22 replies to this topic

[Zhanna Kerensky]

Hi there,

Imagine you had to pick your favourite combat environment for yourself and your mech type, what would it be?

In addition, what do you think of extremely challenging mission/campaign scenarios that could cost you your mech including all the invested experience and upgrade points or even your character, to make it daring all the way, in exchange for double and triple the amount of experience points, respectively, of those earned when the mission/campaign is completed at regular environment diffculty level? By your estimation, which environmental challenge could be the most extreme?

What are your thoughts on introducing a few limited access mission levels or campaigns for which either the highest possible score in piloting skills for any specific mech type, a certain total experience point threshold value, or a particularly high enemy kill percentage (enemy kills/destructions per own count of fatalities/losses) will have to be reached, so that access will be granted, or, alternatively, an exclusive online signup without advance notice will be made available until a limited number of participant spaces (for instance, the first 200 users on a first come, first served basis) has been filled for this special event?

[FinnMcKool]

I like this (dont want to lose my character though)

special Events sounds fantastic





you know the black widow eats their mate .

Edited by FinnMcKool, 01 March 2012 - 08:18 PM.

[Noxas]

I like the idea of total mech destruction with more incentive. It could work out something like 'The environment is too dangerous to retrieve your mech.' Hence you are payed more...

[TheRulesLawyer]

Like the idea of special missions. Don't like the idea of total loss

[nubnub]

Mechs wont ever be destroyed, devs have said this. I like the rewards though.

[Kenyon Burguess]

elite areas are for people who dont enjoy playing with others. everyone should be able to play everywhere regardless of skill or time played.

i expect some of those weather nnoyances to be in the game but for the most part militaries dont throw their troops into the enviromental meat grinder without an extreme reason..extra experience points or a few extra c-bills doesnt cover that kind of risk.

volcanic eruption and meterites are just bad design form. your taking the win/loss out of the hands of the players and giving it a random attribute. falling rocks from space or ejected from volcanos wont be stopped by any amount of armor, even on an atlas.

[Victor Morson]

I cannot stress enough how fans of the series do want big, open areas like rolling hills, mountains and so forth to fight in. My friends are concerned about the claim about urban fighting and change from "all open areas."

I love some city maps or tight canyons as much as the next guy but I'm going to be sorely disappointed if we don't get lots of areas with long visibility ranges broken up by hills and vallies to use for cover.

EDIT: Also Geist, both of those effects do not need to necessarily be extreme death traps. MechWarrior Living Legends has both - a map with a meteror shower and another one with constant volcanic activity - and neither map has any random deaths. I'm fine with ALL of the weather effects as long as they aren't bad luck kills.

Edited by Victor Morson, 01 March 2012 - 09:56 PM.

[FinnMcKool]

Bad luck and calculated risk , if the prize is big enough you will see plenty of risk takers, but just dont kill my character .

[Polymorphyne]

Alot of militaries actually use weather alot to their advantage- attacking during a dust storm with fast moving forces to surprise the enemy, attacking during rain/storms to negate your opponents air superiority, etc, carrying out stealth/scouting/sabotage ops under the cover of fog or darkness...... and in mechwarrior, fighting the battle in a desert or lava field to try and cause the enemy to overheat.

Also, in many cases, your mech military will have no choice but to fight in bad weather- you aren't just going to not fight for a vital planet just because its a volcanic planet, especially since such planets likely have alot of vital resources on offer.

Mechs are designed to survive harsh conditions- I have seen mechs wade through lava in mw4 and living legends with no ill effects other than extreme heat sink inefficiency, and in the tv series elementals hide under lava for a limited period of time to surprise the enemy.

Remember that mechs are able to survive laser fire- which works by imparting extreme heat upon the target location, probably far in excess of lava.
So mech militaries would see fighting in these extreme environments as acceptable risk.

[Zhanna Kerensky]

Frankly, I am expecting that most (hopefully all) of the listed environments will be incorporated in MWO ... at the official launch date or soon/later thereafter. It will not only add diversity and challenge to the game but keep players motivated and interested in coming back and playing some levels more than just once or twice.

With regard to challenging scenarios with the possibility of rewards such as higher XP, I think it could be a worth while approach as long as it is not entirely based on randomness/luck (so that is all about the approach and skills of the pilot/player) but balanced, and more important that it will always remain an option for players and that no MWO user will be forced to face greater risks and, thereby, greater stakes of losing their mech plus points/abilities enhanced in the past or even their MWO player account (possibly, the price for extreme greed or overestimation of one's own capabilities in the case of a loss ... but it also comes with bragging rights - additional awards could be implemented in the game upon completion of those 'dead or alive' missions/campaigns).

Volcanic eruption, meteor hail, drift ice or space battle levels are certainly not not meant as examples for pampering one's mech and may make mech sensor readings/detection, mech heat sink cooling, mech weapon targeting, and mech manoeuvrability/control less efficient or almost useless, but it is not meant to punish those who could be less luckier than others. Moreover, where to step/move with the mech is always the player's decision and not that of the mission/campaign/game developer, so that choosing your territory, and the strategy that goes with it, wisely may give you the winning edge over the enemy.

Edited by Zhanna Kerensky, 03 March 2012 - 01:33 PM.

[FinnMcKool]

How about a Map with Dinosaurs ?

[Ryuu Tetsuhara]

For solo missions or lances it is a good approach to create challenging game environments but for companies or even battalions it remains to be seen. The environmental impact could be quite substantial and reduce the strategical options or reverse a strategy from one to the next moment (but maybe this is also of certain appeal/realism and worst case scenarios will have to be taken into account when engaging the enemy troops).

The more environments, the better and the more fun everyone should have playing MWO. Special events based on first come first serve basis are not exactly something I would fancy. However, the other three approaches would make sense and could represent a rewarding element in the game.

Will the environmental conditions affect the mech? For example, I imagine that a tundra scenario will have an effect on the mech movements (not just the legs but also the arms or torso movements) and some weapon systems would also be more likely to jam or simply malfunction due to environmental conditions. Moreover, the mech would be more prone to slipping on snow and ice (a lot of skill checks will have to be mastered to keep the mech from falling), visibility could be limited due to snowfall, or a mech could be surprised by avalanches, crevasses or blizzards. By contrast, weapon cooling and camouflage would be enhanced in such an environment, sounds good to me.

Anyone else having thoughts about other environments and how they could challenge pilots and their mechs in detail?

[Sp12]

I don't see why we can't play in some extreme environments just for fun.

[Captain Red Shirt]

I'm in favor for any of this except character loss, as for mech destruction, I'd imagine it won't vanish, but expect a boat load of damage to repair at much higher costs for a risk
edit: something like "wow your armor is torn to shreds, need to find an real expert to fix it, 2-3 times cost for repairs deducted"

Edited by Captain Red Shirt, 06 March 2012 - 10:09 PM.

[Evgeny Bear]

I have an Addition to make to the extreme weather conditions.
As Space is mentioned we should concider planetoids with faster rotation and so the fastened Day/night rythim and so a change of extrernal temperaure, from +300 to -200 or so. So you have to watch your external temperature more closely to maintain Powercorefunctionality

[Exilyth]

subaqueous - I really, really wouldn't want to take a cockpit hit. Or suffer a breech anywhere else. Missions without atmosphere carry a similar risk, but the water slows down movement, sight is reduced depending on how much mud there is and the waters color, there could be underwater currents and in general, underwater terrain tends to be hard to navigate. Did I mention chasms?

Dangers aside, afaik, subaqueous battles aren't featured in any previous MW game. The same goes for http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Torpedo .
I wouldn't want a fully subaqueous map, but a map with lots of cliffs and overhangs near large bodies of water would be nice.


From the 'weathers', the only one I'd be afraid of is the meteor storm, since all others can be dealt with (e.g. you can outrun lava, most mechs are too heavy to be lifted by a tornado, flood/tsunami - as long as your cockpit isn't broken, you can play boat [might loose some armor, though] ).


I don't think there should be any special awards for operating a mech in such circumstances, since most of them are normal meteriological conditions. The advantage from being prepared for/adapting to them should be reward enough.

[Polymorphyne]

Most mechs actually aren't threatened by lava, except for the heat and maybe some of the leg armour being damaged.

[Daneiel]

Mechs like tanks are not build for urban war , but i see AC/20 fan base will not see it other ways , if the game follow WoT gameplay system - bigger gun , bigger mech -> win - i will be disappointed

[Polymorphyne]

Mechs are very much suitable and designed for urban war...... the bipedal locomotion is one of the best suited designs to urban warfare, while tracks or quads are more suitable forms of locomotion for open fields.

Also, the majority of battles take place in urban environments. There isn't anything of value in a grassy meadow.

[Zhanna Kerensky]

daneiel varna, on 09 March 2012 - 04:00 AM, said:

Mechs like tanks are not build for urban war , but i see AC/20 fan base will not see it other ways , if the game follow WoT gameplay system - bigger gun , bigger mech -> win - i will be disappointed

I think that urban scenarios will be among the most common in MWO as mechs (especially, assault ones equipped with lots of close combat armament) are quite suited for this kind of warfare and as mentioned there is usually more to gain (administrative power over a planetary system or even a district) if a major city/planetary government falls into the hands of your or enemy forces. However, there could be plenty of incentives for including other challenging environments to render MWO much more attractive for newbies and for those with a long-term gaming perspective. Considering that Comstar beat the Clans and halted their invasion on Tukayyid which happened to be just in the way on the path to Earth and Inner Sphere domination, as apart from its strategic position there was not value in the planetary system itself, other incentives such as protecting or fighting over discovered Star League caches/technology or rumoured locations of secret enemy research centers might suffice to justify non-urban environments, or it could even be reasoned by guerrilla warfare missions/campaigns to free certain systems from oppressors/occupiers.