DocBach, on 12 September 2013 - 05:30 AM, said:
The way Ultra AC's were balanced in the source material is when they burst fired a weapon each burst had to roll to see if both even hit, then it was determined where each burst went - simulating a cone of fire.
Ultra AC's need to be balanced with a recoil mechanic like burst fire from assault rifles in other FPS; it fires two shots very quickly, and both go on the target, but not precisely where it was aimed due to the recoil of a 9 ton gun firing two shots in rapid succession. With the coming Clan Ultra AC's, something like this really needs to be looked at, or the Ultra AC/20's will be a gamekiller.
Make it so lighter caliber UAC's have less recoil, where the bigger UAC/10 and 20 have more and need to be compensated for; the Ultra Autocannon should have high DPS, but using three of them slaved together shouldn't let you core out a heavy 'Mech in a couple of seconds using a macro. The jam mechanic should be completely random and the unjam time should be just as random, unless they go back to a skill based unjamming mechanic so people don't cry about dice rolls and rng.
I like the idea, but it is possible to automatically compensate for weapon recoil with mouse macros - it's used a lot in other FPS titles and it would probably also be used here if such a mechanic was implemented; it would just make macros more obnoxious and powerful than they already are.
I think the only way to balance UACs with the current firing mechanic is to considerably increase the cooldown (in line with the standard versions of each respective UAC), jam times and jam chances, preferably in accord to heat generation and RoF; i.e. the chance of a jam increases quickly as a UAC is double-fired in a short period of time and the total heat of the 'Mech firing it increases also.
The developers could also get rid of the RnG altogether and enforce a very strict jam mechanic based only on the RoF of a UAC to forcefully bring its overall DPS down to the same level of an equivalent AC, or even below, though maintaining their burst damage potential
With this mechanic, a UAC/20 could be double-fired once without the risk of a jam, automatically jamming midway during its second double shot in a period of sixteen seconds or so, with similar numbers and restrictions for other UACs.
UACs need to be worth using over a standard AC, though they should not be objectively more powerful in all instances, as they are now.
Edited by Lorcan Lladd, 12 September 2013 - 05:58 AM.