Storing Loadouts (Everything equipped) = Different Frames - Essentially

[MattHunX]

Our Omni-frames are basically going to be the root of our tech and weapons-tree. The stem from which we branch out and modify it all to suit our specific play-styles, which coincidentally may or may not be the equivalents of archetypal roles. I guess the word "frame" already gets that idea across, that it's just the basis to build stuff on, but I always glaze over that for some weird reason.

We won't be walking up to frame-stations to get a list of all of our unlocked frames and quickly hop into a different one. Nope.

What we should have instead, is the option to store different loadouts. We customize our frame and steadily go towards a setup that fulfills a desired role, tested by us, in specific situation. But, we might also want to build our frame towards different roles, specializing it towards different situation.

So, we should be able to store specific setups that could be called "Loadout 1, 2, 3..." or "Omni-Build 1, 2, 3..." or whatever.

We might still be...or for immersion and a bit of realism's sake...we should still be required to approach some type of garage or station to make this switch. And there should also be the question of whether or not the equipment that would be a part of a specific build should take up inventory space. We will most likely use a few pieces of gear in more than one build and whatever is equipped or is part of a build (even a different one that were not using) shouldn't effect inventory space. The gear and mods in them can encumber us, slowing our movement speed, agility, ability to jet around...etc. depending on the negative effects that would be clearly defined on the item card. But, by default, whatever we have equipped and store in a build, shouldn't take up inventory space. Or should it?

And how many slots for different builds should players be allowed to have? As many as there are players? Because everyone can and will make a slightly different build than the next person.

 

[EvilKitten]

I call them kits personally but yes this is essentially what I have been suggesting with my constant jabbering about mods. I think of Kits as their own storage devices. You can install a kit onto your frame within designated zones (because the parts are too heavy to manually install yourself, you need a garage). Once you have a kit installed you can then place whatever mods and abilities you have built onto your frame and they are automatically added to the kit. Remove the kit (at the garage zone) and all of the mods and abilities are stored inside safely, allowing you to install a different kit. Updating a kit would be as easy as installing it and then switching stuff out. This would of course mean that you can't reuse a single item in multiple kits as the item is physically part of that kit and not merely a representation.

EDIT: And I also think you can have as many kits as you want to make parts for, however you have to build the kit framework plus all of the mods and abilities to go with it so...

 

[Luisedgm]

Yes, storing kits or loadouts or whatever you will call it will probably be essential as it defines the whole character build.

 

[Daynen]

In the end this won't be that much different than having multiple frames, but the mechanical difference is important. I don't know how I feel about the "kits" idea, as that locks up an item in it's own space for a weird reason. I prefer simply needing one (or two) of what I need in a single garage and just swapping to the setup I want, taking out my two rifles and assault-y setup or switching to the heavy machine gun and armor package for a more dreadnaught style. Locking an item up in a "kit" like that just means we'll have to get multiples of a thing if it's good enough to use in more than one loadout. There are pros and cons to such an approach, sure, but as always, I'm in favor of reducing redundancy and clutter in design.