - Update Oct 8,2014

http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/17...-update-oct-8/page__pid__3803095#entry3803095

Community Warfare - Phase 2 - Update Oct 8,2014

Let's see... how can we organize this a little better?

1) New Stuff/Updates
2) Changes
3) Questions


All of the next updates will follow the above. Makes it easier to organize and give you all the new, neat stuff up front.

A couple of quick notes. Most of the work for CW-Phase 2 is currently behind the curtain back-end/database stuff. There's nothing visual to show unless I show screen caps of code (and no.. I'm not going to do that). I've included an image that is work-in-progress down below showing how to open a gate without jump jets.

The other note is that the amount of information with each update will more than likely decline as most of the major information is released early and it switches from announcing new stuff to more updates on progress.


New Stuff

Ejecting
We are implementing the ability to eject from your BattleMech for Drop Ship mode. This will prevent running around on the field as a pogo stick if you don't want to be in that situation. The implementation will be as follows:

An assignable key [O by default] will trigger the eject sequence.
The player must HOLD this key down for [10] seconds in order to eject. The amount of time will be determined based on "denying the enemy a kill" mentality which would be rather poor to have happen all the time.
Upon ejecting, a large pulse of damage is sent to the 'Mech's head component and the 'Mech is destroyed.
The ejecting player is sent to the standard "death" screen and eventually to the drop ship selection screen.
Attacking players will still get assist and most damage kill stats, but the final blow stat will not be given.

The Leopard Dropship is now VTAL
The Leopard Drop Ship is now a VTAL (Vertial Take-off And Landing) ship. It will be used to drop 'Mechs off at various respawn points on the map. This specifically allows us to either swoop the Leopard into the game space to drop 'Mechs off at low altitudes, or do high altitude/near hover drops of 'Mechs into the game space. The animations involved are in our test level at the moment and is visible in debug builds. We will probably be doing some video capture next update.

New Map/Mode Update
We completed our first play test session of the new map codenamed "Frost" and game mode codenamed "Invasion". Both of which are in early iteration but the core mechanics are all working. Gates open when their power generators are destroyed. If the attackers destroy the defender's main installation building, the match ends in attacker victory.

The Drop Ship functionality of dropping a new 'Mech into a match is now ready for testing and will happen later this week.

Back End/Server Update
The gameplay logic that drives the overall Faction Warfare loop is near completion. This is the loop that involves looking at the IS Map, selecting a planet, selecting attack/defend and entering the match lobby. There are still few points to finish up but it is tracking on schedule.


Changes

Drop Ship Mode
Drop Ship mode is being changed to a minimum and maximum tonnage limit rather than a strict 1 Light/1 Medium/1 Heavy/1 Assault limit. For example, we might set the Drop Ship limitation to [140] tons minimum and [240] tons maximum. You MUST take 4 'Mechs meaning you cannot take 2 100 ton 'Mechs and leave the other two slots empty. The available tonnage is restricted to your personal Drop Ship. This means if you take under [240] tons, the remaining unused tonnage is NOT shared with the rest of your team.

Merc Units/Lone Wolves
It will still be required that Merc Units/Lone Wolves (MU/LW for the rest of this explanation) align themselves to a House. However, they can switch alignment after a specific amount of time has passed. For example, if a season is 3 months long, at the end of each month, MU/LW's can switch alignment. This alignment switch will come at a Loyalty Point (LP) cost and that cost varies depends on which House is chosen as the new House of alignment.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

He later comments that the O key was just an example.

PS: The formatting and bolding copies perfectly - another nice feature of the new forums.

 

Two Hellbringers (65x2) and two Stormcrows (55x2) or a Timberwolf (75) and three Stormcrows (55x3) will nicely fit that 240 ton and fit my playstyle thankfully.

Adding two Direwolves won't even be possible for Clans and Inner Sphere would have to take a pair of Locusts to achieve it....

 

Dropships, animations for dropped mechs (respawns and hopefully we get cockpit views), ejections, tonnage limit...looking nice.

240 is a interesting number. A quad of 55 tonners, maybe doing a single assault with two mediums and a light...I foresee some interesting drop deck discussions.

 

Isn't dropshipmode supposed to allow true lances only? So.... you won't be able to drop two similar chassis since you can't drop the same weightclass twice....

 

That's been dropped - instead of 1/1/1/1 you have a 240 tonnage amount per person. It a compromise as a lot of people are specialists in one or two classes. The 3/3/3/3 limit was specifically commented as not running for CW in one of the prior pieces in September.

 

That's..... sad.... me likes truelance.....

 

Join a lore oriented group who drops 1/1/1/1? Nothing stopping ppl from dropping 1/1/1/1 really. But I know what you are getting at, I myself would like a heavy emphasis on mediums. Heavies are scarce and a assault should be scary as hell and maybe 1 per team.

But that's just me.

 

It certainly limits assaults nicely, two dires followed by two locusts will likely loose to a more balanced drop deck IMHO.

 

Concerning "Ejections"... I highly doubt there will be an actual ejection animation. It will simply be a suicide button.

Head is destroyed, sent to death screen.

 

Sad.... we actually deserve an animation.

 

well, it's not like we won't get it. I'm just not getting my hopes up.

 

So there is no use with this eject function out of CW mode then.

 

The purpose of this functionality is to drop with your next mech when your current mech is out of order, without the need to rush the enemy team to suicide. And that should be all.

It should not be way to avoid death and/or to deny a kill. It should count as a death and reward the last enemy that hit you a kill.
If not, that's calling for douchebaggery.

 

I think the bigger douchebaggery that would occur is to strip a mech, then leave it so they couldn't spawn in their next mech. Running around with no weapons, completely useless. That is the primary reason for the ejection I would assume.

I do agree a pseudo "kill" should be awarded to the last mech cause damage to the ejecting mech.

 

I hope community warfare has some sort of "scarcity" mechanic that makes certain chassis hard to come by and others more easily used. Like it would be expensive to bring a D-DC to a fight for example, but a more common mech like the Hunchback would incur fewer operating costs for your lance.

 

Duh, of course! I didn't think of that. Without ejection mode there would just be a new and special form of griefing out there. Yikes!

 

Well you'll get an assist and rewards for that just no killing blow.