53 replies to this topic

[OfficerTaco]

about the repair thing, would it be possible to have an auto-repair option?

[Myshal]

ExAstris, on 22 June 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

Which relates to a question I had but wasn't answered, about Double Heat Sinks. The 10 free ones you get in the engine have absolutely no drawback, I want to know how MWO will handle these. Will it be a no-brainer upgrade that you just have to save for, or will there be an actual drawback or limitation of the in-engine heat sinks?

I would prefer there to be some sort of actual choice going on, instead of just a straight "You get double the heat dissipation because you bought an expensive engine!" But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

As they are trying very hard to remain true to the BT universe and TT game, it should be the same. The first ten heat sinks in the engine, be they single or double, are 'freebies'. This helped the IS vs the clan after the were commonly available. One of the biggest advantages the clanners had was more weapons and ability to dispense more heat efficiently. Take the Awesome (AWS-8Q) for example. 3 PPCs generate a lot of heat and to not cook yourself in the mech, you had to stage fire them (2 one turn, 3 the next, then 2 again). The mech became more dangerous after double heat sinks were introduced to it. One drawback is that you cannot mix and match and IS double heat sinks are 3 crit slots. You still have to play the heat management game either way you go and balance weapons versus heat dissipation/tonnage/available crits.

[Kobura]

Myshal, on 23 June 2012 - 02:31 AM, said:

As they are trying very hard to remain true to the BT universe and TT game, it should be the same. The first ten heat sinks in the engine, be they single or double, are 'freebies'. This helped the IS vs the clan after the were commonly available. One of the biggest advantages the clanners had was more weapons and ability to dispense more heat efficiently. Take the Awesome (AWS-8Q) for example. 3 PPCs generate a lot of heat and to not cook yourself in the mech, you had to stage fire them (2 one turn, 3 the next, then 2 again). The mech became more dangerous after double heat sinks were introduced to it. One drawback is that you cannot mix and match and IS double heat sinks are 3 crit slots. You still have to play the heat management game either way you go and balance weapons versus heat dissipation/tonnage/available crits.

Actually, you are required to have ten heat sinks, and you can stash one in the engine for every 25pts of engine rating! It is a bit more advanced of a mechanic than "ten free", though their weight is ostensibly included in the engine. I'm honestly not sure about cost, though.

[kaziem]

Kobura, on 23 June 2012 - 02:45 AM, said:

Actually, you are required to have ten heat sinks, and you can stash one in the engine for every 25pts of engine rating! It is a bit more advanced of a mechanic than "ten free", though their weight is ostensibly included in the engine. I'm honestly not sure about cost, though.

I recall that you must assign 10 heat sinks. They come "free" with the engine in terms of both weight and cost, but the number that can fit inside your engine depends on the size of the engine, as you said. The rest you have to stick somewhere and are subject to being hit as criticals.

Note that while you get some "free" ones, IS double heat sinks take up 3 criticals, which means not only do they severely cut down on available criticals, they are 3 times more vulnerable to a critical hit than an ordinary sink, and when you lose one double, it's like losing two singles at once. So, doing the math, each of your heat-reducing-capacity points outside the engine is 6 times more vulnerable to critical hits.

Then again, you get twice as many points stored in the engine for free. So, tradeoff.

[CCC Dober]

I hope the current drawbacks of XL engines can handled in a different way.

Let's say you lose one or both side torsos of a Mech with an XL engine.
Lose one side torso: 50% more heat generation
Lose both side torsos: 100% more heat generation

A damaged XL reactor basically turns into an unstable volcano.

[WerewolfX]

I'm all for the tabletop interpretation of XL's. It is too big of an advantage to have half the weight for a simple drawback of heat when a torso is blown off I'm all for the side torso goes the Mech should go as well seems a reasonable tradeoff to me for the weight saved.

[Kolhammer]

mixing the captures up will be cool and it will just look boss walking into battle without and arm

[Gun Bear]

Faceless Priest, on 18 June 2012 - 12:07 PM, said:

nice, xl engines wont just be better but will have the normal dangers they should have. Very happy about this.

It depends on what you put it in and how you utilize it. In something like an Atlas its a bad idea but in for instance a Cicada its a great idea to add an XL engine and max the armor.

[Birddog FAC]

Aegis Kleais, on 18 June 2012 - 12:19 PM, said:

I like the info on the XL engine. I'm hoping after a side torso loses its armor and the internals take damage that if a critical shot is rendered there, you'll get a huge decrease in performance from the engine, a massive increase in heat generated and decreased speed; basically a crippled engine. A nice pro/con for what the XL offers (less tonnage but more critical space)

Gotta armor up that torso!

From my experiance with lore more than table top a single crit worth of damage to an engine just causes alot of heat build up unless is a major crit or more than one crit space is affected ... then you have the explosion... no realy engine performance loss but it seriously increases your heat curve ... thats what i would expect ... but im not an expert in the engine stuff

[Regina Redshift]

Oh, man. I get bad flashbacks from the only time I fielded a Crusader in a tabletop game. The thing suffered an ammo explosion on its first heat roll and turned into a really expensive fireworks display.

[Death Dealer]

Nice to see the devs giving good clear info!

[Astarot]

I have a question it mostly about heat, but, when one gathers enough heat, I assume that their mech will shut down, is there a short cut command that if pressed fast enough would cause you to over ride the shutdown? And if so, will your core go critical after you over ride shut down and continue to gather heat, hell even after shut down and you continue to gather heat. (lets say a army of small flamer mechs)

[Bonedog]

Q: In last months Game Informer. Unreal Engine 4 was covered. Seeing this, is the current engine still the preferred method of fleshing out the metal mayhem and myomer mastication? Or is the team pondering other alternatives given the awesome potential of this new media?

[Graphite]

Garth Erlam, on 18 June 2012 - 12:02 PM, said:

Q: Will destruction of one or both side torsos result in "coring" of an XL engine? [Solis Obscuri]
A: As of right now, yes. It may change, though it will at the very least have an extremely bad impact should you lose a torso piece [GARTH]

Seriously? You're considering letting XL engines survive a side torso destruction?

That is huge...(and not in a good way)