18 replies to this topic

[Ph30nix]

so i was just curious as to peoples general opinion on the possibility of Personalized Custom Mech's. Basicly you pay and you can design your own Hero mech.

Now i dont mean "oh im gonna Pay X ammount and get an atlas that can go 150kph and has unlimited hardpoints everywhere"

I mean you just design your own variant of existing mechs and can put your own camo and flare to it. You would still have to follow the general guidelines of the Mech itself and general MW/BT rules as well.

So for example The Death Knell (only hero mech i own because i got it 50% off which i felt took it to the good price range for a hero) and i honestly love it one of my fav mechs even without ECM i still feel i give the ECM lights a run for their money and have won a few 1 on 1's vs them.
But ive thought a commando variant with a missle and beam in both arms, closest there is to that is the 3M but the second missle slot is in its CT, (which im really tired of not being able to use my missles in the water because i will end up killing myself when they explode on contact with water) and it still sticks with the standard 4 weapon hard points for the commando.

Now i dont feel this would be anything OP, or even P2W (assuming it follows current rules) but it would give PGI another way to get money and would give players a chance to have a mech they really feel is THEIR's.

Before anyone brings up Boating, Im sorry but i do not see boating as a problem or something to be discouraged. It is already discouraged in the limitations it creates for the person boating in its own way. Even without something like this there will always be boats also critical space and tonnage would not allow any more boating then we already have. The stalker with missle hard points for example wouldnt be any more effective of a LRM boat then the current Stalker Loadouts. So please do not let your opinion or feelings about boating dictate your opinion on this idea.

Oh and ECM availablilty i think should be a No for custom mechs (unless they release a hero that Lore wise has an ECM) or they greatly alter ECM. but i still feel NO on ecm in a personalized mech.

if this has already been commented on by PGI or discussed by playerbase sorry i tried searching but didnt find anything similar.

[Joseph Mallan]

However I would also be ok with it being just One Mech you own. So you can't have a stable of Me only Mechs. and only Mechs that have ECM can still have ECM.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 15 April 2013 - 06:45 AM.

[AnnoyingCat]

nope

[Joseph Mallan]

Oh and once it is customized... LOCKED. Needs to be a limit to how you can do things.

[DarkDevilDancer]

It would be the essence of pay to win.

[Mechteric]

The hardpoints are there for balance, if we were able to change it around at will then that level of balance would go right out the window.

[zztophat]

I would give an atlas 3 missile hardpoints on each side torso and call it a splatlas.

[Otto Cannon]

[Mercules]

Then the only thing separating mech chassis would be hit locations. No thanks.

Edited by Mercules, 15 April 2013 - 07:12 AM.

[Cebi]

ALL THE BOATS

[MaddMaxx]

DarkDevilDancer, on 15 April 2013 - 06:52 AM, said:

It would be the essence of pay to win.

And how exactly do you figure that? You did read the OP right?

1) Follow the existing build rules.
2) Tweak the load-out (see #1)
3) Special Paint job.
4) Save. Lock. Permanent. Done.

Call it "%Player Name% Hero Mech" if you'd like.

Edited by MaddMaxx, 15 April 2013 - 06:59 AM.

[Alois Hammer]

[Ransack]

Interesting idea. I'd like it if you had to keep the same hard points but allow them to be moved once, then locked. It would still be the same mech that it was, just modified differently.

[Lightfoot]

I would be okay with this as a long term goal for players, one that would take 3 months to grind or 10 months to do as normal human being.

You earn it through honor with factions. Each faction has a different hardpoint they can add and only one modded hardpoint per mech.

MWO needs a long term goal for players to grind on, keep them interested. This is it, but you can't just buy it with MCs, dollars. You have to grovel to the Factions for it.

[Ph30nix]

Lightfoot, on 15 April 2013 - 07:12 AM, said:

I would be okay with this as a long term goal for players, one that would take 3 months to grind or 10 months to do as normal human being.

You earn it through honor with factions. Each faction has a different hardpoint they can add and only one modded hardpoint per mech.

MWO needs a long term goal for players to grind on, keep them interested. This is it, but you can't just buy it with MCs, dollars. You have to grovel to the Factions for it.

i actually really like that idea.

[Zerberus]

I would be down with the possibility for you to "designate" exactly one of your mechs as a Hero mech using the name you gave it, and in the paint scheme it currently has.

Built from a commonly available variant, maybe allow for the swapping of 2 hardpoints, for ex. the second ballistic that nobody uses on an atlas could be moved to an arm for an energy hp, or swapped for the 3rd Missile Hp on a d-dcs left torso for a 3rd LRM rack. But I wouldn`t allow more than that amount of HP customization, definitely NOT free selection, and would most definitely leave the critspace as is to prevent thiings like 2xAC/20 in one torso

For a fee of, I dunno, maybe 2k,3k, 4k, 5k MC? Maybe even somehow "tiered" by weight class, though I`m somewhat averse to that idea....

PERMANENTLY locking EVERYTHING on that mech.

A once per account deal.

That way people wouldn`t be "jumping" from mech to mech with the "personal hero" designation, but would think long and hard about which mech to take and what to load it with.

Or whine long and hard on the forums about how they were too stupid to use their brain first and now have a Commando with MGs as their "signature" mech and how theyre rage-qqing because of it (probably more likely to happen than the former)

However, I`m not convinced that it it is in fact a good idea... primarily because even with only completely stock variants somebody will inevitably figure out how to exploit the system....

*Edit* And I like Lightfoot`s idea of making the availability limited to those who have ground their way through faction Rep as a "long term" goal.... So to speak grind rep until your the hand of the Khan, and your favorite mech gets this as a special treat.

Make it so that that mech HAS to be mastered to at least partly avoid people grinding with one and "championing" another, or even better link it to telemetry and stats, forcing you to use the meck you played the most overall (remember, stats wipe on "release"). KInd of like the Khan saying "You`ve been driving a Timber Wolf for the last 6 months, why on Tibur would you want a piece of IS crap like an Atlas NOW?"

Just tossing out ideas here....

Edited by Zerberus, 15 April 2013 - 08:01 AM.

[Bloody Moon]

Game balance is still wonky, so let's just skip the ideas that would make it ever worse for now.

[Ph30nix]

oh im not saying i have any iron clad idea how it should work, just saying i think a system for major mech personalization would be great.

After that there is very little in what a person can change or edit that i see would cause harm since there are already so many other limits to what a mech can do/have as it is.
The worst you might get is someone making one mech be the same as a differnt mech which turns into oh okay who cares? its just basicly Mech Z with Mech Y skin.

its not like someone can go an put 4 ac/20's onto a Catapult, Or 10 PPC's on a Stalker. Even if you did put that many hard points their just wouldnt be enough critical space or tonnage. Not to mention ONE SHOT and you'd probably explode.

but i gotta say making it as an Endgame goal earned thru exp/faction rep/currency is a great idea. Still have some kind of MC cost to it though but if you have to earn it thru a ton of time spent the MC cost should be minimal like less than $5, since even if you pay nothing else, the fact you are playing the game gives PGI content to offer other players.

Bloody Moon, on 15 April 2013 - 07:59 AM, said:

Game balance is still wonky, so let's just skip the ideas that would make it ever worse for now.

currently to me only problem is LRM's are too slow, SSRM's (and LRM's honestly) should randomize mech location they target for every missle and ECM needs a tweak (which if they greatly speed up LRM's i can live with ECM as is)

but even so the problem for balance is the weapons not the mechs or how they choose to use them. and Boating isnt a balance issue. Boaters cripple themselves in one way or another to boat something.

[Krazyjim]

CapperDeluxe, on 15 April 2013 - 06:55 AM, said:

The hardpoints are there for balance, if we were able to change it around at will then that level of balance would go right out the window.

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN BALANCE! I WANT A 20 BALLISTIC SLOT ATLAS SO I CAN MOUNT NOTHING BUT MACHINE GUNS!!!