21 replies to this topic

[Sky Ferrix]

I've flipped through a few pages of previous threads and didn't find anything on the use of ejecting, or being killed in combat. So, I want to throw a few suggestions out there and see what you guys think.

First of all, if the matches go the route of CSS where you cannot respawn after being killed, then it would be interesting to allow an ejected pilot to roam the battlefield to "spectate" the battle. And if he isn't so lucky, maybe a ghost cam or something of the like. Perhaps maybe there can be an XP bonus for ejecting rather than perishing. In the case that a mech is completely disabled and on the ground, but hasn't gone critical, the pilot could climb out and "spectate" as if he had ejected.

Now if the matches include Unreal Tournament-style respawning (which I kind of hope they dont, for the sake of immersion.) XP should definitely be added for pilots who are quick enough to eject before a meltdown land on the ground in one piece, when they would then be offered a chance to respawn or "spectate". If not that, then maybe a penalty for not ejecting in time. Otherwise ejecting would be just a useless feature, much as it was in MW4. (Unless you're one of those people who likes to go kamakazi.)
Which brings me to my next point. It would be a horrible Idea to force a mech's reactor to explode by ejecting if respawning was implemented. People would no doubt abuse the feature and kick the immersion factor straight in the *****. If you ejected just for the hell of it, you just turned your precious war machine into a tactically useless statue.

[John Clavell]

In MechWarrior 4 people would try to eject to damage the enemy. While sometimes mildly useful, it had some serious limitations. I used to prefer trying to get in front of the enemy Mech, slow them down, stop them and make them focus on me to destroy me, then when they blew me up, they still might get the splash damage. However, the few extra moments my distraction may cause, was a few extra moments that Mech was not shooting my team mates, which is critical.

I think the reactor exploding on Battlemechs left right and centre is stupid personally. Yes it does happen, and it should be reflected. But it should also be rare and serious when it does. Forcing pilots to move away from the Battlemech. In MechWarrior 4 it made for some light damage and heat, but was more an annoyance than anything else. And Mechs would go critical left right and centre.

Making it rare, but a lot more powerful makes people want to get away, it changes the dynamic of the battle, which is a lot more interesting. I don't want to see it used as a means to grief matches. The video in 2009 shows the ejecting is going to be part of it. In fact it looks fantastic, and realised in a way never before seen in a MechWarrior game.

[Razor Kotovsky]

John Clavell, on 04 November 2011 - 02:07 AM, said:

In MechWarrior 4 people would try to eject to damage the enemy. While sometimes mildly useful, it had some serious limitations. I used to prefer trying to get in front of the enemy Mech, slow them down, stop them and make them focus on me to destroy me, then when they blew me up, they still might get the splash damage. However, the few extra moments my distraction may cause, was a few extra moments that Mech was not shooting my team mates, which is critical.

Suiciding in front of an enemy was a very viable team tactic as it usually forced the target to shut down.

[rag tag]

John Clavell, on 04 November 2011 - 02:07 AM, said:

I think the reactor exploding on Battlemechs left right and centre is stupid personally. Yes it does happen, and it should be reflected. But it should also be rare and serious when it does. Forcing pilots to move away from the Battlemech. In MechWarrior 4 it made for some light damage and heat, but was more an annoyance than anything else. And Mechs would go critical left right and centre.

Making it rare, but a lot more powerful makes people want to get away, it changes the dynamic of the battle, which is a lot more interesting. I don't want to see it used as a means to grief matches. The video in 2009 shows the ejecting is going to be part of it. In fact it looks fantastic, and realised in a way never before seen in a MechWarrior game.

That would be awesome seeing 'Mechs scatter!

[omegaclawe]

Ejecting should not cause criticals/explosions. At all. If they shoot your unoccupied mech on the ground, perhaps, but the act of ejecting should not make things go boom.

Note that in the video, he ejected because the reactor was about to go boom, anyway. This works fine.

Anyway, ejecting, good. Kamikaze explosions? Bad.

[Jack Fortune]

Ejecting in several of the novels is explained as a tactic to cause the mech to go critical as the fusion engine controls are located in the cockpit. Rockets ejecting you out of the cockpit (or if the whole head assembly comes off those rockets) damage the controls which cause a meltdown. This is of course a simplified explanation and used to move the story along. My point is this, if we eject in game then there should an in-game mechanic that allows for a chance of a meltdown but not a guarantee. That way no one should be ejecting as a "tactic" and only as a last resort to escape a dying mech.

[Lorebot]

Ejection should never outright cause a meltdown. Now, that doesn't preclude locking your reactor into a meltdown cycle and then ejecting, that's clearly a viable tactic when you're already losing or are out of options, but the ejection alone should never cause a meltdown.

I'm hoping that we have to actually pay for every mech we pilot unless they're granted to us from whatever faction we're a part of, as such I would think that purposely overloading your reactor and ejecting would not be something that is done often because there's usually no gain associated with such an act unless it's the only option left to you for completing your mission. No real Mechwarrior WANTS to lose a mech, it's like purposely crashing your car...it just doesn't happen without extreme reasons or circumstances.

I agree that meltdowns should be rare and extremely devastating, not just to the mechs nearby but also to the environment. Buildings should collapse, dust clouds should form, nearby mechs should be seriously damaged. When a mech is melting down you should feel the need to get away from it. But this should also not be the norm. Reactor hits should be rare and more often than not they should simply cause a system shutdown, not an overload and meltdown. There's supposed to be salvage in the game, if more than half of what I shoot goes up in a puff of nuclear smoke I'm going to be very disappointed in my salvage at the end of the battle. When that Warhammer in the 2009 video melted down I was silently cheering for the pilot because even though he lost his mech he fought valiantly and that Atlas was probably scrap once the dust settled.

[Wraith 1]

I think it should be done kind of like MW2, in which they had a eject hotkey, and a self-destruct hotkey, if you could only do one or the other, with a massive explosion (and some kind of suicide penalty) from self-destructing.

[GI Journalist]

Some of this decision is tied to how they intend to implement salvage. Part of the benefit from ejecting from a Mech, other than escaping with your life, is that you save your 'Mech from further damage, perhaps ransoming it back if you lose. If ejecting prevented my opponent from shooting the Mech out from under me, you better believe I'd have a finger on that hotkey.

Of course, the eject sequence may turn out to be automatic, and implemented to give me a nice view of the battlefield when my 'Mech explodes.

[Saurok]

If pilots are gaining XP for doing their job on battlefield. I say reward surviving players with 100% XP they earned. And if they die, they loose 10-20% of their total earned exp (what was earned during the match).

Eject successfully, and you keep your XP.

Edited by Saurok, 07 November 2011 - 10:26 PM.

[Sergei Smirnov]

Wraith-1, on 04 November 2011 - 08:27 PM, said:

I think it should be done kind of like MW2, in which they had a eject hotkey, and a self-destruct hotkey, if you could only do one or the other, with a massive explosion (and some kind of suicide penalty) from self-destructing.

Press both buttons.

[TheRulesLawyer]

Saurok, on 07 November 2011 - 10:25 PM, said:

If pilots are gaining XP for doing their job on battlefield. I say reward surviving players with 100% XP they earned. And if they die, they loose 10-20% of their total earned exp (what was earned during the match).

Eject successfully, and you keep your XP.

could be interesting. Just keep a switch for auto-eject. Make you decide if disabling it is really the right thing to do.

[theginganinja]

Jack Fortune, on 04 November 2011 - 07:38 PM, said:

Ejecting in several of the novels is explained as a tactic to cause the mech to go critical as the fusion engine controls are located in the cockpit. Rockets ejecting you out of the cockpit (or if the whole head assembly comes off those rockets) damage the controls which cause a meltdown. This is of course a simplified explanation and used to move the story along. My point is this, if we eject in game then there should an in-game mechanic that allows for a chance of a meltdown but not a guarantee. That way no one should be ejecting as a "tactic" and only as a last resort to escape a dying mech.

I do not recall any instances in the novels where ejecting actually caused the 'Mech to go critical - if they went critical after the ejection, it was either from damage (often the enemy wouldn't realize ejection had occurred, and would continue to shoot i=the 'Mech up), or from the pilot actually setting the self-destruct (which ranged in difficulty from pressing a few buttons to needing to spend time ripping out wires and disabling failsafes). Granted, I have not read all of the novels, but I figure that I would've seen it at some point if it was a canon-supported possible outcome of ejecting. This is mainly because getting your 'Mech completely scrapped was a very bad thing, due to their extreme cost. If you were a merc, odds are you'd be dispossessed for a very long time, if not forever; if you were a house unit, you only had a slightly better chance of getting a replacement in a timely manner. So, setting your 'Mech to self-destruct was a very serious thing to consider.

As far as how I think ejecting should work in this game, I definitely do not think it should cause the reactor to go critical - your 'Mech should just drop after a moment or two, maybe with some smoke coming from the cockpit area. I rather like the idea of getting to keep all of your experience gained if you eject in time, and losing some if you get yourself killed. It rewards smart gameplay without making you start over from level zero if you get killed. To make this feasible for those with slower reflexes, the game should have a relatively broad window to eject in - think of the '09 trailer, when the computer was yelling "EJECT" at the pilot with plenty of time to spare before the 'Mech went boom.

Edited by irishwarrior, 08 November 2011 - 03:49 PM.

[nighthawk441]

I think a cool addon is that @ the end of a match you lose some % of your end C-BILL earnings. Each mech you lost will subtract X% and each death ( meaning you didn't eject and died with the mech ) you lose Y% of ur C-BILLS. This would encourage you to eject in a bad situation but also know that ejecting will still add to your total number of mechs lost. The percentage you would lose would be small anyway.

So instead oof being rewarded more xp for surviving you get jipped less .

[Felicitatem Parco]

I mentioned this in a discussion thread:

If a pilot "dies" in battle they should face a penalty of some sort, ranging from having to wait a period of time before your next deployment as you sit around and heal from your grievous wounds, or the pilot should lose a certain amount of skill points as a result of their injuries (just like how an athlete has to re-train after recovering from severe injuries).

Ejecting could prevent these penalties and leave your pilot on the ground with a hand-held radio that allows you to act as a scout (via live voice-chat). You'd be slow, practically unarmed, but alive and still able to radio-in your observations.

I also wonder how a fusion reactor can explode, because when a fusion reactor's magnetic containment field is breached you just get a furious *poof* of plasma venting out the side... and that's it. No boom. The only way you can make a fusion reactor explode is if you somehow make it implode on itself and compress the fussile material into an ultra-dense state... say, like surrounding it with a fission nuclear bomb (BTW, that's how you make a H-bomb).

Edited by Prosperity Park, 19 November 2011 - 12:48 PM.

[That Guy]

I am in full support for some sort of "death penalty" for having a mech completely destroyed/staying in too long.

in all the other MW games you simply stayed in until you died, there was no incentive to save your self. in a realistic scenario no one would want to stay in long enough to die!

perhaps if you don't eject and are "killed" during a mission you get no XP for that round? if you eject then you get your full XP

also there could be big point incentives for "killing" a mech. perhaps 2 types of "kills". "true kills" where the mech is toasted and pilot "dies" and "assist/disable kill" where the pilot ditches (everyone who contributed to the units demise with in several seconds gets one of these).
at the end of the round lots of people will have assists/disables, but only a very few will have True Kills

[Moppelkotze]

If you get zero XP when you die no one will ever really fight. They will pew pew .. oh my armor is yellow so this
match is over for me. Why should you ever go into close combat where the risk to die is much higher?

[That Guy]

A) because its realistic
you misunderstand the statement. It is up to the pilot when to ditch a burning mech. if they stay too long, and the CT or head gets totally destroyed the pilot is "killed" in the mech and then he gets no XP. if he ejects before the CT or head gets totally trashed, then he lives and gets what ever XP was earned during the round. simple ya?

[Sabbathiel]

I would like to see the honor system set in place. If you are going crit and a warning light is flashing the enemy can offer you a Honorable eject. if you take this and survive the eject. you could land and keep safe till a trnsport. "medic" can not be harmed picks you up and takes you to a plqace you can respawn. if you opt to refuse the eject and die you will have a penalty, and a wound. something would be inparred, and it would stack as you reswan until the match is over. and what about scrap? the wining team should get all usable scrap. and the teams should only have so many mechs that they could respwn to. after 5 respawns you can only use a light mech. or damged mechs.or Elimental. so many ways to do it. But fast respwning and instant back in battle will get boring and unfair. learn to use tactics and skill. and know if you lose your mech its GONE! I think that would kill the dishonorable Kamikazi.. idea.

[torgian]

I think you should be able to eject. If you do, you could spectate... while on foot. Can you imagine how scary it'd be to run around trying to avoid enemy mechs from shooting your poor little unprotected body?