4 replies to this topic

[Mahws]

Sorry if this has been brought up before, the search function is currently down.

After watching the gameplay demo videos for the umpteenth time, I felt like it was worth bringing up the topic of active scouting.

Unless things have changed since then scouting seems to be an entirely passive affiar, done simply by having your radar on and existing. I feel this is a problem, light mechs may be fast, but aside from harrasing fire support they won't really be doing as much as a heavier mech to take part in the fight itself, so not only are they less attractive to most players due to their small size/squishy armor/small guns but they're also not going to be earning a lot of points by damage or kills.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying light mechs are useless, I'm one of those less-than-sane-individuals that prefer them, but I feel that to really have a niche in the games teamplay mechanics and to be an enjoyable experience they need to have more to do than running around the front lines trying not to get shot whilst their radar does all the work of spotting enemies.

What I suggest is that an active scouting mechanic is added. Radar still plays an important role, it'll paint everything in range on your teams mini-map, but in addition a light mech can now 'tag' enemy players. Any player in the game can 'tag' an enemy by keeping their cursor over them whilst holding a 'tag' key, however mechs with appropriate gear will do so much faster and the speed of a tag depends on the equipment the mech doing the tagging has, as well as the mech being tagged having an ecm/passive radar/being powered down. Naturally the tag would last for a few seconds before the enemy would need to be tagged again.

Things tagging could be used for:

• A tagged mech will be highlighted for the entire team, regardless of line of sight.
  
• Type, armor and loudout stats shown on the tagged mech, helps your ally in a slug match by giving him a quick visual reference of where the enemy is and what parts of them are the most vulnerable/threatening/damaged.
  
• Can be used on powered down mechs to make them visible on teams radar.
  
• Allies can lock on to the tag without line of sight, making an indirect fire/scout team far more versatile.
  
• Scout recieves a substantial assist bonus for any damage to a mech currently tagged (This is essentially the replacement for all the points you'd be earning if you'd taken a medium/heavy/assult and been earning from dealing damage/getting kills yourself).

What this would achieve would be a greater incentive for players to take the role of a scout, greater player interaction and involvement when playing as a scout and a reason for scout mechs to exist once the ambush is sprung, battle is met and medium/heavy/assults radars are more than enough to spot the guy shooting them in the face.

As an added advantage it also makes scout mechs a far more substantial threat to the enemy team, so even light mechs without good scouting ability would be valuable in using their speed to chase down and harrass enemy scouts to prevent them tagging their teammates.

Edited by Mahws, 31 May 2012 - 07:41 PM.

[Asfaloth]

Canonically, Ravens come with a Narc beacon to guide in friendly missiles on the tagged target. I would think this would be replicated in-game, much as it was in previous MechWarrior games.

[Mahws]

Canononically a scout would also talk to his team, give them constant status updates and describe what he's seeing. He'd also be rewarded with an equal share, or even more, of profits for taking on such a risky role. As is, that's not how the game seems to work.

I'm sure this won't be a problem in clan matches, people will use VOIP and a scout will be able to do all that. But in 99% of matches where people don't know each other and are thrown into teams, that doesn't work. This is a way of simulating real scouting, whilst also rewarding players for taking something other than the biggest, shootiest mech they can get their hands on, which in a game like this is going to be a hard sell for most of the player base.

The missile lock on/etc are all just examples of how it could be done. As far as I'm concerned it'd be good enough to just have them show up on your team mates screens.

Example: http://i418.photobuc...ctivescout2.jpg

The player wouldn't miss that hunchback, he's on radar after all, but because an ally tagged him earlier he now knows how much total health he has and his variant type without having to change targets. Which is especially handy in this case, because he'd realise that that's the 4H variant, which means its re-speced for medium range, so he can safely rush it and take it out of the fight.

What he would have missed is that Catapult hiding behind the plateau, ready to rain missiles down on him once they're tied up fighting the others, but thankfully their scout tagged him earlier so he's unaware that the entire enemy team knows exactly where he is.

Edited by Mahws, 31 May 2012 - 07:43 PM.

[Adrienne Vorton]

actually there are many modules for electronic warfare, and as much as i read in this forum, there will be a lot options... like tagging, sharing tactical information with your lance (if your lance is properly equipped) and so on... i doubt that scouting will just be limited to "run forward and spot the enemy first" like in WoT... MechWarrior offer´s enough possibilites, and i have trust in the dev´s team to know that

[Slyck]

Read all the Information Warfare material in the Dev Blocg's and Q&A.

They look like they plan on ahving a very engaging experience with scouting and electronic warfare, It just doen't seem to be implemented in the testing yet.