26 replies to this topic

[Appogee]

Imagine how much more interesting MWO could be if we were able to buy and individually skill up different pilot personas.

Instead of BF3050 style respawning in FP, we could instead decide which pilots to put in our 4 Mechs. This would add a little more to immersion.

Pilots would develop pilot skills as they grow in experience. Those skills might give very slight buffs to Mech performance, or could even lead to different buffs that don't exist at the moment. Eg.

• Quick Drop gives a pilot a 5 sec head start dropping from the Drop Ship.
  
• Eagle Eye gives them +5% zoom.
  
• Steady Hands gives them some kind of accuracy improvement.
  
• Lead Foot buffs acceleration.
  
• Cool Head decreases the onset of pilot heat effects such as blurred vision
  
• Situationally Aware increases radar decay time.
  
• Pain in the Butt adds +1 damage to any shots at the rear of an enemy (ok, that's just silly)

Or if you don't like even small buffs, perhaps pilots could just achieve different ranks through which to access progressive rewards, similar to the current career system.

PGI could make money from this idea, too. They could sell "Bunks" just like they sell Mech Bays.

What do you think?

Edited by Appogee, 28 March 2017 - 05:05 AM.

[Shifty McSwift]

I thought you meant having multiple pilots in a single mech, which is such an interesting idea it is all I can think about now lol.

[Appogee]

Shifty McSwift, on 28 March 2017 - 05:02 AM, said:

I thought you meant having multiple pilots in a single mech, which is such an interesting idea it is all I can think about now lol.

LOL.

Well, that'd be fun, too. I used to play MW:LL with my young son selecting the targets and managing the InfoTech, while I did the running and gunning. It was a great bonding experience.

He still watches over my shoulder occasionally, calling out which components I should be aiming at, which enemies I haven't noticed, which side to shield with, the fact that I'm about to overheat, (the fact I did just overheat and blow a leg off, LOL).

Edited by Appogee, 28 March 2017 - 05:10 AM.

[Bandilly]

I'd prefer they had actual pilots we log into after getting into our account, like a normal mmo where you have multiple characters. Of course I'd also have a lot more individual content like faction specific quest lines. Anything to work in a little more immersion


While I like your idea I think it goes in the opposite direction, making the player more of a controller than the actual character. Still I think it would be an improvement over what we have now. It would be interesting to see PGI start selling pilots, and hero mechs would have a lot more meaning behind them then just varied hard points and extra cbills.

[Gattsus]

Appogee, on 28 March 2017 - 04:56 AM, said:

Imagine how much more interesting MWO could be if we were able to buy and individually skill up different pilot personas.

Instead of BF3050 style respawning in FP, we could instead decide which pilots to put in our 4 Mechs. This would add a little more to immersion.

Pilots would develop pilot skills as they grow in experience. Those skills might give very slight buffs to Mech performance, or could even lead to different buffs that don't exist at the moment. Eg.

• Quick Drop gives a pilot a 5 sec head start dropping from the Drop Ship.
  
• Eagle Eye gives them +5% zoom.
  
• Steady Hands gives them some kind of accuracy improvement.
  
• Lead Foot buffs acceleration.
  
• Cool Head decreases the onset of pilot heat effects such as blurred vision
  
• Situationally Aware increases radar decay time.
  
• Pain in the Butt adds +1 damage to any shots at the rear of an enemy (ok, that's just silly)

Or if you don't like even small buffs, perhaps pilots could just achieve different ranks through which to access progressive rewards, similar to the current career system.


PGI could make money from this idea, too. They could sell "Bunks" just like they sell Mech Bays.

What do you think?

and have fun? you crazy?

Edited by Gattsus, 28 March 2017 - 05:02 PM.

[Anjian]

That is kind of like World of Warships having different captains with different skill sets, that you have optimized for different particular ships --- destroyer captain optimized for stealth, carrier captains, battleship captains, etc,.

[Pyed]

You should look at this.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

I think MWO already has multiple pilot personas enabled...i.e. skill level and personality traits now depend on how much one has been drinking.

Edited by Marquis De Lafayette, 28 March 2017 - 09:30 AM.

[Cy Mitchell]

The Mechs are our characters. I have nothing against multiple pilots but there are so many other things that would help the game more.

[Moosible]

I think having VTOLs or Aerospace vehicles with two pilots could make this game interesting...

[process]

The mech skill trees are more-or-less surrogates for pilot skills. If this were a single player game I would love an additional overlay of special abilities.

[Pyed]

Rampage, on 28 March 2017 - 06:24 AM, said:

The Mechs are our characters. I have nothing against multiple pilots but there are so many other things that would help the game more.

I see having a stable of pilots as a different and potentially better way to implement a skill tree system.

It certainly fixes the respec problem--the skills are tied to the pilot so if you rebuild the mech then just put a different pilot in with skills that fit the build. If you don't have the right pilot for it, you don't get the bonuses in question.
I think players would be a lot more accepting of this implementation as a way to create limitations and meaningful progression.

[TLBFestus]

It would have been nice if they'd gone down this road instead of the one they chose.

Matter of fact they could have done it both ways, adding mech specific "refits" and pilot "skills" that would have created a double cbill/XP sink for the game, similar to what WoWarships does.

They could have sold mechs AND Pilots as well.

But nope.....out of the brain trusts head came the idea of forcing people to use 3 mechs to level up one and other flashes of brilliance.

[Johnny Z]

Bandilly, on 28 March 2017 - 05:19 AM, said:

I'd prefer they had actual pilots we log into after getting into our account, like a normal mmo where you have multiple characters. Of course I'd also have a lot more individual content like faction specific quest lines. Anything to work in a little more immersion


While I like your idea I think it goes in the opposite direction, making the player more of a controller than the actual character. Still I think it would be an improvement over what we have now. It would be interesting to see PGI start selling pilots, and hero mechs would have a lot more meaning behind them then just varied hard points and extra cbills.

They may have to go this way. Its not a bad idea if they don't start designing the game for multiple characters and stick to designing the game for a single character.

The Old Republic for example has achievements for lvling up multiple characters. Its ruins the game at the heart of it. This is where making a good game seperates from marketing and other suits ruining everything.

By the way don't go near MMO's like the Old Republic, the very definitions of cash grabs run by suits and players get nothing but a really bad game in return. Not to mention haunted by trolls of every sort.

Edited by Johnny Z, 28 March 2017 - 07:35 AM.

[GoatHILL]

I am the pilot. My skills are my skills.

[MechaBattler]

Pass. Even the 'skill' trees don't make sense. They should be module trees. I am the pilot. Call sign Mechabattler.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Here, I have a better idea (I've posted it before):

What if each variant/chassis had a unique pilot. Thus each one would have their own unique pilot tree (rather than a generic skill tree across everything), thus each one would have their own pilot model, and their own voice used for the commo rose (or other things, chatter across comms calling out kills or hurt mechs would be cool).

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 28 March 2017 - 10:11 AM.

[FupDup]

I think it would actually feel weird to have multiple pilots because that begs the question: Who is commanding them? Something people forget from previous MW games is that your "other pilots" were there because they were AI-controlled lancemates that you gave orders to rather than having direct control over.

Your main protagonist of the campaign, however, was always one specific character that you couldn't swap out. Like, for example, you (the main hero) were always Spectre in MW4 Mercs regardless of whether you had Mustang or Falcon as a lancemate. In MW3 you were always Connor Sinclair. Etc.

That, and it creates the weird notion that you the player are not actually one of the pilots, because you are possessing control of multiple different dudes at different times. Instead, you are now a disembodied ghost instead of a specific character. It's like reading a novel in first person perspective ("I") versus third person ("He" "She" "They" etc.).

One pilot for your account that you can customize both the looks and stats of would be much better than being a ghost.

[Appogee]

Me:

FupDup, on 28 March 2017 - 12:05 PM, said:

I think it would actually feel weird to have multiple pilots because that begs the question: Who is commanding them?

Me: "Me, of course."

Other Me: "And sometimes, me."

In unison: "But never at the same time!"

[NextGame]

Appogee, on 28 March 2017 - 04:56 AM, said:

Imagine how much more interesting MWO could be if we were able to buy and individually skill up different pilot personas.

Instead of BF3050 style respawning in FP, we could instead decide which pilots to put in our 4 Mechs. This would add a little more to immersion.

Pilots would develop pilot skills as they grow in experience. Those skills might give very slight buffs to Mech performance, or could even lead to different buffs that don't exist at the moment. Eg.

• Quick Drop gives a pilot a 5 sec head start dropping from the Drop Ship.
  
• Eagle Eye gives them +5% zoom.
  
• Steady Hands gives them some kind of accuracy improvement.
  
• Lead Foot buffs acceleration.
  
• Cool Head decreases the onset of pilot heat effects such as blurred vision
  
• Situationally Aware increases radar decay time.
  
• Pain in the Butt adds +1 damage to any shots at the rear of an enemy (ok, that's just silly)

Or if you don't like even small buffs, perhaps pilots could just achieve different ranks through which to access progressive rewards, similar to the current career system.


PGI could make money from this idea, too. They could sell "Bunks" just like they sell Mech Bays.

What do you think?

Isn't that just the same as dumping some quirks onto mechs?