Introduction

One of the great strengths of Mech has been it's mech building feature, which gives unparalleled access and freedom to create whatever you please. However, since the introduction of wires, although the system has become deeper, it created a serious problem with exponential numbering. It meant the system had to be limited, in that numbers grew to quickly and caps had to be quickly added to prevent disaster.

The system has always felt complex and unnecessarily difficult to use. This is also a huge off-putting weakness for all but the most dedicated strategy players. The introduction of build your own Mechs, quads, and effects were all part of a driving idea that the base system could not be changed or improved without seriously impacting existing or future mech construction.

Mech building has become somewhat meaningless, in that you can always ensure at high levels, that you obtain the maximum HP required, Max targeting or evasion as required (or both) and maximum armour levels. The system currently places too much focus on the upgrade centre, which has become vital in maxing effect mechs and has placed too much importance of VIP upgrade centre operations.
Impacts
The impact that we wish to have is an overhaul of the entire system, making it simpler and easy to use. However, we also want to have depth to the new system equal to the original system and we don't want to impact existing systems. This has always been the falling down point of any upgrade or overhaul.
The Blocks System
The idea for the new system is very simple. Ironically, much easier to see than explain. Convert everything into blocks, which can be placed or drag-and-dropped into a grid. At the top of the grid will be the base statistics of the mech and at the bottom will be the end result and a commit button. If a mech has effects, they will be added as free effect blocks. If the mech doesn't have effects, they can be added for a price using wires.

The grid should be kept small and expand as blocks are added. The best part of using blocks is that ordering is kept and clearly visible. Using the block system, we can finally remove the caps that have plagued the game for so long and expand mech selection without worrying about overreaching exponential problems. Rebuilding will be removed, but replaced with base gain blocks and percentage blocks (as before), which should allow for easier building and higher statistics, while also reducing the impact of front-loaded upgrade centre usage.
Concept – (For design understanding only)





Benefits

1) Mech can now uniformly receive 3 circuits and 10 wires every level with no cap.
2) Caps on all statistics and HP can be removed for basic mechs.
3) More choice, yet easy to use and understand. Ordering is obvious, etc. Easy to play with and see the results.
4) Much easier to make pretty, with blocks all able to have mech colours, etc.
5) New “normal” and “effect” mechs can be added to very high levels, without fear of creating easy to reach perfect mechs.
Legacy:
Old mechs cannot be converted to the new system unless they are unbuilt. They can be left as they are as they will be better than new mechs under the new system, except at the highest levels when the loss of caps and the addition freedoms with the blocks come into play. After converting everything over, there could be an option to buy “old system mechs” in the account page or similar if people prefer them.
However I feel it's important to dump the old system and move to this wholesale to avoid competitive issues later down the line. The new system responds dynamically to balance changes and is fully refundable if we decide to make future changes, unlike the old system. Removing a legacy issues in future updates forever (and encouraging future updates of course).
Fully compatible with Quads. Since this is effectively BYO mk2, that system can probably be scrapped and players refunded. New “normal” mechs can be added to much higher levels, with higher basic statistics and hp levels, without unbalancing the game.
Balance:
All numbers need adjustment, once a basic version is implemented, to get a feel for the exploitative possibilities of the system. I can then fine tune the numbers. Fine tuning will not effect players if they are done live, because full refunding will be possible under the new system. You simply refund and remove all the blocks and wires since rebuilding is gone.
The possibilities for adding new blocks to add depth, without interface complexity is immense. You can add commander skills which unlock new blocks as you go along. So new players are not overloaded and have a few simple blocks to work with. Noting that you'd have to do block refunds when such updates go in, so people can take advantage of the new blocks without penalty.