10 replies to this topic

[sycocys]

For any of us that played the late Mechwarrior Tactics, we saw the depth added by using slightly quirked versions of the same weapon with differences based on the manufacturer as well as combining systems with the same or region specific manufacturer's.

To me it would seem far more beneficial and really add some layers to mech builds to use a similar system here with far less priority on the mech quirks setting the meta - meta builds are something that should be left solely in the hands of the players.

Taking the idea of those weapons and manufacturer's would in some ways overload the choices for new players, but it would also open up the gates to a whole new world of options for players building mechs unique to their play styles.

Yes there would be some mech that are still bad enough to need some weapons quirking, but it could be done in a more generalized and less heavy handed way than the current method of essentially deciding that mechs loadout.

Could also tie it into CW/rank making different parts/manufacterers cheaper or more expensive based on what planets, how many planets, and/or what rank you hold in your faction. As well as make them additional rewards for CW and CW events.

Overall my thought is that balancing the weapons themselves is what the devs should be focusing on, while the players balance/meta the loadouts on their mechs. This is a longer approach to do that, but it would also add a lot of depth to game and even add some function to CW beyond the achievement system.

[Angels Bane]

id like to be able to select quirks from a list of available options by mech. like you, i would prefer to customize my own mechs rather than have the devs come entirely too close to dictating my loadout.

[Tarl Cabot]

Should post some examples - pros and cons. Not just the weapon itself but different mechs.

A - range
B - range/heat
C - heat/cooldown/range
D - range/cooldown
E - Cooldown
F - Heat
G - Heat/cooldown
F - Duration, etc

With that said, would it move the previously Tier 4/5 mechs that were quirked back to their previous position and make the Tier 1/2 mechs even better?

Simply trying to think through how it would affect mechs and their positioning, as that was the reasoning behind the quirks themselves.

Take the Firestarters. With quirked weapons instead of quirked mechs, would there be a difference between any of them other than the number of hardpoint types?

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 09 April 2015 - 06:11 AM.

[sycocys]

The biggest differences would lie again in hardpoint types and locations, with much smaller buffs per weapon/engine/equipment that grows slightly when used in conjunction with specific manufacturers. Basically it would put most of the chassis' with similar hardpoints on close to the same level as the rest in their weight class.

Some mechs would likely still need varying amounts of generalized weapon quirking, but it could be much more simply accomplished by using the base weapon systems rather than dictating the loadouts. Most of the mechs that currently are in the mid-upper tiers could pretty well have their weapons based quirks removed completely or at the very least reduced down to a point where they are only making fractional differences in the meta game.

I wish that other game was still alive so I could pull some examples, because basically what they are attempting to do with the quirk system here is like the lazy way to what they were doing with the manufacturer system on that game.

Engine choice had some additional bonuses to the movement speeds and %'s

Weapons had all the same types of quirks as they are adding for the mechs here, with the additional layer that if you matched them with similar systems/engines their bonuses worked a little more efficiently.

X manufaturer - Medium Laser has 4% range boost, 4% cd reduction. When used in conjunction with another laser of the same source it adds an additional 1% range, 1% cd. With engine of the same source it adds 5% range, 5% cd, 5% heat reduction

^ Just an example, but things that could work for every component in the game from weapons and engines to heat sinks, armor and ecm.

And there's always the ability to add more stand alone things like large engines with less HS space but additional speed, or xl's with no HS but less crit space. Not really sure how canon that may be but it would do a lot do add more choice on the player's end and they kind of gloss over canon anyhow.

As far as attaching it to CW there's several ways to do it - planets your faction owns (could lead to imbalances), your rank in your faction earns discounts to the specialized gear (up to 20% off), have the manufacturer's faction specific with different bonuses (although that dissuades loyalty), and like I said have parts be part of your rewards for playing CW (salvaging parts for real!) with the big cost items be part of daily/weekly events as giving away c-bill engines and ac20s is way more sustainable than the mechs.

Or even a combination of these things would get people more involved and give CW some added depth. CW is where you go to earn the LP to gain access to quirked systems. More involved mode, with an additional reason to be there.

I'm sure it would be more than possible to create a similar situation on both clan and IS sides, and open up the clan mechs for a little more modding.

[Surn]

To balance a system like this, a salvage system that allowed other players to take the weapon would need to be implemented.

[Banditman]

All of this was talked about in the past, by the developers. Whether it sees the light of day any time in the next few years is a mystery.

[sycocys]

MechregSurn, on 09 April 2015 - 09:19 AM, said:

To balance a system like this, a salvage system that allowed other players to take the weapon would need to be implemented.

It could simply be rng to get something off the entire table of parts, rng based on your oppenents alignment, or even based around component destruction. Based on match performance, performance + a win preferably to encourage better team play - each destruction gets +1 point to raising the loot tier table and higher tier chances for more expensive equipment with multiple cutoffs to spread the tables out.

You don't really have to salvage anything huge to make it add a whole bunch of replay value to CW, but the rare ultra cannon or guass in the mix would add even more. It's exciting to actually win 'things' instead of c-bills to burn on the same things.

Edited by sycocys, 09 April 2015 - 09:41 AM.

[Telmasa]

I could see this working in a fashion simiular to the "upgrade curcuits" you can add to your weapon on Dead Space 3, actually...

screenshot for reference:


Obviously in MWO there'd be drastic differences in the numbers involved though.

[Firewuff]

Adding quirks to weapons could be cool but it would seriously make some existing metas even worse.

[Rogue Jedi]

while I would like to have choices of different types of each weapon ^{(e.g. the Pontiac 100 AC20 firing 100 slugs for each pull of the trigger, less PPFLD but a lot of cockpit shake to the enemy + it should sound amazing, something like an oversize Gatling gun)} it would need to be done in a way to ensure that no single variant was clearly superior, e.g. the many types of Medium laser, have one have longer range for less damage, another have slightly faster of fire in exchange for shorter range, another have less heat per shot in exchange for shorter range, shorter duration in exchange for higher heat ect.

However the reason for weapon quirks in the first place was to try to bring all Mech chassis to nearly the same lever of usefulness, and on the whole it has worked, yes some got too strong quirks so had them reduced and others were not quirked enough to offset their weaknesses, but there are few Mech chassis I will not see at least 1 game in 4, unlike before the Quirkening when I could go weeks between seeing certain chassis, one possibility would be to allow certain Mechs to ignore the negative traits on certain weapon varients.

[Nightmare1]

Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing this. It could be done similarly to Tactics by differentiating between the weapons based on producer of said weapons (ex: Defiance). That could then be tied to Community Warfare and planetary ownership/value. It would add a lot of depth to the game!