39 replies to this topic

[Elyam]

The issue has never been that PGI decided to use a derivative of Solaris weapon fire rates. Doing that made sense particularly since the idea is very workable without losing anything (with proper tuning to make sure high fire rate weapons don't cause imbalance) from the spirit of BT/MW .

The elephant in the room decision that will haunt this game until it fades and that alters us too far from BT/MW is the choice to allow all direct-fire weapons to always predictably hit precisely where you aim the targeting reticle (with only minor vertical ballistic adjustment a consideration for ACs). Letting online players reliably deliver pinpoint damage from multiple weapons is what takes us too far, and is the cause of endless other adjustments.

A server that offers shot deviation as per the original universe's ever-present technology inaccuracies due to the diminished tech base that is such a key factor in the original's story and success - would be very welcome. A significant section of the MWO present and potential player base would be forever grateful.

[Escef]

Wolfways, on 11 August 2013 - 01:35 AM, said:

I don't know what those rules are. Do they stop players using stock mechs?

No more and no less than the current heat system in MWO.

The heat scale is quadrupled, heat output is quadrupled, heat sinks stay the same. Weapon ranges get quadrupled and broken into 6 range categories, ground scale gets quartered (each hex becomes 7.5 meters), movement stays the same (with some tweaks for jump jets). Weapons gain delays, which can be overridden with massive heat penalties and a chance to jam/explode, LRMs can be hot loaded to negate minimum range (but the launcher explodes if critted). You get 2 actions and can only fire a weapon or weapon group using an action, moving is an action, reconfiguring a weapon group is an action, hot loading is an action, etc. And you only get 3 weapon groups.

If you look at the mechs that were specifically made for these rules, they are over heat sinked by normal standards, and many of them mount multiple MGs because they have no delay and incur no heat.

Edited by Escef, 11 August 2013 - 09:46 AM.

[verybad]

Wolfways, on 10 August 2013 - 11:55 PM, said:

I find it strange that PGI make a game based on a TT game that they supposedly enjoy, yet include a heat system that makes it impossible to play the mechs from the "original" game.

Look at the Jagermech Jm6-s.
It has 2xAC2's and 2xAC5's. In a TT turn (10 seconds) all four weapons could fire once and generate four heat total, which was handled easily by the ten standard heat sinks.
In MWO the heat from firing those weapons cannot be handled by twelve DHS! I haven't tried more because with twelve DHS (10engine+2) i had barely any armour or ammo so it seemed pointless to try.

I understand that players want to customize mechs, but with the way the current heat system is you are forced to customize because stock mechs (the way they are bought in the mech lab) are useless.
It's even pointless to sell mechs with equipment because it has to be changed to become playable, usually by changing to DHS first. Why not sell the chassis empty?
Or even better, make a heat system which lets players play actual Battletech mechs.

I know this is an old topic but i felt like ranting.
I just got three Jagermech chassis to elite trying out AC10's vs PPC's (AC's are much better btw) and realised that i can't play the Jm6-s the way it was originally intended.

Do you understand how bad the stock Jagermech is in Battletech? This is intentional in battletech because they want unoptimized mechs in the game, it makes it more interesting. However, any time you have any game that allows you to make changes in your ride, they will be optimized.

If you want unoptimized mechs to be viable, then arrange games with premade groups where everyone is using stock rides. Hell, that actually sounds like fun. Don't expect TT to work the same in a real time game however, that's simply not going to happen, and it hasn't happened the way it does in battletech...ever.

[General Taskeen]

Seems there are many misinformed posts in this thread. PGI Did not readily take in account of fire rates in combination with heatsinks. MWO is also the only game where heat sinks are programmed to raise thresholds, which is unfortunately crap compared to previous Mech games that simply balanced it by having a fixed threshold and the heat sinks instead dissipated heat quickly.

MW:LL was the last iteration of Mech Warrior that got heat sinks right, where SHS and DHS are both viable. Its a fact that heat sinks are not well designed in MWO. Stock-ish like designs in previous games never had the extreme disadvantage they have in MWO. They were either "average" or "good," but did not exceed a min/maxed Mech, but never were they "poor" as in MWO.

Edited by General Taskeen, 11 August 2013 - 11:30 AM.

[Sean von Steinike]

Shadey99, on 11 August 2013 - 04:14 AM, said:

I'd love to see a test of everything at TT rules. Every weapon fires once per 10 seconds, DHS are actually double a SHS, weapon damage and range as per TT rules, armor is back to the TT rules... You could do an alpha, if you are willing to wait 10 seconds to fire again or 'chain fire' (which PGI ever so much wants us to do) and spread out fire over any given 10 second period of time. It may not be a 'fix' to alphas, but it would require some sort of backup weapons or face the fact you may be able to do nothing while you wait.

I however don't expect MWO to ever test that. Though it certainly should have been the base level they started from and worked to where they are from it.

You have to roll a die to see if you hit...take turns moving your mechs....

[Shadey99]

Sean von Steinike, on 11 August 2013 - 11:24 PM, said:

You have to roll a die to see if you hit...take turns moving your mechs....

I think we can all agree that some things are inherent in the medium. dice rolls to hit and turns of movement and firing are part of the medium. Much like you can have a live action series and a comic, or a book versus a movie.

The original game had fairly good balance and all classes had functions. MWO seems to have lost those in establishing what the core rules are and what were part of the media it used are key issues.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Table Top and a FPS style game are 2 COMPLETELY different genres and need to be treated as such. Comparing Battletech to a Mechwarrior game (playstyle wise) is like comparing Risk to Battlefiled 3 LOL.

Basically, it isn't often that the rules in BT really apply to a Mechwarrior game because the playstyle demands are different.

Edited by MeiSooHaityu, 12 August 2013 - 07:39 AM.

[Elyam]

MeiSooHaityu, on 12 August 2013 - 07:38 AM, said:

Table Top and a FPS style game are 2 COMPLETELY different genres and need to be treated as such. Comparing Battletech to a Mechwarrior game (playstyle wise) is like comparing Risk to Battlefiled 3 LOL.

Basically, it isn't often that the rules in BT really apply to a Mechwarrior game because the playstyle demands are different.

I COMPLETELY disagree.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Elyam, on 12 August 2013 - 07:45 AM, said:

I COMPLETELY disagree.

Your free to have that opinion, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense *shrug*.

A turn based system of applying damage, heat, and movement doesn't translate directly into a real time simulator. Many might be upset with the current balancing of this game now, but if it followed TT completely, this game would be a complete mess.

Example(and TT players, please correct me if you think I am reading this wrong):
Just the heat scale alone (tied with movement) would be a headache. In TT, running mechs generate so much heat they can't fire in their attack phase. Lights would be especially in trouble if that was applied to MWO. Move at full throttle and you can never fire (and probably shut down). That sounds like fun

I just can't see taking 2 different game style and treating them as one. I would like a game that took the genre into account and tweaked appropriatly.

[Shadey99]

MeiSooHaityu, on 12 August 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

Example(and TT players, please correct me if you think I am reading this wrong):
Just the heat scale alone (tied with movement) would be a headache. In TT, running mechs generate so much heat they can't fire in their attack phase. Lights would be especially in trouble if that was applied to MWO. Move at full throttle and you can never fire (and probably shut down). That sounds like fun

... "Running creates more heat than does walking (2 heat points per turn)" a whole 2 heat is actually possibly less than we see in MWO, but the difference between MWO's heat scale and TT heat scale makes it hard to tell. That version is fairly old, but it's my copy of the Battletech Compendium.

Maybe you should look up the rules before making comments about how well they would sync?

P&P RPGs do a good job of imitating the real world in many cases (Not so much the D&D ones, but the P&P RPG field is huge). Battletech is as much a P&P RPG as it is a table top game. I think you just don't understand the medium (or genre if you prefer that term) and so assume it cannot work.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Shadey99, on 12 August 2013 - 08:22 AM, said:

... "Running creates more heat than does walking (2 heat points per turn)" a whole 2 heat is actually possibly less than we see in MWO, but the difference between MWO's heat scale and TT heat scale makes it hard to tell. That version is fairly old, but it's my copy of the Battletech Compendium.

Maybe you should look up the rules before making comments about how well they would sync?

P&P RPGs do a good job of imitating the real world in many cases (Not so much the D&D ones, but the P&P RPG field is huge). Battletech is as much a P&P RPG as it is a table top game. I think you just don't understand the medium (or genre if you prefer that term) and so assume it cannot work.

I have been playing the starter kit, so I have tried TT. Don't assume I know nothing about it. I have been playing more basic rules (very basic in fact), so I knew that somone who plays regularly (with far more advanced rules) would correct me if I was wrong.

However, I still stand by my opinon that the two are not compatible enough to make a good meld. I know some feel that it would, but they are 2 different genres no matter how you look at it. If TT rules were such a good choice, I am sure PGI would have used them.

Maybe I spoke about TT without knowing it as thoroughly as I should, but I do know the difference between turn based games and real time FPS games, and I know they play by a different set of criteria.

I think if this game stuck very strictly to TT rules, you would have a lot more balancing problems then we do now. You say I don't understand the genre, fine. I do understand that differing styles of games have different requirements. I think it is fair to admit that, don't you?

[Bishop Steiner]

MeiSooHaityu, on 12 August 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

Your free to have that opinion, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense *shrug*.

A turn based system of applying damage, heat, and movement doesn't translate directly into a real time simulator. Many might be upset with the current balancing of this game now, but if it followed TT completely, this game would be a complete mess.

Example(and TT players, please correct me if you think I am reading this wrong):
Just the heat scale alone (tied with movement) would be a headache. In TT, running mechs generate so much heat they can't fire in their attack phase. Lights would be especially in trouble if that was applied to MWO. Move at full throttle and you can never fire (and probably shut down). That sounds like fun

I just can't see taking 2 different game style and treating them as one. I would like a game that took the genre into account and tweaked appropriatly.

the only reason I would disagree, is that previous titles HAVE essentially done that. Yes, Turn base to Live action requires some tweaking, as does skill base vs dice. That IS a given. But aside from limitations in the tech at the time, where do MW2 or MW3 really heavily deviate from TT? And yet, arguably, both were better iterations of the IP (for their times) than MWO so far has been. (And generally I am one of the white knights who thinks PGI hasn't done half bad, I just do find some of their choices of deviations...perplexing, be it the heat system, or the double armor, both of which have never been an issue in previous installments.) Yes they have tweaked fire cycles on weapons in the past, but really that is one of the few things to change. The only thing that largely broke them was the open customization which forced min/max optimizing to succeed. Had MW not had legging and had a hard point system, it woulda been nearly a perfect translation.

[Wolfways]

MeiSooHaityu, on 12 August 2013 - 09:49 AM, said:

If TT rules were such a good choice, I am sure PGI would have used them.

Really?
So far they seem to keep making the wrong choice and defend it to the death.

[Dimento Graven]

Lightfoot, on 11 August 2013 - 12:38 AM, said:

I have been saying the same thing since DHS 1.4 nerf was added at the same time the Awesome AWS-9M was added. It was obvious that PGI was using Heat as a balancing crutch since the AWS-9M stock mech with 3 ERPPCs could never be made to work even with 22 DHS! It would shutdown on the third salvo and if you fired on restart it shutdown for 10-12 seconds, restarting with heat topped out. In TT the AWS-9M fired 9 times before capping heat and having to wait to cool down. That's what would happen, roughly, with actual DHS.

Now PGI adds Heat Scale to nerf the coring of Mechs, but Heat Scale actually increases the amount of time Mechs spend face to face, which is why they actually get cored in MWO faster than previous MechWarrior games. Needless to say the AWS-9M stock can't work at all now.

The actual flaw MWO can't seem to address is the 2xRecharge which forces mechs to just face-off and core each other as fast as they can, unless terrain can be used to break it up. Earlier MechWarrior games had a 6-8 second recharge on large weapons (depending on range) so pilots counted down the recharge on their opponent's weapons and turned away to take many salvos on their mech's arms, etc.

Heat Scale will not work for Clan mechs because even with current nerfs in place Clan mechs will be able to do 50-60 point group-fires with no Heat Scale penalty, easily too.

And it doesn't stop there because now players are complaining loudly about 2xPPCs and 1 Gauss Rifle, which makes me laugh because, again, this is modest compared to Clan tech and if you can't accept a group-fire of 2 PPCs and a Gauss, MWO is seriously messed up, since modest group-fires like this are why you would play MechWarrior in the first place. MechWarrior is giant robots with arrays of weapons that are group-fired. That's what makes MechWarrior unique. Group-fired weapons. Nerfed in MWO. Not good.

So adding more and more heat nerfs to the system will not work to stop mech CT coring and will take MWO farther and farther from MechWarrior styled gameplay. What needs to happen is the mech's Center Torsos have to be able to withstand the 2xRecharge dynamic MWO has set in motion which causes players to usually just face-off and core each other as fast as possible without ever turning away or attempting to deflect damage. Then make a Battletech balanced heat system.

Actually this demonstrates why PGI needs to implement a comprehensive heat affects table. No one on TT would do what you suggest, sit there fire and fire and fire until shut down because of the heat affects table:

(note: I had to generate this table from a PDF of a record sheet, the Heat Affects Scale is SO prevalent in BattleTech, I couldn't find anyone else who had bothered to put a copy of it online. EVERY single record sheet ever produced for 'mechs HAS THIS TABLE.)

As you can see from this, the hotter you let your 'mech get, the more it affected your ability to pilot the 'mech.

The same sort of thing COULD be manifested in MWO, say along the lines of:

30% = -10% movement rate
40% = -20% movement rate, +/- 10% to convergence focus
50% = -20% movement rate, +/- 10% to convergence focus, 50% chance a weapon may not fire when triggered
65% = -40% movement rate, +/- 20% to convergence focus, 50% chance a weapon may not fire when triggered, target reticule starts to drift as if you're 'slowly' jumping
75% = -50% movement rate, +/- 25% to convergence focus, 55% chance a weapon may not fire when triggered, target reticule drifts as if you're jumping, if heat is maintained above 75% for more than 10 seconds ammo starts to cook, and you could have ammo explosions

So on and so forth.

This resolves a LOT of various issues we have with "too much" pin point convergence, getting rid of the stupid boating heat penalty, min/maxers who will just find the next way to avoid being balanced, and so on.

Edited by Dimento Graven, 13 August 2013 - 06:40 AM.

[Ngamok]

Wolfways, on 11 August 2013 - 12:06 AM, said:

My point is that the heat system makes most, if not all, stock mechs useless. Even changing heat sinks to doubles doesn't help.

So fire every ten seconds like Table Top then. You'd be fine.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Bishop Steiner, on 12 August 2013 - 01:10 PM, said:

the only reason I would disagree, is that previous titles HAVE essentially done that. Yes, Turn base to Live action requires some tweaking, as does skill base vs dice. That IS a given. But aside from limitations in the tech at the time, where do MW2 or MW3 really heavily deviate from TT? And yet, arguably, both were better iterations of the IP (for their times) than MWO so far has been. (And generally I am one of the white knights who thinks PGI hasn't done half bad, I just do find some of their choices of deviations...perplexing, be it the heat system, or the double armor, both of which have never been an issue in previous installments.) Yes they have tweaked fire cycles on weapons in the past, but really that is one of the few things to change. The only thing that largely broke them was the open customization which forced min/max optimizing to succeed. Had MW not had legging and had a hard point system, it woulda been nearly a perfect translation.

I suppose I can see your point.

I agree that this game has a lot of issues, but I wonder if PGI originally started with a build closer to the TT stats, but found it needed some tweaking...then more balancing...then some adjustments...and now it is what we currently have. I started in closed beta, but not as early as some people (for instance I started after armor values were doubled). Maybe players older than me might know if the really early game values were closer.

Did this game start closer to TT and then adjust away from it over time? If that was the case, then we could say either A:) TT type stats didn't translate to a multiplayer FPS well, or B:) PGI took it in the wrong direction to balance, and are now too far in and stuck with what we have.

I have played MW2 and MW3, but I never played them multiplayer. I can not speak for their multiplayer balancing, but was the balancing that good? Not being accusational or anything, actually I have no clue and I am curious.

P.S. I definently see the headache the open customization in the Mechlab has caused. I think it is one of the greatest assets of this game and at the same time, one of the biggest curses. It has caused a lot of balance issues, but it is also one of the things I love playing with the most in this game. It is a wicked catch 22.

Edited by MeiSooHaityu, 13 August 2013 - 08:01 AM.

[Voivode]

Table top is a turn based game centered around random chance on your hits. MWO is a realtime, first person game where your shots go where you aim them, not where a pair of dice say they go.

Table top is turn based. Heat buildup is calculated by taking the heat generated in a turn and subtracting the amount of reduction from heat sinks for that turn. There is a mechanic for shutdown by heat in TT, but there is no realtime mechanic in TT where you hit the cap and shut down since heat generation and dissipation are calculated together. It is a turn based heat mechanic. In TT there is no dissipation of heat over time, there is only dissipation of heat per turn.

As for aiming: if I have six or four PPCs in TT, I roll dice to see where they hit. In MWO, they hit where I'm aiming, and when fired all at once, they all hit the same spot. The idea of an Alpha strike doesn't really exist in TT because you'd be rolling dice for each weapon on its own. Each PPC would get its own dice roll. In MWO, they all act in the same reliable fashion. No random chance (unless you count hit registry )

Porting a turn based game to a realtime game is going to take some adjustments. Some things that worked really well when they were done in a turn based system are going to fail in a realtime environment. I'm sorry, but the heat system from TT is not going to work in a realtime game.

The mech setups from TT were designed with turnbased combat in mind on the premise that there is some random chance in aiming, and the heat system designed there reflected that. MWO doesn't have that random chance in aiming and it is in a realtime environment.

Therefore....it needs a different heat system than TT.

[Khanahar]

Shadey99, on 11 August 2013 - 04:14 AM, said:

I'd love to see a test of everything at TT rules. Every weapon fires once per 10 seconds, DHS are actually double a SHS, weapon damage and range as per TT rules, armor is back to the TT rules... You could do an alpha, if you are willing to wait 10 seconds to fire again or 'chain fire' (which PGI ever so much wants us to do) and spread out fire over any given 10 second period of time. It may not be a 'fix' to alphas, but it would require some sort of backup weapons or face the fact you may be able to do nothing while you wait.

I however don't expect MWO to ever test that. Though it certainly should have been the base level they started from and worked to where they are from it.

It was. Do your homework.

[Wolfways]

Dimento Graven, on 13 August 2013 - 06:38 AM, said:

Actually this demonstrates why PGI needs to implement a comprehensive heat affects table. No one on TT would do what you suggest, sit there fire and fire and fire until shut down because of the heat affects table:

(note: I had to generate this table from a PDF of a record sheet, the Heat Affects Scale is SO prevalent in BattleTech, I couldn't find anyone else who had bothered to put a copy of it online. EVERY single record sheet ever produced for 'mechs HAS THIS TABLE.)

As you can see from this, the hotter you let your 'mech get, the more it affected your ability to pilot the 'mech.

The same sort of thing COULD be manifested in MWO, say along the lines of:

30% = -10% movement rate
40% = -20% movement rate, +/- 10% to convergence focus
50% = -20% movement rate, +/- 10% to convergence focus, 50% chance a weapon may not fire when triggered
65% = -40% movement rate, +/- 20% to convergence focus, 50% chance a weapon may not fire when triggered, target reticule starts to drift as if you're 'slowly' jumping
75% = -50% movement rate, +/- 25% to convergence focus, 55% chance a weapon may not fire when triggered, target reticule drifts as if you're jumping, if heat is maintained above 75% for more than 10 seconds ammo starts to cook, and you could have ammo explosions

So on and so forth.

This resolves a LOT of various issues we have with "too much" pin point convergence, getting rid of the stupid boating heat penalty, min/maxers who will just find the next way to avoid being balanced, and so on.

I'd love to see a system like that in MWO. Actually i'd like to see anything other than the terrible heat system we currently have.
Customized mechs should be equal to stock mechs imo, options rather than "must haves". PGI should have made sure that stock/trial mechs were useable and build on that, not just leave them pointless, other than something to play while you save for your first mech.

[Dimento Graven]

Voivode, on 13 August 2013 - 08:24 AM, said:

Table top is a turn based game centered around random chance on your hits. MWO is a realtime, first person game where your shots go where you aim them, not where a pair of dice say they go.

Table top is turn based. Heat buildup is calculated by taking the heat generated in a turn and subtracting the amount of reduction from heat sinks for that turn. There is a mechanic for shutdown by heat in TT, but there is no realtime mechanic in TT where you hit the cap and shut down since heat generation and dissipation are calculated together. It is a turn based heat mechanic. In TT there is no dissipation of heat over time, there is only dissipation of heat per turn.

This is a mechanic that's easily doable in RTS. Heat is constantly maintained in the RT, hence our heat bar, hence we get warnings about high heat at certain levels and the system knows to shut us down at 100%, or cause us damage if we try and run beyond 100%. The only thing that's missing are affects between 0% and 99%. You shoot, heat goes up, if you reach the level for certain affects to activated, they turn on. If you stop shooting long enough, the heat goes down, the heat affects turn of as the heat level drops below those activation points.

Easily, EASILY done in RT, and seems like it would be FAR easier than building whole new mechanics like stacked heat penalties and desynced shooting kludges.

Darn near everything I've suggested ALREADY HAPPENS in game REAL TIME anyway, it's just a matter of putting those pieces together.

Quote

As for aiming: if I have six or four PPCs in TT, I roll dice to see where they hit. In MWO, they hit where I'm aiming, and when fired all at once, they all hit the same spot. The idea of an Alpha strike doesn't really exist in TT because you'd be rolling dice for each weapon on its own. Each PPC would get its own dice roll. In MWO, they all act in the same reliable fashion. No random chance (unless you count hit registry )

Porting a turn based game to a realtime game is going to take some adjustments. Some things that worked really well when they were done in a turn based system are going to fail in a realtime environment.

Now here you point out a valid difference in TT "third person" mechanic vs. RT "first person" shooter mechanics. On TT you're not able to "sit" in the 'mech and see out your view screen, so some sort of mechanism was required. Random hit affects table was probably the simplest and easiest to implement. I don't disagree with the choice, the game has survived 30+ years, so it was a good choice.

However, we all knew in our heart of heart's in the deep dark recesses we don't talk about except when drunk and/or with our closest geek friends that if we were to pilot a 'mech we'd be aiming for head shots every time we fired.

MWO, and most other BT based computer sims gave us that, and have proved that tendency early on.

All that boils down to this. In a FPS, OF COURSE, we're going to aim all our weapons at the same spot, it'd be dumb to NOT do that ON PURPOSE... So, that leads us to the rest of the BT mechanic, what else affected aim. Movement, yep that's in there, it is difficult to fire at moving target while moving, as a matter of course, no need to do anything there. Terrain, yep it's harder to hit a target moving among cover, nothing needed there. What else? HEAT... Wait, there's no real comprehensive heat affects table in MWO like there was in TT, WHY NOT? It affected EVERYTHING, so important that it was printed with every 'mech's record sheet. Most other computer based sims had a more in depth heat affects table than MWO, what gives?!?!

You want to add a randomizing factor that changes from match to match, a heat affects table. Different maps have different temperatures, and different opponents doing different things requiring a different rate of fire from moment to moment. Having affects that affect your ability to aim and fire your weapons really seems like a "no brainer."

Quote

I'm sorry, but the heat system from TT is not going to work in a realtime game.

A direct translation probably wouldn't work, but you can make the same sort of thing work, and work well, again, MOST of what we'd put in a heat affects table ALREADY EXISTS in the game, it's just a matter of activating and deactivating that affect at the appropriate heat level.

Quote

The mech setups from TT were designed with turnbased combat in mind on the premise that there is some random chance in aiming, and the heat system designed there reflected that. MWO doesn't have that random chance in aiming and it is in a realtime environment.

Therefore....it needs a different heat system than TT.

I totally disagree with your "random chance" statement. All 'pin point' type weapons using the same targeting system all pointing at the same spot, in a stationary environment, SHOULD all heat pretty much near the same spot. The variability in MWO comes in when with the real time movement, unforeseen vision blocks (smoke, AC blasts, that f'ing indestructible tree that wasn't there a second ago), and differing weapon travel rates, all affect the 'pin pointedness'.

When I'm in a match and I fire my weapons, a good 80% of the targets I fire at are standing still. Those silly gits! I'm moving and aiming but if you're going to just sit there like a bump on a log, THANK YOU! It's not my fault all my weapons are going to hit the same spot. On those 20% I fire at that are moving, I WISH all my shots hit the same location. Typically it's more along the lines of gauss 1 hits left arm, gauss 2 hits right torso, PPC hits CT. Sometimes, depending their direction of movement versus my angle of movement, I'll get a solid pinpoint hit, but it's not the guarantee everyone else wants to make it out to be.

If you break PPC/gauss with whatever hair brained half-assed kludge you want to come up with, I'll just move on to 1 gauss, 1 ERPPC, 1 ERLL, 1 LPL, et al, and I'll STILL be delivering painful blow after painful blow to the 80% of nitwits out there that believe it's possible for a 90 foot, 100 ton stationary target to be 'stealthed'...