Here's an example of why it's hard to balance MW:O weapon by weapon the way it is. The underlying system creates its own hurdles and pitfalls.
Hotthedd, on 14 July 2013 - 07:40 AM, said:
Well that would be exactly where weapon balancing comes into play. Individual weapons would now be able to be tweaked without the "unseen?" implications of boating. Right now, weapon balancing does not work very well because it is done on a per weapon basis, even though nobody fires just one weapon.
Yes, this is extremely important ,in fact, due to the way heat capacity works. And, ultimately, also how armour works, and how this interacts.
If you just equip a single PPC, you can go fine with just the engine heat sinks. That means the effective weight of sustaining a single PPC is 7 tons.
But if you equip 2 PPCs, you suddenly generate a lot of heat. (About 2 per second). THat would mean after 25 seconds, you'd overheat. That's still good, you'll probably never have to fire for that long. So the weight to run 2 PPCs is 14, twice a smuch as 1 PPC.
But now you equip 3 PPCs. Suddenly you could only last for 16 seconds. Still sounds akay, 16 seconds is a good time. So the weight to run 3 PPCs is 21, three times as much as 1 PPC.
But now 4 PPCs. Suddenly you last 8 seconds! Maybe now it's time to get some DHS. If you want to get back to 16 seconds, you actually need 14 out-of-engine DHS! So 4 PPCs don't need the expected 28 tons, but 42 tons to be run! That's 6 times as much as a single PPC.
Now the math gets kinda complicated! How do you balance this?
And this was just "boating math". What if you add Large Lasers instead of PPCs, for example.
Of course, you can say - but firing for an infinite time is much longer than firing for 25 seconds, and firing for 25 seconds is much better than firing for 12 seconds...
But then there is this:
With 20 DHS, you can fire 4 PPCs 3 to 4 salvos before you overheat, so about 8 to 12 seconds. In that time, you also deal 120 to 160 damage. Which, compared to the armor on the CT of Heavy Mech, is pretty much core-worthy, and for any mech pretty cripple-worthy - if it can be applied well.
So 12-16 seconds might be more than enough time, and essentiallyy, just because a build lasts twice as long, doesn't mean it's twice as good.
And, a propos of applied well - Shooting 4 attacks and hitting all the same spot is not trival, but you've got 4 seconds time to aim or torso twist or move into and out of cover between each shot. Trying to fire 16 shots and hitting all the same spot with only 1 second to aim, torso twist or move into and out of cover between each shot is... challenging.
---
Personally, I find this non-linear aspects of the cost of heat extremely hard to balance. If it can be balanced at all. So I'd try to move towards a system where you overheat more quickly but dissipate faster, so that this magic point of where you really need to add the sinks to compensate your heat gain starts much earlier. That is essentially what the table top mechanics did, by having heat penalties starting at a heat level 5.
The whole issue of "precisely applied damage" is also hard to balance if it becomes a factor for groups of weapons. Balancing a single weapon around the advantage of how much damage it deals per shot is compared to others seems easier. (And was also done that way in the table top - every attack required its own to-hit and hit location roll.)
Maybe there are smart people that can figure these out. But I fear they have yet to arrive on the forums and armchair design the problem away, or be hired by PGI.
14
