Start the 1 week free premium time as the reward for completion of the tutorial. That settles both with one stroke.
I've an issue with restricting to Tier 1 tech, as some Tier 2 Tech is available on Trials. For example, Gauss rifles on the Atlas K. I'd disable ES, FF, engine, Artemis, ECM, Beagle and weapon changes, but allow them to change ammo loadouts, add heat sinks and change armour allocation. Basically, allow them to 'remove' existing weapons on the trials, but not add new ones. Throw in a 'Restore Defaults' to allow people to get back what they had prior to customisation. This will allow people to raise heat efficiency or longevity at the cost of firepower, but will disable the full functionality until they get their own Mech.
GXP with trials seems like a good idea. It'd make the idea of grinding in a trial to the first Mech of their choice more acceptable, instead of the current system where the best idea even if you like Atlases is generally to grind to a Commando, purchase that, and grind in the Commando to an Atlas.
As for AFK farming, the proposed solution doesn't really solve things much. If one reduces the repair % things actually get worse - they'd die faster and have faster turnaround time. I'm of the opinion that the best solution to this really is for the PGI Game Masters to ban such accounts, and make the bans known as a way to discourage people from doing this. If anything, allowing Trial customisation is more effective at curbing AFK farming than disabling % repair is.
I'd like to see ammo costs for the whole cut by 4 times, and the 75% rearm to be disabled - so the overall costs remain similar, but the ability to exploit the process to be removed. Though Artemis LRMs should have a further cost reduction on top of this, since they're simply not economically viable at the moment - and not even powerful enough to justify that cost. Repair can stay at the 75% mark.
I'm not in agreement of role selection in the MechLab, this will discourage players from switching roles to benefit their teams as situations change. However, I would like more types of credit to be given - damage taken (tanking), damage assistance (via TAG or NARC at 50% the reward rate of personal damage), defending the base (standing in your own square to prevent an enemy cap), defending a teammate (dealing damage to a target which is firing on a teammate with < 50% health), et cetera.
And to add a way to use a key and the mouse to select a quick chat from a wheel. Very similar to the Left 4 Dead system. One of them would be 'personal chat' and one of them would be 'commander chat', the second only available when you 'take command' from the battlegrid. The personal one would include options along the lines of 'enemy spotted' - which also auto-embeds the grid location of the active target into the chat, 'base is under attack', 'all clear', 'help', 'I'm scouting', etc. The command one would include stuff like 'Attack this target' - which auto includes the target letter of the commander's active target, 'capture enemy base', 'defend our base', 'take cover', 'hold your positions' and whatnot.
Also, it would be nice if the radar display indicated a number or letter next to each Mech symbol. Friendlies to be designated with numbers, enemies to be designated with letters. When chatting in team chat or using the quick chat wheel, the number of the friendly can then be prefaced with the name, like '(3) Hayashi (Commander): Attack target C.' And since target C is indicated on the minimap with a C, they won't have to bring up their battlegrid or cycle targets to know what I'm talking about.
The reason for this kind of thing is not everyone has a microphone or can play with sound active, and it takes too long to type to use that effectively in fast combat. But wheel commands can be activated within half a second.
Edited by Hayashi, 29 November 2012 - 04:05 PM.
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Bors Mistral, on 28 November 2012 - 10:28 AM, said:
