19 replies to this topic

[GoatHILL]

From the Q&A I see there is going to be pilot leveling and skills. I'm not thrilled to read this but I'd like to hear more on how this is planned to work. Myself I don't want to tied to any 1 class or roll I want to be able to drop in a light then the next time in an assault. I like the idea that I am the pilot what skills I have are my own.

What is everyone's thoughts on leveling and skills?

Edited by GoatHILL, 23 November 2011 - 01:15 PM.

[Adridos]

"Myself I don't want to tired to any 1 class or roll I want to be able to drop in a light then the next time in an assault. I like the idea that I am the pilot what skills I have are my own." -

Explain what you said and I'll give you my thoughts.

[DocBach]

He added an "r" to tied - he doesn't want to be stuck in one weight class.


I'm imagining pilot leveling to be something akin to what they've got in Modern Warfare 3 for weapon levels - the more you use a weapon in that game, the more accessories and perks you get for it, like lowered recoil, higher accuracy, ect. I'd like to see something like that used in 'Mechs here; if you pilot a Cicada exclusively, you end up getting additional perks for it like a quicker responding throttle, or a tighter turning radius. Nothing says you can't hop out of your Cicada and jump into a Victor, but the pilot specializations you unlocked for the Cicada wouldn't carry over.

[Rascal]

I respect the OP point of view, but as for myself, I like the character building aspects. I like escaping into an avatar that is MORE than I am. At least some times. I do like the "all me" aspects of shooters too. But it seems everything is moving to that these days.

[CeeKay Boques]

I really don't want to level up. I want all the perks. ALL OF THEM! Hopefully none of them unlock game mechanics, but I'm sure they will. Once they found out we'd chase achievements like a kitty chasing a laser light on the wall, gaming took a dive, but revenues went up. I don't understand.

[Xhaleon]

Technoviking, on 23 November 2011 - 01:25 PM, said:

I really don't want to level up. I want all the perks. ALL OF THEM! Hopefully none of them unlock game mechanics, but I'm sure they will. Once they found out we'd chase achievements like a kitty chasing a laser light on the wall, gaming took a dive, but revenues went up. I don't understand.

They already said they have pilot progression, so you'll have to deal with sucky piloting in the beginning. I do not think they'll ever put a mechanic as a level up feature; that would be extremely unbalancing if the counter to it was also gained through leveling up, thus ******** over newer players.

[GoatHILL]

Thanks Doc yea that r should not have been there.

Now as for your example I'm not sure how I feel about that. I tend to like the idea of the mechs have certain stats and they are they same for everyone. Thats not to say you can't upgrade your mech with c-bills but I am not a fan at least in games like this of leveling your pilot.

But what really worries me is that skills/levels do not transfer from 1 class to another. If there is going to be leveling I'd like to see something along the of "gunnery" my pilot has 100 in gunnery. Now no matter what class I drop in I have 100 gunnery.

[CeeKay Boques]

GoatHILL, on 23 November 2011 - 01:32 PM, said:

Thanks Doc yea that r should not have been there.

Now as for your example I'm not sure how I feel about that. I tend to like the idea of the mechs have certain stats and they are they same for everyone. Thats not to say you can't upgrade your mech with c-bills but I am not a fan at least in games like this of leveling your pilot.

But what really worries me is that skills/levels do not transfer from 1 class to another. If there is going to be leveling I'd like to see something along the of "gunnery" my pilot has 100 in gunnery. Now no matter what class I drop in I have 100 gunnery.

My gosh if Piloting or gunnery is something you level up, I'm not going to say "I'm out!" but... man. What's the point? How would you impement gunnery or piloting in a way that doesn't increase your damage, to hit, or ability to drive well?

Xhaleon, on 23 November 2011 - 01:31 PM, said:

They already said they have pilot progression, so you'll have to deal with sucky piloting in the beginning. I do not think they'll ever put a mechanic as a level up feature; that would be extremely unbalancing if the counter to it was also gained through leveling up, thus ******** over newer players.

Ohh... I dunno... "I'm MASC qualified!" or... "I'm BAP certified...." or I'm "UAV certified"... it could happen. Not game changers, but mechanic ..uh... game changers.

Edited by Technoviking, 23 November 2011 - 01:39 PM.

[Kudzu]

Technoviking, on 23 November 2011 - 01:38 PM, said:

My gosh if Piloting or gunnery is something you level up, I'm not going to say "I'm out!" but... man. What's the point? How would you impement gunnery of piloting?

Depends on the systems they use. Gunnery could reduce the weapons spread (if used) or reduce the time it takes to lock on. Piloting could increase your acceleration (not top speed), reduce your turn radius, lessen the chance to fall/ reduce the time it takes to get up. There are many possibilities, but until they release info on the core mechanics we can do nothing but speculate.

Quote

Ohh... I dunno... "I'm MASC qualified!" or... "I'm BAP certified...." or I'm "UAV certified"... it could happen. Not game changers, but mechanic ..uh... game changers.

They've talked about the importance of roles, so I could see those being useful for people who want to play scouts. Commanders could have skills based on using the battlegrid (like calling in arty/airstrikes, more detailed info on maps.). Assault might be where we find the shooting based skills. Etc.

[GoatHILL]

Exactly Technoviking.

When they said there was going to be leveling and a skill tree I got very worried. This is an MMO not a single player game. If I am fight another player in the same mech with the exact same setup one of us should not run, turn, jump or, shoot better because he grinded his skills up.

[Armageddon]

When we talk Leveling my guess is we should think more along the lines of a CoD/BF game versus a game like WoW/LotRO.

[Xhaleon]

Technoviking, on 23 November 2011 - 01:38 PM, said:

My gosh if Piloting or gunnery is something you level up, I'm not going to say "I'm out!" but... man. What's the point? How would you impement gunnery or piloting in a way that doesn't increase your damage, to hit, or ability to drive well?

Ohh... I dunno... "I'm MASC qualified!" or... "I'm BAP certified...." or I'm "UAV certified"... it could happen. Not game changers, but mechanic ..uh... game changers.

Coneseh ofah Fireah.

On a more serious note, I guess piloting skills might make the mech more responsive or more resistant to being knocked down. I *can* see them placing pilot progression as a series of perks that you earn, and have a limited number to select per game. Some people will be a wee bit better at doing some things, but certainly not completely unable to use MASC or a TAG unit, that's ridiculous. Even worse if it's paid equipment.

If they have dynamic terrain with lots of small details, I would appreciate if they properly modeled walking and we didn't get completely stuck on small little doodads that a mech should be able to walk over without issue. Piloting levels might control how well you can navigate those, perhaps.

[Sporkosophy]

Technoviking, on 23 November 2011 - 01:38 PM, said:

My gosh if Piloting or gunnery is something you level up, I'm not going to say "I'm out!" but... man. What's the point? How would you impement gunnery or piloting in a way that doesn't increase your damage, to hit, or ability to drive well?




Ohh... I dunno... "I'm MASC qualified!" or... "I'm BAP certified...." or I'm "UAV certified"... it could happen. Not game changers, but mechanic ..uh... game changers.

Can I get bling certified?

[GoatHILL]

Bumping this for more input.

[EDMW CSN]

It could be something like Combat Arms.
Ranks increases the number of mech unlocks that you can rent and your access to Level 2 tech, extreme high ranking officers can have more access to rare clan tech that can be bought off the shelf from vendors.

Doing something repeatedly well, nets you an achievement point or something which could be an XP boost or some C-bills to pad your back for a job well done.

No one should be penalized in the skill factor. A Sergeant in a Mech should not be weaker than a Lieutenant in terms of piloting or shooting. No +1 accuracy or + 1 agility kind of stats please.

Tech advantage is probably a must though otherwise there is NO incentive to play for long. And long terms players are the ones you want to keep !

Edited by [EDMW]CSN, 28 November 2011 - 02:30 AM.

[Sera]

Levels should not affect gamepaly at all. Mechwarrior always was about skills and tactics, carebear RPG stuff would just destroy that.

[Thrall]

Q. Will MechWarrior® Online™ have persistent character content such as leveling or upgrades?

A. Yes. One of the customizations in MechWarrior® Onine™ is to train your pilot to suit your play style. Pilots will bring their efficiencies to whatever BattleMech® they get in.

I have little understanding as to what the developers have in mind for this. If at all possible, I would love to see a more detailed explanation so I can stop worrying so much and have an idea what to expect. (I'm sure whatever the dev's have in mind is a very good idea, but all of these ideas from players is just.. wow, just worries me.

Edited by Thrall, 28 November 2011 - 01:24 PM.

[Malavai Fletcher]

This worries me a bit,i want to increase my skill lvl through the game by good teamwork and learning to pilot the mech well,not just because i reached the next lvl.I would prefer to see a mech unlocked per lvl rather than being able to navigate terrain better or have a lessened lock on time,takes away from the games balance.

[Psydotek]

As long as the perks don't result in things like aimbots or the like.

I do want to be able to get into any 'mech and be effective. However some sort of experience or perk system woud provide some sort of incentive for sticking to a certain 'mech or weight class.

Perhaps stuff like being able to avoid a heat overload induced shutdown or a reduced time for powering up because your character is so familiar with a 'mech that they are able to fly through the button presses needed for the restart sequence.

Maybe you've been piloting a scout 'mech for so long that your character is able to more quickly identify sensor anomalies as hidden/powered down 'mechs or even be able to identify what kind of 'mech it is while it's still out of view behind a hill or building (while your lancemates in the heavy and assault 'mechs will only see a sensor blip indicating that something is there, you've already figured out what kind of 'mech it is and maybe even what kind of damage it's taken).

Maybe you've been using PPCs for so long that your character has become obsessed with the weapon and taken the time to figure out how to disable the PPC field inhibitor on the fly (much to the chagrin of your lancemates who now refuse to cover you at close range, but who needs them when you can hit a close range target with your PPC, electrostatic interference be damned...)

Nothing game breaking or overpowering, just small things that will keep people from constantly swapping 'mechs and give pilots a bit of character or identity.

Edited by Psydotek, 28 November 2011 - 05:22 PM.

[Phades]

Blah, wasn't going to post anymore, but I can't resist....

Anyhow, just because there is the indication of a leveling mechanic doesn't mean it must relate directly to command input sensitivity and aptitude for success.

One example would be you get your starting list of mechs depending on your house. As you level up, you get more mech options from each weight class of mech, or choose them individually to find the frame and base load out you prefer to suit your play style. A system like this assumes a very limited mech lab or the lack of a mech lab in order to curtail certain weapon combinations that could be deemed problematic depending upon how detailed of a shooting mechanic system they implement. They could open up options for battle armor, support vehicles, or aerospace fighters using this style of implementation as well. The representation in game would be certification for use, or rise in rank and being trusted with more equipment options (as much as I'd like to see the ability to fine tune a machine for personal use, I fully acknowledge this might not be a balanced or feasible option for the dev team).

Another example could be weapon grouping and independent targeting options. For example, you start off with 1 weapon group and get to choose to chain fire or group fire (alpha strike). As you progress, you get more group designations to break them up in order to use like weapons or similar function weapons more efficiently. Then allow hud point designations for each grouping as suggested here. This would allow a savy player with appropriate character skill to split fire simultaneously or setup lead points for flight time vs hit scan weapons along an anticipated opponent movement arc.

Another example could allow for more "advanced" physical maneuvers with the machine. This could include unlocking anything from simple short hops to clear small obstacles, crouching, covering the body with arms, etc.

Another example could be dictated by support equipment options, such as potential masc duration/mech shake or stability while in use, the number of weapons controlled by a C3 master/slave system, or implementing ECM/ECCM in cockpit mini games to represent levels of radar jamming or other interference and convey mild bonuses to the total length of operation within the game.

If they were to go the route of potential passive bonuses, they could implement heat tolerance and blackout/redout levels for the pilot making it harder for the pilot to shut down temporarily (similar to mech shutdown) in high heat situations (could be a mini game here too to "wake up") and adjust slightly the start up and shutdown times of the mech.

Basically anything that would be directly out of the player's control or somewhat indirectly out of their control could be adjusted or opened up for use through a cert or passive bonus system and going this route should be simple enough to allow for enough options to give folks a feel for specialization. Although re-certification should be an option in order to keep the game down to 1 account, 1 character. There is no need to encourage multi-boxing or multiple accounts for a single person.