As we've shown some tuning interface last week, a lot of questions regarding how they will work has been asked. We'd like to take this opportunity to explain and answer them here so enjoy the read!
As a reminder, PvP tuning is entirely separated from PvE tuning.
Let us first start with unlocking PvP units and sub-units. PvP units and sub-units will all be unlocked for everyone at the start. Players will not be required to use their resources or unlock any of them through any trees at all. This decision came from a desire to have every player able to just enter into multiplayer PvP and have a fair chance against other players immediately through similar tuning. These units and sub-units might be familiar, some even sharing the same name as their PvE counterpart, but most of them have different values.
We also decided to put PvP tuning in the same place as PvE tuning, just on a different tab, as we wanted players to feel familiar and see the same screen they are used to. It was also made to allow players to attach certain tunings with their selected M.A.S.S. unit and easily compare them between the two modes, allowing them to keep things in theme for the unit. On that note, with the tuning values attached onto a M.A.S.S. unit like this, players must select the unit they wanted to use in multiplayer before joining a multiplayer lobby.
Let's move on to tech sub-units and how are we designing them. Tech sub-units are one of the most build defining thing in M.A.S.S. Builder in PvE and we'd like to keep it that way. However, a lot of tech sub-units in PvE are designed to fulfill a player's fantasy in being the most powerful in a way one desired with much of them attributing to increment in power. In PvP, we'll be shifting much of their power to other units (engines, gears, os, modules, architect). PvP tech sub-units are mostly utility support for the builds instead, so players won't need to rely on them to do damage, just to further their build instead. Of course, we'll still be putting some extreme sub-units out there, just not the average conditional +10% damage like in PvE mode.
And to those who are wondering how many sub units will be allowed per main unit, PvP mode will follow a tier 5 schema, 4 sub-units for engines and os, 5 sub-units for architects. The decision here was made to have players feel that they are required to sacrifice some power for some other and not be an ace-of-all-trades, either be an ace-of-one or a jack-of-all.
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