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Perceived issues:
Hawken is a game that has become very item, and internal centralized. We see this partly in the orb lord build. The volume of items thrown around and the importance to internals to loadouts. With the cool down at seven seconds, and considering you're going to get your items back on respawn there is not only no risk to using items in terms of managing them as a resource.
Also they are insanely powerful. What turns a fight better than a EMP? Or is a more effective movement buff than AC? What saves you as much as a orb with those internals stacked with you? What makes you more aware than scanner? Also how hard are these items to use considering how much power they give you? The fact that these items are more common has lead to spammy pacing with what are pretty much some of the most powerful tools in hawken when we talk about items. When we regard internals they are uniform and quite simply also central at this point in time if you wish to be competitive.
We are at a point where item, and internal load out matters more than actual mech selection in a lot of cases. This is not helped by the fact that many mechs are cookie cutter in terms of how they carry weapons. The sheer volume of items used in combat, and the fact that you have internals/items that are so uniform in selection in many cases suggests that the issue of uniform gameplay (To use the term uniform loosely), are in part due to a ineffective system. Items, and internals are in many ways transcending even mech play style as items and internals all act the same way, and befit many mechs in the a at least similar manner. (Every mech can use orb lord builds to some degree, every mech can use the air system to some degree as well, two very central play styles that have become very uniform.)
Why is it a issue?:
First it brings combat customization away from mechs. While this is not a issue in of itself it means new players are under much higher pressure to grind for items and outfit a select few mechs, plus it means they will not being exploring varied game play for a good while as they grind for these internals and items. Which really are required to fight.
The systems are uniform and therefore the internals will often be more uniform in the long run as players select "The best" internals, particularly with mechs that are similar or have similar weapons, due to this reason play styles become uniform, as several mechs are at least similar in what weapons they have. It is very VERY hard to balance in a proper way on such a uniform system. Unless the items and internals are made more novel. People claim they wish for internals and items to remain the same as they expand on player choice. But overall you never EVER make a uniform system a central item of choice if your goal is for varied game play. The tuning system is a old example of this as well, as having a near uniform tuning selection for every mechs seemed to cause people will gravitate towards similar stuff, no matter what mech were in. I experienced this in something called Shogun 2 total war, a game that had a uniform retainer system that provided buffs to your armies. Out of many only very few where used. Cause with the others had novel usage increasing your combat effectiveness like the few did was always more important.
It is even worse in hawken cause if you do not just blast your items out and die, well you have just wasted your items. It is such a backwards resource management system with a short cool down that leads to item spam. Also again really that is not leading to varied play, cause the way mechs use these items is all going to be the same pretty much, as well as internals. A system that was put in the game for depth has somehow had the opposite effect. To a large degree, and has taken the focus of balance in a odd position in terms of how to balance items and such for certain cases. A issue similar to if you change Flak on scout you change it on brawler. The uniform nature of the system is where issues are hit and depth is lost.
Suggested solution:
Firstly, the purpose of this solution is for varied game play with a greater focus on mechs being the center of effecting how you play, while providing less pressure to use certain items and internals in the central superfluous manner they are now. While trying to deal with older issues such as the fact that mechs across weight classes hold the same weapons and react to them in a same manner, again creating a uniform gameplay scenario. Bring tuning back in a limited manner, without hitting the same uniform nature it contained before. And other similar issues Also keep in mind this idea is being presented in a general format, without a truly detailed suggestion to how it would work, as that would require a lot of time and head scratching. You will understand why shortly.
To put it shortly weapons should interact with the base mech stats.
To elaborate, imagine putting a flak gun on the scout, and having the stats change according to that weapon. Let's say due to the punch flak scout has that the stats are tuned to be slower, but as a trade off the scout gets more armor. Perhaps the dodge cool down is nerfed, and the wind walking is near impossible to simulate a "heavy" weapon. But as a bonus the flak has almost no weapon raise delay from boosting. Sort of turning this into a mini-B class that is more focused on the grinding formation fights compared to other light mechs. Perhaps due to the extra weight it takes up fuel on the normal ground dodges.
Let's say HEAT is placed on the same scout, and lets imagine tuning points that are tied into HEAT scout tune the mech for another different play-style. Let's say it focuses on hit and run tactics, with less armor, but greater overall speed and wind walking. But a larger weapon delay from boosting. Perhaps the dodges it uses are not taking up fuel. (Keep in mind these are just example ideas to hone in the idea that weapons should simply be a driving force for play style changes and not 100% serious suggestions.)
To further explore the idea let's say Brawler, a heavy mech reacts in a different way. Let's say he gets no hp buff, but loses turret mode, in the place of speed. Maybe they hollowed out those armored plates and used em to carry fuel? The point is the brawler is reacting differently to having the flak placed on it, the points are "Tuned" differently.
Maybe HEAT Gren becomes more armored, and beefy when you point HEAT on it. Reacting differenty than the scout to the same weapon.
The point is despite the fact that in both cases the mechs have the same weapons the way they interact with those weapons is beyond simply being a different weight class. You have therefore a system by which you can effectively make weapons much more different for mechs, without actually using a different weapon. Why not play with fire rates? Movement, maybe on certain weapon mech combos they have air dodge? Ect. You could have a ton of different play styles tied directly to weapon and mech combos.
You get the idea there are tons of ways to make mechs varied from that design theory, and it is just tied more directly with the mechs.
Now, on to items and internals. These are adding in my view to the "spammy" feel of hawken, and they directly put a lot of pressure on new players to grind. I think I have some tried and true solutions for this.
Firstly revert to the old system. One item, long cool downs. But infinite usage. While you have no limit to your items. You perhaps can only use one every 30-40 seconds. I would also suggest even then taking a look at certain items and making them less of a tide turner and more of a utility tool. Good examples of items in my view, are shield, the heat grenade, the view distorter, and barrier. Bad examples are EMP, scanner Orbs. Maybe jammer? I mean I have mixed feelings on jammer. But scanner gives too much awareness and pretty muchs dominates team play. The orb, and EMP simply grant too much power to turn a fight. And the grenade and Det are in the middle I would say in terms of being good or bad items for pacing.
Internals should revert back to as they were back in the day. As a true choice system. Each should carry a positive effect, and a roughly equal negative effect. In certain cases a players style of play will favor a internal they can make usage of, and perhaps feel. I suggest referring the period where internals were actually a choice. Back in the early builds, however try to make them have more of a effect and have them be more well rounded in their effects compared to the old system. This was not a effective system admitted back in the early days of hawken, but I would argue that is due to the nature of how they did the negative and positive effects of internals, ensure they are something the player can feel. For example maybe a internal that increases the slash of TOW but decreases the damage quite a bit. Go for internals that sort of have a visual effect, but work off the mech itself, have some internals interact with weapons, and mechs themselves, maybe you have a internal that effects hail fires in a different manner than TOWs of grenades. Sort of consider how to make these changes "felt" for the players in terms of how they play, but also have a weakness. Another example might be a internal that gives your weapons no splash at all, but increases your ROF. I mean there are tons of ideas for this sort of thing, and it more importantly makes internals in theory a choice if it is pulled off well.
You then have the focus being on the mechs. With each mech having up to three "Styles" of play that are dictated by weapons.
Now make weapons not restricted to level caps.
Most mechs should have bad wind walking powers, it is too central and simple to use atm. AC is too uniform as well, make the wind walking system something that is more specific to only a few choice mechs, and make it less effective in terms of backing up. While it is fun to play in it is in my view not as fun to fight as the ground dance. I would suggest reading this post: https://community.pl...ge-2#entry12692
Which also provide views similar to what I agree with in terms of secondary weapons, with the additional point of stating that players using air as a go to strategy should be rare, and the overhead elevation limit should not be encountered as often as it is. As it is a simple way to keep distance, and in its very nature prevents the solid "Old style" of dueling shining. Which, was a solid game play system that I would see to be central in my ideal world. with the air play still being valid in some cases. But in a much more limited manner.
Revert back to a more "Tactical" Hawken as well. With Dodges always costing fuel as opposed to simply stopping fuel regen. And remove the "Heat Dump" Feature please. This stuff messed with pacing a in big manner, and removed aspects from the game that I enjoyed. It also lead once again to more "Spammy" play. Also consider increasing TTK by a few degrees to let thoughts play out when people duel.
Why do this?
There are a few reasons. Firstly it decentralizes items, and internals, letting up pressure on newer players to unlock items and internals to outfit a new mech, and really focus on learning the mech, as opposed to the item/internal meta. Secondly they actually unlock weapons at a faster rate than they will normally unlock a full set of items and internals they get faster access to varied play. Thirdly, more varied game play overall as this is not a uniform system in which mechs react the same to weapons they have in their respective load outs. Fourthly, a more flexible balancing system , if a weapon is too powerful on a certain mech and not on another perhaps make it carry negative stats for that problem mech as opposed to adjusting it for all. Fifthly these changes will effect pace to perhaps be less spammy in regards to items. Sixthly internals actually having roughly equal negative effects means they are actually choices that lead to varied play styles, with certain negative effects to certain players being deal breakers on internals while the same internals that arte deal breakers for others are actually interesting for players with different play styles that better fit the positive effect and minimize the negative, without adding direct power.
Issues with this solution that need to be minded.
Issues are that we have some similar mechs that have the same weapon. Such as CRT, and assault. Creative thinking will be required to vary game-play in such cases. Also I have no idea how hard such a system would be to implement. I would hope the tuning system could be used in some way for a lot of it, but for ability stuff who knows. Internals would take some time to get right, with the negative effects and positive effects being considered carefully not to overlap. But still have a effect. Also might be hard to do.... But many worthwhile things are....
Thank you for your time- Sir Tree of Arbor.
Edited by deidarall, 11 April 2015 - 05:15 PM.
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