Keeping to a Character Avatar Centric Game

[TylinV]

As a long time dancer in SWG, there are numerous social reasons to be outside the mech.  In additon to scouting and other combat reasons for exiting the mech, I would think that occupying an enemy city could have plenty of fun activites for those outside a mech.  I'm not the soldier that many others of you seem to be but I would think that trying to take a city with just your mech would realistically be all but impossible unless total destruction was your end goal.  Infantry would be needed to clean out buildings, suppress partisan resistance, get facilities up and running after occupation, etc.  Unless mechs have some kind of biometric scanner, guerillas could just plant bombs around hangars where the occupiers are camped or park their mechs.  I'm not sure what the "population morale" will include when taking over a city, but giving any native people of a city an option to choose to stay and fight inside the city if they wish or just click a type of autocalc button and exit (presumably to come back with friends and BFG's ) would be a cool option.  Attackers could be required to flush out pockets f NPC's and/or players to get a city running at it's peak efficiency, and defenders could stay and hide to bomb munition depots, hamstring mechs, assassinate specialized support personnel (doctors, engineers, and such), identify targets for incoming reinforcements, etc.  Ground combat could almost be a second game, but if implemented properly, a part that people could skip over if they weren't interested enough in dealing with it.

[KC_Render]

total destruction was your end goal

Yes

[Hamilton]

Lorescape 4 would be a good read about the Infantry.
Mechs may get the glory of taking a city, but it is the Infantry that does the job.

For cities with the moral score.  The moral score is to be used for the city population, since we are unable to provide models for every living NPC inside of a city.

[Sidewinder220]

I like the idea of ejecting to some huge, un-hitable distance. It would prevent people from killing you, and with a limited death system, this becomes extremely important. It would not be a good idea to have people run across a battelfield to an escape vehicle and be killed by someone still in a mech. Its simply too easy to get clone death this way. If you are going to have a semi-permadeath system at least give your players a fair chance to escape.

[clone95]

I always thought that if a player really wanted to fight in a city, they would be able to call in 3-4 other "pet" esque infantrymen to follow them in combat (or as a single unit, ala dropship from battlefront.com, actions were linked)

[Legion]

.......I am not sure I follow all this! First, as a avid Mechwarrior Player for many years, and serving in the USMC for about the same, taking a city,...... as far as this game, will be difficult at best. Since I am a modeler, and have benefited by being a player as well, I have the insight to what game have been like and how I want the models to be in the future. In Mechwarrior 2 and 3 there were no real cities, populated with mechs,infantry and realtime characters(avatars) unless your counting the ominous moving truck or uninhabited, ghost cities with a limited patrol circumfrance. A Village perhaps, a township maybe but a city, nah I doubt it! As a modeler and member of FOA, Iknow I dont stand alone, I know that most of us will want to have the cities, with out lining perimeter defenses, followed up by serious military installations, such as tanks, mech-vehicles, air defences and other military personel. Also, the corporations will have there private armies and such! Besides,a mech and 4 or 5 infantry soliders better have sufficient supply lines to even bolster a task, such as a city assault! "A Noob Pilot dream, but a reality far far away!"
Besides, that is what the arena's are for!

[KILLERSLIFE]

I JUST WANT TO PLAY WHERE IS THE PLAY BUTON I WANA OWN AND KILL AND ON AND ON AND ON.WHERE CAN I GO TO START MY CAMPAIN.

[SS2Maximilian]

I sense a disturbance in the force...

This game is still in production if you are referring to FoA, so nobody can play other than the Devs them self and assigned testers. However, in Multiverse you can look around the game's world.

[Gordon]

Ah the age old question.

Do we man the equipment or do we equip the man?

I prefer to equip the person playing.  I would like to have the ability to get out of my mech anywhere in the world.  But with that choice come consequences.  Getting out on a battlefield or contested area may get me killed.  That may be a price to pay.

But getting out in non contested areas to get a quest or explore a cave and discover something from the past would be a cool thing to do.  Discovering a plan or a piece of equipment i can make to enhance my mech is an Idea.

One poster made a very good point.  Getting out of my mech to repair it without having to return to port is a great Idea.

I would like to think we could own multiple mechs back in port paying a rental fee or a dock fee.  Thus an avatar centric game makes more sense.  I would love to own a mech that hmm is space oriented,  specialzed mechs for special operations, a resupply mech or a electronics warfare mech.  Owning more then one mech would take alot of time as they would need to be manufactured and paid for.  Adding gear to it as beat my foes or discover it is a great Idea. 

Mechs should not have the abilitly to pick up small items anyway in my mind as they are not small enough to pick up small items.  Mechs are designed to destoy and salvage parts off of other mechs, not pick up a set of plans or explore a small cave .

[Grim]

hmmmmm i had always thought in my reading we were gonna be able to exit the mech at any time in this world but if that is in question then my vote is hell yeah make it so we can like they said there will be risks but one we will pay iof need be and like legion said i am hoping the towns may be seigeable buut its gonna be tough.i agree totally make them defended with tanks mechs etc.hell i know if my town came under attack id be in my mech and if i didnt have one at least on the roofs having a firefight to protect it.

[Killian]

My honest want on this aspect of the game, is complete functionality anywhere in the world. What happens when I am sneaking up on a group of mechs, and their is a dune/cliff/mountain whatever between me and them. I am by myself I pop out of my mech. Sit down, and boom I am off radar, now I get on my radio, and tell my buddies 5 guys headed my way meat me 5 km north east of town, and lets get some seneka pigs.

[TheWanderingJew]

Hmm. A mech pilot exitting an incapacitated 20-ton rig to use a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle against the opposing pilot?

Make it so.

[Culan]

So, are we going to be able to pilot tanks, and operate as infantry, etc.?

[Hamilton]

Yes

[Stigmatax]

And he's back! - Hamilton, remember the amount of server "power" that will be needed to change aspects from a 5 to 10 story mech down to a 6foot tall man as well as the rules and limitation differences between a person walking around and someone piloting a mech.

Lets be realistic here, it's going to require a lot more server power than Multiverse can muster to actually make it so a pilot can exit his mech and go walk around, especially in the middle of a battlefield.

Maybe over time it can be done but lets keep things a bit simple. Inside a city you can walk around, exiting a city or port your in some sort of vehicle, no going on walk abouts or things like that as it is going to cost more in server resources.