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We got Ghost Heat as a way to directly limit the amount of damage front loaded weapon systems like the PPC could do grouped up. Currently, with the speed change to LRM's, they are in a good spot balance-wise, with the exception that a player providing LRM support from massive "LRM-70" batteries can easily become the top scoring member of a team without needing to remove his 'Mech from defilaide the entire game. This is too rewarding for such low-risk play.
To make indirect fire more difficult, I suggest the following:
Line of Sight vs Spotting lock time: If an LRM boat is receiving targeting data solely from a spotter, the lock time is increased. In Classic Battletech sharing locks was in fact capable without a C3 network despite erroneous claims otherwise - spotting targets and indirect fire is a part of the Battletech universe, but pilots in the spotting 'Mech were suppose to do nothing during the turn of spotting except spot. To reflect this, a Ghost Lock penalty additional lock time can be applied to spotting locks to make it less easy for indirect firing 'Mechs to achieve locks from cover. If a 'Mech is gaining its own targets with direct line of sight, no penalty.
The spotting penalty could be mitigated of course by a spotter using a dedicated system like NARC, or perhaps implement C3. C3 in the source material shared total information throughout a linked lance increased accuracy for long ranged fire based on the distance the spotter was to the target. C3 in MWO could do the same thing with missile locks; currently, a 'Mech has to be targeted for it to be shared if it is outside of line of sight. 'Mechs on a C3 network would be able to target any 'Mech on the spotting 'Mechs radar, regardless of if the spotter has it actively targeted. C3 would decrease lock on time dependent on the location of the spotter to the 'Mech the C3 lancemate is firing on. The closer the spotter, the quicker the lock time. ECM would counter C3, so a spotter would need to run either in counter mode or disable an ECM bubble before transmitting C3 data.
Like Ghost Heat, Ghost Lock would also penalize the total number of tubes a 'Mech was capable of firing; an LRM-5 and 10 would have low lock on times, larger racks would have longer. Subsequently, additional racks further increase lock on time, again, with the intent to balance the fact that unlike in the source game where each weapon had to be rolled for individually, we now have a system that lets you rip off 80 missiles for a single lock in a continuous stream.
TL; DR
The larger the missile rack, the longer the lock on time, the more missile racks together the longer the lock on time, having no line of sight has a longer lock on time. C3 could be an added mechanic to let LRM's have accurate indirect LRM fire without line of sight, but would increase the risk of spotters.
Edited by DocBach, 24 March 2014 - 09:00 AM.
