439 replies to this topic

[Voidreaver]

Some answers for Sprouticus, in the order said questions are asked...

1) The alteration of a given 'Mechs' frame will likely depend on the frame in question. In turn, the possibility of changing said frame is up to the devs.

2) Speaking from experience concerning XL engines in MechWarrior 3, the criticals the engine took up were spread across the Center, Left and Right Torso sections, with the larger section of these being in the middle.
Again, however, the methods and final results are up to the devs. As is whether or not you can change between an XL and a standard.

3) Pay attention to the blog posting, for one... As for the rest, it will likely be very easy to swap your modules on a whim, provided you're not in combat. As for costs... the only money I see going into the various modules would be C-Bills. Lots of C-Bills.

4) ...What are you smoking, and who's your dealer? It would make no sense whatsoever for your weapons to "go away" when you remove them from your 'Mech... Unless someone else did the removal by extensive weapons fire. Thus it would make much sense if it were instead transferred back into inventory so it could be mounted on another deathwalker at a later date... barring, of course, the case where-in someone else did the removal by weapons fire.

5) This particular, like the rest, is up to the devs. If they let us shift our payloads before a drop, awesome... If not, oh well... **** happens.

[BerryChunks]

Shrekken, on 07 April 2012 - 11:24 AM, said:

It wan't an argument. I just asked questions.

I think you misunderstood me.

Shrekken, on 07 April 2012 - 09:39 AM, said:

Ok, so you want each chassis to be unique, then why have variants? Isn't that moving away from a unique chassis? Isn't part of the choice of mech supposed to be about the look of the mech too? As in, having the load out you want that's in what you consider an ugly mech, but put in what you consider to be a really cool looking mech.

Just playing devils advocate a bit here.

http://dictionary.re...browse/argument

Quote

ar·gu·ment
   
1.
an oral disagreement; verbal opposition; contention; altercation: a violent argument.
2.
a discussion differing points of debate: They were deeply involved in an argument about inflation.
3.
a process of reasoning; series of reasons: couldn't follow his argument.
4.
a statement, reason, or fact for or against a point:This is a argument in favor of her theory.
5.
an address or composition intended to convince or persuade; persuasive discourse.

your "questions" are strongly doing 3 and 5, and are also 1 and 2.
People can argue with questions.

Quote

The Socratic method (also known as method of elenchus, elenctic method, Socratic irony, or Socratic debate), named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing...

Quote

In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, for the sake of argument.

Quote

Just playing devils advocate a bit here.

Any discussion that involves differing viewpoints or "devil's advocates", such as you claimed, are arguments. Arguments are the way in which all people discuss their views and come to either an agreement to not agree or to compromise views or to dissolve their own in favor of the other's.

Edited by BerryChunks, 07 April 2012 - 10:13 PM.

[vermilionvindicator]

Wouldn't it be cool if you could put auxiliary boosters for air combat maneuvers? firefox would be a fighter jet and helicopter killing air assault mech...

[Suskis]

As I see, silly Hardpoints are here to stay. I would hope however that with a full mech facility at hands, a really wealthy pilot could overcome said limitations and even have a mech built from scratch for some hundred million c-bills.

[Sporkosophy]

Shrekken, on 07 April 2012 - 07:24 AM, said:

Ok, just to throw an idea out there, how about allowing the customization freedom of mw3 but limit the number of each weapon type? Eg.: something like 4LL max, 3PPC max, 2Gauss max, etc.
That way, you could put what you wanted, where you wanted but you still would be restricted so you'd never be able to go over-board with one particular type of weapon. Don't forget that you'd also need to add heat sinks, modules, equipment, etc.

What might be the down side to that?
Just a thought, so don't get the flamers out

Canon specifically violates that: AWS-9Q has 4 PPCs, Thunder Hawk has 3 Gauss.

[Felbombling]

Keep in mind that variants will have different hardpoints, too. Say the Catapult with two PPC's, so you should be able to strip those out for lasers, if you wish. So the possibility is still available for an energy boat right there. Maybe they'll give different numbers of module slots to Mechs they expect will get boated out? Say Mechs with a good weapon mix for hardpoints get three module slots, whereas Mechs destined to be energy-pigs might get one or two module slots.

[Kiyoshi Amaya]

Hmmm I wouldn't want a Catapult with two PPCs but would lean more to changing one LRM for one PPC, just as an example.

I think the only thing that makes the hard point system more acceptable, is the inclusion of mech variants. Hopefully there'll be as many variants as possible. It does seem like a fairly good middle ground between the mw3 and mw4 labs, but we won't know for sure until we get to play around with it.

To be honest, the only reason it concerned me is that I'm not a big fan of ballistic weapons... I always seemed to run out of ammo at the wrong moment and they're so darn big and heavy.

[Morashtak]

To sum up the many points posted I agree with.

We start with the base 12 stock Mechs. Players spend a few (hah!) hours seeing how well the MVP plays while the dev team gets balance as near right as possible. MechLab with hardpoints keeps the devs from tearing their hair out.

Later™ variants are introduced and imaginative players go to town. Different types of hardpoints on the same chassis allows players to customize with little boating. Again balance is studied and changes are made, if any. Many more hours of practice happen.

Next March Clan Mechs are introduced. Goto Step 1.

The months roll on and even more stock Mechs and their variants appear. Players proceed to rebuild each and every one of them looking for the one-shot wonder (OSW). The dev team continues watching and tweaking.

It's almost certain that someone will invent the OSW for a very specific circumstance (immobile or near immobile opponent within 700 meters, etc). Just hoping that the maps will be varied enough that OSWs can be overcome through tactics and awareness.

MechLab will help with balance and therefore a better game in the long run.

Edited by Morashtak, 08 April 2012 - 11:52 AM.

[Daneiel]

With so much freedom of customisation you will not see more then 3 to 5 of these 12 Mechs - you will see mostly 8 atlases (different customisation from indirect fire support to close range brawlers , 2 Awesomes (stock no need changes) and 2 Dragons as scouts , all light mechs will be forgotten (no one wants to be suicide him self in light almost defenseless light mech) and don't forget that the most important part is a team play game with conquer mode where every single mech is important - victory is C-Bills and XP , not the defeat.I think that sticking to class A refit is the best for the longlivity of the game.

You can flame me but if you think about it you will see my point - its not single player game - its a team based multiplayer game , you need to have weakness and that weakness can be exploited , so you are dependable from your team to cover these disadvantages.
Now you can bring pitchforks and torches .

Edited by daneiel varna, 08 April 2012 - 02:15 PM.

[Hrand]

I'd rather see less ability to customize, but I know I'm in the minority on that one.

[Tank]

Paul can lock on me anytime, but my sexy pink mecha dance will surely evade any incoming fire.

[Aegis Kleais]

Hrolf McTorlik, on 08 April 2012 - 03:50 PM, said:

I'd rather see less ability to customize, but I know I'm in the minority on that one.

Well, I'm big on aesthetics; when I watched TF2's beautifully crafted world design and color schemes bite the big one as Valve allowed players to customize colors on their players, I couldn't help but think that I was sure that a large part of the artists at Valve had a piece of them die. But profits trump aesthetics it seems.

[Saber84]

Lookin' good, a good refresher course for the vets and new Mechwarrior's alike.

[Mindless]

Looks like the same config as Mech Warrior 3, oh how i miss the old MW3 days and battling on msn zone. So pumped for this

[Cityrobo]

I think it looks like a mixture of the schemes of MechWarrior 3 and 4. Looks great!

[Brandon Heat]

How its about to Swap Arms (Left or Right) maybe the Left arm has 5 Ballistic Points. I want to unmount this Arms and buy some new like an Arm with 5 Missile Points.
I think this is real RPG style.
And only Arms should be changeable. Torso is torso if i change that, i created a new mech...

May some programmer like this idea ^^

[Garth Erlam]

Suskis, on 08 April 2012 - 04:53 AM, said:

As I see, silly Hardpoints are here to stay. I would hope however that with a full mech facility at hands, a really wealthy pilot could overcome said limitations and even have a mech built from scratch for some hundred million c-bills.

Unless the aforementioned pilot has closer to a billion c-bills I'm not sure this would be the case - R&D and chassis creation isn't going to be the cost of 9-10 'Mechs. It's going to be far, far more than that. You need to consider you'd be taking a building that could be pumping out Centurions, say, and instead is solely dedicated to making you, personally, a 'Mech.

That's like saying Patton wanted his own tank, so he took over a tank factory for a couple months to make it, and it cost him what 12 Sherman tanks cost.

[Mason Grimm]

Garth Erlam, on 11 April 2012 - 01:17 PM, said:

Unless the aforementioned pilot has closer to a billion c-bills I'm not sure this would be the case - R&D and chassis creation isn't going to be the cost of 9-10 'Mechs. It's going to be far, far more than that. You need to consider you'd be taking a building that could be pumping out Centurions, say, and instead is solely dedicated to making you, personally, a 'Mech.

That's like saying Patton wanted his own tank, so he took over a tank factory for a couple months to make it, and it cost him what 12 Sherman tanks cost.

Sounds good! I'll pay in small bills please so start working on my Marauder.

[Garth Erlam]

That'll be 20,000 CDN payable to...

[NeoDac]

Ick Hard-points. these annoyed me when they came out with them in mechwarrior 4 still do.