Game Play

Greetings Mech Fans. My last entry, the Pure Tech series, got a few comments and some talks or discussion stirred and I am happy for that. A person that writes anything is always happy to have someone read what they wrote, it is even better when people make comments about it. That is what my blog is for, to post my thoughts on something and to let you readers post your thoughts as well. We don’t have to agree and many times we wont agree, but it is good to get the various points across so others can see them.

In the course of my last posting, my old (on-line) pal, GP mentioned that I should make a post about the various forms of play, mission play vs team battle vs team destruction. I have been thinking about that and then last night another thought popped into my head. Stock Play. So, today, I am going to attempt to put together a discussion about the various forms of team play and the use of stock variants all in one column. Hopefully, with a bit of word smithing I can put it so that it all makes sense and is readable, who knows, it might even be enjoyable by some.

Let me start off by saying that I am going to mix League play and Open Play in some of my comparisons based on some of things I have done while playing this game over the years. Normally, I would try to separate the two, but in this context it doesn’t matter if they get mixed up (or it doesn’t matter much and where it does I will try to point that out).

MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries offers many types of play for owners of the game. There is obviously the campaign or instant play games for single player. As most of you that played the campaign know, it is set up to take you through all the mech classes, you start with lights and work your way up to the assaults. The internal Solaris competition within the campaign is set up like that as well. My thoughts are that it was done this way to introduce the player to all the classes and allow the pilot to determine what is best for his play style. That, and the fact that it gets a pilot a wide variety of mechs to use in the game.

My personal feeling is that there is no better gaming experience than playing online. In fact, I think that is what keeps MW4 Mercs on its legs today, the online community. For those of you that do venture online, MW4 Mercs again offers many types of play. There is singles competition in various Battle or Destruction servers and there are several different types of game play for teams. Today, we discuss a few of those team oriented options so sit down, strap yourself in, button up your neuro-helmet and hold on. Stay in cover where possible, shoot straight and shoot first.

I don’t plan to discuss all the online options, but let me assure you, there are plenty of them and I am sure I would leave some out if I tried to mention them all, so I wont. A few, and I mean a very few are Urbie Dodgeball, Mech Racing, Mech McRugby, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill and many others. The ones I am going to discuss are Team Mission Play, Team Battle and Team Destruction.

Let me give a brief overview of each of these types and what they are all about before going in depth about any one or all three. Team Mission Play, known as Mission Play is probably the most complex game of the three types. Mission Play has multiple options for both teams. Usually, there is an attack team and a defending team, but not always, sometimes both teams attack. In the attack v defend scenario, usually the attack team has objectives to accomplish such as destroy something on the defenders side of the map OR they can kill all the defenders. Most times there is a time limit granted for them to do this, be it 5, 10 or 15 minutes. The defenders must keep the attackers from the objectives for that time limit or kill all the attackers within that time limit. The side that accomplishes their task wins the round. If the defenders keep the objectives in tact and DO NOT kill all the attackers, they still win so the pressure is on the attack team. There are some missions in which both teams attack, meaning that both teams have objectives they must destroy or kill all the other team to win the round. Usually these missions don’t have a time limit. Lastly, there are those where the objectives change from round to round. Team A could be the attackers on the first round and defend on the second round and both teams could be the attackers in the third round or any combination of the three. That’s the quick and dirty of mission play.

Team Destruction is pretty easy to describe. Read the name, T E A M - D E S T R U C T I O N. In this game type, one team tries to destroy the other. There are no other objectives and the time limit is the only factor. Team Destruction is all about kills. The team with the most kills at the end of the game wins. Sometimes the TD Games are played in waves. This means that the game is in rounds or waves. Each round has a time limit and the team with the most kills at the end of the wave wins the wave. Most Waves won wins the match. Sometimes TD games are respawn, meaning that after you are killed, your mech regenerates at your spawn or drop zone and you go back and fight again over and over until the timer runs out. The team with the most kills wins. Very simple, very basic game type.

Team Battle is also pretty simple. Two teams battling to score the most points, whether it is by waves or by match, kills don’t really count (but they help in the points). This one is often done in respawn mode meaning that if you get killed you come back to life to go inflict damage to the other guys until you die again.

More or less, that is basics for the three types of games on the board today. Over the years of play I have noticed some differences in these types of play from league to league and I will tell you a little about what I know of each. In some leagues, Mission Play is much different from what I spelled out above. I have seen Mission Play games be very quick in that there is only one wave. The attackers are generally set up to hit the objectives quickly. Get in, kill objectives, get out, game over. The Defenders are set up to kill the attackers in one or two shots. If the attackers take out the objectives, they win. It is hard to stop a team that works well together and comes in with a good plan to hit the objectives. Even a well oiled defensive team will have trouble killing 6 to 8 fast little jumping mechs before they can take down the objectives.

I have also seen Mission Play done in league play where you had to kill 50% of the opposing team before you destroyed the objectives. So if the match was a single wave, 400 ton, Mission Play Match, the attackers could not destroy both the objectives until they had killed at least 200 tons of the defenders mechs. This makes Mission Play most interesting. You can kill the turrets and one of the objectives, but you still have to kill at least half of the defenders before wiping out their base.

Open Play Mission Play is much different. You play in waves or rounds and there basically is not a weight limit unless it is set by the server (you could have a team limit or individual mech weight limit). The attackers try to move in and pressure the objectives while simultaneously trying to kill the defenders. Meanwhile the defenders are trying to put an end to this silly attack by taking out every attack mech encountered. In Open play, you see every type of mech used, heavy Assaults with massive alphas, speedy mechs that rush the objectives with a combo of weapons that is set up specifically to take out a building quickly, to general purpose mechs that can fight, move fast or take down buildings. Some folks prefer to concentrate on taking down the objectives while others prefer fighting mechs, but either way, Mission play offers it all.

Open Play Team Destruction is also pretty simple. Whether there are weight restrictions, or weapon restrictions, both or none, there are two teams set up to kill the other team. Matches can be waves or single rounds and they are usually not respawn (but they can be). When the map launches both teams set out to find the other and take them down quickly.

The league play version is not much different, except that there is usually a team weight restriction. You can take any mech you want but your team can not exceed the team weight limit. League play is generally a little more intense than the open play version. In League Play, the pilots are all part of one team, not a mix of teams, and there is generally one guy directing the team to battle. The team will run passive except for an electronics mech and maybe a couple of others and there may even be a scout. The Drop Commander will search for the enemy and for a place to stage the battle on terms best suited for your team. The mechs are usually predetermined including what type of weapons and armour to be used. Everyone on a team in a league should be on comms. In Open Play you get a mix-match of players on teams (usually, but not always) and some folks have comms and some don’t or they use different comms programs (TeamSpeak, Ventrillo and Roger-Wilco are the top three I think). The coordination is also less in Open Play because of these other factors. That is not to say that Open Play is not fun, it is. And LOTS of it.

Team Battle is another one that I have seen used differently. One league uses it LIKE Team Destruction in that only Kills count, not the score. Other leagues use it for the scoring. Team with the highest score wins. Almost always, team battle is a respawn fight. Because of the scoring and the respawn, Team Battle is very popular in Open Play. Set the map time limit to whatever (30 minutes is the norm) and drop and shoot. Team Battle is also very popular with the NHUA (No Heat Unlimited Ammo) crowd. Again, the League Play version will almost have restrictions on weight, chassis, weapons or any combo where Open Play may or may not. Either way, this is a fun version of the game.

I guess it is time to throw the Vettie feelings in on each type of play and give you my thoughts on them. As I mentioned before, I have played some of each of these in both League and Open Play. Let me start with Team Battle. I often like an Open Play Team Battle with unlimited respawn trying to rake up points. This type of play is just enough to relax you and let you forget about life’s pressures and stresses. Jump in a favourite mech and go out there and rip arms or legs off your enemy before you kill them to rake in the points. The smaller the mech you use the more points you get when hitting those big monsters that seem to kill me with one shot every time. Its great fun. As far as League Play, I don’t care for this type of play very much, but for just plain old fun its hard to beat. Lots of people love this type of League Play action and they are good at it. That’s great, its just not my preference.

Team Destruction, or should I say the concept behind team destruction, is probably my most favourite type of game play. Its all about killing mechs. Points don’t matter. Kill or be killed. League Play gets real in depth with lots of strategy and planning and coordination. Hit the dirt, find the enemy before they find you and take them down. Open Play is very close to League Play, but probably not as intense overall. For people that love to shoot at other mechs, this is the game type for you.

I forgot to mention something and now is a good time to bring it up. Team Battle and Team Destruction offer the most maps in the game today. There are literally over 250 maps available for play in MW4 Mercs and the majority of them are set up for Team Battle and or Team Destruction. Team Destruction is set up to be about kills, Team Battle is set up to be about points, but it CAN be about kills. Knowing that, Team Battle is probably the most flexible game type.

Vettie is all about the maps. I love playing on a map that I never have played on, or have only played a few times and have never checked out all the Drops Zones. It adds to the ‘fog of war’ if you don’t know the battlefield, or it does for me.

Ok, sorry for the tangent, but Im old. Where were we? Oh yeah, I was just about to talk about Mission Play. I am not sure Mission Play in the Open Server Sunder is so much different than it is in any League Play environment. As I said above, the League Play versions of mission play are usually very short and only one wave. Get in, kill the objective and get out, game over. The other League version is where you have to kill half the mechs first then kill the objectives, but still it is only one wave. Open Play in Sunder offers multiple waves and you almost always end up killing about half the other team before the objectives are destroyed IF the attacker manages to win.

The Open Play environment of Sunder exposes you to nearly every tactic you can think of as well as nearly every weapon and mech in the game. I have seen them all from Battle Armours to Behemoths, machine guns to rail guns, small pulse lasers to large continuous beam lasers, SRMs to Arrows, you name it in the game and I have seen it used. Maybe that is the attraction?!? You don’t know what you will be facing until you find an enemy. The weapons and tactics are always evolving in this game. Here is a good time to remind folks that this essentially an 8 year old game (Vengeance came out in 2000 I think, and Mercs is more or less an upgrade/improvement to that engine). I find it amazing that we are still experimenting with weapons and stuff this late in the life of the game.

Preferences? Well, that’s a tough one to decide. I would say that personally, Ol’ Vettie prefers Team Destruction type game play whether its in the opens or in a league setting. I prefer killing mechs over blowing up buildings. I would say that I play more Mission Play in the Opens than any other type, but that is not because of the mission play, its because that is where all my online ‘buds’ are. If I could convince more people to play Team Destruction I think they would actually like it better simply because of the variety of maps available. You can play for 4 or 5 nights solid and never play the same map. Don’t get me wrong, mission play, the way its played in Sunder, is a blast and I really enjoy it, I just prefer shooting mechs and new battlefields instead of the same maps.

Another thing of interest to me is that most Leagues use daytime or default settings and clear visibility or default settings here too. I know there were hacks that allowed folks to see through fog and some of the older video cards allowed you to ‘whack’ the fog, but MekTek has patched the hacks and I seriously doubt if any of those older video cards are still in use today. Sunder, still gives you the variety of weather, fog levels and day or night drops. That adds so much to the game and tactics. All this makes a better experience and I think it should be used in league play and open play.

I mentioned earlier something about stock play. Many people dislike stock play. I guess I simply don’t understand stock at all. I mean, I like it when the occasional stock mechs comes up in Sunder, but I don’t understand stock. What is stock? Almost every TRO I have seen offers multiple configurations, or variants. So which one is stock? And why is there ONE default stock config when the TROs offer more than one so-called stock variant? Why is there even A ‘stock variant’? Why not just a mech with empty slots? Maybe someone at MekTek is reading this and a ding will go off in their head. The fun of the game is in creating your own variant, so why even bother with stock? And if you do bother with stock, why not have ALL the TRO Variants (similar to what MW2 offered in the mech lab before you built your own, there would be 2 or three or four pre-builts available). Is there an answer to this or am I just beating a dead bush?

I have never read many of the battletech novels and I never played the tabletop game so I don’t know much about what is in there for the offering. I suspect that the game allowed you to create your own weapons load out within reason (slots or criticals available in a mech chassis) and I know I have read in the few books I did read that the mechs used were not always ‘stock’. So again, I ask, for the video game, why even have stock? Why not just an empty chassis?

Either way, I do enjoy the occasional stock match. I adds a ‘new’ dimension to the game. Not all the mechs have BAP and ECM, very few can jump and weapons load outs are set up for a ‘do-all’ situation with a combination of long and short range weapons and missiles. Pilots become dependant on their BAP and ECM AND their choice of weapons. Take that away and watch their kill numbers change. Stock keeps ‘em honest.

I like the occasional stock match, but I would not like it all the time. The ability to customize the chassis is real big in this game. It allows each player to make the mech ‘theirs’. I also think that if you could not customize the mechs, this game would have long ago bit the dust, even with the possibly the best online game play going.

Gather up your mechs and head for a server. There are Missions to Play and Destruction to inflict and points to score. Whatever your choice is, MechWarrior 4 Mercs offers it. Tell me about your favourite game type and why you like it. You can also tell me what you don’t like about the others I mentioned. I love reading the posts and I love discussion.