98 replies to this topic

[Tierloc]

I'd like to be able to have to craft the custom skin / decal parts for my Mech chassis'. I still don't see a "You're level 25 now in ballistics, so you can craft light machine guns from salvage parts" going very well.

[Five 0 Clock Charlie]

sounds kinda diablo2/wow 'ish but i still voted yay. im all about personalization/customization and aything your willing to code into the game i for one will use to improve my chances in combat... and be gratefull for the oportunity...... besides the techs need something to do with all that salvage. im not just paying them to keep ma mech running, one day i want this beast back to showroom... mabey get a couple of those old star league black boxes working again... ya know?!

[Demi-Precentor Konev]

I think it's too ambitious for a F2P game - at least at launch. Then again, as the devs have stated, the beauty of F2P is the malleability of the gameplay in the long term.

[VYCanis]

crafting i might see working in the sense of over clocking certain bits of gear to get a little more firepower/range/firerate or whatever off of whatever you found, but at the risk of having it fail on you later, depending on how far you push things.

or take a normally hard hitting weapon and underclocking some aspect of it to reduce heat/wear and tear/ammo consumption/recoil or whatever.

Each manufacturer could have its own stats, and your techs basically can fudge the values a little.

Then you could totally auction if off

DELUXE MODIFIED IMPERATOR CLASS 20 AUTOCANNON , FIRERATE GOVERNORS REMOVED FOR EXTRA FIRERATE! ONLY SLIGHTLY USED. FOUND ATTACHED TO A DESTROYED MECH WE COULD NOT IDENTIFY, HE WASN'T USING IT ANYMORE.
OUR PRICES ARE CRAAAAAZZZYY WE PASS THE SAVINGS ON TO YOUUUUU!!!! YOUR'S FOR ONLY 150.000 CBILLS
seller assumes no responsibility for ammunition misfeeds, ammunition explosions, and any and all critical failures that lead to loss of limb, life, or mech.

Edited by VYCanis, 02 December 2011 - 03:07 PM.

[FrOdO]

Hate to say it but, I just don't see something like this working at launch. It's a great idea and I definitely think it would flesh out some of the other more mundane tasks as opposed to them becoming mindless actions (example... find salvage... sell savage ; no in depth process required to turn salvage around to sell).

Yet for a game that releasing relatively soon (next summer!) and has yet to show us any sort of game footage, I would hope they focus more on getting that core experience down. I think making the combat visceral and the balance between the different Mech classes (light, med, heavy, assault) feeling defined and realistic are some of the more important aspects.


However, if they were able to start a very basic form of this at launch and elaborate on in later, I would be very impressed and even more happy. Again, Great Idea!

[ManDaisy]

I believe a certain amount of victories should go towards the production points of your house. But as for personal crafting, I could also see it as "special ordering or a part" where you personal victories would go towards their production like in Atlantica online, or your merc company "special order" being filled by the same method. What I would NOT like to see is super awesome non cannon crap only being able to be produced and obtained and being super rare unless you craft it. I do kinda like the idea of crafting as a way of making useful salvaged parts, because they will need repair after a battle away, cause you just took the parts from a blown up mech.

Edited by ManDaisy, 02 December 2011 - 03:43 PM.

[Dayuhan]

I would say crafting in the form of Research in to Lostech and minor technological improvements. Specialized armor such as became available shortly before and during the Clan invasions (Reflective, Ablative, Reactive, Signature Dampening), Specialized ammunition (Inferno rounds, LBX rounds), or Technological Improvements (XL Engines, Endo Steel, Double-strength Heat Sinks, Laser Heat Sinks, C3, Beagle Probe, Guardian ECM Suite, NARC Beacon, Artemis IV), or weapon improvements (Pulse, ER, Ultra, LBX).

[Anval Gato]

Crafting in your average fantasy game involves collecting the materials, converting that into a usable material then creating a finished product. Typically swords, shields and what not.

For a game like Mechwarrior, the basics still fit.
Material collection is the salvaging.
Not all salvage is immediately useful so you could say parts from the same item need to be combined to produce a workable item.
ie. 2 salvaged medium lasers can be combined to make 1 working one.
Then the rest is the repair and refitting onto the mechs themselves.

While I think the game could be expanded in this area and you could have a lot of detail and focus on technician characters even in an arbitrary fashion, the crafting element in Battletech and as seen in the prior mechwarrior games is just the mech lab.

So yes, I think there should be a crafting element to the game.

[CobraFive]

My vote: Sure. Let us "salvage" parts after battle, which can be used to build and tune-up weapons weapons and equipment.

Plus then we could sell them, or the parts, and it could contribute greatly to a basic player economy.

[Rhinehart]

I would love to be able to build my own mechs, weapons and equipment. How many Veteran Mechwarriors end up going into that trade after their experiences? Felifous Bander, founder of Bander Battlemechs and creator of teh Bandersnatch for one.


Will it happen? Probably not.

But I would love to see a mechanism where one could advance in technical skill and knowledge to the point where one could build their own designs, perhaps using a database of pre-selected torso, arm, leg and head modules.

I'd build something a Marauder would see in its nightmares muahahaha!

[Nataku]

I agree with the salvaging option. That would also give great motivation to just attempt to not have your mech blown to pieces.

[wolf74]

Copied from my posted in the MMO thread.
I can see these Non-Combat Skill Trees

Harvester (Gathers Raw materials need to make units) (4 to 6 types)
Basic Mechanics (Build, ICE Engine, Auto-Cannons, M.G.,)
Advance Mechanics Weapons (LB-x., Ultra, Special Ammo Type) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics Armor& heat control (can Make Armor, Basic Heat Sinks) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics Tanks (Tank Internals & assembly) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics Mech (Mech Internals & assembly) Requires Basic Mechanics
Advance Mechanics VTOls (VTOLs Internals & assembly) Requires Basic Mechanics

Electronic Basic (Build Basic Lasers, Basic Targeting system)
Advance Electronic (Build ECM, BAP, Targeting Computer) Requires Electronic Basic
Advance Fusion (Build, Fission & Fusion Engines, PPC, Flamers) Requires Electronic Basic
Advance Laser (Pulse & ER Lasers) Requires Electronic Basic

Some Items need two trees to unlock:
ER-PPCs need both Advance Fusion & Advance Laser
Double Heat sinks, Adv Armor & Advance Electronics

[Xhaleon]

Crafting and upgrading might have been such a great thing if this game was still 3015, but nooooo, somebody has to put food on the table, so it got moved up. The salvage mentality was top notch during those years.

[Aaron Knight]

Crafting and really almost anything outside of perhaps basic maintenance is outside the scope of most Mech Warriors, with perhaps a few notable exceptions. So on an individual player basis, crafting and even salvage is probably inappropriate for the setting.

A unit is however a different matter. The Kell Hounds, for example, employed a highly skilled group of technicians right from the beginning and this gave them part of their edge. I've seen several MMO's with 'guilds' that level up. Thus, if we end up having 'guilds' organized around units, either Mercenary of House, a system of upgrading the technicians in the unit to salvage more from downed mechs or repair faster/cheaper/etc could be thematically appropriate.

As several others have mentioned though, such a thing is probably unlikely at launch but later on such a thing might be possible.

[SaintofVirtue]

My two c-bills as they say.

I'm down for a crafting system as long as it is only based on salvage... Provided that I don't have to do anything other than tell my personnel what to do.
I'm to busy fighting to fix, repair/build things.
Give me the report after I finish fighting and we're golden. Ask me what you want me to have you build. Ok. Gives me something to do while I wait for the Queue.

In all honesty I don't think it would be a big part. Maybe just a way to earn a bit of extra income. Like after the battle you're presented with oh say 5 pieces of damaged equipment that you have salvaged and you get to pick one to be fixed while the others are sold. It wouldn't be much just a gun or something. Maybe they could add up to a mech but that would take some time.

I also like the idea of slightly different stats depending on manufacture. Maybe one of the things that could be raised is favor with each factory. Also with real world currency you could throw them a bribe which would help pay for things being run. Higher favor would allow you to purchase things with a discount, more unusual weapon stats and so forth.

[Pave Low]

Pilots never mostly never did any of the engineering work in the MW canon.

I'm leaning towards 'Yes' now because why not? Why not have the option to extend range on a laser you bought if hang-back support is more your strategy? It's never really been done before.

I can see it working contingent on your salvage C-Bills or Merc Pay, Or House Allowance then get the engineers (NPCs only pls.) to tinker with your stuff!! The devs are ultimately making this a tactical, detailed experience to suit peoples play styles, I don't see anything wrong with customising armaments to suit play style - not so "I've got the ultimate weapon...haha."

This gives players alot more control and can make the game enjoyable!! It is Sci-Fi after all, not Mod. Warfare 3 'I use a M-16, if I lose it I'll just grab an M4 off someone." Keep with the vision pls. Devs!!

[Reggimus]

my 1-kroner worth..
Crafting is a meta game for your techs

[Thorn Hallis]

I see no reason to implement crafting in a game like this.

[Riptor]

Quote

Crafting and really almost anything outside of perhaps basic maintenance is outside the scope of most Mech Warriors, with perhaps a few notable exceptions. So on an individual player basis, crafting and even salvage is probably inappropriate for the setting.

The same goes for Merc HQs... theres only a handfull from all the thousands (or rather hundreds?) of merc units that really had persistant Hqs in the canon.. but yet we all are gonna get some.

I think making a crafting system based on how well you upgraded your merc HQ would be okay... after all producing stuff in a sci fy setting really doesnt have to much to do with personal skill anymore, especialy in the battletech universe where the tools are more important then know how it seems. (really weird that not one house was able to set up new factorys on other planets.... but then alot of the canon doesnt really make much sense economy wise)

Also i think since this is suposed to be a reboot of the franchise and "not your grandfathers battletech" introducing some amount of crafting cant go wrong. Gives a bit more meat on the metagame and allows a player driven economy.

Edited by Riptor, 06 December 2011 - 02:44 AM.

[PsihoKekec]

Let's leave the crafting out of the game for now. They can add it later, but honestly this is mostly about fighting.