4 replies to this topic

[ZnSeventeen]

I thought of a possible way to manage critical slot splitting, and I just wanted everyone's opinion of it, and the topic in general.

-Some mechs in canon do not have enough room to have large weapons in their arms, they spread the crits into the torso. The big example is the King Crab.

-However, some have suggested that allowing free critical slot splitting would cause major balance issues.

-As an alternative, I suggest the dev's make some specific mechs have fewer critical slots in some locations and add those slots to other locations.

Ex: "Mech A" has 12 arm critical slots, and 12 side torso critical slots currently. In canon, it has a weapon in each arm that takes 10 critical slots, and it has three actuators in each arm as well. In canon the weapon is spread out between the arms and the nearest torsos. In MWO "Mech A" has one critical slot removed from each torso, and one added to each arm, so it now has 13 per arm, and 11 per side torso.

Obviously I am a little biased, but please, discuss. (If you have any reasonable suggestions, I will add them to the poll.)

(Mods: If this is a doubled topic, feel free to merge it with the others. I tried to find one, but had no luck.)

[General Taskeen]

They should come up with something eventually.

Since there are many very heavy IS weapons like Heavy Gauss, Arrow IV, and the IS UAC/20 that require crit splitting if they are just added as weapons later. Only certain weapons can do so. Either the 'crit split' should be only allowed on a Mech that it was done for on a record sheet or they simply add it so it is possible in any case, for any Mech, attempting to mount those heavy, many crit weapons.

Its certainly not impossible for them to program, since they did the crit splits with XL engines properly. All they would have to do is make it so the "split" part of the crits does not take up a hardpoint, as long as it is slotted in the "main" hardpoint first.

For instance, a King Crab has a Ballistic in the Arm. The AC/20 fires from the arm, but part of the gun is also attached into the side torso (a ballistic point does not exist in the torso, and does not take up one, it just needs that space). Also, crit splitting gives the same penalty as not having a lower arm actuator, it essentially locks a weapon (if mounted on the arm) to fire only in the arc of the torso with no lateral movement. And finally, if the crits of the AC/20 are hit in the torso or the arm, the weapon is destroyed in either case. That's already two disadvantages for crit splitting.

[ZnSeventeen]

Thank you for a good, well reasoned response. However, so far the only weapons I can find that take over 12 crits are the artillery weapons. Otherwise, they can all be mounted in a torso, and not in an arm. Besides, Heavy Gauss cannot be mounted in an arm anyways, as it has too powerful kick back.
You may be right though. Regular crit-splitting may be the best way.

[General Taskeen]

ZnSeventeen, on 09 May 2013 - 09:41 AM, said:

Thank you for a good, well reasoned response. However, so far the only weapons I can find that take over 12 crits are the artillery weapons. Otherwise, they can all be mounted in a torso, and not in an arm. Besides, Heavy Gauss cannot be mounted in an arm anyways, as it has too powerful kick back.
You may be right though. Regular crit-splitting may be the best way.

Yes, Heavy Gauss also has split crit rules + a set of rules concerning CASE protection. It can split between torso and CT only. And if CASE is protecting the Heavy Gauss in the torso, the explosion will not destroy the engine, even if part of the crits are in the CT. However, if a Heavy Gauss is crit-hit in the CT, it causes 25 Damage, which is fatal.

Here is an example of an IS Stalker-8S Mech with Heavy Gauss: http://goodsects.got...te/pdf/4795.pdf

Its split since they needed to fit a Light Fusion Engine and 1 ER ML as well. It also has no CASE, so an explosion would be fatal in CT or Side Torso.

I'm at work so I don't have my tech manual handy, but the weapons that can 'crit split' are the AC/20, UAC/20, LB 20-X, Heavy Gauss/Improved Heavy Gauss Rifle (only Side Torso and CT Split rule), Arrow IV, Long Tom Cannon, Sniper Artillery.

Edited by General Taskeen, 09 May 2013 - 10:32 AM.

[ZnSeventeen]

Ah, very interesting. That is a crazy build.