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So right out the door I want you to know that I don't think There is anything wrong with boating. There is also nothing wrong with alpha striking. Neither boating, nor alpha striking are bad by themselves, they are not bad when they are used together either. They only become an issue when convergence allows all that damage to be put into one specific spot.
Quick break down.
Why is boating effective? because you have only have to worry about 1 weapon range, and 1 type of weapon behavior.
Why do you alpha strike? Because you want to put a ton of damage on a target all at once.
Boating is a valid way to build, and alpha striking is a valid tool. The problem is that convergence makes boating and alpha striking the most effective play style instead of an option. Convergence means that all the weapons on your mech are all aimed at the exact same point when you fire. That is why boating weapons, and alpha striking works so well. Where as with a balanced build different weapons have different ranges, and behaviors so it is much harder even with alpha strikes to get all your damage in 1 spot. So boating + alpha strikes + convergence = the most effective way to put damage on an enemy mech. Take away convergence, and boating + alpha strikes still put out a lot of damage fast, but no more than a mixed build would.
Fixing convergence means coming up with a way to spread damage around. If you nerfed convergence a boat could still alpha strike without having a major advantage over a mixed build. Neither type of build would be able to guarantee all their damage would hit a single section. Boating could still be effective, it just wouldn’t have the major point damage advantage it currently has over mixed builds. Alpha striking could still be useful, just not in every situation like it is now.
On to the fun part! Here is my favorite idea for nerfing convergence , while keeping things skill based.
It’s actually rather simple. In the above picture those little boxes around the crosshairs let you see the status of your weapons groups. Those boxes could keep that function, but I would also make them the crosshairs for the mechs hardpoints. Any torso hardpoints would get their own little box crosshair to the side of the center crosshair. Arm crosshairs could stay circles. For instance, an Atlas with an AC-20 in the right torso would get a box crosshair on the right.
For a Hunchback-4P with 6 hardpoints in the right torso you would get 6 little boxes stacked just like they are in the side torso. So long as you had 6 weapons equipped. If you had fewer you would just have crosshairs for those hardpoints that were occupied.
It would be easy enough to test as well. If a system is doing too much point damage in testing, then spread the boxes out until damage spread is where it needs to be.
Now for mechs with multiple weapon hardpoints in the arms you can do the same thing. Each arm crosshair could stay a circle to differentiate between torso(box) and arm(circle) hardpoints. If the right arm has 2 hardpoints then it gets 2 little circles a small distance apart to spread damage out. So an Atlas-RS with 2 MLasers in each arm could look like this.
If that’s too good then spread them out a little bit. Or better yet make them look like the Hunchback-SP's arms would.
The biggest issue with this idea is that it will make the game a little more difficult to play. I’m going to stress the LITTLE. The crosshairs do not have to be a huge distance apart. With a real training mission, and a trip or two to the testing grounds it shouldn’t be too hard a for a new player to get a feel for it. The above images are just guestimates, the actual size/spread of crosshairs would be something that would need some tweaking.
Multiple crosshairs keeps shooting skill based. It also gives the mech bay a little more utility since you really have to look at where you are mounting weapons, and how you want your groups setup.
Let me address some concerns I have already run into.
This is the big concern I hear a lot. It's the year 3050, mech engineers could build mechs that allow every weapon to converge on one point no matter where they are located. After all Current main battle tanks have the ability to keep their main gun on target, on the move, through difficult terrain. That’s all very true, but what we are forgetting here is that this is a video game. Those same mech engineers haven’t figured out how to make a half ton machine gun with an effective range over 90 meters. In fact the whole universe falls apart when you try to explain it with real life science. Convergence is a mechanic in the game that is leading to broken game play. So convergence needs to be fixed. You can just as easily say that the technology of the time doesn’t support torso mounted weapon convergence because the systems break down too easily from constant stomping around. Maybe targeting computers in this fictional universe are not good enough to handle it.
The other big one is that the suggested fix will not stop people from boating, or alpha striking with boats. Well that is absolutely true. The above fix is not supposed to eliminate boats or the utility of alpha striking. It is just to fix the current issue we have with it being the best way to play the game instead of an optional way to play.
A lot of people have suggested fixes to convergence with RNG, or expanding crosshairs. The problem with those ideas is that they take skill out of the game, or nerf brawlers without doing anything to nerf sniper builds.
Edit:Clarity
Edited by Brilig, 23 April 2013 - 10:13 PM.
