36 replies to this topic

[pesco]

From Ask The Devs 2:

Garth Erlam, on 14 May 2012 - 09:02 AM, said:

Freebie Answer 2:
[PROSPERITY PARK]: How much will the act of customizing your Mech cost, aside from just the cost of Parts (what should we expect for MechLab Technical Labor costs)?

[BRYAN]: None. But now you’ve planted the seed. Muhaha.

pesco, on 14 May 2012 - 03:00 PM, said:

[The above] answer says that currently, Mech customization costs only the price of the equipment and kind of implied ("you've planted the seed") that they hadn't considered an extra cost before. This [...] surprised me. I thought that rigging a Mech to carry a different loadout than it had originally would be a somewhat costly process and require more money than, say, repairing it (replacing broken parts). In fact I thought it might even take some real-world time to finish, depending on the magnitude of the changes. Such factors would make it a little bit special to have "your" Mech; and last but not least, provide a nice avenue to spend real-world cash.

[00dlez]

In the recent mechlab you can see the actual customization process, including costs. Someone else might have a link handy.

[pesco]

Let me hilight that:

Quote

This remark was not related to the chassis size question but to the answer to Freebie Question 2. That answer says that currently, Mech customization costs only the price of the equipment and kind of implied ("you've planted the seed") that they hadn't considered an extra cost before. This also surprised me. I thought that rigging a Mech to carry a different loadout than it had originally would be a somewhat costly process and require more money than, say, repairing it (replacing broken parts). In fact I thought it might even take some real-world time to finish, depending on the magnitude of the changes. Such factors would make it a little bit special to have "your" Mech; and last but not least, provide a nice avenue to spend real-world cash.

[Belisarius1]

Dude, you've now said that three times. We get it.

Personally, I'm happy with free customisation. Buying the parts and 'mechs will be more than expensive enough, and it would have been annoying to be charged every time we wanted to try something new.

[That Guy]

standard battlemechs.

and hopefully Bryan has not gotten in on the trolling game, because i really think that there needs to be Cbill costs associated with customizing

Edited by That Guy, 14 May 2012 - 05:40 PM.

[Thomas Hogarth]

Yeah, I really hope that the cost of customizing is as high as it could potentially be in canon if you include techs, astechs, material(not individual equipment pieces but rather the material required to do the job), plus the biggest expensive of all - maintenance facility or even factory floor space rental for the big jobs.

[pesco]

Belisarius†, on 14 May 2012 - 04:18 PM, said:

it would have been annoying to be charged every time we wanted to try something new.

Fair point. Can I try before I buy? ^^

[Owl Cutter]

Encouraging us to feel free Lego together all the toys we've bought in new ways whenever we like seems worth the departure from both canon and common sense, so I'm all for free refits.

I am not a fan of being able to change the engine rating more easily than arbitrary weapon changes, since the latter can be impossible due to new MWO-specific restrictions, though. If I can change the engine rating, engine type, structure type, armor type and distribution, it makes the chassis defined just by its hardpoints (including MWO-specific "cockpit modules" or whatever they will be called) and not... uh, the whole platform that they are built into. To me, it looks kinda like being able to rebuild an automobile from a pickup truck to a muscle car, as long as the total weight stays the same and the stereo system and number of seats fits in the same limits for the "chassis."

Edited by Owl Cutter, 15 May 2012 - 02:29 AM.

[StaIker]

Free customisation is obviously the only method that will work, otherwise people will be trapped into using inferior or unsuitable weapons, not because they don't have anything better but because they can't afford to fit the proper weapons. They will thus perform worse than they should, further reducing their ability to make money. And it would hit the worst players the hardest.

The whole point of MechWarrior is customisation. Putting a penalty on that is crazy.

Edited by StaIker, 15 May 2012 - 03:04 AM.

[pesco]

StaIker, on 15 May 2012 - 03:02 AM, said:

Free customisation is obviously the only method that will work, otherwise people will be trapped into using inferior or unsuitable weapons, not because they don't have anything better but because they can't afford to fit the proper weapons. They will thus perform worse than they should, further reducing their ability to make money. And it would hit the worst players the hardest.

Are you saying the canon variants are useless?

Quote

The whole point of MechWarrior is customisation. Putting a penalty on that is crazy.

There I thought it was tactics and skill. Ah well!

[StaIker]

Who said anything about tactics and skill? I thought this thread was about customisation.

[pesco]

StaIker, on 15 May 2012 - 03:39 AM, said:

Who said anything about tactics and skill? I thought this thread was about customisation.

You said customization was the whole point of MechWarrior. I said I thought tactics and skill were the point of MechWarrior.

I'm getting out of this forum. It's filling up REAL fast with people who seemingly either don't know how to read or have the attention span of a fruit fly.

[StaIker]

Perhaps that's best. You seem rather fragile.

[That Guy]

Its also full of people that think mechbuild=win.

Custom mechs in lore were due to 2 reasons. 1, the owner was very wealthy/powerful/eccentric, or 2, spare parts were lacking and compromises needed to be made to get units back in fighting shape.

in past MW game stocks were not viable because of these very customization rules. MW2 and 3 were broken because of the free for all mess that was the open crit system (12 medlaser boats, UAC20 boats etc), and MW4 was broken because the foundation of the game was broken with armor boosts and terrible weapon and mech balance.

a custom mech should be something special for the owner. not just some whilly nilly new build of the day BS. but even if customization stays free, at least it wont be as bad as previous games... assuming weapon balance maintains some semblance of sanity

[Dihm]

I'm not a fan of free customization, wanting it to have a cost (and facility requirement) based on the severity of the customizing, but oh well. At this point, requesting the TacOps customization table be implemented in some form or another is a dead horse.

Maybe some day in the future, but I'll be happy with whatever.

[Havoc2]

I don't necessarily have a problem with being charged to customize your 'Mech


HOWEVER

It should be free to move equipment around, change the engine etc with a "Cost to Build" indicator at the bottom of the screen. Maybe even possible to save the config without actually building it in case you're low on c-bills but want to play around and see what you can come up with.
This would also require some type of "Effectiveness" indicator in the MechLab like heat efficiency (which I believe is already in) but also something similar to MW4's MechLab where armour and speed would also need an indicator. This way to could at least have an idea of how effective your new load out would be before you commit to building it.

Once you're done playing, tweaking and saving, you can hit the big BUILD IT button on the bottom of the screen.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Solaris Skunk works gives you plenty of stats on builds and as long as you stick to the timeline and hardpoint restrictions it gives you a good feel for relative changes. We have no idea how they will play or things like torso twist speed etc but you can get an idea as the Mechlab is based off TT. Hopefully when we actually get to use it Mechlab will have these details available, even if you have to go to different screens.

[Kaemon]

The devs need to turn a profit on this, I'm not seeing it with just cosmetics alone, so yes, cost for customization.

freeloaders can play with stock mechs (although I'll probably do that as well).

[That Guy]

i think we are talking Cbill costs, not MWC costs

[StaIker]

Why would anyone want to penalise creativity and diversity?