14 replies to this topic

[A big brave boulder of meat]

What do you guys think of this.

When flamers are hitting a target they do basically what they do now but when they leave the target it gives a napalm effect and sets the areas hit on fire. This could do a damage over time that dissapates after a certain amount of time. Also, during this duration it would also increase heat over time on the target before burning out.

Added twist...If the effected areas burning was on the mechs armor and not internals and managed to melt away the armor, the fire would extinguish. Internals on the other hand would suffer the full duration of the fire effect.

The burning effect would also help spot enemy mechs from afar on night maps while using thermal vision as they would be producing heat from the fire.

Might be complicated...But I think it would make them a lot more fun to play with!

Any thoughts on this? I put a simple version on Pauls twitter page. A bit hard to go into detail on twitter.

[A big brave boulder of meat]

Would have lots of benifits, but would have to be extra careful for friendly fire.

[KharnZor]

Having a napalm effect for flamers has been my dream since i first saw them.

[A big brave boulder of meat]

I could see them being used more if they had a unique mechanic such as this. They really need some love considering how different they are from other weapon systems.

[Noesis]

I like where your going with this idea.

Could add environmental effects with using it to spread fire to the map as well as effects to Mechs:

Even if it raises the ambient temperature and removes vision with smoke in the effected area for a temporary period it would add game play content to the use of a flamer.

Edited by Noesis, 11 February 2014 - 05:41 PM.

[KharnZor]

Flame terrain to foul up heat vision

[Felicitatem Parco]

Keep in mind that Flamers are merely Plasma Ducts from the fusion reactor, there is no liquid fuel component...

[Sandpit]

I like both ideas. Terrain affects (burning smoke obscuring view) and DoT or HoT (Heat over Time) would be interesting. It would be a prolonged affect so when hit with flamers you take the initial blast but still keep a certain amount of heat that gradually decreases

Prosperity Park, on 11 February 2014 - 05:46 PM, said:

Keep in mind that Flamers are merely Plasma Ducts from the fusion reactor, there is no liquid fuel component...

Yes but we've deviated from TT lore here and there and I don't think this would be a major deviation that would take us "out" of the Btech world

[Noesis]

Oh and lets not forget the idea of this kind of heat and environmental burning potentially generating ghost signatures.

Anyone remember the forest fires on Mech Commander doing this?

[KharnZor]

Would give the game something unique, screw the lore

[Felicitatem Parco]

Flamers, as they are currently, would *become* viable if there were operational penalties for exceeding 70% heat... I don't think making them a burst-fire weapon with residual incendiary effects is needed.

Maybe we should be requesting more penalties for running your Mech at 90% heat, instead of asking for an entirely new Flamer..?

[Noesis]

Prosperity Park, on 11 February 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

Maybe we should be requesting more penalties for running your Mech at 90% heat, instead of asking for an entirely new Flamer..?

With dissipation being more nerfed in MWO this would effect heat dependent weapons more than others, unless they were rebalanced with their heat values to compensate for the likes of heat scale penalties as per TT.

[Noesis]

Prosperity Park, on 11 February 2014 - 05:46 PM, said:

Keep in mind that Flamers are merely Plasma Ducts from the fusion reactor, there is no liquid fuel component...

Seems scope to be able to fit chemical flamers to BattleMechs.

[Sandpit]

Prosperity Park, on 11 February 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

Flamers, as they are currently, would *become* viable if there were operational penalties for exceeding 70% heat... I don't think making them a burst-fire weapon with residual incendiary effects is needed.

Maybe we should be requesting more penalties for running your Mech at 90% heat, instead of asking for an entirely new Flamer..?

I wouldn't mind seeing mroe of a TT scale when it comes to penalties. Currently there is no penalty from heat (that I know of?) until you shut down. Blurred vision to simulate to hit modifiers and slower speeds to simulate movement penalties would be great.

[wanderer]

There's actually two Battlemech-capable flamers that do use actual fuel- vehicle flamers as noted above, and the later 3060's-era "heavy flamers". What flamers really need are alt-fire modes, much like the LB-X and other multiple-ammo types lack.

In BT, a flamer can be set for a wide-spray of plasma that will heat up a 'Mech, or a more focused blast that inflicts damage similar to a machine gun. Being able to swap modes when firing would be rather nice, rather than the kludgy combo we have now.

As for "sticky" fire, we're also missing Inferno SRMs for our launchers. Each missile basically produces heat on the target similar to a single flamer hit.