704 replies to this topic

[BP Raven]

Long post, but well thought out. At this point i haven't seen any better ideas presented this well (my own included). Doubt anything like it will be introduced, but props for the effort put in.

[Xoro]

I read it, and I think it's brilliant

[Homeless Bill]

Praehotec8, on 10 June 2013 - 01:31 PM, said:

It's an interesting idea, but it feels a bit punishing to LRM boats. If only 33 missiles overloads missile lock, 2X LRM20s would never be able to fire together, and I wouldn't call 2X LRM20s boating. Not to mention lighter mechs that are ML boats (jenner, etc). They often need to unleash an alpha and get away. Again, kind of a cool idea, but I worry that there would be too many unforseen consequences of the change. Excellent evaluation of the current balancing issues though!

Again, the numbers are rough and without LRMs coring everything, 40 would be my guess at their proper alpha-limit. If you check out the numbers for medium lasers, 8 can be fired in a second without any penalties. I made sure to put a lot of thought into this.

DocBach, on 10 June 2013 - 01:32 PM, said:

if there is a cap on how tight convergeance can be based on those factors, like at long range against a moving target it will hit minute of mech but not a pinpoint spot, the only way to get perfect point of aim point of impact accuracy would be to be not moving against a still 'Mech in the open at close range.

One Medic Army, on 10 June 2013 - 01:34 PM, said:

Just wondering, couldn't you get the same sort of effect by adding in accuracy for having high heat or for moving, and adding an accuracy coefficient for each weapon (based on its intended range envelope).
Of course, that would allow people to have a single free shot at the start, so long as they're standing still and at zero heat.

Fair enough, but I like pinpoint accuracy while moving. What are lights going to do? I think pinpoint convergence is a good thing up to a certain damage threshold. Having moving, heat, and other factors affect convergence to me punishes the wrong things.

xDeityx, on 10 June 2013 - 01:33 PM, said:

This is a very large post and will take a significant time investment to read. The chances that anything will change because of this post are slim.

OP why should I read this? If you had some quick and easy way of proving to me that you possess a depth of knowledge about the game greater than the average player I would be interested in reading this. Chances are though that you are an average player and this is just another balance rant like many others before.

Read the TL;DR and see if you want to continue. I'm a game developer, I love design and balance, and I've clearly put a lot of thought into this. If that's not enough to convince you this isn't just some rant by homeless guy, there's nothing I can do.

And no, this post will unfortunately probably not affect any change. But it sure was fun to write.

Vodrin Thales, on 10 June 2013 - 01:34 PM, said:

That's a really complex solution that could potentially be tougher to balance than the current system. Why not make AC5 and up auto-cannons fire a burst instead of a single projectile, delivering their damage over 1 second instead of instantly. Could even do the same with the gauss rifle (even if it would be a bit of a departure from cannon and common sense). Then have the PPC fire a larger energy burst that will deliver it's damage over several hit locations instead of just one.

Player who can hold a weapon on target for an entire second (as lasers currently do) would still get high point damage, but this would be much more difficult to pull of than it currently is.

This basically makes ballistics into lasers and ignores many other parts of the problem. I like that they have different, pinpoint functionality. I just don't like that you can stack them for such a cheesy effect.

Carrioncrows, on 10 June 2013 - 01:36 PM, said:

Mmm.....wouldn't it just be simpler to remove zoom?

It's not just long range that's affected by this issue. I'm specifically thinking about 2xUAC/20s on some Clan monster. In close, a potential of 80 points of damage to a single location needs some sort of a counter. Same for the AC/40 Cat and Jager.

[keith]

Homeless Bill, on 10 June 2013 - 01:18 PM, said:

How so? I think 8 medium lasers or 4 large lasers every second with no penalty is pretty reasonable. And again, these are just my rough numbers. If it turns out lasers are getting the short end of the stick, they could easily decrease the TCS value of lasers. This system is meant to go in without requiring any other balance changes or feature re-works.

more talking about there current duration. keeping said 8 med laser mech on target. most other wep systems are fire and forget. with 8 meds or even 4 or 5 large u would be looking at a mech for roughly 3-5 secs. that much time in the open would equal a dead mech, atleast 8v8. a 3 ppc mech could quickly tap the trigger 3 times while returning to cover. thats the only problem i have with your system.

[Petroshka]

I just want to put this out there. In what other game can you run at 150 KPH and hit a needle through the eye at 2000m? That's obscene pinpoint accuracy.

If they added this dreaded cone of RNG (within reason) i'd be all for it - considering LRM/SSRM s would have to suffer for balance's sake.

[Unbound Inferno]

Well thought out, written up - but I have to say no.

I don't think the solution is skipping over the heat penalties as if to say they won't affect them. They did in TT, and worked well in TT - and can work well here if applied in a similar fashion on a reasonable scale.

The TC you want to add in sounds good on paper - but application? I think your numbers are off.

PPC have a recharge of 4 sec - that's 400 off your numbers. According to yours its 50 per PPC, 50x6 = 300. By the time recharge comes around again that penalty you added up is moot.

Simultaneous Fire of 2 each? So you get 3 shots of 2 instead of 6 shots at once. The way stagger fire works atm doesn't really penalize the delay between them in most instances against medium, heavy and assaults. Only Lights really benifit as its slightly trickier to keep a bead on a light running fast. But a good lineup? Same old problem.

Unless your talking about trying to seriously tell builds pre-made with them like an Awesome 8Q or Catapult C4 that those 40 missile tubes can only launch 33 every 5 seconds or 3 pre-loaded PPC can only fire 2 at a time every 4 seconds. Kind of defeats the purpose of the builds that already exist there.

So sorry, I can't get behind it. Too much numbers, adding rules and complicating an already complicated system that should instead be simplified and streamlined with what should already exist. Overheating damage is a prime example that already exists if you choose to override it, but doesn't if its an auto-shutdown. Fixing some problems like that would go a far longer way than adding in detail restrictions that I don't think should really be there since it wasn't there prior. TT and any other MW game IIRC never told you to only fire x amount at a time.

[DocBach]

Homeless Bill, on 10 June 2013 - 01:50 PM, said:

Fair enough, but I like pinpoint accuracy while moving. What are lights going to do? I think pinpoint convergence is a good thing up to a certain damage threshold. Having moving, heat, and other factors affect convergence to me punishes the wrong things.

Lights have to rely on opportunity - the convergence would still allow you to hit a target, just not direct all of your weapons to a single point - and the people shooting at you are also at the mercy of penalties as well.

the factors that determine accuracy from Battletech is

Shooter's movement - walking up to 2/3 throttle provides a penalty, running at speeds faster than 2/3 throttle provides a greater penalty

targets movement - targets moving under 30 kph don't incur a penalty, targets up to 50kph incur a little more penalty, targets moving 50-80 kph a little more, 80-110 a little more and 120+ incur a great penalty to get convergeance on

heat levels - gradual accuracy degration as heat increases

weapon range - penalties for being at longer or extreme ranges

[Homeless Bill]

keith, on 10 June 2013 - 01:56 PM, said:

more talking about there current duration. keeping said 8 med laser mech on target. most other wep systems are fire and forget. with 8 meds or even 4 or 5 large u would be looking at a mech for roughly 3-5 secs. that much time in the open would equal a dead mech, atleast 8v8. a 3 ppc mech could quickly tap the trigger 3 times while returning to cover. thats the only problem i have with your system.

I guess I'm failing to understand how that's different from now. And 3-5 seconds seems off... large lasers only have a beam duration of a single second. This isn't about forcing chain-fire - it's about limiting how many weapons you can accurately fire at once. You can still fire 8 medium lasers or 4 large lasers simultaneously (group fire) with zero penalty. Only once you go above that threshold does convergence fail.

Petroshka, on 10 June 2013 - 01:59 PM, said:

I just want to put this out there. In what other game can you run at 150 KPH and hit a needle through the eye at 2000m? That's obscene pinpoint accuracy.

If they added this dreaded cone of RNG (within reason) i'd be all for it - considering LRM/SSRM s would have to suffer for balance's sake.

I wouldn't mind it, but I don't see a reason for it. Aiming on the move is already hard to do, and I think it should be rewarded. It also doesn't solve ridge-humping Stalkers (which are currently our biggest problem).

Unbound Inferno, on 10 June 2013 - 01:59 PM, said:

Well thought out, written up - but I have to say no.

I don't think the solution is skipping over the heat penalties as if to say they won't affect them. They did in TT, and worked well in TT - and can work well here if applied in a similar fashion on a reasonable scale.

The TC you want to add in sounds good on paper - but application? I think your numbers are off.

PPC have a recharge of 4 sec - that's 400 off your numbers. According to yours its 50 per PPC, 50x6 = 300. By the time recharge comes around again that penalty you added up is moot.

Simultaneous Fire of 2 each? So you get 3 shots of 2 instead of 6 shots at once. The way stagger fire works atm doesn't really penalize the delay between them in most instances against medium, heavy and assaults. Only Lights really benifit as its slightly trickier to keep a bead on a light running fast. But a good lineup? Same old problem.

Unless your talking about trying to seriously tell builds pre-made with them like an Awesome 8Q or Catapult C4 that those 40 missile tubes can only launch 33 every 5 seconds or 3 pre-loaded PPC can only fire 2 at a time every 4 seconds. Kind of defeats the purpose of the builds that already exist there.

So sorry, I can't get behind it. Too much numbers, adding rules and complicating an already complicated system that should instead be simplified and streamlined with what should already exist. Overheating damage is a prime example that already exists if you choose to override it, but doesn't if its an auto-shutdown. Fixing some problems like that would go a far longer way than adding in detail restrictions that I don't think should really be there since it wasn't there prior. TT and any other MW game IIRC never told you to only fire x amount at a time.

I appreciate the feedback. Some clarification and rebuttal: As I stated before, heat penalties will work, but messing with the heat system is extremely risky, AND it doesn't solve ballistics. Gauss will simply never be affected by heat.

The TCL is meant to dissipate extremely rapidly. You are correct that the TCL would have been at zero for an entire second before the PPCs are done cooling down. The key difference is that TCL penatlies are applied before shots are fired, so you don't get away with a free alpha strike.

You say that forcing three volleys of 2xPPC isn't much different than a single volley of 6xPPC. I completely disagree. It means you have to aim three shots, and they have to be spaced about a second apart to not incur any sort of penalty. The immediate, pinpoint alpha is our biggest problem, and forcing more salvos will largely rectify that.

Updating the LRMs section because 33 is a stupid number, and the buggy coring ability really shouldn't be counter-balanced by this system.

Again, heat just won't solve all our problems. This system wasn't there in any prior MechWarrior game, and its absence caused balance issues in all of them. The translation from tabletop to realtime needs something to account for convergence, and this does it in a way that keeps it separate from the rest of Battletech balancing. I can understand the worry that it adds a bunch of complicated numbers, but it's better to have a separate set of numbers for a separate problem. Overheat penalties and the like are all good ideas, but they simply won't be comprehensive enough.

[Carrioncrows]

Homeless Bill, on 10 June 2013 - 01:50 PM, said:

It's not just long range that's affected by this issue. I'm specifically thinking about 2xUAC/20s on some Clan monster. In close, a potential of 80 points of damage to a single location needs some sort of a counter. Same for the AC/40 Cat and Jager.

But at close range your idea doesn't work. You open up the bloom of the funnel sure, but if your close range the shots are still going to hit where intended unless you plan on making them stupidly off track.

If anything you would be better off explaining that a weapon requires so much energy to fire so the targeting computer doesn't fire them both at the same time but rather one after another.

[Homeless Bill]

DocBach, on 10 June 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

Lights have to rely on opportunity - the convergence would still allow you to hit a target, just not direct all of your weapons to a single point - and the people shooting at you are also at the mercy of penalties as well.

the factors that determine accuracy from Battletech is
[a lot of stuff]

To me, this is where I think we get too far towards tabletop. I want to be rewarded for my aiming skill, I don't want to have to sit still to shoot at long ranges, and I think a lot of fast-moving 'mechs would get screwed by this sort of system in realtime.

It's already exponentially harder to hit a moving target while you're moving than a still target while sitting still; we don't need an additional random accuracy penalty that basically makes pulling off that skill shot effectively impossible.

Does it make sense from a Canon and huge robot standpoint? Yes. But gameplay would suffer for it. Players want to be rewarded for skill, and I think the proposed heat and movement penalties take too much of a toll on aiming ability.

[Homeless Bill]

Carrioncrows, on 10 June 2013 - 02:20 PM, said:

But at close range your idea doesn't work. You open up the bloom of the funnel sure, but if your close range the shots are still going to hit where intended unless you plan on making them stupidly off track.

This is the genius of losing convergence. No matter what range you're at, the effect is the same: weapons fire directly forward from where they are mounted. A convergence loss at 100m will have the same affect as a convergence loss at 500m in terms of where the shots land. The accuracy penalty is just a bonus to that effect.

[DocBach]

Homeless Bill, on 10 June 2013 - 02:28 PM, said:

This is the genius of losing convergence. No matter what range you're at, the effect is the same: weapons fire directly forward from where they are mounted. A convergence loss at 100m will have the same affect as a convergence loss at 500m in terms of where the shots land. The accuracy penalty is just a bonus to that effect.

I might be thinking differently here but a shooting error at 100m is magnified quite a bit down range as shooting errors are angular

[Vodrin Thales]

Homeless Bill, on 10 June 2013 - 02:28 PM, said:

This is the genius of losing convergence. No matter what range you're at, the effect is the same: weapons fire directly forward from where they are mounted. A convergence loss at 100m will have the same affect as a convergence loss at 500m in terms of where the shots land. The accuracy penalty is just a bonus to that effect.

Your solution is a great one in theory. I just really doubt the ability of a developer to code things such that damage will spread at close range and not make weapons wildly inaccurate at longer range.

[Sybreed]

it's an interesting idea and I support it, it's definitely better than what we have right now.

Edited by Sybreed, 10 June 2013 - 03:19 PM.

[Homeless Bill]

DocBach, on 10 June 2013 - 02:37 PM, said:

I might be thinking differently here but a shooting error at 100m is magnified quite a bit down range as shooting errors are angular

The accuracy penalty, yes. The accuracy penalty should be slight and is really only meant to act on long-range weapons mounted in the same location (because 3xPPCs in the same spot will fire at the same spot even when convergence turns off). But losing convergence just means each weapon fires straight forward from where it's mounted. Take this example with arm-mounted weapons:
LA------------------------------------------------------->
LT
CT
RT
RA------------------------------------------------------->

If the distance between the arms is 10m, the shots will always still 10m apart, regardless of range.

Vodrin Thales, on 10 June 2013 - 03:08 PM, said:

Your solution is a great one in theory. I just really doubt the ability of a developer to code things such that damage will spread at close range and not make weapons wildly inaccurate at longer range.

See my above response for why convergence loss solves this issue. It requires no work on their part to spread damage properly; they simply have to turn off their convergence code. Any time you overload the targeting computer while shooting at range, you will indeed be wildly inaccurate. The point of this system is to force players to choose between pinpoint accuracy and extremely high damage bursts, and I think it effectively does that at all ranges.

Edited by Homeless Bill, 10 June 2013 - 03:37 PM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Interesting, it would in theory force damage spread due to chain/single or partial firing, without making the gameplay camping rewarding because of movement penalties.

[One Medic Army]

DocBach, on 10 June 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

Lights have to rely on opportunity - the convergence would still allow you to hit a target, just not direct all of your weapons to a single point - and the people shooting at you are also at the mercy of penalties as well.

the factors that determine accuracy from Battletech is

Shooter's movement - walking up to 2/3 throttle provides a penalty, running at speeds faster than 2/3 throttle provides a greater penalty

targets movement - targets moving under 30 kph don't incur a penalty, targets up to 50kph incur a little more penalty, targets moving 50-80 kph a little more, 80-110 a little more and 120+ incur a great penalty to get convergeance on

heat levels - gradual accuracy degration as heat increases

weapon range - penalties for being at longer or extreme ranges

To be fair, moving already provides an effective to-hit penalty, what with the uneven ground and such. It affects light mechs so much more than heavies/assaults though.

I like the general idea behind this: that high pinpoint alphas need to have their damage spread out somehow so as to improve gameplay.
This is really the at the centre of pretty much every balance issue we've had so far (aside from missiles).
9SL hunch going 115kph? If the SL didn't all hit the same spot it wouldn't have been an issue.
Gausscat complaints in CB? If the gauss rounds had hit separate points on the enemy mech it wouldn't have been so powerful.
Heck, even the splatcat wouldn't have been near so dangerous if the 6x SRM6s hadn't all hit the same general location.

Edited by One Medic Army, 10 June 2013 - 03:49 PM.

[Homeless Bill]

DV McKenna, on 10 June 2013 - 03:42 PM, said:

Interesting, it would in theory force damage spread due to chain/single or partial firing, without making the gameplay camping rewarding because of movement penalties.

This guy gets it. It's just putting an upper limit on how much pinpoint damage you can do, but it avoids the movement and heat penalties that really are a straight-up nerf to aiming ability.

I'm sort of okay with heat penalties, but what's the point? As I've demonstrated in my post at length, heat focuses on certain types of weapons at the expense of others.

Also, this:

One Medic Army, on 10 June 2013 - 03:46 PM, said:

To be fair, moving already provides an effective to-hit penalty, what with the uneven ground and such. It affects light mechs so much more than heavies/assaults though.

Edited by Homeless Bill, 10 June 2013 - 03:50 PM.

[Suko]

I read your entire post and I agree. I'm happy about the heat scale thing PGI has proposed, but I also don't think it will solve future problems like you mentioned. I do hope they read this post and consider some of your suggestions.

Your proposal might not fit in perfectly with Battletech lore, but at this point I don't care. I just want a fun Mechwarrior game that isn't full of cheese.

[Traigus]

(edit: browser locked up and did not save my proofread edit. I am fixing it now)

Seems a little too complicated to me.

Kind of a AC/20 to kill roaches thing

It can be streamlined,..


Not sure if I should post this here as a kind of rebuttal or in its own thread.

Someone has probably come up with something similar before, but I think it is the best middle ground between pinpoint accuracy and alphas.



WARNING! WALL of TEXT!
----------------------------------------------------------

TT does rely on Mech targeting computers being made by Tandy, and hoping you brought your PPC cassete tape.

Take your proposed targeting pool.

Assign it to convergence speed.

(This is mostly examples, that also work for your system)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

HUD setup

LA, RA, RT,,LT CT have aim points (if weapon is mounted in body part.

Arms = circles O
Torso's = triangles A
CT = Crosshairs [+]

(These lost their spaces to formatting, imagine them spread out a bit more left to right ) with the same letters lined up.

So a fully loaded mech has O A [ + ] A O

no arm weapons A [ + ] A

Centurion D A [ + ] O

(may be backwards)

Arm points can remain locked to torso as we have them now, otherwise they float. (note maybe left arm can't go past CT aimpoint if aiming right side?) LT and RT are always vertically locked to CT.

------------------------------------
Lock onto a mech with R key

Point crosshairs at target (no free convergence on mechs behind you, but you can converge on a locked mech behind cover. Good for LRMs with spotters, and waiting to mug someone your team knows is there.).

Notes:

- Convergence decays if you lose lock.

- Firing a weapon decays convergence for that recticle a little - drifts out (maybe a little less for lasers with no recoil)

- Points slowly converge on target. ( maybe at base 5-10 secs for full convergence? Would need to be tested as the base has to be good, but stuff like quirks and targeting computers would lower time)

-Missles lock on the recticle for the body part they are mounted on. Streaks on multiple body parts and Catapult LRM 20's need lock and convergence to get both/all to lock on for fire (cat arm launchers could get a quirk bonus for faster lock on if needed, but they can converge without LOS with a spotter, as above).

- Most boats would have to wait to converge, or fire different groups on the move, using their different aimpoints. Ex: Splat cats can unload 1 ear on a target, then have to twist a little to get the other ear on target, so damage would be split over locations. Most boats would have to switch target points to still have pinpoint accuracy for that group, losing super APLHA damage without convergence, but having viable damage Groups (laserboats a mentioned later ).


Now you can wait for them to converge and alpha like a maniac (after each alpha different weapons will drift a bit (bigger weapons drifting more), but not back to default points. Changing targets and immediately aiming at it, will continue convergence where it is, decay will happen when there is no target, or it is out of the lock cone (to either side or behind your viewpoint). A second quick alpha would hit the same mech but be spread over the body. The enemy would be shooting back while you wait for second alpha convergence... May be better off firing groups now (see below)

OR

You can fire where the markers are NOW by treating each as a crosshair for wepons on that body part (ballistic speed still and laser aiming still apply, so you may not want to group your AC/20 wit ha laser, just like now)! CT would be easiest to aim of course

If I have LT and RT mounted PPCs, O A1 [ + ] A2 O


I can place my A1 marker for LT on target.. BOOM, then try and line up my RT A2 marker with a quick twist. Boom? Still pinpoint, still aiming, but I have to move my mouse and aimpoint to where the convergence currently is to squeeze off a shot. I could wait for convergence and fire both, always an option.

We can fire them with no R lock on as well. just point the default location of LT A1 or RT A2 recticle and blam! so you can fire into a crowd without lock on by aiming carefully with individual locations. Get really close to an enemy, and you may be able to hit him with both PPCs without a lock on, but they will not hit the same body part. Smaller mechs will need less convergence because their weapons are closer together, and their targets tend to be as big as a barn. pinpoint will still need convergence or weapons mounted together. Lights fighting lights with either be chases with lock on convergence ,or nasty slashing attacks without locks. (see later)

__________________________________________

This replicated TT aiming difficulties, while still allowing us to aim any individual weapon using pinpoint aim. It limits alphas to people that line up a shot and shoot slowly and carefully(plus keep a lock). Out of range sniping has to use default recticle locations and will require lining up multiple recticles for more than 1 gun. (It will be easier to just fire 1ERPPC, then to twist a little and try to line up a second ERPPC. Get into lock range and your Awesome is now more deadly.

- movement convergence penalty faster you run, slower it converges (TT aiming penalty) Standing still = fast convergence and fast getting shot in the face

-JJ convergence penalty (with less shake you still need to wait to converge, or twist to fire weapons while in air, which is hard to do. could be penalties based on weight))

- targeting computer from TT can be equipped for bonus.convergence speed (at a weight/slot cost)

-Some mechs may get quirks for some body parts to converge faster (full gun arms perhaps)?.

-Light mechs can lock, Run up/converge as they come in.. fire and run off (if they have space. They can also sneak up and stand behind people). Not a free ride, but they can also group weapons right and left side for slashing run attacks firing as each recticle passes target.

-Closer you are the less convergence you need to hit a mech at all, but you are more likely you will hit all over the mech than if you wait to converge for an APLHA. At 200 M Alpha striking from a cold lock would hit all over the enemy mech, maybe arms would miss lights (depends on range and size of mech). Sneak up one someone in the middle of a fight and let everything converge... BLAMMO!.

-Anti light, mech you have 5 spread out crosshairs to fire left to right or right to left to try and hit the damn thing. or try to follow it with just the recticle 1 gun you want to hit it with.

-Mechs with grouped weapons (3 med laser points in1 spot, like a trench Bucket arm) benefit from this system. Aim using that 1 circle.

-Mechs with torso mounted weapons, like the hunchback are easier to converge than the Centurion arm gun, to help make up for the greater arm movementove the Cent,, and the Cent gun usually gets fired solo anyway.

[ New clarification]

-Becasue it decays slowly if you keep locking and aiming from different body parts (a part firing 3 weapons will have more drift than a body part firing only 1, fighting keeps convergence going at a medium level in brawls, where targets are locks and aimed at constantly. (note. a laser Hunchback will have less max convergence driftback with its torso than an arm with the same number of lasers because it is a torso and gets capped by its default convergence spot.)

-Weapons spread out over different parts are an advantage (Awesome PPCs are more desirable than 2 PPCs in the same body part when swapping Alphas with chain firing. While slower in initial convergence, it has less individual convergence driftback once fighting than someone with 2 PPCs in the same bodypart) for the Purposes of Alphastriking. The mech with 2 PPCs in the LT would have an easier time on initial ALpha (no arm PPCS) but a harder time converging that point to center for a second Alpha, but would have an advantage of that 1 recticle having 2 guns on it for separate aiming. Some mechs will be better for Alpha then Chainfire. Others will be better for Chainfiring towards alpha.

Cold shutdown restarts, and big gaps in fighting will let convergence reset to default. This makes constant fighting desirable with an occasional big bang, and sitting and Alpha sniping /shutting down less so

--------------------
Conclusion


I feel this is a much simpler solution (although 5 crosshairs is a bit of a learning curve, it really isn't that bad as they only track in and out of the center mostly., but the HUD can be made to list weapons by location to lessen confusion: Left weapons on left, right weapons on right (CT in the middle), with appropriate symbols).

Convergence could be modified by weapon type (like your list.). ACs have recoil and throw convergence off after firing (Ac 40 mechs would have to choose, fire-twist-fire, or wait for the prefect shot), lasers less so because of them being beams. Big guns would be harder to keep on target, while lasers do Damage over Time, and have their own issues. Laser Boats like the Hunchback and Blackjack would have lasers all over the place. They can wait to converge, or fire different groups at different aimpoints (or even targets), but it would split up their fire (remember, if they don't wait to fire a second group, and move to the next recticle to fire the next set, the lasers will drag across the enemy mech, They may want to wait for each group to finish before moving on. or just microwave the entire mech with lasers all over its body all at once). This helps pulse lasers have value, because they have less time on target and allow quicker group switching

Mechs can have different body parts converge at different speeds, or not at all. Maybe a fat mech can only converge RT and RT arm on same target, at the RT default spot. LA weapons can only make it to CT while aiming for RT side. This may be too much, I think the mechs have enough arm clearance for the ones with fully actuatored arms now to not need this?

I like the idea of pinpoint aiming, but don't like the current insta-convergence, or forced randomness.


-----------------------------------------
P.S. I'd also turn off auto shutdown and allow mechs to fry themselves.

I'll move this to another thread if you want.

Edited by Traigus, 10 June 2013 - 05:20 PM.