3 replies to this topic

[Kaemon]

Until recently, I've always looked at heat as something to avoid, a nuisance to be circumvented by any means necessary because it is evil, distorts game play, and with recent events (double heat sinks, coolant pods) PGI seems to be in somewhat of an agreement with this approach.

However last night I paid more attention to heat and it's effect on game play, and I decided I was dead wrong.

Normally in most of my builds I run at about 10-40% heat for the beginning/middle of the match, then about 80-90% for the remainder.

But my playstyle does not change, it does not affect my tactics, my thought process, I merely register it as a 'stay below 100%' mathematical exercise.

That doesn't sound like much fun, does it?

Then I got to thinking, shouldn't it do much, much more?

IMO heat should do all of the following (and much more).

• affect mech responsiveness at all levels (speed, turning, jj's, time to fire).
  
• affect weapon accurancy (the anti-RNG folks are readying there pitchforks, but I'll explain my idea in a bit).
  
• affect module effeciency/speed
  
• affect cap rate
  
• affect different mechs differently (whooo, yep I said it!)

I believe (I won't pull the whole 'the community thinks' cause honestly I have no idea half the time what this community is thinking ) the following issues need to be addressed and this would be the start of a roadmap to address them through immersive elements rather than tinking with assets such as mechs or weapons.

• The game pace is too fast, battles are too short, weapon damage is too high (but we should not reduce weapon damage or change armor/weapon values.
  
• certain mech chassis will always be inferior, therefore certain mech chassis will always be 'OP' (or at least better), this isn't a problem in itself except when PGI tries to fix it.
  
• PGI spends way too much time dicking with asset balancing, and it's not working, that time should be used in other areas.
  
• New players are learning to avoid heat, rather than understand it's importance and learn to respect/play with it (stop playing it with, you'll go blind).

I would suggest that instead of the current thought of heat as a byproduct of the IP/game experience, it should be used as a functional aspect of balancing the game.

Here are some of the positives about this approach.

• It allows people to more fully understand heat and appreciate why it is in the game
  
• it allows more immersive elements to be added in later on.
  
• It allows MORE TYPES OF CONSUMABLES TO BE SOLD TO PLAYERS (yes I know, but it's a business folks, they need to make money).
  
• It allows individual changes to assets instead of mass changes across the boards (I'll explain this as well, as the TT people are now joining the RNG and quite a mob is starting to form).

At some point, BT/MW has to grow up and mature, and in that, we have to make some assumptions about the game. One of those assumptions is that all mechs are not created equal, and while common assets across all mechs should be the same, that does not necessarily mean the heat/effects they generate or how they affect the chassis are the same.

The approach to tweaking weapon dmg across the board, I feel will always land us in unbalanced gameplay, that is not necessarily PGI's fault, but more a fault of the IP and it's conversion from TT to online game (and now I've added the BT fans to the mob, I'm on a roll might as well keep going).

I believe Heat_tm could be the element that allows this tweaking without constantly throwing gameplay out of whack.

But not only Heat_tm, that is just the beginning, dynamic environments (hot/cold areas, fog, interactive assets on the battlefield), interactive assets on the map, even consumables (here comes the P2W peeps, that should be about everyone) could go a long way to help fine tune this game and get us to a state of smaller changes making more steady minor changes (rather than what we have now which are large changes which make large impacts to gameplay).

TL:DR - Use Heat and it's effects as the start of interactive elements rather than tweaking weapon stats, as a way to balance gameplay. Also apparently I like being chased by mobs...cardio...cardio...cardio).

Edited by Kaemon, 18 May 2013 - 05:55 AM.

[Tarl Cabot]

Similar thoughts have been posted several times, but it never gets old. And to add a few things (not all Americans are stupid though they may act it, despite our educational system).

Does the heat scale and management have to be identical to the board game?

Nay, but it should not be so dumbed down it makes people wonder why even have a heat scale? Everyone has had to manage heat, or are aware of the effects of extreme heat in their every day lives.

Computers - break things, shutdowns, graphical effects, slow downs, reboots.

Vehicles - bad mileage, troubles driving, fuel vapors.

Bah, being sent to the store...

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 18 May 2013 - 05:57 AM.

[Kaemon]

Tarl Cabot, on 18 May 2013 - 05:48 AM, said:

Similar thoughts have been posted several times, but it never gets old. And to add a few things (not all Americans are stupid though they may act it, despite our educational system).

Does the heat scale and management have to be identical to the board game?

Nay, but it should not be so dumbed down it makes people wonder why even have a heat scale? Everyone has had to manage heat, or are aware of the effects of extreme heat in their every day lives.

Computers - break things, shutdowns, graphical effects, slow downs, reboots.

Vehicles - bad mileage, troubles driving, fuel vapors.

Bah, being sent to the store...

Fully aware it is not a new idea, but perhaps it's something that should be brought up again, as we're continually running into the same issues (and BETA is the place to take a chance now and again).

It is interesting that in 30 years of being an IP, it hasn't matured or progressed in any significant way. Heat could've been an incredibly complex system, it was just never written that way (most likely because it while it was a main plot assist point, most mech tecnical stuff was sidestepped by the whole 'we don't really know how it works it's future age, lostech magicence).

I'm not saying you need to play with a TI-80 (lord I am so old) calculator next to you, but it's a TT game ported over to a computer, perhaps some complexity would not necessarily be a bad thing.

When you look at the state of online games, I think we're seeing the initial stages of the death of simple, instanced shooters and the birth (or rebirth) of more complex, immersive models simply being condensed for time in game.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

I aggree with the OP, heat should affect various systems within the different mech's to varing degrees.

Even the canon books,stories state that the fiber bundles (Myomer) that drive the machines degrade with excess heat. Or work better (MASC) when at specific heat ranges.
So speed, inertia, arm movement, weapons lock, sensors, should all be effected by climbing heat ranges. This requires the pilot to work within the heat ranges for each of the sub-systems or suffer degradation of these systems.
Here, I agree that PGI may want to have "pilot" skills that offset some of these issues. [If you have mastered the mech, you should be better able to operate at higher heat ranges and "tuned" your systems to function there.]

Conclusion, heat related issues really need to be brought up to the tech level it should be using.

Later,
9erRed