Yes, I have already looked at it before. Looks very, very interesting.
My problem for me is that the game itself is now blown up by the mods, and the opportunities to maximize these are becoming increasingly limited.
I have too many high end weapons and too many good mechs that I can not use properly (1 lance / 4 mech dropdown limit).
The mods are now better than the game itself ...
You have to keep in mind that the game wasn't originally designed for these many mechs, weapons, options, etc.
Plus, the 4 mech drop limit was a deliberate choice in order to not slow down the game any further. It had to be designed in such a way as to appeal to a wide range of players to be successful, not just us mech heads.
That being said, I wouldn't mind having the chance to command a reinforced lance of 6 or even two full lances during some special missions (i.e. large-scale battles), maybe as part of a new feature in one of the future expansions (i.e. the one after Urban Warfare).
Also, wouldn't be surprised if HBS didn't even expect the amazing kind of modding we're seeing right now. User made flashpoints? Check. A full overhaul of the Mechlab? Check. Switchable firing modes and ammo types, AMS functionality, Area of Effect attacks and more? Check, check, check!
Truth be told, all of the above were a big surprise even for me, and I already had somewhat high hopes for the future of BATTLETECH with regards to modding.
@XTRMNTR2K if it is of any consolation, we the people, the ones that enjoy playing the game with your mod, comment your work ethic! we salute you for that ... and in the same way your work ethic won't let you seat still, I will out of the net starting Thursday for almost two weeks without my computer to play the game ... is a shame.... have to keep mama happy.
Thank you for your support! And I'm sorry to hear you'll be away for two weeks. The good news is that you can most likely expect a bug-free release by then! Well, more free of bugs. Bug-free-er.
I would be very careful about detail creep.
I got my degree in game design and while extreme detail appeals to a few very particular people, I learned both in theory and practise that generally speaking people want meaningful choices rather than just tons of choices.
The cockpit slot is a classic example. In the basegame your choice is really meaningful. You have injury resist, you have bonus morale (so a tactical bonus) and you have range extension. All very powerful picks, all very different in purpose.
Roguetech reached this point where, you are looking at 20 differents ways to create effectively those three things... A mech that is good in melee, a mech that can snipe and a mech that is tactical/defensive. Yet, you can mix and match it so much it starts to reach this meaningless, homoginous blob of choice. I felt like I didn't need to make any trade offs and could have an amazing sniper that is also very tactical, can see really far and is really accurate. You could use arm slots to make it great in melee as well. In other words, I could have my cake and eat it once I had clan gear pretty easily, but still had to equip Clan FCS, Enhanced imaging, Sensors, acc/melee arms, etc. No choice since I can be optimal and 100 ways to get to no choice.
Thank you so much for your input, Edmon. I really appreciate your honest and well put thoughts on this matter.
Based on my own gaming and modding experience I fully agree. It is easy to fall into the trap of feature and detail creep. I know I did it with a previous project I was working on a few years ago. And I don't want to fall into that same trap again.
Right now I feel that XLRP is at a point were it is walking that fine line between - hopefully meaningful - diversity and "flavor overload", which is to say adding stuff for the sake of having more stuff.
I was mostly thinking out loud earlier and just spitballing ideas. First and foremost the mod needs to be ported over for full ME 1.1 compatibility and I intend to do that after the release of 1.3. The added detail is, as far as I can tell, okay. It isn't necessary to make the existing upgrades any more complicated than they are just for the sake of it, it's merely an option. We'll see how the extra crit effects play out. There's possibly even an option to disable them from the mod.json, just haven't checked yet.
Long story short: I'll keep what you said in mind. Avoiding needless feature creep for this mod has been (and still is) one of my guiding principles for development of XLRP.
