Cuddles, on 13 September 2012 - 07:05 AM, said:
Karl Strakor, on 13 September 2012 - 05:38 AM, said:
Allow a "Factory Special Order" option which allows you to set the weapon type allowed on the particular hardpoints. This option by design will have to be extremely expensive and limited to prevent abuse and people running ONLY special order mechs.
The trouble with this is that such limits simply can't work. The problem is that there is no limit on money. People have to be able to gain money, because otherwise there would be no point in having it in the first place. But if people can gain money, that means they can gain
more money. As long as something is cheap enough that's it's possible for anyone to save up for it, as time passes it's inevitable that the majority of people will eventually do so. You can avoid this in linear single player games that have a finite amount of money ever available, but it's impossible to avoid in a game like this where more money is created every time the game is played. You can slow the process down by having higher costs and putting in money sinks like repairs, but you can't avoid it without removing the possibility for people to make profit at all.
Perhaps Karl's idea work better if it were not tied solely to capital?
For example, suppose one needed to have a certain amount of Loyalty Points and/or have a certain rank in order for a factory to authorize such a customization (since, of course, a factory would only logically do so for someone that had earned the influence and recognition to actually be noticed)?
Also, there are the "refit kits" described on pages 188-189 of
Strategic Operations.
- Class A: field refit kit allowing for replacement of a single already-present weapon with one of the same type (energy/ballistic/missile) and similar or lesser size (criticals)
- Class B: field refit kit allowing for replacement of a single already-present weapon with one of a different type (energy → ballistic or missile, ballistic → missile or energy, missile → energy or ballistic) and similar or lesser size (criticals)
- Class C: maintenance refit kit allowing for change of armor type and distribution, replacement of a single already-present weapon with one of a different type (energy → ballistic or missile, ballistic → missile or energy, missile → energy or ballistic) regardless of size, movement of a component to another location (e.g. RT → LT, or vice versa), addition or removal of ammunition bins, or addition or removal of a heat sink (but not a change of heat sink type)
- Class D: maintenance refit kit allowing for the addition of a new (not already-present) weapon or piece of equipment, a change of heat sink type, or a change of engine rating (but not engine type)
- Class E: factory-level refit kit allowing for the installation of CASE or a change of myomer type
- Class F: factory-level refit kit allowing for a change in internal structure, engine, gyro, and cockpit types
The price of each kit is 1.10*(sum of prices of all components in the kit).
Each kit allows for only one instance of the listed effects, thus necessitating multiple kits to produce multiple changes of the same type (e.g. changing each of an Atlas' Medium Lasers to Medium Pulse Lasers would require a separate Class A refit kit, so changing all four lasers requires four separate refit kits).
It could get interesting if the Devs were to make the purchase and use of refit kits a process in MWO, such that one could convert one variant into another variant via purchasing and installing refit kits as an alternative to purchasing the new variant outright...?
Hythos, on 13 September 2012 - 08:10 AM, said:
According to THE rules, large weapons (including the standard AC-20 AND the LBX-20, Arrow-IV systems) can have criticals spread between adjacent locations: side torso+arm.....
The weapon location technically exists from either position - and because the builk of the equipment is NOT the barrel/missle-tube, the designer is free to determine where the actual weapon deployment mechanism (barrel, missle-tube, etc) exists...
Therefor, EX:
an LBX-20 barrel COULD be mounted in an arm**, while having as few as 2 critical slots (considering the remaining 9 critical slots co-occupied a side-torso along side of an XL-engine's shielding, for example).
** Edit: OR even the center torso...
The same rules also state that for split weapons (with the current rules (
Total Warfare,
TechManual,
Tactical Operations, and
Strategic Operations) listing only actually the three class 20 ACs and the Heavy Gauss Rifle as splitable... even though the older
CBT Master Rules does also list the Arrow IV, Thumper, and Sniper artillery weapons - but
not the Long Tom - as splitable
), the weapon uses the most restrictive firing arc.
That is, a weapon that is split between the arm and the adjacent side-torso (ex. each of the
King Crab's AC-20s) functions as a torso-mounted weapon for aiming purposes, even though the deployment mechanism may be represented as being located in the arm (if that is where most of the criticals are located; again, see the
King Crab's AC-20s).
As mentioned previously, each of the
King Crab's AC-20s are split between the arm (8 criticals) and the adjacent torso (2 criticals).
The Arrow IV launcher of the
CLPT-C3 is split between the Right Arm (9 criticals) and the Right-Torso (6 criticals).
The
Axman's AC-20 is split between the Right-Torso (8 criticals) and the Center-Torso (2 criticals).
The
Helepolis' Sniper Artillery Piece is split between the Right Arm (10 criticals) and the Right-Torso (10 criticals).
In each case, the weapon's deployment mechanism is represented as being where the greater number of criticals are located - the King Crab's AC-20s are shown as being "in the arms", the CLPT-C3's Arrow IV launcher is shown as being "in the right arm", and the
Axman's AC-20 is shown as being "in the Right-Torso".
The
Heleoplis' Sniper (RA/RT split) is shown as being more off-set than the
Axman's AC-20 (RT/CT split), and seems to be positioned over where the shoulder joint would be if the 'Mech were bilaterally symmetrical.
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