18 replies to this topic

[The Prime Minister]

I looked around the forum a bit & noticed that ejecting was brought up before, but it's been a while since.

Also, this topic has a poll, so it's serious .

I was thinking that a good way of implementing the ejection mechanic is to give it a certain incentive:

You can eject at any time, (Ctrl+E, anyone?) but:

- If you don't eject in time & go down with your mech, you get -100 XP because of it

- If you eject without your mech having suffered enough damage or with your mech not getting destroyed, you get -100 XP

- If you eject in time to get away from the destruction of your mech, you get +50 XP


As I see it, this wouldn't give any sort of incentive to players to eject too soon & if they manage to get themselves killed, it isn't the end of the world as the penalty is negligible. If you manage to get away in time, you get the warm fuzzy feeling of "Muhaha, I get to fight another day!".


When it comes to the animation, it's pretty straight-forward. Pilot looks down at the ejection thingy, pulls it for dear life & he pops out of the head of his mech, looking down at what's happening to whatever's left of it. Then you get the "death" screen where you see your stats for that match & can click spectate.

Also, in the scoreboard you wouldn't be listed as "Dead", you would be listed "Ejected".

The moment you eject, if your mech is still operational, it powers down & remains there sort of like the "No PIlot" mechs in the testing grounds.



Other suggestions & improvements on the idea are more than welcome.

Thank you,

[Khanublikhan]

If the sky was the limit (har!)I would like to see:-

• ejection being the norm to avoid pilot injury.
  
• pilot injury being represented by various small torso twist, arm movement, leg movement etc penalties. (neurohelm feedback reflecting the pilots injuries into the mech which is serving as an extension of his own self).
  
• pilot injuries fade (heal) inaturally over the next 0-1 matches or can be deleted for a CB cost (for medical care).
  
• the option (not obligatory!) system to buy cybernetic / myomer muscled limbs for your pilot avatar to represent past injuries, costing MC (cybernetic monocle anyone? )
  
• the option to shoot down ejected mech pilot escape pods (this should be really hard to do!) before they reach altitude and escape the map. This earns the shooter a hefty credit reward (under the table payment from a superior) but marks them a bounty target in their next match.

Edited by Khanublikhan, 04 April 2013 - 08:53 AM.

[Durant Carlyle]

Ejection should never be an option.

Your pilot never dies and is never injured. The pilot is assumed to eject safely, land safely, run and hide from any pursuers, and get picked up by friendly rescue forces. It all happens in the background. The listing in the scoreboard is because your 'Mech is dead, not your pilot.

It's just like you getting your 'Mech and all its parts back even though you lost the match 0-8. In "reality" the enemy team carried the day and they would salvage the losing team's 'Mechs and everybody on the losing side would have to buy a new 'Mech.

[FireSlade]

I'd hate to agree but seeing an ejection mechanic implemented I can see it being heavily abused. We already have to deal with disconnects and afk. Imagine half of your team ejecting because they thought it was cool or they wanted to troll. I do think the idea is a nice concept and would make things more interesting though except for the shooting of the ejection pods (highly dishonorable). I'd like to see an automatic ejection sequence when your mech is destroyed since the current view is rather boring.

[Khanublikhan]

If ejecting had an XP / C-Bills penalty (an employer always frowning on leaving the party early, however justified) it would discourage bad behaviour.

There will always be trolls and idiots.

[The Prime Minister]

Thanks for the feedback & votes .

Automatic ejection could work too (in the death animation the only mech i've seen constantly ejecting its pilot upon destruction was the commando). The point of manual ejection is to give another layer of player control over his mech and his "fate".

There's no point in quoting any sort of "in reality" since the guys who invented the BattleTech universe certainly didn't give a damn about physics & logic anyway .

There's no real way to deal with trolls and idiots (but those guys instead of ejecting could just as well shoot you in the back for lulz, there's no real reason to fear it would be abused since most players actually are decent enough folk).

Khanublikhan had some really nice ideas in his first post, but as he said, that's possible "if the sky's the limit" and we all know no-one's going to go to that much trouble on an ejection system.

I've already taken into account XP penalties and rewards for proper use of the ejection system as a way of providing incentive for its use and to discourage abuse. I didn't want to go into the C-bill issue as most players don't like their wallet tampered with. However, adding a 5000 or 10000 credit fine for premature *********** ejection and providing an adequate (i.e. same amount) reward for blowing your load mech's head open and shooting into the air at the proper time might actually be something some players would enjoy.

Also, wouldn't you like to see the battlefield from a bird's eye view with pretty lasers melting down what's left of your mech as you fly towards the scoreboard?

[Khanublikhan]

Joseph Djugashvilli, on 04 April 2013 - 10:13 AM, said:

Also, wouldn't you like to see the battlefield from a bird's eye view with pretty lasers melting down what's left of your mech as you fly towards the scoreboard?

Definitely! It is highly appealing!

[Corvus Antaka]

I could go for ejection - but only if it was enabled when the mech has 25% or less health.

[Khanublikhan]

Colonel Pada Vinson, on 04 April 2013 - 10:42 AM, said:

I could go for ejection - but only if it was enabled when the mech has 25% or less health.

I like that idea.

[Durant Carlyle]

Joseph Djugashvilli, on 04 April 2013 - 10:13 AM, said:

There's no point in quoting any sort of "in reality" since the guys who invented the BattleTech universe certainly didn't give a damn about physics & logic anyway .

Yes, there is a point to it.

If you won a battle and killed all the enemy 'Mechs, wouldn't you go around and salvage all of the dead ones? Take all of the useful stuff with you? In this game, they don't.

Because our pilots never get injured and never die, there is absolutely no point to having any kind of manual ejection system. If we actually lost progress or skills or something, maybe. But not the way it is now.

[Bobzilla]

I would go for this idea if, after your mech is destroyed, you have a small window to eject. This way it does not and could not affect game play in anyway, as your mech is already dead. The window to eject could be longer (1 second) if you lose your legs as appose to head (0.25 seconds).

[The Prime Minister]

Durant Carlyle, on 04 April 2013 - 11:12 AM, said:

Because our pilots never get injured and never die, there is absolutely no point to having any kind of manual ejection system. If we actually lost progress or skills or something, maybe. But not the way it is now.

How about what I wrote. You get a bonus for doing it right, you get a fine for messing it up. Simple as that.

[Gremlich Johns]

Joseph Djugashvilli, on 04 April 2013 - 10:13 AM, said:

The point of manual ejection is to give another layer of player control over his mech and his "fate".

The fact remains, you still lose and you still get a fresh mech the next match. It just sounds like another way to disco if things are not going your way.

[Nathan Foxbane]

There are a couple overhangs in the maps we have so ejecting is a good way to go SPLAT! if you do not know where you are. Also with all the confined space combat Catapult pilots will be constantly penalized because the ejection system on the Catapults launches sideways! These are but two of many reasons an ejection feature should not be implemented. Some have been stated above. Another reason is if you do that, many new players do not read the manual (read just hop in without knowing the controls) and would be constantly penalized. Yet another reason is there is a great deal of sudden and unpredictable destruction that occurs that would cause pilots to fail to eject. You are penalizing people for not having fast enough reflexes or even simply being taken by surprise. From a developer's standpoint it is not a good way to endear your game to its players. Well unless you are EVE I guess.

[Oppresor]

Joseph Djugashvilli, on 04 April 2013 - 07:15 AM, said:

Also, in the scoreboard you wouldn't be listed as "Dead", you would be listed "Ejected".

I like your idea, it's fair and gives a real incentive to master the feature. Think about it this way; in a real fighter on fighter situation, if your plane is definitely crippled and going down you would punch out. At the moment we are in WW1 fighters where the pilots had no parachutes so could not bail out. Definitely not cool.

One thing I would add, would be an automatic screenshot taken during the sequence if your unit went critical; this would look spectacular.

[Pater Mors]

I'd just like to see say a 20% chance of auto-ejection on death as a purely aesthetic thing.

[Bhael Fire]

I'd like ejecting to be an option. However I'd prefer if it were as simple as this:

You may eject at any time (Ctrl+E), but doing so forfeits all of your rewards for the match. However, while ejecting does not count as a "death" with regard to your K/DR, your opponent still gets credit for the kill (as they have essentially removed you from combat).

This would prevent abuse of the feature and give players a reason to not use it unless they are facing certain death.

[Abledime]

would be nice as an automatic death animation instead of the auto circle or your meck. but not a as OP stated

[Syllogy]

Sorry, but the only way I'd want to see ejections in the game is as a death animation, not something that I have to constantly worry about.