18 replies to this topic

[Pater Mors]

So I posted an idea in One Medic Army's Crazy PPC idea thread and now I feel bad for kind of hijacking it, so I am putting it here in my own post instead.

Taking something from both sides of the PPC as ballistic vs PPC as beam weapon debate, I came up with this:



Right now, what happens is all 10 damage is loaded into the ball of the PPC and is delivered with pinpoint accuracy. With the above, 5 damage is loaded into the ball and the rest is spread out through the trail of the PPC so you get 5 pinpoint damage and 5 spread damage.

The advantages of this, I think, are reasonably clear. If a target is standing still it's possible to deliver all 10 damage to the same spot as it is now, but if they are moving some of it is going to be spread.

Edited by Pater Mors, 19 June 2013 - 01:02 PM.

[TOGSolid]

Ok, that's just sexy. Make it happen PGI!

+1

[Oppresor]

Yes Pater this is good! It appeals to the side of me that likes and always makes me carry an LBX10Scattersot. In effect it becomes a PPC Scattershot which will dramatically improve its use against fast movers and very nasty things like the Jenner.

[Pater Mors]

Oppresor, on 19 June 2013 - 01:08 PM, said:

Yes Pater this is good! It appeals to the side of me that likes and always makes me carry an LBX10Scattersot. In effect it becomes a PPC Scattershot which will dramatically improve its use against fast movers and very nasty things like the Jenner.

Actually, my thinking was that it would make it much harder to insta-kill a light with this because they move so fast. So rather than a 4PPC stalker delivering 40 damage to one point on a light moving 150kph, it's going to deliver 20 pinpoint and 20 spread across the ST and arm. There's even a chance that some of the trail will miss entirely.

[Oppresor]

I see where your coming from but for me, I would be prepared to loose some of the heavy punch of the PPC if it gave me a better chance against moving targets or even a group of targets because of the increase in spread pattern or particle drift.

I like the Scattershot concept and carry the LBX10 for extreme close range stuff, for example the Tunnel in Frozen.

[Owlfeathers]

As long as the beam time is fairly short (half of lasers or so?), I see no problem with this. Worth trying, at least.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

I can't say I'm really a fan of the idea. I'd rather there be a sort of arc effect when the PPC hits that damages the initial location for 5 and then jumps to an adjacent location for 3 and finally jumps again (including possibly back to the first spot) for the final 2 damage. PPCs are usually described as man-made lightning in the books, and a mechanic like this would be very thematically appropriate while still spreading damage (and would spread more effectively than your idea).

They'd have to limit the arcing to the head (or prevent it entirely), or PPCs to the chest might become head-shot seekers, which would be bad.

[Pater Mors]

Levi Porphyrogenitus, on 19 June 2013 - 06:18 PM, said:

I can't say I'm really a fan of the idea. I'd rather there be a sort of arc effect when the PPC hits that damages the initial location for 5 and then jumps to an adjacent location for 3 and finally jumps again (including possibly back to the first spot) for the final 2 damage. PPCs are usually described as man-made lightning in the books, and a mechanic like this would be very thematically appropriate while still spreading damage (and would spread more effectively than your idea).

They'd have to limit the arcing to the head (or prevent it entirely), or PPCs to the chest might become head-shot seekers, which would be bad.

Works for me too, might just be a bit complicated to implement.

[DeadlyNerd]

Particle Projector Cannon, as in "makes a giant ball of ionized particles and sends it flying, projects it"

If you're suggesting that 5 hit instantly and 5 follow behind 1 by 1, then it would make some sense.

[Karl Streiger]

Reminds me a little bit on the exploding balls of energy from Mechwarrior 2....
as far as i can remember they dealt damage on hit - and some more damage afterwards because of the "explosion" - great idea so far.

With the increased velocity for PPCs there is no reason to keep their "unique" profile to deal damage in a split second alive.

Edited by Karl Streiger, 20 June 2013 - 05:12 AM.

[Captain Katawa]

>5 spread damage
>6 PPCs do 30 spread damage


They will have to remove cockpit hitboxes because it will be enough to hit it somewhere near the head to hit the window.

[Pater Mors]

Captain Katawa, on 20 June 2013 - 07:37 AM, said:

>5 spread damage
>6 PPCs do 30 spread damage


They will have to remove cockpit hitboxes because it will be enough to hit it somewhere near the head to hit the window.

Well, 6 PPC's hitting anywhere now is 60pin point which is enough to outright kill many mechs. I doubt that the 30 spread damage is somehow all going to concentrate across the cockpit. It'd be a very lucky shot if it did.

[Skyfaller]

Pater Mors, on 19 June 2013 - 12:41 PM, said:

So I posted an idea in One Medic Army's Crazy PPC idea thread and now I feel bad for kind of hijacking it, so I am putting it here in my own post instead.

Taking something from both sides of the PPC as ballistic vs PPC as beam weapon debate, I came up with this:



Right now, what happens is all 10 damage is loaded into the ball of the PPC and is delivered with pinpoint accuracy. With the above, 5 damage is loaded into the ball and the rest is spread out through the trail of the PPC so you get 5 pinpoint damage and 5 spread damage.

The advantages of this, I think, are reasonably clear. If a target is standing still it's possible to deliver all 10 damage to the same spot as it is now, but if they are moving some of it is going to be spread.

I like it but I think they might not do it since the weapons are probably hard coded to be insta damage or 'lase' type damage.

So.. why not simply turn the PPC into a really fast pulse laser of sorts?

Split the 10 damage into 5 packets of 2 damage and have the PPC stream be just like a pulse laser when it hits...

except that instead of it taking 0.75s to apply the damage it takes a mere 0.25s (0.05s between 2dmg pulses)

If you fire this on a target that is moving towards you or is static then the 10 damage is applied before the guy can react. If you fire it on a slowly moving mech the damage will mostly be applied to the same armor section anyway.

[Scorpio Rising]

I was thinking something similar for the LB-X AC/10.

Having a core burst of 5 tightly patterned slugs hitting pin-point, and the other 5 slugs coning outward like a shotgun.

[Scorpio Rising]

So basically, a LBX would hit full power in one location at short range.

[Pater Mors]

Skyfaller, on 20 June 2013 - 06:44 PM, said:

I like it but I think they might not do it since the weapons are probably hard coded to be insta damage or 'lase' type damage.

So.. why not simply turn the PPC into a really fast pulse laser of sorts?

Split the 10 damage into 5 packets of 2 damage and have the PPC stream be just like a pulse laser when it hits...

except that instead of it taking 0.75s to apply the damage it takes a mere 0.25s (0.05s between 2dmg pulses)

If you fire this on a target that is moving towards you or is static then the 10 damage is applied before the guy can react. If you fire it on a slowly moving mech the damage will mostly be applied to the same armor section anyway.

Hmm, if it were a choice between this and the current system I would vote for the current. Pulse lasers need their burn time shortened anyway so after that's been done then this system wouldn't look so attractive because an LPL does more damage than a PPC currently anyway. All you'd be getting is a less powerful LPL with a .25 second faster burn time.

Scorpio Rising, on 20 June 2013 - 06:55 PM, said:

I was thinking something similar for the LB-X AC/10.

Having a core burst of 5 tightly patterned slugs hitting pin-point, and the other 5 slugs coning outward like a shotgun.

Not a bad idea at all. I could see this working well if they shortened the range slightly so that it didn't compete with the AC5.

Edited by Pater Mors, 20 June 2013 - 07:01 PM.

[Iron Hyena]

No, no no no. You just made the PPC exactly like the large pulse laser.

Yeah, the large pulse laser does 10 damage if you hold it in the same damn place against a standing still target too.

[Pater Mors]

Dornhal, on 20 June 2013 - 07:02 PM, said:

Yeah, the large pulse laser does 10 damage if you hold it in the same damn place against a standing still target too.

That's true, but in no other situation will you be able to apply the full 10.6 damage of an LPL on a single piece of armour unless you are REALLY good at hitting a moving target. This system still keeps the 5 pinpoint damage, which is much harder to replicate on any single energy weapon when not fired at a static target.

[Skyfaller]

Pater Mors, on 20 June 2013 - 07:00 PM, said:

Hmm, if it were a choice between this and the current system I would vote for the current. Pulse lasers need their burn time shortened anyway so after that's been done then this system wouldn't look so attractive because an LPL does more damage than a PPC currently anyway. All you'd be getting is a less powerful LPL with a .25 second faster burn time.

Not really. The LPL has shorter range while the PPC has twice its range. The 0.05 per dmg packet means that unless the target is moving at very high speed laterally, there will be at least 2 or 3 packets that hit the same armor location..so 4 to 6 damage and the remaining damage may hit different location.

0.25s impact time is very short and it will most likely not be a problem delivering the full damage on target the majority of the time. The difference is the mech turning torso or mech lateral speed would spread out the damage.

Alternatively they can just make the PPC be a wide electric ball of pain that deals damage in 4 points of its circumference and 1 point in its center. Each point does 2 damage. So you can still insta-apply the damage but the 'ppc bullet' is so wide it hits different armor components.