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Victor Morson, on 02 July 2013 - 06:10 PM, said:
That's not the goal.
The goal is to make light/medium 'mechs have an easier time moving over rough terrain, thus netting them a huge mobility advantage. This offers a lot of chances for future map designers to play with the concept and make some really rough terrain.
It's not meant to make an assault unable to get past a bump in the road. It's not even really meant to restrict movement past what we had all that much, but it does open up the idea of "light shortcuts" that heavies can't maneuver well.
In otherwords:
NOT THE POINT - Atlas stubs it's toe walking up a hill on Canyon network and now must loop around and try again.
THE POINT - A Centurion bolts up a hill in a dogfight with Atlas in Canyon network, but the Atlas has trouble reacting because it simply can't follow without crawling to an even slower movement pace. The Centurion then is free to bolt up and down at will, going places Assaults can't follow.. effectively.
That's why I say a 1 speed crawl would fit the spirit of the system better. Not a 0 speed dead stop. Or a longer degrading throttle.
If your Jenner can move up a hill at 80% speed, pulling over 100 but an Assault can only pull up a hill at 20% speed - already being slow - you've just given mediums and heavies a HUGE ADVANTAGE THEY NEED.
THAT is the focus of this system.
Actually, that is pretty much what they stated the goal was. (not the toe-stubbing, but the overall dead-stop restriction)
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So, the easy rule to remember is that every mech can travel over any slope less than 20° with no slowdown whatsoever, and at any 45° slope the mech's movement is reduced to 0. These slowdowns aren't instant, so there is the potential for an extremely fast mech to gather enough momentum to travel some way up a slope of 45° or greater, but in most cases a 45° slope acts, in effect, as a wall. In addition, I should also note that running into an actual vertical wall reduces the mech's forward movement considerably, so you will no longer have the ability to navigate by perpetually bumping into stuff.
To compute how much of a slowdown you can expect on a particular slope, the formula is quite simple. Just less than your mech's SlowdownAngle, you'll be going at 100% speed. At 45° you'll be going at 0% speed. In between those two values, the slowdown is linear.
For example, the Catapult is a member of the "large" movement archetype, whose SlowdownAngle is 25°. If a Catapult walks up a slope of 35° (halfway between the SlowdownAngle of 25° and the StopAngle of 45°) it will be traveling at 50% of its normal speed. On a 30° slope it would travel at 75% of its normal speed, and on a 40° slope it would travel at 25% of its normal speed.
Some maps this won't make a lick of difference. Others it will completely transform. I urge everyone to carefully inspect the following diagrams and see if your usual routes or favourite spots are going to be compromised by these changes. You can't climb up the sheer cliff walls on Alpine Peaks any more. You can't scoot up to the top of the crystal shards on Tourmaline Desert any more. The high ground in Canyon Network is nowhere near as accessible as it once was.
To compute how much of a slowdown you can expect on a particular slope, the formula is quite simple. Just less than your mech's SlowdownAngle, you'll be going at 100% speed. At 45° you'll be going at 0% speed. In between those two values, the slowdown is linear.
For example, the Catapult is a member of the "large" movement archetype, whose SlowdownAngle is 25°. If a Catapult walks up a slope of 35° (halfway between the SlowdownAngle of 25° and the StopAngle of 45°) it will be traveling at 50% of its normal speed. On a 30° slope it would travel at 75% of its normal speed, and on a 40° slope it would travel at 25% of its normal speed.
Some maps this won't make a lick of difference. Others it will completely transform. I urge everyone to carefully inspect the following diagrams and see if your usual routes or favourite spots are going to be compromised by these changes. You can't climb up the sheer cliff walls on Alpine Peaks any more. You can't scoot up to the top of the crystal shards on Tourmaline Desert any more. The high ground in Canyon Network is nowhere near as accessible as it once was.
It is not just to give light/medium mechs a greater mobility advantage over heavy/assault. That might be what you want it to be, but that's not what their statement says they intend it to be.
So yes, it is meant to restrict movement well past what it was.
That said, getting hung up on individual short/small bumps that your mech could pretty much lift it's leg and step up on shouldn't happen. So that will need to be addressed. Perhaps some change to the way slowing is implemented. Such as allowing 50% speed for a minimum of X meters or X seconds once a slope is recognized. Not really sure. Either that or they'll need to do a 'smoothing' pass on all the maps to remove unintended mini-walls.
However they do it, not quite making it all the way up an actual ridge/hill definitely is something they intended could happen. No matter how frustrating it might be to be -this- close.
So is the complete restriction of movement over highly enough sloped terrain. They don't want mechs climbing up a lot of things they used to, even at 1kph.
So I'm all for fixing the issues of getting stuck on small things you really shouldn't. But removing the hard limit, no matter how far dropped to a minimum of speed, is not something likely to happen. They did intend that.
Edited by Spades Kincaid, 02 July 2013 - 07:26 PM.
