Before I begin, this thread isn't about BFRs. It's about a single person mech designed from scratch. Looking for input that would balance the idea. I get that some people don't like the look of mechs though. It would be appreciated that if you don't like mechs explain why. I'd be curious what you'd want if they were in.
I always felt that a mech in Planetside should have been a single person outdoor evolution to the MAX units. That is each faction has it's own variant. The design would be similar to a
Mad Cat in BattleTech with a custom design for each of the empires geared toward uniform movement. (The vanu would have scale plated armor for instance). The height would be scaled down to the height of 2 players stacked so not very tall but still enough room for a driver.
The armor would be twice as much as the lightning offset with weaknesses I'll describe later. The big change is to move a lot of features off to the skill tree such as shields and flight so having those would cost extra. Also the ammo would be reduced especially on the secondary shoulder weapons so it would need to resupply often.
Since vehicles will have components that can be individually damaged, as explained by Higby, this will work in well. The mech's components can be broken down into:
- Cockpit
- Left Arm - When damaged it slows the weapon on the arm or shuts it off
- Right Arm
- Left Shoulder - Secondary weapon upgrade slot. If damaged can slow down and shut off
- Right Shoulder
- Engines (In the back) - Slows shield regen and flight
- Left Leg - When damaged the player slows down
- Right Leg
The skill tree would allow upgrades on the following for instance:
- Armor - Upgrades plate armor and the visual appearance of the mech
- Weapons - AI, AV, AA and upgrades like more ammo or rockets. Depends on the empire
- Legs - mobility upgrades
- Shields - Unlocks the ability that is controlled by toggled. Upgrades for shield strength. Shares energy with flight
- Flight - Unlocks the ability and upgrades like strafing along with the duration and thrust power
- Sensors - To detect and warn about incoming players and vehicles and deployables (like mines).
These upgrades also all change the look of the mech. As a random example, say a player invests in sensors to detect cloakers that are getting close the upgrade would give an obvious cue to tell cloakers of the danger.
More often than not the mech would become immobalized or useless before dying. For instance if some players attacked the legs it might slow down too much to be useful so the player would need to get out and repair it.
Ideally it would need to be backed up by other players and would be vulnerable by itself. Check
Repco Catalogue and
Autobarn Catalogue. (Bailing onto it for instance, would probably be a valid strategy).
I know some people are going to think this sounds complex, but honestly the amount of skill upgrades Higby said was in the thousands for weapons and vehicle which leads me to believe vehicles are going to have very complex upgrade choices.
I left some stuff out to make the discussion open. I'm also not 100% sure my poll has all the possible options. I've been reading the mech threads from a long time and the recent ones to get an idea of the community's thoughts.
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