Player's Mek Destroyed Event

[Thorp]

Question during Chief Chat: When a player is defeated does their mech explode and disappear? Or does it become a dynamic repair or keep safe event?
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1219396175
02h12m35s

Answer: Currently the mek explodes and disappears. The player is then ejected and can run around to survive and call down another mek.

Essentially I was thinking something similar to a Thumper encounter where the effort to repair a defeated mek would create more aggro. I agree with Grummz's concern that it would be a distraction and possibly disruptive to gameplay.

As a follow-up, I propose that not all meks completely disappear when destroyed. Skeletons of meks could litter the battlefields, acting as gravestones, obstacles, and reminders, until they are salvaged, further destroyed, or time-out. Salvaging the meks could recoup materials and create some sense of permanence in the world.

 

[Wyntyr]

The 2 main issues I see would be balancing the resources returned so peeps don't duel their alt acct, or another player, to get resources because its better than thumping or an easy way to move resources from one acct to another. Also, the Mek Rekts staying on the battlefield eats up server resources to maintain the locations for everyone to see and resource amounts to give out.

 

[Thorp]

so peeps don't duel their alt acct, or another player, to get resources

Dead mek events would only be possible when defeated by PvE. Any sort of return for salvaging a dead mek should pale in comparison to not losing it in the first place. I would also imagine the return would be far less than what a Thumper could mine. This salvaging opportunity would be something for players to do on their adventures to pick up pennies along the way.* And as I mentioned in the OP, seeing dead meks on the terrain would add a sense of persistence and history to a static landscape.

Mek Rekts staying on the battlefield eats up server resources

While this is a potential concern I doubt it consumes an enormous amount. Fortnite, and the Unreal Engine in general, is strong in keeping track of hundreds of actors along with surpluses of players in the zones. The server can also limit the amount of dead meks on the server and run a time-out function to remove meks over time.

Hypothetically, this dead mek event could be limited to a 5% or 1% chance. So if there is an invasion with 100 players and all of the players wipe instantly, that would statistically create 1-5 dead meks and not much strain on the server.

*Edit* The salvage does not have to be limited to rewarding mineral resources; it could give small amounts of research or crafting exp/tokens or whatever else is deemed appropriate as a small consolation.

 

[Omnires]

So, is this something like a corpse run? I know that in some games if a player doesn't get back to their corpse in time all their dropped stuff becomes open to everyone to pick up.

In some games this had the odd side effect of turning some players into thing like vultures. Where they well hang around a spot where a player died to see if they will make it back in time so they can loot their stuff. I can't tell you how it feels like to get back to your body just in before the timer runs out while like 10 other players are just surrounding your body waiting to loot your stuff.

But this also has the side effect of making some player work against each other rather than helping each other. Because even if there is no PVP in the game they can still lead mobs to other players in hopes of those mobs killing them and they can loot their stuff. In some older games this tactic was call things like a "train". Because you'll see one player running around somewhere with like an army of mobs aggroed on them following them in like a line. With some of the tanking classes with abilities like taunts it can end up looking like something of the Night Parade of 100 Demons as they run past other players hopping that the mobs will switch targets and attack them. And you can see how this can make problems when players lead a train of mods to spawn points and exits of map areas, stopping most people from getting into the area or leaving the area alive.

 

[liandri]

As a dynamic random event, maybe? The Tsi-hu need resources too right? You could have an event like the one you talk about where the "knee biters" act as scavenger dogs and drag destroyed frames into a pile for collection by some scavenger squad. The event becomes active when everyone in the area gets a distress beacon from an unoccupied frame's OP-AI. Players attempt to fight off and defend the pile and if they can hold it, you get a bunch of scrap for crafting.

As for frames littering the battlefield, while it would be stressful to render all the graves, with their different frame types (and probably simplified to a couple of different colours and load outs), wouldn't nanite and whatever is used for the terraformed terrain help with this? I'd guess that the world will have choke points that are intended to be used for big battles. Maybe this omniframe graveyard could be another layer that only becomes visible if there is a lot of destroyed frames... Probably way too much work for visual effect though.

 

[Pandagnome]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1219396175
02h12m35s

Grummz with mek arms and boots very good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I would think that underground is a place other destroyed frames could be, since some of the kneebiters dig and bury them and some of them have burrowed tunnels beneath.

Since those are small tunnels and other areas are bigger you are forced to hop out of the mek to investigate if you dare!

 

[Thorp]

So, is this something like a corpse run?

Nope. Em8er is not going to have a corpse run. Players don't lose equipment from dying either. My though is a simple: player's mek is destroyed, small chance their mek does not explode, players can interact and remove the dead mek from the landscape when combat is over to recoup some of the cost to repair their destroyed mek. The reward of "salvaging" the mek should be small and not necessarily grant resources; it could give something else of value such as crafting research exp or something. The reward should be so small that players are not compelled to return to a dead mek location. These dead mek instances should be more of spectacle to provide a sense of history, an omen, and not an exploit opportunity.

And in response to the "knee-biters" dragging a mek away it would be neat to find a stash of dead meks in a cave nearby. However, as Grummz speculated, an event like that during combat could be too much of a distraction to the main event. Having a cave of dead meks or seeing knee-biters drag a mek around should not be something that happens during combat but something players find.

 

[liandri]

And in response to the "knee-biters" dragging a mek away it would be neat to find a stash of dead meks in a cave nearby. However, as Grummz speculated, an event like that during combat could be too much of a distraction to the main event. Having a cave of dead meks or seeing knee-biters drag a mek around should not be something that happens during combat but something players find.

Was thinking the same. It wouldn't make sense seeing them drag a mek in the middle of combat, but it would be a loosely-fitting explanation for where all our destroyed meks disappear off to.
Just don't think about all the dead pilots they've stashed away.

 

[Omnires]

Well given how we do have A.I. with us at all times couldn't the A.I. be scanning the area around like it normally does when it sees sign of an attack in the area. Than using what it knows to show you the mostly likely events that has happened? In other words the A.I. is basically doing what hunters and forensics scientists do to try and guess about what happened in the area. And to helps their pilot (us) to better understand what has happened in the are it can show us holograms of what it thinks most likely has happened there.

This would be a more scientific and realistic way of doing the thing games like Dark Souls does where you can see the ghost of other players and how they died. And this kind of system is something that people are working on in real life. It is just that A.I. is not advanced enough to do such things all by itself, yet.

 

[Pandagnome]

Well given how we do have A.I. with us at all times couldn't the A.I. be scanning the area around like it normally does when it sees sign of an attack in the area. Than using what it knows to show you the mostly likely events that has happened? In other words the A.I. is basically doing what hunters and forensics scientists do to try and guess about what happened in the area. And to helps their pilot (us) to better understand what has happened in the are it can show us holograms of what it thinks most likely has happened there.

This would be a more scientific and realistic way of doing the thing games like Dark Souls does where you can see the ghost of other players and how they died. And this kind of system is something that people are working on in real life. It is just that A.I. is not advanced enough to do such things all by itself, yet.

Would that be a Detective A.I or would all A.I's have the capabaility to do this to various degree?

 

[Omnires]

Would that be a Detective A.I or would all A.I's have the capabaility to do this to various degree?

In the game I can see different A.I. who are focused and geared to different things having different levels of the ability. But it'll still be something they could all do. Although the A.I.s that are used for things like scouting, sniping, and medical use would be able to give a higher level of details than other A.I.s just do the nature of what they do and focus on.

After all, hunters, trackers, and archaeologist are not detectives but they still have the same skills to look at an area and guess what was the most likely thing to have happened there based on the evidence they found.

 

[VRK9]

About the players mek destroyed event:
In em8er, this event could work in a mix of random and player making event, imagine that every time a players mek is destroyed some knee bitters will appear and bury what's left, after a certain number of destroyed meks (example 90) a warning message appears to players about a pile of mek scrap hidden underground was detected and players must salvage it before the tsi-hu move it to their base. If players find the hidden event and beat it before the destroyed mek number rises above another value (example 100) or before a certain countdown timer, the event ends and threat level drops. But if players don’t beat the event the knee bitters will get reinforcements and will try to move the pile to their nearest base, then players must destroy the train/caravan and salvage it. If players lose again then an armoured stronger kaiju (with reapers technology) will appear to destroy players’ base.