8 replies to this topic

[m]

Hello everyone,

In Battletech there has always been talk of how a certain house begins research and development on something, like a weapon or a piece of equipment. Then near that piece of listed equipment there's a date of when R&D started, and when that weapon or equipment was fully released to everyone. Usually the prototype date and official release date is years apart.

What are everyone's thoughts of having an R&D type of element in the game?

Access to the prototype, at least as I was thinking, was that if we are part of a house for a long period of time, we get to buy and use their prototype weapons/equipment on the field that in lore/canon a house is developing that won't be officially released to every house for years. But the only problem is that the damage, heat, reload, jam chance, etc etc (pretty much every stat) is random when using the prototype, within a certain scale (if heat will eventually be 5, it could be between 1 and 10 randomly everytime it's fired). Access to the prototype could even be incorporated into the taking of a planet or a series of planets in Faction Play so that if we are part of a certain house when we take a planet, or a series of planets, we can unlock an R&D prototype that costs a large amount of *something* (CBills, GXP, MC, HBills, etc etc).

This would sort of change how people look at Faction Play as well, and see that joining a house long term is actually a good idea, because as new weapon or equipment version or type releases get better over time the scale between two numbers focuses in on a perfect piece of equipment or weapon according to lore/canon (so if heat is currently scaled between 1 and 10 randomly, version 0.2 could be between 2 and 9).

Was also thinking that certain houses could get temperamental prototype mechs that would currently be in development (development as in PGI has already made a final release of the mech in years to come but we can use it in "prototype" form from within a certain house). We would be able to buy at our own risk as armor, weapons, engines, and slots would be randomly locked on every purchase and current weapons and equipment would be compatible on some.

This was just something I thought we could all discuss before a suggestion was made, as it's kind of controversial as prototypes are rarely talked about or defined with all equipment in lore/canon.

Thanks for your time everyone. Hoping to hear everyone's opinion.

Edited by m, 08 May 2016 - 07:47 PM.

[Metus regem]

It would be neat if some mechs, like the Bushwacker, were restricted from play untill reaching a certain faction rank with the appropriate faction(s) for that mech, like my example Bushwacker would be restricted to Davion and Steiner but only until you reached high enough in Katura to gain access to it. Same could be done for IS to feild a Clan Mech or two in their CW drop deck, you just need to reach the correct faction rank to unlock the ability to use them.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

That would work if PGI had implemented my idea of making the game CW focused and requiring stock mechs... the lost tech could be available for those who are the best pilots. But... PGI couldn't sell mech packs that way and they screwed the pooch on making money off of cosmetics ($5 colors aren't exactly micro enough for a lot of folks to impulse buy) so whatever.

[ScarecrowES]

Once we get to 3059, it's next to impossible to keep the tech lines pure for faction play. It'd be interesting to see a system that allows you to earn the right to use certain cross-faction mechs in FW.

[Metus regem]

ScarecrowES, on 07 May 2016 - 10:52 PM, said:

Once we get to 3059, it's next to impossible to keep the tech lines pure for faction play. It'd be interesting to see a system that allows you to earn the right to use certain cross-faction mechs in FW.

Like I said, restrict it to a high enough Merc standing or loyalist standing. That way it gives you something to work towards, then again I'd give bigger rewards to using faction appropriate mechs, like Katura using Dragons or Steiner using Atlas mechs, on the Clan side Had Falcon for using Summoners or Wolves using Timber Wolves.... You get the idea.

[Imperius]

How about nobody cares? Seriously people in these forums need to quit acting like there is lore and actual timelines other than excuses to release less desired mechs in an attempt to milk the supporters as much as possible.

Call it a prototype
Call it premonition

Idk, bottom line I'm moving on with or without MWO. I waited it out for the long haul. It's time to take your words from the town hall put up of shut up.

Too many games just perform better, look better, and offer more for just $60. Look at Titanfall it didn't do so well it was PVP only, guess what Titanfall 2 has? You guessed it a full campaign and is $60. Doom 4 comes with map editor / creator, campaign, and is $60. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare campaign, maybe a map creator, BOPS3 has one in the works, PVP and is also $60!

Do not get me wrong this is no slam to the majority of PGI team who do work hard with what they have. It is however a call out to its leadership! Quit saying buzzwords like AAA, Evovling Product, or E-Sport, when none of those are at the moment true. AAA titles come with all the features of a standard game at release (Single Player and/or Co-Op Campaign, PVP, and relatively bug free), Evolving Product to me is not just adding DLC it was supposed to be upgraded though it life, yet for some terrible reason you wanted to keep dx 9 and stop getting CryEngine updates for free? Ok... whatever! Now we have a game that even on2 GTX 980's can chug into the 20-30FPS range for unknown reasons at times (no it's not my processor I have a i7 4790k). Who's idea was it to chase e-sports? You're missing way too many things to even consider e-sports as an option at this moment.

/end rant

[m]

Imperius, on 08 May 2016 - 05:41 AM, said:

How about nobody cares? Seriously people in these forums need to quit acting like there is lore and actual timelines other than excuses to release less desired mechs in an attempt to milk the supporters as much as possible.

Call it a prototype
Call it premonition

Idk, bottom line I'm moving on with or without MWO. I waited it out for the long haul. It's time to take your words from the town hall put up of shut up.

Too many games just perform better, look better, and offer more for just $60. Look at Titanfall it didn't do so well it was PVP only, guess what Titanfall 2 has? You guessed it a full campaign and is $60. Doom 4 comes with map editor / creator, campaign, and is $60. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare campaign, maybe a map creator, BOPS3 has one in the works, PVP and is also $60!

Do not get me wrong this is no slam to the majority of PGI team who do work hard with what they have. It is however a call out to its leadership! Quit saying buzzwords like AAA, Evovling Product, or E-Sport, when none of those are at the moment true. AAA titles come with all the features of a standard game at release (Single Player and/or Co-Op Campaign, PVP, and relatively bug free), Evolving Product to me is not just adding DLC it was supposed to be upgraded though it life, yet for some terrible reason you wanted to keep dx 9 and stop getting CryEngine updates for free? Ok... whatever! Now we have a game that even on2 GTX 980's can chug into the 20-30FPS range for unknown reasons at times (no it's not my processor I have a i7 4790k). Who's idea was it to chase e-sports? You're missing way too many things to even consider e-sports as an option at this moment.

/end rant

This is clearly meant for your own thread...

Edited by m, 08 May 2016 - 06:54 AM.

[Tordin]

Metus regem, on 07 May 2016 - 04:40 PM, said:

It would be neat if some mechs, like the Bushwacker, were restricted from play untill reaching a certain faction rank with the appropriate faction(s) for that mech, like my example Bushwacker would be restricted to Davion and Steiner but only until you reached high enough in Katura to gain access to it. Same could be done for IS to feild a Clan Mech or two in their CW drop deck, you just need to reach the correct faction rank to unlock the ability to use them.

Would be interesting and enjoyable. Having a high rank to pilot mechs of other factions. Explanation is ofcourse capture of other factions mechs for use in your faction. Simple logic.

For example for FRR, if they win territory/ worlds of cgb. Usage of mostly Clan Ghost Bear mechs would be, vulture, kodiak, fire moth (if ever introduced), viper, executioner etc. If vice versa, CGB could use FRR specific mechs like phoenix/ shadow hawk and the mechs also used by Steiner and Kurita forces.
Since they are kinda the parent factions having FRR as buffer, dot forget that Comstar helped FRR into existance aswell. So Comstar mechs like the orion could be used by high ranking clanners as well.

[m]

Tordin, on 08 May 2016 - 08:11 AM, said:

Would be interesting and enjoyable.

...

Unlocking for purchase prototype R&D weapons, equipment, and mechs that get new releases and versions until their lore/canon official release date years from now sounds pretty good especially when R&D is mentioned as part of lore/canon with specific years in the books, but not mentioned in detail (would have to be invented how R&D is introduced in the game).

The method I mentioned above with mech prototypes as being different for everyone on every purchase and temperamental seems okay, but wouldn't mind a critique or two and other people's opinions.

The prototype values for equipment could be random and change every match (Angel ECM could be 50m one drop/match then extend out to 125m another drop/match, where weapons could change on every shot fired.

Here's an example of what I meant when I talked about Prototype weapons, capturing planets, and a random scale table with for instance a Light Gauss Rifle:

• Certain planets/manufacturers clearly created the weapon, and the weapon was only available to one house in that time before it was available to everyone after it was officially released. So if we take those planets when we are in that faction then we would be able to attain that prototype for a lot of money. If we lose the planets we can't buy those weapons anymore, and once a certain amount of time passes (months or years) those versions become obsolete for purchase as new versions become available.
  
• The weapon clearly wasn't ready for production until 3056 so it has flaws which we scale randomly. Heat says 1, but for the prototype it could be between 0.1 and 5 on every shot and gets better as we move closer to 3056. Damage says 8, but it could be scaled randomly between 3 and 13. Same would be for reload times and range.
  
• Tonnage could be the same for every prototype and get lighter as we get closer to release date, and slots could get smaller (The first 3 months to a year of release the tonnage could be 15 tons with 6 slots, and the next 3 months to a year later the tonnage reduces to 14.5 tons with 5 slots, etc etc until official release date of the weapon (or mech or equipment)

Edited by m, 08 May 2016 - 09:39 AM.