Yeah, as I start thinking my plans for the 3rd GC, I would like to hear from you guys what did you appreciate or not on the current one, missed from the 1st and or wish for the 3rd. In short: feedback!

Please feel free to write a lot.

Cheers,

Ladob

okay a few things I liked and didn't like

1.Dawn of the mechs...it was carrier war central it's suppose be Dawn of the battle mech not Rise of the missle carriers. Too often it was LRM carriers guarded by SRM carriers...with MAYBE a mackie...most often the mackies didn't fire a shot because they were alredy dead due to LRM strikes.

2.I miss forced retreat and the ranking system. However I know why they were exluded this time around. However a Mech thats legged and has nothing to fire shouldn't just sit there and init sink. A trained pilot would eject

3. There was less SLDF gear going around in the later wars however so rare mechs weren't rare. Seem everyone had atleast one awesome if not more!

4. Point blank arty! lets face it not arty crew in their RIGHT minds would charges towards a battlemech!. most often I saw arty used like a battle field shotgun with 0 turn drops.

4. Point blank arty! lets face it not arty crew in their RIGHT minds would charges towards a battlemech!. most often I saw arty used like a battle field shotgun with 0 turn drops.

I agree with that. In my mind, arty should be completely banned from the acctuall playing field and should only be deployed off-board.

Another thing I would like to see would be more aero-games. But I'm afraid the lack of aero-games in this cycle is mostly due to many players not likeing aero. So I guess there is not much to do about it beside somehow encouraging players to play more aero.(Though I have no decent idea how to do that )

If the MegaMek-developers really stick to their plans of integrating BattleForce, of course it would be nice to have that integrated into the next cycle(if it's ready by then), maybe at least for special scenario games.

Just a few thoughts.
Take care
Mad

Mad wrote:.. deployed off board

Indeed that has been going on my mind for some time.

Mad wrote:.. If the MegaMek-developers really stick to their plans of integrating BattleForce, of course it would be nice to have that integrated into the next cycle(if it's ready by then), maybe at least for special scenario games.

I´m working on that. Indeed the hopes are high it will be ready until then!

On-board Artillery should be a rare occurrence or even an Event ("...your scouts find the enemy's artillery position and attempt to drive the batteries further away..."). It's really become a problem since playing any battle larger than 8k pretty much REQUIRES that you have a Sniper or Thor on your side.

[1] Add the SRM-2 Ignis variant described in TRO:3075. This has the same chassis, but has only a single vehicle flamer on each side and places two SRM-2s with two tons of ammo (one Inferno) on the turret, along with a machine gun.

[2] I sent in 3 Camo files which were not yet updated. These are the three, known RWR camo schemes for the 99th Amaris Dragoons, Amaris Republican Guard and 21st Rim Worlds.

[3] I also drew and e-mailed Ladob the image file for the VLC-5N and VLC-6N "Vulcan".

GENERAL VOTE:

Should we turn on "Skip Ineligible" ?

I find it annoying that "Immobile" tanks and "Unconscious" pilots are winning initiative or being used as init-padding.

I partly agree but on the othe rhand you penalize the one winning init by that aswell: Given example 4vs4 1 unit blacksout on a 3, the one person with the blacked out unit wins init.
And basicaly has a huge disadvantage beside the unit that is going to die already and is already an easy prey he also has to offer other easy preys and cant even realy react to the threat given by it.
Im fully against "Skip ineligible"

I joined The Shack near the end of 3rd Succession War, so please keep that in mind. I claim to speak only for myself, and my suggestion is naturally tailored to what I want.

From my experience, I would suggest the following:
1. Remove the minor houses from play. The creation of TFR is, IMO, a mistake over all. I'm sure it's fun for the two TFR players, but it stalled the actual campaign. CC loses one of their main regulars. Another CC regular, pissed at the defection, stopped hanging around The Shack. In effect The Shack gained an active minor faction at the cost of turning a major faction inactive. I heard you talk about putting Periphery in the next cycle. I think you shouldn't. The Shack doesn't have a big enough player base to sustain an active 6th faction.
2. Actually allow the possibility of the campaign ending prior to Clan Invasion. I'm talking primarily of RWR's fate. Ladob has said that Apollo will fall only in an event. But said event hasn't been held for, hmm, a month? It's one thing if RWR manages to push DC back, but they couldn't manage to do so. As a result, the campaign stalled in that area. In fact, I will be controversial and say that unconsciously Ladob does not want this cycle to end early. He is not actively prohibiting a faction from winning, but the inactivity prevents a faction from actually losing. The campaign thus loses momentum.
3. Actually give something different for a Class A* factory. As far as I can tell, the promised new build table for the A* factory is still not implemented. The factory we get is still as Class A factory in actuality. I believe that instead of having full use of the factory for the 4th Succession War, Draconis Combine might get full use of the factory for the Clan Invasion. This is not what I thought we are getting. Considering that I have zero interest in Clan stuff, it does mean that I won't see the Class A* factory.
4. Focus on finishing the current cycle well first, then prepare for the next one. Right now I get the impression that this 2nd cycle is being let to die with a whimper while time and energy are focused on preparing the next one. I don't believe that's a good idea. All the new people who just joined will see "eh, nothing's going on in this server", leave, and don't come back for the 3rd cycle. I believe you will be better off impressing the new people _now_. Then if more time is necessary for preparing the 3rd cycle, run a test cycle or something.
5. Next cycle, don't bother with the prototypes. It's a nice try to get the player base excited, but the actual implementation shows that you do not have the time to properly run it. There are still people who hasn't gotten theirs. Supposedly because they didn't submit the correct MTF file or whatever. You also mention something about checking the designs for over-powering stuff and so on. But in my opinion, if you have the time or energy to do so (which as far as I can tell you don't), it's better to spend them on running events.
6. Tell mods to run events. Ladob, I know you let Willie run events, but I'm talking beyond merely letting them. I'm saying make them run events. You are running ragged dividing your free time between your family, running this server, and actually playing. You need help. Not just with enforcing the rules and answering questions, but more. So delegate more power and responsibility to the mods.
7. Have a codified way for players to submit an event. I'm thinking of a thread in the Events subforum where a player can say, "I am doing X with this force in the hope that it will result in Y". If a certain time lapses (say, a week) and no player is willing to defend that attack, the attack succeeds by default. This reduces the admin's burden of making up events, and prevents the campaign from stalling when a faction's players abandon the faction. To an extent you are already doing that, but it hasn't been codified yet.

Anyway, I'm off The Shack. I might return next cycle, or I might not, but for this cycle I don't think there's a point for me staying.

Tigershark, my apologies, but I won't be able to play you this cycle because I have no intention of returning this cycle.

Some background:
Not sure how this is relevant, but basically when I joined The Shack I set myself the goal of conquering the galaxy before the Clan Invasion. Given the starting situation, this was achievable and I was under the impression that it's allowable.

I am not here to win at all costs. My prototype unit is not better than its original. I think VTOLs currently have an unfair advantage, and instead of making lances to maximize that, I instead renounced it. However, I am not here just to play Battletech (and to a certain someone, please don't bring MMNet into this. It's irrelevant and merely makes me doubt your objectivity). If I just want to play Battletech I can just find an opponent, turn on MegaMek, pick my forces and set up the map, and have a game without having to worry about hangar, repair, personnel, and all that.

I am here, though, to conquer the galaxy. I have limited time to do so. This means that when possible, I want the games I play to at least potentially contribute to that goal. This means that: a. For RWR, currently playing on Apollo is meaningless, since if I win I gain nothing and still lose time and if I lose I lose time and gets set back from my goal. For a while I played RWR on other worlds, but I have since examined that position and found that even that is pointless. If Apollo falls the other RWR worlds fall with it and while Apollo stands RWR isn't going to fall. b. Playing against Tikonov is useless. Conquering 1000 points of Tikonov will take too much time and will, assuming I manage to accomplish it, does not get me closer to my goal. So, my apologies to my evil twin, but playing you is a net-loss regardless of the actual result.

Given the factors above plus the inactivity of CC, I conclude that my goal of conquering the universe within the time limit has failed. Had I failed to accomplish that due to my losses or even my faction's losses, I wouldn't have minded, but sadly I think the failure is caused by outside factors. Namely:
1. The administration is not running events that will either allow RWR to fall or break the DC siege.
2. Despite this, the timer keeps advancing.

Those two factors are very discouraging. I thought for a while about changing target to FS, or conquer more planets, but decided that if RWR is not allowed to fall, neither would the FS. Conquering more planets were given as an alternative victory condition, but it was given way too late for me to start attempting it and I believe that if I get anywhere close to it people would just run away for a while and allow for the Invasion to start. I was hoping to use the Class A* factory to help me accomplish my goal, but The Comstar Battle was late and now it's only a week until the end of 4th SW and we still hasn't actually gotten the upgrade (If we had, I don't know about it. Some sort of announcement would've been nice.) This means that there won't be time to actually use the upgraded stuff to accomplish my goal.

Given that I feel that I am not allowed to reach my goal, I don't see any point of being here any longer. I could have stuck longer until the Clan arrives (which btw I have zero interest in), but having concluded that my goals are unreachable regardless of how I perform, I fear that staying longer will only make my disappointment deeper.

Please note that I do not feel that I am being actively singled out. I have a big ego, but not that big.

Rather, I think that unknowingly I have set a goal that is in conflict with Ladob's. Ladob wants to run the timeline to Tukkayid. Me, I want to cut the timeline short and end the campaign before the Invasion started. I don't think Ladob is consciously trying to stop me, but unconsciously I do believe he wants the campaign to run as he originally planned. Thus as his free time dwindles due to the new child (Congrats again!), his priority goes to things that he already planned way back.

You could have RPGed out your plans ahead to me i would have agreed helping you to achieve your conquer of the IS under given conditions it old you, Rule as Evil Twins and such, but i wanted for the Republic to have some worlds painted in our Colour, which will of course abide to the rule of the Starleague.. Namley Jaran and Sarin the evil Twins.
But you let me down you and your Mecharangers!!!

(I do understand your frustration nevertheless)

Towards your suggestion, i agree to most of them full heartedly, maybe not only out of the same background like yours but mainly to also unburden ladob a bit.
I wished to have more people with the competenses here to actualy get the Storylien flowing. Why i defected from CC to TFR was out of the stupid brainfart Ladob and i came up when i kept screaming to free Tikonov from the evil dracs. After having achieved that someone mentioned TFR and i said.. YES !
I do enjoy myself there. While i have no bigger goal but to paint some worlds in my colours. The cyrcle is to fast to actualy achieve more. Given time and circumstances we couldpossibly carve out our own Empire. (btw i wouldnt have minded tikonov staying a normal 300% Capital like all others to give people a real chance to seriously kill me. Which is now beeing circumvented with "THE REAL DEAL" i like the idea as it speeds up planet changes...

Anyway dont be a grumpy old man Jaran, come back and rule the universe in your head, with your evil conciousness.