There was some talk on another thread on a more robust and role warfare oriented mech tree and I think that would be a good direction for the game to go. I don't seem them doing this, but dreamers can dream. My personal favorite from Blagg is a task based one. Unfortunately, this doesn't fit in with the current mech tree. More C-Bills for spotting and holding targets as a light would be nice, but I want my light to perform those tasks better after awhile. Experience for spotting and tracking targets your teammates can't see that leads to extended sensor range would give me incentive to be a scout. Getting experience for taking heavy damage as a assault and surviving to gain improved internal structure would give me incentive to be a non-suiciding meatshield.
I would also like to see something rewards for effective ECM coverage and for AMS usage. When I am piloting something like a Kitfox set up for escort duty, I have to invest tonnage, space, and behavior into keeping teammates alive. It would be nice if the game provided feedback/rewards for playing a coverage role like that
Better rewards for narc usage, on top of the missles hit it reward. I say this because Narc is 1) counter ecm capable, 2) broadcasts enemy location similar to UAV, 3) valuable with out a missle boat buddy. I used tonnage, crit space, and altered my play style to get a narc on a ECM mech to counter it or use it to show an enemy to teammates they wouldnt have known was there other wise... is that not the definition of scouting behavior, and a scout centric weapon system?
Trying to award xp harder, or making things more complex, is not going to make things more fun. If anything people just need to get together and farm it in a private match mode. To simplfy things, this would just mean coughout a few MC for GXP after farming them with your lovely xp grinder. Yes, more MC burn. But I do agree with different skills and bonus for different mech on the skill tree.
Sigh, that's the problem I run into when I think about potential changes to the mech tree. It's pretty basic and simple right now. But role warfare is complicated. Much more complicated than staying with the group and pounding out as much damage as possible. Right now, every mech has the same mech tree. I wish they would do something along the lines of giving each weight class or even each mech its own mech tree. It would give each mech a role it excelled without making it useless in other roles.
It takes only a couple days to level up a mech. Another couple days for elite. Whatever goals you set is not useful since it is all but forgotten once things are leveled.
