Combat Provides No XP, Only Salvage/Loot

[RabidSpork]

I'm kinda confused on what ya mean Burn. What exactly would reverse engineering do? Would it create say a blue print of whatever item so you could make more of them?

[Kellzz]

I am with Rabid on this one.

Why would you reverse engineer something that can already be mass produced?
Now, say if someone gave you an engine capable of Faster than light, and FTL has yet to be discovered, then reverse engineering is practical.

[Burninator]

Sure the mechs from your corporation could be mass produced but each faction isn't going to necessarily have access to other factions' technologies. Also by reverse engineering mech chassis a character with a good enough engineering skill could possibly create a blueprint for a little better parts, allowing them to build custom mechs that are better than the stock models. This would be especially useful to players playing independent with a limited budget and technology base to draw from.

[RabidSpork]

allowing them to build custom mechs that are better than the stock models.

Now I understand Whats going to keep people from blowing up their own mechs to reverse engineer the scrap for better mechs? The min/max people will be doing anything to get that little edge for pvp.

[Kellzz]

Well if i had the money, i would have no problem with destroying a few mechs to gain a 5% advantage.

[Burninator]

Well I suppose if a player had a good engineering skill there would be nothing really to stop him from just buying the parts wholesale from their corporation breaking them down(reverse engineering) and making small additions and improvements. It happens every day in the business world. Especially with computer software. One company looks at what another company's software can do then says to themselves, "hmm... how can this interface be streamlined and what features could be added to increase user friendlyness and productivity?) They make those changes and sell the software as their own. So as far as destroying your own mechs for a chance at reverse engineering something better I say go ahead. It's your money, it's your mech, it's your risk. That's what dice rolls are for. And it would take both a good salvaging skill and a good engineering skill so developing a single character to do this would take time and commitment. Another idea I'd like to throw out there to go along with all this. What about EVE style blueprint copies(B.P.C.s)? Say you could buy blueprint originals(B.P.O.s) for stock chassis from the corporation for a hefty fee, but only the engineer who made the successful reverse engineering roll would have the B.P.O. for a custom part. Then the engineer could sell B.P.C.s, which allow other players to make a limited number of production runs, which is to be determined by the engineer. That alone would make engineers a much more desirable, profitable and relevant character type.

[VorpalSpork]

Maybe some kind of system where the character improvement is calculated in skills.   You are rewarded new skills for accomplishing certain actions more often in combat, using certain types of mech parts over time etc.   
For example, your used missile type A 130 times, hence you gain target locking as a new ability with this type of missile.

No! If Elder Scrolls and similar games have taught us anything it's that skills improving by using them is a horrible idea made of pure weapons grade fail.  It forces you into doing all sorts of bizarre and usually boring and/or annoying things.   In Oblivion It's been ages since I walked anywhere.  Know why? Trying to raise acrobatics.  I bunnyhop everywhere I go.  Before that I left a trail of rather confused skeletons in my wake who rose from the dead only to find that the lunatic who summoned them ran off while they were clawing their way out of the ground.  Before that I was picking 4 out of 5 tumblers in a lock and then purposely failing the fifth so I could pick the same lock again and level lockpicking.  Any attempt at making skills level through use always forces unnatural (and usually super grindy) gameplay on players.

[Kellzz]

Oh god, rofl.

the days of EQ, binding the sense direction ability to your movement keys with the hopes that someday your compass would work.
or the afk swimming.



From what i gather, The devs have planned that you grind for your skill points. When you are awarded said points, you are then allowed to spend the points on whatever skill you want.

Perhaps think EVE, but instead of logging out for days/weeks you actually have to go out and earn those points!

[TheWanderingJew]

Agreed, I think EVE's looting/salvaging system would port well to FoA. The only thing I'd change really is that in EVE no matter your salvage skill level, you will never salvage a ship in good enough condition to study it for reverse engineering. I'd like to see that possible for mech chassis and vehicle sections.

Not unless if you will steal that mech, then you can have a good condition unit to study.

Oh, yeah, I forgot. Do we have mech-stealing here?

[Hamilton]

Oh, yeah, I forgot. Do we have mech-stealing here?

There will be missions of stealing fighting machines, and perhaps we can go with stealing from NPC's and factions.  Not likely to provide stealing from Players.  Although technically possible (if the unit was not purchased with character points), this may have to be a game balancing issue, to prevent players from becoming mechless due to no fault of their own.

[VorpalSpork]

From what i gather, The devs have planned that you grind for your skill points. When you are awarded said points, you are then allowed to spend the points on whatever skill you want.

That's a big relief. I'm glad they're planning to have a reasonable system. I absolutely hate usage based skill leveling.

[Hamilton]

To gain a skill level in Paramedics, you will need to perform the skill x times per hour, with an increase in time per level thereafter.

So what do players do?
Find a buddy, make a Paramedic AFK macro and leave their computer running overnight.


Yeah... not a good game design.

[Agamemnon]

Hey now that's how I afk macro wound grinded doctor 4 times in swg....what's wrong with that?


 

[Grim]

*shakes head......oh aggy...aggy...aggy.....tsk tsk




 

[Helphyre]

I think it might be interesting, if not to hard to code to have skill/lvl raising be a combination of the right type/amount of item salvaged, enough xp gained from kills/quests and/or the number of times a skill is used.  My feeling on the last of these is that repetitive use of skill should only take in so far.  i. e.  after a certain amount of time you can no longer learn for doing the same thing over and over instead you need to use loot/xp/money to get the proper training/equipment. 

This means that certain skills might be equipment based.  For instance sniping skills could be brought to a certain level per scope but eventually to get the next tier of sniping your skill requirement would take the loot/xp/money to bring to the next level.  I am not totally certain on this one yet.  Just looking to put another idea out there.