I agree with you Mchawkeye
I'm of the opinion that CoF is a heavy handed solution that would simply make mechs feel ridiculously goofy.
CoF works as a decent mechanic for hip shooting in FPS games simply by virtue of it being an unsupported weapon held by a human being. So when you are spraying and praying in your FPS of choice, it does not bump into the average person's suspension of disbelief.
however this breaks down when you suddenly have some 31st century combat vehicle that can barely hit the broadside of a barn, with a laser no less.
.
this is mechwarrior and we aren't driving human beings, we aren't hip shooting, all these weapons are hard mounted. We are controlling multi ton articulated turrets. Weapons are all supported here. Weapons should be firing fairly accurately, not spraying wildly. They aren't held on to mechs by bungee cords and duct tape (which honestly would be the only rational explanation for CoF at the short ranges that combat will be taking place). I mean, I love the tabletop, but i don't care that dice rolls mean that a Nova to discoball lasers every which where whenever it alphas, it would look silly as hell from a pilot's perspective.
That being said, if there is CoF it should be limited to ACs at extreme far ranges.
Beyond that, the real issue should not be making weapons so over the top inaccurate that you can't hit stuff, the real issue should be to make it where weapons are accurate, but your aim is difficult, weapon convergence while consistent and predictable, takes effort to achieve, and lastly that weapon damage by virtue of how it is dealt, is not easily concentrated. (laser damage spread over its duration, ACs spreading fire in their bursts....)
i.e. If you are driving a laser boat mech. what would make more sense to you?
A. Having to deal with sway, knock, momentum, and other interference as you struggle your crosshairs over a moving target, having your lasers trying to align to the bouncing crosshairs, shooting lasery death, and having the lasers track a mostly concentrated line of damage from their right leg up to their left arm. of the lasers that miss, it was due to the arm they were mounted in getting hit by a missile at the last second, fouling their aim by a few degrees
or
B. aim at the general direction of my target, my firing cone is still kinda wide, alpha lasers, they discoball everywhere like a laser blunderbuss, even ones that are mounted in the same location or are parallel.
Edited by VYCanis, 11 November 2011 - 04:41 AM.