Considering infantry equipment slots

[UGoBoy]

I know Cog wants to keep infantry equipment relatively clean, meaning no jigsawing of loadouts together.* In that vein, I just wanted to start kicking around ideas of how infantry loadout would work.

In fiddling with a Vachir medium-armor sketch, I decided to represent the armor as having something of a Load Bearing Equipment (LBE) system.* At various points on the armor, there were attachment points for containers.* In my sketch, the points are:

Chest
Right Hip
Left Hip
Left Back
Right Back

On the sketch, the Chest has an ammo bandolier, the right hip a pistol holster, the left hip a grenade pouch, with the back slots currently empty.

What do you guys think about such a system?* When you're at the infantry equipment screen, you'd have choices like:

CHEST: Medium Ammo Pouch - Knife Scabbard - Respirator - Surgical Equipment - SMG Carrier - etc.
LEFT HIP: Pistol Holster - Grenade Pouch - Ammo Satchel - Emergency Medical Kit - Sword Scabbard - etc.
RIGHT HIP: Pistol Holster - Grenade Pouch - Ammo Satchel - Emergency Medical Kit - Sword Scabbard - etc.
RIGHT BACK: Heavy Weapon Carrier - Heavy Weapon Ammo Feed - Communications Pack - Engineering Kit - Parachute - Deployable Equipment - Medium Weapon Kit (weapon + ammo) - etc.
RIGHT BACK: Heavy Weapon Carrier - Heavy Weapon Ammo Feed - Communications Pack - Engineering Kit - Parachute - Deployable Equipment - Medium Weapon Kit (weapon + ammo) - etc.

This would be a way to customize your character's loadout, but it would also be a way to somewhat control the possible loadouts for any given character, especially when combined with weight restrictions.* Different armor types from different factions might have different equipment points...a Heavy Armor might have considerably less mount points than a Medium Armor, but might be able to carry larger equipment in those slots.

Also, each piece of LBE that's attached would be able to have multiple internal slots.* An Ammo Satchel might have three small magazine slots, and four medium slots.* The player would then be able to fill them with whatever ammo combination they'd like (three common pool SMG clips, four empire specific rifle clips, etc.)

[Chiron]

Thats an awful lot to remember...... :o

[UGoBoy]

I don't think it'd be all that hard. Consider that some equipment wouldn't even show up if you didn't have the Skill loaded to use it.

Some of it could also be easily seen instead as "pick a weapon, and get the appropriate holster attached". If you pick a pistol, you get a pistol holster on your LBE. Pick a rifle, get a rifle kit on your back. Then you just decide how you're going to dole out your other equipment and your ammo storage.

Also, having equipment and weaponry take up fixed, dedicated spaces would make weapon-whoring difficult. Want to try to carry a weapon for every occasion? OK, cool. But where are you going to carry your self-meds and ammo?

[Aftiel]

Plus you'll have some way to save favourites so once you spend the time getting em setup it's not like you have to spend 5 min each spawn loading out.

[Cl2v2r]

I likey, very similar to the RavenShield/Rainbow series shtuff.

[GreatMazinkaiser]

I like it, though I believe knife/sword scabbard should be "free" so to speak, especially if the sword replaces the knife on officers.

I'd like to have a back-up weapon other than my fists, and can't see sacrificing ammo/guns/etc... just to have one...

But that's just how I view it.

[Cogburn]

This is exactly the system we are going to employ.

Each armor type will have an LBE "template" which the player can fill with whatever each "slot" is designed for. In addition to ammo, sundries and weapons, each armor will also have a certain number of "generic" slots in which anything other than L3 Cannons (due to size) can be carried to allow for some variety and "surprises" in loadouts.

Each item of equipment will have a certain weight. The total weight of the kit affects the characters overall movement speed, the lighter the faster based on the base movement speed for that type of armor. Light armor is naturally faster than heavy armor, but based on the weight of the loadout the heavy armor might actually move faster.

And yes, loadouts can be saved to 1 of TWENTY favorites. I think we can all agree that A) 10 favorites is not enough and B) with the amount of stat tracking that SOE now does that the old excuse of "not enough database disk space" for new favorites is no longer a valid excuse and they just lied to us. :)

Now... Given the above, what do you think the LBE loadouts for Light, Heavy, Flight, HAX, SpecOps and Powered armors.

Some notes on armors:
Flight - Armor has a jetpack attached to the back which, based on a capacitor, provides limited flight capabilities for the user. Loadout is smaller than Light armor
SpecOps - Any weapon type can be carried with this armor and the loadout size should be similar to Flight armor, with a few less slots since all slots in SpecOps armor are "generic"
Powered Armor - Armor has a powered "exoskeleton" which provides less protection, but a higher weight capacity before incurring a movement penalty. Loadout should be similar to the Light armor, with additional "generic" slots (intended mostly for deployables)
HAX - this armor has only one weapon slot, in which ony L3 Cannons may be placed. 3-4 Generic slots may be added, but the equipment cannot be utilized, it can only be carried to be "dropped" and used by friendlies. Ammo is carried in a constant feed manner. HAX mounted weapons do not reload, but overheat in a manner similar to BF2 vehicle mounted weapons.

[Aftiel]

You can carry L3 cannons in the other armours though correct? i.e. agile/HA

[Cogburn]

All armors can carry L3 cannons, but the HAX is limited to ONLY L3 cannons.

This makes a HAX suit anywhere from 6-9 Skill Slots based on the final Skill Trees for Rifles and Armors, since you must have both the HAX armor AND L3 cannons installed.

[UGoBoy]

Just to clarify and expand a bit...

Are you looking at having all of the slots on an armor defined "hard" except for the Generic slots? So an armor might look like...

Vachir Medium:
4 Small Ammunition Slots
4 Large Ammunition Slots
1 Small Weapon Slot
2 Generic Slots

Or would the slots be more high-level, where a user can more fully define their loadout, something like:

Vachir Medium:
2 Small Hip Slots
1 Medium Chest Slot
2 Large Back Slots

An Example Loadout would look like...
Small Hip Slot 1: Grenade Sack - Adds four Grenade slots
Small Hip Slot 2: Ammo Sack - Adds Five Medium Ammo slots
Chest Slot: Medic Gear
Large Back Slot 1: Engineering Pack - Adds Four slots for Engineering gear + mine detector (as an example)
Large Back Slot 2: Medium Rifle

I kind of tend towards the Sack/Pack approach, because it would allow a user to *really* customize their loadout. It would also easily allow us to slap on pre-requisite equipment. Say that in order to have an L3 Rotary, you also had to carry at least one Continuous Feed Ammo Pack before you could even arm it. This would allow a user to build their loadout around that supposition pretty easily.

[Cogburn]

I was considering something more rigid that your idea, but it certainly has merit.

What I had envisioned was something like this:

Light Armor
1 Primary Weapon Slot
1 Pistol Slot
2 Pistol Ammunition Slots
4 Primary Weapon Ammunition Slots
3 Grenade Slots
3 Generic Slots (For engi, medic, extra weapon, extra ammo, etc)

What might be a nice compromise are additional Armor Skills that allow for "sacks" as you put it, that can be fitted into a generic slot. This allows for greater customization but at a cost.

I'd like to avoid different armor capacities per empire; I'm not sure that's a line we want to cross lightly. For now, spec your ideas towards a unified kit per armor type for all empires.

[UGoBoy]

The only thing I don't like about the super-rigid layouts is that some weapons might be non-reloadable. If we use something like, say, a bundle of Panzerfausts as a weapon, then the Primary Weapon Ammo slots might go unused.

[Aftiel]

Not really, you'd just have a few (2?) reloads attached or in a bag thingy. The panzerfaust (for example) isn't a throwaway weapon. And if you had say a Deci on your back we could just code the number that you carry to be higher given that you won't be carrying any ammo in your pouches like if you we carrying a rifle or something.

[Cogburn]

The only thing I don't like about the super-rigid layouts is that some weapons might be non-reloadable. If we use something like, say, a bundle of Panzerfausts as a weapon, then the Primary Weapon Ammo slots might go unused.


Actually, the way I see this working, you would move the (for the sake of discussion) Decimator from the Generic slot to the Primary Slot, swapping it with your "primary" weapon.

Generic slots are just that, generic. Ammo, support equipment, and OTHER WEAPONS can fit in there without problem.