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no one, on 22 January 2016 - 10:40 PM, said:
Remember, in the tabletop there was no heat buffer. None. You had a 30 point overheat scale that you could run into, but heat was generated and dealt with in the same 10 second turn. You wouldn't ever build up heat on a heat neutral 'Mech. The real time equivalent would be firing a PPC in a real time game, and having your 'Mech slowly absorb the heat at a rate of 1 heat per second over 10 seconds. So if you had 10 DHS you'd go from -2 h/s to -1 h/s and there would be no actual overheat.
If the game took this into account you could limit alpha-striking by constricting the heat buffer and changing how much of a weapon's heat is front-loaded when a weapons fires and how much is applied over the weapon's reload/recharge cycle.
Arbitrarily, say you start with a heat buffer of 10 for the 10 built in heat-sinks. Maybe add a little buffer for additional heatsinks. 0.3 buffer per or whatever. Say you just have the 10 built ins. You want to limit people to 2 PPCs alphas? make PPCs front-load 5 heat and generate 1 heat/s for a 5 second recycle. Small lasers generate 2 heat front loaded? You can fire 5.
The numbers aren't important. The point is make the heat buffer your alpha-limiting 'Mechanic in place of ghost heat, and raise the dissipation levels such that heat neutral canon builds are heat neutral on the '5 second turn' cycle MWO weapons operate in.
Then add heat-sink efficiency reductions as a penalty for running hot. Eg have coolant that that can be replenished slowly but burns off faster the hotter you run, or simply make running into overheat slow your heat dissipation rate more and more. Essentially - Make alpha striking cost something. Make it so you can put out more raw damage if you stagger your shots.
If the game took this into account you could limit alpha-striking by constricting the heat buffer and changing how much of a weapon's heat is front-loaded when a weapons fires and how much is applied over the weapon's reload/recharge cycle.
Arbitrarily, say you start with a heat buffer of 10 for the 10 built in heat-sinks. Maybe add a little buffer for additional heatsinks. 0.3 buffer per or whatever. Say you just have the 10 built ins. You want to limit people to 2 PPCs alphas? make PPCs front-load 5 heat and generate 1 heat/s for a 5 second recycle. Small lasers generate 2 heat front loaded? You can fire 5.
The numbers aren't important. The point is make the heat buffer your alpha-limiting 'Mechanic in place of ghost heat, and raise the dissipation levels such that heat neutral canon builds are heat neutral on the '5 second turn' cycle MWO weapons operate in.
Then add heat-sink efficiency reductions as a penalty for running hot. Eg have coolant that that can be replenished slowly but burns off faster the hotter you run, or simply make running into overheat slow your heat dissipation rate more and more. Essentially - Make alpha striking cost something. Make it so you can put out more raw damage if you stagger your shots.
I actually didn't mind the ghost heat because I try to group or fire weapons in a way that prevents it. But I like this idea and general structuring. Ghost heat is difficult for beginners, such as myself, to understand fully and finding a way to simplify this mechanic to more straightforward heat generation and dissipation would be great. I had to do some serious reading and testing to get the hang of what ghost heat was and how it worked, but I don't foresee many other new players actually doing that. Anywho, I support your general idea.
