28 replies to this topic

[Chameleon257]

This also gives another use the unit coffers. The unit can build 3 of the same mech so three of their pilots can use the same build this would take up 3 bays of the 12 available. As far as the penalty for changing the mechs as I've said in a previous post the unit won't have a weapons, equipment, and modules inventory so all changes made to a mech would have to be paid for out of the coffers. IE; the unit lead wants to change a mech say take off a laser and add a heat sink. Taking the laser off puts a reduced money back into the coffer like your selling the laser then you have to pay full price for the heatsink. This will discourage outfitting the mech every match etc.

Edited by Chameleon257, 27 February 2015 - 07:22 AM.

[Lily from animove]

This would actually also help sales, because people cna actually trial some proper build mechs instead of random stock crap. And so the desire to get this mech may be bigger and cause more sales.

It would also make a lot people join a unit to try mechs which in reverse populates units and will help people to access group gameplay and entering CW.

it would heavily improve the new gamer experience.

[Ultra-Laser]

Chameleon257, on 27 February 2015 - 07:21 AM, said:

This also gives another use the unit coffers. The unit can build 3 of the same mech so three of their pilots can use the same build this would take up 3 bays of the 12 available. As far as the penalty for changing the mechs as I've said in a previous post the unit won't have a weapons, equipment, and modules inventory so all changes made to a mech would have to be paid for out of the coffers. IE; the unit lead wants to change a mech say take off a laser and add a heat sink. Taking the laser off puts a reduced money back into the coffer like your selling the laser then you have to pay full price for the heatsink. This will discourage outfitting the mech every match etc.

Sounds especially for those mechs that serve an extremely vital role but only one of the three variants can manage it, ECM lights spring to mind. They help out just by being there, so there is less of a need to have them mastered.

Your thought about "selling" weapons when tweaking Unit-owned mechs (I like this term better, makes it harder for me to get them mixed up with how current trial/champion mechs work) got me wondering if Unit armories might be a thing in the future. There's been a lot of talk about units being able to upgrade invasion defenses, but what are those exact defenses and how are they to be deployed? If conventional vehicles are eventually added for defenders could one of their perks vs turrets be that an owning Unit can redeploy them to another front between ceasefires if they see fit? Could a player low on c-bills hit up the Unit armory to restock on consumables so he doesn't have to be stuck as that guy who didn't bring a UAV for his LRM carrier truck?

Edited by Ultra-Laser, 27 February 2015 - 01:19 PM.

[Chameleon257]

It a good thing for specialized mechs as well. ECM, Sniper Mechs etc. I really don't like the idea of an armory though.

[Ultra-Laser]

Chameleon257, on 28 February 2015 - 03:47 PM, said:

It a good thing for specialized mechs as well. ECM, Sniper Mechs etc. I really don't like the idea of an armory though.

Keep in mind that the armory (as I envision it) would be for unit owned gear exclusively. Consumables and Unit Owned mechs could be handed out as unit permissions allow, but its not like members could just grab a Large Laser or XL engine and pop it into one of their own mechs. If nothing else those Unit Owned mechs are going to need someplace to hold all their excess equipment while whoever is in charge of them fiddles with the builds.

[Brother MEX]

Such UNIT mechs should have serious limitations :

1. They should only be usable in UNIT GROUPS ( restricting them to the PUBLIC GROUP QUEUE, private games and CW ! )

2. These mech should be usable like normal TRIAL mechs ( you can only unlock abilities if you have your own copy of the chassis ! )

3. Only the owner of a unit should be able to buy, equip, upgrade, paint, ... these UNIT MECHS and all these mechs and their equipment should the property of the unit which must have been paid with Cbills from the units coffer ( no MC, at least not for the mechs ! )

4. Only the owner of a unit decides which mechs he places in a "dropship" with up to X mechbays ( which he must buy with at least 300 MC per bay for his unit ! ) where X is less than half the number of members of this unit. Of course only UNIT mechs placed in the UNIT DROPSHIP can be used like TRIAL mechs in a UNIT GROUP !

Edited by Brother MEX, 08 March 2015 - 02:33 AM.

[Ultra-Laser]

Brother MEX, on 08 March 2015 - 02:32 AM, said:

Such UNIT mechs should have serious limitations :

1. They should only be usable in UNIT GROUPS ( restricting them to the PUBLIC GROUP QUEUE, private games and CW ! )

2. These mech should be usable like normal TRIAL mechs ( you can only unlock abilities if you have your own copy of the chassis ! )

3. Only the owner of a unit should be able to buy, equip, upgrade, paint, ... these UNIT MECHS and all these mechs and their equipment should the property of the unit which must have been paid with Cbills from the units coffer ( no MC, at least not for the mechs ! )

4. Only the owner of a unit decides which mechs he places in a "dropship" with up to X mechbays ( which he must buy with at least 300 MC per bay for his unit ! ) where X is less than half the number of members of this unit. Of course only UNIT mechs placed in the UNIT DROPSHIP can be used like TRIAL mechs in a UNIT GROUP !

1. I don't really see why you would need that sort of restriction. We've already established that unit owned mechs would essentially be trails+ so if your unit commander says "practice with this mech" you should be able too without needing to get a gaggle of your unit mates together, once an appropriately ranked officer has given you permission of course.

2. Absolutely, being able to get "Unit Champion" mechs that give out a c-bill/LP/MC bonus would be nice, but that's and unimportant detail.

3. "Owner of a Unit" is WAY to narrow a category for any sort of unit system to work in the long or even middle term. There is absolutely no reason not to let units define for themselves what ranks are allowed to do what with unit owned assets.

4. Setting aside the "unit owner" business I mentioned above, I really do not like the idea that how much or how little of what you're allowed should hinge on unit size. It unfairly restricts both small units with a large surge of new members (remember, those new guys to the unit are what the entire idea of having unit owned mechs is aimed at helping) and, more importantly, it would be completely unenforceable. There is no way to prevent people from having a zillion alts join there unit to get by restrictions like that unless someone reports each and every alt. Who's gonna report them? Not the unit members that's for sure. I'd very much prefer that units had some way to expand their collective mechbays (using unit coffers to buy more dropships?) then have any sort of limits or bonuses based on unit size. Remember that the unit members in question still need to grind for the c-bills needed to actually get unit owned mechs to fill those mechbays with and buy the paint for their livery (125-3000 MC based on what colors were used, although I imagine that an expansion to the unit system this broad would have a different pricing model then individuals buying colors). Some people have floated the idea of having Loyalty Points work as not-MC rather then the current model where it works as not-XP, stuff like this would be a great example of the sort of things you could spend LP on under the not-MC model.

Edited by Ultra-Laser, 08 March 2015 - 10:21 AM.

[Chameleon257]

After this event sure wish this was a feature. Our unit gained a lot of pilots most of them had 1 or 2 decent mechs but we had to use gimped trial mechs.

[MechWarrior849305]

These trial mechs could be also C-Bill sink, if there is a system to "maintain" them. So - the more trial mech there, the faster unit coffer loses money So, there is purpose to add C-Bills to unit's coffer.