1
Friends don't let friend drive trial mechs. Normally.
But I'll be damned if I'm going to gift a TBR to a buddy who may/may not carry on playing.
With almost 200 mechs in my hangar, chances are there's a few I won't be using on a given weekend.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Buddy) would let you:
- Assign some mechs (maybe restrictions of 2 per class?) to your "buddy" hangar.
- Activate BYOB. (Could require MC: revenue for PGI)
- In your web profile, you get a "gift code" that you send to said buddy.
- If buddy enters the gift code, the mechs appear in their hangar for the duration of the BYOB event.
- BYOB mechs are unavailable to the owner for the duration.
- BYOB mechs are "locked" so that your buddy can't sell off the mechs, parts or modules.
- Consumables assigned to the mech are paid for by the "buddy".
- XP for the BYOB mechs are assigned to the buddy.
- All unlocks assigned to the BYOB mechs are available to the buddy for the event.
You get to drag friends in, without any commitment on their part aside from the learning curve and the installation files.
Friends get to see what it's like to play half decent builds.
Unit members get to help out new CW team members if they don't have the builds they need, bypassing the engine/module grind to get to peak efficiency.
PGI could charge a flat fee, or perhaps MC per day the Buddy Hangar is in use.
It's not loss of sales, the buddy never gets to own those mechs, similar to trial mechs.
What is needed:
Nothing on the engine, except UI coding for the BYOB hangar and activation, and this could all be carried out in a web interface and not in-game.
- Trial mech system already exists, where players can use "locked" mechs.
- Lock system on player mechs already exists, with the "Invalid" and "In Game" status locks.
- Gift code system exists.
