'MechLab Custom 'Mechs and Ranking Up

[Nitro_R]

[Suggestions]
If the Team Death Match mode continues as is and the 'MechLab is added, here are some suggestions:

1) 'Mechs are to be configured outside of the game (if Crysis allows this, but probably not).
Reasoning:  So you can configure mechs for hours of fun.  I enjoy this.

2) You will be able to choose one mech (or a specific number of mechs) per weight class/vehicle class that you can bring into a game.
Classes could be: Light, Medium, Heavy, Assault, VTOL, Aerotech, etc.
Reasoning: To make the default variants still viable if the situation in-game makes your custom mech not as effective (tactical reasons).

3) Cost of the mech would be calculated by what you have on the mech.
Reasoning: To fit into the Rank-up c-bill scheme so custom mechs can be balanced.  Then you can even factor in if you have a 7 ERLL NovaCat, you can make it more expensive thereby nerfing it.  If people use a particular loadout most frequently and it seems "cheap" or "overpowered", it can be nerfed by making such a loadout more expensive in the next patch.

Example) 1 ERLL costs 4000 cbills, then adding the 2nd ERLL will make that one cost 4100, and so on until the 7th one will cost 6000cbills.


[Advantages]
Advantages of these three features would be:
A) They can be applied to other game modes easily making the "Rank Up system" viable in all game modes.

B) You can't change custom loadouts on the fly, making preset variants more viable and "worth it".

C) Only having a limited amount of custom mechs at a player's disposal per class ensures that their custom mech will not always be a viable class for a given tactical situation.
[For example] if the custom mech is well suited for long-range battle, but does not have defenses against fast and light mechs flanking them, and the opposing team has chosen to use many fast and light mechs;  It would be advantageous that the next mech the player buys is something else that is better against fast and light mechs.

D) Balancing custom designs can be done by just tweaking costs of certain loadouts/items/multiples of items.

[Chaotic Neutral]

Or, you know, I could just go play Modern Warfare 2?

Changing mechs in the game is a much better idea, and don't nerf certain combinations because they are good, it doesn't make sense. And if a beam laser costs 4000, why would another cost 4100?

[Temphage]

Changing mechs in the game is a much better idea

Absolutely, 100%, completely disagree.

Unless you want to see every pub server have 9 people in each hangar standing there for 25 minutes at a time, you shouldn't be allowed to make a quick trip to the gun store after you already whipped out your knife at the gunfight.

[Irregular_Peanut]

I also think Mechlab should be done out of game if possible. Pretty much for the reason Temphage stated.

Also I would be afraid of people changing their configurations every life/mech to counter a specific threat, it would just become tedious, I mean it would be fine if you did it once or twice per game but doing it every life just to counter what some other enemy has deployed would be annoying.

[Temphage]

I also think Mechlab should be done out of game if possible. Pretty much for the reason Temphage stated.

Also I would be afraid of people changing their configurations every life/mech to counter a specific threat, it would just become tedious, I mean it would be fine if you did it once or twice per game but doing it every life just to counter what some other enemy has deployed would be annoying.

That too. Playing rock-paper-scissors in an endless chase all game would get pretty damn old.

So, actually all things considered, I'm kind of in favor of limiting players to X number of custom mechs they can bring along...

[=KoS=Zeus]

I'd rather not have customization at all, the variants are fine, they can be more easily balanced by the devs, and it keeps specific roles which the mechs desperately need to hold on to or the game will devolve into the 1 best chassis per pay grade with the rock, paper, or scissors load out.

[Chaotic Neutral]

^ Blasphemy!

[7.[WD]Poldi]

One should always have the ability to fine-tune a mech setup within the game, reacting to a certain gameplay of the enemy, but also the ability to change those loadouts out of the game is totally needed imho for the reasons stated above (too time consuming in game...).
Can't the setups be saved in plain text or .xml files? This way a windows program/script could be written easily to customize mechs out of the game and export/load/sort your favorites.
Even some different profiles would be nice to have a certain pool of mechs at hand, like "hot environment mechs" for maps like inferno where you only store mech loadouts that don't heat up so much.

[Temphage]

One should always have the ability to fine-tune a mech setup within the game, reacting to a certain gameplay of the enemy

Kind of the entire point why you shouldn't be allowed to do that... like I said, going 'oh shit I left my flamer mech... in my... other pants' really takes away part of the entire point of the mechlab, and that's variety.

Personally I could do without the mechlab altogether. I'd rather see several VERSIONS of every different mech - one version (with 4 variants) focused on weapons, one version focused on mobility, one on armor, and one on equipment.

[(TLL)KitLightning]

Changing mechs in the game is a much better idea

Absolutely, 100%, completely disagree.

Unless you want to see every pub server have 9 people in each hangar standing there for 25 minutes at a time, you shouldn't be allowed to make a quick trip to the gun store after you already whipped out your knife at the gunfight.

Why where was it stated that the 'Mech fills up a bay before it is customized. The 'MechLab should just be an addition to the existing Buy Menu, where you can purchase a stripped 'Mech chassis and afterwards customize it as wanted, with the option to save the configuration.

... in my... other pants'  ...

yep nothing else but an extinguished flamer in there!

[Temphage]

Changing mechs in the game is a much better idea

Absolutely, 100%, completely disagree.

Unless you want to see every pub server have 9 people in each hangar standing there for 25 minutes at a time, you shouldn't be allowed to make a quick trip to the gun store after you already whipped out your knife at the gunfight.

Why where was it stated that the 'Mech fills up a bay before it is customized. The 'MechLab should just be an addition to the existing Buy Menu, where you can purchase a stripped 'Mech chassis and afterwards customize it as wanted, with the option to save the configuration.

I'm talking about 9 people standing around fapping around with their mech for half the game. It *WILL* happen. Even 'vets', if the game allows on-the-fly customization, are going to rock-paper-scissors the game into inane boredom if possible.

[(TLL)KitLightning]

We have two option for a MechLab imho. One is that the MechLab is implemented into the initial Crysis menu before the game is loaded. This is not a valid option currently and may not even be supported by the engine. The only option elsewhere besides keeping it in the actual game is to create a map explicitly for customizing a Loadout, but that still demands that you can 1. export the config, and 2. import the config in the game. Optionally running the game on your own server and creating and saving the config there. But you still need the ability to select the config in the normal Buy Menu regardless. That said if it is kept in a secluded map, you will have players connected and disconnecting time and again due to a flawed config.

[Irregular_Peanut]

If the game is capable of saving mech configs, then what if they allow you to make a config in the game, but you can only utilise X different configs for each game (and if the server is capable of tracking score after a disconnect, could it track the players so they can't reset the number of custom configs upon reconnect?).

So when you've built up your library of configurations you simply choose which ones you want to use for the rest of the match or you save the slots for when the enemy throws something at you that needs to be beaten, however you can only do it a limited amount of times.

If the devs can make mech configuring intuitive and easy then people spending obscene amounts of time in the hangar shouldn't be a problem, I'm still worried about the possibility of an infinite game of rock-paper-scissors though.

[(TLL)Siilk]

 I second the idea of offline mechlab as mech variant creation is a process that takes much time, often with some iterations of testing it. Rushing through weapon and subsystem selection while battle is raging outside only to find your new mech doesn't have enough heatsinks is what we'll get with online-only mechlab. Variants should be created, edited and stored offline. Point.

 The best possible solution here, given the nature limitations of MWLL being a crysis mod, is "prototype testing facility" map, which, as any other map, could be started offline on a local server. It could have mech lab hangar with unlimited access to chassis, arms and equipment and target practice area. Such map allows quick play-testing of new variants and, actually, could be very fun by itself. 
 
 As for how many customized variants to be allowed ingame, I think this should be selectable in server config, ranging from "no custom variants" to "unlimited custom cariants".

[Nitro_R]

Or, you know, I could just go play Modern Warfare 2?

MWLL Dedicated Servers = I play
MW2 No Dedicated Servers = I don't play
Plus, I've never played MW1 or MW2 before, not sure what you mean.
www.modernwarfail2.com

Changing mechs in the game is a much better idea, and don't nerf certain combinations because they are good, it doesn't make sense.

I'd love that too, but realistically you're going to get half your team in the spawn just playing lego with their mech configs the entire match.  I'd be one of these said people.

And if a beam laser costs 4000, why would another cost 4100?

I probably didn't explain myself clearly enough here.  This is to make sure super-laserboat 7ERLL Novacats are expensive so they cannot be exploited like in Mech4 (where they were free).  Lasers are just an example. 

It doesn't have to be lasers.  I just think anything that's overpowered FOR IT'S PRICE should have some modifier to make it have a reasonable price.  Balancing rank-up tier units by cost.

That too. Playing rock-paper-scissors in an endless chase all game would get pretty damn old.

So, actually all things considered, I'm kind of in favor of limiting players to X number of custom mechs they can bring along...

Well, Mechwarrior LL is a little different than Rock/Paper/Scissors in that you know which of the three your opponent has out there beforehand.  "You have information about his poker hand" and can "play your hand accordingly" in your next spawn.

This makes the game dynamic and no single tactic can win (except missileboating on Clearcut haha, and Laserboat-Novacatting in MW4) which promotes players to use a variety of weaponry and tactics.

But if you had an in-game Mechlab, you'd be in the Mechlab configuring your "hand" every respawn. Yes, that would be tedious.