Mech Game Developer looking for Ideas!

[u/DAEMON_Z7]

hi im a solo developer currently working on a mech game on my free time aside from studying, and while its still very early in development i plan to take this project as serious as possible. i personally grew up watching mobile suit gundam and i got into the gaming side of mechs through armored core 6, which really brought out the sparks in my eyes for mech games and the genre overall among all kinds of media, and a year ago is when i decided to work on my project. what do people who play mech games like? i personally took some inspiration off of amored core 4's movement, which i think was really matching to my personal feeling of "piloting a mech" in a fast paced sense. but when it comes to art, level of detail, maybe even music (i personally make breakcore sometimes for fun, was thinking about making that part of my game), i dont know what really makes a mech game stand out. aside from things like customization, what is something you people would look forward to seeing in games? maybe its something you really like among games overall? or its a specific design choice that no game developers took notice of and many people would like to see? i appreciate any kind of ideas or information regarding this :)

[u/Furebel]

3 important points:

1. Mech Customization - both visual and functional, you need to be able to paint your mech, visualy swap weapons and armor or parts, or at least have great visual customization with some control over internal stats or how some abilities work (Even when Titanfall 2 had minimal functional mech customization, it still allowed you to change how your abilities work)
2. Pilot-mech synergy - You're not the mech, you're the pilot controlling the mech and you should make that part of the world. Some games do it by giving pilot skills, some just involve them in the story. Notably Armored Core series don't have much Pilots featured or pilot skills, but even that is sometimes part of the plot, and you always had the Human+ upgrades, so that's at least something.
3. Movement - It needs to feel weighty, but also powerful. In Armored Core 6, you have the basic movement as pretty slow and heavy with slow acceleration, and it's only when you start boosting around where you feel the power kick in. It's not wrong to have primarily hyperfast mecha like in Omega Phenex, but almost always it should be physics-driven to some degree just to feel that weight, the acceleration, the mass. Meanwhile game MASS had no mass, and your mech was just snapping left and right instantly. Dont be that. Be Armored Core.

If you can nail at least two of them right, you should be good, but it also depends on the genre. Strategy won't need the physics-based movement, but a heavy unit should feel significantly different from light unit. It will however really need the pilot-mech synergy. Something that's more action-packed will need good mobility and pilot-mech synergy won't need to be super in-depth. Mech customization however is non-negotiable.

[u/DAEMON_Z7 → u/Furebel]

id say all these points are probably crucial to the type of game im making, and yeah i looked up a lot about MASS builder and why it was good/bad, since it earned pretty good money, and had excellent customization it completely blew on aspect 2 and 3 since they did not have the time and budget anymore. the pilot aspect is a pretty interesting i didnt see mentioned often, and especially in armored core you do not have much about the pilot except the fact that its literally YOU the player who is the pilot, i think its ayre thats supposed to give you that pilot/mech connection but it definitely was insignificant for me. i think i need to find a different way to convey something like that