45 replies to this topic

[Long Draw]

I would very much like to be able to form a mercenary company that specializes in mech production in the game. Being able to collect salvage from field engagements and then using that salvage to create new mechs from existing designs and maybe, if it doesn't unbalance the game, allow us to create new chassis designs. The technological limitations could still be maintained only allowing for enhanced technologies in the chassis and equipment on the mech as the original storyline played out.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, it would be greatly appreciated if they could contribute them here. Thank you.

[Kenyon Burguess]

devs already discussed the relationship mercs have with occupied worlds. i dont see this becoming a landbased version of eve.

[Tannhauser Gate]

You are not alone in your desire to create your own mechs but you in the minority. As 90% of others here will tell you, MWO is about classic mechs and their known variants. There will be a mechlab that will allow you to swap weapons, armor, and systems, based on a variant's chassis. There will also be player-earned system modules that allow you to significantly enhance your systems over less experienced players. But there will be no player - created mechs and no player-owned factories.

[Dirk Le Daring]

I would say, zero.

LakeDaemon, on 05 April 2012 - 03:38 PM, said:

You are not alone in your desire to create your own mechs but you in the minority. As 90% of others here will tell you, MWO is about classic mechs and their known variants. There will be a mechlab that will allow you to swap weapons, armor, and systems, based on a variant's chassis. There will also be player-earned system modules that allow you to significantly enhance your systems over less experienced players. But there will be no player - created mechs and no player-owned factories.

I am among the 90%

[Agent CraZy DiP]

Keep in-mind that simply owning planets/territories will earn your Mercenary Corp a steady income. All planets will already have an NPC infrastructure in-place when you take it over. We're not playing SIM Business 3059, we're playing SIM Mechwarrior 3059.

[Codius Dakanius]

if there is a Player Clan/ Player House conquest mode in the game then that could be something that would qualify under the umbrella of planetary bonuses. but that bridge should only be crossed if the game takes that route.

[Dragorath]

No player control of factories at all.

[Long Draw]

An example of what would seem for this game to be a player-controlled/owned battlemech factory from
http://iron-brigade....er=kellhist.htm

Quote

The Kell Hounds employ separate command units for battalion and regimental forces as well as an overall unit-command lance. Each regiment is composed of 3 BattleMech battalions, a fighter wing, and one jump infantry battalion. Every ground-force company has an official designation that indicates its regiment, battalion and company position. For example, the designation for First regiment, Third Battalion, Second Company is the 132^nd Company. This include the infantry battalions (designated the 5^th Battalion) but not aerospace squadrons, which are designated with bird names.
Retired or not, Morgan Kell is recognized as the supreme commander of the Kell Hounds by every member of the unit, and no regimental commanding officer will take the rank of colonel while Kell remains alive. Instead, the Hounds contain 3 lieutenant colonels: unit commander Dan Allard, 1^st Regiment commander Akira Brahe, and 2^nd Regiment commander Scott Bradley
Thanks to their salvage of Clans machines on Luthien and their agreements with Phelan Kell and his loyal Arc Royal Wolf Clan, the Kells Hounds field the most advanced equipment of any mercenary command save Wolf's Dragoons. Their current technology profile places their BattleMechs at an average 60% Clantech standards and 40% advanced Inner Sphere technology. These percentages includes nearly 2 full companies of working Clan OmniMechs and a company of Inner Sphere-designed OmniMechs. As the Arc-Royal Wolves are still rebuilding their own forces, it is unlikely that the Kell Hounds will gain any new machines from them, though they may get parts and technical assistance.
The Kell Hounds' impressive technical staff along with the Kell-owned Eire BattleMech factory on Arc-Royal, provides the mercenary unit with a support base second only to Wolf's Dragoons among other mercenary commands. The large cache of Clantech material and weapons recovered from Luthien has enabled the Kell Hound technicians to learn basic care and repair of Clantech devices, and most observers assume that Phelan Kell's Wolves are instructing Kell Hound technicians on Clantech and OmniMech technology. However, the Hounds have not yet shared such information with the Lyran military.
The Kell Hounds' JumpShips and DropShips provide the mercenaries with 150% transport capacity. Consequently, up to one third of the vessels may be under repair at any single time without impairing the unit's ability to transport all of its combat personnel and assets. Occasionally, the Kell Hounds also lease extra vessels to supplement their income.

So if the Kell Hounds, a Mercenary unit can have a battlemech factory, a dropship, aerospace fighters and mech regiments, why should we be restricted from this in this game?

[Namwons]

I would love to have player owned mech factories on certian planets that we can set prodution for our faction/corp to reduce prices on mechs/weapons. more sandbox the better imo

Edited by Namwons, 06 April 2012 - 11:10 AM.

[T0RC4ED]

Make your own mechs?!?! This is MADNESS

[eZZip]

From balance/gameplay, programming, and art perspectives, this idea is not feasible.

[Johannes Falkner]

Long Draw, on 06 April 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

So if the Kell Hounds, a Mercenary unit can have a battlemech factory, a dropship, aerospace fighters and mech regiments, why should we be restricted from this in this game?

The Kell Hounds and Wolf Dragoons are the top 0.0000001% of merc groups.
Morgan Kell helped save Archon Katrina Steiner's life, and received money from her husband in his will. So the head of the Lyran portion of the FedCom trusts and supports them. The Wolf Dragoons have access to lostech (Star League era technology) and Clan technology, as well as nearly 50 years (43-44 from 3005 when they entered the IS) to build the business background needed. This is in addition to having knowledge of secret facilities on Outreach and being good enough to get House Davion to deed the planet to them as part of their mercenary contract.

Most of the others that have designed mechs (Team Banzai comes to mind) are also state sponsored or are participating in field testing of prototypes under company supervision.

In short you are looking at one of the 0.000.......0001% of merc units.

Edit for spelling

Edited by Johannes Falkner, 08 April 2012 - 05:14 PM.

[Long Draw]

Okay, so what I'm hearing is that while clan owned and operated mech factories do exist in the original literature of the BT franchise, there are reservations about whether this should be part of this game. So here is a proposal that I have for this to be implemented in the game, but in a slightly different manner:

Instead of allowing player clans to have full freedom to design new mech chassis (within tech and time period restrictions), how about we allow for mech research facilities to be owned and operated by player clans? These facilities don't necessarily have to be located on planets either mind you since a moon could also serve as a small base of operations for this kind of facility.

[eZZip]

Players should never be able to design their own chassis except in a game where such a feature is present from the beginning; it would otherwise be extremely difficult to implement in a balanced, non-tacked-on way.

I don't see any reason to limit the quantity of mechs/components in an in-game store in such an artificial manner, anyway. If the devs do it right, there should be a decently-balanced spread of mechs and components across the playerbase.

[Long Draw]

Well, I feel that the benefit to having something like this in game is that the developers can also see the new variations that are being created by players and if they feel the design is both balanced and exciting, they can introduce it in their next update to the game. Heck, they could even give the designer of the new chassis/component/weapon/etc a free one for their work.

[Dihm]

MechEngineer Online?

[RedHairDave]

even if you cant build fully custom mechs from your factory, it should lower the cost of whatever it makes, maybe its a ppc factory so you get 10% off ppc's. or its a endo steel factory so yours is 10% cheaper

[Long Draw]

RedHairDave, on 18 April 2012 - 05:34 AM, said:

even if you cant build fully custom mechs from your factory, it should lower the cost of whatever it makes, maybe its a ppc factory so you get 10% off ppc's. or its a endo steel factory so yours is 10% cheaper

That is an excellent suggestion RedHairDave! You could even extend this out to mech repair facilities where you might get 10% off your repairs.

[EDMW CSN]

I don't see this happening. You cannot really build a mech you want since you don't have a blueprints for it. You might own a planet with a factory that might be able to churn out Dragons but you can't really get it to churn out the Feddies Centurion since you have no specs or blueprints to do so.

And retooling such factories to produce another mech easily cost triple digit millions or even billions in C-bills. I doubt players are going to get that kind of wealth soon.

But on the positive points of owning a planet with a mech factory might make purchases of said mech cheaper (no interstellar shipping cost), access to high tech variants faster (after all the factory is there) and even a slight cut in profits (say 10%) ? Think of it as the arms manufacturer or Great House paying you to defend their factories.

These ideas should be relatively simple to add on imo.

Edited by [EDMW]CSN, 19 April 2012 - 01:18 AM.

[Long Draw]

[EDMW]CSN, on 19 April 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

I don't see this happening. You cannot really build a mech you want since you don't have a blueprints for it. You might own a planet with a factory that might be able to churn out Dragons but you can't really get it to churn out the Feddies Centurion since you have no specs or blueprints to do so.

And retooling such factories to produce another mech easily cost triple digit millions or even billions in C-bills. I doubt players are going to get that kind of wealth soon.

But on the positive points of owning a planet with a mech factory might make purchases of said mech cheaper (no interstellar shipping cost), access to high tech variants faster (after all the factory is there) and even a slight cut in profits (say 10%) ? Think of it as the arms manufacturer or Great House paying you to defend their factories.

These ideas should be relatively simple to add on imo.

Perhaps this is a way for the game to make some money. If the developers prepare scientific advancements to be introduced into the game at certain time frames to coincide with the BT universe, then they could allow players to pay a higher price (ie. using real world money) to gain accellerated access to the new prototypes. I'm not saying they should allow them to immediately field a brand new mech within minutes of its being released, but perhaps within 24 hours, as opposed to say a week or two depending on complexity of the technology.