Consumables (ammo?)

Ammo is a consumable, that's a fact. The question is if it should be treated as such or if it should be left alone. I have my Stalkers, my A1, my Ilya, so i take advantage of this infinite consumable often. That said, I do think it would be fair to allow pure energy builds to make more C-Bills. They aren't using any consumables, yet get the same rewards. I know we had repair costs before, and for the sake of the game, those were nixed. Do you think that we should keep ammo free, for the greater good, or should we make it cost, for "reality" sakes.

You had to buy/reload ammo even in LivingLegends and that worked just fine.

 

Why punish ammo users when energy builds can be as powerful as them? -> Esp since the arrive of the Clans?
And newbies would be forced to take energy heavy builds....again.

 

I know I will cast out of the Cool Boys Club for saying this but yeah, I think you should. Being a mercenary isn't easy work. Running a Company, or a Regiment, requires an understanding of logistics and operating expenses. Realism, yo!

 

Caveats: Sure, I can grok this idea if: we get physical salvage (and not just C-bill component values...) when we win; unused (and unexploded!) ammo doesn't have to be replaced; during the cadet phase, ammo is replenished for free, with the warning that once cadet phase is over it would cost x, to replenish the expended ammo.

 

I remember back in the days when rearm&repair was still activated. Some builds, missiles boats with Artemis in particular, were only sustainable thanks to premium. I believe there is a word for this. Oh, yeah: PAY TO WIN.
I don't want to play a realistic merc-corp micro-management simulation, not in online PvP (I'm totally fine with it on solo games though), I want a balanced gameplay.

 

Nice idea of salvaging ammo - but not easy to implement.... only the ammo which is left over (maybe none?), only ammo types which have been used in that match by the opposing force are replenished (what if noone was using your AC20 ammo?) or a certain percantage of the salvaged goods is converted into ammo you are using?
An Ilya will prolly make its money to feed its ACs - but many mechs will/can have a hard time.
For the sake of realism: yes - but it doesnt sound fair to me - at least to some builds/chassi which wont be played that often anymore because of moneyprobs...
Depending ofc of how much it will cost to rearm...will have to be lesser than now - maybe initial buying prices for the system itself and then lower ammo prices...

Edit: this will reduce the variety of mechs we will see on the field... im certain.

 

I'd be OK with it as long as costs for ammo were fairly low. No more than 100 Cbill/ton for the most expensive with costs going down from there. That way, it would be noticeable and provide a sense of realism but not be cost prohibitive to do so. There should also be a penalty for your mech dying in a match or having components blown off, but not more than one can expect to make even if you lost without premium time. In fact, if repair and rearm were implemented, I'd like to see all C-Bill rewards increased to balance it out so that average players would earn the same amount as they do now, bad players would earn less, but good players would earn more as their mechs don't die as often most of the time.

 

And unfortuantely that would decrease the player base.
Already now the good players tend to have more money than they need to have...

 

I say yes, but only because immersion is a big factor for me and realism goes a long ways toward that. I also wish they'd bring back repair for the same reason. That being said, I think they should only bring buying ammo and repair cost into CW. In a simple team death match game having to repair and rearm doesn't add much realism.

 

I had to vote no on this for several reasons...

First, it's been stated many times before that this can be a very complicated game for newcomers. I recently got one of my roommates into it, and he's a pretty smart guy, but it took a long time for him to be able to figure out a lot of the unexplained mechanics without me helping. IMO, any game needs two things to survive: a strong core of long-time players, and a steady influx of new players. Making things more costly and complicated for anyone not using energy-only builds only hurts the new player access to the game, which is disastrous in my mind.

Second, it hurts some players more than others. Certain mechs simply cannot do well as energy boats, and have to load heavily with either ballistics or missiles. For players who are not as good at controlling ammo, or who struggle to make ends meet with cbills, those mechs will begin to become rarities on the field. I can't see that as a good thing, since in the worst-case scenario, anyone who needs cbills will just hop in an energy boat, and abandon all else. And, going back to point one, imagine the newbie getting into a heavy ammo build...and losing XXX cbills on a match where they miss a lot since they are learning the weapons. Yet another reason for them to set the game down.

Finally, as much as I love MW/BT, there are some things that I can just admit I don't want as far as immersion. Unless there is a definitive salvage system (ie, I'm using LRMs, there are 3 dead LRM boats that had ammo at the end of the match, so I pillage them to restock at zero cost) that mitigates the cost, it just becomes a transparent money sink. The game has enough of those right now, with normal consumables, mechs, weapons, upgrades, and so on. The last thing I want is something else to sink my cash into. It may be well and good for people who already own every mech at mastery levels, but for those of us without a full garage, it's just one more annoying distraction during the grind.

 

Not true Epikt as I ran a SRM6 stalker a lot back then. We just relied on the free 75% rearm amounts and built in some extra ammo to reflect it. Even when I fully armed up as long as it wasn't a disaster then I made a little bit. Never had Premium during that period.

Did it encourage energy boats however - yup!

R&R helped encourage 6 PPC stalkers and led to ghost heat.....

 

Correction - Players that play a lot or only ever field a smalls election of mechs tend to have more money than they need to have...

 

Voted No btw mainly for the silly tilted questions (and because I remember the reality of what it was actually like) .... ironically I am in favour of a R&R system but like Falconium I struggle to equate reality with just ammo/armour repair. Do you really want to replace that whole mech if your engine goes?

 

Which is, basically, an exploit.
You can't excuse an unhealthy game design by "who cares? there's an exploit to get over it".

 

An intended and deliberately implemented game mechanic by the developer can't be a exploit. Thats like saying using a sold shot IS AC20 is an exploit because you don't like it or that you don't like the rocking from a clan Ultra AC20.

We basically changed our fits to drop armament/weapons/armour/double heat sinks to cover the extra weight/space needed by more ammo.

Or in RP speak - our contract with our employer specified a 75% coverage of ammo or we salvaged the battlefield/raided local facilities for 75% of our potential ammo.

 

Voted no, post n.12 explains why.

 

Well, even when ammo is a comsumable, it is dirt cheap, which means it would only mke newer player suffer, and does nothing for the older players.
Because of this, I would vote the AMMO SHOULD BE FREE option.
That would allow newbies to use ammo heavy weapons too.

ALSO, if ammo is a consumble **AUTO REARM IS A MUST**.

IT WOULD BE FUCKING ANNOYING AND STUPID TO HAVE TO MANUAL REARM EVERY FUCKING TIME YOU USE AN AMMO MECH.
The assistant mechanics should be doing that, right?

Personally I don't mind it, I would think that the better way to do is to assume a full rearm, and deduct the ammo rearm cost from the end of the match.

 

I guess I'm a pariah.

The thing is that I really enjoyed the economics of running a unit, or even keeping my equipment up to par. One of the things I am going to enjoy about Star Citizen is the ability to micro manage finances with a robust economic system. Of course I understand CIG is an entire different skill level for programming, development and has more financial resources available to them. It is what it is, but I can still dream.