8 replies to this topic

[Dock Steward]

I realize the introduction of Clan mechs and tech is still pretty far off and the development of them will certainly change over that time. The announcements have been careful to say as much. I had a thought regarding their implementation that I wanted to share, specifically in regards to the Clan hard point system.

It sounds as though the Clan mechs will have a base chassis which will consist of essentially the center torso and that the side torsos and arms will be swappable thus allowing for the customization of hard points. This idea sounds okay, though as of now it is unclear if new arms/side torsos will be purchasable on their own or if owning other variants will be necessary in order to make swaps. I feel this system could be better.

With all due respect to the development team (I am certainly no game designer) my idea would have been instead to designate a number of "Pod" slots per mech section and allow the purchase of weapon pods the same way we now buy individual weapon systems, with a "Pod" basically just being a non-specific hard point (an Omni-point, if you will). I'm no expert on BT lore or tech, but the system seems to have been previously designed more along the lines of what I have described.

With Clan mechs likely to have locked-in engines and armor upgrades, many in the community are wondering if the Clan mechs will end up actually being less customizable than the Inner Sphere mechs we now have. The Dev-described system, as of now, allows for an interesting hard point customization, but I think it should be taken further and allow full hard point freedom but with a set number per mech section.

Those numbers could break down as such:

Light Mech
2 Pods in each arm
1 Pod in each side torso
No Pods in center torso

Medium Mech
2 Pods in each arm
2 Pods in each side torso
No Pods in center torso

Heavy Mech
3 Pods in each arm
2 Pods in each side torso
1 Pod in center torso

Assault Mech
3 Pods in each arm
3 Pods in each side torso
2 Pods in center torso

These numbers could be adjusted, I chose these numbers merely for example.

Each Pod could mount 1 weapon pod of any class of weapon. It seems to me that given the system of weapon critical slots and weights, this Pod system would not be game breaking. The built-in and unchangeable engine and extras would dictate a finite number of slots and tons available for weapons and ammo and thus no crazy Uber weapon combos would be possible. Yes my idea breaks cannon a bit, but over-all I think it keeps the flavor but allows the extreme level of customization that players expect from the Clan mechs.

A Note on Mech Trees and C-Bills:

Now, there is already a system in place where players need to own 3 variants of a chassis in order to fully level any of them. My system admittedly throws a bit of a monkey wrench into this system, but that can be easily worked around by having each "Variant" of a Clan chassis have a different engine/upgrades thus each variant would have a different amount of slots and tons available for weapons and ammo. While many players might choose the variant that allows for the most room for weapons, they would do so at the cost of armor points and speed capability. I see this as an even trade if done properly.

In regards to leveling, you could stick with the current system, or have only one tree per Clan chassis but triple the XP amounts to compensate so that the overall "grind" is the same for Clan mechs as it is for Inner Sphere mechs.

Similarly, the cost of Clan chassis and weapon "Pods" could be tripled, since many players might choose to only buy one mech instead of three. This can easily be rationalized as the cost of the superior tech being far more expensive. In the end, getting started with a Clan mech would require far more "grinding," but, upon purshase, will allow immediate near-total customization.

Just an idea I had and wanted to share. Thanks for reading.

[Waelsleaht]

I think they should be like lore. Each pod has set weapons/hard points and swapping pods from variants/buying pods individually to swap out. Choosing what type of hard point in any number will lead to even more boating than we see already.

[Dock Steward]

Waelsleaht, on 04 January 2014 - 08:33 PM, said:

I think they should be like lore. Each pod has set weapons/hard points and swapping pods from variants/buying pods individually to swap out. Choosing what type of hard point in any number will lead to even more boating than we see already.

Personally, I have no problem with boating. Boating LRM's really isn't OP. Boating SRM's is almost counter-productive. Boating lasers got nerfed by Ghost Heat. People already boat AC/5's and AC/2's, which can be scary in capable hands, but manageable. How much more boating can people do? There just isn't the tonnage available to boat anymore than people already do.

[Drunk Canuck]

I have already suggested something like this before, it's insanely hard to implement though without months upon months worth of design and engineering, and with PGI's track record of designing and implementing complex features it isn't going to happen. Besides, it would all have to be tied into the new UI unless the revision is going to make it modular and allow them to do whatever they want with it, something RSI had to do with Star Citizen because of the limitations of the interface while running CryEngine 3.

[Lightfoot]

@OP

That's not an Omni-mech. We won't get Omni-mechs anyway, but if we did the omnipods would be one to each mech section with variable numbers of non weapon type specific hardpoints.

PGI is going to use the fixed placement of Endo (7) and FF (7) criticals to control the available criticals in each pod and they will pick the hardpoint types, so they say. So that's 14 total critical slot blockers to prevent Machine Gun mounts from sprouting Ultra-AC20s. So we won't be getting anything like an omni-mech because Inner Sphere mechs will be much more modifiable in a total flip-floping of TT rules.

[Tombstoner]

What ever that gives me a 100 tone mech with 10x uac-2's http://www.sarna.net...ne_%28Kraken%29

[Dock Steward]

Tombstoner, on 06 January 2014 - 10:21 AM, said:

What ever that gives me a 100 tone mech with 10x uac-2's http://www.sarna.net...ne_%28Kraken%29

Are you sure they'll fit? How about ammo? With Ghost Heat, can you fit the necessary Heat Sinks? My idea might be {Scrap}, but I don't really care for the Dev's either.

[Redshift2k5]

x number of pods per chassis/per location means you only need one variant of each mech. Doesn't fit MWO's model.

Instead, think of a 'pod' as having a specific set of hardpoints; buying more variants gives you more pods to choose from and swapping pods lets you swap hardpoints across your variants of that chassis.

[Dock Steward]

Redshift2k5, on 06 January 2014 - 04:12 PM, said:

x number of pods per chassis/per location means you only need one variant of each mech. Doesn't fit MWO's model.

Instead, think of a 'pod' as having a specific set of hardpoints; buying more variants gives you more pods to choose from and swapping pods lets you swap hardpoints across your variants of that chassis.

This works for me, but I wouldn't want it to involve swapping between mechs. Rather see the ability to buy right from the store, so to speak.

The variant system is already pointless except to make people buy variants they don't want. Generating arbitrary differences between Clan variants is silly. Rather just see them abandon that idea with Clans and triple the cost of everything.