58 replies to this topic

[Tristan Winter]

You know how you can walk around in your Star Citizen hangar and gawk at all your ships. Is that something you'd want to have for MWO? I mean, would it be a big deal for you?

I think there's a lot of collectors and completionists out there who would be motivated to collect more mechs and paint them up real nice (i.e. buy more patterns and colors) if all their owned mechs weren't just stock icons in the UI. You can click them each to see them, but... it's not quite as satisfying.

There's a lot of ways to do this, of course. The cheapest way would be to just let people drop on a roomy map, like Alpine, and then line up every mech owned, except for the mech you choose to drop in, in a grid. A more expensive way would be to do the same in a very simple "mechbay" map, put together with existing resources from maps already made. Since the map won't be used to play matches, it should be very cheap and fast to put together.

The most expensive and coolest thing would be to let the player walk around on foot, and let all the mechs be assembled in the mechbay map. And then put a power-up button next to each map, so you can watch your huge mechs power up and shut down. But that would probably take a lot of work, I guess. Even though it should be very easy, given that CryEngine is made for that stuff anyway. And they already made a Mechwarrior ("pilot") model, used inside the cockpit.

I know the devs, and even many players, will say "That stuff doesn't matter", "Give us more content instead". But I think that's underestimating how many gamers and nerds are huge collectors and completionists. Many of us probably have a basement / gameroom / attic with various collectibles, maybe a glass monitor with hand-painted TT miniatures. That crowd would be thrilled to have a functioning mechbay to look at all their owned mechs, I think.

And from a business point of view: Imagine if you bought a Stalker and then your "hangar" was upgraded to contain that Stalker, with empty stalls for the four C-bill variants you don't own. And a special stall for the Misery. Wouldn't that give you a slight itch to collect all the variants? Maybe put down some cash for the Misery next time it's on sale, just to finish your collection?

Just look at all the people still playing Skyrim, decorating their own houses. Same thing with MMO's like Star Wars Old Republic, where you can buy and decorate a house on different planets. People will pay real money for that kind of stuff. And in MWO, most of the resources are already available. It's just a matter of putting it together for a spectator mode.

[Xtrekker]

Yep.

[Mechteric]

Yes, we should definitely be able to walk around them, hop in and out of the cockpit (like in the "Atlas Drop" trailer). Immersion is certainly needed.

[Wolfways]

You mean see all the mechs we own in one screen? Then no i wouldn't want that. There's already enough immersion removed from the game.

[Tristan Winter]

Wolfways, on 01 October 2014 - 07:23 AM, said:

You mean see all the mechs we own in one screen? Then no i wouldn't want that. There's already enough immersion removed from the game.

How does that remove immersion? If you feel it's unrealistic that one pilot would own 150 mechs, then just enjoy a fantasy where they all belong to the regiment / division / galaxy / cluster / trinary / whatever you command. Or are assigned to.

[Anarcho]

I support this Really think MWO needs more "bling", more effects when you unlock an achievment, when you change a weapon maybe some sparcles, I dunno... these little details make a lot of difference. I remember I stopped playing the first NeverWinter Nights because the inventory was dull and boring...

[Xarian]

I'd like the ability to add a few mechs to my hangar, but I wouldn't want it to show all of them. It'd be like a giant ocean of steel, and that'd just turn into annoying noise.

[Tristan Winter]

Xarian, on 01 October 2014 - 08:04 AM, said:

I'd like the ability to add a few mechs to my hangar, but I wouldn't want it to show all of them. It'd be like a giant ocean of steel, and that'd just turn into annoying noise.

Well, Star Citizen now gives the player the option to choose which of your owned ships you want to see in your hangar. Best of both worlds, makes everyone happy.

[Ronan]

The hanger could be just the "drop deck" of four you've readied for action?

If the hanger shows all mechs, I'd like it to render them in the paints/camos I've set them up with.

Also, if it shows all mechs, including trials (which people hate as it is now), the trials should be off set with a "Comstar Rentals" banner or something. Have some fun with it. Paint all the trial mechs "Hertz" yellow? (The rental car company.)

[CDLord HHGD]

I would LOVE to have a Star Citizen-esq hangar with all my mechs (and a plan from PGI to add in a pilot avatar mechanic/purpose).

[Bilbo]

That would be quite a hangar.

[Kaspirikay]

I would eventually like to see Avatars/Characters with portrait of said avatar next to our name in game and on the forums, somewhat in the spirit of what Eve Online is doing. That would be nice.

[Redshift2k5]

Would be really nice for some eye candy. A fly-through of the hangar could even load as a 'screensaver' if you leave your mechlab idle for too long.

[Mercules]

Not really... seems like a waste of code for something most people would use ONCE.

[Alienized]

i want to ask one thing:

do you want to have BLING or a improved gameplay?

i dont need any sort of bling. yes there are parts that can be done better in the mech hangar etc BUT there is much more important stuff to worry about.

imho, EVE had the best solution. and a easy one. or it could be something like captains quartes there.

[CDLord HHGD]

Bilbo, on 01 October 2014 - 08:30 AM, said:

That would be quite a hangar.

I would need a golf cart to drive around in.

OR

Be able to walk around an "eligible mech" hangar or a hangar with 12 designated mechs and stylize it like a Union class dropship.

Aliisa White, on 01 October 2014 - 08:34 AM, said:

i want to ask one thing:

do you want to have BLING or a improved gameplay?

i dont need any sort of bling. yes there are parts that can be done better in the mech hangar etc BUT there is much more important stuff to worry about.

imho, EVE had the best solution. and a easy one. or it could be something like captains quartes there.

That "bling" has earned Star Citizen millions of dollars. Sure people buy into the promise of the game but having that hangar to play with has had a positive effect too.

[Tristan Winter]

Ronan, on 01 October 2014 - 08:27 AM, said:

The hanger could be just the "drop deck" of four you've readied for action?
If the hanger shows all mechs, I'd like it to render them in the paints/camos I've set them up with.

Certainly, the drop deck is an alternative. Although it doesn't quite trigger the collector's itch in the same way as other alternatives, I think. And really, I think PGI would want something that both pleases the fans and gives them an urge to spend more money.

But it'd definitely have to show the paints / camos and weapons you've set them up with. Which is another reason I dislike the stock icons we have now. My ADR-A is shown in stock camo with huge LRM-launchers, when I've painted it in completely different colours and given it completely different weapons.

Ronan, on 01 October 2014 - 08:27 AM, said:

Also, if it shows all mechs, including trials (which people hate as it is now), the trials should be off set with a "Comstar Rentals" banner or something. Have some fun with it. Paint all the trial mechs "Hertz" yellow? (The rental car company.)

My OCD is already making me claw at my eyes from looking a the trial mechs in the UI. If PGI did what you said, I would probably go utterly insane. That would be the equivalent of owning a garage full of 99 Porsches 1 Ice Cream truck cemented to the floor. The comedy factor would be lost on me, I'm afraid.

[AdamBaines]

Its not a big deal, but would be very cool.

[Lexx]

Oh yes, PGI should totally drop whatever they are doing and put it on hold for the next 6 months while they work on a giant hanger for all our mechs that will make them no extra profit at all.

Put the second clan pack on hold, delay the freebies and stop working on the new map, the players want a giant mech hanger! Some of us have well over 100 mechs, can you imagine how large it would have to be? If they were to do this, Star Citizen style, it would cost at least $100 just to buy the basic "hanger", with upgraded hanger packages going up into the thousands.

Unless you paid PGI to create this "hanger", why would they do all that extra work just for eye candy?

Edited by Lexx, 01 October 2014 - 08:39 AM.

[Tristan Winter]

Aliisa White, on 01 October 2014 - 08:34 AM, said:

i want to ask one thing:
do you want to have BLING or a improved gameplay?
i dont need any sort of bling. yes there are parts that can be done better in the mech hangar etc BUT there is much more important stuff to worry about.

Given that people are spending quite a bit of money on bling in this game already, I think there's a few people in this game who are willing to pay for bling. I used to get really upset that PGI was making more and more cockpit items, but as long as the income outweighs the expense, it does mean more money to spend on improved gameplay. Assuming it's not just used to fund a different game, of course.

But again, look at how many people are interested in the bling in other games. And keep in mind that Battletech was a very successful tabletop game, which is completely centered on the idea that you want your customers to spend money on bling. Warhammer 40,000, Warzone, Battletech... none of those games would be around if people didn't like collecting models, painting them and showing them to friends.

Have a look at YouTube and see how many Skyrim fan videos show off their decorated houses. Or Fallout. Or TOR. Or a number of other games.

Collecting stuff to gawk at seems to be a central part of human personality. And especially when applied to toys.

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