MechLab - Standalone

[whitedrake 1FSAC]

if your configs are saved and named and avail the next game, server, map.. then there is no reason to make it external...

you only have to make your layouts once folks and tweekable ingame is ok too.

no reason to fluff this all up folks.

[IceRaven]

Personally I spent HOURS in the MechLab in MW3, carefully crafting and re-working configs, changing paint jobs, deleting old variants, experimenting with weird setups and checking out what others had done by importing shared configs. It was totally an integral part of the game putting the time in at the MechLab, maybe not so much for the casual gamer but if it was the difference between winning the next match against your bitter rivals and losing, if was everything.

Excuse the nostalgia, what I mean to say is if MW:LL manages anything close to the dynamics and GUI of the MechLab in MW3, while debuting this "modular weapon" system that has been discussed, I will be ten times more hooked on this mod than I already am and donations will feel all but obligatory lol.

[UN1T]

come on..THINK BIGGGER!! .. Paint scales for mechs ??  PFFT   PLEASE...2010 ..I WANT CUSTOM PAINTS!! ... *imagines a Hot Pink Madcat Prime prancing about the battlefiled* *giggles*
or Clanners and IS with custom Team Colors and paint jobs .... look at history ...The Red Baron painted is Tri-plane to inspire fear in the brits in WW1 ..
so
i think 5-8 Hot Pink Mechs will have the Freebirth shitting themselves when a clan gets on a server and watch them scream and flee *smiles and wets himself with delight*

[matty^]

wouldn't a standalone mechlab make it easier for hacking variants and tonnage limits?

[Alexander]

Just make it an ingame feature.

Want to spend hours designing your own 'mech variants?

Fire up a LAN server on relaxing Clearcut and spend as long as you want messing about with them.

Want to spend five seconds taking a ton of armour off here and adding a ton of ammunition there?

Just do it mid-game :3

[MrBRAD!]

I would hate to have to alt-tab out of a currently-unstable (or any) game in the case that I had forgotten some tiny detail. It needs to be in-game, and changes should be possible during the actual round.

Thinking of CoD, it really sucked to have to DC from a server, just for something as simple as switching your grenade from frag to molotov. That said, there needs to be a way to stop your entire team being little geeks and hiding in the lab the entire game. Think of BF2 now- of the huddles of idiots camping the hangars and gunship helipads. Sometimes half your entire team would be sitting there with their thumbs up their asses instead of being on the battlefield! (Quite ironic. They are playing a game called "Battlefield" and the majority of the time they are assing about in a hangar instead of on the namesake of the game.) This is what may happen with the introduction of the in-fight mechlab.
(Battlefield -> Camphangar / MechWarrior -> MechOutfitter)

I could suggest that players need to be in spectate mode to be able to make changes, but I think that would just make the problem worse, and create a new one- constant autobalancing. Therefore having to be spectating is NOT the solution.  There would be no way of predicting how many players from each team are going to be changing out to spectator or for how long. Teams would spontaneously become hugely unbalanced and the auto-balancer would get to work. 
Anyone here played TF2? Any of you been suddenly switched to the other team, just as your team got the upper hand? I have. It pisses me off VERY much. The kind of frustration you get from spending an hour on something, only to have it crash just as you were about to click save. With teams constantly switching in and out of spectator, team numbers and balance will be horribly volatile.  The only way to remedy this might have to be- to keep it out of in-game. I'll be very interested to see how the devs handle this.

(Can't wait to have a Hawkmoth Heavy VTOL with a flamer firebombs) 

[=Outlaw=]

Not having the mechlab in the hangar is a good idea. If anything just to avoid the tards that will join a popular server, take a player slot and proceed to spend hours making crap. Making it a menu option seems like the logical choice. Hell make it its own unique game mode that requires the game to fire up a LAN if thats needed to counter hacks.

[=]FC[=Striker]

Maybe I misunderstood the "standalone" portion of this topic, but I was under the impression that by standalone the OP was talking about it being standalone outside of online games, but still within the game itself. I too agree that it would be rather strange to be running outside of Crysis running in the MWLL Mod mode. Maybe I give the OP too much credit in taking the "working independently from a Mission/running Game" as meaning outside of single player or multiplayer games.

Striker

[MrBRAD!]

Maybe a "Sandbox/Mechlab" mode/map that gives you unlimited credits and a bit of a playground for you to test out your creations.  This "sandbox" mode will NEED to be restricted from multiplayer, else every single preteen admin out there will have unlimited money enabled.  From what I have gathered about the Battletech community is that this is not going to happen, but I can easily imagine a picture in my head of every non-full Aus server being a damned short term buzz, everyone-gets-everything, all-the-fun-goes-out-the-window, server. (32-player, instaspawn TF2 anyone?) Ignore this crap. It belongs in a different thread.


Replying to the OP,

Just having another little window in the taskbar would be really convenient. It would be handy to be able to check out, compare, share and edit mech layouts without starting up, or constantly alt-tabing the entire damned game.

[Noti]

my intention was just a way to prevent people from being in a mp-game and just standing around, doing modifications to their mech.
i wouldnt care if its buil-in or a seperate application.

another way i just thought about would be unlocking the mechlab by gaining a certain rank.
"become SC and enjoy the MechLab" (damn, guess i'm already too much into all this marketing-shit)

[=]FC[=Striker]

my intention was just a way to prevent people from being in a mp-game and just standing around, doing modifications to their mech.
i wouldnt care if its buil-in or a seperate application.

another way i just thought about would be unlocking the mechlab by gaining a certain rank.
"become SC and enjoy the MechLab" (damn, guess i'm already too much into all this marketing-shit)

That wouldn't even remotely solve the issue that you were wanting to avoid in the first place. Not to mention, that is a terrible marketing ploy as it would just piss off the consumer at having to use the 'Mechlab during active multiplayer sessions and in a rushed manner as to ensure they accomplished their goal of making the variants.

Striker

[gautrek]

Still the first part of my last post should be unaffected by that little misunderstanding and actually does make a fapping sense. (thanks in advance for staying a bit calmer the next time you reply)

Yes mate.But he makes me laugh with his posting style.

[Elisor]

Hmmm...perhaps a server-side setting that controls how much time you can spend in the mechlab per game?  Spend more than that time in total per-game and you're auto-kicked.

Combine that with the ability to go into the mechlab when NOT on a server, so you can set up your configs in advance if you want to, as well as the ability to be in the mechlab for a limited amount of time in-game to make any last minute changes, and it might provide a solution.

[Defender]

Personally, and unofficially, I'd like to see the "Mechlab" replace the "Singleplayer" button on the Crysis GUI but also include a testing range. So, the "Singleplayer" could just be a map with various ranges and various vehicle-types to test the weapons, their ranges, and their damages on and save configs and loadouts for use in multiplayer.

No matter how much I'd personally like to see a multiplayer Mechlab to swap out parts on the fly I'd rather not see another incarnation of MW3 where you wait 20-min for someone to decide whether they'd like to drop their engine down one notch for another half-ton of armor. Shit got old real fast waiting for labrats. With limited players in a server, you're undoubtedly going to have trouble fielding even teams on the battlefield since you're going to have people hanging out in "The Lab" taking up a server spot while not fighting. 

Overall, like I said, I'd like to see "Singleplayer" turned into a Mechlab with various tech scattered along multiple ranges so you can run around through them, testing mobility, maneuverability, damages and ranges then save your favorite configs to be used in Multiplayer. I think it would streamline the gaming experience a bit more and keep the flow of action flowing.

[Zeta]

Personally, and unofficially, I'd like to see the "Mechlab" replace the "Singleplayer" button on the Crysis GUI but also include a testing range. So, the "Singleplayer" could just be a map with various ranges and various vehicle-types to test the weapons, their ranges, and their damages on and save configs and loadouts for use in multiplayer.

No matter how much I'd personally like to see a multiplayer Mechlab to swap out parts on the fly I'd rather not see another incarnation of MW3 where you wait 20-min for someone to decide whether they'd like to drop their engine down one notch for another half-ton of armor. Shit got old real fast waiting for labrats. With limited players in a server, you're undoubtedly going to have trouble fielding even teams on the battlefield since you're going to have people hanging out in "The Lab" taking up a server spot while not fighting. 

Overall, like I said, I'd like to see "Singleplayer" turned into a Mechlab with various tech scattered along multiple ranges so you can run around through them, testing mobility, maneuverability, damages and ranges then save your favorite configs to be used in Multiplayer. I think it would streamline the gaming experience a bit more and keep the flow of action flowing.

I think this would be awesome. 

Single player should = mechlab + shooting range to test different loadouts

Also, there should be custom, saved loadouts, like there are for BA equipment that carry over from this Single Player mode to reduce the time you are needlessly taking up a MP slot on a popular server