I feel if Hawken simply provided us with stock mechs [no weapons, items, or internals] and a weight system... it would allow for customization without making things unbalanced [as long as the values are done right]
For it to work, I think not only weapons, but special abilities, items, and internals would all have to have weight values, so only certain combinations would actually be possible, but it would allow players to set up their mechs how they want instead of being forced to pick from pre-built chassis [although it would definitely be fine to have pre-built mechs on top of this that would be rent-able, or at least cheaper to buy]
This could also prevent the wide use of items and balance out weapons that currently feel OP:
Let's say you want a Seeker because of how easy it is to use and the awesome DPS on it. Well, you can get it, but now, you may not be able to install items or more than 1 or 2 internals. And you could only afford a lighter secondary.
Now a mini-flak might be significantly lighter in terms of damage than a normal flak, but this is balanced out by you being able to carry more items/internals.
Players who like firepower can now focus on such without having to feel they need items. Likewise, players who like to be more tactical, using items/internals to their advantage, will not be able to wield a ton of firepower on top of that.
I also feel this could make it easier for new mechs/weapons/other content to be introduced in the future as the devs may want to expand the universe further.
Any thoughts out there on this?
Edit: expanding this idea a little further:
internals could play a larger role in specializing mechs than they currently do, since they'll actually cost something now.
A, B, and C class chassis could have different total weights which could be balanced in a number of ways:
idea 1--Base health and speed differences remain as is, but then all 3 classes have basically the same total free space for weapons/items/internals/abilities
idea 2--Speed values are default [current differences between A, B, and C] but base health is the same value for all mechs; larger chassis have more space and therefore could optionally equip more armor [additional armor could be an internal/several internals]
Edited by Ace4225, December 03 2012 - 01:19 AM.

 

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