Not to sound too repetitive, but since you're redoing shops it sounds like an excellent opportunity to rebalance the economy as well.
Developer Diaries #3: Shop Revisions and Flashpoint Rewards
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Story missions are simply time gated, with the later ones appearing after X missions. They don't account for what you have at all.
I didn't realize that. I would have thought gating the missions would be a smoother solution than trying to shoehorn in heavier 'Mechs. Though, again, I've always thought that the economy doesn't "feel right". Mostly due to the relative ease of obtaining 'Mechs. I was hoping for more of a "Life is Cheap. Battlemechs aren't" feel to the economy.
Of course, I'm also not a fan of the Steiner scout lance end game, so I fully admit I'm probably an outlier on this.
That's what I am concerned about in my Medium Mech only Campaign lol. I might have to launch, and then withdraw from side missions towards the end. Something I am not crazy about doing.
If mechs seem too easy to get, I would recommend trying some of the expanded difficulty options. Requiring 5 pieces to complete a mech really slows down how quickly I was getting them. It also required me to fight heavier enemies more frequently. I found that I was regularly under weight.
Combine that with stingy salvage payouts and unequipped mechs for extra difficulty. Any c-bills that weren't spent on Argo upgrades went to + grade equipment. I was buying jump jets and heat sinks. It has been a wonderful challenge.
The difficulty options really opened up the ability to tailor the game to your preferences.
Combine that with stingy salvage payouts and unequipped mechs for extra difficulty. Any c-bills that weren't spent on Argo upgrades went to + grade equipment. I was buying jump jets and heat sinks. It has been a wonderful challenge.
The difficulty options really opened up the ability to tailor the game to your preferences.
I am wondering can this be applied to how mechs are spawned as well, given that each power typically have a different spread of mechs available for use.
namely there is a spreadsheet going on around showing mech rarity by faction in the 3028ish timeline that I would love to see implemented (and of course, get some of the missing stuff like stingers and wasps in).
namely there is a spreadsheet going on around showing mech rarity by faction in the 3028ish timeline that I would love to see implemented (and of course, get some of the missing stuff like stingers and wasps in).
Right now one of the biggest impediments to implementing this idea would seem to be the relatively few mechs we have available. Yes, there are definitely faction "specific" mechs in the current set but are there enough? Are there enough general types?
I think from the spreadsheet we are fairly close, I think we just need something like 10 more different models.
like the wasp, stinger, crusader, longbow, phoenix hawk, warhammer, archer, rifleman, and ostsol
leaving out a few like the Lancelot, whitworth, Valkyrie , Hermes II, etc. etc. that are popular only with 1 faction to the extreme.
yes, it would be a major investment but if they are planning on staying in 3025 era I think its a good set of mechs to have. And if they ever do other campaigns that focus on just specific conflicts we could see those orphans get in as part of their faction.
like the wasp, stinger, crusader, longbow, phoenix hawk, warhammer, archer, rifleman, and ostsol
leaving out a few like the Lancelot, whitworth, Valkyrie , Hermes II, etc. etc. that are popular only with 1 faction to the extreme.
yes, it would be a major investment but if they are planning on staying in 3025 era I think its a good set of mechs to have. And if they ever do other campaigns that focus on just specific conflicts we could see those orphans get in as part of their faction.
here is what I am working off of, which was pulled from the giant sheet out of 1000 rolls, and I only kept the variants with more than 50 range (IE the most likely ones, but I did not de-dupe them by the base chassis only the variant)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nA30rlr6G-4Z69j49ZjgfFD07V9TycQcjIFZHQ_HbR4/edit?usp=sharing
I think its honestly do-able with a few more models, and even without we can make some choices to kind of fudge things around a bit so there is a bit of a signature flavour to each faction.
Like
Liao gets Urbie, Vindicator, Tbolt, Victor (MoC?)
Kurita gets Panther, Griffin, Dragon, Stalker (and can also work for Taurians)
Davion gets Locust, Enforcer, Jagermech, Awesome
Marik gets Spider, Wolverine, Orion, Battlemaster
Steiner (not on our map but...) gets commando, Shadow Hawk, Tbolt, Zeus.
That would skew the appearance of those mechs, but not lock them down 100%.
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@TheHolyLancer I think that this is a topic better addressed in a new Topic rather than cluttering up this one.
This is kind of off-topic, but will Flashpoint introduce new types of equipment/weapons?
Apparently, you'll get special rewards for completing Flashpoint mini-campaigns, but if it's just gonna be + weapons or stuff that's already in the game, that's a little disappointing. Was hoping things like ECM would make an appearance soon...
Apparently, you'll get special rewards for completing Flashpoint mini-campaigns, but if it's just gonna be + weapons or stuff that's already in the game, that's a little disappointing. Was hoping things like ECM would make an appearance soon...
I don't expect ECM in this expansion. That is the sort of thing I would expect to be specifically listed in the features. I would certainly like to see ECM and additional electronic warfare options, but I want the devs to take their time and do it right. Last I heard they were still trying to figure out how it would work best.
It does seem like we will see more availability of lostech, even if it is a very rare occurrence. Currently the only lostech is from the campaign and it can never be replaced if destroyed.
We are getting a bit off topic. This thread is about changes to the shops and rewards from the Flashpoint missions.
I am curious how some of this will work since there are a couple of factions with no controlled systems. Will Kuritans and Steiners have unique items even though they have no shops? Or will they have an ally exclusive shop? Will these new loot tables be used to determine salvage? If I fight a Kuritan lance, even if they aren't using Kurita specific mechs, will I be rolling on the Kurita salvage table or is salvage going to be generalized with any enemy dropping any type of gear?
Interesting stuff, I look forward to hearing more!
It does seem like we will see more availability of lostech, even if it is a very rare occurrence. Currently the only lostech is from the campaign and it can never be replaced if destroyed.
We are getting a bit off topic. This thread is about changes to the shops and rewards from the Flashpoint missions.
I am curious how some of this will work since there are a couple of factions with no controlled systems. Will Kuritans and Steiners have unique items even though they have no shops? Or will they have an ally exclusive shop? Will these new loot tables be used to determine salvage? If I fight a Kuritan lance, even if they aren't using Kurita specific mechs, will I be rolling on the Kurita salvage table or is salvage going to be generalized with any enemy dropping any type of gear?
Interesting stuff, I look forward to hearing more!
I though Awesomes were Marik poster childs (despite the PPC shortage in the FWL)?
This is getting perilously close to the diversion thread, but I will do my best to keep it on topic. I'm all for the new store system, it seems like a neat way to differentiate them. The problem is, in my play throughs at least, I haven't needed the stores that much. So I'm not sure how much this system will be noticeable.
It's not so much that I feel that 'Mechs are easy to get, as it is I think there is too much salvage given in general. I feel like the Argo storage bay must look like the inside of a Sandcrawler with all the weapons and 'Mech parts laying around.
It just seems that the game is much more heavily weighted towards salvage than C-Bills. Coming from a lore perspective, it just feels odd to have so much stuff that pawning off 'Mechs and piles of spare weapons for cheap is the easiest way to pay the bills. Selling a 'Mech seems like it should be a rare occurrence for a small merc unit. I think it would be better for less salvage given overall (and perhaps have 'Mech parts be worth 2 or 3 "slots" each) and have the player be required to scrounge at the stores for what they need. I think this would make faction reputation more useful (it seems to be underused to me), because the store discounts would be more meaningful. It might also make me more likely to withdraw or not destroy enemies if not required, since I wouldn't have a huge pile of weapons available to replace anything that gets damaged.
I know I can just negotiate for more C-Bills and less salvage on contracts to achieve this effect, but that is just playing sub-optimally for the sake of it. I don't know, maybe this wouldn't make for fun gameplay... It just feels the economy is off to the point that the system described in this diary won't really be appreciated.
EDIT: Doh! I somehow missed the new salvage setting added in the 1.1 difficulty options. I will certainly play with that a bit and see how it feels.
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Try using 8 parts to get a mech and you'll see the game change radically, especially if you also set that salvaged mechs have no equipment.
Just raising the parts needed above three means you won't be able to ever salvage any 'Mech the first time you see it; with a clean headshot you still only get three parts salvage. In my previous playthrough I spent over 1,000 days and dropped on almost 100 missions before I got my first heavy (although to be fair I had salvage set to five, and had set a voluntary restriction on myself not to do Weldry until I had a heavy, which limited mission difficulty to three skulls max).
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Minnesota Tribe
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Except that discussion in and following what my comment referenced wasnt just pointing out an error for correction was it?
To quote you;
It was suggesting the Devs
That I believe is why it's much ado about nothing.
Time will reveal all
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Well, they actually already have gone against lore with the inclusion of the Catapult-K2, which is explicitly noted as extinct during the time the game takes place.It was suggesting the Devsaremay be intentionally ignoring lore based on supposition from a more likely spread sheet item that ended up copy-pasted into an example table during development. Theres an unnecessary leap being made with the earlier "presumably".
That I believe is why it's much ado about nothing.
Time will reveal all
One could say there were extenuating circumstances behind its inclusion, but one could also say it sets a precedent, so I understand the concern, and the time to voice this kind of thing is before the expansion is finalized, because they certainly won't be removing content once it ships.
I don't know if I feel that it sets too much of a precedence. After all, I would at least think that what ever stretches to lore they do for BattleTech, there is going to be some canon elements to it that will keep it from going too out there.
Like with the K2. I like to think of it as more of a stretch than an outright violation (although both points of view could be argued). Just like other mechs in the game like the Black Knight, King Crab, and even the upcoming Crab, they aren't mechs that would be marching around the IS in 3025, and especially not the Periphery. Still, for the sake of giving us more mechs to play with, and ones with different attributes, I think it is ok. After all, it isn't like the Bushwacker is in this game. The mechs did at least exist before the 3025 timeline.
That is why I would say that even though it is a stretch to think that K2s would be around in any amount (since they were supposedly extinct), it is at least a mech that existed before 3025 and therefore has groundings in lore for existing in this game.