Incentivize lower drop weight with bonuses

[David A.]

+1 rep and 100k c-bills for beating a 3 skull mission with a 2 skull lance.

Don't focus on the numbers, the point is to reward challenging play.

edit: some other ideas i ran across

* limit drop weight to 400 tons, but allow 6 mechs
* steiner style drop weight bidding

 

[JibSail]

Like the idea of bonuses, but not quite sure what would make sense.

The game limits you to 4 mechs as a conscious design choice. I don't think it's such a good idea to up that number.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

Even if possible, it should be a lot higher incentive than 100K for a bonus. Facing a three skull with just lights and mediums is likely to cost you that just in repairs.

We're in business as mercs. There has to be real incentive and gain to want to tackle more with less, and frankly I don't consider it a worthy fight if my mechs and pilots don't come out mostly intact. Not getting paid to get blown up. I leave that up to the other guy.

 

[bobucles]

Why would a contractor reward you for making your life hard? That's a mercenary company problem, not a contractor problem.

It's more realistic that a contractor has some kind of stake in how much collateral damage you cause. For example if your goal is to capture a facility, they don't want you smashing everything to pieces. Or maybe they want to accomplish a goal without brewing too much bad blood from their adversary. When the urban DLC comes out then it would make complete sense that how much city you flatten will have a big political fallout for the contractor. These are potential contractor goals which are currently not represented in the rewards.

 

[The Shadowhawke]

Why would a contractor reward you for making your life hard? That's a mercenary company problem, not a contractor problem.

That follows, but that's a two-way street. Don't sign me on for a 4-skull job, and tell it's only worth a 2-skull payout for you

I can think of a few RL situations where that definitely applied.

 

[JibSail]

In stead of rewards based incentives, why not performance based ones?

You could have your pilots have preferred mechs and gain bonuses with them.

It kinda defeats the purpose of having a light lance as a challenge in difficulty, but it would incentivise the use of a light lance.

You could also have rewards based on turn times, with distances unreachable by certain tonnage mechs.

 

[Donvale]

Just reverse the idea and have a cost per ton for each drop.
The "reward" is not spending the money to drop a heavier lance in the first place.
It doesn't even have to be a linear scale,you could make it so a 100 ton mech is more expensive than two 50 ton mechs which is more expensive than four 25 ton mechs for example.

 

[AngeliDiAvanti]

+1 rep and 100k c-bills for beating a 3 skull mission with a 2 skull lance.

Don't focus on the numbers, the point is to reward challenging play.

edit: some other ideas i ran across

* limit drop weight to 400 tons, but allow 6 mechs
* steiner style drop weight bidding

That could be done by calculating upkeep and maintenance differently: Low upkeep for Mechs that don't see regular use and high upkeep for Mechs that do see battles regularly. That would create direct incentives to use fewer Mechs, while allowing latitude to send more Mechs than usual on a mission.