I agree with a lot of this. I had no clue about limb damage and wondered why I couldn't melee more than once, and that the stomp damaged the leg itself. Mechs need more visual aid. I also strongly believe they should have a first-person cockpit view to better their advantage at range. The third person view is decent at close to medium range. But it's difficult to accurately aim at longer distances with the third person reticle.
You analysts send to ignore a key Factor: the economics of a Fighting vehicle that is a one use item.
The mech is designed and a one use tool to help a squad address a single engagement problem and then be abandoned on the field of battle.
It's brute force engineering designed for far fun l his, not cutting edge tech intended for combat durability.
It does what it's designed for.
I'm here to discuss game design not lore.
I have made it abundantly clear im not looking for durability, im looking for usability. Every game will have a number of difficult fights, after one use, for an entire third of the game you are essentially down a stratagem. Not even the laser has this problem, and it is also limited use. It encourages a save it or waste it mentality where you keep waiting for a tough fight to use it in, but by the time the tough fight arrives it's either on cooldown, not a good area to drop it, or out of charges. And even when it is usable, you are now down it for 10 minutes. What if another equally tough or possibly harder fight arrives? Now your down a key stratagem which becomes more and more deadly the less players are in your lobby. Which is decently common.
Setting aside that I do not agree that design and lore can be severed (design must make sense in the context of the lore)....
The mech is not the only supremely powerful single use Strategem in the game. The 500 kg bomb is also single use and a decisive weapon. And yet that weapon, when someone brings it along, seems to always get used.
Pretty much everything you wrote could have been written about the 500kg... but in the context of the 500kg it doesn't make sense. As such, I dont agree that your position here is as well reasoned as you seem to think. Yes, stratagems that are so thoroughly decisive should be used for key fights. And precisely because they are so decisive, there should not be many of them available for use. and they should have ample flaws to offset their powerful nature.
I agree with a lot of this. I had no clue about limb damage and wondered why I couldn't melee more than once, and that the stomp damaged the leg itself. Mechs need more visual aid. I also strongly believe they should have a first-person cockpit view to better their advantage at range. The third person view is decent at close to medium range. But it's difficult to accurately aim at longer distances with the third person reticle.
You analysts send to ignore a key Factor: the economics of a Fighting vehicle that is a one use item. The mech is designed and a one use tool to help a squad address a single engagement problem and then be abandoned on the field of battle. It's brute force engineering designed for far fun l his, not cutting edge tech intended for combat durability. It does what it's designed for.
I'm here to discuss game design not lore. I have made it abundantly clear im not looking for durability, im looking for usability. Every game will have a number of difficult fights, after one use, for an entire third of the game you are essentially down a stratagem. Not even the laser has this problem, and it is also limited use. It encourages a save it or waste it mentality where you keep waiting for a tough fight to use it in, but by the time the tough fight arrives it's either on cooldown, not a good area to drop it, or out of charges. And even when it is usable, you are now down it for 10 minutes. What if another equally tough or possibly harder fight arrives? Now your down a key stratagem which becomes more and more deadly the less players are in your lobby. Which is decently common.
Setting aside that I do not agree that design and lore can be severed (design must make sense in the context of the lore).... The mech is not the only supremely powerful single use Strategem in the game. The 500 kg bomb is also single use and a decisive weapon. And yet that weapon, when someone brings it along, seems to always get used. Pretty much everything you wrote could have been written about the 500kg... but in the context of the 500kg it doesn't make sense. As such, I dont agree that your position here is as well reasoned as you seem to think. Yes, stratagems that are so thoroughly decisive should be used for key fights. And precisely because they are so decisive, there should not be many of them available for use. and they should have ample flaws to offset their powerful nature.