trycksh0t, on 09 March 2012 - 10:35 PM, said:
First off, I wouldn't call out the Lead Designer like that.
Secondly, Paul is correct, the first instance of true battle armor in BattleTech lore are the clan elementals, anything regarding 'armored infantry' pre-clan has nothing to do with battle armor (for reference, the first Inner Sphere battle armor, or Inner Sphere Standard wasn't produced until 3052).
Thirdly, it would drastically change the game dynamics. MWO was designed from square one to be a 'Mech simulator, with 12 vs. 12 'Mech combat, not a combined arms sim. Also, with it optimized for 24 players total, battle armor wouldn't really add anything, as 1-on-1 a 'Mech would stomp battle armor all day long. The only reason battle armor was effective was because of swarm tactics, which would probably require a drastic overhaul of the game engine to incorporate the extra players necessary to make battle armor even remotely effective. Even Clan doctrine equates 5 Elementals to 1 'Mech, and keeping that ratio would require a hefty increase to the player counts.
IMO, not worth the extra effort required to implement them.
I totally agree. In MWLL (the FINEST mod ever made, with production values higher than most games) battle armour adds nothing to combat, except irritation. If any ort of lag is involved, they are almost impossible to hit. if the server isn't lagging, it's a one-shot business.
Personally, i get annoyed when half my team spawns as elementals. Sure, five of them
might be able to take down a mech, but if they each were in a medium or heavy... they could have taken down several, and they have put my team at a considerable disadvantage, especially when they trudge miles and miles to get somewhere... hardly useful.
The only time Battle Armour have had any impact on me, is when they abuse it. Camping places that mechs can't reach, playing on super laggy servers, etc. They're nothing but a nuisance, who are only effective in large numbers, and would make the game very difficult to balance, were they implemented.
Don't get mad at us for disagreeing with you- you put forward your idea for critical analysis, and we disagree with it. Also, I wouldn't talk like that to Paul, he's... important