- Status
I really like where the new concept is going. It seems like there is a lot more risk, and a lot of potential to add fun mechanics. You will need to judge how much health you will need to remain on the THMPR for it to survive the journey back. There are a lot of factors to consider here. Does it move slower the closer it gets to its capacity limit? Will damage cause it to move slower? Can it use the ore container like a club, perhaps with some risk of loosing some ore? The more ore it has the more damage it does with it?
I would love to see use to have a lot of different upgrade paths to the THMPR. Cosmetics certainly, but function upgrades as well. I would like to see speed, capacity, health, offence be give and take; you can't have everything type of thing.
The Kaiju type battles would be fun. Especially, if we have abilities as players that would work with the THMPR's abilities. Like we can distract the monster, with risk to our safety, so the THMPR can setup a devastating attack. Give the THMPR abilities that we can issue commands for it to use.
Just brainstorming stuff here, I had my creative hat on.
I would love to see use to have a lot of different upgrade paths to the THMPR. Cosmetics certainly, but function upgrades as well. I would like to see speed, capacity, health, offence be give and take; you can't have everything type of thing.
The Kaiju type battles would be fun. Especially, if we have abilities as players that would work with the THMPR's abilities. Like we can distract the monster, with risk to our safety, so the THMPR can setup a devastating attack. Give the THMPR abilities that we can issue commands for it to use.
Just brainstorming stuff here, I had my creative hat on.
THMPR heads back, and your frame can become a stationary weapons pod clipped onto the THMPR. SO escort, yes, but more tower defence/ wave defence than previous. IF it is a low sec area, it can go back by itself, allowing multiple low grade mining operations. BUt in high sec the response is greater, forcing you to babysit the THMPR all the way in and out.
Likes:
Mishkin
It Definitely looks Cool but just doesn't look Miner to me, I love the gameplay concept I really do, But the Concept Art while cool just doesn't look like it fits the role, A Miner is supposed to be a workhorse, a Pack Mule, A Bipedal Walker just doesn't look very, Packmule. I feel that a Miner would have to be on either Massive all rubber wheels (4 or more), Tracks (with tracks you could probably make the upper part work a little better though Give It a Big Backpack, Leggs with tracked feet, its not a commonly explored idea), or a Quadrupedal Walker spaced like the ATAT (maybe even six legged). basically you want something with a big wide, long base, this creates Greater Stability especially useful as the weight is a variable and the Balance will change radically based on whether it is loaded.
Storage, I cant tell what is muscle and What is Storage, but storage should be closer to the back of the robot, if the drill arm is big because it is storage for resources, well lets just say that's a bad idea, you are throwing balance off both Physically and Aesthetically for that matter, it looks Wrong. Storage should be visible on the machine while not being open, it could have a backpack that is either hard or Cloth-like (but look like a Technology bubble with minerals inside), it would be cool to see the Sack expand and fill up as it Mines, alternatively a Hard Backpack Might be better with sleek lines though there should be a easily recognizable gauge to see how full it is.
The Drill,
I Agree it does Remind Me of Gueren Lagan. But Guren Lagan was not about Mining or resource collecting, it was about tunneling (Pilot) and Combat. If im fighting Kaiju-like monsters i dont want it to be with the same drill that just mined my Iron Ore, too much guts mixed in with the Ore and the Refineries will go on Strike! More importantly it looks perfect for making Holes not extracting materials. what we want is an extraction tool, more of an Auger than a Drill, it will lift resources as it drills rather than shoving aside/destroying them
Storage, I cant tell what is muscle and What is Storage, but storage should be closer to the back of the robot, if the drill arm is big because it is storage for resources, well lets just say that's a bad idea, you are throwing balance off both Physically and Aesthetically for that matter, it looks Wrong. Storage should be visible on the machine while not being open, it could have a backpack that is either hard or Cloth-like (but look like a Technology bubble with minerals inside), it would be cool to see the Sack expand and fill up as it Mines, alternatively a Hard Backpack Might be better with sleek lines though there should be a easily recognizable gauge to see how full it is.
The Drill,
I Agree it does Remind Me of Gueren Lagan. But Guren Lagan was not about Mining or resource collecting, it was about tunneling (Pilot) and Combat. If im fighting Kaiju-like monsters i dont want it to be with the same drill that just mined my Iron Ore, too much guts mixed in with the Ore and the Refineries will go on Strike! More importantly it looks perfect for making Holes not extracting materials. what we want is an extraction tool, more of an Auger than a Drill, it will lift resources as it drills rather than shoving aside/destroying them
Likes:
yapushkin and Grammaton
I get what you are saying about a mining vehicle and such. The auger is something to be considered. But all talk of a land roving vehicle doesn't fit a sci fi theme as futuristic as these societies who just discovered warp gate tech. I see something along the lines of the drill softening the ground and making holes. From there I visualize chunks of colored resources either showing in the ground or popping up out of the ground. This is when the claw grabs the resources, letting useless dirt/rock fall from between fingers, and places it in the grav container shown in the art work. As for carrying the grav bin or having an electric tether of some sort while running would still fit the idea of being behind the unit to allowing freedom of movement and combat.
It Definitely looks Cool but just doesn't look Miner to me, I love the gameplay concept I really do, But the Concept Art while cool just doesn't look like it fits the role, A Miner is supposed to be a workhorse, a Pack Mule, A Bipedal Walker just doesn't look very, Packmule. I feel that a Miner would have to be on either Massive all rubber wheels (4 or more), Tracks (with tracks you could probably make the upper part work a little better though Give It a Big Backpack, Leggs with tracked feet, its not a commonly explored idea), or a Quadrupedal Walker spaced like the ATAT (maybe even six legged). basically you want something with a big wide, long base, this creates Greater Stability especially useful as the weight is a variable and the Balance will change radically based on whether it is loaded.
Storage, I cant tell what is muscle and What is Storage, but storage should be closer to the back of the robot, if the drill arm is big because it is storage for resources, well lets just say that's a bad idea, you are throwing balance off both Physically and Aesthetically for that matter, it looks Wrong. Storage should be visible on the machine while not being open, it could have a backpack that is either hard or Cloth-like (but look like a Technology bubble with minerals inside), it would be cool to see the Sack expand and fill up as it Mines, alternatively a Hard Backpack Might be better with sleek lines though there should be a easily recognizable gauge to see how full it is.
The Drill,
I Agree it does Remind Me of Gueren Lagan. But Guren Lagan was not about Mining or resource collecting, it was about tunneling (Pilot) and Combat. If im fighting Kaiju-like monsters i dont want it to be with the same drill that just mined my Iron Ore, too much guts mixed in with the Ore and the Refineries will go on Strike! More importantly it looks perfect for making Holes not extracting materials. what we want is an extraction tool, more of an Auger than a Drill, it will lift resources as it drills rather than shoving aside/destroying them
Storage, I cant tell what is muscle and What is Storage, but storage should be closer to the back of the robot, if the drill arm is big because it is storage for resources, well lets just say that's a bad idea, you are throwing balance off both Physically and Aesthetically for that matter, it looks Wrong. Storage should be visible on the machine while not being open, it could have a backpack that is either hard or Cloth-like (but look like a Technology bubble with minerals inside), it would be cool to see the Sack expand and fill up as it Mines, alternatively a Hard Backpack Might be better with sleek lines though there should be a easily recognizable gauge to see how full it is.
The Drill,
I Agree it does Remind Me of Gueren Lagan. But Guren Lagan was not about Mining or resource collecting, it was about tunneling (Pilot) and Combat. If im fighting Kaiju-like monsters i dont want it to be with the same drill that just mined my Iron Ore, too much guts mixed in with the Ore and the Refineries will go on Strike! More importantly it looks perfect for making Holes not extracting materials. what we want is an extraction tool, more of an Auger than a Drill, it will lift resources as it drills rather than shoving aside/destroying them
So I took a long hard look at this thing and I can't help but to agree with some others here that it doesn't look like a resource miner to me - The concept is great and it I love it, but I still imagined something more massive and a bit more logical than a autobot that "picks up ore with a claw hand" - So I was thinking about it and I came up with an idea,
What I was thinking was something more along the lines of this:
It's a very rough sketch, but you should get the idea,
The idea was that the drillarm is replaced with this big drill module that consists of
1. The drillhead - it does the basic job of mining into the ground and finding resources
2. The rotor (orange bit) - a powerful gravitational engine around the drillhead that basically sucks all the mined stuff up (I don't know technical stuff, but it can probably be done with some scifi tech)
3. The separator (blue bit) - it separates the crap from the valuables and feeds it up
4. The collector - Valuables (Green) are transported to the resource sphere and Crap (Red) gets reintroduced to the surface (perhaps slowly creating ramparts/dirt walls around the MEKA, giving it a more drill-site feel)
Finally It'd be wise to stabilize out the rig with either Triple or Quad legs and have the other arm (now open) function as a sort of defense station, perhaps sporting a usable or automated turret (obviously can be upgraded)
Anyways this was my idea and I hope this gets as feedback as possible - I feel it would give the MEKA a more bulky and dangerous but also a more practical feel
What I was thinking was something more along the lines of this:
It's a very rough sketch, but you should get the idea,
The idea was that the drillarm is replaced with this big drill module that consists of
1. The drillhead - it does the basic job of mining into the ground and finding resources
2. The rotor (orange bit) - a powerful gravitational engine around the drillhead that basically sucks all the mined stuff up (I don't know technical stuff, but it can probably be done with some scifi tech)
3. The separator (blue bit) - it separates the crap from the valuables and feeds it up
4. The collector - Valuables (Green) are transported to the resource sphere and Crap (Red) gets reintroduced to the surface (perhaps slowly creating ramparts/dirt walls around the MEKA, giving it a more drill-site feel)
Finally It'd be wise to stabilize out the rig with either Triple or Quad legs and have the other arm (now open) function as a sort of defense station, perhaps sporting a usable or automated turret (obviously can be upgraded)
Anyways this was my idea and I hope this gets as feedback as possible - I feel it would give the MEKA a more bulky and dangerous but also a more practical feel
So I took a long hard look at this thing and I can't help but to agree with some others here that it doesn't look like a resource miner to me - The concept is great and it I love it, but I still imagined something more massive and a bit more logical than a autobot that "picks up ore with a claw hand" - So I was thinking about it and I came up with an idea,
What I was thinking was something more along the lines of this:
It's a very rough sketch, but you should get the idea,
The idea was that the drillarm is replaced with this big drill module that consists of
1. The drillhead - it does the basic job of mining into the ground and finding resources
2. The rotor (orange bit) - a powerful gravitational engine around the drillhead that basically sucks all the mined stuff up (I don't know technical stuff, but it can probably be done with some scifi tech)
3. The separator (blue bit) - it separates the crap from the valuables and feeds it up
4. The collector - Valuables (Green) are transported to the resource sphere and Crap (Red) gets reintroduced to the surface (perhaps slowly creating ramparts/dirt walls around the MEKA, giving it a more drill-site feel)
Finally It'd be wise to stabilize out the rig with either Triple or Quad legs and have the other arm (now open) function as a sort of defense station, perhaps sporting a usable or automated turret (obviously can be upgraded)
Anyways this was my idea and I hope this gets as feedback as possible - I feel it would give the MEKA a more bulky and dangerous but also a more practical feel
What I was thinking was something more along the lines of this:
It's a very rough sketch, but you should get the idea,
The idea was that the drillarm is replaced with this big drill module that consists of
1. The drillhead - it does the basic job of mining into the ground and finding resources
2. The rotor (orange bit) - a powerful gravitational engine around the drillhead that basically sucks all the mined stuff up (I don't know technical stuff, but it can probably be done with some scifi tech)
3. The separator (blue bit) - it separates the crap from the valuables and feeds it up
4. The collector - Valuables (Green) are transported to the resource sphere and Crap (Red) gets reintroduced to the surface (perhaps slowly creating ramparts/dirt walls around the MEKA, giving it a more drill-site feel)
Finally It'd be wise to stabilize out the rig with either Triple or Quad legs and have the other arm (now open) function as a sort of defense station, perhaps sporting a usable or automated turret (obviously can be upgraded)
Anyways this was my idea and I hope this gets as feedback as possible - I feel it would give the MEKA a more bulky and dangerous but also a more practical feel
still, the concept is cool
I think you are onto something with the player/THMPR interaction here like setting up an attack.
Likes:
engjang, Dhramund and Ronyn
You have no idea how much I appreciate that. I just feel that the THMPR will be a large part of how players will be spending their time in Ember. The more engaging that part of the game can be, the better. Initially the thumpers in FF were fun for me, but over time it got old. There wasn't enough variation in what happened during the process to keep it interesting. I feel like this MEK-A approach offers the chance to be much more interesting. However, if it ends up being just a babysit and escort from point A to B; it will end up just as rote and grindy as the FF version. If we have some interesting choices, it becomes much more fun in the long run. Some tactical choices with trade-offs would be amazing. An example being able to plan a route to a refinery, with a trade-off between distance and difficulty.
Although, as I am sure see as well, adding interaction abilities to the THMPR MEK-A does make it more than just a resource extraction machine. Any combat abilities could be exploited for operations other than resource extraction. Be that part of what you wish to design or not.
Although, as I am sure see as well, adding interaction abilities to the THMPR MEK-A does make it more than just a resource extraction machine. Any combat abilities could be exploited for operations other than resource extraction. Be that part of what you wish to design or not.
Just curious but is it planned that the T.H.M.P.R. be able to be customizable? Can it potentially have weapon platforms which can be manned by omniframes? I know it might be a lot more than the original FF thumper concept but (this isn't Firefall so...) would turn it into a roving base of sorts. It also would mean that the T.H.M.P.R. would also act a bit more like a vehicle (with an auto callback once it is filled) that player squads could take out into the wilderness. It could also be useful as a group weapon for map area's where something with more punch than a group of omniframes might be needed.
Pilots Cabin - Player here determines the path of the THMPR and has access to limited long cooldown strategic weapons (aerial bombardment, using the thmpr arms as AoE weapons when not in use, etc)
Sniper Nest - located high up on the THMPR, excellent vantage point with either an anti-air weapon or a sniper capable of identifying special weak points on some creatures/bosses and can place targets on mobs for anyone in the party to see.
2x Gunner Nests - Special seats on the THMPR legs with access to unlimited ammo and slightly reduced cooldowns on offensive abilities for anyone in these positions.
Navigator - a special gunner nest located on the THMPR chest with access to sensor scans which also has a scanner that displays ore concentrations in the immediate area as well as a thermal scanner that shows nearby biological concentrations (aka enemies)
For those who are not riding on the THMPR (it won't exactly be omniframe fast after all and might not be able to travel everywhere) there would be ammo and health stations located on its feet. Additionally the thumper as a movable mini base could also be a destination point for players to transport to from the main base, allowing players to quickly get into the action. Any thumper out in the field would show up on the main map.
Pilots Cabin - Player here determines the path of the THMPR and has access to limited long cooldown strategic weapons (aerial bombardment, using the thmpr arms as AoE weapons when not in use, etc)
Sniper Nest - located high up on the THMPR, excellent vantage point with either an anti-air weapon or a sniper capable of identifying special weak points on some creatures/bosses and can place targets on mobs for anyone in the party to see.
2x Gunner Nests - Special seats on the THMPR legs with access to unlimited ammo and slightly reduced cooldowns on offensive abilities for anyone in these positions.
Navigator - a special gunner nest located on the THMPR chest with access to sensor scans which also has a scanner that displays ore concentrations in the immediate area as well as a thermal scanner that shows nearby biological concentrations (aka enemies)
For those who are not riding on the THMPR (it won't exactly be omniframe fast after all and might not be able to travel everywhere) there would be ammo and health stations located on its feet. Additionally the thumper as a movable mini base could also be a destination point for players to transport to from the main base, allowing players to quickly get into the action. Any thumper out in the field would show up on the main map.
- Status