Modular freedom of design

Discussion in 'Planets and Environments' started by Drakarus, May 30, 2015.

  1. Drakarus

    Drakarus Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Prologue

    I've heard rumors that the Mech tech is going to be converted into a vehicle. This reminded me of an old idea I had for a modular mechs addon (mod) that allows the player to build a custom mech out of pre-made parts, and paint it. The idea was simple, but I didn't, and still don't, know Lua, which immediately made making the mod myself extremely difficult.

    Concept

    Mech assembly construct (M.A.C.)
    Used for crafting mech parts and assembling/storing complete mechs.
    Wall panel type crafting station.
    UI similar to S.A.I.L. with a crafting section, assembly section, and storage section.
    Crafting section used for making individual components such as legs, guns, cockpits and shield modules.
    Assembly section similar to tech selection screen in S.A.I.L., having a tab for each relevant component.
    Storage section has two tabs, one for mech parts/blueprints and one for completed mechs.
    Blueprints for more mech parts can be found as rare loot, then crafted in the M.A.C..

    Nerfs (Too much power makes things boring)
    Assembling a mech in M.A.C. would cost titanium and durasteel, the amount of each is determined by the level of the parts involved.
    You can salvage the mech afterwards, but you only reclaim the base amount of materials along with the parts.
    Running a mech requires energy, otherwise the mech sits unable to move or fire. The fuel is taken from the player's inventory. (Erchius or coal?)
    You can only call mechs from your ship if your on the planet's surface as they must beam down like you do.
    A mech recovery platform is needed to return a mech to your ship's M.A.C., otherwise it must be left behind.
    Mechs can't fit through normal doors. Simple as that.
    Mechs aren't pilot specific and CAN be stolen. Hostile NPC's will try to take your mech if you get out of it.
    Mechs are a popular idea. Sometimes, bandits will spawn with a mech and will use it against you... unless you steal it from them.
    Reactors are rare. The only way to acquire a reactor core for a mech is to salvage it from a pre-existing one. Or trade for it at the penguin bay.

    Vehicular function
    Crouch in a mech to enter 'collapsed mode' and trade guns for speed.
    Ramming damages enemies and NPCs you hit.
    Collapsed mechs can't jump.
    You still can't fit through doors.

    Multi mech management
    You can only have one active mech at a time, as defined by moving a stored mech to the 'Active' slot in M.A.C.
    Only the active mech can be called down to a planet.

    Mech customization/specialization
    In M.A.C., you can choose a color-scheme for your mech by picking a main, sub and detail color. These colors will be applied to all the mech's parts.
    Shielding on a mech can make it more suitable to an environment, as the mech provides the pilot immunity to one planet hazard with it's shield effect.

    Epilogue
    If all of these features wind up in the game, I'd be over the moon. If ANY of them make it in, even if it's just the recovery platform or the fuel consumption, I'd love it. I've been obsessed with the mech tech since I found this game, but always disappointed with how under-powered it felt for a giant robot. Either way, it simply becoming a persistent vehicle is gonna be awesome.

    Gimme some feedback on all this and I'll happily refine the idea further. Once I hit the I-can't-Lua boundry, I gave up, so it's still fairly unpolished, but I think there's still some stuff worth sharing here.

    Have a nice day.[DOUBLEPOST=1433004185][/DOUBLEPOST]To be clear, this USE to be an idea for a mod I couldn't make. I'm now offering up the intended features as suggestions for the mech vehicles, if they are indeed added.
     
    Old_Crazy_Gamer likes this.
  2. Drakarus

    Drakarus Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I've realized that I've basically described simpler versions of Armored Core and Front Mission Evolved. That's not a bad thing, it's just funny that I'd never heard of either of those until literally the day after posting this. :p
    I also realized that this in in the wrong section, and I have no idea how to move it. If a moderator could help with that, I'd appreciate it.
     
  3. Drakarus

    Drakarus Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I may or may not be tempted to pick this back up again. After all, how hard could it be?

    Long, tedious and learning intensive, yes, but hard? Let's find out. :3
     
  4. BreakingForce

    BreakingForce Big Damn Hero

    well, with the upcoming update doing things with mechs, maybe wait and see if you like what they do with them before overhauling the system? :)
     
  5. Drakarus

    Drakarus Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Yes. Personally I find it somewhat curious that this update was announced mere days after I decided to revive this crusty old mod idea, and perhaps it's for the best that the main dev team is working on something functionally similar to what I'm making. Though, this would be less of an overhaul at that point, and more of a supplement. If the mechs are well accepted, I'll happily integrate my mod with them, making my mod even more similar to the weapon assembly mod that inspired it in the first place. :3
     
  6. Drakarus

    Drakarus Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So, as an update on the progress of this mod, or rather, my learning to mod in general, it seems like this will be a ways off. As mods of this nature aren't often made, and those that make them don't make tutorials on the subject, I'l once again at the mercy of chance to find a good tutorial on Lua. Add to that my reading difficulty and any well made text based tutorial may as well be in mandarin. Long story short, unless I can find a way to learn Lua Syntax and Starbounds Notation system, I can't progress farther than the proof of concept stage.

    Though I know something like this is totally possible. Heck, randomly encountering NPC driven mechs would also be totally doable. If weapons can randomly generate from parts, so can mechs.
     
  7. Drakarus

    Drakarus Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    So I've been playing around with the mechs in game and I only have a few complaints, mostly about aesthetics, but a few pet peeves regarding the mechanics. For one thing, the mechs are too clunky, both visually and mechanically. They look like decorated walking dumpsters, but that style is, I suppose, the most realistic interpretation, as the low center of gravity would keep them from falling over. Good on the Devs for realism, but still. Navigating a mech around on a planet is like trying to drive a boulder disguised as a Ferrari up a hill. Also, the weapons are lackluster and hard to aim. This is less an issue with the mechs themselves and more a limitation of the simple modularity currently implemented, and a lack of the kind of flourishes that player weapons and armor have received over the years. There's mods that add potential for custom mech parts to be spawned in manually, but I consider that cheating.

    If I were to make the M.A.C mod currently, it would simply serve to address these issues. I would add a mech upgrade station to boost the stats of mech parts, such as making legs faster, weapons stronger, or adding defense to bodies, thus allowing any part to be valid in any difficulty level for the right price, with each successive upgrade having a sleeker, more refined, and less dumpster-y look to them. I would also leverage that custom parts mod and simply add randomly generated mech weapons to the station/anomaly loot table, allowing mech parts that don't have a blueprint to be found and used. Choosing a weapon hull and barrel type, a random projectile or spread, and an impact effect/elemental damage type the same way player weapons are generated. I'd also make these random weapons impossible to upgrade. Call them "incompatible with standard upgrades" or something.

    I also understand that the mechs aren't meant as a main focal point of the game. They're effectively in beta, as they can't be used in missions, even on revisiting, can't be using in vaults at all, and have limited use on planets due to the power consumption. They're very much only meant to be used in space, rendering their functionality closer to that of a minigame than a core feature. As such, I'd still like to see mechs put into a vehicle controller, or at the very least able to be called to a planets surface remotely, and maybe have the power consumption replaced with hull integrity like that of a hoverbike, so careful players can use their mechs indefinitely on a planet. I'd also change mech's weapons to draw off a replenishing pool of energy, similar to that of the player, rather than draining the mech's effective HP.

    Anyone who's played games from the Megaman and Megaman X (X8 specifically) franchise will likely know the basic role such altered mechs will fill. Meant as a rampaging power boost that only lasts as long as you can dodge damage with limited mobility, yet with a certain degree of elegance to it. And maybe a killer soundtrack to play in the background while you're in it to really set the mood. >:3
     

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