[Sentrosi]

Those are some great ideas Sirisan and I see you put a lot of thought into this post. And you went out on a limb to ask for an opinion from a community that has had a bad taste in their mouths whenever someone mentions mechs or BFRs in Planetside 2.

But I'm going to have to agree with most of the others here. A one-man walking tank puts too much power in one person's hands.

What if instead of just a one person mech we have a crew of three inside a mech. I'm envisioning something like Star Trek Online has. Or I think it has, as I never played the game and just going off what I though the game was about.

Role: Driver
The driver guides the mech across the face of Auraxis. The driver is responsible for the loadout of the battle system at the expense of weight. Putting a couple of Gauss cannons on the mech would make it walk slower, but putting four light guns on it would make it a faster mech. Think of the driver as Flight Engineer who's responsible for weights and balances of the aircraft.
Role: Gunner
The gunner selects and fires the weapons and can make quick repairs to the fire control systems at the expense of another system through a skill tree. (IE, diverting power from the LRM bays and into a Gauss cannon)
Role: Engineer
The engineer is responsible for the power plants and shielding units within the mech. The engineer can do quick repairs on systems that are damaged at the expense of another unit. (IE re-routing power from the left arm to the torso)Again, this would be through the use of a skill tree.

Now quick repairs would only last so long based on use. Think of repeatedly bending a piece of aluminum in half. Eventually the single piece of metal will break in two. Now if a system is completely destroyed, there would be no way the system could be used again unless the mech heads back to the nearest friendly base for a complete overhaul. This would take the mech out of the fight until the repairs are completed.

Now these three would be 'attuned' to each other. In other words, they could only operate the mech if all three are available. This could potentially cut down on the number of mechs that are on-continent at one time, as all three would have to be online. It also removes three potential soldiers from the battlefield.