6 replies to this topic

[Gorith]

Your mech get's wasted and it goes into a repair mode after the match where it repairs a certain% per hour based on the total C-Bill cost of the mech. (C-Bill is better than tonnage)
This accomplishes several things. First it encourages people to have multiple mechs, Second if your piloting a very expensive mech it gives the rush as you may not get to use your favorite mech for a day or two if you get sloppy. Third it acts as a good compromise between the "No risk is no fun" and "Losing work is no fun" crowds. Finally it helps encourage people to use more than just assault mechs (Longer cooldown) while still keeping the danger and fear they are supposed to inspire... Oh yea more mechs = more money for the company since people want to make their mechs looks cool.

You could also allow people to pull mechs that aren't fully repaired out of the shop and use them with existing damage (something you see in CBT campaigns is sometimes a mech fielded partially damaged or low on ammo sometimes even with a missing arm)

EDIT: Something like 2-3 million C-Bill per hour (assuming costs based on CBT prices)

Edited by Gorith, 11 December 2011 - 02:15 AM.

[IceSerpent]

So, a new player gets their mech wasted in the first fight and has to wait a few hours until they can participate in another match? I think that would make them lose interest and go play something else very quickly. Not to mention that if combat is paced similar to MW4/MWLL you will lose about 1-2 mechs per hour on average (~20 minutes per match) - how many mechs do you expect a player to have?

[VanillaG]

I am not big fan of the cooldown but I have being been tinkering about a concept call "fatigue". The basic idea is that mechs are never truly destroyed in a match, they just become combat ineffective. At the end of a match the player is presented with a repair bill based on the type and amount of damage they sustained during the match. Based on the type of damage, your mech starts to accumulate "fatigue points" until they hit a point at which the mech can no longer be repaired and a new mech much be purchased.
Newer players don't lose their new shiny right away and older players need to periodically replace mechs they have worn out.

Here is how this would work:

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  Starter mechs never accumulate fatigue.
  
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  Once a mech become combat ineffective in a match, they cannot take anymore damage. This prevents someone from legging a mech and destroying other sections to grief the player.
  
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  Fatigue is accumulated when sections or major components (engine, gyro, weapons, etc) take critical damage or are knocked out. Different sections/components contribute different amounts of fatigue if knocked out. An arm begin knocked out is less fatigue than a torso section and a weapon is less than an engine or gyro.
  
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  Mechs accumulate fatigue based on the role of the mech. For example, mechs designed around dealing damage could accumulate less fatigue since their role requires them to close with and attack the enemy. On the other hand, recon and command mechs would accumulate fatigue at a relatively higher rate because their main role is not to be in the thick of the battle. Omnimechs accumulate less fatigue than non-omnimechs of similar role types due to the modular nature of omnimech designs.
  
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  At 50% remaining fatigue, repair costs go up by 10%
  
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  At 25% remaining fatigue, repair costs go up by 25%.
  
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  At 0% remaining fatigue, the mech can be sold to an NPC scrap dealer for 10% of base mech price.

Here are some of the benefits:

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  Rewards players for piloting their mechs properly based on their role. The fewer amounts of criticals they take the longer they can keep a specific mech.
  
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  Provides a market for used mechs. Once a mech hits 50% remaining fatigue, the cost for repairing a mech goes up. This give the player the option of selling the mech for below the cost of a new mech and give newer players a chance to purchase a bigger mech for less than the cost of new.
  
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  Provides a mechanism for having to purchase new mechs on a recurring basis instead of purchasing once and repairing forever.

Here are some of the assumptions I have made in regards to how the game will play the though process of where this came from:

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  Matches are objective based. That means there is a way to win a match without having to destroy all of the opposing team.
  
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  Ability to eject. Once a mech has taken a hit that makes them combat ineffective, the pilot can eject from his mech which prevents any further damage to their mech and gives the opposing team a bonus to their payout.
  
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  Ability to retreat. The player should also have the ability to retreat from a match after they have taken a specific minimum amount of damage. If a player chooses to retreat, they receive a negative modifier to their payout.
  
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  No salvage. Devs have stated in the there will not be classical salvage like what occured in the MW single player campaign. Since the mechs are not truly destroyed and remaining on the battlefield at the end of a match there is no mechanism for accumulating specific item salvage.

[TheRulesLawyer]

I don't know about a long cooldown to use a mech that was destroyed in battle. Refits/custom jobs I can see taking awhile, but day to day battles would kind of suck. If the purpose is to get people to play multiple mechs I'd just making the cooldown long enough to be annoying if they want to play the same mech over and over. 5 minutes past the end of battle would probably be enough to encourage variety without overly punishing those who really want to play their favorite mech.

[ManDaisy]

I think this cool down is a great idea, only thing I could add is if every mech is destroyed players should have an option to rent a "stock mech" from their faction that they cant customize. It would give players who want to save money the option to only use cheap rental mechs vs their own customs, and would introduce a lot of stock mechs into battles instead of everyone using an OP custom.

Edited by ManDaisy, 14 December 2011 - 09:58 AM.

[CeeKay Boques]

Says you, I have 8 Spare Uziels in the hangers I bought! (for $1.99 each).

[MaddMaxx]

Technoviking, on 14 December 2011 - 11:22 AM, said:

Says you, I have 8 Spare Uziels in the hangers I bought! (for $1.99 each).

Well if that is true then there will be plenty Uzi's running about as I bought a Baker's dozen myself.

P.S. @VanillaG

That fatigue idea has merit. Keep after it. It might make a good Alt to something that is already in the works but not finalized perhaps.

Edited by MaddMaxx, 14 December 2011 - 11:37 AM.