2 replies to this topic

[SyreKron]

1) Mech customization in all its glory should be possible but shouldn’t be required for competitive gameplay.

You shouldn’t need a cheese boat to do well in a match. Also, your near stock mech should hold up well against the cheese builds. In tabletop customization was rare and expensive. Usually, it just didn’t happen. I think there is some value to that game mechanic.

I don’t believe the current alpha-strike heat penalty mechanic is going to accomplish the design intent no matter how much tweaking it gets.

My suggestion is to simply add penalties when changing weapons from the stock configuration of the chassis.

For each weapon type, divide the weapons into sub-types. For energy weapons, there are three sub-types (flamer, laser, and ppc). Same idea for ballistics (MG, AC, gauss) and missiles (LRM, SRM, and streak). If you change between weapon sub-types in a given hardpoint you take a penalty.

Penalties could vary and be quirky. Here are some ideas I had:

• Replacing flamers with lasers reduces aiming accuracy.
  
• Replacing lasers with PPCs results in more heat per discharge compared to a stock installation
  
• PPCs to lasers increases the laser cool down time
  
• AC to MG results in a reduced rate of fire compared to normal MGs
  
• MG to AC decreases the top speed at which your mech can travel
  
• LRM to SRM could be increased spread compared to stock SRMs
  
• SRM to Streak could be increased cool down

The general idea is that while customizations to your mech’s weapons will work the result might not perform quite as well as the stock load.



2) Automatic shut-down should have a function.

There is currently no point to auto shutdown since you take damage after 100% heat capacity is reached. I propose that auto-shutdown occur at something higher than 100% heat capacity and that penalties for going over 100% heat could be diversified.

Here are some example penalties:

• 100-110%: reduced max speed
  
• 110-120%: add increased weapon cool down time
  
• 120-130%: add a chance for internal ammo explosion
  
• 130-140%: add a chance for internal damage
  
• 140% +: add a chance for reactor failure (kaboom!)

The numbers are just placeholders to illustrate the concept and would likely need tweaking.

[Bartholomew bartholomew]

I don't remember but offhand wasn't 140% pilot death?

And one way to stop cheese is to limit the mounting of some weapon systems some more. Alot of TT mechs were limited that way. Some weapons sytems would not cross over to differing mechs due to structure and targeting computers.

Would almost force more teamwork that way.

I think most of the complaints revolve around I can't be and/or he is a one mech army that stomps everyone in the drop.

[Mystere]

People use cheese in MWO for the same reason people use performance enhancing drugs in real sports: winning is everything. It's the sad reality of the human condition (except for me of course ).