11 replies to this topic

[skill gap]

The problem isn't boating, it's the high heat capacity that's increased by adding heat sinks. A flat heat capacity of 30 like BattleTech would still give us the same sustained dps without the alpha spamming quick burst damage we have now. This would be far easier to implement and for players to comprehend rather than having special rules for every weapon. Or go ahead and solve the wrong problem and I'll keep running my 2PPC 2ERPPC Jager as usual.

[Ralgas]

pgi's idea needs tweaking, my twin gauss illya and jaggers like your idea better

[Flapdrol]

I dont like the heat penalty either. Why do people alphastrike? because they want all the damage on a single point, doesnt really matter what point, as long as it's concentrated it's probably effective. This is not adressed with a heat penalty, and doesn't affect ballistics as they dont have much heat.

Another way to "fix" ppc alphastriking would be fix the fundamentally flawed heat system, with doubles that are always better than singles etc. The treshold is too high. (personally I'd prefer doubles have high dissipation, low treshold, would give singles a purpose). If an emergency shutdown actually took some time (so causes damage), and a 4x PPC shot is a guarantied shutdown there would not be nonstop alphas all over the place.

[Mangonel TwoSix]

I don't know. I have to admit I have not been playing much lately. Can't really muster up the time or the energy to play more than two or three games at a time.

However when I read Paul's update post from yesterday I was a little optimistic. I was greatly fearful of heat penalties when I first heard about their intent to implement them. From reading that post they do not sound so bad. 3 PPCs at a time without penalty is reasonable. Really only effects the Stalker or Awesome PPC boats. And they can still fire all 6 to get that 60 points of damage to one section if they are skilled at aiming.

I just dont see them reducing the heat threshold. While that is great for a tabletop game that you intend to go on for hours, lets face it, it would kind of suck for a video game. Think about how that would play out on the hotter maps. You'd be running around firing one PPC at a time and waiting forever to fire the next. Games would take an eternity to play out....... I'd bet you had 15 minutes Assaults where you had multiple mechs alive from each team at the end of the game!

[Alistair Winter]

I think this is going to be kind of like when they made PPC counter ECM. Everyone said "Well, that's not going to make a huge difference, really." And they were right. It was a small step in roughly the right direction, however. There were better ways to deal with it, but today the PPC counter is one of the reasons ECM is no longer such a big problem.

And I feel it's the same with this heat penalty. Doesn't solve the problem, and not better than certain ideas I've seen on the forum, but at least it's a small step in roughly the right direction.

[Felbombling]

I was reading that Weapon Update post and came away with a few things regarding the heat penalties...

1. It is totally convoluted and will be next to impossible to explain to new players, who will be hopelessly confused unless they get a full description in the training session.

2. It will be very easy to circumvent. Take the six PPC Stalker, for instance. When Clan weapons come out, expect to see Assault Mechs with 2x ER PPC, 2x Large Pulse Laser and 2x ER Large Laser. No heat penalties associated with 70 damage alpha strikes at incredible distance. With Clan double heat sinks, you should see two to three alphas before shutdown, no problem.

Yeah... forethought is not a strong point of the PGI development team, sadly.

Edited by StaggerCheck, 12 June 2013 - 05:04 AM.

[Tennex]

all it is is a boating fix.

boats arn't really a problem right now though. the PPC boats are too hot. and the ML boats are just fine.


The PPC/gauss builds are OP. But they can fix that by adding heat to the Gauss.

[Ralgas]

Tennex, on 12 June 2013 - 04:59 AM, said:

all it is is a boating fix.

boats arn't really a problem right now though. the PPC boats are too hot. and the ML boats are just fine.


The PPC/gauss builds are OP. But they can fix that by adding heat to the Gauss.

or giving it an ungodly long recharge, along with the ac/20

[skill gap]

Roknari, on 12 June 2013 - 04:42 AM, said:

I just dont see them reducing the heat threshold. While that is great for a tabletop game that you intend to go on for hours, lets face it, it would kind of suck for a video game. Think about how that would play out on the hotter maps. You'd be running around firing one PPC at a time and waiting forever to fire the next. Games would take an eternity to play out....... I'd bet you had 15 minutes Assaults where you had multiple mechs alive from each team at the end of the game!

Not true at all. Heat would dissipate at the same rate, we'd just have a lower capacity.

[skill gap]

Tennex, on 12 June 2013 - 04:59 AM, said:

The PPC/gauss builds are OP. But they can fix that by adding heat to the Gauss.

Lower heat capacity would force those to slow their firing rate sooner to match their heat dissipation.

[MasterC]

The proposed heat penalty is kind of arbitrary and will unbalance the game. For example, my Highlander 733P is loaded up with 4 PPCs and has an alpha of 40 points with a heat efficiency of 1.39. My Highlander 732 is loaded up with 3 PPCs and 1 Gauss and has an alpha of 45 points with a heat efficiency of 1.46. The weapons are grouped together for alpha strikes for both mechs. Under the proposed heat penalty regime my 733P will be penalized but my 732 will not. And the 733P already has a lower alpha and less heat efficiency than my 732. PGI, please, just scrap your heat penalty plan. It's a bad idea that tries to fix something that isn't broken.

[Fonix]

maybe they should add an accuracy penalty the more of the same weapon that gets shot at a time (not including beam and missile weapons imo, just projectile type weapons), so you can still do them up close, but cant ppc snipe at long range. this could also stop ac20 boats from coring someone in like 1 hit, the accuracy would probably make them hit 2 diff components, making it not quite as OP, but still devastating though...

just a thought