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If you instead set the system up so that its based on the heat generated itself, instead of a mech firing X number of Y weapons, it would also hinder substitution builds like adding ERPPCs instead of PPCs, etc. Purely theoretical not scientific example following. Lets say you have 3 mechs A, B, C. A alphas and generates 30% heat, 50% for B, 70% for C. 30% is pretty normal, I doubt they would need a penalty. B at 50% is in my opinion not terrible though a little hot, perhaps on this scale they generate an extra 5-10% heat. C is a very hot build, but even though its only 20% more hot than B (as B is hotter than A) perhaps it generates an additional 20-30% heat. The advantage here is that once you come up with a proper exponential heat scaling considered balanced, the weapons themselves don't matter. Any weapon, properly balanced, would work either in a boating config or as part of a versatile config in the same manner.
An alternative to the added heat generation, could be the reverse. Slowed rate of heat disappation. Honestly, while making more sense from a logical standpoint (more hotter things taking longer to cool off with the same number of heatsinks) I feel this might be harder to implement than simply adding in more heat. They're essentially the same thing with two different names.
Moving on to Idea #2. This idea would make balancing less important overall. Essentially its a way for each player to balance the game against what they find more irritating. The downside? It hasn't all been invented yet and thus the devs might take issue with putting it into the game. Honestly though, with the state of game balancing I think it has loads of potential... and it's not like we're 100% on timeline anymore anyway, right? I'm talking about armor types, specifically Reactive Armor, Laser Reflective Armor and Hardened Armor.
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Reactive Armor (3063)
Reactive Armor is an experimental armor that uses a series of microscopic explosions to reduce the effects of explosive weapons fire like missiles, artillery, and mortars. When these weapons hit a unit with Reactive Armor protecting the area, the damage is reduced by 50%.
Reactive Armor is an experimental armor that uses a series of microscopic explosions to reduce the effects of explosive weapons fire like missiles, artillery, and mortars. When these weapons hit a unit with Reactive Armor protecting the area, the damage is reduced by 50%.
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Laser Reflective Armor (3058)
Laser Reflective Armor dissipates energy weapon attacks 50% more efficiently than other armor types, reducing the amount of damage taken by the 'Mech mounting it. Despite the name, Laser Reflective Armor is effective against all energy weapons, not just lasers.
Laser Reflective Armor dissipates energy weapon attacks 50% more efficiently than other armor types, reducing the amount of damage taken by the 'Mech mounting it. Despite the name, Laser Reflective Armor is effective against all energy weapons, not just lasers.
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Hardened Armor (3047)
Hardened Armor is a thicker armor type that uses multiple overlapping plates to provide additional protection against enemy fire. Though capable of diverting more damage than standard armor (...) can affect the speed as well.
Hardened Armor is a thicker armor type that uses multiple overlapping plates to provide additional protection against enemy fire. Though capable of diverting more damage than standard armor (...) can affect the speed as well.
I also realize based on the following exerpt that Hardened Armor is not exactly the ballistic counterpart to these two, but I would tweak it in that manner in order to make them all equal. "Hardened Armor provides eight points of protection per ton. Though this is half the protection of standard armor, each point of Hardened Armor can absorb two points of damage."
In addition, I would make these all cbill upgrades to FF armor in the mechlab. This way they would all take the same critical slot space as FF and at the same time give FF a purpose outside of a minimal weight reduction. Standard FF would be as it is now, but for added cbills you could purchase these versions which would grant damage reduction (perhaps not 50%) from one of the 3 damage types: Missle, Energy, Ballistic. This could be further balanced by adding in weaknesses if nessisary. Reflective is supposed to be somewhat weaker against ballistic attacks, Hardened is supposed to slow mechs down, etc.
Having an issue with missle boats lately? Load up on Reactive for your brawler. PPC boats getting you down? Reflective should do nicely. Hate that AC40 Jaeger? Harden that poptart. Not only would this allow each person to balance against whatever meta is currently really bothering them personally without coding new balance into the game, but it would also encourage mixed loadouts. If you boat all of 1 weapon type, you might have a significant disadvantage taking someone down, but if you mix it up it negates that advantage they hold somewhat.
Now this would not be without a disadvantage as well. Any hardpoint boats (ie. chassis with all of 1 hardpoint type) could potentially be weakened a bit. Then again it would only be against those opponents using the proper armor and with the required crit slots to do so. I think thats a fair trade. Maybe that would reduce the number of splatcats, 6 AC2 DDs and PPC boats being played... but then again is that such a bad thing anyway?
