10 replies to this topic

[Makenzie71]

We should be able to contract custom variants. It's not even "not canon" since everyone minor character in the BT universe has his/her own special variant...and it's something you can do with tabletop...and if we're going to have mwo specific models like the Corsair then why the hell not?

Any money I've spent on this game has been to support Solaris. Well, Solaris is all but killed off. There's no appeal for me to spend any real money to support the game. Quick play is...okay...but I can grind out what I want. There's ZERO chance I'm going to spend money on something like the Crusader...nothing about it interests me. But I'd drop real money...like the green stuff I usually pay my bills with...for custom variants of my favorite mechs.

I'm not talking about game-breaking nonsense here, either. No chassis quirks that let you fire three UAC20's without a penalty, for example. But custom hardpoint equipment variations should be fair game for the people interested in spending the money on it. There's no way I'd spend $40 on a Crusader...but you give me a Marauder IIC with the ability to put four UAC5's in the torsos and I'd open up my wallet...not because a MADIIC with a pair of UAC5's hanging off each side is going to somehow be a gamechanger for the chassis, not because there's no other similar mech that can do it, but because it's something I want. We all have that "variant I want"...something that if only there were one more ballistic/laser/missile hardpoint or should have had an ECM hardpoint etc. You could not only get your own variant unique to you, but you could emulate mechs that aren't in the game. You could emulate the 10xAC2 Bane Kraken with the Kodiak or Direwolf as well as give that Uziel that you think would be good if only you could mount 12 heavy machine guns a whirl...you know, if you got the money to spend...

This is something I feel a lot of people would be interested in and it'd add a new dynamic to how the game is played...and, more so, it'd be a new revenue stream for the game's development.

[Sawk]

LOL well throw penny in a LAKE-- and good luck with that : )

SAWK

[Makenzie71]

I can't see it not selling better than a lackluster 65-tonner who's selling point is going to be tabletop nostalgia...but the idea will be ignored all the same. If someone comes in and suggests clown-shoe warhorns that honk as you walk we'll have that implemented within weeks.

Edited by Makenzie71, 09 May 2022 - 04:55 PM.

[ScrapIron Prime]

I can do this with my special mech because I spent real cash on it, but you can't do it because you didn't spend cash...

That's pay to win, sorry. One of the best things PGI has done during this 10+ year game run is scrupulously AVOID pay-to-win. They give away enough freebies that you can get hero mechs with MC if you save up over an event or two and catch a sale, and it costs zero real dollars.

[Makenzie71]

ScrapIron Prime, on 09 May 2022 - 06:42 PM, said:

That's pay to win, sorry.

Please provide one single example of how this could be manipulated into a pay-to-win situation.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Makenzie71, on 09 May 2022 - 06:46 PM, said:

Please provide one single example of how this could be manipulated into a pay-to-win situation.

Battlemaster 1D with Ballistic slots added in the right and left torsos. Look at the quirks, look at the location of the hard points.

Locust 1V with Energy slots added in the right and left torsos. Look at the quirks.

[Makenzie71]

ScrapIron Prime, on 10 May 2022 - 05:42 AM, said:

Battlemaster 1D with Ballistic slots added in the right and left torsos. Look at the quirks, look at the location of the hard points.

Locust 1V with Energy slots added in the right and left torsos. Look at the quirks.

How exactly does that make either of those "pay to win"? lol the Pirate's Bane already has laser hardpoints in the side torsos and better energy quirks.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Better energy quirks than the 1V? I think you better take a trip over to MechDB and look again.

[Makenzie71]

ScrapIron Prime, on 10 May 2022 - 05:54 AM, said:

Better energy quirks than the 1V? I think you better take a trip over to MechDB and look again.

I'm looking at the game right now. I guess it's a little about preference...that little heat dissipation quirk means a hell of a lot more to me than a cooldown quirk...but lets explore this: How many lasers do you want to put on it? If you stretch things you can get six down either side, which would let you run the XL190 and two dhs...an with thar 50% quirk you'd be able to fire them all three times before you have to duck out and run away. While a Piranha with 12 machine guns can just stay there and fire constantly. There's nothing you can do with locust that the Piranha doesn't do right now. The only thing you could really do to REALLY use that 50% cooldown is medium lasers, but they'll be too hot to run more than two, or a large laser, which you can already run on the 1v as it is.

The Battlemaster is a better example because you can at least come up with a combination that's difficult to achieve on another mech.

edit ~ my mistake, you could only possibly get five small lasers down either side of the Locust (ten total) because the 190XL requires three heat sinks. You could get more by going to a smaller engine but the last thing the Locust needs is "to be slower". It's already a one-shot mech.

Edited by Makenzie71, 10 May 2022 - 07:03 AM.

[ScrapIron Prime]

Putting 5 Medium Lasers on a Locust 1V (or six on a Spider 5V, same quirks) would allow you to fire several times very quickly from 300-400 meters away and then relocate to another COUNTY at 150kph to be ready to do it again when you've cooled down. Its a useful tactic with a single LPL now, this would make it rather OP.

But essentially, that's the formula to make a mech pay-to-win. Find a mech that gets super quirks for a single weapon or weapon combo, then add more weapons of that type. The only balance to that would be to reduce the quirks, but then we'd be back to nobody playing the un-quirked mech who wasn't going to pay real money to buff it... and honestly you would get a lot less takers for the customization you're talking about if it can't up-meta the meta.

Sure, I'd add a shoulder energy weapon to darn near any mech for the utility of it, but its the balance breakers that would be most common.

and that brings up one more point... adding hard points hither and yon to mechs will require some 3D modelling. PGI doesn't have a lot of that in studio right now.

[Makenzie71]

ScrapIron Prime, on 10 May 2022 - 07:05 AM, said:

Putting 5 Medium Lasers on a Locust 1V (or six on a Spider 5V, same quirks) would allow you to fire several times very quickly from 300-400 meters away and then relocate to another COUNTY at 150kph to be ready to do it again when you've cooled down. Its a useful tactic with a single LPL now, this would make it rather OP.

But essentially, that's the formula to make a mech pay-to-win. Find a mech that gets super quirks for a single weapon or weapon combo, then add more weapons of that type. The only balance to that would be to reduce the quirks, but then we'd be back to nobody playing the un-quirked mech who wasn't going to pay real money to buff it... and honestly you would get a lot less takers for the customization you're talking about if it can't up-meta the meta.

But like I said...you can already do that with the piranha. You can already do that with the locust. The cooldown will make it more dangerous, but not to a game-breaking level. Maybe it's because I don't play lights and am not terribly concerned by them, but I don't feel like that would make it much more viable. Anyone with sense facing it would just back themselves into a corner and burn it up when it pokes...if you can't fight against it effectively then it's probably not because of it's loadout and quirks.

Quote

and that brings up one more point... adding hard points hither and yon to mechs will require some 3D modelling. PGI doesn't have a lot of that in studio right now.

Broken modeling has never stopped them before

Edited by Makenzie71, 10 May 2022 - 07:36 AM.