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After hearing Sean's question about incentive I thought I'd share an idea I've been kicking around for a while.
I think the best way to balance light and medium mechs is to raise effectiveness based off role warfare.
The first idea is perhaps making mech detection ranges based on chassis mass, engine rating and heat efficiency simulating the emissions spectra of the mech.
Giving a very light mech a survivability boost in terms of scouting.
Here is the current detection model: if your target is in the forward 120° arch, in line of sight (LoS) and not under ECM you will detect them. A 20 ton mech is as easy to detect as a 100 ton mech. Here are two other methods for deriving detection ranges, one is more static dealing with fixed values based on your choice of load out, the other is much more dynamic with a lean toward what is happening on the battle field at the moment. Both are anchored around individual build and chassis choices that I feel contribute to why one would or would not show up on the HUD.
The mass of a mech contributes to it's surface area, one of the pivotal elements to detection. mechs come in all shapes so lets just assume large but light mechs have passive defenses in the surface materials and very small but heavy mechs are less difficult to detect because of density.
End result: a 35 ton mech regardless of the in game shape detects just like every other 35 ton mech.
Engine rating is already part of a mechs mass, but how much it can output in terms of power to the chassis is another factor. The engine rating dose not just effect speed, it's also a rough measure of how 'loud' that engine is, how much fuel it consumes, the materials it's made of and relative density, how much waste Co2 or whatever other byproducts it produces to create that raw power.
End result, a 200 rating engine for a 35 ton mech puts out the same 'volume' of emissions as one made for a 60 ton mech.
And last heat, some people say heat is relative to mech size but I think your heat sink effectiveness is just that, and that becomes a factor in how well they deal with hiding the heat too. a small mech with a heavy engine and a low heat efficiency has a greater, more intense thermal signature then a heavier mech with a smaller engine and better heat efficiency. Assuming the mass plus engine end up as a smaller value in the heavy mech, here's why.
Lets say the detection range followed this formula or one like it:
(Mass)+(Engine)*(3-Heat efficiency) = Distance in meters.
A Bore's Head with a max engine would have a mass and emissions rating of 500 with a heat efficiency of 1.35 (3-H) that gives a multiplier of 1.65 so it would have a base detection range of 825m for mechs without a sensor boost. sensor range boosts increase detection ranges by their total % of range boost. So a mech with a 25% boost detects the same Bore's head at 1031m. That's the range that the mech auto pops up as an available target to something with LoS.
Looking at a Locust with say a 150 engine and a heat efficiency of 2 would auto pop up as a target at 170m to a mech without a range boost, with LoS.
For mechs beyond that range (let's call that 'long range') they pop up as a target if you have the crosshairs on target up to double that distance (sensor range boosts increase detection ranges by thier % range boost) the time it takes for them to light up at long range with cross hairs on target can be based on the same formula. Something like 10 seconds - (base detection range/100)
So that Bore's Head I mentioned earlier would have a long range detection time of 1.75 seconds. Any lock on time boost would reduce this value by its value.
And lastly, detailed target info will not display beyond close detection range. This is to balance long range builds.
So you can get lock, but unless you have a team mate outside of ECM in short detection range you do not get target condition details. Friendly mechs can receive and broadcast target info 1500m, command console doubles that (it is also a very good radio, after all it is 3 tons) the info can be rebroadcast. So if I have a target 2000 m out but i have a scout 500m from the target and 1500m from my position I would get details if I have a command console I can get that info from a friendly at 3000m this is to reinforce the scout role, requiring that the scouts close with a target to get more information, use of terrain whilst maneuvering to make more effort to stay out of LoS and provide a secondary role to scouts as information curriers as well as give value to the three ton radio. A scout with a command console can of course send that info further as well.
Large fast but hot mechs would be less difficult to detect at long range then small slow cool mechs, making a force geared to the low side of the weights per class ({L M H A}based on proposed matchmaking) more situated for stealth then mechs shifted up the weights.
Where this breaks down or improves depending on outlook.
High alpha energy builds are easy to detect, sure take 4 ERPPC's but your popping up as a potential target at longer ranges, giving more balanced builds an edge in snipping but at the loss of alpha strike force at long range.
A special exception would be needed for Gauss. The way I would handle Gauss weapons would be to give them an effective heat value for detection ranges only. I'd spit ball a value of 9 heat for detection range for each Gauss (effectively increasing the multiplier of *1 to 1.72 in a pure duel Gauss Jagger build) otherwise a decent duel Gauss Jagger with a 260 engine and only the Gauss weapons would have base detection range of 325m Vs 559m and 650m Vs 1118m at long range with a lock on time of 6.75seconds Vs3.41 seconds.
Given how far they fire you can see why, Gauss boats would have a massive sniping bonus in range + stealth though coupled with the charge up time, the fragility of the weapon, how easy you'd be to eat with a light swarm and the lack of target details beyond base detection range perhaps letting the Gauss boat hide effectively as a sniper might not be a bad idea.
Adjusting your detection range: in play powering down would adjust the formula by making your effective heat efficiency 2 and your engine rating 0. So that Bores Head again, she powers down and will only pop up at 100m and won't light up at all in the long range bracket of 101-200m in that state.
So a 20 ton mech powers down, you need to be with in 20m and in LoS to have it pop up as a target you can lock onto no target information for powered down mechs will display.
Active ECM in turn should reduce detection ranges by 80% or so and increase lock on times by 80% or so. Or follow current values but I feel this is a more agile way of addressing the effectiveness of Atlas ECM, a D-DC with a 300 engine and a heat rating of 1.25 would pop up on LoS near detection at 140m with ECM on/Counter, in ECM off/Jamming mode that becomes 700m.
A raven 3L with a 295 engine and a heat efficiency of 1.00 would show up at 660m without ECM and 132 with active ECM, Vs a scout Raven 3L with a stock engine (210) and no weapons (weird, I know) the Raven would only pop up on sensors at 49m in active ECM mode and 245m with ECM off. It's and edge but its a small edge.
Each mech inside the ECM bubble has its own detection range, the best ECM in the world won't as effectively hide assault mechs as it will lights.
Beagle active probe still acts as a counter beyond the active ECM detection range as it is now. And mechs still inside the ECM bubble still can't transmit target info out of the bubble.
Tag is still tag, no change.
And finally people who make mechs with a base detection range of 1250m would not require LoS to track, they can be seen from orbit, likely by the assets that brought you to the fight.
I said there was a second way for detection to work, its agile because its situational.
Here's how: same basic formula for detection range with a small twist, (Mass+Engine)*((150+current heat percentage)/100). Your detection ranges would spike and dissipate based on your actions, you run hot, you're easier to detect, you run cool and it's harder. Again with Gauss I'd tack on a for detection prepossess only a heat value of 9 (adjusting your heat percentage without actually giving the heat)
I would delay the detection spike by a few moments or so as the heat and what not of firing vents out of your mech and I'd delay its dissipation by the same amount of time.
And all of this information can be given to a player in a few ways, as a static value just like speed in the mech lab and as a range just above the mini map, or perhaps a dim transparent circle that expands and contracts from your position on the mini map and battle map or as a red or deep green or black and orange or black and red or whatever the art team decides colored bar that sits just above the mini map horizontally, filling and dissipating as your emissions spectra flair and vent.
Just spit balling here, the numbers of course would need tuning and balancing. Your builds or builds plus play style/heat management determine how easy you are to see or how hard, giving scouts more of a role.
And as a final thought: for rewarding the scouts, I'd grant Xp for 1/10th of the damage a target receives from a source while less than 3 people are holding a LoS lock, I'd reward a player for being part of the information chain that passes scout data down the line to your main force (each one to one transfer, not if you are sharing the same data with more than two people), I'd grant a reward for locating mechs and I'd reward for the length of time you maintain detection to a target while out of detection yourself (ECM reduces this bonus by 75% or so, because it's easy mode for scouts)
Those are my .34$ on the subject. I have given this a lot of thought.
edit: I spell like a champ...
Edited by Sixzero, 05 March 2014 - 08:40 PM.
