91 replies to this topic

[EDMW CSN]

Just make it simple. Buying mechs from "local areas" will be cheaper due to transportation cost. Importing a Vindicator from the CC to the FRR will cost slightly more due to the distance involved in shipments.

In any case once the game matures, there will be enough players with enough C-bills to buy pretty much anything or pimp their ride to insane levels.

[Fakirzoran]

Initially when first aquiring a Mech you should only be able to get them from your faction. Also, you should be able to salvage mechs or parts from downed machines.

[TheRulesLawyer]

J Echo, on 17 November 2011 - 08:21 PM, said:

I am not liking the idea of being forced to join a faction I hate just so I can pilot my favorite mech. That's bullshit.

Who said anything about that? If you want to pilot whatever you like, join a merc unit or just pay the extra for what you like. Making all factions the same destroys the flavor of the game.

[MaddMaxx]

This is an interesting question indeed. I will be quite interested to see how the Dev handle it. Here is the deal to date.

I load MWO, I already have my Pilot name. I now must declare a House affiliation. Ok done. Now I am going to Start or Join a Merc Corp. The Band is getting back together (yeehaa). So now I am a member of my Merc Corp. do I buy/rent/loan my Mechs and contracts only from the affiliated House? Or as a Merc, can I buy those from any other House.

Will we have to do a certain amount of contract work for our affiliated House before they will release us to a Freelance state. The work we do for them being a means to pay back the upfront cost of Mechs, weapons, ammo etc. etc. that they supplied to get us up and running? If not where do we get C-Bills to Buy rather expensive Mechs and stuff?

So the question becomes more, how does the imposed House affiliation affect the Merc Corps after having already declared "allegiance" to that House?

Lots of questions, not so many answers when one tracks that whats and hows of the start up procedure. I think I just voted "sort of"

Edited by MaddMaxx, 18 November 2011 - 11:31 AM.

[GreyGriffin]

I think anyone should be able to purchase any 'Mech, but 'mechs and components should have tariffs based on where the Mechwarrior is based and the current political climate. For instance, if you're a Capellan, you can buy a Vindicator dirt cheap. You could buy an Albatross with a little bit of a price hike, because the FWL is kind of your brother in arms. But you'd have to pay through the nose for a Centurion, because those Davion are dogs.

[Melissia]

GreyGriffin, on 18 November 2011 - 11:26 AM, said:

I think anyone should be able to purchase any 'Mech, but 'mechs and components should have tariffs based on where the Mechwarrior is based and the current political climate. For instance, if you're a Capellan, you can buy a Vindicator dirt cheap. You could buy an Albatross with a little bit of a price hike, because the FWL is kind of your brother in arms. But you'd have to pay through the nose for a Centurion, because those Davion are dogs.

Something like this seems to be the most popular suggestion thus far.

[Amarus Cameron]

I clicked sort of:

I think your starting mech should be from your faction, but as you salvage or move to other areas you should be able to grab other mechs. But wherever you are you should be constricted to mechs that that area sells. And I think reputation with that faction should effect what is available to you.

[DocBach]

Now how about that Clantech? People who were raised on MW4 are going to be ****** when they find out that the Mad Cat isn't the most common 'Mech in the Federated Commonwealth....

[Melissia]

Clan tech isn't even going to be available at the start.

During the clan invasion, it would only be available as salvage unless they allowed us to play as clanners (whom couldn't trade their 'mechs off to IS players). After the clan invasion, it would only be available as a very expensive trade or as salvage, unless they allowed us to play as clanners.

[DFDelta]

Some mechs should be open to all factions for the same prices. (Everyone and their grandma uses Warhammers)
Some mechs should be open for all, but cheaper for certain factions (everyone has Jenners, but they are more common for dracs)
Some mechs should be house specific (only Dracs build Panthers, ones in other militaries are very rare and always salvage)

Specific mechs should only become unlocked if you spend a lot of time (and I'm really talking about a long time here) with a certain house, or if you spent a even longer time with a enemy of this house, and on campaigns against this house.

If I see someone in a Zeus In 90% of all cases I should be like "yup, thats a Steiner veteran there", in the other 10% I'd be like "yeah, that Marik pilot deserved that mech by beating up hundreds of Steiner pilots"

[Nik Van Rhijn]

My worry is based on recon - the only optimised mechs (from memoery) at this stage are the Raven & Men Shen. Given that the dev's have said intelligence is going to be much more important then being House specific could hurt some Houses more than others, unless Merc's will always have the oprion of a Raven?

[UncleKulikov]

Being able to buy any mech but having the price depending on the factions is the way to go. Any balance issues that arise from differences in House equipment can be papered over with money, as it should be.

[DFDelta]

There are others.
Clint and Cicada are also popular scout mechs, tough both are mediums.
The Mongoose, Stinger, Wasp and Locust are also very popular for scouting.

The Raven is the best scout mech in our time frame, but by no means the only one available.

[JzT Dolomite]

UncleKulikov, on 17 November 2011 - 02:18 PM, said:

I should qualify: I have absolutely NO idea which houses have which mechs.

Even so, if side A has a set of tools, and side B has a different set of tools, they cannot be perfectly balanced because A has some things that B doesn't. Which makes it inherently unbalanced, even though that imbalance can be small.

And would only players of a single house be on the same team? That would seem odd, fracturing the player base. If not, then if any house pilot could team with any other house pilot, why would there be a restriction?




That's a lot of requirement just to get a mech that you need. I'm not convinced that these restrictions would improve gameplay at all, let alone enough to warrant a potential balance issue.

You would be surprised, if done right it can work. Plus the fans of MW pretty much like it this way, we want to bust our butts to earn that special mech that only the enemy has for the privledge of saying that "I kicked his *** to get that machine!!!"

In my old clan ((Not clanner)) we were asked to earn the right to the class and machine we wanted, it was fun as heck when I took the right to a Masakari from someone who thought he could take me in his BlackKnight....but Thanatoses are incredible machines that take a crapload of punishment and give back enough to cripple the enemy, even a poptart sniper

[CobraFive]

Some mechs should be universal. Anyone can buy them from any faction.

Some mechs should be for a specific house. You can only get them if you're in that faction.

But then, you can use real money to buy mechs from other factions. Its nothing other players don't have access to, assuming WEAPONS aren't faction restricted...

[Rogal Dorn]

cobrafive, on 18 November 2011 - 12:02 PM, said:

Some mechs should be universal. Anyone can buy them from any faction.

Some mechs should be for a specific house. You can only get them if you're in that faction.

But then, you can use real money to buy mechs from other factions. Its nothing other players don't have access to, assuming WEAPONS aren't faction restricted...

I could get on board with that. Microtransaction for the mech you want shouldn't be a big deal.

[Gunman5000]

Vote: Sort-of

For the most part the initial 'mech selection should definately be limited by the House / Faction that you sign up with. If you are in a House army, let's say Marik, it wouldn't make alot of sense to have access to the Hatamoto-Chi (a Draconis Combine based 'mech). However, over time and/or rank it would make sense that some opportunity would arise to gain access to other 'mechs. Either through salvage or through trade (despite being at war, its my understanding that there was still lots of trade between the Houses, even if its black market).

[Stahlseele]

Hmm, one way of doing this would be to onle be getting house VARIANTS of a Chassis from that House . .
Everybody and their Mother has the Warhammer, that's true, but there are still the 6D, 6S, 6M, 6L, 6K Variants . . .

[DFDelta]

Having general variants and house variants would also be awesome

[Calico Red MacNaughton]

I think it would be interesting to have it so that you can only purchase mechs through your House. It could be an interesting advantage for Mercs to be able to purchase mechs of any House through a black market system, or Solaris, or what have you. Joining a House would give you better support and mechs could be cheaper, but your selection is limited, as a Merc you don't have House support, the mechs would be more expensive, but you would be able to find mechs from multiple houses.