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[Wiles]

I haven't played the Faction Play game mode since before they made all the changes to it. I decided to just make my own unit and try to go down the merc route so I could get both top tier rewards if I have the time (I read somewhere later that Russ said loyalists will get an extra reward at the end. Nothing more specific than that was said though).

I looked at my mech stable and decided to play as a clanner because I really wasn't sure which mech I had from the IS would be good for scouting mode (although after playing many matches against the IS I think my Griffin 2n would be good).

I thought the gather intel mode was for gathering intel with fast mechs but my teammates got upset that I didn't bring something 50+ tons so I just stuck to using the Stormcrow after that.

[Flying Dice]

It pretty much always comes down to a fight in the end since you still have to have uncontested control of the evac point. You can get away with clan lights, but the IS ones just plain aren't strong enough.

[Kanil]

... uncontested...

Was that changed recently or something? Used to be you just had to be standing in the zone at 0:00...

[Flying Dice]

... uncontested...

Was that changed recently or something? Used to be you just had to be standing in the zone at 0:00...

Yep, just had one lost because there was an enemy 'mech in the circle with me. The dialogue from the DropShip pilot was something along the lines of "Pickup zone is too hot, I'm bugging out!"

[Kanil]

Guess the weaponless Locust can't have an absurd winrate anymore, then. That's kinda sad, but at least it improves the gameplay...

[Flying Dice]

I kinda wish that there was more nuance to it, though. We had two people on the point, our third survivor had squirreled to draw three of theirs away. We had already cored the one on the point when the timer ticked down... but none of that matters. All they really did was turn a binary win condition into a binary loss condition. Yeah, having a single fast 'mech essentially dash up the closing landing ramp is sorta cheesy, but it fits the theme of the mode in a way that this doesn't. They had a mode, for once, where "kill shit" is explicitly an optional secondary objective that you could actually avoid if you want... and then they made it into another generic "kill shit" mode.

That aside, frankly, a single light/medium with cERSLs or cSSRMs shouldn't be enough of a threat even to a Leopard to force it to evac.

[Kanil]

Thing is, it was hilariously unbalanced. I have not lost a gather match where I've piloted a Locust, and I played at least 25 of them last event. I didn't even have any organized teammates, just random pugs. Sometimes they were helpful, sometimes they died in 2 minutes and I had to win it solo. Either way, I never failed, because dropship dashing is super fucking easy. I didn't even have the Pirate's Bane ECM for ultimate ezmode.

Scouting being reduced to medium 'mech rumble is somewhat unfortunate, but medium 'mech rumble is still pretty fun, and a lot better than "coinflip, you got defend, you lose."

[Flying Dice]

What I meant is that I wish they had more complexity to the win/loss. Maybe also looking at the number of 'mechs in the zone when the timer ends, or comparing the (remaining) alpha damage of each team's 'mechs in the drop zone and allowing the attackers to retreat successfully if there isn't a great disparity. So you can't just run an undergunned light into it in the last second if the enemy team is smart and sits on the cap, but you can't lose because a single crippled 'mech managed to live against half or more of your team just a few seconds too long.

[Wiles]

The wait times for invasion matches as a member of Jade Falcon are brutal. I didn't really understand how the system worked, I thought going with the largest clan faction would make for better wait times. I was so wrong. I set aside 3 hours to play this morning and I got to play 2 matches. That's 2 hours of waiting and 1 hour of playing. This game doesn't have the playerbase to support the faction play mode in its current iteration.

For my dropdeck I'm running a Kodiak, a Hellbringer, a Hunchback IIc and an Arctic Cheetah. I'm thinking of switching my Hellbringer for a Timberwolf and my Cheetah for a Mist Lynx though. Or I could do Timber x3 and a Mist Lynx, but my second timber isn't really kitted out yet and I'd have to use the trial for the third Timber.

[Flying Dice]

I-I can't believe it. I just had the rarest experience of all: an Invasion that was both PuG vs PuG and not a total one-sided stomp. We still timed out at 43 vs 32, but that's about as even as it gets.

[se5a]

It pretty much always comes down to a fight in the end since you still have to have uncontested control of the evac point. You can get away with clan lights, but the IS ones just plain aren't strong enough.

lights  being non viable for scouting missions seems incredibly broken to me.

[Kanil]

It pretty much always comes down to a fight in the end since you still have to have uncontested control of the evac point. You can get away with clan lights, but the IS ones just plain aren't strong enough.

lights  being non viable for scouting missions seems incredibly broken to me.

'cause it's not scouting, it's Solaris VII 4v4 Medium Weight. It's a failure of design I suppose, but the end result is a lot of fun if you're willing to overlook the name and the superfluous intel/dropships.

[Rince Wind]

A couple of days ago we won a match with a Stormcrow in the drop zone. Though 2 of us made I'd there, but that shouldn't matter in my opinion, as the dropship faces the same problems.


Edit: Too much heat in the extraction zone comes when the timer runs out and noones there to be picked up.

[Flying Dice]

That's bizarre. Two of us were well inside it.

[se5a]

I guess I should start saving up for something so I've got more options than my three ravens. what should I go for?

I've started playing faction matches a bit more, they're fun, but I often feel like I die too quickly to contribute much.
in the quick battles I tend to go for a more support or long range role (i.e. narc, tag, and longer range weapons, as you can see from my raven setups) but it looks like IS tend to avoid missile for faction games so my support ravens are of little use.