Hi all.

I know we have all discussed the limit to how many weapons you should be able to fit on a ship. Or being able to put swarms on light etc etc.

I was wondering if each ship should be given a Mass. Making all weapons cost money, but in turn they have a size.
Mass= the amount a space craft can carry.

The idea of a mass would mean that players can add swarms to their light's or have 24 Seekers on the Hvy's,but this would cost space, so other things would have to be substitued. For example.

A light, with medium engines would have more space to fit extra weapons? But if it had a Hvy engine then the amount is decreased.

This would openned up a whole new weapons list and ship design making combat more of a challenge. After all if i was chasing a light that suddenly dropped a mine. i would think twice about attacking him from behind. But he might only have had the 1 mine fitted? (or maybe he has two..?)

This definately will make the game more interesting and make people more creative. Some players at the moment, buy the same ship, with the same weapons every time. This is ok, after all i do the same - but surprising people is more fun.

I can just image a bus with only 16 rockets? or a Hvy with 5 sets of blue lasers.... ? ouch. "Stay away Khral"!!

Its just an idea....so.........
C'mon then lets have your views..lol.

White Magic. ;)

This idea has been extensively discussed in the paast. No one knows exactly what the dev's plan but we know greater modularity is coming - there is both verbal and visual evidence for this.

However, your plan sorta shoots itself down.

"I can just image a bus with only 16 rockets? or a Hvy with 5 sets of blue lasers...."

And this would be 'fair' and fun because?

Would it really mean in and of itself that people flew different ships or would it simply mean that people would find some new 'best' balance of weapons (like 16 rocket pods or something)?

Making things modular is fine, but you also have to to some extent limit the number of 'slots' you have available for certain things. Otherwise, you end up with highly unexpected and (for lack of a better word) 'wonky' ship designs and play testing becomes more difficult.

I have in the past likened ship design to designing a Magic Card deck. The best and most interesting game occurs when certain rules are imposed upon how you can build the deck. If you allow every deck to be built of 20 Ancestoral Recalls, 20 Black Lotus, and 20 Black Vices you end up with a game that is less interesting the rock-paper-sissors.

I agree with both of you to a point. Yes, there would be a new "best balance" that most would settle on. At the same ttime, it would allow for very specialized ships that would work great for somep players.

I once designed a Mech that everyone made fun of until it kicked their butts. It was more or less nothing but front armor, heat sinks, small lasers and LOTS of engine. The thing moved so fast it could run right behind larger mechs and cause small-but-significant damage to their weak rear armor. When deployed as part of a group it was always able to destroy 2 or 3 80+ ton mechs before it was taken out. On its own... it never lasted long.

On a similar note, a friend of mine made the "Porcupine" mech that was also fast and covered with like a zillion machine guns. If that thing got close enough to you, you were dead. Those lil' guns add up!

So the moral of this long (and largely irrelevant) story is that the ability to make "bizzare" alterations and designs to your ship would almost certainly create a handful of creative ships that would add a great dimension to the game.

But the line has to be drawn somewhere. It's a fine line, and to a certain extent we just have to have faith in the devs.

Ahhh mechwarrior, the days i spent customising that timberwolf! ;-)

I think it would be a brilliant idea. It would add an extra dimension to teamwork too, people customise their ships to work better during caps and so on.

For example, there would be 4 defenders, heavily armed that take care of the defence ships and enemy players. Then you'd have the cappers, small, light, fast and little weaponry (designed to dash in, grab the flag and leave quick) etc.

It would be good if your "mass" affected how the ship performed as well... A Light fighter racked up to the max with all the addons would be slightly slower and less manuverable than a light fighter with red lasers.

And when can we have tractor beams ;-)

I hope everyone realizes how temporary 'the flag' is.

yes, we do. We just use it as are point of arguement because we know not what there will be in the future that will require us to do stuff.