Obligatory CBT MMO thread

[Aokarasu]

It's been discussed before, and it would have shown up again, right?  After watching a trailer for a new MMO in the Off-Topic section, and having played EVE Online, it occurred to me that would be just about the ideal way of handling a CBT MMO.

Consider:
1)  Skill-based progression.  You have to start in a light 'mech and learn the ropes.  You gotta crawl before you can walk.
2)  Sub-skills for specialty roles.  If you want to be able to use ECM, you're going to have to learn some other basic skills first, then how to use EWAR stuff.
3)  Role-specific chassis, and faction specific chassis.  Certain chassis will be better for certain roles; equipment would use less of your power grid and CPU (or whatever they want to call it) if you use it in the right chassis.
4)  Missions given out by agents/contacts, appropriate to your standing with the faction/corp.
5)  "Conflict" areas, similar to low security areas in EVE Online, where you can attack/be attacked without intervention.  In this case, perhaps, the "police" could be the ComGuard, or faction-specific militia.

I honestly think this would be the best way to handle the nuts and bolts portion of the game, as there would be a lot of possibilities as a player.

[Cannon_Fodder]

I have always been against a BattleTech MMO.

MMOs are normally best with a character centric genre. BattleTech really isn't about 1 MechWarrior in one 'Mech. If I was to make a BattleTech MMO I would make it more like MekWars.

[topcat]

I absolutely loved the old GEnie game waybackinnaday and would wholeheartedly support a similar game today.  I loved the PVP, taking over planets, the contract negotiations and the logistics.  Too many games fail by trying to be WoW clones, so why bother with roles, skills and level-ups when you can let players count on their own personal skills?  You could open up access to mechs/tech based on experience and degree of success in those experiences.  I guess that would be more like Eve Online (from what I know of it, never played it), but that's not a bad thing.

That said, anything would be better than the total digital gaming void we have now.  I mean anything.  Mech-emon digital collectible card game.  Farmerwars set in the Dark Ages.  Even a third installment of Mechassault.  I said anything and I meant it, capisce?

[target_destroyed]

I must say I'm not a fan of MMOs in general (or anything I have to pay a monthly fee for). I would, of course, love to see a BT-themed MMO just because I'll play any BT game. We need something for crap's sake!

I don't know how they'd pull it off honestly. There would have to be a significant amount of things to do outside your mech w/out just shopping for parts to make it viable. It would be cool to see infantry/vehicle combat included, w/ people having to group together to take down mechs.

[Cannon_Fodder]

Smith & Tinker have the licence for BT and several other old FASA products. Of all the IPs they have control over Crimson Skies lends its self to a MMO a lot better then BT.

[Slideways]

BattleTech MMO.  <----Why would anyone on this board not want to participate in a constructed BattleTech universe ran by the makers and played by the true players of the game?
Sounds like a fantasy I know.  But it could be fantastic for those (like me) who play and live, yes live, BattleTech.  Those of you who play this game as we do know what I mean. 

So anyway enough rambling and let's just say Someone make a BattleTech/Mechwarrior MMO game.  Please?  :)

[Aokarasu]

I still say of the MMO models/systems I've seen, an EVE Online type would seem to lend itself to a CBT MMO the best.

Much like in EVE, you'd start off in the smallest unit - the Light 'mech.  The "crappy" Lights would require a minimum of Light 'mech piloting skill - say, 1 or 2, to be able to use.  The higher end ones would require 3, 4 or perhaps even 5.  You would have to train each type of weapon system you'd like to be able to use - lasers, autocannon, Gauss Rifles, SRMs, LRMs, MRMs, MMLs, Machine Guns, AMS, etc, etc.  Certain weapons would, again, require a minimum level in the appropriate skill.

For those that, for whatever reason, don't want to pilot the big, stompy robots, you could provide Agro/IndustrialMech options.  You would use these for your gatherer type characters.  The resources gathered would allow production of various trade goods and/or equipment.

Agent types would vary, both in the types of missions they would tend to offer, to who they represent.  House, Corporation, you name it, it's there.

You could even port over the "Security" rating from EVE.  This would apply whether you were a House troop, or a merc.  Fight enough pirates/raiders, you boost your security rating.  Do too many raids, steal too much stuff, etc, then your security rating goes down.

You could still include the backdrop of the Inner Sphere and its major events.  CCP (the creators/owners of EVE) introduce storyline type backdrops, and there are even important storyline missions that pop up from time to time.

[Marwynn]

I would love to see a BT MMO, but I'm going to disagree a bit with some of the proposals here. First, we have to determine if we're talking about a BattleTech MMO or a MechWarrior MMO. I'd prefer a hybrid of both, with an option to hop into the cockpit but with a lot of the dice rolling still in an RPG or board game.

Secondly, I don't want to encourage the idea that heavier is better. Each weight class has a role in the game, and progression shouldn't be based on weight. Rather it should be based on skills for the pilot/officer, with gear being a reward. I don't mean throw them into an Atlas at character generation, but Light to Heavy should be open with better chassis opening up after promotions.

Character classes should be "Recon", "Support", "Line Fighting", and so forth. Roles that could be distinguished via skills and not necessarily weaponry: Support could be an in-fighting Hunchback, Recon could be a very mobile Heavy.

Another part of it should be lance management. Look at Gods & Heroes, they have a system where your hero builds a group of supporting NPCs. But you get less and less of that team the more human players join your side. A simple lance-level mission could be duo'd with another human player, so each brings a partner and joins to form a lance.  Company-level fights can be 12 humans against 3 humans with full lances, or any combination thereof. Though clearly, human players are superior to NPCs.

This means integrating a command system as well. My vision would be a slower-paced MechCommander with the option of jumping into your 'Mech and play MechWarrior with Battlezone-like command options. MW3 with a tactical map.

Combat modes can be customized. Turn-based, shared turn-based, Solaris 7 "real time", per mission. The whole Sphere should be accessible, it can make great use of instancing.

However the core part of this is community. And there needs to be a reason for players to hang outside their 'Mechs together somewhere.

[Aokarasu]

I think an outside-the-'mech portion would be great.

Secondly, I don't want to encourage the idea that heavier is better. Each weight class has a role in the game, and progression shouldn't be based on weight. Rather it should be based on skills for the pilot/officer, with gear being a reward. I don't mean throw them into an Atlas at character generation, but Light to Heavy should be open with better chassis opening up after promotions.

In EVE, the light/small ships still have very important roles.  With their speed, they are difficult to get effective hits on.  Also, later skills for the larger ships often require you to have a certain level of skill in prior chassis, both size/mass-wise and role-wise.  To be able to employ TAG, ECM and other such specialized equipment, you would need to have a certain level of skill.  It doesn't have to be a direct copy of the EVE system, but I think it would be a good template.

Another part of it should be lance management. Look at Gods & Heroes, they have a system where your hero builds a group of supporting NPCs. But you get less and less of that team the more human players join your side. A simple lance-level mission could be duo'd with another human player, so each brings a partner and joins to form a lance.  Company-level fights can be 12 humans against 3 humans with full lances, or any combination thereof. Though clearly, human players are superior to NPCs.

Perhaps they could implement a system similar to STO's "away team."  You get up to 3 NPCs to fill out your lance if no human players are present.

Combat modes can be customized. Turn-based, shared turn-based, Solaris 7 "real time", per mission. The whole Sphere should be accessible, it can make great use of instancing.

I just don't see turn-based working in an MMO; maybe there's a way to make it work, but that would completely kill one of the biggest draws of an MMO - immersion.

However the core part of this is community. And there needs to be a reason for players to hang outside their 'Mechs together somewhere.

Absolutely; if you can't get folks to socialize and enjoy being a part of the larger community, your MMO won't do very well.

[Cannon_Fodder]

The average MMO needs at least $100-150mill USD to get to market. Plus need large amount of upkeep to keep the servers running and to pay staff to develop patches and new content. The project would need investors, investors want to make profits and will want input to limit risk, probably by cloning a popular game.

In order to do BattleTech justice it probably wouldn't have enough mass appeal to make it economically viable. Meaning they would need to water it down and add crappy elements to attract the unwashed masses.

Stand alone games tend to be a lot cheaper lowering the units/break even mark meaning designers have more ability to make a game truer to their vision.

[gordie]

Honestly I like the eave online way to go with a btech mmo... But I feel that we should incluse special abilities for the command tree...


I have started working on a basic inception of an mmo with the Eve/swg hybrid engine going, but most of my design has been geared toward the Succession wars era... Although adding the clan's as NPCs that you can get "tier 3" loot from might work... Maybe using swg's planet/space system but leave out the sto's away team (focuses more on group play) but allows anyone to have the access they need I like the idea of tanks and aero, but we should work on babysteps

[OverKill]

I still say of the MMO models/systems I've seen, an EVE Online type would seem to lend itself to a CBT MMO the best.

Much like in EVE, you'd start off in the smallest unit - the Light 'mech.  The "crappy" Lights would require a minimum of Light 'mech piloting skill - say, 1 or 2, to be able to use.  The higher end ones would require 3, 4 or perhaps even 5.  You would have to train each type of weapon system you'd like to be able to use - lasers, autocannon, Gauss Rifles, SRMs, LRMs, MRMs, MMLs, Machine Guns, AMS, etc, etc.  Certain weapons would, again, require a minimum level in the appropriate skill.

Having played EVE since Beta testing, since day 1 launch up until about 1.5 years ago when I saw no more point in playing (90m skillpoints will do that to you). I can tell you that I would not look forward to playing such a game again. Having real time sinks versus grinding appears good at first, especially at lower levels, but once you get into the higher more advanced skills it begins to get CRAZY like 40+ days of real time must pass before you can get a single level (5% skill bonus) of something.

Also, one may have started out in a Fridate but you could begin to pilot a Battleship very quickly; say within a couple of weeks so that doesn't really do a whole lot to spread the learning curve.

[Your Name Is]

Overkill, I've removed more than one player's early battleship from their ownership due to pilot overconfidence. I think most of the concepts, but maybe adjust the real time scenario, would be port-able to a BT MMO easily.

And the man has a point. But even then, a pro in a large ship might rely on the smaller tubbies to hold stuff down- sorta like me in CBT, I might have that pair of AWS-8Q's raining hell and fire on someone from a hill, but i have those two Assassins sandblasting you from behind to keep you from reaching them.