Posted 08 April 2013 - 11:36 AM

Ask the Devs #35

Community Consolidated Questions/Concerns

Community Warfare/Clans

`Mech's and Mechbay

Cockpit, HUD & Customizations

Maps:

Weapons & Loadouts

Matchmaking/ELO/Server

Gameplay/Game modes/Issues

General



Forum/Website/Sales:

A: We want there to always be a debate about whether something is too powerful or too weak. There’s a sweet spot where players from both sides of an opinion balance each other out. This means we have a mechanic or design that has the desired polarizing or competitive effect.A: As mentioned before, you can change the pin stripe colour. We are looking into tweaking the texture a bit and allowing more customization options when we unlock colors for the Hero `Mechs.A: Partly due to the nature of how MGs work in the TT rules, partially due to how we chose to make it useful. When equipping a MG, keep in mind that it is not meant to burn through armor but is very useful for tearing up internals (crits). Bumping MG damage will turn it into a laser that can be kept on with no heat penalty until it runs out of ammo. Now imagine the devastating effect that a 6 MG spider could do to the back of an Atlas! We are still investigating balance of the MG but don’t expect any significant increase in damage.A: No ETA yet. We’re looking into how we can fix the input signals read by CryEngine and our implementation with Scaleform.A: Randomly generate maps do not offer a quality gaming experience. A lot of design effort goes into planning each map for specific lanes, choke points, types of gameplay modes, match length etc.. etc.. Also performance is a major concern. A randomly generated map would still take months to bring from 0 to complete.As for community generate maps or any content for that matter, we are always looking at ways to find synergies here. Right now the largest impasses are: quality of content, performance of content, distribution of content (remember this game is free to download, yet we still pay for the delivery costs up-front), installation size, rights of content, monetization of content, and tax laws.A: Something along these lines will exist.A: Yes. But we’re not ready to discuss clans until Fall.A: Yes when we re-introduce collisions after launch.A: This is something that we hope to implement in the near future. The reason we haven’t so far is that there are aspects of functionality that we would like to try giving it, but they rely on some systems that aren’t in place yet. What may end up happening is that the Command Console will have an evolving functionality. In order to give it some use, we’ll start with giving it any functionality we can at the moment, and then add to it as more systems come online.A: Yes! UI 2.0 will allow players to sell items from their “inventory” and also allow them to do so in quantity (no more clicking dozens of times to sell multiple of the same items.)A: No plans currently.A: Yes.A: Purely an art choice.A: Definitely possible, no ETA.A: It’s technically possible, however we have to weigh the gameplay implications.A: Yes.A: Yes.A: All weapons effectively deal the same sort of damage. The only real differences right now are that the explosions of missiles can deal damage to multiple locations within their radius, and weapons like machine guns are able to deal extra critical hit damage. The glow you see when you hit a Mech with lasers is nothing more than a visual effect and has no gameplay implications.A: There is a perfect bell curve. We are considering however, dropping the entry point ELO value for new players. This will help new players start at an easier play bracket and allow them to quickly move into their appropriate ELO bracket.A: We’re happy with all of the maps. They offer up a variety of different strategies. That being said, we have already made tweaks to Forest Colony, and continue to examine each map. 12 v 12 will change the landscape dramatically.A: If each region ends up with a server, you will be able to do a one-time transfer.A: We plan to make an alternate version. No details on time-of-day yet.No plans at the moment.A: They are working as intended. They do not pose a real threat to a fully armored `Mech, however once damage, machine guns are deadly against internal components.A: They will be under review again before we launch Clans.A: We are overhauling every `Mech to feature a variety of visual customizations depending on loadout.A: There are two different times that ammo can explode. If an ammo bin is destroyed by a critical hit (each bin currently has 10 health), there is a 10% chance that the ammo remaining in that bin will explode. When a location, such as the right torso, is destroyed, each ammo bin in that location that had not already been destroyed by crit hits has an individual 10% chance to explode. There are two exceptions to this. The first is that, if you have ammo stored in your arm, and your arm falls off when your side torso is destroyed, there is no chance of the ammo exploding. The other is that Gauss Rifle ammo never explodes. However, all the explosion rules also apply to Gauss Rifles, except that they have a 90% chance of exploding.A: Line-of-sight, and then a module that allows players to use the BattleGrid.A: If it makes sense and fits the timeline, we plan to add it. If it’s not overly useful, or very niche, it doesn’t not rank high up on the production priorities. In addition, several of the items you list, such as the Medium Range Missiles and Rocket Launchers, do not exist in the current timeline. They are not available until 3058 and 3064 respectively.A: This would be a private match. It’s in review.A: It’s not a statistic that players need access to.A: Not currently. The air strikes are not super powerful. If we up the damage, we may consider a skill based concept like this.A: No. And I doubt we would reset it unless something major happened, or we completely revamped the system.A: Certain regional partners may require this.A: We are still designing the next set of game modes, including any form of re-spawn mode (aka DropShip).A: More tweaks and features will come over time.A: Yes. Maybe, if we find a major imbalance.A: This is conscious to help balance out matches. The max team size in a public match is 4 and we continue to improve the matchmaker to create a more balanced experience. When 12 v 12 rolls out, 8 player teams will be replaced by 12 player teams.A: Anything is possible. We are not actively working this currently.A: In the next 60 days~.A: No changes are planned ATM.A: It’s working as intended, although we feel it needs a little tuning.A: Yes. No details to report yet.A: Not for assault. We are working on another base capture mode for Community Warfare that features something along these lines.A: Trial Mechs take care of this aspect of the game. Future gameplay additions will enhance the new user experience.A: Not out the gates. We still need to do some work on our end.A: No plans currently.A: For launch.A: Early to late summer.A: It’s something we can look it in the future.A: Yes we track and suspend/ban users for a variety of infractions. We have no plans to implement Punkbuster™ at this time.A: We’re putting together small short songs for use during start up and key moments of gameplay. They would for the most part, be short. As for releasing the soundtrack; anything is possible, but no plans at the moment.A: Yes. You can do this already.A: Over time we plan to add more stats, compile and display them in different ways, and make the public.A: Anything is possible, we are not ready to reveal anything specific at this time.A: It’s coming in May.A: Regularly. We tend to look for trends, rather than specific suggestions. When we see many threads about something being too powerful, we examine the root causes and implement a fix or tweak.A: We’re trying to avoid recurring payments, as this implies a subscription, which we do not currently support or plan to support. Players have several options when it comes to premium time.A: At the outset we had no intention to support 3Person. However as with all design choices, it became clear we were limiting our audience and needed to explore ways to retain the core experience, while making the game more accessible.A: Continued improvements to the stat system can be expect over time, including better sorting options.