What will your day one mods of choice be?

[ronhatch]

In the Beta, the starting lance was configurable, but of course, it didn't plug into anything so intricate as the Magistry Metals mission. If there's nothing overly special about that mission from a coding standpoint and it's just a JSON or just feeds off a strategic starting condition JSON, it should also work.

But plugging into the Magistry Metals mission isn't intricate at all... as far as the code is concerned, it's just placing four mechs on the map. You could severely unbalance the mission if your substitutions were drastic enough, but I would be shocked if it didn't work just by changing those four lines in the JSON.

Thinking about the context, it's actually quite possible that there's no continuity between the Tutorial and Magistry Metals from a coding standpoint and they're just totally separate scripts, so the game isn't figuring on things in the same way as it will later to where you "have" the Blackjack (ie. two totally separate missions with starting mech lists). After that mission, I'm sure it would be really tricky to convert one mech into another, but for that particular mission string, it could work.

Given that the first mission has that weird malfunctioning jump jets thing and the Magistry Metals mission has fully functioning jump jets, my bet would be that having any kind of mech continuity whatsoever simply relies on having it in the JSON files. If you think about it, those first two missions are the only ones that don't give you a pilot/mech selection screen, so they have to define the allocation some other way... given the design decisions they've made in the past... it's some lines in the JSON.

 

[Mojo Amok]

But plugging into the Magistry Metals mission isn't intricate at all... as far as the code is concerned, it's just placing four mechs on the map. You could severely unbalance the mission if your substitutions were drastic enough, but I would be shocked if it didn't work just by changing those four lines in the JSON.

It does have the seemingly unique double cross mechanic, though. I'm not sure if the JSONs alone would be what would govern that or the other unusual scripted elements found in the story missions.

Bottom line is the story missions may or may not be configurable with text edits. From there we have Magistry Metals may or may not work in the same manner as the story missions.

If the answer to all of these questions is "yes, it's all open" then it would suggest modding in a new campaign is potentially feasible, but I'm not willing to go that far without seeing the files.

 

[Sable Phoenix]

• Reduce the grid spacing from 24 meters to 6. Trying this in the beta skirmish, I absolutely LOVE the expanded options. (Although I might use some other number, depending on further testing.) It makes the game take longer and the AI spends far more time thinking, but I am a very patient man. It's also very unlikely to cause balance problems.

What does this mean? Is this the spacing of the dots that represent hexes for movement?

 

[ronhatch]

What does this mean? Is this the spacing of the dots that represent hexes for movement?

Yes.
It's controlled by the "ExperimentalGridDistance" parameter in the CombatGameConstants.json file.

 

[ronhatch]

It does have the seemingly unique double cross mechanic, though. I'm not sure if the JSONs alone would be what would govern that or the other unusual scripted elements found in the story missions.

But again, the double cross mechanic has nothing to do with which mechs are in the mission.

There is absolutely no reason I can see that the code in charge of the double cross mechanic would not work exactly the same if you were in a Steiner scout lance. So I do think that the JSONs alone are all you need to change the starting lance. Unless I missed something, that was the only change people wanted to make. The rest of the scripting may or may not be defined in the JSON, but that's not the relevant bit.

 

[Mojo Amok]

But again, the double cross mechanic has nothing to do with which mechs are in the mission.

There is absolutely no reason I can see that the code in charge of the double cross mechanic would not work exactly the same if you were in a Steiner scout lance.

I realize that later part and you're probably correct, but what I mean is that missions with unique scripts could potentially be built differently with a separate tool crafted by Eck feeding in the mission parameters. We haven't really seen anything behind the scenes for story missions as actually implemented in the final game (I am aware of the old campaign file in the Beta). Maybe, in this scenario, Magistry Metals wouldn't even count as a story mission anyway, thus rendering my skepticism moot, but I do feel it's worth noting until there's more confirmation.

The corollary is that, if the story content is indeed JSON-configurable within both the Tac and (especially) Sim layers without any special in-house tools involved that HBS used or developed, the ramifications would go far beyond being able to alter the starting lance. That would open the door for customizing story campaigns or even creating new ones. Dunno - could go either way. Hopefully, they went JSON all the way with everything.

 

[Rebeldad]

I don't usually care for mods other than vanity stuff. I will just support the game and wait for the timeline to advance. Oh and if anyone does a mod of Marvin the Martian, Hook this old man up.

 

[KnightCole]

My initial mods will be:

Create my own variants of a few mechs, initially: ZEU-K1, DRG-K1 and possibly a CNT-K1.
Create a few of my own weapons: Drillz 6 and 4 Missile Launcher, KR PPC, KR AC-10 and 5.
Create 4 custom pilots(no im not going to start with 8/8/8/8, im going to start them off bad, but improve them, dont wanna lose that aspect of the game.
Create my own custom company logo for sure.
Change my starting unit, I cant decide if I wanna pilot a Zeus or a Dragon...

 

[Zarcon]

I’m a freak. Gonna play the game Stock.

Am too excited about getting my greedy hands on the gameplay to waste “use” any time modding prior to the adventure, lol!

 

[GenTask]

My initial mods will be:

Create my own variants of a few mechs, initially: ZEU-K1, DRG-K1 and possibly a CNT-K1.

What are on these?

I have a thread here for posting people's creations from Table Top or MegaMek. There used to be a thread on the old forum. I really miss Solaris7 though which had tons of canon-like non-canon variants made by people to sift through with their own made up lore.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

After seeing Kiva's twitter posting about urbies being extremely rare: Switching the Locust for an UM-R60 is totally what I'll be doing at day 1.

 

[Hargert]

No mods for day one, will play with their numbers and adjustments for the first play. After that I am thinking mod so it is closer to tabletop balance on weapons and to add mechs to the roster if that is possible. Maybe up the parts needed to salvage a mech to 5 or so.

 

[NoDebate]

Assuming the BJ-1 is our only possible starter, I will be amending that with some table rolling (D Availability seems fair).

 

[KnightCole]

Assuming the BJ-1 is our only possible starter, I will be amending that with some table rolling (D Availability seems fair).

Lol, ill be changing that into probably my own DRG-K1, after the coronation stuff happens, so as not to mess up the first part of the game, since my mech wont have JJs. I wonder what happens if you dont have JJ and cant get past the training portion where, in the words of Cohh, "mech dad", tells you to JJ.

 

[Fiddlersitch]

As a noob to modding it seems from reading here that altering the json file to switch one of your starting lance mechs at the majesty metals mission should be possible? To replace the spider?

 

[Tnarien]

I'd certainly be interested in possibly changing a starting mech or two. I'd be even more interested in knowing how hard it would be to add variants to the game, whether it would be possible to get them to show up in random missions, and whether it would be possible to make them purchasable. I would also very much like to be able to simulate XL engines with their double heat sink capacity, but again, have no idea how hard that would be or even if it is possible.

My idea would be, if possible, to have several mechs (ideally most if not all) with XL variants but make them such that they only appear 5-10% of the time, the rest being regular mech variants. The XL versions could also appear in shops, but be ten times more expensive than regular. The point would be to make collecting not just about finding the right mechs, but the right 'quality' of mechs too.

Creating new variants is only a few minutes work apiece. The unknown quantity is how much tweaking will be necessary to get them into the leveled lists.

 

[Panpiper]

Creating new variants is only a few minutes work apiece. The unknown quantity is how much tweaking will be necessary to get them into the leveled lists.

I am fervently hoping that, canon be damned, someone creates XL engine, double heat sink variants of everything, puts them in the lists, and gives them a 5% chance of showing up in lieu of the standard versions on any random map. That would increase the collection game by a factor of 20!

Thant and a few unmentionable mechs of course.

 

[Tnarien]

I am fervently hoping that, canon be damned, someone creates XL engine, double heat sink variants of everything, puts them in the lists, and gives them a 5% chance of showing up in lieu of the standard versions on any random map. That would increase the collection game by a factor of 20!

Thant and a few unmentionable mechs of course.

XLs are easy to do. Integrated DHSs takes a little more fiddling, but is fairly straightforward.

We didn't have access to the simulation module in beta, so getting things into the random lists and markets is an unknown quantity at this point.

 

[Panpiper]

XLs are easy to do. Integrated DHSs takes a little more fiddling, but is fairly straightforward.

We didn't have access to the simulation module in beta, so getting things into the random lists and markets is an unknown quantity at this point.

Well, XL variant parts that appear 'infrequently' in shops (and are very expensive) would be one way to get them in game I suppose. That would somewhat satisfy the collector bug. But it would make for much more fun and be somewhat more balanced if you had a chance of running into them in the opforce in missions. By the end game, this sort of mod would be a cheat of course unless the scripted missions could be tweaked to increase the likelihood of XL variants based on the skull difficulty ratings.

 

[William Pryde]

Any mod that adds additional canon variants to the game would be my go-to "day one" mod.