121 replies to this topic

[SilentWolff]

Red Beard, on 16 February 2012 - 11:09 AM, said:

As long as the Mechlab doesn't allow anyone to do anything too crazy, like say, swap out one part for another, then I agree.

Kinda defeats the purpose of the mechlab then doesnt it?

[Felix Dante]

SilentWolff, on 15 February 2012 - 10:31 AM, said:

So heres the million dollar question. I see alot of talk about varients, but nothing about a mech lab. It sounds like we will be limited to just certain varients of each chassis and no real ability to customize the mech to our liking. Any dev care to expand on this?

My guess is that a "Mech Lab" will remain the domain of Omni-Mechs eventually, if at all.
Changing a mech is not supposed to be easy.

[Jack Gallows]

We don't need a robust 'mech lab until omni mechs hit the stage, due to the non omni chassis being hard/time consuming to modify.

Regular 'mechs should have variants you have to buy, but not stripping a 'mech of it's weapons and mounting like 12 medium lasers or anything drastic.

[ilikain]

Khushrenada, on 16 February 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

i`m slightly irritated by this statement... in the beginning of the information month the devs said "you have to watch out for your commander, if he dies, its all over for you with commander benefits". it was also said that we will have 1 company commander and 3 lance commanders, now they say "there is no commander"?

... words words words... long post, click the swooshy arrow to go back and read it if you want...

in the end we will have to see how all fits into place, but atm this whole commander/bombardment thingy is starting to make me worry

edit: typo

From the response from the Lead Designer for MWO (He makes decisions!):

Paul Inouye(<-- Lead Designer I mentioned) ^, on 15 February 2012 - 11:07 AM, said:

.... *facepalm*... [sic] Please give us the benefit of the doubt that we do know how to balance a game and that the key focus is 'Mech to 'Mech combat, not dropping bags of poo on each other... though that might actually be funny to put in... Got it? Good. Thunder out.

They realize that bombardments are possibly OP if not managed correctly. Have a little faith that they didn't get their job assignments by picking them out of a cracker jack box.

"HAHA, I got CEO! Chew on that minions!!!!"

Edit: OooooOooo, Can I have member changed to "Minion?"

Edited by ilikain, 16 February 2012 - 05:19 PM.

[EDMW CSN]

Alright makes me more all the wanting to stick to 1 mech to unlock all the modules.

[Draco Argentum]

nubnub, on 15 February 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

Overall Q&A sounds really good with great opportunity for teamwork, customisation and dynamic gameplay .

I only have one problem - "...one fateful day you have your ride completely destroyed. Do you lose all mech XP and start over in a new mech, but retain your buff pilot abilities? –BarHaid [PAUL] You will not be able to have your ’Mech destroyed..."
their stuff.

Like I've said before, this was calculable based on their buisness model. Pretty much everything is, especially if you have played the games they've cited as examples of stuff.

The answer to TheRulesLawyer's question about respecs bodes ill. But look at the buisness model and it makes sense, add a very long tree that you can be completely filled and it encourages people spending real money so they can do it faster. The trees themselves grant no customisation, they are just there to slow you down.

[Dihm]

TheRulesLawyer, on 16 February 2012 - 12:08 PM, said:

I tired it once in the TT. It didn't work out so well. If you have enough medium lasers to really leave a mark you don't have enough heat sinks to not constantly overheat.

In our current Solaris tournament (in MegaMek, 40-85 ton range, 2400 BV limit including pilot skills), we have a Guillotine which has 14 medium lasers, and 21 double heat sinks, with max armor. Luckily my Flashman got a headshot on him.

[V1ctor]

Is your mech an omni mech? No? Well then why would you be able to customize it without completely rebuilding it?

[Garth Erlam]

ilikain, on 16 February 2012 - 05:14 PM, said:

"HAHA, I got CEO! Chew on that minions!!!!"

Edit: OooooOooo, Can I have member changed to "Minion?"

"I call President!"

[Felix Dante]

Chuckie, on 16 February 2012 - 11:21 AM, said:

BTW I always seem to miss when they do the Q part ?
OR do they cull the questions from the forum posts..?

From what I can tell:
After they put out the new Development info at the beginning of the month, they open up a Q&A subject in the forum that day just for that development info.

They then give everybody a chance to offer questions for a few days, then lock it out, cull the questions for appropriate ones, and answer some of the questions a week or so later as best they are able.

I think that is the gist of it. Right, Paul and Garth?

Edited by Felix Dante, 17 February 2012 - 02:14 PM.

[Threat Doc]

1) I apologize for not responding to this immediately; the fam and I are at Walt Disney World, rained in and sick, which is why I'm responding at all this evening.

2) These updates are being spaced just right, now, because just as I begin to go through withdrawals and get into doubt-range, I come here and read an update, and my head is back in the game.

3) I'm liking what I'm reading, now understand the difference between having points in the Command Role and being the Commander, and the fact that the roles have an effect on the game, but are neither a limitation on the player nor a bar to fulfilling a pilot's career, pigeon-holing each player into a set course. I like that.

4) Because of the prior paragraph, I'm looking forward to writing stories for my character, again.

[plodder]

Aegis Kleais™, on 15 February 2012 - 10:30 AM, said:

I think it's gonna take a beta before my MYRIAD of Pilot/Mech XP, modules, trees, perks-based questions get answered. There's just too many dynamics.

Oooooooh, I love dynamics!!!!!

Edited by plodder, 17 February 2012 - 08:35 PM.

[plodder]

Alright, I think your explanation of the Foresting processes are clean, and the easily understood by most of us. Each tree has it's branches, each branch has it's fruit/Modules. The Tree you seek is dependent on your desires, each fruit will lead to the building of your role.

What about interactions between the factions?

[Deffias]

[Aegis Kleais]

Felix Dante, on 16 February 2012 - 01:01 PM, said:

Changing a mech is not supposed to be easy.

Poppycock.

Mechlab technicians are those VERY SAME people who, as kids, were banging the round pegs into the square hole, and by God, THEY MADE THEM FIT!

Mechs don't stand a chance against these Techs. They'll customize your variant, by crocky, and do so in 30 minutes or your refit is FREE!

[plodder]

Aegis Kleais™, on 20 February 2012 - 03:10 PM, said:

Poppycock.

Mechlab technicians are those VERY SAME people who, as kids, were banging the round pegs into the square hole, and by God, THEY MADE THEM FIT!

Mechs don't stand a chance against these Techs. They'll customize your variant, by crocky, and do so in 30 minutes or your refit is FREE!

OOH!? Free refits, nice!!!

And of course anyone can put a round peg in a square hole, I can even put a square 4"x4" in a 3"x3" round hole.. Open wide, say ahhhhhhh!!!

Edited by plodder, 21 February 2012 - 08:26 PM.

[T0RC4ED]

Wow, some really great info in there.

[statler]

Khushrenada, on 16 February 2012 - 08:51 AM, said:

i`m slightly irritated by this statement... in the beginning of the information month the devs said "you have to watch out for your commander, if he dies, its all over for you with commander benefits". it was also said that we will have 1 company commander and 3 lance commanders, now they say "there is no commander"?
in the end it seems to may come down to what i predicted from the start: 12 people on a map pinging around on the overview, giving themselfes contradicting orders...

i thought those skills like orbital bombardment would be tied to that role of a commander... THE commander, not just ANY pilot who happens to have that module installed.
in the end everyone will have that mighty bombardment module installed, cause they wish to make a defastating blow on the enemy forces and gain lots of xp and credits for that.
this will lead to 2 possibilities:

1) we will see bombardments all over the place, which will be totally defastating to the gameplay (no mechs, that fight their battles, since as soon as one is spotted someone will activate his bombardment and ruin his day... not a MECH game for me anymore then). may not happen, since someone said there will be a global timer on this skill for everyone, but then it depends on how long that timer will be...

2) people will wait for the one single red dot on the radar and when it appears, 12 people try to trigger the bombardment as fast as they can, cause one of them WILL do so, regardless if it is wise from a tactical point of view atm, since there is a global cooldown after the first activation and everyone wants that nice xp and credit bonus. after all no one knows if they are still alive when the cooldown has run out and the bombardment is ready again.
so all this highly praised tactical part of the game is going down the drain.

face it, there will be 12 people on a map, that don`t know each other, most of them will be in for the action and their personal gain of xp and credits. there is no such thing as tactic in a game with 12 random people. if you give all of them the same ability with a global cooldown for all, the first one to activate it wins (xp and credits), the others get nothing, so the above stated action will happen.

i think neither of those 2 possibilities will do the game any good in terms of gameplay (2) or fun (1)

as a matter of fact i don`t like the whole concept of arty support or what ever bombardment of areas. i didn`t like it in world of tanks (i wanted to drive around and battle out the fights with my tank and not beeing blown out of the match with a one-shot of some guy sitting at the other side of the map) and the same applies here, this is a mech game and i want to walk around in my battle mech and fight my fights personally. feel the joy of winning against an other mech through manouvering and aiming, getting in his weak spot and tearing him appart. if i loose that fight, ok, so the other one was better than me and i might learn a trick or two, but to loose cause someone clicked on my position on a map and an orbital bombardment rips me appart... definitely no fun.

in the end we will have to see how all fits into place, but atm this whole commander/bombardment thingy is starting to make me worry

edit: typo

hey you pretty much wrote it already, so yep...

artillery is just not a fun idea for for this at all, i dont care how well it is implemented. and i dont think it can be implemented well if it did have a place.

and i doubt it would be a shared timer for all, i think he was saying a shared time for your own modules, otherwise they will be almost useless and very annoying with everybody clambering to hit the button first like jeopardy.

[Reb]

Looks really great as always.

[Arnold Carns]

InnerSphereNews, on 15 February 2012 - 10:00 AM, said:

Participants:

Paul Inouye – Lead Designer – Game Systems and Presentation
David Bradley – Game Designer - Overseeing 'Mech combat and BattleTech® rules
Garth Erlam – Community Manager - Editor

[PAUL] Merc Corps have full control over their drop builds. They can put whoever they want into the command positions (team/lance).

If I understand that right, a Merc Corp will be able to take all seats of a 12 vs 12 (or 8 vs 8)?
So to founding a Merc Corp you'll have a minimum member threshold?

If I'd rather want serve in a House Military than in a Merc Corp, will groups of players will be able to to fill up the seats with their friends entirely as well or will there be a mixup?