128 replies to this topic

[Monky]

Salvage has been a long running MW/BT concept, serving the purpose of rewarding effective play and providing incentive to take on ever more challenging opponents. Games like MW4 had a fairly full salvage system, allowing you to acquire disabled mechs you defeated, components, and regular scrap tonnage for C-Bills, but other games like the original MW had a simple salvage = C-Bills system. They all work, and add incentive to do better, because more salvage means an easier time prepping for the next mission.

So my question is to you, do you feel salvage has a role to play in MWO? If so, how do you want it implimented?

One question I wanted to ask but was not able to cram into the poll;
If salvage is in, what should you be able to recieve as salvage?
A: Mechs! Guns! Components! Dropships! Everything!
B: Mechs, guns, and components seem reasonable, rounded out by scrap tonnage for c-bills.
C: Guns, components, and scrap only. No one should get a 'free ride' if you know what I mean.
D: Scrap only, Salvage should just compliment your wallet to allow an easier time purschasing equipment.

Please post your answers to that question! Thank you.

[wwiiogre]

I like salvage but if every pilot retains his mech even after a game where it was completely destroyed, that would limit salvage. Now if there were on board bits of salvage or contractual salvage, then I am all for it as part of a mission. Yet if only certain missions have salvage then I am guessing those will be the only missions played, going for the salvage gold as it were. So as stated by the Dev's I doubt there will be any salvage per se, only its equivalent in cbills where the player could then buy something in the online store for their inventory. This would lose a bit of the immersion and I hope as players, house units and merc corps gain higher and better contracts this would change based on the value of the contract.

chris

[VPrime]

I think that salvage is really important, because a well fought battle can leave a team very well off, both technologically and monitarily. Most Merc companies depend on salvage to boost their income for garrison contracts. The Gray Death Legion was entirely founded on salvage. Something has to be done for the losing team too though, because it could rapidly unbalance the game otherwise

[Exilyth]

Do you want to see a salvage system in the game?
I could take it or leave it, C-Bills alone would probably work, but I'm not opposed to it either

If salvage was in the game, what role would you like to see it play?
They should compliment eachother, C-Bills for paying your repair bills and resupply, Salvage for acquiring new gear/mechs

How should salvage be awarded?
Although "winner takes all" would fit the lore, it's a bad system for games. So, split it evenly on both teams, based on what each team accomplishes. No team's efforts should go unrewarded! Also, objectives should count more than kills.

If salvage is in, what should you be able to recieve as salvage?
C: Guns, components, and scrap only. No one should get a 'free ride' if you know what I mean.
Also, I wouldn't mind a few gag items (useless, but can be sold for some C-Bill) thrown in (e.g. a lower leg actuator impaled on a missile)

Edited by Exilyth, 10 April 2012 - 03:11 PM.

[Dirk Le Daring]

I like salvage and would be happy to see it make the game, be it at release or further down the track. I see salvage as one of those things that belongs in Mechwarrior. That said, the salvage available, in my mind would be everything short of a mech chassis, because we cannot destroy them. Weapons, heatsinks, whatever else that is salvaged should have damage if damaged in the battle. Sometimes it will be possible to get items free of damage, only if you caused it to be lost in that way.....right torso gets blown away, right arm took no damage, weapons on that arm are undamaged.
I also think a salvage mech may be a good thing, used as a multiplier for salvage. Unlikely as it may be, a salvage mech piloted by the player/s after a battle, could be an even greater multiplier, or if you do not pilot it, you do not get salvage. Just a thought.

[Monky]

Exilyth, on 10 April 2012 - 03:10 PM, said:

If salvage is in, what should you be able to recieve as salvage?
C: Guns, components, and scrap only. No one should get a 'free ride' if you know what I mean.
Also, I wouldn't mind a few gag items (useless, but can be sold for some C-Bill) thrown in (e.g. a lower leg actuator impaled on a missile)

I can imagine the mechwarriors now, scrambling through a burnt out fuselage for a hula girl or bobble head, muahaha

[Voidreaver]

monky, on 10 April 2012 - 02:54 PM, said:

Salvage has been a long running MW/BT concept, serving the purpose of rewarding effective play and providing incentive to take on ever more challenging opponents. Games like MW4 had a fairly full salvage system, allowing you to acquire disabled mechs you defeated, components, and regular scrap tonnage for C-Bills, but other games like the original MW had a simple salvage = C-Bills system. They all work, and add incentive to do better, because more salvage means an easier time prepping for the next mission.

So my question is to you, do you feel salvage has a role to play in MWO? If so, how do you want it implimented?

One question I wanted to ask but was not able to cram into the poll;
If salvage is in, what should you be able to recieve as salvage?
A: Mechs! Guns! Components! Dropships! Everything!
B: Mechs, guns, and components seem reasonable, rounded out by scrap tonnage for c-bills.
C: Guns, components, and scrap only. No one should get a 'free ride' if you know what I mean.
D: Scrap only, Salvage should just compliment your wallet to allow an easier time purschasing equipment.

Please post your answers to that question! Thank you.

Honestly, I'd like to see a mix of A, B, and D off the options list.

The salvage system should offer a bit of everything, to be honest. Obviously, you're not going to get an Assault-class frame from a horde of Light, Medium and Heavy frames, even if you do solo the mass... unless the Assault was found in the field with no pilot... like the Hellspawn in the checkpoint raid mission in MW4: Mercs.

I can't see the local Free Market having a dropship for sale, unless it's an in-system-only design. And even there, it's likely going to run at least a good half-billion C-Bills. For other models, you'd likely have to raid a mercenary company's local base. And they'd be more apt to get the dropships off the ground and off-planet before ya even got within 2km of the place.

Edited by Voidreaver, 10 April 2012 - 03:20 PM.

[Voidreaver]

monky, on 10 April 2012 - 03:14 PM, said:

I can imagine the mechwarriors now, scrambling through a burnt out fuselage for a hula girl or bobble head, muahaha

HEY! I'l have you know that bobbleheads sold quite well in RAGE.
And honestly, I'd likely keep a couple... Nothing says "mischief" like a fox bobblehead on a Mech's dashboard.

[BLACKFIRE]

Well if were dreaming here... I say you get what you kill, on a chance base. You kill 3 mechs in combat, doing say 2/3s the damage you get a random chance for and item off that mech. So you will have a chance to salvage something good on rare occations and something basic like armor and ammo most often. Then for the SUPER Rare side you could salvage a PIECE of the mech you downed. Example would be you kill an atlas, you go lucky on salvage and are rewarded with the head, right or left arm or leg, and the center torso. Once a pilot has collected all parts of that mech they can exchange it for a small fee compaired to the NEW one. The fee Simulates Repairs and fitting the parts of the different mechs to make the full Atlas. This way no one gets a FREE mech, and because no one really looses their mech Parts will make sense. Now that said we can also have a trade system, to trade parts Say I have two Loki heads and 3 loki/thor legs. You need a leg and a head Im selling extras. Weapons/parts can all be shared the same. I also think only the Winning team should get salvage. Only the winners are left standing to send out salvage trucks anyway, the loosing team would have to be stupid to send out their salvage teams in a enemy dominated battlefield. So Winners take all!

[Will9761]

I love the idea of salvaging and keeping mechs for yourself. It was always essential in the Mechwarrior series.

Besides, it's a good way to punish the losing team. So when the winning team takes the enemies mechs as salvage, the saying goes,"Finders keepers, Losers weepers."

I hope they put that in the game.

Edited by Will9761, 10 April 2012 - 03:26 PM.

[wwiiogre]

Remember, if you work for a house, the house gets the salvage. If you work as a lone wolf who ever hired you probably gets the salvage. Also if you are a merc corp then the contract will state if you get salvage or not. And trust me, full salvage contracts are never what they seem to be, but are usually only offered with a catch, like you have to pay to ship the stuff after salvaging it, or other nefarious House tricks to steal the good stuff while leaving you shafted as a Merc. But with better reputation comes better contracts and the Dev's have already said that will be in the mix so who knows how they will handle it. I know for a fact if it is stingy then when you earn something cool it will feel more important cause it was so hard to get. If it is to easy then the rare things will have little value.

chris

[GrimFist]

I like the thought of salvage. Need to figure how this plays into the game balance and pay to play with better stuff model vs. F2P.

Just needs to be blended and balanced. I'm sure we could settle on how to do this in about 5 minutes.



Semper Fi,

Your mech and it's parts are purty nice!

[Exilyth]

Mhh... thinking about the scarcity aspect of salvage... it would be nice if components could be used to repair components instead of using C-Bills. E.g. You could use a salvaged damaged PPC to repair your mechs damaged PPC.

wwiiogre, on 10 April 2012 - 03:32 PM, said:

And trust me, full salvage contracts are never what they seem to be.

Well, of course you can have full salvage... the local militia doesn't even have mechs.
Or: Well, of course you can have full salvage... you won't survive this mission anyway.

[William Petersen]

Here's how I think Salvage should work:

The game should make between 0 and X (randomly determined, per Mech) rolls for salved for each Mech felled.

The rolls would act like critical hits, for non-damaged components. Things of which we do not maintain a stock, but still take up crit space (actuators, gyros, engines, cockpit, life support, sensors, and maybe heat sinks?) would just be assigned a cash value and split up among the winning team.

No single critical space can take up more than one of the salvage rolls, however, a single-component which spans many crit slots could consume multiple salvage rolls (this is a trade off, since you're more likely to salvage a 'big gun' than a 'small gun' (assuming neither were damaged), the big gun can also 'soak' salvage rolls for your other components.

Salvage should only be assigned to the winning side, (because logically, they just won, so they have control of the battlefield and can perform salvage operations. The loser is in retreat; you can't really salvage when retreating. =P Be glad you can even come back after the winners get their goodies and recover your hulks. ^_~

As to the player assignment, I think it should just be randomly assigned, but with the constraint that no player should get a second piece of salvage until all players have gotten at least one.

Obviously, items salvaged are counted as 'destroyed' for the losers, else we get into the idea of 'duping' and other crazy stuff.


This, at least, is what seems like a good idea to me in theory, as with all theories, without testing I can not assess the playability of such a system. This also assumes that salvage is even in the game, which I'm not necessarily sure it should be, though I kind of would like some sort of working, because salvage was one of my favorite things at the conclusion of MW3 and MechCommander missions.

[That Guy]

I could see salvage beeing awarded occasionally like a "loot drop" in some MMO. since we cant loose a mech and any mechs we do kill will be returned to their respective owners after a fight and that we will have to maintain an "inventory" of spare equipment, it might be possible to just award players bits of gear at the end of each match.

victory! you earned 50,000 cb, 1500 exp. 1000 mxp, and you salvaged: small laser, autocannon 5 ammo, 2 tons armor...etc

[Alexander Fury]

How else am I suppost to get my hands on Clan Tech??

[wwiiogre]

join the clanners and get to play in a year and a half from now

chris

[Fetladral]

salavage wise I think mechs would be rare because theyve just been through a battle unless it was stored in a bay no pilot. Equipment (JJ, armour, AMS, ECM, ECCM, ETC), ammo and weapons makes much more sense. Should also be suplimental to C-bills. C-bills main source of income with salvage as extra. When the clans come you won't be able to buy clan stuff at first it will all be through salvage then at least for the first few months.

I think salvage should be split between the two teams since even the loseing side in the lore salvaged some stuff. Probably didn't get back more than a qaurter of what they lost if they are even that lucky. Probably something like a 90% salvage goes to winning side loseing side 10%.

Edited by Fetladral, 10 April 2012 - 04:09 PM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Poll need a C-bills only option in the 2nd and 3rd questios if you voted no salvage in the first as you have to answer all questions.
No salvage, it's an unnecessary complication requiring a market of some sort.

[Kudzu]

I'm going to be the odd man out and say "c-bills only". I don't really see the need for salvage if we aren't losing mechs and it isn't a race to get to the top of the weight classes.

Having it based off kills is an especially bad idea-- how do you measure the contribution from the scout that found the mech you eventually killed, the EW he provided, the help from the commander, etc?

As far as eventual clan tech goes-- why not have it sold from the same places you get your other upgrades from?