15 replies to this topic

[Riptor]

This topic is something that i still cant come up with an answer for myselfe.. so i thought i would ask around.

Custom loadouts can be alot of fun, trying to create THAT perfect mech that fits your gameplay and gamestyle the most, tinkering around with different weapon configurations and seeing what chassis is the best for a certain type of setup can keep people busy for a long time.

But sadly its also a paradise for min maxers that might ruin the game for others who are not so keen about min maxing every little statistic.


On the other hand we have the only stock variants available option.

You have your stock mechs with minimal customisation (ammo loadouts for example) and besides that everyone has to use the same weapons your variant of choice comes with.

In the original TT game that is pretty much standard.

The pros are obvious that everyone is on the same terms mostly wich goes a long way to fairness, you see a commando and know what hes packing if you can memorise all the variants.. a clever player will use this wisdom to target specific parts of the enemy mech to take him out fast. (for example taking out the PPC arm of a panther will greatly reduce his firepower)


The downside is, it can get a bit boring and all the tek monkeys will find this system a bit lacking... also it allows for less freedom with customisation and the amount of nasty surprises you can bring for the enemy to deal with is also greatly reduced. Also Piranha might miss some cash shop options out if they go stock variants only.


So guys.. whats your opinion about those two methods? Fully customisation, stock variants only? Or something inbetween like making costumizing very expensive or up the repair costs for custom mechs to make them really expensive to use? Or something entirely different?

Edited by Riptor, 14 November 2011 - 10:34 AM.

[LordKelvin]

It wouldn't be MechWarrior without customization. On the flip side, everybody basically having an OmniMech in terms of customization is no fun either, especially if you can afford to pimp out your ride as much as you have funds for (or however it'll work in the game).

Easiest way would be to have a middle ground, everybody starts with a stock variant but can customize them, within limits, given time and money. Depending on how Piranha wants to implement the Clans, there will definitely need to be a difference between having a BattleMech and an OmniMech, short of cost, Clan tech and availability.

[Frantic Pryde]

As much as I don't care for customization I realize that it's part of the game and it's something a lot of people have really liked in the series.

It would be really annoying if every mech out there was an scat with 16 er small lasers backed up by a few lrm boats.

I hope there is some sort of stock mech option or customization is limited in some clever way.

[wolf74]

For the speed at which there trying to get this out the door, I was say Stock for the main server and maybe have a Open Beta server that gets wiped every 2 months which they can have a Test custom system so they can see how bad people are at Gimping there mechs. Player get the 1st level of points as if they bot them but can not get any more point in the beta. Due to the fact it a test server.

Edited by wolf74, 14 November 2011 - 11:06 AM.

[wolf on the tide]

just £0.02 worth but,

stock models for sale + canon variants if available to your IS House,
(possible factory variants ... i want to pay cash for a new panther, but i want the PPC in the other arm)
customization possible ( but an expensive, one off . you dont like your design , you pay up again)
slide'y in and out weapon changes ? thats an omni mech, keep it post clan

[Dihm]

Weapon customization works great for a single player game, not as much for multiplayer. I support the stock + canon variants rally cry, with omnimechs being the exception. Customization of the mech should come from the variant you use, and the "bling" you put on it, not making a medium laser Archer boat.

Wolf on the tide captures what I'd like pretty well. Though, you should be able to buy any variant from any faction, you just pay more if it isn't standard to yours.

Edited by Dihm, 16 November 2011 - 05:13 AM.

[AdamBaines]

Im all for customization's. But Id say you have to buy stock configs or alternates available by the manufacturer and any customization you make should be more expensive then just normal repairs or replacements. If and when the clans come, their costs should be less as most of their front line mechs are onmi and built to be easily changed or hot swapped. Their 2nd line mechs that are not Omni, maybe not.

Just like in real life, unless its built to re-config easily, which 90% of all IS mechs are NOT in and prior to 3049, making something fit on to or in to something that it was not designed for is hard and expensive and that should be taken into account. Yea sure you can try and put a Ferrari engine in a Kia, and it might work, but it will cost allot and it might not work properly or efficiently.

Im not saying that an Assassin light mech should not be able to remove all of its load in favor for a Arrow IV missile system (if the criticals would let such a thing), it should just cost ALOT in the very least.

[Paganach]

Not everyone likes stock

[Kalunta]

wolf on the tide, on 16 November 2011 - 05:01 AM, said:

just £0.02 worth but,

stock models for sale + canon variants if available to your IS House,
(possible factory variants ... i want to pay cash for a new panther, but i want the PPC in the other arm)
customization possible ( but an expensive, one off . you dont like your design , you pay up again)
slide'y in and out weapon changes ? thats an omni mech, keep it post clan

+1

If it's not an Omni, then it's stock or a variant. I want to see a variety of mechs and hope that different roles and missions favour different mech's natures and pilot's nurtures. There should perhaps be some tweaking of even stock mechs to satisfy those of us that like to tweak (hard alignment of fixed mounted weapons?), but they should not just be implemented the same as Omni!

[Kalunta]

Págánach, on 16 November 2011 - 07:53 AM, said:

Not everyone likes stock

Of course. What playing stock does is force a player to understand the balance of strengths and weaknesses that the mech you choose has and use it to the best of his or her advantage in the game against others doing the same in their respective mechs. It's part of the challenge and fun.

[Dihm]

Págánach, on 16 November 2011 - 07:53 AM, said:

Not everyone likes stock

That's what variants are for, be they canon variants or ones created by the Developers.

[AdamBaines]

I also wanted to add this.....in the Cannon and in the Table Top game, later as new technologies became available, manufactures offered new field upgrade kits for certain mechs that the factories did not. So maybe instead of Total customization, you might be able to buy a field upgrade to a different config?

[Rogal Dorn]

I like the idea of limited and expensive customization. And even though it gets made fun of a lot I think the hardpoint system from MW4 makes sense when dealing with mechs of this era. These aren't omni's, you can't just throw whatever you want anywhere at any time without some serious cash/time.

[Havoc2]

I started a topic in suggestions http://mwomercs.com/...cific-variants/

Unit specific variants.

They'd be expensive to start up and would need to have a cost to maintain, but they'd provide a unit specific variant that would be available to that Merc unit and (if the unit decides) could be sold on open market to help and support the merc unit financially.

[AdamBaines]

}{avoc, on 16 November 2011 - 09:18 AM, said:

I started a topic in suggestions http://mwomercs.com/...cific-variants/

Unit specific variants.

They'd be expensive to start up and would need to have a cost to maintain, but they'd provide a unit specific variant that would be available to that Merc unit and (if the unit decides) could be sold on open market to help and support the merc unit financially.

I have mixed feelings on this. I like it but here is the deal. Most older mechs are available to most house like the Archer and Riffleman. Some are more prevalent in some Houses as opposed to others like the Vindicator (CC) Panther (House Kuritia), Enforcer (Davion) etc. And the only Merc out there with their own special units are Wolfs Dragoons (Annihilator, Imp etc). If I'm a house player I should be able to get any that are common to my House, but have the ability to obtian other designs in battle or sold at a premium in the open market. If Im a merc, it should be easy to get the common designs while any other is at a premium or obtained as salvage. If Im a pirate well then my choises are even thinner, again until I salvage from battle.

In general i think a players starting point should be limited based of affiliation, but as the game goes along they can get other designs, just more expensive or harder to find (ie buying from the used mech sales guy). Now how you get that to work from a code side might be difficult. It just is wrong if you have have a Tarus (southern Periphery power) have a lance of 4 Clan Stone Rhinos as they really would have no access to those designs to buy or even obtain on the battle fields as they would rarely if at all fight them.

I hope that made some coherent sense. :-)

[Hagan]

I'm all for both Stock and Custom load-outs, but I'm also mindful of chassis limits as well.
The system of limiting equipment on standard chassis to the weapon ports available makes sense, after all no-one would replace a Warhammers PPC's with missile launchers and expect to fire all the missiles down those tube arms.

A suggestion that has already been made is a rather elegant solution: Make them pay a price for customising, but make it expensive. This then limits the players if they want to blow a huge amount of cash on a custom variant, meaning they will have to save up a lot of cash (and be very careful with their new mech) so they can afford spare parts or repairs.

Also, don't make it instant. I'm still in favor of a cool-down for repairs & refits between games, so long as there is something else to be getting on with whilst the cool-down is in effect.

Just an idea.