7 replies to this topic

[Brilig]

Alpha striking/boating is an issue because you can put a lot of damage on a single armor section in one shot. Increasing heat to counter alpha striking boats would harm cannon builds like the Hunchback 4p. Cone of fire adds a frustrating random number generator over player skill.

My suggestion to "fix" that would be to change the cross hair system around. You can keep things skill based, and avoid pinpoint damage issues from heavy alpha strikes.

For instance here is what the Hunchback 4Ps cross hairs could look like.

That would keep the weapons from being pinpoint, without the random number generator frustration. Each torso based weapon or weapon grouping could have its own cross hair. Nothing too extreme, but enough to spread the damage around. People can keep alpha boats, but they aren't quite as devastating.

Edit: Format. Zyllos totally beat me to this idea. Not sure how I missed that post. Same idea with a bunch more detail. Check it out. http://mwomercs.com/...38#entry2115438

Edited by Brilig, 29 March 2013 - 10:03 PM.
Changed answer three to Abstain

[Attalward]

Diffrent corsshair for different weapons distribution is a neat idea

[rgreat]

I'd like that idea, even without changing crosshairs.

Would be enough to just remove convergence on this kind of weapons.

Edited by rgreat, 29 March 2013 - 08:53 AM.

[Zyllos]

Brilig, on 29 March 2013 - 02:26 AM, said:

Alpha striking/boating is an issue because you can put a lot of damage on a single armor section in one shot. Increasing heat to counter alpha striking boats would harm cannon builds like the Hunchback 4p. Cone of fire adds a frustrating random number generator over player skill.

My suggestion to "fix" that would be to change the cross hair system around. You can keep things skill based, and avoid pinpoint damage issues from heavy alpha strikes.

For instance here is what the Hunchback 4Ps cross hairs could look like.

That would keep the weapons from being pinpoint, without the random number generator frustration. Each torso based weapon or weapon grouping could have its own cross hair. Nothing too extreme, but enough to spread the damage around. People can keep alpha boats, but they aren't quite as devastating.

Edit: Format.

Sounds like the EXACT same suggestion I have been making for a while now: Weapon Convergence is Leading to Imbalance

[Mechteric]

Sounds like it would only gimp mechs like the Hunchback, but not affect mechs who have articulated arms with many weapons systems such as Jagermech. I just don't think this is the way to go about it. Also if new players already have a hard enough time learning the separate torso-arm reticules just wait till they have this cluster of crosshairs. There's a certain point where complexity of realism just gets out of touch of something that is supposed to be fun.

Edited by CapperDeluxe, 29 March 2013 - 10:00 AM.

[Donas]

WHile I like the thought process, the multi-reticule seems a bit unweildy. It does however provoke some thoughts:

1. missile weapons are supposed to cover an area anyway, so fix that and its all good.
2. arm weapons are gonna converge as long as the target is withing the rotational arc of the arms, meaning... that the ars are going to have a point at which they can only go so far cross-eyed, before hitting some kind of mechanical limit to prevent them from damaging themselves against the torso of the mech. Whether or not that maximum center travel is enough to restrict anything out past point blank is another matter entirely.
3. Torso weapons don't seem like they should converge at all if they are in fact hard mounted to the chasis. If thats the case, any that arent mounted dead center down the mech will have a left/right/high/low/ aiming variance from the reticule equal to the distance that they are mounted from the center aiming point of the mech.

In a hug, an alpha strike would essentially fire all weapons darned near straight forward.
Granted, once you get out to even a very minimal range, this all goes out the window (except for the torso variances). This, combined with adjustments to the heat characteristics would probably get us closer to what you're looking for.

[Brilig]

I can see where having multiple crosshairs, could make the game more complicated to learn. A decent tutorial that shows you how it works should smooth things out. The weapons groups would have to be well planned out as well.

And the crosshairs don't need to be huge distances apart, just off enough to spread hits out.

Mechs with multiple hardpoints in the arms could be dealt with the same way torsos are. Seperate the individual weapons in a larger circle. Maybe make arm crosshairs a different color to make it easier to differentiate between arm and torso crosshairs.

[Zyllos]

CapperDeluxe, on 29 March 2013 - 09:59 AM, said:

Sounds like it would only gimp mechs like the Hunchback, but not affect mechs who have articulated arms with many weapons systems such as Jagermech. I just don't think this is the way to go about it. Also if new players already have a hard enough time learning the separate torso-arm reticules just wait till they have this cluster of crosshairs. There's a certain point where complexity of realism just gets out of touch of something that is supposed to be fun.

That is true. There are certain mechs that this change doesn't really effect a whole lot. Jagermech, Stalker, any mech with most of it's weapons in the arms.

But, I personally think that is the beauty of the system. It places more emphasis on arm mounted weaponry. Aim for the arms, they generally have less armor. It also makes it where torso twisting is dangerous if you want to keep your arms from taking large amounts of damage.