2 replies to this topic

[Skyfaller]

Devs,

The mech hardpoint system has a major flaw in the sense that it does not take into account the mech's design. Essentially the fact that one can equip a Gauss Rifle in a hardpoint that has the barrel of an AC2 or MG ... or an LRM20 in a 1-tube launcher ... does not make sense. This ruins the very reason why one would choose one mech model over another or one mech type over another.

So, why not re-design the hardpoints so they are based on weapon size (energy/ballistics) and launch tubes (missiles)?

NOTE: Weapon Slot cost is unchanged for the below suggested change.

Projectile/Ballistics:

Each size of weapon is given a size stat. Small = 1, medium = 2, large = 3, siege = 4.

Small would be MG, small laser, TAG
Medium is AC2, med lasers
Large is AC5/UAC5, large/ER laser / LBX10
Siege is AC10/20, PPC/ER PPC, Gauss

Each weapon hardpoint is given a size amount. Players can equip however many weapons they can to add up to that hardpoint size as long as they have the amount of slots available..and of course, you cant mix energy and ballistic since each weapon hardpoint is limited to either energy or ballistic.

A siege sized hardpoint could equip: 1 siege or 1 large+1small or 2 mediums or 4 smalls.

Launch Tubes:

Instead of setting missile weapons in the mechlab as 'x' number of missile weapons (aka, 1E,1M) it should instead be based on the amount of missile tubes available in the hardpoint of the mech. For example, a 10-tube launcher should show as '1E, 10M' .

Why do this?

Simple. If you assign the missile weapon being based on the number of tubes, then the player can equip as many missile weapons as the number of tubes it can fill up.

For example, a 10-tube launcher could be filled up with whatever combination of LRM5, SRM2, SRM4, SRM6, SSRM2 as long as they all add up to 10 tubes being used to launch. Or a single LRM10. LRM 15 or 20 cannot be equipped in a 10 tube hardpoint.

What this change would do is open the doors for a vast amount of different loadouts while retaining size limitations. Boating would be no different than it is now because the weapons still have the same cost in slot and heat ... but there will be a vast amount of different templates to choose from.

9-energy slot hunchback would be 'medium' sized weapon hardpoints... would load those 9 medium lasers (45 dmg) or 16 small lasers (48 dmg) and 1 medium laser (5dmg, head slot) for total of 53 dmg. Higher damage... but at a cost of a lot of slots (LT/RT full of small lasers), higher heat consumption and shorter range. But.. its up to the player to decide if that loadout works for them or not.

It also opens the way for omni tech in the future. Omni would literally just allow any combination of energy/ballistic in a hardpoint (missiles would be separate I think).

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

I never understood why they didn't do a sizing on hardpoints to begin with. I see EVERYTHING with PPC's. Jenner's included.

[Funky Bacon]

Just throwing a random idea out there...

What if say a torso or arm with 4 energy hardpoints had 6 energy critical slots available for that particular variant? it could then mount 3x Large lasers, or 4 medium lasers, or two PPC's, or 1 PPC and 3 medium lasers.

Then maybe another variant have 3 energy HP's but 9 energy crits, letting it mount 3 energy weapons of any size in that section.

Maybe the Stalker 3F as an example had 4 energy crits in each arm and another "lesser" variant had 6 crits.