Boomerstation Battletech-style Mech Overhaul

tags: In Development White Sands

• Mechs require three basic components:
  • Chassis
  • Engine
  • Equipment
• Mechs have two basic fitting resources:
  • Powergrid
  • Tonnage
• Mechs come in four basic classes
  • Assault
  • Heavy
  • Medium
  • Light
• Chassis…
  • …Are printed in eight individual pieces
    • Head
    • Center Torso
    • Left Torso
    • Right Torso
    • Left Leg
      • Takes manipulators as parts to determine tonnage bonuses
    • Right Leg
      • Takes manipulators as parts to determine tonnage bonuses
    • Left Arm
    • Right Arm
  • …Determine limb structural health
  • …Have armor placed onto them before they are attached, determining the armor value
  • …Determine the tonnage capacity for that section
  • Three different tiers of Chassis
    • Titanium Steel = Titanium + Iron
    • Plastanium Fibrous = Plasma + Titanium + Iron
    • Crystalline Hexaferrum = Bluespace Crystals + Titanium + Iron
• Engines…
  • Are the heart of the Mech
  • Type of plasma fusion reactor.
  • Engine type determines power grid resource amount
  • Determines base speed as well
  • Each class of mech has its own engine type
  • Should be limited to 1-2 for each mech class
  • Should be a component that takes parts
    • Cell - Gives -10%, -5%, +5%, +10% Power Grid per level
    • Capacitor - Gives -10%, -5%, +5%, +10% Top Speed per level
    • Micro Laser - Gives -10%, -5%, +5%, +10% Fuel Efficiency
  • Mechs are NOT powered by straight energy/electricity
    • Instead use equal parts plasma sheets and oxygen gas.
• Equipment
  • Weapons
    • Three main types:
      • Ballistic
      • Energy
      • Missiles
    • Reuse some existing weapon types from base mechs (?)
    • Weapons use powergrid and tonnage
    • Energy weapons use more powergrid, generate more heat
    • Ballistic weapons generate less heat, use more tonnage
    • Missiles use more tonnage and powergrid, but generate no heat
  • Utilities
    • Standard shit like DNA lock (?), rename, etc all come standard
      • Some way to remotely remove DNA lock/locally hack the DNA lock would be great.
    • Heat sinks increase dissipation of heat but require tonnage
    • Auxiliary power plant increases powergrid at the cost of tonnage and heat
    • Tools like mining drills still apply, although just take tonnage.
• Movement/Use
  • Mechs move with a throttle instead of direct WASD
  • W = Throttle up
  • S = Throttle down
  • Reverse at 1/3 max speed
  • Limited cone of vision to the front of the mech
  • Offset vision with ability to torso-twist 90deg left and right
• Weapon Controls
  • Borg-style icon tray with weapons
  • Group each weapon by type by default
  • Two modes of fire
    • Group
      • Fires all weapons in the category
    • Chain
      • Rotates through each weapon type
  • Weapons can be grouped manually using UI
  • Can only fire in cone of vision, meaning if you can see it you can shoot it
• Build Interface
  • Loadout screen similar to MechWarrior Mercenaries, but simplified
  • “Try before you buy”
  • Lets roboticists plan out their builds before investing material.
  • Simulates all parts of the loadout in a drag and drop interface for equipment, dropdowns for chassis/armor/class/powerplant
  • Should warn when a loadout is over capacity in a given category (powergrid, tonnage, heat generation etc)
  • Note: TGUI makes this reasonably easy but this could potentially be the most difficult part of the rework
• Roadmap of development
  • New Mech type addition
    • Keeps existing mechs in place
    • New Base Object
    • Single class (light) of mech
    • Single Power Plant type
    • Focus on getting core mechanics working
      • Heat
      • Assembly
      • Movement
    • Two examples of each weapon type
      • Port existing weapons
    • Adds the ability to print new “MechLab” and “MechFabber” boards for making new mech loadouts and printing parts
      • MechLab as computer board, MechFabber as machine board
      • Not mapped in this phase, must be created manually
    • Simple Hyperink-Only UI with limited functionality
  • Existing Mech Parity
    • Adds support for existing mech equipment in new system
    • Replicates features like DNA Lock etc from existing mechs
    • First iteration of MechLab full interface
      • Focuses on…
        • Drag/drop UI for equipment
        • Printing in fabber of current loadout
        • Persistent/synced console for all users looking at it
      • Backend support for
        • Any export to copy/paste format of mech loadouts
        • Simulation of powerplant/tonnage/heat
        • Statistics display
    • Adds medium/heavy classes
    • Adds chassis component material variants
    • Adds medium/heavy powerplants
  • Phasing out old mechs
    • Remove older mechs from:
      • Maps
      • Bounties
    • Maps in MechLab and MechFabber machines/consoles to robotics bays
    • Adds any remaining equipment not already provided in parity
    • Adds armor variants for mech chassis parts
    • Adds Assault mech class + powerplant
    • Adds variant power plants for each mech class
    • Adds weapons until there are 3 weapons of every type with a niche
  • Full replacement
    • Any final features not included in roadmap are completed here
    • Polish, balance, feedback response
      • not bugfixes, as those should happen continuously
    • Full removal of old mechs from codebase.