218 replies to this topic

[Watchit]

I can't wait to try out the command role, looks so cool
I'm guessing having voice chat would come very much in handy

[Nik Van Rhijn]

As so many people got heated over "Naval Bombardment" why not just call it "Improved Artillery"?

[pesco]

just a little question for clarification about orders given by the commander. are they directed specifically at some unit or units RTS-style? i.e. select units, select order, click on target, hope they follow? or is it going to be more like a general "someone go here, pls" mechanic? i.e. select order, click on target, hope that someone does it? in the latter case, i would have serious concerns about this working with players who are not very experienced (and let's be honest, most are not).

Edited by pesco, 20 February 2012 - 01:23 PM.

[Piddles]

I would think as a scout you would be in more need of the Night Vision / Thermal / Magometer over a zoom. A scout needs to be able to avoid other mechs while still being able to keep track of the enemies location and these abilities would help much more than being able to see farther imo. A light mech doesn't have much long range support to snipe with zoom as some suggested (unless you are in a Panther or Valkyrie I guess), so to target those critical areas on the enemy you are going to have to get into that Heavy/Assault mech's kill range anyways.

I don't think zoom is a bad option, I just think the other vision options are more of a scout benefit than anything else. What is a zoom really going to do for you without being able to avoid the enemy? I guess you would always be able to clearly watch the flight of LRMs heading your way.

Being able to mix and match your modules / points will make that point moot of course.

[Thomas Covenant]

Ok what do I have correct and what am I misreading:

• After gaining XP from MWO I level up my mech which then levels up(increases skills of) 'me' at certain points.
  
• Varients are other perks list different than the one above[so +/-2.5% to different mech attributes]
  
• All mechs have these A B C varient perk trees/lists but I must choose 1, or maybe a mech has one already when bought/given to me
  
• After I max out the leveling on my mech I need to get a new one to level a player cause player points are earned from leveling a mech
  
• If I play long enough I can get all the player perks from every tree

On a side note, the scout, def/atk, commander trinity makes me think of the thief, warrior, mage combo respectively in Skyrim lol.

[TwitchTv Morkani]

One concern i have about this is having the same upgrades for every mech, it feels a little "boring" for every single mech to have tier one upgrades to "2.5% speed, 2.5% torso twist speed, & 2.5% torso twist angle", i know i'm probably asking for a lot, but if there was more variation between mechs and what you can "upgrade" on them i'm whole hog for that.

please please please, more variations in what can be upgraded from mech to mech.

edit: one other thing, it looks like we've reduced the # of roles down to 3?, (squashed together defence & assault?)

Edited by Morkani, 27 February 2012 - 09:30 PM.

[The Arachnotron]

Again, all these details on what skills each class has, especially the scout class (gathering intel for the team to royally screw over the enemy faction is very appealing), has me even more excited to get deep into playing this game.

[Moist Penguin]

looks good
one suggestion would be for the scouts to be able to get vision 2 and 3 as well as they are designed for detection so I would have thought they would get these modules

[Watchit]

You could "cross class" to get the vision 2 & 3 by taking points in the assault/defense tree i guess?

[synergy453]

This is sooo exciting!!!

[synergy453]

Morkani, on 27 February 2012 - 09:27 PM, said:

One concern i have about this is having the same upgrades for every mech, it feels a little "boring" for every single mech to have tier one upgrades to "2.5% speed, 2.5% torso twist speed, & 2.5% torso twist angle", i know i'm probably asking for a lot, but if there was more variation between mechs and what you can "upgrade" on them i'm whole hog for that.

please please please, more variations in what can be upgraded from mech to mech.

I see it like this that as a pilot you have to learn to control every mech and its little specialities and with time/experience you can get a bit more out of it. So I'm fine as it is.
But on the other hand I see some possibilities in higher tiers, eg improve in sensors in scout mechs

[Brigand]

The more I read, the more it disturbs me.

First, about a commander role. This role from point of giving orders is mostly social role, not functional. Instead - to my mind - commader should be a specific class, that can manage squad's resources and raise overall effectivness of squad's ‘Mechs use. Like some gadget guy. For example - use gadgets to gather and distribute intel information as was announced, or manage AMS systems of every squad's mech to shoot down enemy missiles, targeting at any ‘Mech within the squad (in case if missiles would go through AMS range, of course). And so on. So commander, depending on installed modules, could increase effectiveness of nearby units, performing role of tech suppoter and coordinator.

What I see now is just airstrike-user class (4 abilities). That could lead to exploits, like 8 Atlas/commanders, spamming air/naval/artillery strikes to completely supress their enemies. Not good. Not interesting. Also it seems more logical, if there will be one skill - use support. And depending on the situation (whether commander is defending planet with land defense set or attacking one with support of air units) commander could choose resource he would like to use. Needless to say, resources also should have long cooldown period or limited nuber of uses per round to prevent exploits.
Another thing, that disturbs me - is UAV. You just created game mechanics where scouting is playing a great role. Now any commander can just press the button and targeted area would be revealed. So UAV, to my mind, should have limited amount of uses or long cooldown period. Radius of view and possibility to shoot down UAV is also a matter of balance between commader and scout roles.

Satellite scan - an exploit as it is. Unless half of map will be hidden by obstacle, it gives too much advantage to it's user. It could be thermal scan, that register a high heat signature as running or shooting ‘Mech (perhaps, with some sort of probability - the more heat, the more probability to detect an object), but then it should have extended or even constant duration.

Another thing is 2 first skills in commander skill tree. Player just gains ability to read information from other units and give orders? So I can just get that skills, then take my assault ‘Mech and.. be a commander. Ok, it had being said earlier, that certain pilot skills gain access to certain modules. Perhaps, second skill just gives access to C3-master module, that should be installed and used then. But since every pilot can gain and use skills and modules despite of actual role, we'll end up with a bunch of 8-12 commaders with C3-master modules on each side. In BT C3 system was a master-slave interface, where commander performed role of collector-distributor of information (btw, haven’t seen any information about distribution of intel to team in skill description). So, there was only one C3-master and up to three C3 slaves within a lance, and if master had being disabled, all lance became blind.
I think situation can be fixed through a lance organization before match. For example, we have 8 players in a match. Some of them allocate themselves in fire support group. For example, it's two Catapults. They need a target coordinator and a scout, that would gather intel (that could be a med/heavy ‘Mech, that just will engage in fight with other lance and provide targeting to support) - so free players would pick ‘Mechs to fill these roles. Another two players decided to pick heavy ‘Mechs, and 2 more - light scout ‘Mechs. So they desided, that one of heavies will be a coordinator within their lance.
First, C3-master should be assigned within lance and by players, all other mechs with C3-master installed automatically become C3-slaves. Second, information shared between C3-master and connected (within particular lance) C3-slaves. Two lances will not share information, but if C3-master in one squad would be destroyed, then other squad would not become blind. So, third, it would be interesting move to allow players form squads before match by allocating as many “Mech to squad as they want (also to mention, that C3 have limited range). That could fix problem with multiple commanders, overlaying orders and a situation, when every player would install commander module (mechanics exploit). Also, that will make commander role really valuable.

Unlocking/applying modules is also looks strange to me. According to diagram from dev.blog 3 (p. 4, post 4) player unlocks a module slot in ‘Mech by advancing through pilot skill tree. So when he changes ‘Mech, he has all gained slots unlocked at new ‘Mech, thugh pilot haven’t mastered it yet. That’s really weird. And possibility to unlock 6 slots just frightens me. To my mind, it would be more convenient, if modules are unlocked though pilot tree progress, and ‘Mechs slots – though progressing ‘Mech tree.
Existing pilot/’Mech tree mechanics will give advantage to players, who level up as many ‘Mechs as they can. That will just force players to grind xp to gain all available pilot point in ‘Mech tree only to gain access to all available module slots. Principle of sticking to your ‘Mech is just.. ineffective. Loyalty to a ‘Mech model (that encourage to master that particular ‘Mech’s tech tree and capabilities) should be a matter of gaming experience, not technical advantages.

Edited by Brigand, 19 March 2012 - 03:49 AM.

[IronSardaukar]

So much to consider when it comes to composing the perfect Lance Company.

[cinco]

commander orders=bunch of people rushing to the point marked on map to get their xp fix.

[Garth Erlam]

And? That sounds like exactly the end result we'd want - people listen to orders, and people get rewarded for it.

[Havoc2]

cinco, on 20 March 2012 - 03:24 AM, said:

commander orders=bunch of people rushing to the point marked on map to get their xp fix.

Garth Erlam, on 20 March 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

And? That sounds like exactly the end result we'd want - people listen to orders, and people get rewarded for it.

You forget Garth, cinco wants to be able to just run around and collect tokens in order to get his uber gold 1-shot guass rifle.

[Brigand]

Already see it.
1. Go into battlefield with friend
2. Set up "move to" order within 5m of him
3. Receive same order from him
4. Move and gain reward
5. Repeat
Team? Screw these losers

Also, for maximising team experience gain, every member of a team should be a commander and set up as much orders through command console as they can during the round. Does that sound like exactly the end result you'd want?

When I first read about roles in WMO, I was very excited. But I still do not see, how devs will control role distribution among players and 'mechs. And how they will avoid mages with two-handers and towershields, if you understand what I mean.

Edited by Brigand, 21 March 2012 - 08:44 AM.

[Garth Erlam]

I've already personally nerfed the hell out of the towershields (-3.14 x 4123.67 / 10000). Two-handers no longer add bleed on every hit and Mages will need to spec for dual-wield.

[Dihm]

Brigand, on 21 March 2012 - 08:31 AM, said:

Already see it. 1. Go into battlefield with friend 2. Set up "move to" order within 5m of him 3. Receive same order from him 4. Move and gain reward 5. Repeat Team? Screw these losers Also, for maximising team experience gain, every member of a team should be a commander and set up as much orders through command console as they can during the round. Does that sound like exactly the end result you'd want? When I first read about roles in WMO, I was very excited. But I still do not see, how devs will control role distribution among players and 'mechs. And how they will avoid mages with two-handers and towershields, if you understand what I mean.

Give PGI a LITTLE credit.

[NightFallsOnU]

I can't wait to play in the scout role and preform a DFA on a big slow Atlas.... Then run like hell before he gets a good bead on me