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I understand PGI's intent with jump jet (JJ) shake was to mitigate poptarts. To that end they introduced two mechanics when JJs are active:
1. The reticle shakes, indicating weapons will aim randomly within a cone, that has an estimable center, if fired.
2. The whole screen shakes, due to randomized rotational offsets of the camera.
Include the following observation: weapons re-converge to steady-state a fraction of a second after JJs are deactivated.
Here are the consequences of PGI's current solution:
1. While jump jets are on, the offensive skill cap is lowered because no one can control randomness (direct anti-offense, and by extension anti-poptart, mechanic).
2. Skilled poptarters follow the central cone of randomness, then fire precisely (and the more skilled, the more accurately) after JJ deactivation. I think it's a decent skill reward.
3. Heavy rotational screen shake, especially in the absence of temporal antialiasing (aka motion blur), results in player fatigue and eyestrain, and is one of the big no-no's of game design and cinematography.
A note here about #3:
There are two kinds of camera shake: translational and rotational. Translational shaking is not highly disorienting because, as the camera is the player's eyes, it remains looking in the direction their eyes expect. The result is a feeling that the world around them is quaking/vibrating. Rotational shake, on the other hand, disrupts the brain's perception of orientation, and without physical feedback corroborating this perception the result is fatigue (and in many people, nausea). Finally, the lack of motion blur can make both kinds of shake straining to the eyes because screen frames become rapid, still snapshots of fast, unsteady, untrackable motion with no visual "flow" between frames (a big problem in computer graphics).
This is why so many people are complaining about fatigue and eyestrain.
My goals are to:
1. Eliminate the disruptive screen shake.
2. Remove the forced skill cap. Players should be rewarded for their efforts based on practice and skill.
3. Make solution physically plausible and fun.
Therefore I propose replacing both of PGI's current mechanics with what I call "gyro drift":
GYRO DRIFT :
When the JJs are on, the JJs cause the mech to angularly accelerate in a horizontal (or possibly random) but consistent direction, up to a reasonably capped angular velocity, but your trajectory would remain the same as it is now. When the JJs are off, it retains that angular velocity until its feet land on the ground.
This has the following results:
1. No camera shake = no more fatigue! Now players can once again enjoy using the jump jets for hopping around, firing from behind friends, etc.
2. Removes forced skill cap: A skilled poptarter should, with much practice, compensate for this drift and still land shots. And for REALLY good players, even do it while the JJs are on. This opens up the door for continual player improvement and challenge. This also balances lasers because they provide more direct feedback as to the current drift, so lights benefit a lot, too.
3. Angular drifting will give the player a feeling that they're really flying.
Obviously this drift should be balanced on a per-chassis basis (and maybe even a mech quirk). I think light mechs should have faster angular acceleration and a much lower maximum drift velocity, so they can still use their lasers properly. Large mechs should have slower angular acceleration with a much higher maximum drift velocity, to raise the difficulty bar for poptarting.
Note that gameplay was my primary factor. The bonus is that we can justify outside of game balance, too: We can just say that light mechs are affected by JJ force variances more but their hydraulics connecting the gyro's frame to the mech can compensate for drift faster due to the lower mass. Large mechs are affected by JJ force variances less, but their gyro hydraulics are slower (relative to their mass), so they can't compensate as quickly.
And for camera shake: PGI, if you really want it, I think a small translational shake could be put to great effect. The resulting perception that the mech is vibrating slightly would give the player a great sense of immersion and the feeling that their JJs are powerful (which they are).
I apologize for how long this ended up being, but I feel very passionately about this JJ matter and I hope it was worth the read. Please let me (and PGI!) know what you think. Thanks!
Edit: Clarified that trajectory would remain the way it is now.
Edited by Trevelyas, 14 June 2013 - 10:30 AM.
