8 replies to this topic

[stjobe]

Dear PGI,

Your heat system doesn't work. I think you know it as well as most of us do. This latest "boating penalty" only serves to highlight the problems with the system. I understand that you want to limit high-heat energy boating and that's a laudable goal, but you're doing it - in my opinion - in the wrong way.

There's a much, much simpler solution available to you, that if implemented would mean you could do away with the boating penalty altogether. There would be no more worries about high-heat boating, and as a benefit matches would last longer and chain-fire would automatically become the preferred way of firing.

To explain this simple solution, I'm going to compare the MWO heat system to the original BattleTech system - and before anyone shuts their ears, it IS relevant, since that's where it all started.

The BT system works like this: A 'mech has a heat capacity of (# of SHS or 2x# of DHS) + 30. Sounds a lot like the MWO system doesn't it? Well, wrong. You see, of those extra 30, which you also added in MWO, only the first 5 are free. The last 25 incur increasing penalties to movement, aiming, and also risks both ammo explosions and shutdowns.

So in BT, a 'mech with 10 SHS could generate 15 heat without issue, but more than that and it was in trouble. A 'mech with 16 DHS could generate 37 heat without issue before feeling the heat, so to speak.

In MWO, those numbers are 40 and 62, respectively, and there's where the issue lies. We have a tremendously high heat capacity, and that allows extremely high-heat weapons like the PPC to be boated and alpha'd several times before incurring any penalties.

The simple and very efficient solution to the heat problems that have plagued MWO since its inception is to simply reduce the extra 30 heat down to 5, or even 0.

This would mean that a 'mech that had 10 SHS could only generate 10-15 heat before needing to cool off, and a 'mech that had 16 DHS could only generate 32-37 heat before it hit the cap.

Furthermore, it would mean that to alpha three PPCs you'd need 25 SHS or 13 DHS, and you couldn't alpha four unless you mounted 33 SHS or 17 DHS.

It would also mean that you could finally make DHS into the true 2.0 heat sinks they should be, and it'd mean the end of the high-heat alpha boats once and for all. A 'mech could mount three PPCs, but if it alpha'd them once it'd have to wait a while to fire them again. Chain-firing would become the norm.

It's a simple system that has none of the complex tables or weird magic heat of the current boating penalty system, and as a bonus it does away with the magical 30 heat we've always gotten as extra but nobody's bothered to explain where it comes from.

The alternative of course is to start implementing heat penalties from (# of SHS or 2x# of DHS) + 5 heat, as it should be, but you seem reluctant to implement any form of heat penalties, so perhaps this system will suit you better.

I sincerely hope you take this to heart, it's such a simple fix that I'm sure you could have it running on an internal test server within a day.

TL;DR: Drop the 30 extra heat capacity to 5 or 0. Heat issues solved.

[James The Fox Dixon]

I like my proposal for a heat system that works with the current system.

http://mwomercs.com/...-heat-solution/

[Dracol]

I for one do not want true 2.0 dhs. I like the fact dhs are better then 2.0 up until 16 dhs are installed due to the pilot effiencies.

[stjobe]

Dracol, on 30 July 2013 - 04:44 PM, said:

I for one do not want true 2.0 dhs. I like the fact dhs are better then 2.0 up until 16 dhs are installed due to the pilot effiencies.

So keep them at their current values, it doesn't matter. What matters is that the heat we can generate before something untoward happens needs to come down by 25-30 points, and that there's a really simple way of achieving this.

Any thoughts on that part of the post?

[Jesus Box]

The heat system was fine how it was and boating was only a problem to the newbs. They need to stop catering, get some sense, and yank out this heat scaling crap. It's an artificial mechanic that doesn't belong nor needs to even be here. For example, there was no problem with a Jagermech running 2x AC20s. He's useless beyond 300m(GL on Alpine) and probably running an XL just to fit in the weight. A melee range Mech with an XL. If you used any kind of team work; he'd blow up before did much to your team. He was only a problem to the solo running newbs that would charge in, alone, then get wrecked.

The Splatcats are another example of a Mech that's useless beyond 300m and easily crippled if you bothered to shoot at their nice big wings. 1 wing gone; half the missiles gone. But people couldn't use brains. They'd run through the tunnel, all by themselves, get slaughtered by a Mech built entirely for max 300m damage, then QQ that it isn't fair. The Mech already had its own heat issues, range issues, ammo issues, but that wasn't enough. Now it has BS heat scaling issues too.

The funny thing is that people will now just switch to other non-heat nerfed weapons to boat or fire in groups of 2 and still pwn faces. Either way, the newbs will still get killed and still cry about it. So, what did you accomplish here, not counting the wasted development time? I swear these Devs have never played a Blizzard or MW title before making this game. I used to think they never played League either, but then they started having the weekly sales. So they copied something from it. I just wish they copied a lot more of it and ran their game that way too...

Edited by Jesus Box, 30 July 2013 - 05:18 PM.

[WolvesX]

OR just small, medium and large hardpoints^^

Awesome -> The only mech with 3 PPC in game!

[MyszTrap]

WolvesX, on 30 July 2013 - 05:14 PM, said:

OR just small, medium and large hardpoints^^

Awesome -> The only mech with 3 PPC in game!

This would take them to admit that they were wrong... which is not going to happen even if it would help fix the boating issue, the fact that mediums are useless and make each mech fill unique.

[Homeless Bill]

I'll just leave this here...

[FupDup]

Homeless Bill, on 30 July 2013 - 05:39 PM, said:

I'll just leave this here...

Paul/PGI won't read it and we all know it.