Hi guys,
I suggest a complete overhaul of the mechwarrior skills.
First would be reducing the skill tree to piloting and gunnery. Second would be implementing a perk system. Gained XP could be spent on raising one of the base skills or buying a perk. Third would be introducing a specialisation system for mech pilots.
Why 1st?
I think, BT board game did it quite well. Just 2 skills, which is totally sufficient to play. All about guts and tactics...well, can you really train this? become more resistent to heat, better in general health, isn't indirect fire a part of general gunnery? So if you reduce both skills on basic chances of hitting and piloting efforts (DFA, standing up, without legs or arms, jumping in difficult terrain or even resist incoming damage), all the rest would be switched to 2nd.
Why 2nd?
As I mentioned, many boni you get by raising skills are perks to be honest, 3 of them you have to choose, the rest could be calles minor perks like +1 health, better chance of indirect fire or recoil penalty reduction.
If you open the XP system to buy additional skill points or perks, it becomes more flexible, makes hired pilots more challenging. AND, you can introduce various new perks (like amphibous training, electronic warfare, lance commander and many more), perks based on other perks (like a tree) or specialisations (3rd)
Why 3rd?
To round up the overhaul, giving each mech warrior a specialisation, you stick longer to special mechs, look sharper to get some of your needs and advance the real meaning of XP = experience.
How does it work? Most mech warriors learn on a special mech aside the simulator. For exaple not any locust, no, a real locust with scratches, special smell and individual behavoir. If you learn on a locust, it would be easy to pilot another one, even with different gun setup. Going further, a Cicada is avoid as well, sure, a bit fatter class of mech but not so different at all, same for Jenner, if you don't jump. But if you have to ride an Urbie, you are slow, need to jump and manage to use an autocannon. So same class, but other piloting (humanoid, juming).
What I imagine, each pilot starts with one mech specialisation (like the first perk or even none) and get a full 100% usage of his skills by riding this mech. Maybe also a slight bonus of 5 or 10%. For every other mech, you get a -25% basic malus, reduced by +5% for each category: a) same Weight class of the mech, b) same Jump capability c) same model (avoid/humanoid and maybe one day quad mech) and d) same role. At all, to a not trained mech you stay at -5%.
Role: in mech bay you can see, that each mech has a special role like skirmisher, brawler, cavalry or fire support. Maybe this could be reworked as well to give some mechs a bonus by classed in two roles (generalists) or one role (specialists).
Perks based on step 3 could be a) weight class b) Jump mechs c) structure (Humanoid/avoid/quad) and d) mech role and on a next step like a perk tree, a specialisation on a special mech (for example first perk light mech, second perk jump mechs and by having 2 of 4 perks to characterize a mech, you have access to the advanced perk, for example Jenner, Firestarter or Javelin).
And like in Hearts of Iron, your perks could be unlocked by using the roles in battle or simulator (new simulator role : train certain role or gain general XP): use 5 times new role: unlock, use 10 times, get a small discount on buying perk, use 25 times, full discount on buying perk)
For players sticking a long time for a small crew it is also an advantage: now you are capped to 10 in each skill, you gain extra but you can't spend. With the rework, characters become more interesting.
Perks could cost different, the original big perks for example 5000, small perks 1000 and mech bases perks 2500. Or by realizing this, creating a tree, the basic ones are cheaper than the advanced ones. I don't know, what makes more sence.
Please understand all mentioned numbers as proposal, this could be a base for further discussion.
I suggest a complete overhaul of the mechwarrior skills.
First would be reducing the skill tree to piloting and gunnery. Second would be implementing a perk system. Gained XP could be spent on raising one of the base skills or buying a perk. Third would be introducing a specialisation system for mech pilots.
Why 1st?
I think, BT board game did it quite well. Just 2 skills, which is totally sufficient to play. All about guts and tactics...well, can you really train this? become more resistent to heat, better in general health, isn't indirect fire a part of general gunnery? So if you reduce both skills on basic chances of hitting and piloting efforts (DFA, standing up, without legs or arms, jumping in difficult terrain or even resist incoming damage), all the rest would be switched to 2nd.
Why 2nd?
As I mentioned, many boni you get by raising skills are perks to be honest, 3 of them you have to choose, the rest could be calles minor perks like +1 health, better chance of indirect fire or recoil penalty reduction.
If you open the XP system to buy additional skill points or perks, it becomes more flexible, makes hired pilots more challenging. AND, you can introduce various new perks (like amphibous training, electronic warfare, lance commander and many more), perks based on other perks (like a tree) or specialisations (3rd)
Why 3rd?
To round up the overhaul, giving each mech warrior a specialisation, you stick longer to special mechs, look sharper to get some of your needs and advance the real meaning of XP = experience.
How does it work? Most mech warriors learn on a special mech aside the simulator. For exaple not any locust, no, a real locust with scratches, special smell and individual behavoir. If you learn on a locust, it would be easy to pilot another one, even with different gun setup. Going further, a Cicada is avoid as well, sure, a bit fatter class of mech but not so different at all, same for Jenner, if you don't jump. But if you have to ride an Urbie, you are slow, need to jump and manage to use an autocannon. So same class, but other piloting (humanoid, juming).
What I imagine, each pilot starts with one mech specialisation (like the first perk or even none) and get a full 100% usage of his skills by riding this mech. Maybe also a slight bonus of 5 or 10%. For every other mech, you get a -25% basic malus, reduced by +5% for each category: a) same Weight class of the mech, b) same Jump capability c) same model (avoid/humanoid and maybe one day quad mech) and d) same role. At all, to a not trained mech you stay at -5%.
Role: in mech bay you can see, that each mech has a special role like skirmisher, brawler, cavalry or fire support. Maybe this could be reworked as well to give some mechs a bonus by classed in two roles (generalists) or one role (specialists).
Perks based on step 3 could be a) weight class b) Jump mechs c) structure (Humanoid/avoid/quad) and d) mech role and on a next step like a perk tree, a specialisation on a special mech (for example first perk light mech, second perk jump mechs and by having 2 of 4 perks to characterize a mech, you have access to the advanced perk, for example Jenner, Firestarter or Javelin).
And like in Hearts of Iron, your perks could be unlocked by using the roles in battle or simulator (new simulator role : train certain role or gain general XP): use 5 times new role: unlock, use 10 times, get a small discount on buying perk, use 25 times, full discount on buying perk)
For players sticking a long time for a small crew it is also an advantage: now you are capped to 10 in each skill, you gain extra but you can't spend. With the rework, characters become more interesting.
Perks could cost different, the original big perks for example 5000, small perks 1000 and mech bases perks 2500. Or by realizing this, creating a tree, the basic ones are cheaper than the advanced ones. I don't know, what makes more sence.
Please understand all mentioned numbers as proposal, this could be a base for further discussion.
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