Karl Streiger, on 24 October 2013 - 02:58 AM, said:
That would be interesting indeed - give you really a hard time to choose
ES for more weapons or FF for more armor.
But completely remove the weight saving aspect of FF - should make the choise much more difficult.
For example - your T-Bolt has only 10tons remaining...with ES you can mount 13t what is near maximum.
with FF you gain nothing.
Other example - you have 14t and 14crit remaining...wit ES you can get 17t - maybe upgrade those 3 MLAS towards MPLAS - or you take FF - and can place 14t of armor
The problem with removing weight savings is compatibility with the tomes of pre-existing BattleTech 'mech designs. The dev team has promised you'll always be able to recreate your favorite 'mechs from the BT Technical Readouts (so long as they fit the hard point system...).
FinsT, on 24 October 2013 - 02:28 AM, said:
Why not make FF armor to cost, say, 8 crits or something like that? Suddenly some folks who can't "afford" crit cost of endosteel - would become able to upgrade to FF. And some other folks who were not able to afford endosteel + FF - would be able to get both. Both kinds would still pay 8 slots price which means their max cooling efficiency will suffer (less crits = less heatsinks possible).
Then it's just a poor man's ES. Personally, I'd rather have it offer something different from ES. I'd drop the eight reduction, but to keep the TRO 'mechs buildable it must be preserved.
Modo44, on 23 October 2013 - 08:17 PM, said:
This keeps coming up with saddening consistency: "FF is slightly worse than ES, so make it way, waaay better." Please, understand that it is a secondary upgrade, only making sense in some circumstances. It is really not supposed to cure cancer.
What's the point of a "secondary upgrade" in a multiplayer, competitive video game? How many of your 'mech have FF? How many have ES? That right there tells you FF isn't balance well with ES and therefore isn't designed correctly. A good yardstick of if ES and FF are balanced is we should see roughly an even split between 'mechs with ES, 'mechs with FF, and 'mechs with neither (and a small fraction with both).