98 replies to this topic

[MarauderDeuce]

My C-Bill went in favour of crafting - but only if it's done right.
I'm not sure what that means but I agree that it's probably not something for v1.0 of the game. I also agree that if done as some DnD grind then it will be an epic fail. I shan't ponder clan implications but I see no problem with pilots having crafting skills. The Grey Death did plenty of their own maintenance.

What I don't want: You will not be sitting in your workshop building AC20s from scratch. That is done in a big **** factory - possibly on another planet.

What might work:

• Crafting ties into the repair/maintenance of your mech/your squad's mechs.
  It may reduce the cost/time of repairs.
  Having someone with tech skills work on your mech may result in a slight performance boost - nothing major but just those few extra stat sub-points to the running of the mech.
  
• You have sufficient tech skills and access to the appropriate resources then you can do customisations to mechs.
  This means that you can take the arm from a mech and replace it with an auto cannon or laser or similar. To do this you would need to have sufficient mech parts of the right type, sufficient finances, sufficient skills and sufficient personnel. These are big toys and you're unlikely to be lugging a mech arm into position on your own, even with a winch. Time also - these sorts of crafting should not be done in 5 minutes - a mech being worked on needs to be out of operation during that time.
  
• Basic tech skills may be a pre-requisite to customising your paint job.

Whatever it is the skill if implemented needs to add to the actual story or at least mesh with it. I am not going to have Scill'd (he'll be called Scill'd - my crafter always is) wandering the battlefield collecting 5 mech hands, 10 lengths of myomer tendon and 3 quarts of reclaimed coolant so that he can craft a new mech hand. But if he has via whatever means acquired the skills to repair a mech hand in his suitably equiped bay and has sufficient resources by whatever means then he can repair your broken hand to new. If you're in the field perhaps your tech skills allow you to repair 50% of the lost functionality to the hand or leg during a 12 hour period of downtime.

Perhaps that was 5 C-Bills worth.

[Korbyn McColl]

Techs salvage, repair and customize your mechs. Corporations reverse engineer Clan Tech, create new tech and provide ammunition and resources to merc units for the right fee.

So, no, there should be no character based crafting in MWO.

[Punisher 1]

Sure why not? I think having some unique items would be nice or tweaking various aspects of your mech to make something custom.

[VYCanis]

stuff like taking 2 large lasers to make a Blazer i could see being done.

[VinnySlick]

Voted no.

I REALLY enjoy economic elements in MMO's in general, im a huge craft rat. However, I believe the MechWarrior universe has always revolved around piloting skill and anything that may (assumingly) tip the scales in terms of level a playing field would be bad imo.

[wolf74]

To all your Nay say'ers. Remember YOU DON’T have to craft If you don't want too. Sell some of the salvage you get you put it up on the open market. This lets us crafters that need more parts get them to make more weapon at lower cost than the NPC Grade D or E gear. What I have always hated about other MMOs craft is there were just 5 trees so the market was ALWAYS flooded. I think it could be a great side line for cash flow between Players.

[Leonardo Monteiro]

No, unless if its crafting huge piles of steaming junk, ill do that.

Anyway, in the mechwarrior universe it would seem to me downright silly for me to "craft" my PPC.

I don't have nothing agaisnt crafters (i love it in LOTRO) but in here, in a wargame that will have us shoot everything that moves, and some things that dont move.. its out of place, out of context, would seem wrong

[JC Daxion]

Id love to see some sort of crafting and mining, and that sorta stuff, but thats much more on the MMO side of things.. perhaps down the road we will see something like that.

[Agasutin]

MechWarrior Online, not MechTechie Online, and for good reason.

[Wolf Hreda]

Rustic Dude, on 02 December 2011 - 04:26 AM, said:

"Other"-not the crafting we're used to in this type of games.

Lorewise, the craft of weapons, Mechs and other components is a thing of the few factories that still exist in the Inner Sphere. Maybe, a unit's HQ could craft some basic weapons and components: industrial armor, machineguns, SRMs...that sort of low tech things that can be used in a pinch

BUT...there is another way of crafting that could be implemented: salvage. You get components on the field, more of less damaged, more or less complete, and then your Techs at the HQ do their best to repair them-maybe they can bring back to operational status half the items you recover, and cannibalize the other half. You could even build Mechs this way, although it would be a long process. One engine here, a torso chassis there, arms, legs, cockpit....

I was thinking "Hell NO!" But this interests me. I think this could be an interesting mechanic to utilize. Ghetto backup weaponry. I dig it.

[VYCanis]

You know where crafting could come in super handy?

ammo

You salvage a pallet of ac20 rounds, but no mech you own uses an ac20. You do however have an ac10 that needs filling.
Rather than buy a ton of ac10 rounds from the market, why not have your techs cannibalize the ammo for the raw materials to make their own ac10 rounds.

Handloaders do this kinda stuff on the small scale, stands to reason in a battlefield environment where people have to make due with whatever they can scavenge off each other, similar might happen on the large scale.

Melt down the old casings to recast new shells, salvage the primers, use a bit less powder, recycle the warhead to make smaller ones.
Presto, your own home(dropship workshop)made ac10 shells. not as good as fresh ones, but better than not having any at all and a lot cheaper.

Though it should only be for like similarish weapons, like converting SRM ammo into LRM ammo and vice versa.

or making custom ammos like armor piercing or smoke rounds if you have the right ingredients, and you invest money in good techs.

[Evgeny Bear]

I rather like the Idea that parts/weapons/armor/equipment depends on what worlds your Faction side is controlling or where your Merc Corp is currently located. That would give some supply boarderworlds a strategical worth for the faction war and a motivation for players to attack/deffend certain Worlds.

Edited by Andar89, 06 December 2011 - 11:03 AM.

[TheRulesLawyer]

Hell no. I don't some lame, boring time sink that have to keep up with or risk not being competitive on the field.

[SquareSphere]

I picked other in that the gundam capsule fighter has a interesting way of crafting.

Basically you can buy/gain blueprints for other mechs, but to craft it, you have to have certain mechs in storage that make up the blue print. This lets them get rid of unused mechs in a way the player wants.

[Alaskan Viking]

EDIT:

I consider myself a diehard Mechwarrior fan, and as such I will be supporting this game and the dev team as much as I can. And although there are very few things the dev's could possibly do to stop me from a huge fan boy, one of the fastest would be to include some kind of WoW style crafting. I mean, this isn't WoW or Ever Quest, and you come bringing offerings of dungeons and epic level loot?

THIS

IS

MECHWARRIOR!

Edited by Alaskan Viking, 06 December 2011 - 04:22 PM.

[Rommel]

I feel that not having some form of "crafting", as everyone would call it, would severely limit the long term re-playability in my eyes... now they absolutely should make it so you don't have to craft to get to where you want to go, but I like the idea of a market being created by those who do enjoy that form of game play.

[feor]

Devil Man, on 06 December 2011 - 05:54 AM, said:

Techs salvage, repair and customize your mechs. Corporations reverse engineer Clan Tech, create new tech and provide ammunition and resources to merc units for the right fee.

So, no, there should be no character based crafting in MWO.

Actually, in alot of the background the most knowledgeable person about the repair and maintenance of a given mech is its mechwarrior. Especially among Mercenaries. The mechs in a merc company are typically owned by their pilots, rather than by the organization, and often they are heirlooms that have been passed down through generations, with their parents teaching them how to start driving and fixing them at a young age. (Grayson Carlisle started training at age 10, for example) The mechwarrior needs to know how to fix his own mech, because if he buys out of a given merc outfit the techs don't usually come with him, and he'll have to train a new set of techs on his particular machine when he finds a new home. Not to mention the possibility of being stranded behind enemy lines and needing to be able to jury-rig something to keep his mech going until he can escape/find rescue

Like I said the first time I posted in here, I don't think it should be "crafting" in the sense of "Well, I got 5t of salvage, time to make a Large Laser!" But I think if, without any "Crafting" skills a damaged mech would take 1h and 100,000c-bills to repair, you should be able to jump in and help yourself, maybe changing that to taking 8h but only 25,000c-bills for the repair. with the time going down as your skill goes up.

If they really wanted micro-manageable crafting, make techs people you have to hire individually, and then you can assign them to specific systems on your mech. (one tech can be assigned to multiple systems and just repairs them in sequence) Then you can rate them in different system specialties. Bob might be excellent at repairing autocannons, but last time he tried to fix a fusion plant it took most of a month for his hair to grow back, so we'll let Tom work on the engine. Then your crafting skills can relate to the repair and maintenance of individual systems as well.

And of course, include an "auto-assign" button for people who don't want that level of control. That'll pick the best tech for a given job, but the order of operations for doing the repairs may not be ideal, and you might have put higher priorities on some systems (engines, gyro, etc) than the computer would, and possibly assigned a less than optimal tech to say, repairing your medium laser, because them assisting with repair of the fusion plant will, in the long run, get the mech in the fight faster.

[Damocles]

Capturing/Fighting over existing mech and weapon and tech factories - Yay
Crafting your own stuff - NAY

[Brakkyn]

We--and by we I mean me--don't need crafting.

Although...

"You begin building a Small Laser..."
"You have constructed a Small Laser!"
"Your skill at Inner Sphere - Energy Weapons (Light) has increased by 1."
"You begin building a Small Laser..."
"You have constructed a Small Laser!"
"You begin building a Small Laser..."
"CRITICAL!"
"You have constructed an ER Small Laser!"
"You begin building a Small Laser..."
"You have constructed a Small Laser!"

[feor]

One thing that occurs to me, actually, reading Brakkyn's little blurb. Crafting in terms of getting new stuff could be replaced by a "contacts" skill. Rather than collecting x amount of materials and then building a small laser, you go shopping for a small laser. Your "contacts" skill determines how many are available, and crits gives you the option to buy some ERSmalls as well. (well, not exactly, ERSmalls & ERMeds won't exist until 3058, but you get the idea)