Krivvan, on 09 June 2013 - 12:39 PM, said:
Jumping over mechs and jumping high to get good angles is not hovering.
Jumping up onto higher cliffs and platforms is not hovering.
Jumping over a laser or ballistic shot is not hovering.
Jumping up and above a target chasing you so that you can fire on it when it can't fire on you is not hovering.
Jumping while chasing a Dragon to get a shot on its front CT from behind is not hovering.
Taking shortcuts across Tourmaline, Forest Colony, and Canyon network by jumping into Out of Bounds areas is not hovering.
What you don't do is go jumping up in the middle of nowhere just for the sake of jumping high. That is a stupid idea in every Mechwarrior. You try to only jump as high as you need to.
you are absolutely correct that all of these are valid uses for JJ. The problem is even if you fully load your mech with JJ, you cant really hope to accomplish much more then getting over terrain and a little jump brawling, depending on what mech you use and how many JJ..... with lights being the only mech class that can really pull off what your describing.
that's kinda the problem. not all mechs are equal at jetting sure, that's fair and normal, but the disparity between using few JJ and many, or even just going up a weight class (which as i have pointed out, a heavier mech
would mean a more stable and
less violent platform, simply because its more lumbering, its mass and much more powerful gyro dampens vibrations much better then a small mechs chassis, thrust/weight) is well beyond reasonable. and now its pretty painful to even try. because its simply too disorienting/random and
out of place. also, using fewer JJ would mean much
less shake, yes much less JJ ability, but more JJ would mean
more shake, because you now have
several more rockets oscillating on their own frequencies, unless they cancel each other out (not likely) they would just cumulatively shake your mech
more. just food for thought. thrust/weight, really go inform yourself.
quote from battletech wiki "
Jump jets work in a similar, albeit more limited, fashion to the fusion rockets installed on
Aerospace Fighters. Inside a magnetically shielded reaction chamber buried deep inside the 'Mech, an electron beam superheats a reaction mass and expels the expanding gases through nozzles located on the back of the 'Mech or in its legs. Reaction mass is commonly provided in the form of air forced into the reaction chamber by a system of turbo-compressors, but most 'Mechs have a small amount of alternate reaction mass, usually in the form of hydrogen, water or mercury, in order to facilitate operation in a vacuum and to reduce the wear on the jets from superheated oxygen when in an atmosphere that contains it
[2]. The reaction mass provided by an atmosphere is effectively infinite, but the supplementary reaction mass carried on-board is limited by the number of thruster assemblies installed unless additional tankage is added to the 'Mech
[3].
Because of the heat produced by jump jet activation and limited on-board fuel, jump jets can only maintain thrust for a few seconds. A far cry from flight, jump jets nevertheless allow a 'Mech to make short leaps sufficient enough to outmaneuver 'Mechs not similarly equipped or bypass obstacles and unfavorable terrain
[2][1]. Care must be taken when jumping, however, as jumping causes heat buildup with even the shortest jump generating more heat than running, and damage to a 'Mech's gyro or leg actuators and joints can cause a 'Mech to fumble upon landing
[4]. Owing to the inability of liquids to be compressed, submerged jump jets cannot be used lest the extreme pressure rupture the jet's casing
[2][4]."
see in this game, to leap far, you have to JJ almost the whole time and do this gliding thing... sure you can jump with an arc, but you get much farther by running up an incline then jetting with a short burst jump up about 10m then gliding with JJ to just slow your fall a little. like hover-gliding, which is what everyone's you tube video seems to show. mechs actually have a
short burst of JJ then shoots them far, there is no need to use JJ to "glide" in tabletop at all, only to control your landing and velocity. the JJ in this game do not resemble JJ at all, they are hoover jets that you just glide violently along with. in 90% of the mechs JJ are a sordid affair, the other 10% really isn't much better, even if you can jet farther/higher/faster.
your suddenly fast stable agile light mech, now feels like the Saturn 5 rocket. which in of itself is a bad comparison because mechs
Jump Jets are nothing like a 110M tall orbital launcher meant to carry a payload only a few tons up 120 miles above the surface, at some 17,000 MPH. JJ simply boost a mech around, so they dont really give as much force as an orbital launcher, which
has to reach orbital velocity. adding more JJ helps kinda, but it doesn't fill the gap that its supposed to, which is bogus as %%&&#, because its limited and not tactical. its like a pretty fake flower, sure it looks nice and we can talk all day about how it will never die or need water, but at the end of the day it doesn't change the fact that its a fake flower, and some people enjoy real flowers.
Light mechs are SUPPOSED to jump really far, in excess of 150M with the most prolific jumpers, that doesn't happen without a
trajectory, how is that reflected at all by JJ in this game? can a jenner move 3 times faster then an atlas with JJ? it can just running but not while jetting. JJ in tabletop could allow a small mech to actually get around faster by just jumping the distance, which was a tactic. large mechs where nowhere near as good jumpers without significantly more JJ power, but that has nothing to do with screen and reticule shake or random firing arcs, only how high and far a mech can jump.
but baring all the really good arguments as to why JJ should be an effective peice of equipment, i quote again "Jump jets work in a similar, albeit more limited, fashion to the fusion rockets installed on
Aerospace Fighters" do aerospace fighters, with their more powerful (less limited) fusion rockets shake themselves to pieces then?
Edited by Mellifluer, 10 June 2013 - 04:20 PM.