Hey magic, first i'd like to say thank you for all the hard work. I'm a long time follower since early beta and i'm always glad to see you keeping the game alive.
Just a few questions if you don't mind.
"- New sound effects for Autocannons, Lasers, MGs and Gauss."
Ok so this isn't a question. Just THANK GOD for MG sound effect change!
"- Old Specialty skills removed"
Just curious does this mean all of them including the mech type affinity and sniper skills?
"- 3 new specialty skills added: Ballistic, Energy and Missile. Calculated per shots fired and shot hits. Can raise hit chance up to 10%."
I like this idea, a lot actually. Question though.. If the game calculates on shots fired does it give a "weight" based on the type of gun used? Example; Since an ultra light autocannon fires much faster it's "shots fired" stat only increases by one per shot, while a heavy autocannon increases the "shots fired" stat by ten points.
I tested this in game (MG has the fastest rate of fire), you are correct. But if you outfit your mechs with MGs and Lt ACs the mission will be much harder. Increased difficulty compensate for higher rate of fire, plus you need a lot of "hits" to get one point (one point from 3-4 missions). In other words, you can get the skill faster with smaller fast fire weapons but the missions are definitely harder. This is for the player to decide.
Finally, do you have an idea of when this will be released? Eagerly awaiting any and all updates.
Thanks again!
Release date is unknown, I have too much work lately.
There is no MCO team - never was, its all up to me.
ALL old specialty skills are removed:
There will be some new weight class skills:
- Light - your pilot will collect points for driving a light mech in mission (1 point per mission up to 10 max) - decrease hit chance up to 10%.
- Medium,
- Heavy,
- Assault.
If your pilot drives light mech in one mission he will have 1 point (of 10 max) in light mechs specialty. Every point will decrease chance to be hit by 1% (up to 10% max).
The same pilot can drive medium mech in next mission and he will get 1 point in medium mechs specialty.
If you have 30 missions campaign your pilot can have 10 points in 3 weight mechs classes. So he can have 10 points in Light mech specialty and in the same time 10 points in Heavy class and 10 points in assault class.
So YES, pilot will gain skills through the campaign - like gunnery...
**Will pilots be able to have skill in each weight class then, possibly maxing out all four classes if enough missions are available?
Yes that is the general idea, since you usually start campaign with light mechs, light class will be useful at the beginning and as you progress through the campaign, your can put your pilot in heavier mechs and he can gain specialty skill for another class.
There will be no range specialtys, those will overlap with missile, energy and ballistic skills and every weapon have its own min and max range.
Put your pilot (missile specialist) in Catapult with LRMs and he will have up to 10% hit chance at long range. If you apply long range specialty you will have another 10% (cumulative 20%) and that in not good. Since I abandoned "short","medium","long" concepts for weapons there is no chance to calculate ranges that way. In other words your pilot will have his long range hit chance boosted.
Put the same pilot in Catapult with SRMs and he will get his bonus at short range.
Missile, energy and ballistic are much more useful the old short,medium, long skills and cover all autocannon, ppc, laser skills.
The worst of all was skill award system in old MC2, you get ppc or Heavy AC skill when your pilot becomes elite. In that time you usually dont need it...