36 replies to this topic

[mike29tw]

Just as energy weapons are restricted by heat, ballistic weapons are restricted by ammo. After some thought about it, here I propose a mechanic to limit ballistic boats. It's called ghost ammo.

If you fire more than a certain number of ballistic weapon of the same kind within 0.5 second, you have to pay addition rounds as tax to alpha strike.

Take the 4 AC5 Cataphract that is ruining our current balance for example. You shouldn't fire more than 2 AC5s within 0.5 second as that would be OP. So if you really wanna boat that OP AC5s, we won't stop you from doing it, but if you fire 3 AC5s within 0.5 second, it will cost you 3 rounds + 1 more round as tax. If you fire 4 AC5s within 0.5 second, it will cost you 4 rounds + 2 rounds, therefore effectively limiting the alpha capability of the AC5 boat, while leaving loose restrictions in the mech lab.

Of course there are some crafty players out there who think "I'll just mix some AC5s with UAC5 to circumvent this mechanic". I've thought of that as well. UAC5 will be considered in the same family of AC5 in terms of alpha strike limitation, thus putting those 2 AC5 + UAC5 boat in check.

Here is the table of the alpha limitation:

Weapon family.....Can fire without tax...........ammo tax with each more weapon from the family
=========================================================================
AC2......................3.......................................1
=========================================================================
AC5/UAC5............2.......................................1
=========================================================================
AC10....................2.......................................2
=========================================================================
AC20/Gauss.........1.......................................3

Edited by mike29tw, 16 October 2013 - 10:41 AM.

[Kraven Kor]

Um, "No" is insufficient.

Ghost Heat is terrible, Ghost Ammo is terrible-er.

There needs to be a "Not just no, but HELL NO" option. Sorry, my friend.

[mike29tw]

Edited the poll as requested.

[RG Notch]

Isn't satire supposed to be funny?

[Livewyr]

-1.

[Alistair Winter]

This seems to be the way forward. I'm also so damned tired of OP Spiders running around my assault mech at 170 kph.

We need... ghost speed.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 16 October 2013 - 11:09 AM.

[Hobo Dan]

Alistair Winter, on 16 October 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

This seems to be the way forward. I'm also so damned tired of OP Spiders running around my assault mech at 170 kph.

We need... ghost speed.

Let's just make an entire ghost mech system and call it a day...

[mike29tw]

Alistair Winter, on 16 October 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

This seems to be the way forward. I'm also so damned tired of OP Spiders running around my assault mech at 170 kph.

We need... ghost speed.

Working on that. Will finish it before Halloween for maximum ghost features.

[Deathlike]

Ghost ammo... the only gremlin in the MG ammo when you go all dakka.

[Purlana]

In order to be fair you would need to remove ghost heat for ballistics. *Breaks out the AC40s*

Edited by Purlana, 16 October 2013 - 11:59 AM.

[Strum Wealh]

Hobo Dan, on 16 October 2013 - 11:10 AM, said:

Let's just make an entire ghost mech system and call it a day...

Well, there was the Phantom 'Mech capability exhibited by Morgan & Patrick Kell and Yorinaga Kurita (and, potentially to a limited degree, by Aidan Pryde)...

[DEMAX51]

Also, matches take too long to play. How about "ghost base capping" that starts a cap at each base after the 15 second mark in every match!

[Tauman Malthus]

Cataphracts can be rough but they pay the price for boating all those AC's in the form of giant torso's to hit and having to stay on target 100% without torso twisting.

[Lightfoot]

No, no, no. Ballistics inherent weakness is weight. So it should be Ghost Weight, where the first UAC5 is 9 tons, but the second is 18 tons and the third is 27 tons.

Just kidding, but Ballistic's weakness is weight.

I oppose all the Ghost nerfs anyway. Heat Scale has ruined energy weapons in MWO and is just hiding the fact that MWO's Mechs are too weak to be in a Battletech game.

Edited by Lightfoot, 16 October 2013 - 01:24 PM.

[Wrenchfarm]

I love that over half the responses have missed that this is obvious satire.

[mekabuser]

no and not an issue.

[RandomLurker]

THE NERF CHAIN STOPS HERE.

No more tweaks or new mechanics to existing weapons to break the meta (appropriate balance changes excepted- talking gauss rifle or ghost heat type changes here). The cycle will not end, as has been warned of for ages and demonstrated repeatedly.

Convergence must be addressed. There's no other option. There are several good suggestions around here on ways that make pinpoint alphas difficult or impossible, without taking anything away from the pilot and without any random spread. One of these needs to be implemented. Nerfing weapons will just keep the cycle going until they are all 120m range and 1 damage for 5 heat.

[Psikez]

Relevant

[Christof Romulus]

Okay, so to balance the game we need the following:
Ghost armor for Assaults,
Ghost speed for Lights,
Ghost size for Mediums,
Ghost heat for Heavies - Already in the game.

Let's do this!

[akpavker]

Christof Romulus, on 16 October 2013 - 04:50 PM, said:

Okay, so to balance the game we need the following:
Ghost armor for Assaults,
Ghost speed for Lights,
Ghost size for Mediums,
Ghost heat for Heavies - Already in the game.

Let's do this!

i could be wrong but i think ghost heat was introduced for mechs like the 6 ppc stalker. although i still see the odd clown trying useing that load out. i also seen a bores head atlas runing 6 large lasers firing alphers....every time he fired he over heated lol.