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We have been reviewing a considerable volume of feedback regarding our Consumables announcement from our Community Team and our Official Consumables Feedback Thread. As per usual, the passion and enthusiasm from the members of the Community brought to light a lot of concerns over what was released, and we really appreciate the time you’ve taken to express your concerns, ideas and suggestions surrounding Consumables. We even noticed a little bit of noise on the forums!
We are here today to consolidate not only our internal revisions and clarifications, but also to address the key concerns of the Community.
Are consumables going away?
No they are not. How they’re being implemented is going to change however. You’ll see what the changes are below.
What are they going to do now?
First off, the Coolant Flush description was poorly worded and contained some unlock/upgrade errors. The errors have been corrected below as well as addressing some of the issues brought up by the Community.
Here we go:
Coolant Flush v1.1
C-Bill Purchased Coolant Flush
CF-100 (Temporary name)
- Cools a Mech for 6 heat over 1 second.
- Cost: 10,000 C-Bills.
- Requires 1 module slot.
- Can only be used once during a match.
- If used, it must be repurchased for the next match if you want to use it again.
- Cools a Mech for 9 heat over 1 second.
- Cost: 40,000 C-Bills.
- Requires 1 module slot.
- Can only be used once during a match.
- If used, it must be repurchased for the next match if you want to use it again.
At this point, the player can choose to bring a single CF-100 module OR a single CF-110 module OR both the CF-100 and CF-110 modules at the same time. This will give the player a single 6 heat cool down, a single 9 heat cool down, or two cool downs at 6 and 9, respectively, that can be triggered independently (two shots for a total of 15 cooling).
In the Pilot Tree, there will be a new enhancement node that the player can unlock for 15,000 GXP. If the player does so, they will upgrade/convert the CF-110 module, to the CF-110U module that provides an additional 9 heat reduction to a total of 18 for the single CF-110U module. All CF-110 modules are upgraded to the CF-110U module, which is available to purchase for the same price (40,000 CB cost)..
See image below:
Figure 1
As you can see in Figure 1, there are two modules that can be bought with C-Bills and the one module can be upgraded through GXP to increase its stats. Please take note of the blue text on the board and we can continue.
MC Purchased Coolant Flush
The MC purchased Coolant Flush is pretty straight forward.
CF-200 (Temporary name)
- Cools a Mech for 18 heat.
- Cost: 15 MC.
- Requires 1 module slot.
- Can only be used once during a match.
- If used, it must be repurchased for the next match if you want to use it again.
Figure 2
The key difference to take note (in blue text) is that the amount of heat reduction is 18 for this module and that it costs 15 MC to purchase. Note that Mr. P2W is skeptical of this, so let’s move on to the breakdown of the possible equipping rules.
The Equippable Matrix™
Rule: The CF-100 can be equipped with the CF-110 OR CF-110U OR CF-200. You CANNOT equip more than ONE CF-110/CF-110U/CF-200 on any given Mech.
Please see the following image:
Figure 3
In the above diagram, you can see a chart that depicts the various loadout combinations with valid cooling levels being 6,9,15,18 and 24. (Oops, we missed one of the rows where you CAN equip the CF-110U alone for 18 cooling.) Any other cooling level is not valid due to the rule that you CANNOT equip the 110/110U module with a 200 module as seen above.
As indicated in the chart, you can use a free (CB) module alone. A combination of free (CB) modules, or a combination of the basic free (CB) module with the hard currency (MC) module. In any case, to get the maximum amount of cooling from coolant flush modules (24), the player must use 2 module slots.
The Math:
Every BattleMech has a default cooling dissipation of 40. This is a base of 30 + 10 (from each of your minimum required heat sinks.)
In the case of the CF-100 module, you get 6 points of cooling. This equates to 6/40 or 15% heat reduction on your Mech’s heat meter.
Let’s now say you have 15 single heat sinks on your BattleMech. Your cooling dissipation is now 45. The CF-100 module now does 6/45 or 13% heat reduction on your Mech’s heat meter.
My personal CPLT-K2 has 19 single heat sinks on it. The cooling amounts are as follows:
CF-100 = 6/49 = 12%
CF-110 = 9/49 = 18%
CF-100 + CF-110 = 15/49 = 31%
CF-110U or CF-200 = 18/49 = 36%
CF-100+CF110U or CF-200 = 24/49 = 49%
If you have Double Heat Sinks, you will change your heat dissipation to 2 for each engine heat sink and 1.4 for each external DHS on your Mech.
Additions:
Now, it was mentioned in the Creative Director’s (aka Bryan’s) post in the Command Chair section of the forums, that we are also looking at Artillery and Air Strike modules. Below is how they’re planned to work:
These are much easier to understand as per the following:
The Base Rules of Artillery and Air Strikes
- There is a no fire period of 60 seconds at the start of the match. No player will be able to call for artillery or air support during this time.
- Each support call requires a certain amount of time for the effect to take place. This is determined by the length of flight time for the incoming barrage and the duration of the barrage itself.
- Between each call for support, there is a 4 second global cool down for a team. During this time, no one on a team that just called for support will be able to make another request (artillery or air). See “Cadence Timeline” below for more information.
- Request for support are processed on a first come first serve basis. Team communication will be key to take advantage of these services to their full potential.
Please see the following diagram:
As you can see, the following is available to a player who purchases the Artillery Strike module:
- Cost: 40,000 CB
- Requires 1 module slot
- Can only be used once per match.
- If used, the module must be repurchased for the next match.
- There is an 8 second flight time between the call for support and impact of the first shell.
- 6 shells are fired and land within 3 seconds of the first shell making impact.
- The 6 shells will drop randomly within 50 meters of the targeted location.
- When a player targets a location for artillery, a smoke canister appears at the location and continues to smoke for the duration of the barrage.
- Each explosive shell does 10 damage.
- Each explosive shell has a damage fall off of 10 meters from its impact point and damage falls to 0 at the outer edge of this radius.
Please see the following diagram:
As you can see, (take note of the differences in blue text) the following is available to a player who purchases the Priority Artillery Strike module:
- Cost: 15 MC
- Requires 1 module slot
- Can only be used once per match.
- If used, the module must be repurchased for the next match.
- There is an 6.5 second flight time between the call for support and impact of the first shell.
- 10 shells are fired and land within 3 seconds of the first shell making impact.
- The 10 shells will drop randomly within 50 meters of the targeted location.
- When a player targets a location for artillery, a smoke canister appears at the location and continues to smoke for the duration of the barrage.
- Each explosive shell does 10 damage.
- Each explosive shell has a damage fall off of 10 meters from its impact point and damage falls to 0 at the outer edge of this radius.
For the cost of 15,000 GXP, the player can purchase an upgrade for their Artillery Strike to increase its stats with the following:
- Reduces flight time by 1.5 seconds
- Adds an additional 4 shells fired.
C-Bill Purchased Air Strikes
Please see the following diagram:
As you can see, the following is available to a player who purchases the Air Strike module:
- Cost: 40,000 CB
- Requires 1 module slot
- Can only be used once per match.
- If used, the module must be repurchased for the next match.
- There is an 8 second flight time between the call for support and impact of the first bomb.
- 6 bombs are dropped and land within 3 seconds of the first bomb’s impact.
- The 6 bombs will drop randomly within a 200x25 meter strip.
- When a player targets a location for artillery, a smoke canister appears at the location and continues to smoke for the duration of the barrage.
- The direction of the bombardment is dictated by the direction the calling Mech was facing when the call was made.
- Each explosive bomb does 10 damage.
- Each explosive bomb has a damage fall off of 10 meters from its impact point and damage falls to 0 at the outer edge of this radius.
Please see the following diagram:
As you can see, (take note of the differences in blue text) the following is available to a player who purchases the Priority Air Strike module:
- Cost: 15 MC
- Requires 1 module slot
- Can only be used once per match.
- If used, the module must be repurchased for the next match.
- There is a 6.5 second flight time between the call for support and impact of the first bomb.
- 10 bombs are fired and land within 3 seconds of the first bomb’s impact.
- The 10 bombs will drop randomly within a 200x25 meter strip.
- When a player targets a location for an air strike, a smoke canister appears at the location and continues to smoke for the duration of the bombardment.
- Each bomb does 10 damage.
- Each bomb has a damage fall off of 10 meters from its impact point and damage falls to 0 at the outer edge of this radius.
For the cost of 15,000 GXP, the player can purchase an upgrade for their Artillery Strike to increase its stats with the following:
- Reduces flight time by 1.5 seconds
- Adds an additional 4 bombs dropped.
Cadence Timeline
As you may have noticed above, there are varying flight times involved with the different support strikes. This leads into the point that there will be a timing/cadence as to how fast sequential calls for support can be made.
Case 1:
Player calls for Artillery Strike.
8 second flight time + 3 second effect = 11 seconds.
4 second global cooldown.
Total time before the next call for any type of support is 15 seconds.
Case 2:
Player calls for Priority Artillery Strike.
6.5 second flight time + 3 second effect = 9.5 seconds.
4 second global cooldown.
Total time before the next call for any type of support is 13.5 seconds.
Result:
The rate at which support calls can be made ranged between 13.5 and 15 seconds depending on the type of support call that was made. Please keep this in mind when trying to call for support.
Artillery and Air Strike Conclusion:
We hope these new additions will bring a new level of strategic planning to the battlefield and diversify the planning of encroachment routes when trying to take a base or over run an enemy.
Consumables Conclusion:
One thing I’d like to clear up as to what was seen on the forums. A lot of unfounded finger pointing started and we want to clarify that this inclusion of consumables is not a mandate coming to PGI from IGP. This was both a decision/design made by PGI and a fumble in communication from us as well. We claim full responsibility for this recent hot topic.
We would be very grateful to hear your thoughts and feedback regarding these intended changes, though we kindly ask that you keep responses and suggestions to this post in our official Command Chair Feedback & Discussion – Consumables.
