3 replies to this topic

[Mark McTavish]

Lets drop the hammer early: the mech tree is not a tree beyond the choice of order of pick up for Basic and Elite. Its effectively a no-choice linear progression. While on its own is not necessarily a 'bad' thing, there is room for great depth and content inside of the mech experience tree.

Buckle up soldiers, your going for a ride. This article is going to entirely focus in IS mechs and their trees as clans have the whole omni-pod system. Clan trees could be altered to have similar functionality, but i have not put in the time required to make a cohesive post about it.

Lets begin with an objective overview:
1) Expand mech trees and create a choice-progression system.
2) Use mech trees to create a more rewarding feeling of skill progression for a mech
3) Expand Master choices and make them more diverse and interesting.

Dealing with Basic:
During the basic stage a pilot has just acquired the mech and is adjusting to it. The basic tree is it stands is already geared to represent that. While in basic however, my proposal for IS mechs is that they are what I call 'system locked'.

While a mech is system locked its engine cannot be modified, and weapons are restricted to what is on the base variant. Weapons may be increased or decreased in numbers and relocated as the pilot sees fit, Ferro/endo/double-HS may be changed as well. This serves a number of purposes. 1) it drives up the number of stock-ish builds in games, 2) gives a chance for players to experience the 'default' playstyle of a mech, 3) It cuts down the number of flavor of the month builds that crop up.

Dealing with Elite:
This is where things get interesting, and most of the Mech-tree decision making comes into play. The current Elite skills are all nice (save Pinpoint which doesn't seem to do much) so we will keep them, and add to their numbers. In addition this change cracks the need for mufti-varient basics to enable Elite and Master a particular model.

Since mechs are 'system locked' under basic elite is mostly going to focus on customization unlocks. Which means perks such as 'Engine Customization' which enables different size/XL engines to be swapped in and out get added. Also choices for different weapons get added as an XP unlock-able perk.

The completion of the Elite tree due to the sheer volume of perks would no longer be needed to open the Master choices. Picking a number out of the air lets say a total of 10 perks which includes the current 4. This does not prevent a player from picking up ALL Elite skills with XP later.

These changes Accomplish a few things: 1) Gives the player a true sense of control over their mech designs. 2) Provides plays a way to drive to Master without flood-filling the tree 3) encourages plays to stick with a mech even after unlocking Master to fully complete the Elite tree,

Dealing with Master:
This section of the Mech tree should be extremely important to players, as it represents sincere dedication of time to a Mech. Thus the current reward of +1 modules, while nice, is also underwhelming as a reward for such effort, especially considering the expanded Elite section under my proposal.

Thus my proposal is that Master be expanded to 4 choices the player able to only choose 1 (but may switch their choices at any time by spending roughly 2x the normal cost of a Master perk)

1) +1 Module slot. We all know it, we all know it will have its uses.
2) +20% extra C-Bills gains with this mech. (A mini-hero perk)
3) 25% of Xp gained is auto converted to GXP with this mech. A very useful perk for people who want to continue playing their favorite mech without wasting all the XP gains.
4) 2x Effect of Elite perks (the 4 currently in use in the standing tree), the choice for people who want the most combat focused machine.

Conclusion (TL;DR)
PGI should seize upon the vast realm that is their Mech trees and turn it into more than a linear progression model, while at the same time giving a more immersive and rewarding feel for playing continuously in a singular chassis/variant.

[Koniving]

Not that dissimilar was PGI's original idea that they should have stuck with...
Seen here. Non-linear progression with forced choices.

[Nightmare1]

*Raises Hand* Please sir, I just want to know what a "Suggenstion" is.

[Blaze32]

Great idea bump!
I especially like idea number 3 in the master section.

Edited by Blaze32, 30 March 2015 - 11:54 AM.