Posted 24 February 2016 - 05:29 PM

Spoiler

Issue one: the map design. Everything revolves around the damn gates. Maps basically come down to various layouts that all revolve around very, very structured paths that end in a large, over-sized gate. Almost lazily, all maps have a predefined point that the attackers can relatively safely shoot the conveniently placed gate generators.



As a result, gates are just a time barrier that alerts defenders to the first attack. From there, gameplay comes down to gathering at the gates and then pushing in as fast as possible while the defenders position themselves tower-defense style. The teams wear each other down, and then it's rinse and repeat. It's like repeatedly smacking your head against a brick wall.



Issue two: The objective design. The objectives are very, very linear. Destroy gates, destroy generators. Missed opportunity here. Instead of a game map and objectives that encourages decisions on both team's part, as well as requiring teams to maneuver to attack/defend certain points, you tend to have very static gameplay that never really varies. Again, the very linear/path based maps limit any decent design.



Ultimately: it feels like the game mode was designed for ten year olds that require a game to hold their hand and tell them where to go, only requiring the player to hold W and click when needed. And, on some maps, feels suspiciously like a MOBA design... again, PGI completely missing the point of what they were developing.



Spoiler

For one, the map design philosophy is going to completely change. The bases would become actual walled bases placed on an actual large scale map. The base would still have multiple gates and defenses, but would be entirely surrounded by walls that you could navigate around. The walls would be sized to keep out heavier 'mechs, but allow lighter 'mechs with enough JJs to leap over for the sake of extra strategic choice. The base would be defended by heavy batteries of turrets- I'm talking AC10s, SRMs... enough to deter a straight up light rush and require an assault lance if taken on directly.



Then the objectives get slightly expanded. Instead of a gate generator that just exists as a mandatory time sink barrier, it'd have both a Gate Control and a Turret Control. These locations would be spread out into the map. They'd be capturable, and on capturing these locations, it would disable the respective defense at the defender's base. On top of that, they would be OPTIONAL objectives- both gates and turrets could be destroyed by weapons fire, but it would take some time and the attackers would surely take loses. Again, strategic choices.



The point of all this? For one, the conflict zones are no longer going to be just choke-points surrounding gates. Having external objectives from the base encourages defenders to actually sally forth and defend their control centers if they so choose, and the battle will take stages as the attackers try to capture points, and then siege the defender's base. Ultimately, combat isn't just limited to within the base.



One issue that might arise from this is travel time. In the final stage of a battle, where the attackers have the defenders pushed back, if an attacker dies and has to travel 2+ minutes to get back into battle... well that's hardly going to be fun. So, implement capturable spawns! This hardly even needs to be complex.



Attackers would have a main spawn point where they spawn from drop ships. Defenders would start with hangers in their main base. However, there'd also be two capturable hanger spawns at the two control centers. The defenders would start with these, and could choose to start further into the map to start their defenses. Attackers could capture these points and be able to spawn closer to the battle.



There's still so much room for ideas. There could be further optional objectives, such as resource depots, which grant Cbill bonuses to the winning side, perhaps even have their own spawn points.



Can anyone, anyone at all, honestly look at Faction Warfare's 'Invasion' game mode and say that it makes any sense whatsoever?I'm talking about purely the game mode in this thread, rather than the overall CW map and units. Now I'm a harsh critic. Always have been. But CW was MWO's opportunity to dip into something more than what it was, and instead it feels like it completely missed the point.I just can't wrap my head around it. What it could be, what it is. How the decisions came about to design it as it is. It makes me wonder whether there's some sort of technical or higher game design reasoning that is beyond me.On concept and on paper, Invasion sounds like the game mode CW and MWO needed. An asymmetrical battle where one team attacks, dropping in on dropships, and the other team defends a base. The attackers have to get through defenses such as gates and turrets before... destroying some type of orbital gun? Which I suppose is in the lore somewhere. On so many occasions both PGI and Russ promised that CW would be the 'hardcore' experience we'd all been waiting for.In practice? It's ridiculously limited and anything but hardcore. Unless close-range twitch skill is your version of hardcore. My issues specifically with it:Now, if I was the designer... which I'm not, obviously, so this is just a dream filled player's silly idea... well, I'd do something like this.So because images speak a thousand words I whipped up a quick mock up in Blender. Let it be known that I have no idea how to sculpt terrain so this is less of a 'this is a map I want to see' and more of a 'this is the idea I want to see maps designed around'. Also this was sort of supposed to be a desert, so imagine plenty of rocky structures for cover and such.It's the same scale as Alpine, so not even as large as Polar Highlands.Do I expect PGI to suddenly drop all their current maps or redesign them like this? Do I even expect them to use this sort of style for future maps? Of course not. I doubt everyone would even like this style of gameplay, which is more towards the original MW games and LL. And I'm sure there's people out there that like the current CW mode.I'm just posting this because I can. CW is something that's frustrated me since day one due to the hype it built up and the way PGI was selling it, but it just feels like a missed opportunity that could have made MWO surpass even the previous MW games.