3 replies to this topic

[Angel of Annihilation]

I think revamp of the armor system would go a long way to fixing balance and making the game more fun because even with double armor, mechs seem to go down way to fast, especially if you got a couple mechs firing at you.

What I would like to see is them increase the number of hitboxes on each location to say 4-6 boxes per location and then give each box an armor value equal to the total armor for that section. For example, lets say your CT has an armor value of 80. Right now that is 80 armor in one single hitbox. What I prepose is that the same CT would have 4-6 hitboxes with 80 armor each.

Now what this means it that now you have smaller targets to hit to defeat the armor. Sure you could still reach internals with 2 lucky Quad PPC hits but the chances are you would actually hit one of the other hitboxes instead and it would take quite a few more hits to actually core out a mech.

What this accomplishes is that it extends out the match making each one more enjoyable. (lets face it, accidently running into 3-4 enemies and dying before you even think about retreating to cover is not fun, especially if it is early in a match).

Additionally it rewards higher skill because it would be much harder to hit the upper left CT than just hit the CT if you wanted to core out the mech.

Lastly and perhaps more importantly, it drastically reduces the effectiveness of high alpha strikes by reducing the likelyhood of 2 Alphas in a row hitting the exact same location on a section such as the center torso (or any section). It can still happen but it would be much harder to do, especially at long ranges.

Also another side benefit would be you could make criticals more meaningful. For example, if your medium lasers are located in the upper LT they would be safe from someone stripping armor on the lower LT hit box (though maybe one of the XL engine criticals resides there).

[Peter2000]

No, this system would actually just encourage high alphas, unless you are really proposing effectively multiplying current armor values by 6 (which is kind of an absurd suggestion).

One of the reason boated PPC alphas are so strong is that when you fire them all, they hit on the same exact point on the enemy. Fewer bigger alphas mean you only need to hit the same spot 1-4 times (depending on your build, and your opponent's) for a kill or severely crippling loss of torso/leg. The laws of statistics dictate that the chance you hit any (not a particular one) panel with sufficient damage increase as the damage per shot goes up (assuming total damage is constant).

[Angel of Annihilation]

Peter2000, on 14 July 2013 - 11:53 AM, said:

No, this system would actually just encourage high alphas, unless you are really proposing effectively multiplying current armor values by 6 (which is kind of an absurd suggestion).

One of the reason boated PPC alphas are so strong is that when you fire them all, they hit on the same exact point on the enemy. Fewer bigger alphas mean you only need to hit the same spot 1-4 times (depending on your build, and your opponent's) for a kill or severely crippling loss of torso/leg. The laws of statistics dictate that the chance you hit any (not a particular one) panel with sufficient damage increase as the damage per shot goes up (assuming total damage is constant).

You miss the point. Each hit box has 80 armor, not 80 armor spread out over 4-6 hitboxes. This means it takes a hell of alot more fire in general to core a mech because your less likely to hit the same hitbox over and over again and are more likely to hit to spread the damage across multiple hitboxes in the CT.

As for multiplying the armor 4-6x, only sort of. You could still penetrate through to internals just as easily but only if you hit the same, smaller, hitbox multiple times. In general it would probably only increase the current durability by 2-3 times its current value.

Is increasing mech durability a bad things? How can it be? If the mechs are more durable this means you get to spend more time playing and less time spectating. Matches would tend to go a bit longer but again not a bad thing because the rewards would be higher as well. Additionally you wouldn't be going down in 15 seconds because you accidently got caught out in the open with 5 mechs pouring LRMs in you. Instead, you would actually have time to get to cover.

Additionally, when you consider that in the current meta weapon fire rates are pretty much tripled vs armor only being doubled compared to TT where the damage value of weapons comes from, actual durability is much less than it should be already.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 14 July 2013 - 12:33 PM.

[hammerreborn]

I think he meant is that lasers become functionally useless, and even ballistics without a complete overhaul of ammo.

Lasers downside is already hitting multiple sections, now you're spreading it even further.

For any chance of lasers/small ballistics and even srms to be useful they would need to be on target for ages, essentially.

Meanwhile even though a 6 ppc alpha might hit only one of the components, it's still essentially ripping that panel off with every hit, and will still end up being the better option in the long run