InnerSphereNews, on 21 December 2011 - 10:21 AM, said:
[PAUL]
These systems are Pilot Leveling, Mech Leveling and Faction Leveling.
Pilot Leveling – Experience Points (XP) are rewarded for in-game actions and completion of objectives and winning matches. XP is a running accumulator that does not decay or take anything you’ve earned away. This is the same mechanic found in most games that have an XP leveling system. We’ve added a slight modification to this system in which you can train your pilot using the XP you’ve earned.
Mech Leveling – You earn Mech XP (MXP) for some in-game actions and match wins. This information is stored on a per chassis basis. Similar to the Pilot Tree, BattleMechs have an efficiency tree. Mech XP is used to purchase these efficiencies.
Faction Leveling – For certain in-game actions and fighting for a specific House, you will earn Loyalty Points (LP). LP does start to decay after a grace period of in-activity. Accumulating LP allows you to get a military rank within the House you’re being loyal to. The ranks in a House give you benefits and rewards that vary as you climb the military tree.
Now concerning Rank and Loyalty Point Decay…
Once you have achieved a rank, you keep that rank and all of its benefits… PERMANENTLY. Loyalty Decay starts to happen when you as the player have become in-active for a long period of time. Yes, there is a grace period during with Loyalty Decay will not happen. We fully understand that not all players will be able to play every day and we take this into account with this said grace period.
If you as the player are MIA for an extended period of time, it is understandable that you lose loyalty with the House you are representing. While you may lose loyalty, you do not lose your benefits and rewards. Let’s say for example that you’ve reached the rank of Captain and have 5,000 LP. If your extended leave causes decay to kick in, you will not lose the rank of Captain. Instead, what will happen is, your rank will change to Honorary Captain. Now let’s assume that you are away for so long that your LP has dropped to 3,000 LP. In order to remove the “Honorary” part of your rank, you’ll have to gain 2,000 LP. All the while, you will NOT lose access to the rewards and benefits of a regular Captain. As a Captain, you would have been entitled to X C-bills as a salary per day as long as you logged in. As an Honorary Captain, your salary will be reduced slightly but returns to full once you become an active Captain again.
One last point, Rank does NOT equal command during a match. You do not get to tell people what to do because you’re senior rank, you do not make important faction calls, etc. Rank is purely a reward system for consistent and successful gameplay.
the player and mech xp has me real, real worried. why does every game dev try to put this type of stuff in now? it just creates another dimension to balancing issues for no reason at all. what happened to progressing as a player by actually progressing yourself as a player? this is a live action game and not an rpg based on turn based statistics. turn based rpg statistics are meant to simulate real performance stats when there are none, but we have actual live action with its own real statistics happening in real time. sure there are some rpg elements like factions and contracts and such, and those things are great, but as far as actual game play, weapon accuracy, mech stats, etc...it is a strait live action game. this makes these types of perks much much different than something like earning some cash to buy a mech or laser that everybody has access to. the equipment is real and solid and with reasoning like that is the tech and market of the time period, but the perks for xp are just game magic. if my mechwarrior could make a laser even a little better, he would sell the rights to one of the weapon manufacturers, retire from fighting, and everybody would then have that equipment,..i thought we picked a year 3050 to already set the equipment tech.
i dont want an advantage, any advantage at all, over somebody that plays a mech less than me, or plays a certain play style less than me. i dont want do be a disadvantage because of that either. i want what happens in the playfield to depend on driver skills, game plan, team work, and mech builds/performance based on an even and level system. and if i hop in a 100 ton mech after months of jenners, and the tactics and speed and everything feels right and im awesome with it...i should be able to take people of any xp on an even game right from the start. if i suck at a mech, i should have to practice at my builds and control skills, and not depend on rewards for time spent.
also, i dont want to feel forced to level up a mech or player just to feel like its worth playing, and an even game out on the field. that leveling up time always just feels more like work than normal fun game play. wasted hours, and i think any studies saying that you get more game life out of a rpg based system like this dont take into account the following: people will grind levels and play for real after grinding levels, and it will take them longer than just playing for real the whole time before they get over the game for a while....true...., but the enjoyment of the time grinding sucks, and takes away some of the enjoyment from the actual playing for real time, so you actually get less quality game life out of the system. man if i have to play one more supposedly live action game full of unsatisfying grinding of levels just for the prize of being able to eventually play at the same level as everybody else, because everybody keeps up with the joneses, im going to just find a mw2 emulator and retire from even looking at new games.
okay, so you buy an extra arm slot, or equip option not many have, or improvement over standard weap, or weight reduction on anything, for a mech that you play a lot.... that opens a whole new set of mech builds, and possibly large improvements. building a mech with even one extra slot, or an extra half ton or w/e can open up a serious upgrades in some cases, and make a mech that is just not on a level playing field. like if an extra ton allows me to put 2 lbx20s on a 45 tonner instead of 1 lbx20 and 1lbx10 without seriously gimping armor or speed....thats a balance breaking adjustment.
i really hope you are talking about just things like a spiffy paint job for the mech you play a lot, but it sounds like actual perks.
man...please clarify the types of upgrades you are going to be throwing around for just the sake of "updating" a fairly mature game.
just sayin....
Edited by statler, 13 January 2012 - 08:51 PM.