Posted 24 September 2014 - 06:33 PM

FAQ From Last Update:Note1: I pulled a ton of questions out of the last feedback thread. If you don't see your question, it was because it was answered in this update or it was a duplicate. If I missed something critical, feel free to re-ask your question in the next feedback thread.Yes, these chassis will be allowed for use in CW gameplay.No you do not need Jump Jets to get past the gates, the JJ reference from last time was just to give a sense of how high the gates are going to be. There are alternate points on the map that will allow non-JJ 'Mechs to attack the power generators that control the gates.Current plan is to have a set season or win condition that will reset the IS Map state. We will be monitoring the IS state at all time to see what is happening. We may allow Faction changes without resetting the IS Map. We are always keeping in mind that we do not want to permanently lock players from playing the 'Mechs they've bought.As mentioned in the above update, the various Factions will be providing incentives to players who take the attack/defend contracts. To be included in this are Loyalty Point rewards which will be discussed in the next update.As mentioned, the only real 'Mech restriction in Phase 2 is Clan players play Clan 'Mechs and IS players play IS 'Mechs. Additional restrictions that align to specific battles/play modes/era specific battles etc will be considered for Phase 3 CW.This is something still in talks. There's a fairly big technical risk involved with dynamic priceing of items in the Mech Lab. (Not the store) If we can find a way to work this in, it is one of the ideal ways of making control of planets have a lot more impact on the game as a whole.Again, logistics is something we would like to do but it completely out of scope in terms of development time at the moment. The sheer amount of data that would need to be tracked and storing movement of units across 2400+ planets would be astronomical. We won't trash the idea but it is on hold for the moment. As for repair/rearm, this is something we've talked about bringing back but we have to be very careful on its implementation. We will continue to discuss this internally to see when and how we can bring it back into the game.We have been watching peak player times constantly since going live with the game. We are currently looking at 6-8PM PDT for West Coast, 3-5PM PDT for East Coast (6-8PM EDT), and 11AM-1PM PDT for UTC (6-8pm UTC). We may also include prime times for AU and Asian times as well. These numbers are all still to be determined but I just want to let you know that we're not just focusing on North American play times.Can't say never, but for the time being, this attack/defend mode will only be in CW.Currently, there's an estimated average of 6 minutes per match. We would expect Drop Ship mode to be in the 20-30 minute time frame per match.With the Mining Collective just going live and codename "Swamp" being beautified, we are looking into the development time invovled with Invasion Mode specific maps. Because the first Invasion Mode map is mostly terrain, it should have a fairly quick turn around. If we apply this style to other Invasion Mode maps, we should be able to turn around more maps soon after launching CW. Reuse of current art assets is key to be able to expedite map creation and this is something we look into whenever we talk about new maps in general.No one really "owns" a planet except the Factions themselves. You will however be able to stake claim on a planet if it is contested and your Unit is the highest winning Unit during that planet's combat phase.Not out of the gate. It has been discussed and even the community has mentioned the use of salvage to allow cross technology but at this moment we're going to hold off on that ability.This is unclear terminology at work. In the above update, I've started to use a different terminology set to help clairify this. Essentially, it means Clan players can only use Clan 'Mechs and Inner Sphere players can only use IS 'Mechs.This information will be release next CW update. October 8th.As mentioned above, no. Only planets that have been fought over can be imprinted with your Unit's name/tag.Definitely. We will be monitoring how many players are participating and active in CW and will make any adjustments necissary to allow as many players as possible to participate.Yes, this is something that is needed for the Call to Arms feature which alerts Faction players that one of their planets is being attacked and so on. Inclusion of notable battles would be a cool feature to add to this. The feature itself will grow over time but the basics will be in place for Phase 2.I'm sure we can come up with better naming. I'll update everyone if anything changes.I don't know if we'll be calling further feature updates Phase 3 but yes, we want to grow what CW is in Phase 2 to even bigger and better things.Current plan is to have 4 planets inside each Faction that is attackable from outside bordering Factions. For example, Kurita would have to planets exposed to attack on their Davion border and 2 more on their FRR border.Yes you can. We had Randall Bills help us out with a matrix of who would feel a certain way about someone being killed. For example, if a Kurita player kills a Davion player, Kurita would be happy, but Davion would be angry. Marik wouldn't really feel strongly either way. Steiner would be angry as well. The matrix breaks down how all of these interactions play out and I'll provide more info on how it works in a future update.LP will be part of Phase 2.... more incoming...Yes, as described in the update above, drops will happen in waves on a global timer.There is no need to. Public game space and CW game space are separate. Want to play in CW? Click the Faction Tab. Want to play in Public matches? Click the Home Tab.This is a neat idea, but since the Comstar TS server is privately run by one of our community members,it might become unfair to them. Will investigate this and see what we can come up with.This is not in the current design but is a very cool idea. Will write it up and see if/when we can get it done.CW is part of a role play experience and Unit gameplay. To keep to this design goal, it only makes sense that groups are limited to the same Unit. Teams will be built out of multiple Units if the Unit group is not a 12-man.Yes, we can provide these lists, but with the new way that Mech Selection and Drop Ship configuration will work, only valid 'Mechs will be displayed for any given scenario. But again, yes, we can provide Faction specific 'Mech lists.This is the plan. Just prior to Phase 2 going live, we will give everyone the opportunity to make their last Faction prior to the CW lock on Faction switches.Not at the moment but I've been told we can make this so very easily.There may be a very slight delay in the map updating but it should be minimal. And yes, the map will change and the borders will update. Who knows, maybe you'll see Liao pull a Hail Mary and take over the IS and keep the Clans from invading.Each Faction's capital planet will be off limits. Planets in the Periphery will also be off limits for now. However, Karl has shown me how to make any planet on the map contestable so you never know what may happen outside of the main Faction borders.You never know what might slip out on a Dev VLOG or twitter or even on the forums. But now that you mention this, I may smack the phone out of anyone's hands walking past my desk.Initial seeding will be done by us. Ideally we'd like to see the Clan Invasion corridor stick to lore but we are really putting the borders in the hands of the players. As each planet is taken, a new planet will be programatically selected to be the next planet up for contention.During the combat phases in a 24-hour day, any valid Faction/Force Unit can attack the same planet. The idea is to allow all Units of any size to help change the ownership of a planet for their Faction.Units are the player created/registered "guilds" that were added to the game recently.Total annihilation of the enemy team will result in a win assuming there are no more drops available to any of their players.The main focus of CW is the Clan Invasion. Part of that is that we want the Inner Sphere to be more effective in holding the Clans at bay instead of watching the FRR evaporate very quickly. The tech restriction is meant for all players of Clans or Inner Sphere, not just subsets of them.Day 1 of Phase 2.Premium Time behaves the same way it does with public matches. It gives you extra CBills and XP earnings on top of what you get through match performance.Part of the drop Mechanic is travel time to get back into the fight. Random drop locations can end up with re-inforcements showing up VERY quickly depending on where the combat is currently taking place. Right now we're going to start with drops at bases and will expand on this if needed.We may work this into the Call to Arms feature mentioned above. "Shack of Squires is attacking your favorite planet!" Something like that.Right now we're not planning on having a limit on which 'Mechs are taken in the first drop. If a team wishes to take all Assaults at the start of a match, they're going to regret it as the fight continues and they start losing their assaults and are left with lights at the end of the match.Part of your question indicates logistics which I mentioned above is not going to be part of Phase 2. As for the interface requirement, it will be your group leader clicking the Attack button and from that point on you will be queued in the Attacker's queue.We've been discussing many possiblities here and the engineering team is working to give us as many dynamic options as possible. Maybe a Faction takes over the entire Inner Sphere, maybe the Clans surround Terra. It's up to what happens during CW that we will determine the best route to a reset if needed.You were correct, the answer is no. 'Mechs should be customized and prepped in the Mech Lab and added to your Drop Ship when ready.At this time we will not be allowing this. The idea of the Drop Ship is that you are going to make a very conscious decision as to which 'Mechs you are going into battle with.If I'm understanding you right, yes, the current Unit creation method that will be used in the game for now. If you're talking about aligning with the sub-units within a Faction, that MAY appear further down the road.As time goes on, we will be fleshing out anything that will be adding to the feeling of grand battles for planets. New modes, new maps etc. It's just a matter of time.This isn't planned at the moment but is a very cool idea. Open for discussion on it.Not immediately out of the gate but this is something could eventually address.This is still on the drawingboard. It is something we'd very much like to see in the game but it will become an issue finding where we can fit it into the schedule. There is also the point that planets will be flipping every 24-hours. Not sure how players would feel if they upgraded a planet and lost it the next day.We have decided to make Unit Coffers an opt-in mechanic. This allows players to decide how much they're willing to pay into the Unit Coffers. The ability for the Unit Leader to see who has donated and how much is there to see if members are carrying their weight to their satisfaction. All player controlled.There are no direct costs other than not getting as many C-Bills and Loyalty Points for failing.Any unlocks, such as rewards or achievements would be kept from season to season.Unfortunately this is something we've shelved for now. I won't go on the record saying it will never show up, just that right now we need to focus on the core mechanics of CW and tune it before adding extra gems on it.With the various peak player times throughout the 24-hour day, there 'should' be an opportunity for everyone to partake in CW.Feedback thread is here: http://mwomercs.com/...ept24-feedback/