71 replies to this topic

[Outlaw2]

Variant goodness:

In your example, it showed 3 fully unlocked variants were needed to gain a mech's elite tier. Is this standard for all mechs? What about mechs that traditionally only had 1 cannon variant or had more than just 3? Will mechs with only 1 cannon variant have "made-up" variants. If a mech has more than 3 variants, will you only need to unlock 3 to gain the elite tier?

Commander Skills:

Are there any safegaurds that will discourage a team from ALL taking the Airstrike, Artillery, Predator Drone and Naval Bombardment commander skills/modules? More to the point, will there be a system in place to prevent mass spamming of these abilities? Will any skills/modules have a cooldown shared among the entire entire team, per lance, or are all simply per player?

Edited by =Outlaw=, 04 February 2012 - 08:40 PM.

[IxxxI]

Set of questions on roles:

Commander role:

• How commander's orders will be queued?
  
• Could a commander issue 'parallel' tasks or prioritized orders?
  
• How many tasks could be issued for a lance mate at once?
  
• Will commander get XP for orders completed?
  
• Can a company commander issue order to entire company (11 'Mechs) or only to lance commanders?
  
• Do you plan to announce counter measures skills in Commander skill tree ((i.e. sattelites jamming to affect sattelites and drones; aerospace fighters cover to prevent first air strike; et.c.))?

Scout role:

• Can a scout launch UAV/request sattelite sweep if proper pilot skill leveled in Commander tree?
  
• Can a scout 'Mech use Night/Thermal/Magnetometer module if proper pilot skill leveled in Assault tree? (I presume positive answer, but would like to get it clear)
  
• Will there be special perks for Electronic Counter Measures operations?
  
• Will there be XP bonus for scouts for battle survival?

Assault/Defense role:

• Which perks (pilot tree or 'Mech tree) will affect Artemis/C3/TAG/et.c. technology?
  
• Can an Medium/Heavy/Assault 'Mech use Zoom view module if proper pilot skill leveled in Scout tree?
  
• Will there be weapon type specialization implemented somehow (i.e. lazers upgrade/customization won't be avaiable until pilot skill tier# opened)?
  
• Is there real difference between Assault and Defense roles? How do you see it?

Edited by IxxxI, 04 February 2012 - 01:29 AM.

[ShoveI]

Quote

Pilot Skills

Each BattleMech chassis has a set number of slots available for modules. Players can fit whichever modules they want or deem necessary for their upcoming matches. The number of applied modules cannot exceed the available slots on a BattleMech and each module is unique in that multiples of the same module cannot be used.

Will there be different numbers of slots available for each chassis? Example: Jenner has tow module slots, Hunchback has three, Atlas has five. Or will all mechs have the same number?

Also, the command skills have a number of AoE strikes available to them. What's to stop a group from having one or two scouts and nine or ten high level commanders continuosly calling those in and basically levelling half the map?

[Threat Doc]

Are the tiers for each BattleMech, as we build them, akin to the MechWarrior Quality Ratings of Cadet, Green, Regular, Veteran, and Elite, or will that be an overall rating we'll receive as a result of the average for experience we've gained across the BattleMechs we've piloted?

[Nav]

InnerSphereNews, on 03 February 2012 - 11:00 AM, said:

Assault/Defense Skills:

• • Vision Mode 2 – Night Vision – Allows the player to see in dark areas/night
  
• • Vision Mode 3 – Thermal – Allows the pilot to see heat signatures through solid objects
  
• • Vision Mode 4 – Magnetometer – Allows the pilot to see metal through solid objects

OK, so first off, I am thrilled with the last two blogs and the way that Role Warfare will play out.

However, it looks like you are still going to go ahead and make hot objects visible through solid objects??

This was a quesiton I raised during the Information warfare Q&A, which wasnt ansered. So I have to ask it again.

I realise it's not exactly on topic with the Role warfare focus on this blog, but it was mentiioned above, so could a Dev please confirm if you will look at making this one small aspect more believable?

Could the devs please look at this aspect and make it a bit more realistic. For the majority who dont know any different it will be beleivable, but having studied thermal imaging, it takes a lot of the immersion out of the game.

What you need to see through objects is a detector that uses x-rays or microwaves or similiar.

The heat detectable has to be radiated and apparent on the surface of the object facing the detector. You can pick up thermal radiation that is reflected of a shiny object also, which can be used to confuse an enemy. They target the object while in thermal mode, but end up hitting the reflection in shop window or shiny mettallic object.

Is this just too hard to implement?

Or maybe at least make up some story behind how this technology could possibly work in this way and allow you to pickup a heat signature on the other side of a solid object, (a combination of microwave and thermal technologies?) so I dont think it's lame every time I switch to thermal vision and see a hot Battlemech on the other side of the solid building.

Edited by Nav, 03 February 2012 - 10:26 PM.

[Dlardrageth]

Does the whole role warfare model and the skills acquired with it still base on one single (in-game) pilot? Who will after "some time" be proficient in each and everything?

Or is it still an option that for every pilot one would have top pick a "lifepath" of sorts, including specilaization in one role. And would need a different (in-game) pilot for a different one?

More generalized perhaps - will the player at some point in the "tree branches" have to make a call what to choose and what to never learn as a result of his choice? Or will we at some point end up with lots of pilots with all the same skillsets because every pilot can ultimately learn all skills and does never have to make a decision for one "branch"? (Static vs. dynamic tree model basically.)

- - -

Also I find the description of how the NuSigSys for the scout role works, to be unclear. Does it mean the Mech will only show up when a shutdown Mech would show up? (Might make it mostkly useless when the enemy got BAP.) Or does the Mech using the NuSigSys simply "vanish" for 5 seconds?

Follow-up on this - Is the "5 seconds" an arbitrary number currently? Aka might it still evolve into a dynamic mechanic like i.e. the heat mechanics, or will it remain an on/off-switch game mechanic without balancing repercussions on prolongued use?

Edited by Dlardrageth, 03 February 2012 - 10:44 PM.

[Outlaw2]

Skills and Pilot Points

Is there a pilot point cap, or can pilots end up with all pilot abilites unlocked for all 3 skill trees?

Will buying a pilot ability by itself grant the ability, or will it allow players to buy modules which are the true source of the ability. (Example, buying the night vision skill doesn't give players night vision by itself, but allows players to buy "night vision" modules... which are what actually give players night vision).

Edited by =Outlaw=, 04 February 2012 - 09:10 PM.

[Commraid]

I quote: "In order to access Elite I, the player needs to not only unlock all upgrades on tiers 1-4 of this model, but they have to do the same for every initial variant."

Will custom variants still be available?

If so will they still generate Battle mech chassis and general XP?

Will there be an independant "custom variants " tech branch?

[That Guy]

Will mech customization be some how tied to the mech efficiency tree?



For example will we be able to spend points to "upgrade" your mechs' techs, so that they become more "familiar" with a particular chassies, allowing more, cheaper, faster, or deeper customizaions/repairs?

[Lima Zulu]

What does it mean "Naval Strike"? Is it a strike of naval weapons of WarShip or something less powerfull, like assault dropship or ASF bombing?

[Dihm]

With each mech having its own experience tree, what does this mean for any plans to have mechs purchased with hard currency (real world money)? Does this mean that all mechs can be purchased with in game currency, or does it mean that "premium" mechs do not have an experience tree? Mechs bought with real world money, which can't be bought with in game money, yet give pilots access to more Pilot Points would be a worrying idea.

[Garth Erlam]

Closing this so I can get the questions out, and answered

Thanks for the enthusiasm guys!