How to do mechs properly.

Discussion in 'Vehicles and Mounts' started by SoopaDerpcat, Aug 30, 2016.

  1. SoopaDerpcat

    SoopaDerpcat Pangalactic Porcupine

    So yeah. The old mechs? Kinda not very good. There currently aren't any in the game, but it's pretty obvious that they're going to be brought back and implemented into the new vehicle system. But...how do you mech suit?

    In general: The main problem with the old mechs is that they were boring and samey; there wasn't much you could do with them, and the one thing you COULD do with them, you couldn't do particularly well. The solution is variety and customizability; the things this game prides itself on! Oh yeah, they should also be...useful. You should feel more powerful INSIDE the cockpit, not outside.

    Standard features:

    Weapons - Instead of having built-in weapons, every mech has a weapon slot (or two) that you can place any two-handed weapon of your choosing in, be they unique or random. Left clicking fires the primary, right clicking fires the secondary. The upside to using your weapons on your mechs is that you can use two at a time; AND they don't drain energy! Well, not your energy, anyway. Some mechs also have special weapon modifiers.

    Weapon slots can be toggled to use either the weapon's primary mode of fire or its special ability.

    Onboard weapons are not effected by the player's armor; instead, each weapon tier has a damage multiplier that corresponds to standard armor of the weapon's own tier.


    Energy - Every mech has an EPA (Energy Per Arm) stat. Using a weapon drains that arm of its energy, and it refills when expired just like the player's. Albeit a bit faster.

    Augments - Mechs can use any EPP augments that the player can use. To prevent anything too crazy from happening, though, you can't have more than one of the same augment equipped in your mech at a time (assuming your class even has multiple augments slots.)

    Building and buying - Unlike other vehicles, mechs must first be assembled through a menu before buying. This menu is accessed in Penguin Pete's shop. First, you choose a body class. After that, you can place weapons and augments into their respective slots to finish building the mech. Once the mech is finalized and bought, the weapons and augments are consumed and can only be retrieved when the mech is destroyed.

    Different body classes have different prices, and every weapon or augment you add on increases the price.

    Tier one weapon: 500 pix each
    Tier two weapon: 1,000 pix each
    Tier three weapon: 1,500 pix each
    Tier four weapon: 2,000 pix each
    Tier five weapon: 2,500 pix each
    Tier six weapon: 3,000 pix each
    And so on, assuming more tiers are added to the game later on.

    Augment: 500 pix each


    Classes
    :

    The Hopper - A light, fast mech that travels at about the same speed as a player using sprint tech. Can jump very high, but only has one weapon slot. Holding the space button while falling allows it to glide down slowly using jet boosters.
    HP: 1000
    Dimensions: 6 tiles x 10 tiles
    Weapon slots: 1
    Augment slots: 1
    EPA: 150
    Body price: 5,000 pix
    Weapon modifier - Light Artillery: Decreases rate of fire by 25%

    The Striker - The standard issue one. Travels at the same speed as a player running without sprint tech. Can jump about the same height as the old mech.
    HP: 2000
    Dimensions: 12 tiles x 16 tiles
    Weapon slots: 2
    Augment slots: 2
    Body price: 7,500 pix
    EPA: 200

    The Bulwark - The big fat slow one. Travels at the speed of a player walking (such as when shielding or holding shift.) It can surge forward a few tiles and ram through soft blocks. Its jump is a bit delayed, but when it lands it creates a shockwave similar to the "Shockwave" special for hammers.
    HP: 5000
    Dimensions: 24 tiles x 24 tiles
    Weapon slots: 2
    Augment slots: 0
    EPA: 400
    Body price: 10,000 pix
    Weapon modifier - Big Guns: Increases damage per shot and rate of fire by 25 each%.

    The Mantis - The tactical one. It's slow on the ground, but can cover a lot of horizontal distance when it jumps. Can also climb on walls. Its weapons recharge 50% faster than other mechs'
    HP: 1000
    Dimensions: 8 tiles x 8 tiles
    Weapon slots: 2
    Augment slots: 4
    EPA: 100
    Body price: 5,000 pix
    Weapon modifier - Tactical weapons: On hit, the primary weapon applies a debuff equivalent to the opposite of the augment in slot 1. Secondary weapon applies a debuff corresponding to the augment in slot 2. Upon killing a target, the effect of the augment in either slot 3 or 4 is doubled temporarily, depending on whether the weapon that made the kill was the primary or secondary.

    The Cannoneer - A very specialized mech. Can only be equipped with weapons that are classified as either rocket launchers or grenade launchers. It can be equipped with other weapons that have grenade launchers as special abilities, but it can't use their primary firing mode.
    HP: 2000
    Dimensions: 16 tiles x 18 tiles.
    Weapon slots: 2
    Augment slots: 1
    EPA: 300
    Body price: 7,500 pix
    Weapon modifier - Heavy Artillery: Increases the hitbox size, travel speed, rate of fire, and lifetime of fired rockets and grenades by 100%. That sounds pretty rapid, but keep in mind that most rockets and grenades have a painfully low rate of fire.

    The Siege Engine - Designed specifically and exclusively to flood battlegrounds with as many projectiles as possible, at the cost of mobility and armor, this massive but rickety tripod mech is equipped with a tertiary arm that can be fired by clicking with the middle mouse button. It is the slowest mech, traveling at only 75% of The Bulwark's speed.
    HP: 1250
    Dimensions: 30 tiles x 24 tiles.
    Weapon slots: 3
    Augment slots: 0
    EPA: 600
    Body price: 7,500 pix
    Weapon modifier - Overworked: Rate of fire on all weapons is decreased by 10%. Projectile speed and damage per shot are both reduced by 25%. Each arm has a lot of energy, but using up all of the energy in any arm will cause that arm to overheat and become inoperable for 30 seconds. Pay attention!
     
    Arra, Jerln, Wingidon and 1 other person like this.
  2. Wingidon

    Wingidon Phantasmal Quasar

    Hey, this actually sounds like a great idea overall! Full-custom mechs like these are something I'd like to see ingame (in the vanilla game, that is).

    Only thing that throws me off are the dimensions, some seem quite exaggerated to me, they sound too big to be comfortable to use ingame.
     
  3. Sharp(JQ)

    Sharp(JQ) Ketchup Robot

    I think we need the enemy combat vehicles.

    And I do not like that the hero carries them in his pockets.
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2016
    Noobgalaxies likes this.
  4. Wingidon

    Wingidon Phantasmal Quasar

    I do like that, carrying these in the pockets. It'd be painfully inconvenient otherwise in my thoughts.
    But yes, we do need enemy combat vehicles in some way. Actually, big enemies in general. What do we want big mechs for if there's nothing else big to use them against?
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2016
    Noobgalaxies, VoidGuy and STCW262 like this.
  5. VoidGuy

    VoidGuy Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Sometimes I pretend starbound is still in early access, and spawn in a human mech to ineffectively shoot up bosses. Only bosses are big and bad enough to actually have fun fighting, with a mech.
     
  6. Jerln

    Jerln Oxygen Tank

    I liked pretty much all of this, except for the issue that Wingidon brought up, and the weapons scaling. I think that if weapons were to stop being tied to the player's armor, then they should scale off of a damage multiplier stat that is a part of the mech itself. This would encourage progression through the mechs, as well as giving more incentive to switch between using the big slow ones such as the Siege Engine, and the small fast ones such as the Hopper.
     
  7. Arra

    Arra The End of Time

    Oh GOSH yes.
     
  8. mgolden38

    mgolden38 Void-Bound Voyager



    OK! for eveyone like "Thats good idea"

    AS OF APRIL 30th 2017,
    VANILLA STARBOUND
    has that kind of thing with the body, legs boosters, weapons, paint!(plus optional horn, lol)
     

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