Trial-run merc testing idea

(Jigstraw) #1

I’m pretty sure if you could just make a “training grounds” or “Shooting gallery” to try mercs out, you would have by now.

So my idea is that when a player buys a merc, they have the option to refund them and get all the credits back if they didn’t like that merc, but only once per merc, and only if they get the refund within idk, 2 days? 3 days? y’all could decide an appropriate length of time for a player to decide whether they like the merc or not.

This seems like a good, fair alternative to having a proper testing facility, since if you guys can’t increase our merc squad size to 4 because of engine limitations, there’s no damn way you’ll be able to switch between all of them in one map, and nobody wants to spend hours loading and unloading the map to switch mercs and try a different one.

This would take the pressure off of choosing the right merc and worrying that you may be wasting your credits only to have to grind another several thousand to hope you like the next merc you buy.

(Your worst knifemare.) #2

Free rotation?

(Jigstraw) #3

I mean, free rotation is nice, but assuming they never used the same merc again in the same cycle, with 21 mercs to cycle through, it’d take seven full weeks to get through them all. Who wants to wait up to 7 weeks before being able to try a particular merc they’re interested in?

(Press E) #4

One option I heard was being able to rent a merc for a few matches, that might be a viable option, although I can still see it as a bit stressful.
But I mean, you could switch mercs beyond the same 3 in offline maps, so it really shouldn’t be too difficult. But for whatever reason SD said they decided not to work on a shooting gallery because “people wouldn’t use it enough to justify it”. Of course it isn’t gonna be the next big gamemode to sink hundreds of hours into, but that doesn’t make it less important when it’s a staple in pretty much every online game

(PariahDog) #5

I think an idea like this would work best, both mechanically and thematically. You contract that merc for your next match (or an hour) for a fee in credits, say 1000 (numbers subject to change) after trying out said merc you have the option to buy them at a slight (credit) discount, said discount being the fee you paid for the temporary contract so if someone did try out saw Sawbonez and liked him, they could buy him without having “wasted” those credits trying him. The discount would be good for a period of time (say an hour).

(Teflon Love) #6

Didn’t SD block the offline mode console commands to switch mercs to prevent exploiting certain achievements?

(DarkangelUK) #7

We asked for a shooting range years ago for testing mercs/weapons, has been mentioned in previous dev videos as well so they know it’s a sought after feature, I guess they didn’t feel it was worth diverting manpower for it.

(Press E) #8

They did, but my point was they clearly have a framework for switching mercs mid-match, even if it isn’t that polished.
And realistically there are a lot of other ways to stop people from getting achievements in offline maps without blocking the set command, they just choose the easiest possible method

(Nail) #9

could allow merc choice in the assault course

(Teflon Love) #10

The tutorial already has a (very simple) shooting gallery. If this part could be made available as a separate map with an option to switch to any merc, it would at least be a start.