Kurbutti, on 28 February 2013 - 06:36 AM, said:
Under current implementation, anyone not using thermals all the time is just shooting oneself to the leg. With one press of a button you enhance your situational awarness 100% with no practical downside. That's an epitome of screwd up design.
For long range mech detection, then yeah it's got no downsides. It's terrible for brawling however, since it makes it harder to discern mech components (at my resolution at least) and, more important, makes it borderline impossible to work out which mech is in front out of an overlapping pair. I imagine those who stay in thermal 100% of the time end up causing more friendly fire damage than those who don't.
That said, Thermal is too much better than Night Vision, but mostly because Night Vision is crap.