@Grummz If you've never played Armored Core, I recommend you try out Armored Core For Answer and Armored Core Verdict Day for the most modern mechanics. Here are my suggestions for mechanics that I thought worked well in Armored Core. They are all just suggestions, so you can ignore or modify those you dislike at will. I tried to make this as readable and understandable as possible and left out many details (so don't rage at me Armored Core/Battletech fans.)
~Weight allocation~
(distinguishing Omniframe Light/Medium/Heavy classes)
There are some current visions for what the differences will be between Light/Medium/Heavy Omniframes, and I'd like to expand on that.
In armored core you had a total weight allocation, that is - your legs, arms and core (torso) could each support a specific amount of weight. In Ember we won't have as customizable mechs as you do in Armored Core, but the same idea could be used in Ember. I propose that the interchangeable components of your omniframe would have an attached weight-value, and the class of your omniframe (heavy/medium/light) would determine your total weight constraints.
Heavy Omniframes would be the most heavily armored mechs, and would have the highest weight allocation. In turn, they would also be the slowest most lumbering mechs, making them huge targets for more agile opponents. Of course, as a Heavy Omniframe pilot you don't care about that, do you? You just want to take your 64-missile battery, and array of artillery launchers and reign hell from the heavens upon the enemies of mankind.
Medium Omniframe pilots value the mobility their omniframes provide them, but also want to take some heavy weaponry into battle - Medium Omniframes sit in between light and heavy mechs in armor, speed and weight allocation - but they are uniquely capable in handling heavy weaponry while also remaining an agile opponent - these are generally the most versatile jack-of-all-trades mechs.
Light Omniframe pilots value mobility and speed before everything else - this is generally the most difficult weight class to play due to having an extremely low weight allocation, thus limiting the amount of weaponry you can field as well as having virtually no armor. A good light omniframe pilot however is near immortal while maintaining their offensive capabilities through precision aiming and calculated tactics.
In short, I propose the addition of "Weight Allocation" to Ember as another way to distinguish the existing Omniframes from one another as well as adding more horizontal choices to the final game.
~Internal Systems~
Armored Core has the concept of Internal components which varies between games, but these are the general internal components shared across many of the titles:
Radiator, Generator, Fire Control System (FCS), Boosters (Jumpjets)
The generator provides the total energy capacity for your mech as well as the total energy regeneration for your mech. This would be equivalent to Jumpjet Energy and Energy Regen in Firefall respectively. The generator also provides a constant stream of energy required for many on-board systems such as the FCS, Camera, Anti-missile systems, etc.
Superior generators are balanced around several factors, but normally the biggest balancing factor is how much they weigh. A generator with a higher energy reserve and output will weigh a considerable amount, to the point where only the largest mechs can support them.
Using this general idea, we can imagine Omniframes will have a general total weight allocation consumed by internal components as well as weapons and other interchangeable components. In essence, the light omniframe will have a lower total weight allocation and a heavy omniframe will have a higher total weight allocation.
I will touch more on this later, for now I just want to lay out some basic ideas and concepts for Generators.
The radiator keeps your mech at supported operational temperatures, simply put: if your mech gets too hot, it won't function at it's full potential, or maybe even at all. This is a feature that has been implemented in many mech simulators, and I'll focus specifically on the mechanics of heat dissipation in Armored Core and Mech Warrior.
Many actions will generate heat or impose heat on your mech, from using your jumpjets and firing your weapons, to heating up from environmental status (Lava, Desert) and receiving enemy fire (Being shot with molten plasma, or being blasted with a flamethrower.) There are many areas where heat generation is a concern and can be included to make a more interesting experience in Ember.
Now if you're familiar with Battletech and Mechwarrior you will know that heat generation is almost impossible to avoid, but in Armored Core radiators are more powerful and a heavy radiator can dissipate most, or even all heat you generate or receive.
What happens when your mech overheats varies between games, in Mechwarrior you enter a state of reactor-shutdown, where your mech is disabled while it vents heat - this may not be a favorable gameplay mechanic in Ember because it takes you out of the action and makes you extremely vulnerable. Armored Core handles overheating a bit differently, instead of becoming disabled you begin taking taking damage based on the thermal conductivity of your mech - I will discuss thermal conductivity later, but the important part for this topic is that you are not disabled, and you simply take damage and must ease off the strenuous activities until you cooldown.
Following with the details of weight allocation I discussed earlier - choosing to equip your mech with a larger, heavier radiator can greatly improve the performance of your mech. You could also choose to sacrifice your ability to effectively dissipate heat and take a smaller, lighter radiator - so that you could take a heavier array of weapons, or maybe a larger generator on your light mech - to put it simply, the addition of radiators and heat generation/dissipation allows for a more horizontal gameplay experience when you have more things to consider in the construction of your omniframe.
The Fire Control System (FCS) is a tricky one, because Ember will be largely skill-based, auto-targeting in Ember doesn't really have a place. In Armored Core, the FCS determines your maximum lock-on range, the maximum number of targets you can acquire while firing missiles, as well as the autonomous weapons systems you may have chosen to bring with you.
While in general I don't think the FCS has a place, it may be an interesting mechanic for autonomous weapons systems, such as Anti-Missile systems, Auto-Turrets and other sentries (think bastion from Firefall,) and other wargear that isn't directly controlled by the player.
The cost for choosing to take a more powerful FCS is a higher energy drain on your generator. As I discussed previously, many activities will naturally drain energy from your generator - but bringing a heavier more powerful generator can offset this cost.
The Boosters in Armored Core had many different shapes and sizes, the general idea is that you could pick a energy efficient booster - this would consume less energy and put out less thrust, ultimately leaving you slower but allowing you to boost significantly longer. Alternatively, there was the energy hog high thrust force boosters that would drain energy insanely fast, but would turn you into a rocketship. This opens up many horizontal options in building your omniframe.
I would also like to discuss two other jumpjet mechanics from Armored Core which were also determined by boosters. Armored Core had two secondary booster functions, "Quick Boost" and "Overboost."
Quickboost was similar to afterburner, almost - it would provide you with a quick high-thrust force boost in whichever direction you desired, at the cost of a good chunk of energy. Weaker Quickboosters required less energy to activate, but wouldn't thrust you as far, etc. (video of quickboost)
Overboosters would provide you with the option to engage a long lasting high thrust booster which would bring your mech to impressive speeds for long distance travel. This would draw an immense amount of energy and produce serious amounts of heat. This ties in with Embers "Skim-mode" as seen in the following section.
(A video containing Overboost, Quickboost and VOB)
~Scan Mode and Limiter Release Mode~
(Omniframe "Skim-mode")
I would like to touch on the omniframe "skim-mode" and it's applications with generators and boosters. As I discussed already, many activities will have a natural energy drain, and if you are not using a powerful generator you will not have very good flight-time.
Armored Core has two variants of Embers Skim-mode, but I will focus only on the direct counterpart "Scan mode," while in Scan Mode most of your hardware is disabled except for the basics. Your FCS, Weapons, Tracking Drones, Advanced camera functionality and other non-essential systems are disabled - leaving you with a significant boost of energy output from your generator, which allows for a significant upgrade on flight-time and overboost/VOB time.
I do not know what all the current plans for Skim mode are in Ember, but you might look at Armored Cores "Scan mode" and "limiter release" modes for ideas on what extra benefits or quirks Skim mode in Ember might provide.
Edit: for the sake of including it, I will briefly discuss what limiter release mode is.
In earlier Armored Core titles you could perform what was known as a "Limiter Release" which would disengage all governors on your mech such as thermal monitors and generator calorific reserves. This would allow you to for a short while perform many maneuvers that are harmful to your mech - namely unlimited energy and improved heat dissipation. This would come at the cost of full reactor-shutdown and significantly decreased heat dissipation for a short while after you activated the Limiter release. This could be a very interesting mechanic in Ember should Radiators and Generators be included in game.
~Overed Weapons~
(Battleframe Ultimate Abilities)
In later releases of Armored Core, weapons known as "Overed Weapons" or "Ultimate Weapons" were introduced. These were akin to Ultimate Abilities in Firefall, in that they were extremely powerful weapons that could not be used often.
Overed Weapons were actually weapons not specifically built for the mechs they were equipped too. They were often industrial construction equipment, or stationary weapon batteries that some crazy guy decided he wanted to equip to his mech. As such, these weapons have a huge cost to activate.
Overed Weapons would operate on two concepts, 1) Thermal Conductivity, 2) Critical Reactor output.
Because Overed Weapons were not built specifically for mechs, they would put huge amounts of strain on the mech when activated. A higher thermal conductivity (which could be supported through a radiator, or some other mechanic you find to be a suitable replacement) would reduce the amount of damage your mech incurs from activating the weapon.
Likewise, the small generator on your mech wasn't built to support those weapons and it takes a long time for the generator to supply energy to the Overed Weapon - this is a problem, because activating the weapon puts massive stress on your machine as well as the downtime you face while waiting for the weapon to power up. A higher "generator critical output" will more rapidly supply energy to the overed weapon so you don't incur as much damage and downtime while waiting for it to power up.
These weapons were single-use in Armored Core, and were often discarded after activation - in Ember you might try some alternative balancing features on how often they are allowed to be used and when they can be used.
All of this is nice, however - what really made the Overed Weapons special is the experience of activating them. Watch the following video and imagine Aero shouting at you that the weapon you're activating is too dangerous, and pleading with you to disengage it.
[Skip to 4m 13s]
~Melee combat~
Melee combat is discussed frequently among the Ember community, I don't have any detailed descriptions of how I envision melee combat because I think videos will do a better job than I can with words. I want Ember to be fast, I want it to be mobility focused - and I think the melee combat should reflect the manoeuvrability and speed you are granted through your Omniframe.
~Pilot progression~
The final thing I would like to touch on from Armored Core is the concept of Pilot progression. (Human+, OP-I)
In earlier titles, the pilot was considered an integral part of the machine. I assume, like Firefall - Ember will allow you to play all Omniframe classes and you will not be bound to a specific Omniframe. I propose adding some pilot skills you acquire overtime, through achievements, community progress, research or however else you see fit. These upgrades would transition between frames, and allow you to play any frame you like without feeling like you're behind on the equipment curve. This adds both more horizontal options, as well as another carrot for the player to chase while they play the game.
For example, should you add a perk system like Firefalls, the perks would not be bound to any one omniframe, but would be attached to your human character.
~Weight allocation~
(distinguishing Omniframe Light/Medium/Heavy classes)
There are some current visions for what the differences will be between Light/Medium/Heavy Omniframes, and I'd like to expand on that.
In armored core you had a total weight allocation, that is - your legs, arms and core (torso) could each support a specific amount of weight. In Ember we won't have as customizable mechs as you do in Armored Core, but the same idea could be used in Ember. I propose that the interchangeable components of your omniframe would have an attached weight-value, and the class of your omniframe (heavy/medium/light) would determine your total weight constraints.
Heavy Omniframes would be the most heavily armored mechs, and would have the highest weight allocation. In turn, they would also be the slowest most lumbering mechs, making them huge targets for more agile opponents. Of course, as a Heavy Omniframe pilot you don't care about that, do you? You just want to take your 64-missile battery, and array of artillery launchers and reign hell from the heavens upon the enemies of mankind.
Medium Omniframe pilots value the mobility their omniframes provide them, but also want to take some heavy weaponry into battle - Medium Omniframes sit in between light and heavy mechs in armor, speed and weight allocation - but they are uniquely capable in handling heavy weaponry while also remaining an agile opponent - these are generally the most versatile jack-of-all-trades mechs.
Light Omniframe pilots value mobility and speed before everything else - this is generally the most difficult weight class to play due to having an extremely low weight allocation, thus limiting the amount of weaponry you can field as well as having virtually no armor. A good light omniframe pilot however is near immortal while maintaining their offensive capabilities through precision aiming and calculated tactics.
In short, I propose the addition of "Weight Allocation" to Ember as another way to distinguish the existing Omniframes from one another as well as adding more horizontal choices to the final game.
~Internal Systems~
Armored Core has the concept of Internal components which varies between games, but these are the general internal components shared across many of the titles:
Radiator, Generator, Fire Control System (FCS), Boosters (Jumpjets)
The generator provides the total energy capacity for your mech as well as the total energy regeneration for your mech. This would be equivalent to Jumpjet Energy and Energy Regen in Firefall respectively. The generator also provides a constant stream of energy required for many on-board systems such as the FCS, Camera, Anti-missile systems, etc.
Superior generators are balanced around several factors, but normally the biggest balancing factor is how much they weigh. A generator with a higher energy reserve and output will weigh a considerable amount, to the point where only the largest mechs can support them.
Using this general idea, we can imagine Omniframes will have a general total weight allocation consumed by internal components as well as weapons and other interchangeable components. In essence, the light omniframe will have a lower total weight allocation and a heavy omniframe will have a higher total weight allocation.
I will touch more on this later, for now I just want to lay out some basic ideas and concepts for Generators.
The radiator keeps your mech at supported operational temperatures, simply put: if your mech gets too hot, it won't function at it's full potential, or maybe even at all. This is a feature that has been implemented in many mech simulators, and I'll focus specifically on the mechanics of heat dissipation in Armored Core and Mech Warrior.
Many actions will generate heat or impose heat on your mech, from using your jumpjets and firing your weapons, to heating up from environmental status (Lava, Desert) and receiving enemy fire (Being shot with molten plasma, or being blasted with a flamethrower.) There are many areas where heat generation is a concern and can be included to make a more interesting experience in Ember.
Now if you're familiar with Battletech and Mechwarrior you will know that heat generation is almost impossible to avoid, but in Armored Core radiators are more powerful and a heavy radiator can dissipate most, or even all heat you generate or receive.
What happens when your mech overheats varies between games, in Mechwarrior you enter a state of reactor-shutdown, where your mech is disabled while it vents heat - this may not be a favorable gameplay mechanic in Ember because it takes you out of the action and makes you extremely vulnerable. Armored Core handles overheating a bit differently, instead of becoming disabled you begin taking taking damage based on the thermal conductivity of your mech - I will discuss thermal conductivity later, but the important part for this topic is that you are not disabled, and you simply take damage and must ease off the strenuous activities until you cooldown.
Following with the details of weight allocation I discussed earlier - choosing to equip your mech with a larger, heavier radiator can greatly improve the performance of your mech. You could also choose to sacrifice your ability to effectively dissipate heat and take a smaller, lighter radiator - so that you could take a heavier array of weapons, or maybe a larger generator on your light mech - to put it simply, the addition of radiators and heat generation/dissipation allows for a more horizontal gameplay experience when you have more things to consider in the construction of your omniframe.
The Fire Control System (FCS) is a tricky one, because Ember will be largely skill-based, auto-targeting in Ember doesn't really have a place. In Armored Core, the FCS determines your maximum lock-on range, the maximum number of targets you can acquire while firing missiles, as well as the autonomous weapons systems you may have chosen to bring with you.
While in general I don't think the FCS has a place, it may be an interesting mechanic for autonomous weapons systems, such as Anti-Missile systems, Auto-Turrets and other sentries (think bastion from Firefall,) and other wargear that isn't directly controlled by the player.
The cost for choosing to take a more powerful FCS is a higher energy drain on your generator. As I discussed previously, many activities will naturally drain energy from your generator - but bringing a heavier more powerful generator can offset this cost.
The Boosters in Armored Core had many different shapes and sizes, the general idea is that you could pick a energy efficient booster - this would consume less energy and put out less thrust, ultimately leaving you slower but allowing you to boost significantly longer. Alternatively, there was the energy hog high thrust force boosters that would drain energy insanely fast, but would turn you into a rocketship. This opens up many horizontal options in building your omniframe.
I would also like to discuss two other jumpjet mechanics from Armored Core which were also determined by boosters. Armored Core had two secondary booster functions, "Quick Boost" and "Overboost."
Quickboost was similar to afterburner, almost - it would provide you with a quick high-thrust force boost in whichever direction you desired, at the cost of a good chunk of energy. Weaker Quickboosters required less energy to activate, but wouldn't thrust you as far, etc. (video of quickboost)
Overboosters would provide you with the option to engage a long lasting high thrust booster which would bring your mech to impressive speeds for long distance travel. This would draw an immense amount of energy and produce serious amounts of heat. This ties in with Embers "Skim-mode" as seen in the following section.
(A video containing Overboost, Quickboost and VOB)
~Scan Mode and Limiter Release Mode~
(Omniframe "Skim-mode")
I would like to touch on the omniframe "skim-mode" and it's applications with generators and boosters. As I discussed already, many activities will have a natural energy drain, and if you are not using a powerful generator you will not have very good flight-time.
Armored Core has two variants of Embers Skim-mode, but I will focus only on the direct counterpart "Scan mode," while in Scan Mode most of your hardware is disabled except for the basics. Your FCS, Weapons, Tracking Drones, Advanced camera functionality and other non-essential systems are disabled - leaving you with a significant boost of energy output from your generator, which allows for a significant upgrade on flight-time and overboost/VOB time.
I do not know what all the current plans for Skim mode are in Ember, but you might look at Armored Cores "Scan mode" and "limiter release" modes for ideas on what extra benefits or quirks Skim mode in Ember might provide.
Edit: for the sake of including it, I will briefly discuss what limiter release mode is.
In earlier Armored Core titles you could perform what was known as a "Limiter Release" which would disengage all governors on your mech such as thermal monitors and generator calorific reserves. This would allow you to for a short while perform many maneuvers that are harmful to your mech - namely unlimited energy and improved heat dissipation. This would come at the cost of full reactor-shutdown and significantly decreased heat dissipation for a short while after you activated the Limiter release. This could be a very interesting mechanic in Ember should Radiators and Generators be included in game.
~Overed Weapons~
(Battleframe Ultimate Abilities)
In later releases of Armored Core, weapons known as "Overed Weapons" or "Ultimate Weapons" were introduced. These were akin to Ultimate Abilities in Firefall, in that they were extremely powerful weapons that could not be used often.
Overed Weapons were actually weapons not specifically built for the mechs they were equipped too. They were often industrial construction equipment, or stationary weapon batteries that some crazy guy decided he wanted to equip to his mech. As such, these weapons have a huge cost to activate.
Overed Weapons would operate on two concepts, 1) Thermal Conductivity, 2) Critical Reactor output.
Because Overed Weapons were not built specifically for mechs, they would put huge amounts of strain on the mech when activated. A higher thermal conductivity (which could be supported through a radiator, or some other mechanic you find to be a suitable replacement) would reduce the amount of damage your mech incurs from activating the weapon.
Likewise, the small generator on your mech wasn't built to support those weapons and it takes a long time for the generator to supply energy to the Overed Weapon - this is a problem, because activating the weapon puts massive stress on your machine as well as the downtime you face while waiting for the weapon to power up. A higher "generator critical output" will more rapidly supply energy to the overed weapon so you don't incur as much damage and downtime while waiting for it to power up.
These weapons were single-use in Armored Core, and were often discarded after activation - in Ember you might try some alternative balancing features on how often they are allowed to be used and when they can be used.
All of this is nice, however - what really made the Overed Weapons special is the experience of activating them. Watch the following video and imagine Aero shouting at you that the weapon you're activating is too dangerous, and pleading with you to disengage it.
[Skip to 4m 13s]
~Melee combat~
Melee combat is discussed frequently among the Ember community, I don't have any detailed descriptions of how I envision melee combat because I think videos will do a better job than I can with words. I want Ember to be fast, I want it to be mobility focused - and I think the melee combat should reflect the manoeuvrability and speed you are granted through your Omniframe.
~Pilot progression~
The final thing I would like to touch on from Armored Core is the concept of Pilot progression. (Human+, OP-I)
In earlier titles, the pilot was considered an integral part of the machine. I assume, like Firefall - Ember will allow you to play all Omniframe classes and you will not be bound to a specific Omniframe. I propose adding some pilot skills you acquire overtime, through achievements, community progress, research or however else you see fit. These upgrades would transition between frames, and allow you to play any frame you like without feeling like you're behind on the equipment curve. This adds both more horizontal options, as well as another carrot for the player to chase while they play the game.
For example, should you add a perk system like Firefalls, the perks would not be bound to any one omniframe, but would be attached to your human character.
Last edited:
