47 replies to this topic

[CaveMan]

Yeach, on 18 November 2011 - 07:41 PM, said:

I like this idea; just don't let the TT purist catch you though with the thought that medium lasers made by different manufacturers have different stats.

Hush, you, I'm about as much of a TT purist as you can get, and I love the idea.

[Yeach]

DFDelta, on 18 November 2011 - 07:45 PM, said:

Different stats for different manufacturers would have my full support. It would be interesting especially on the autocannons, where the different brands can be like totally different weapons.

You mean like the Centurion Luxor D-Series Autocannon 10 which was known to jam frequently.

[DFDelta]

Yup, something like that.
There are also AC20s that are firing a 10 shot burst of 150mm shells, while others might just fire a single 200+mm shell.

Seeing differnt AC2s might also be nice, rapid fire 30mm guns from some manufacturers, and slower firing 60mm shells on some others.

Would give players reasons to try out different brands to see which ones they like most

[EDMW CSN]

I want ma 3 round burst 120mm APFSDS AC5 !!!

http://www.sarna.net...hirlwind_(AC-5)

[Karyudo ds]

For some reason I would prefer customizing machines to be limited. I like the option to tweak them sure. Though if you stripe all of the Hunchbacks weapons and turn it into a missile boat and it looks exactly the same then the mech itself just becomes a hitbox collection. Not to mention that if omnimechs are introduced as omnimechs then they will need some sort of edge in the tweakage options. Otherwise everything will be omnimechs anyway.

So I wouldn't mind being able to do some customization, just something more interesting than MW2/3. Curious to see what we'll be able to do with paint jobs. Hope you'll be able to just save and swap between those. Mood mechs!

[DocBach]

Different brand weapons from salvage would make the loadout of most custom 'Mechs a hodgepodge with different ranges/firing rates/damage/ect that could also help against boating since the weapons would all be performing different.

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the most OCD, **** BT purists out there, but having dozens of different weapon systems would certainly change the variety of the game as well as add in a collecting factor that people love so much in online games. "Hell yeah! I just salvaged a Blankenburg Technologies 200 ER PPC! This one causes the target's HUD to fizzle for a couple seconds longer!" or "Hmmm. Another Martell medium laser - totally selling this to the junk dealer at the Mechit-lube."

[Kudzu]

DocBach, on 18 November 2011 - 10:04 PM, said:

Different brand weapons from salvage would make the loadout of most custom 'Mechs a hodgepodge with different ranges/firing rates/damage/ect that could also help against boating since the weapons would all be performing different.

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the most OCD, **** BT purists out there, but having dozens of different weapon systems would certainly change the variety of the game as well as add in a collecting factor that people love so much in online games. "Hell yeah! I just salvaged a Blankenburg Technologies 200 ER PPC! This one causes the target's HUD to fizzle for a couple seconds longer!" or "Hmmm. Another Martell medium laser - totally selling this to the junk dealer at the Mechit-lube."

Actually, it is an awesome idea. It doesn't even have to have in-game effects (although they would be cool too)-- different colors of lasers/PPC streams (Want all purple? You need to buy Blackwell!) , various kinds of muzzle flash/ shot animations for AC's, you could even go with different sensor looks in your cockpit for various manufacturers.

[Agent 0 Fortune]

I am already biased against full customization, and can see it as the fast route to a "pay to win" format.
BUT, I can also visualize using full customization as a reward feature much like levels and loot in a traditional MMO if it is used as the carrot not the stick.

So, while I am apprehensive, I think it is too soon to jump to conclusions.

[Vagabond Nomad]

As long as there are trade offs, I'm all for full customization. For example, in Mechwarrior 4, I customized a Daishi by stripping down armor and reducing speed, so I could load up with the types of weapons I wanted. Although I had high firepower, my mech was relatively weak for its class. It was a trade-off I was willing to make, and it was a lot of fun for me. I really don't see the problem.

I honestly hope that I can load up on whatever weapons will fit into the available space on my mech, and strip out other elements (armor, equipment, speed, heat sinks, etc.) to make room for the things I want. Again, by making a trade-off (giving up this for that), it seems completely fair to me. And, again, I say, what's the problem?

Edited by Vagabond Nomad, 19 November 2011 - 06:50 AM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

If your not playing on a "no heat no ammo" server,quite a bit including a little matter called game balance.

[Threat Doc]

DocBach, on 18 November 2011 - 10:04 PM, said:

Different brand weapons from salvage would make the loadout of most custom 'Mechs a hodgepodge with different ranges/firing rates/damage/ect that could also help against boating since the weapons would all be performing different.

Don't get me wrong, I'm one of the most OCD, **** BT purists out there, but having dozens of different weapon systems would certainly change the variety of the game as well as add in a collecting factor that people love so much in online games. "Hell yeah! I just salvaged a Blankenburg Technologies 200 ER PPC! This one causes the target's HUD to fizzle for a couple seconds longer!" or "Hmmm. Another Martell medium laser - totally selling this to the junk dealer at the Mechit-lube."

Can you imagine the different C-Bill costs and rarity's of different types of weapons, based on their performance, manufacturer, and age, you could get? What about trying to find a very rare say, Large Laser, (I don't know all of the manufacturers by heart, hehe), it would be a hoot trying to track it down. I know, I know, this isn't a MMORPG, just an MMOCG.

Kudzu, on 18 November 2011 - 10:15 PM, said:

Actually, it is an awesome idea. It doesn't even have to have in-game effects (although they would be cool too)-- different colors of lasers/PPC streams (Want all purple? You need to buy Blackwell!) , various kinds of muzzle flash/ shot animations for AC's, you could even go with different sensor looks in your cockpit for various manufacturers.

Purple PPC blasts?!?! I'm IN!!!

[Samson]

I'm all for customization. I wouldn't mind seeing a slight timer on this as well, nothing huge but calculated it matches, not time. Want to swap out a single wepon of near equvlent size (Lpulse for a PPC we'll say) sure, instantaneous. Want to swap out a large pulse for 5 med lasers and add in some extra heat sinks, 1 match. Swapping out all your weapons for a custom config, 2 matches. Dropping in an XL engine and then refitting weapons/armor, 3 matches. I don't want to penalise people if they do something small like dropping a Med laser cause you realised it would be better served by an extra heat sink, I say you should be stuck with your internal structure, cause how do you switch out that? Recast the entire structure of the mech? Better to just buy a new one.

I want to see some consideration for how instant configs can affect the balance of the game. Also I'd like to see a reason to keep multiple configs/mechs. If you're going to be able to swap instantly, what would be the point other than look/tonnage.

[Vagabond Nomad]

Vagabond Nomad, on 19 November 2011 - 06:47 AM, said:

As long as there are trade offs, I'm all for full customization. For example, in Mechwarrior 4, I customized a Daishi by stripping down armor and reducing speed, so I could load up with the types of weapons I wanted. Although I had high firepower, my mech was relatively weak for its class. It was a trade-off I was willing to make, and it was a lot of fun for me. I really don't see the problem.

I honestly hope that I can load up on whatever weapons will fit into the available space on my mech, and strip out other elements (armor, equipment, speed, heat sinks, etc.) to make room for the things I want. Again, by making a trade-off (giving up this for that), it seems completely fair to me. And, again, I say, what's the problem?

Nik Van Rhijn, on 19 November 2011 - 07:25 AM, said:

If your not playing on a "no heat no ammo" server,quite a bit including a little matter called game balance.

Well, yeah, I would totally agree with that. I never played on "no heat, no ammo" servers. In fact, I preferred servers where there were no respawns in the map - you die once, and you're out until the next round; and where you were forced to play in 1st-person. However, I was cool with people who did like to play with "no heat, no ammo" - I just didn't play on those servers. But is "no heat, no ammo" even an option with Mechwarrior Online? I'm thinking not, so if true, then this would be a non issue with the game. Am I missing something?

Edited by Vagabond Nomad, 19 November 2011 - 08:40 AM.

[Vagabond Nomad]

Samson, on 19 November 2011 - 08:33 AM, said:

I'm all for customization. I wouldn't mind seeing a slight timer on this as well, nothing huge but calculated it matches, not time. Want to swap out a single wepon of near equvlent size (Lpulse for a PPC we'll say) sure, instantaneous. Want to swap out a large pulse for 5 med lasers and add in some extra heat sinks, 1 match. Swapping out all your weapons for a custom config, 2 matches. Dropping in an XL engine and then refitting weapons/armor, 3 matches. I don't want to penalise people if they do something small like dropping a Med laser cause you realised it would be better served by an extra heat sink, I say you should be stuck with your internal structure, cause how do you switch out that? Recast the entire structure of the mech? Better to just buy a new one.

I want to see some consideration for how instant configs can affect the balance of the game. Also I'd like to see a reason to keep multiple configs/mechs. If you're going to be able to swap instantly, what would be the point other than look/tonnage.

I'm not sure I understand your comment when you say 1 match, 2 matches, etc. Can you explain? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

In any event, I'd really, really want to have saved configurations for my existing mechs / equipment so I could apply them when needed without have to "re-create the wheel", so to speak. As far as the delay in applying a new configuration real-time within the game? I'm okay with that, as long as it's not unreasonable. To me, unreasonable would be anything longer than a minute in real time. I mean, this is a game, after all, and my time in the real world is precious - I don't have a lot of it. So the time I do have I don't want to sit staring at my computer waiting endlessly to play because my mech needs to take a more "realistic" amount of time to reconfigure.

To be honest, there only tends to be a small number of configurations that I regularly use anyway. It all depends on the terrain / environment. If I know what that is going in, I'll select the appropriate mech configuration. So, changing mech / configuration mid-battle (if that's what you're suggesting), probably wouldn't be anything that I would tend to do on a regular basis, unless I was maybe just srewing around to experiment with different settings.

Edited by Vagabond Nomad, 19 November 2011 - 08:57 AM.

[EDMW CSN]

That is the quirk of regular battlemechs. You can change EVERYTHING in it. But it takes time and money.
However Battlemechs are cheap to maintain and u can jury rig it if necessary.

Omnimechs change loadouts faster but u cant mod the engine, armor, amount of fixed heatsinks etc.
Omnis of course will make u pay a premium in terms of maintence and reduce the ability for u to fully mod your mech from scratch. So no putting a mad dog's arm on a timber wolf!

Edited by [EDMW]CSN, 19 November 2011 - 09:43 AM.

[DocBach]

[EDMW]CSN, on 19 November 2011 - 09:41 AM, said:

That is the quirk of regular battlemechs. You can change EVERYTHING in it. But it takes time and money.
However Battlemechs are cheap to maintain and u can jury rig it if necessary.

Omnimechs change loadouts faster but u cant mod the engine, armor, amount of fixed heatsinks etc.
Omnis of course will make u pay a premium in terms of maintence and reduce the ability for u to fully mod your mech from scratch. So no putting a mad dog's arm on a timber wolf!

Actually, you got it mixed up - BattleMechs were difficult to modify, and were considered extremely expensive, the old saying was, "Life is cheap, BattleMechs are expensive."

OmniMechs by their very nature are designed to be able to pull out and switch around the payload, pulling a Mad Cat's ER large laser/medium laser arm to stick on a Loki's ER PPC arm pod would be standard fair for Clan techs working on OmniMechs.

Edited by DocBach, 19 November 2011 - 09:52 AM.

[Kudzu]

DocBach, on 19 November 2011 - 09:51 AM, said:

Actually, you got it mixed up - BattleMechs were difficult to modify, and were considered extremely expensive, the old saying was, "Life is cheap, BattleMechs are expensive."

OmniMechs by their very nature are designed to be able to pull out and switch around the payload, pulling a Mad Cat's ER large laser/medium laser arm to stick on a Loki's ER PPC arm pod would be standard fair for Clan techs working on OmniMechs.

Think of the IS as Mac (you have to take it to a specialist to change out parts.) and clans as PC (plug and play!).

[Agent 0 Fortune]

Vagabond Nomad, on 19 November 2011 - 08:56 AM, said:

I'm not sure I understand your comment when you say 1 match, 2 matches, etc. Can you explain? Sorry if this is a dumb question.

Samson, on 19 November 2011 - 08:33 AM, said:

Want to swap out a large pulse for 5 med lasers and add in some extra heat sinks, 1 match. Swapping out all your weapons for a custom config, 2 matches.

What he is saying is swapping out a lg pulse for 5 md and heat sinks would requrie your mech to sit the next game match you play, so you would have to play a different mech. (basically 20 minutes of game time). HOWEVER the devs stated that game time is real time so 20 minutes is too short. I'm not going to advocate weeks or months, as that ruins fun but a day or two would keep the price of modification relatively high.

Here is were it bugs me. You are swapping out 2 Critical Slots worth of space in your center torso for 7 critical slots of space in your right torso. That is a major engineering feat, not a minor deviation.

But I do like the idea Sampson presented, which is modification takes time and money. But you have to take into account every detail. For instance swapping out a PPC for Lg pulse laser is easy, but 5 mediums, those have to go some where.

Removing a couple heat sinks for armor, no problem, but removing a couple heat sinks and a small laser to make room for Jump Jets... you need to have the chassis re-engineered.

Edited by Agent.0.Fortune, 19 November 2011 - 10:09 AM.

[EDMW CSN]

That is why i said time and money will be needed for modifications.
For maintainence battlemechs again trump omnimechs. Some SL era mechs have fought for centuries even though downgraded with level one tech.

Clan mechs not so as the DCMS found out. The downtimes were nearly twice or even thrice when compared to IS equipment.
Also u cant change a dire wolf to a standard Engine if that clan xl died. U cant even increase the lokis armor. U cant change a mad cat from ff armor to standard if u ran out of clan grade ff.

For a battlemech like an Atlas, u can use any engine u want or even downgrade the engine. All u need is time and c-bills.

Edited by [EDMW]CSN, 19 November 2011 - 10:10 AM.

[DocBach]

Ah, you mean changes to the chassis on the base configuration of the Omnimechs - but the reason the DCMS had so much trouble with the Clan Omnis was that they didn't know HOW to maintain them - it was expensive and time consuming for them because they had no idea what they were doing. To the Clans, though, the maintenance of an OmniMech was like someone else said, plug and play.