5 replies to this topic

[Triforceelf]

I love the mechlab customization in this game. Being able to run any weapons loadout I want is sweet, and I really enjoy having the option to run any silly build I want, even if it doesn't bear any resemblence to what happens on the tabletop. I personally understand why things like ghost heat have been implimented, but they have had the side effect of making it so that certain mech frames like the awesome are no longer practicable.

To circumvent this and make certain chassis more interesting/competative, I suggest adding chassis specific quirks for weapons. Just to use the awesome example, on an AWS-8Q, the heat scaling for PPCs would be raised from two PPCs to three, or the heat produced by those weapons reduced by a certain amount, say 10% per weapon. This would obviously have to be carefully tested, but all sorts of interesting builds could come from it. Adding a slight buff to certrain weapons if used on a specific chassis, such as buffing the damage of flamers by 5% if used on a Firestarter chassis, would also allow iconic builds from battletech to see the light of day more often.

One problem that could arise from this is it could make certain builds/weapons too appealing, limiting the build options because of min/maxing. Because of this I don't think the quirks should be too powerful one way or another, but if done right it could breath life into some chassis and help curb certain problematic builds as well.

[Mechsniper]

Awesomes are broken thanks to current ghost heat penalties. They would only be op without fixing the gauss mechanic which makes gauss useless, except against the very new players that the nerf was meant to protect. A chassis quirk would help, but ultimately its a hardpoint size allowance that is the boating problem. Ghost heat is a fix for the wrong problem, and fails as such, breaking legit builds such as stock 8q's and 9m's.

[Triforceelf]

Mechsniper, on 04 March 2014 - 02:46 PM, said:

Awesomes are broken thanks to current ghost heat penalties. They would only be op without fixing the gauss mechanic which makes gauss useless, except against the very new players that the nerf was meant to protect. A chassis quirk would help, but ultimately its a hardpoint size allowance that is the boating problem. Ghost heat is a fix for the wrong problem, and fails as such, breaking legit builds such as stock 8q's and 9m's.

I agree that the stock 8Q and 9M Awesome should be legitemate builds, but do we really want to see an HNG-733P mounting 4PPCs or the other rediculous builds that started showing up? Giving chassis slight buffs or nerfs based on their viability would be a far more delicate and flexible system. Of course, actually buildng that system in the game would be quite an effort, but I think it would be worth it.

[AlmightyAeng]

Adding quirks to mechs for specific weapons? That's just unreasonable. Not only would it encourage people to take a great variety of mechs, there is ZERO precedent for that. Mandating an arbitrary 6 ML before activating ghost heat based on the number of ML in a Hunchback Hunch is different, obviously.

[CDLord HHGD]

Technically, the Awesome is not broke. The alpha strike is not supposed to be the only attack done. You're supposed to fire them singles (set up with chain fire a semi-quick tap tap tap will satisfy the .5 second required gap to avoid ghost heat) or set them up in a 2/1 fire pattern with 2 linked and one on it's own (torso vs arm). Ghost heat is perfectly fine with the intended use of the Awesome, not the game's fault if everyone wants to meta the hell out of it.

[Triforceelf]

Ghost Badger, on 05 March 2014 - 06:33 AM, said:

Adding quirks to mechs for specific weapons? That's just unreasonable. Not only would it encourage people to take a great variety of mechs, there is ZERO precedent for that. Mandating an arbitrary 6 ML before activating ghost heat based on the number of ML in a Hunchback Hunch is different, obviously.

I cannot quite tell if you are being serious or not, but I think having a wide range of mechs with varied builds wiould be a lot of fun. One such quirck could be an increase on a 4Ps medium lasers before ghost heat kicks in.

I was thinking on this a little more, and I thought that unique weapon quirks might be a cool thing to introduce to mech xp trees. That way, each tree is unique and if you want some of the powerful benefits to running a mech you have to invest a bit more into it.