That said obviously you cant just take out a huge part of the game which a portion of people who play within it know and adore.... but neither should it be easy to just slap a few ppc and autocannon onto a mech and go jumping around like a kangaroo. For that reason I propose a change which would greatly alter the current meta and also give more value to jump jets as a whole.
Currently cockpit shake only occurs on the way up while using jump jets. Given however the sheer violent nature of propelling that many tons into the air and the awkwardness of a mech itself I would suggest it shake on the way down as well.... accept when one uses the appropriate amount of jump jets to properly stabilize said mech... Most jump sniper builds are only utilizing one jump jet right now.... maybe two at the most. Utilizing a simple system you can force pilots who truly want to jump snipe to invest more tonnage into jump jets to do such.
I propose the following system...
6 Jump Jets - No screen shake on the way down.
5 Jump Jets - 5-10% shake on the way down.
4 Jump Jets - 10-15% shake on the way down.
3 Jump Jets - 15-20% shake on the way down.
2 Jump Jets - 20-25% shake on the way down.
1 Jump Jet - 25-30% shake on the way down.
Utilizing this it would allow mechwarriors to pick and choose abit. They may want to only invest up to a certain level and hell 10% cockpit shake might not be too bad... perhaps they want to risk it... but they it will effect there long distance shooting more as well. This will overall create a new meta in addition since mechs with higher jump jet amounts will be more prized in certain situations.
While many may look at this off the bat and say "HEY YOUR GONNA NERF ME!" I will say that after crunching the numbers there are...
2 Mechs which can mount 6 Jump jets and negate all cockpit shake on the way down.
7 mechs which can mount 5 and negate most of the shake...
and 16 that can mount 4 and still be mostly viable and still at least shoot over hill tops but not fire distance.
This also could perhaps give more of a reason to use the new module, perhaps change it and alter it so it prevents a portion of jump jet shake.
In addition to all of this it would also have an added side benefit of giving mechs not often used alot more play overall.
I greatly encourage any feedback on this.
Lastly I will note since there is a few posts just smashing on jump sniping that I think jump sniping, just like any other role is an integral part of the game, I simply feel it needs to be cut down on the sheer number out there. This is simply a fix for that.
Edited by Varent, 16 December 2013 - 03:27 PM.