Dirkdaring, on 19 February 2014 - 09:07 AM, said:
Your entire argument is flawed before you even begin to offer a solution.. because you're not explaining at all WHY you think pinpoint damage is a problem to begin with.
It's not a problem and the game is working fine. Look at the M1A1 Abrams tank of today. It can fire and hit a moving target while going 40+ mph. Fast forward to the future, where mechs are so advanced they have fusion reactors, gyroscopes, particle cannons, anti-missile systems... list goes on. And you think they have a worse fire control system than today exactly why again?
Let's just put aside any talk of M1A1 tanks or any real military hardware we are discussing game mechanics with the desired outcome of creating a more balanced and functional game.
Besides in Battletech a 10,000 kilogram laser weapon has a max range of 450 meters so that argument is already off the table.
So,why is pinpoint damage a problem?
Let me first define "pinpoint damage" so we all know what I am talking about.
Pinpoint front loaded damage is any means of applying damage to a single target location that is deployed in it's entirety during a single application of firing the weapon(s) system(s) ie: Auto cannons or PPCs are this type of weapon.
How is this a problem? Well it's not when examined all by it's onezies in a bubble.The problem occurs when we see how this type of damage delivery interacts with other mechanics present in the game.
The armor mechanics for example are derived directly from the Battletech table top game.These armor mechanics were designed to function within a framework of supporting mechanics.
Random to hit rolls
Random hit location rolls
Turn based play
Heat scale penalties
individual to hit rolls and hit location rolls for each distinct weapon.
As you can see MWo took the armor mechanics and nearly none of the support mechanics to make it work correctly.
Not only are support mechanics lacking for the armor mechanics but MWo uses game mechanics that were specificly prevented from interacting with the armor mechanics in table top play.
Manual aiming
Group fire
The above issue is present with every weapon that can be grouped into a weapon grouping AND can be aimed manualy to hit specific loactions on a target (so pretty much everything but SSRMs and LRMs)
The primary failing is the armor mechanics were never designed to function with manual aim and grouped fire.
So we see a general failing but how does "pinpoint" damage impact this mechanics failure ?
Well we have essentially 5 types of damage delivery.
1 Cone of fire weapons: LBx,Machineguns,SRMs.
2 Hitscan weapons: Lasers and pulse lasers.
3 Area targeted scattered effect weapons: LRMs/Artillery strikes.
4 Assigned target weapons: Streak missiles.
5 Front loaded pinpoint weapons: ACs and PPCs
In all but one damage delivery mechanics some degree of damage dispersal occurs.Only Front loaded pinpoint weapons inflict the entirety of the weapons damage potential to one location at one time.These weapons DO NOT disperse damage ever.
Dispersal of damage actually emulates a support mechanic for the armor mechanics that MWo lacks.Dispersal of damage is almost an effective replacement for random hit locations.
Front loaded pinpoint weapons in no way shape or form emulate a benificial support mechanic for the over whelmed Armor mechanics. In fact this damage delivery mechanics is optimized for exploiting the weakness of the armor mechanics by creating a situation the armor mechanics were never intended to interact with (manualy aimed group fired front loaded damage)
Now,take that for whatever you think it's worth.
If you don't like these answers I can give you a comparative annalysis of how front loaded damage is superior tacticaly
or how ACs are superior in heat use DPS and front load damage
The problem is once there is a clearly superior mechanic the game's meta evolves to exploit this superior method.The meta is refined to optimize the exploitation and this reduces available competative options. That ultimatley leads to a stale and limited meta where a small handfull of weapons (ACs and PPCs) are used on a few chassis (Highlanders and Victors).