ok, so looking at my earlier post about possible drivers, what would you suggest?... no... really... I would LOVE to hear it.

I do not have a problem with this one because it is needed for the game to survive, IMO. There are no rules changes, and I have NEVER been against restrictions I AM A FACTION PURE FANATIC!!! I AM ALL ABOUT RESTRICTIONS!!.

I'm not going to pursue this line of discussion, because it has no place here. I apologize to all JEB members. I will take you at your word.

In retrospect, maybe I should have put some smileys on that post of mine. It sounded funnier in my head then on the screen..... :) :)

My biggest problem with the (announced) approved play rules change is the Ebay Warrior.

ltrain87, as a fellow purist, it must bother you a little that at some point, large chunks of your faction will become unusable in play. OTOH, the Ebayer will simply buy the newest uber-pieces and Mixmaster himself the latest, greatest army around.

You know, this might not be as bad as most people are thinking...

If Wizkids brings keeps up about 2 unrestricted events a month (1 campaign, 1 HTH or sealed, and 2 unrestricted) then people would be able to use old units half the time anyways.

Also as some people are saying, when Magic the Gathering did this the base set was always completely made of reprints of older favored cards. If you allready owned an older version of the card then you could use that in place of the new one. This seems like a very probable thing for wizkids to do since they allreay have the designs and molds made. So people who have been collecting mechwarrior for a while wouldn't need to buy any of the base set but it would make the pieces available to the newer players.

As for the pieces that become restricted, is anyone really gonna miss all the old ICE mechs or the Highlander Legionaire. And what about the number of people that wanted to see Arnis banned just a little while back.

Now I do realise that this could be bad but that announcement was realeased for mage knight. Let's see how wizkids does with that game first.

Here are my suggestions for your three possible purchase drivers
Possible purchace drivers:
A: quality of figs make people try to "upgrade" their existing forces for play.
B: Fluff players/Collectors
C: Regular Tournament players

Introduce true OmniMechs. Combine a generic mech with customizable weapons loadouts and pilot stats using the "relic" card system borrowed from MK2.0. On average to complete a set of relics, domains and constucted terrain it takes about 3 cases. This would maximize the reuse of existing and future sculpts and would allow the mechs themselves to evolve over time as new SEs come online and new pilots are brought in out of acadamies. With this change remove the names from the Mechs and apply them to the cards. These could then be upgraded over time to show the pilots gaining experience. Once the character reaches a level, put them in a campaign to see if he lives or dies, and then remove the card from any future release if they don't make it. These could be reflected in the books and help put a personal touch on the franchise. The search for the ideal weapon/mech/pilot combo would also sell boosters. Currently there are limitations on equipping the cards based on type of movement, defense type, attack type, etc. The same could be implemented here.

Let the players know in advance as to the focus of the next release. This will cut down on negative word of mouth. Instead of releasing a set and having players find out after they've placed their pre-orders just gets them mad. Telling them, in advance, the focus of this expansion is going to be with factions X, Y, and Z will help calm some nerves. To go along with this each release should be designed in "pairs" For example, Falcon's Prey and Ghost Bear Rampage are designed together. They have identical units, except for about 10% which are unique to each House. the rest of the set is layed out identically, but for the distribution of the factions is unique to each set. FP will focus on JF, SH, DF, H and SC. GBR would focus on GB, BR, SW, ROTS, and SS. The sets since they are designed at the same time the power creep should be flat and Merc units would fill any voids (preferably support roles repair vehicles, transports, light Mechs) . However, to keep everyone wanting more, the LEs from FP would be released with GBR and vice versa. There by keeping people happy knowing that they either got cool new units or LEs regardless of the release.
As new houses are introduced, splinter faction would be absorbed into their parents gaining only benefits from formation but do not count towards House abilities.

Well, like others have said, I understand the need to continually drive sales in order to keep Wizkids viable as a company... does anyone think Battletech will get a third chance in any incarnation if MW fails? As much as I love to play CBT and don't actually need any more sourcebooks, figs or anything, I still hated it when the universe died with FASA... then we got a second chance with MW... and I don't want it to die again. I want to see more stackpole and coleman novels... I want to see what happens to my beloved characters and factions from CBT in the MW universe... I want to see the Falcons make a drive for Terra and get stomped by the Wolves in Exile and Stormhammers, led by Devlin Stone... I want a Kell Hounds novel dammit!

Okay, enough with that rant... back on topic...

This is a critical change for wizkids... it will either drive the game into the gutter or make it better. And I mean better both financially for wizkids as well as better for players by dealing with the percieved rules problems and inconsistencies. (I say percieved b/c we don't need to get into the debate on charging, mech move and shoot, artillery etc on here, so don't bother arguing with me on that one on this thread...)

If Wizkids reprints certain older units in the new baseset, and rules that older units that are reprinted in future basesets are still legal... well, that is okay.

If Wizkids does something so that factions don't get screwed by losing their only transport, or repair, or artillery,etc... then I can live with it...

If wizkids makes an exemption or something that LE's and uniques are excempt from the restrictions, that would be great. They need to do something to make it so the lance rosters are actually worth something...

If Wizkids does something to encourage faction purity with the new expansions, that would be great. If they can arbitrarily ban whole sets, it would be nice to ban warring factions from working hand in hand...

If Wizkids uses this chance to introduce the "real" houses, and we get the real Draconis Combine, Federated Suns, Lyran Commonwealth, Wolves, etc to go along with the ROTS, Liao and Falcons, then I think the change will go over a lot better with the hardcore players, b/c we all seem to have CBT roots...

Making the tournement scene dynamic as opposed to static would be nice. Right now I only really see changes in the standard armies when a new set comes out. Which was enough variety last year, but we all know that the sets are going to be farther apart now...

If Wizkids uses the Type 1/type 2 system as an excuse to make figs based on CBT and we get a "legends of the Inner sphere" set similiar to legends in magic, where we get Kai, Natasha Kerensky, the original bounty hunter, etc... or a 4th succession war, Invasion of the Clans or Twilight of the Clans set... or more likely if this happens, a Jihad expansion to tie in with Fanpro's new sourcebooks and give more of the backstory to the MW storyline... these figs wouldn't be viable in competive head to play, but still useable in unrestricted and certain storyline events...

A new faction wars everytime a set is banned, in order to give us one final chance to use those figs before the ban comes into effect?

Basically I can see a lot of changes that could result from this... with potentially huge repercussions...

Do I have faith in Wizkids not to screw it up and drive MW into the gutter? I'll let you know after the Falcon set. The last design team screwed things up (at least that is the general consensus) while the new team and Kelly have responded to a lot of our issues and seem to have a plan... but we still haven't seen a set that they planned and playtested, so... basically, a lot of "if wizkids does X" statements above, and if they make the right decisions, I won't mind shelling out more money for an improved game... but if the game stays stagnant and it is only a cash grab without some tangible benefits to the players who have invested in the game to date, then it will crash and burn, and become more of a niche game than shadowrun...

Not bad. It could easily work in addition to what they are planning though, and the T2 thing they are doing would allow them to get rid of broken figs, and let there be a some new "enviroments" and metagames

Those are just off the top. When I have a chance to put more of my thoughts into something coherent then I'll continue. I've got a few other ideas but not the time right now to type them up.

Great this is the first intelligent intervention I read here!

It all goes donw to how WK is gonna do it. If the new base set keeps the well desgned pieces then the better. It shall not probably get rid of all the older units like everyone says it.

And then what, most of us by a case or half of each extension, what difference shall it make if the pieces of an extension edited one and half year ago is no more playable, if new and good pieces are producted.

Everyone of you speaks of M:tG, how many of you know Legend of the Five Rings. I play it on a very small scale (well like a sealed event) and it's huge They get rid on a regular base of cards but it goes very well, only because the store and tournament scenarios are very good. You end up sometimes having uniques personalities get killed and nobody complains! I only have Stefani Ehli of the uber LE pieces. If she gets killed during a particular event and WK decides to drop her of restricted play, so be it! I shall not complai, I shall play with other pieces.

It all gets down to Wk producing better tested pieces (anyone Arrow IV) and keep the core units of each faction alive (I will not understand the SC CBA get out or the BR peasants!).

So I'm pleased by this decision (and I don't even buy half a case) but shall wait to see how it is gonna be implemented. This really could be the new start of competitive play.

And those who argue that only big bucks shall win the game then, go and take a look at e-bay (anyone Stefani, Mason Dune, Arrow iV, SH Aesir and it shall go for a long list). It is already a game where money can make a difference!

My two cents and no ill thinking against all those who are opposed to that plan ;)

So lets wait and see how this is gonna go.

Regards Xtatika

Looking back on it all, I guess it really all depends on how much WizKids will support unrestricted events.

If Wizkids supports ...

if - 1 unrestricted per month, then this would not be very good
if - 2 per month, then there wouldn't be complaints, and things would be quite good
if - 3 per month ... hey! That's more H2Hs than we've ever had before!!
if - none (thereby leaving it to venues) ... then WizKids will lose business ... lots of business.

Currently WizKids is only supporting 1 sealed and 1 Campaign. We are already seeing the diminished number of players due to lack of WizKids support.

Have you seen the FAQ for this yet?

They have reasonably explained what they are trying to do, and how they are trying to do this.

But to some the Sky is still falling, and they will never, ever, ever, forever buy another mechwarrior dark age thing again. Too bad. If anyone out there is seriously getting rid of their armies..

This would hardly be a change if they adopted 2 or more unrestricteds per month. Sadly, this will not be the case. Note that no unrestricteds have been scheduled for 2004.

Our only hope is that WK reconsiders this ill advised policy. They have done enough damage already. Nothing like pissing off your fan base to help sales.

I just talked with a friend about this. He's only recently gotten into the game, and just this last week bought his first few boosters' worth of pieces. His response:

"Not even ####ING GAMES WORKSHOP pulls this kind of ####! They do this and they have not only lost a beginning player, but given me incentive to make sure nobody I know ever buys clix games again".

There's what the "noobs who can't compete unless we retire sets" have to say about it for you.

are you willing to give me what I have invested, if so you got a deal, heck, just what I have paid on boosters. ;)

I could give a crud wether or not a game piece is worth something or not (monetary value, not game play), I just want to play the darned game, with the units that I have payed good money for, that is why I am in this game, TO PLAY IT. I still buy new boosters , but why should I? I was even thinking of getting the premiere edition and taking advantage of the mail in (not that I need any of the units, I already got them, and no I did not5 win them, wait I did win one of them, I got them off E-Bay, or traded for them) but why should I now? I should wait till the new starter comes out and it should already have the new rules (of course they will have come up with V2.0 by that time making the new starters useless, again. I know that I can still play the darned thing, heck, I will still be able to play the darned thing if WKs stop making the whole MWDA line. but I do not know anyone who plays the great BT trading card game, why, heck, I do not know, but I do know that I never could find anyone to play the darned thing, even while it was being produced, and I heard the same arguments, it has grown stale, un-balanced, and it is to hard for new players to get involved in. How many of you have those BTTC cards, that at one time sold for to darned much? I finaly threw mine all away. :mad: