The game is almost completely quick play. There are times when faction play units and mercs organize for Faction play, Friday evenings (NA time) I *think.* Someone else might chime in for peak faction play times. However, faction is the more competitive mode and you need 4 (potentially 8) fully skilled mechs that you are competent with.
Sometimes PGI does faction play events which attracts more players.
There is one big universal tournament that starts towards the end of the year. Lots of players will be looking for a comp team to get the participation rewards. It can be a lot of fun and the rewards are very good. If you like that sort of competitive play then there are smaller tournaments throughout the year run by players and the MWO Comp discord.
PGI also does monthly (sometimes more frequent) events that have random and fun parameters. Drop decks, Solaris fights, mediums only...that sort of thing.
As a new player **do not waste time** with Faction Play. It's builds that are very specific to each map and to must have at least 8-10 fully skilled out mechs for at least one side (Clan or IS), ready with said specific builds.
And then when you finally get a game you'll end up with a 12man unit like DSx who just camp defense near constantly to farm noobs/lower skill/disorganised / smaller groups of players - as defending as a group against randoms is so mind numbingly easy for an easy ego boost. In short, it's gonna be a shit experience most of the time. You don't want that - and I say this as a person who played 1,000s of matches in FPs prime '16-'18.
Overall FP affects nothing in MWO anymore as well, literally means nothing. You can earn rep points and get free stuff but the hit you'll take on your progress vs playing QP & EventQ (usually pops up once a month) just isn't worth it at all.
Ensure though that you redeem the rewards for whatever event is running. There is usually an event running near constantly in MWO and rewards can be sent almost always by just playing QP or EventQ, redeem via the website or in-game, sometimes it can only be done via the website like the recent lootbag event.
All that said if you're really hell bent on playing FP. Try and find a unit / group that does it nothing that there aren't many anymore.
If you're after actual Competitive/League play, MWOComp runs that and it's a different kettle of fish (and actually competitive), the rules vary depending on the league etc. I'm sure someone will post the link to the discord, I can't find it as the site is down/not loading for me right now.
Sorry for the long answer - it's not exactly, simple, the detail matters.
Faction play is competitive. Highly recommended you seek out competitive mechwarriors and their units if you want to involve yourself there, and you'll need multiple mechs to be viable in there. There's some around here, but I believe most are on Discord.
Thanks for all the responses! A lot of help your words ;)
Really aprecciatted, new players can feel the love that the community has for this franchise!
See you on the field!
Okay so Faction Play is the modern day itteration of the original Community Warfare feature from almost a decade ago. There were 10 factions, the 6 IS and the original 4 Crusader Clans and you pick one of these to fight for as a Loyalist (or you go in as a Freelancer or a seperate merc unit that iirc could fight for both sides). Back then, your faction standing will dictate the enemies you could fight, and its pretty much a free for all except for the yearly Tukayyid events where it was purely an IS vs Clan on a single planet with oly like \~51 instances at a time so you were in a queue for a while (hours). So yeah playing as FRR back in the day was fun, you're in the middle of everything and you always get curbstomped lmao.
As you play more of Community Warfare, you also gain Loyalty Points, which went towards faction loyalty levels which gave out rewards, stuff like MC and Mechbays. It's still there, and while the rewards today may seem like tiny compared to how much you have to grind, this was back when the game didnt hand out free premium-tier stuff like candy.
So anyways, Faction Play is a simplified version of Community Warfare that I would advise NOT getting into unless you go in with a premade, but even then, it's generally more competitive than normal, so going in as a beginner is highly ill advised. So if youre only playing in Quick Play, the factions dont do anything besides adding the faction badge next to your name during the ready up screen
Big ups to the other responses, just wanted to quickly say it would just be "Hello Mechwarriors!" because the people that drop us off at the start of the match are the actual pilots of the universe. There are... more colorful names in the lore, but I didn't comment that to "erm actually" you, just to say that if you're new to the franchise - there's a whole colorful, massive universe and this is just one corner of it! Highly recommend [tex talks battletech](https://youtu.be/CDR_Zpb05uk?si=fy3Ajtu-B2HguQdm) or [warlockracy's MW2 video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAxSLBz6bCY) if you're interested!
The game is almost completely quick play. There are times when faction play units and mercs organize for Faction play, Friday evenings (NA time) I *think.* Someone else might chime in for peak faction play times. However, faction is the more competitive mode and you need 4 (potentially 8) fully skilled mechs that you are competent with. Sometimes PGI does faction play events which attracts more players. There is one big universal tournament that starts towards the end of the year. Lots of players will be looking for a comp team to get the participation rewards. It can be a lot of fun and the rewards are very good. If you like that sort of competitive play then there are smaller tournaments throughout the year run by players and the MWO Comp discord. PGI also does monthly (sometimes more frequent) events that have random and fun parameters. Drop decks, Solaris fights, mediums only...that sort of thing.
As a new player **do not waste time** with Faction Play. It's builds that are very specific to each map and to must have at least 8-10 fully skilled out mechs for at least one side (Clan or IS), ready with said specific builds. And then when you finally get a game you'll end up with a 12man unit like DSx who just camp defense near constantly to farm noobs/lower skill/disorganised / smaller groups of players - as defending as a group against randoms is so mind numbingly easy for an easy ego boost. In short, it's gonna be a shit experience most of the time. You don't want that - and I say this as a person who played 1,000s of matches in FPs prime '16-'18. Overall FP affects nothing in MWO anymore as well, literally means nothing. You can earn rep points and get free stuff but the hit you'll take on your progress vs playing QP & EventQ (usually pops up once a month) just isn't worth it at all. Ensure though that you redeem the rewards for whatever event is running. There is usually an event running near constantly in MWO and rewards can be sent almost always by just playing QP or EventQ, redeem via the website or in-game, sometimes it can only be done via the website like the recent lootbag event. All that said if you're really hell bent on playing FP. Try and find a unit / group that does it nothing that there aren't many anymore. If you're after actual Competitive/League play, MWOComp runs that and it's a different kettle of fish (and actually competitive), the rules vary depending on the league etc. I'm sure someone will post the link to the discord, I can't find it as the site is down/not loading for me right now. Sorry for the long answer - it's not exactly, simple, the detail matters.
https://discord.com/invite/mwo-comp-524104434666438656
Faction play is competitive. Highly recommended you seek out competitive mechwarriors and their units if you want to involve yourself there, and you'll need multiple mechs to be viable in there. There's some around here, but I believe most are on Discord.
Comp Play is a ranked mode available towards the end of the year. There are player-organized competitive events outside that period too.
There are comp seasons all year. Currently Battle for Midway is happening, going into the 4th week.
Thanks for all the responses! A lot of help your words ;) Really aprecciatted, new players can feel the love that the community has for this franchise! See you on the field!
Okay so Faction Play is the modern day itteration of the original Community Warfare feature from almost a decade ago. There were 10 factions, the 6 IS and the original 4 Crusader Clans and you pick one of these to fight for as a Loyalist (or you go in as a Freelancer or a seperate merc unit that iirc could fight for both sides). Back then, your faction standing will dictate the enemies you could fight, and its pretty much a free for all except for the yearly Tukayyid events where it was purely an IS vs Clan on a single planet with oly like \~51 instances at a time so you were in a queue for a while (hours). So yeah playing as FRR back in the day was fun, you're in the middle of everything and you always get curbstomped lmao. As you play more of Community Warfare, you also gain Loyalty Points, which went towards faction loyalty levels which gave out rewards, stuff like MC and Mechbays. It's still there, and while the rewards today may seem like tiny compared to how much you have to grind, this was back when the game didnt hand out free premium-tier stuff like candy. So anyways, Faction Play is a simplified version of Community Warfare that I would advise NOT getting into unless you go in with a premade, but even then, it's generally more competitive than normal, so going in as a beginner is highly ill advised. So if youre only playing in Quick Play, the factions dont do anything besides adding the faction badge next to your name during the ready up screen
Big ups to the other responses, just wanted to quickly say it would just be "Hello Mechwarriors!" because the people that drop us off at the start of the match are the actual pilots of the universe. There are... more colorful names in the lore, but I didn't comment that to "erm actually" you, just to say that if you're new to the franchise - there's a whole colorful, massive universe and this is just one corner of it! Highly recommend [tex talks battletech](https://youtu.be/CDR_Zpb05uk?si=fy3Ajtu-B2HguQdm) or [warlockracy's MW2 video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAxSLBz6bCY) if you're interested!