1 reply to this topic

[Chairman Meow]

I posted this as a shorter version in another post but figured I'd elaborate on it a bit more.

The idea is to keep the current hardpoint system but adding tradeoffs for switching the default weapon in that slot for something else.

Missiles kinda do that already if you have too few tubes to fire the whole volley of a larger rack.
That could be use the other way around by decreasing the cycle time if you use smaller racks.

Now doing that for other weapons could involve heat, range and convergence changes.

Let's say you mount a PPC (8 heat) in a Hardpoint that is used for a ML (4 heat) on that variant's default loadout.

You'd get a heat generation of 8*1.5 and would end up at 12.

Doing the same in a SL (2 heat) slot would give you 8*1.75 and you end up at 14 heat.

With a LL (7 heat) slot 8*1.125 and you end up at 9 heat.

Note that these are just examples with super simple math and I am sure someone with a bit more time can run the numbers with a more fitting system.

It could be further tweaked by making heatsinks in the same location as that hardpoint reduce that effect by a small amount.

Same would go for ballistic and maybe missile hardpoints and could work the other way around for less heat generating weapons in high heat hardpoints.

Furthermore the convergence should be influenced depending on projectile speed in a similar way heat is so you suffer a slight "accuracy" hit due to those changes.


This change would make standard variants more viable since they would represent the perfectly tuned version of that mech.
Would also fit the Fluff a bit better.

I figure Omni-Mechs won't work much different than current variants with the exception that you buy the base chassis for a high price and can than switch between the loadouts for a one time fee or they give us universal hard points but I kinda doubt that.

System would need to be adjusted for that I guess.

As I said this is just a rough idea and you guys will probably have more to add.
Feedback is welcome, if you didn't bother to read the post, don't bother to reply.

[Mechteric]

It sounds a bit too complicated to me, best to keep it simple. I think the way they have proposed already serves a similar purpose anyway, where firing many weapons of the same type at the same time generates a certain percentage more heat than they would if chainfired more slowly.