119 replies to this topic

[Mr Smiles]

How many missions will it take to afford customizing the different components of a 'Mech? Obviously faster than canon, since it costs a MechWarrior ~5-6 years of salary to increase the MP of his Catapult by 1, assuming he could sell the current engine at full price, but are we talking one mission? Five? A week's worth of regular gaming? A month? And can it be done piecemeal, with one change leaving the 'Mech underweight for its next mission (say, by removing an LRM) until a new component/armor can be afforded to replace it?

[zorak ramone]

In order to make each mech more unique and to make it easier for the mech's exterior appearance to match its weapons configuration, are there any thoughts being given toward limiting the number of weapons that can be mounted per hardpoint?

[FinnMcKool]

Will be able to test drive a Mech before we buy it?
What I mean is could we take a Mech into the Mechlab and experiment with its possible customization before we buy it?
This way we will know what we can do with it before committing our hard earned C-Bills to a Mech we may not like in the End.

[Meth0s]

Will you be able to save multiple variants per chassi?

Will you have access to your mechlab prior to a drop, so that you can make adjustments for the particular map/settings?

[Namwons]

How is Armour going to be handled?

The way armour is being treated in MechWarrior Online is very similar to how it’s done in the tabletop game. That is, for every one ton of standard armour, the chassis is given 16 points of armor

In the blog, it says armor is customised by the full ton. But some mechs come factory with 7.5 tons, 13.5 tons, and so on by half tons. Would this be likely to be changed to half ton increments?

EDIT: Changing my question.

A Swayback Hunchie would have energy hard points in the arms, and right torso cannon mount. Does that mean in the left torso, where no weapon is normally mounted, there are non-weapon hard points for empty crit slots, which means no weapon can be mounted there?

Edited by Namwons, 04 April 2012 - 11:42 PM.

[Blackdog]

will you be able to make a checkbox for a battle room "Stock only" For those who wants to play on stock mechs only ?

[Anvil Dragon]

Are purchases made within MechLab or at some market element outside of it?

If I come up just a few C-bill short of the PPC I need for my next mission, can I trade in that spare medium laser?
or strip off a light laser in the lab and sell it?

Can we rummage though our spares and load up the noob in our lance a bit so better fits the mission?

Can a good weapon be swapped in for some X cost that might be lower than repairing the one from the last battle? Maybe have that one repaired at a latter date when we've got a few more C-bills.

[Clarth]

After reading, I get the impression that you can only downgrade your weapons with this system since you are still limited by the hardpoint size even if you have free weight. Why would I want to do that? All this system seems to do is to allow me to change the weapon to equipment ratio.

Surely there must be more to it?

[Felix Dante]

My Questions is slightly multipart:
I understand you are limiting Jump Jets to those mech chassis that have them already, which makes sense.
1. Can you remove those Jump Jets for extra Weapons/Armor however?
2. When Omni-Mechs are introduced in the future (Either Clan or Inner Sphere) they were able to use Pod Space for Jump Jets. Will the mech-lab Jump Jet rule hold for Omni's too or will it adapt as Needed when Omnis are introduced?

[Woodstock]

Hello.

Okay my question: Will weapon changes be limited to the number of crit slots they replaced or can they overlap into other crit slots? (McMEch ... large laser = 2 crit slots ... there for you only have 2 crit slots for new weapons regardless of if there were other free slots?.)


In your example (McMech) had no free crit slots ... actuators, endo steel and weapons. If we were configuring a mech that DIDN'T have Endo steel, would there be LOTS more crit slots? Ala the TT rules.

IF there was no endo steel, and you removed the Large laser ... That would free up 5 tons of space ... would you be able to fit 5 med lasers to that hardpoint? (Same class of weapon, same tonnage ... but more crit slots, which are now free because there is no endo steel.)

The limitation will come from the TYPE of weapon not so much the size of it on a location.

I'm thinking of Justin Allard's mech.

He took out an LRM 10 (From the torso) ... and a AC/10 (from an arm) ... and replaced the AC/10 with an AC/20 ... Clearly this is a much larger weapon.

10 crit slots as opposed to the 7 from the ac/10. (According to sarna.net)

With your example this change potentially would not be possible. But if removing the endo steel would also free up LOTS of crit slots then the system becomes much more flexible.


EDIT: I deleted my original question ... this is what I came up with ... you have not answered any of my questions before ... fingers crossed for this one!

P.S. check my profile ...its my birthday tomorrow!

Edited by woodstock, 05 April 2012 - 12:46 AM.

[Felbombling]

Questions... answer the one you'd like most us to know about.

1. Can we MOVE equipment around the chassis? If 'yes', I assume there would be a cost for this change, also? For example, assume that I have a ton of SRM 6 ammo that I'd like to protect with spare heatsinks situated outside the engine, for critical hit chances. Or perhaps move heatsinks into the two open slots in the legs of a Mech to take advantage of the cooling effects of water.

2. I notice that the max armour values on the chassis will stick to canon. In a simulation such as this, will the head have a pretty small hit box? The TT game only hits the head on a 2d6 roll of 12, or about 3%... thus the low armour value. With a pipper and pin-point accurate aiming... yick!

3. Is your spell check program set to 'American' or 'Canadian'? I couldn't help but notice a few armor and armour spread throughout. Do you guys have no honor honour?

Edited by StaggerCheck, 04 April 2012 - 12:23 PM.

[Lima Zulu]

1) If your have a weapon mounted in arm and literally lost this arm in battle - do you lose this weapon permanently or it will be moved to inventory? If yes, what about torso-mounted weapons?

2) Are equipment hardpoints dedicated? I mean, ECM slot for ECM, AMS hardpoint for AMS or it will be just "equipment hardpoint"? Are they divided to internal and external at least (like AMS in internal slot is a bad idea)?

3) Would max armour points depend on mech mass or chassis? I mean, will Centurion and Hunchback have same maximum armor points ('cause they both are 50 ton) or different (cause it's different chassis)? If first, will be there a difference between sections max armor points in same weight? If Centurion and Hunch will have 150 points, could it be if Centurion will have 30 on side torsos and 50 on center and Huncback - 35 on sides and 40 on center?

4) Will Autocannon/2 and autocannon/20 share one weapon type? Will I be able to remove AC/20 from Hunchback and put 4-5 AC/2 in it's place (if they match critical slot and mass requirements)?

[Aegis Kleais]

Q. Will the location of heatsinks affect their efficiency in dissipating heat from that area? (ie, a heatsink placed on an arm with no heat-generating weapons will provide minimal dissipation vs. putting it on a hardpoint that has heat-generating weapons)

Q. Do engine upgrades scale Mech speed increases linearly? Are "max speed" values the result of a fully upgraded engine or are they they base maximum speed with the default engine (meaning faster speeds are possible)?

Q. What type of armor does the Mechlab provide, and what are the major differences between them?

Q. How are unique Mech chassis like the Catapault (no arms, non-traditional 'side torsos') handled in the MechLab?

Q. Will adding ammo in a hardpoint to a weapon (aside from adding tonnage) take up spaces/slots in that hardpoint?

Q. If supported, will XL engines takes up space in the side torsos?

Q. Are users forces to evenly split torso armor between front and rear, or can it be manually adjusted?

Q. If variants can be customized, can we give a custom name to the loadout of the variant? Also, since Mech Efficiency Trees are "per variant" does that mean that the same variant chassis with 2 different loadouts shares the same Efficiency Tree?

Edited by Aegis Kleaisâ„¢, 04 April 2012 - 12:28 PM.

[Morashtak]

StaggerCheck, on 04 April 2012 - 12:18 PM, said:

1. Can we MOVE equipment around the chassis? If 'yes', I assume there would be a cost for this change, also? For example, assume that I have a ton of SRM 6 ammo that I'd like to protect with spare heatsinks situated outside the engine, for critical hit chances. Or perhaps move heatsinks into the two open slots in the legs of a Mech to take advantage of the cooling effects of water.

To expound a bit on this, if I may;

Mechs are primarily right handed when it comes to the biggest arm mounted weapon. How much of a nominal fee, if any, will it cost to make our Mechs a southpaw?

[Solis Obscuri]

How will ammo storage be handled? Will it need to be mounted in a hardpoint, or just anywhere there are open critical slots?

[warner2]

What is your reasoning for allowing any mech to mount ECM compared with the way JJs work? Assuming ECM is useful, I can see all mechs on a team using it (and other sensor equipment like BAP) thereby removing an interesting aspect of the gam, "sensor warfare".

Edited by warner__, 04 April 2012 - 12:46 PM.

[SweetJackal]

Edit: Question was clearly stated at the start of the blog and just never mentioned again throughout.

Edited by SuckyJack, 04 April 2012 - 01:51 PM.

[Solis Obscuri]

Will changing weapons loadout affect the visual appearance of a 'mech, or is the appearance "fixed" for each variant?

e.g. using the system described in the devblog, I could take a CN9-A Centurion, and swap the AC/10 in the right arm for a AC/5, remove the two center torso Medium Lasers, and replace those with a single Large Laser, and add one ton of armor, while respecting all space, weight, and hardpoint restrictions. Would the visual appearance of the autocannon in the arm change? Would I go from having two laser barrels in the CT to having a single, larger barrel?

[Anvil Dragon]

Going back and looking up the tabletop bits and the Catapult readout, will the Catapult K2 variant be available? The stock Catapult does not appear to be upgradeable to the K2 varient directly (replacing the two medium lasers on each side with PPCs - two one ton items with one 7 ton item). Perhaps with a purchase of structure/actuator upgrades to a K2 monting and then add the PPC?

[Solis Obscuri]

Will cockpit Hula Girls be included in the mechlab? If so, will they be a customization option like paint, or require a special hardpoint, or can they be mounted as long as there's a free critical in the head of the 'mech?

Also, will a Duncan Fisher bobble-head be available as a hula-girl alternative?