4 replies to this topic

[Ryoken]

PGI, what would it cost, to make a camo pattern available for a single mech?

For example:
What would it cost to get polygone camo pattern for the Founders Atlas?

What would it cost to get woodland camo pattern for the Invasion Timberwolf?

If you can make a good price it would make sense to make funding available for certain camo pattern/mech combinations.

It was done to raise funds for tabletop Mech miniatures to be cast by IWM. So why not give players at least a chance to get camo patterns on Founders, Hero, Phoenix and Invasion mechs?

Right now every camo patterns release announcement is nothing but a slap in the face to many loyal money paying founders, hero, phoenix and invasion mech players!

Edited by Ryoken, 20 August 2014 - 04:38 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

The founder, invasion, and pheonix mechs have unique geometry that isn't suitable for the existing mech skins for their sibling variants, and exceting the (I) variants which are still for sale, all of those mechs are no longer available.

Going back and making a new skin for a Founder mech is not a good use of resources since those mechs will never be available for sale, there would be almost no return on the investment.

Hero mechs on the other hand would require no extra work, but a part of their appeal is the unique camo pattern; by running around in a hero mech you're actually serving to promote that mech, since another player may decide they want that unique pattern.

The unique patterns associated with these mechs also serves to make them stand out, and overall it seems that PGI wants these mechs to have unique patterns. We don't know how much it costs for the artists to go back and modify the camos and textures(we know it's possible since the 4 founders were overhauled once already) but some things, like "uniqueness" are difficult to quantify

Edited by Redshift2k5, 20 August 2014 - 09:13 AM.

[Koniving]

That explanation is pretty shallow, really. Much like the modular slots for weapons right now, just leave the unique sections without paint.

On the Founders... For the Jenner only the top dome of the head is unique. The pattern just wont' fit there. No big deal.
Hunchback. Only real unique thing is a satellite dish and a viewscreen texture.
Catapult, just a nose cone.
Atlas, just a head.

Phoenix, explained below.

Ryoken, on 08 January 2014 - 06:49 AM, said:

As the title says I would love to be allowed to choose different camo patterns for my Founders, Hero, Phoenix and Invasion mechs. The respective Founders, Hero, Phoenix and Invasion patterns could still be available as exclusive optional pattern for those mechs. But as it is, spending real money forces one camo pattern on us, which kinda is a limitation standard variants of the mechs do not have to suffer.

So I would be even more enthusiastic about supporting this game if it still leaves me the freedom to fully individualize my Founders, Hero, Phoenix and Invasion mechs.

Quote

Here is my Phoenix Battlemaster with a custom skin:



See how the little Phoenix bits are black? Well, that's because they're a seperate texture, the Phoenix bits use the "variant" texture, the "variant" texture is used to texture weapons across mechs, the reason it's seperate is so that we can have camo patterns in the first place, which is why "we can't do it because it's more work" is a bad excuse because the Phoenix bits are completely seperate from the actual mech skin in the first place, there is literally nothing, and I mean nothing stopping them from letting us camo up our Phoenix mechs, they are in no way special or different from the regular variants.

Here look see this:


See? The Phoenix bits aren't special, they're just tacked on to the regular variant, they aren't completely unique arms or whatever like with the Founders mechs.

Additionally:


In the image above I've arranged all the Phoenix parts, they are all seperate pieces tacked on to a regular variant, please take note how all of the shadowhawks pieces, and the Locust CT piece, isn't even textured, they are just grey metal parts, so they would have 0 effect on camo patterns or details or whatever in the first place since they're never even textured by default.

That means there are literally 6 little tiny bits stopping them from giving us camo, 6 little bits that have their own seperate textures apart from the mechs body.

In-case you don't understand why the Phoenix bits having a seperate texture is a big deal, this means you can apply a camo pattern to the mech UNDER the Phoenix bits, without breaking anything, the Phoenix bits will still color match, they just won't have writing or a pattern or whatever on them.

My response this morning to my support ticket was specifically this:

Quote

Zero (MechWarrior® Online™)
Jan 11 11:14
Hello marepinta,

Your feedback and suggestions are appreciated! However to better reach the developers with your ideas and suggestions, please post here: http://mwomercs.com/...al-discussions/ - please choose the appropriate sub-section.
Please be aware that even though the devs do read the forums and especially the suggestions one, they rarely reply to any thread so they can concentrate on actually building the game. Also, the community representatives read all forum posts and compile then send to the devs the most relevant and constructive feedback on a weekly basis.
As one can imagine, if the devs start responding to everything, it would become a never-ending back and forth, and game development itself would suffer because of this.

Regards,
Zero
GameMaster
MechWarrior® Online™

And I'm not the only one thinking so:
http://mwomercs.com/...-camo-patterns/
http://mwomercs.com/...t-phoenix-camo/
http://mwomercs.com/...20#entry3015120
http://mwomercs.com/...pack-pre-order/
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__2215873
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__3092213
http://mwomercs.com/...1-camo-my-hero/
http://mwomercs.com/...-camo-patterns/
http://mwomercs.com/...for-hero-mechs/
http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__3100125
http://mwomercs.com/...amo-unlockable/
http://mwomercs.com/...st-of-my-ember/
http://mwomercs.com/...ime-mech-camos/
http://mwomercs.com/...or-clan-primes/
http://mwomercs.com/...-of-clan-mechs/

Invasion mechs.. Just legs, some body parts. No big deal.

Original post.

http://mwomercs.com/...invasion-mechs/

The base models aside from the 'augmented' parts is very easy to convert.

It becomes a problem of... we want more maps, mechs, and some actual content... and that I believe trumps the need to paint our special mechs with any pattern.

So wait a while until we get a good stream of maps and such going and visual customization for the mechs that still don't change weapons when we do... and then maybe PGI can make this actually somewhat but not truly easy fix.

[Redshift2k5]

It's obviously possible, and the pheonix break-away is a nice clear example, but in terms of cost, time, and time lost they could spend on new features, revisiting past mechs is kind of a waste.

[Ryoken]

Yeah maybe we just have to wait till they get some more people free for the job. Really it looks like an easy job and I do not understand PGIs policy not to finally fix that issue.

What always puzzles me about the "uniqueness" debate is that I can hardly call it unique to have all those mechs run around in the "exact same pattern". I would go even so far to call those restricted patterns the second most common patterns after the standard pattern.

So if we would no longer be restricted to but one pattern on those mechs everyone would win! The "camo fans" could finaly individualize their mechs, and the "unique guys" could just keep those patterns and could feel a little bit more unique.

Edited by Ryoken, 23 August 2014 - 12:44 AM.