While playing today I figured out how to give every weight class of mech a *COMBAT* role without making massive changes to the game. Currently, if you want to maximize your chances of winning (and lets face it, most of us do!) there are a few mechs and guns that are clearly the best. However, to maximize our ENJOYMENT we should strive to have a game where every gun and every mech has a good chance of winning and is enjoyable. The best way to achieve this is to make every weapon good in specific situations, and no gun excel in every situation.
The eureka moment:
Make each weapon stronger against specific 'mechs or classes of mechs. However, we want to do this without forcing it by saying "SRMs do double damage to assaults," but by using game mechanics that are fun for the player and easy to implement.
Here is an example from the current game:
Let us imagine a mech warrior universe where these things are true (as they are not all comepletly true in the current iteration, please dont nit pick this stuff that is not in the game, IT IS A PROPOSAL):
For example, an SRM15 fired at a commando will have many of the missiles miss their mark, and the ones that do hit the commando will do damage across all of the systems because they hit the mech all over (this is how it currently works). 2 gauss rifles fired at the same commando will do critical damage, likely destroying systems and crippling the 'mech (this is also how it currently works). So in our example, SRM15 and 2 gauss rifles both do 30 damage, but one is much better than the other against the commando.
On the other end of the spectrum, the SRM15 will do significant damage to just a few systems on an Cataphract because the systems are larger (this is how it currently works). The heavy armor of the Cataphract absorbs the entire salvo from the gauss, not taking critical system damage. (Lets assume this last part so that we can have a good example, the proposal for making this happen will come later)
How this works in he real game, right now:
So, let us now simplify the mechwarrior universe to just these 2 weapons and 'mechs. If you made a team of all Cataphractes, with all SRMs, your team would be quite strong against a team of all Cataphractes, however, it would be weak against a team of commandos using SRMs. The converse is also true. [/color]So we could then say that an effective team would be comprised of both Cataphractes and commandos with both types of weapons, and players have been encouraged to vary their mech and weapon choices, and use better teamwork using game mechanics not gimmicks.
For this example to work, we need to make the gauss less effective against heavier 'mechs. How do we do this? A proposal:
A Cataphract center torso has 70armor. When it is hit by small amounts of damage (2 from an SRM for example) it will take the full damage. When it is hit by large single shots (gauss for example) it will shed a portion of the damage to nearby systems (perhaps it splinters on the heavy armor and damages adjacent systems). So, with this proposal it would take 2 damage from an SRM, yet take only 8 from a gauss hit, shedding the other 7 to the adjacent side torsos and legs.
Current 2xGauss shot to the right torso:
Proposed change:
No proposed change vs lights.
A commando side torso has about 20 armor. It will take full damage from SRMs and full or nearly full damage from a gauss hit. 2 gauss rifles would then penetrate that 20 armor, doing critical system damage to the side torso. However, because SRMs naturally spread out and the commando side torso is so small, that section will not take much damage at all.
Also, by varying the roles of the weapons you can then vary the roles of the 'mechs. In this very limited example, making a commando to hunt other commandos using gauss would clearly be prohibitive because of the weight of gauss. However, if we add a new 'mech to our limited universe we can instantly find a role for it. Let us add in the HBK-4G. Now this 'mech has enough weight limit and space to fit a gauss, which using our previous assumptions would make it a good light hunter using its gauss cannon. It is slightly larger than a commando, making it take slightly more focused damage from SRMs. It also has 40 side torso armor, which would allow it to shed some of the damage from a gauss hit to adjacent areas.
So now let us examine our fictional universe. We have a commando, which can only use SRMs and will be very effective against Cataphracts and somewhat effective against hunchbacks but poor against other commandos. The HBK-4G can only use gauss not missiles because of its hardpoint restrictions, which makes it very effective against commandos, somewhat effective against hunchbacks and poor against the Cataphract. The Cataphract can use SRMs or gauss or both. However, it is so slow that it probably can not get close to an enemy Cataphract without encountering a commando first.
So what have we achieved in our fictional universe?
Cataphract variants that pack a bunch of SRMs will be the best to destroy Cataphracts. However, to reach enemy Cataphracts they will have the get past commandos which can easily intercept them because of their superior speed. These missile Cataphracts will not be able to do much damage to the Commandos. So, to reach the enemy Gauss Cataphracts they will need the support of Hunchbacks and Gauss Cataphracts. So once again we could then say that an effective team would be comprised of Cataphracts, Hunchbacks and commandos with both types of weapons, and players have been encouraged to vary their mech and weapon choices, and use better teamwork using game mechanics not gimmicks.
Now let us say that we “accidentally” release a new light hero mech that is *WAY* too strong. In a universe where all weapons are balanced against everything, this would be a problem as anyone who does not purchase this new hero mech would not have fun. However, in our fiction universe we would see an increase in gauss users in order to combat this overpowered light mech, making the system somewhat self balancing for the short term!
This system can be expanded to the entire game universe that PGI have already created, incorporating all weapons, and making them all useful and, dare I say, more flavorful and fun. I have ideas to expand this across all weapons, but I will not post them as I would rather have people discuss the idea as a whole instead of nit pick the specific weapons/counter systems.
Edited by Pwnius, 11 August 2013 - 11:00 AM.