Salvage. Point and click adventure? or a literal job that requires several men?

[Kellzz]

salvage is in EVE to an extent, but all it is is just a point and click.

What can we see with FOA? destroy a mech, and then a team needs to come out to haul the wreck back to the hangar? or will all mechs have an inventory space that players can just drop stuff into with out ever leaving the mech?

[Shadow Star]

This is in constant discussion, but some of our idea are as such.

Salvaging an entire mech would require lost of time and equipment. It would require a large transport vehicle to load it onto, or a large aircraft/drop ship to pick it up. This is beyond most peoples funds/patience. Now for simpler salvage, it will still take some time, but it may be as easy as ripping an arm off the other mech and carrying it back to base, that is if your mech has actual hands and not guns for arms. The latter would be a bit more difficult, but there may be a way to strap on some salvage. Though the best bet would be to hire a salvage crew and spend some time getting the parts. Fuel and Ammo will be fairly quick to salvage and would only take a minute or two. Remember, the person you downed may have called in for help and hostiles could ruin your day while salvaging, best to grab what you can quickly and run. That is unless you have some teammates that are willing to watch the area as you get that intact cannon, or other component.

Salvage times are something that will have to be tested carefully. We don't want it to b an instant kill/grab/run and have all the goods. There needs to be a risk factor to make each piece of salvage that much better.

[Stigmatax]

I say that it should be a NPC run business... You pay for a "company" to go and retrieve your mech, if possible, and you get back what ever they can recover. It can be a calculation based on level of the player, the difficulty of the recovery and if the damaged mech was tagged for salvage retrieval by the enemy unit if they were unable to salvage it themselves.

[Culan]

How about a PC mech chassis thats main focus is salvage? Someone gets a kill, grabs a little of the stuff for himself, then calls over a buddy to completely tear the rest up.  Stuff like ammo and fuel, as mentioned earlier, can be salvaged easily by whoever got the kill.  But all the juicy scrap metal, all those valuable electronic components, they could be taken by a factionmate for the war effort!

Of course, all mechs would have some salvage ability.  It wouldn't be fair to deprive the killer of his spoils.  You would obviously have to balance salvaging with offensive abilities, movement, stealth, etc.  Having it run by players encourages teamwork, and I'm sure the gain to be had from the activity is enough to motivate people to do it.  And if not, then throw in some NPCs, as Stigmatax mentioned.

[Shadow Star]

How about a PC mech chassis thats main focus is salvage? Someone gets a kill, grabs a little of the stuff for himself, then calls over a buddy to completely tear the rest up.  Stuff like ammo and fuel, as mentioned earlier, can be salvaged easily by whoever got the kill.  But all the juicy scrap metal, all those valuable electronic components, they could be taken by a factionmate for the war effort!

Of course, all mechs would have some salvage ability.  It wouldn't be fair to deprive the killer of his spoils.  You would obviously have to balance salvaging with offensive abilities, movement, stealth, etc.  Having it run by players encourages teamwork, and I'm sure the gain to be had from the activity is enough to motivate people to do it.  And if not, then throw in some NPCs, as Stigmatax mentioned.

These would be Engineering Mechs. They are standard mechs with most of it weapons replaced with tools for the purpose of repairing friendly mechs in the field and salvaging enemy units. They are armed with welders and laser cutters rather than auto cannons. This is not saying they are defenseless but are better off relying on friendlies for support.

Now take into account about the repairs, these are field repairs. Quick and dirty. Enough to get you through maybe another battle but dont expect it to be as good as a base repair where a lot more time is spent with better tools.

[Kellzz]

Fuel and Ammo will be fairly quick to salvage and would only take a minute or two.

Agreed. for the sake of simplicity, Fuel and ammo should be a quick transfer.

I say that it should be a NPC run business

Again, for the sake of simplicity, make it an NPC venture, then listen to player feedback to see if there is enough out there to transfer ownership of the operation to the players.

[Agamemnon]

Again, for the sake of simplicity, make it an NPC venture, then listen to player feedback to see if there is enough out there to transfer ownership of the operation to the players.

"There are only 1.2% of the player base that like this character type and playstyle. So to make things more fun we are removing this option from game play"


----Unknown SOE Developer on the status of Creature Handlers.....


 


-I don't want to see that (SOE Quote) happen. I also loved being a MCH back then.

[Stigmatax]

Ya know, I was thinking about this and think that Salvaging shouldn't be a part of the game play. I think if a mech "dies" a self destruct mechanism of some kind activates some strategically placed explosives that destroy or make key components totally useless.

This would just be a normal progression for mechs in the field. Salvage missions should be for mechs that their self destruct mechanisms fail to act or maybe an actual reward mission.

[Mobius Archer]

I think salvaging an entire mech should only get you some money from scrap metal and a few components or weapons provided they are undamaged.  Games where your salvage a whole mech and get to use it after that don't make much sense to me.  When a car gets in a really bad accident, its just not worth repairing. it should be the same with mechs.