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PPC changes
Because they are not a "particle stream" that can continiously be fired, it must be assumed that PPCs are technically a type of synchotron particle accelerator, rather than a "linac" linear accelerator. From wikipedia; "whereas a synchrotron will only periodically raise the particles to sufficient energy to merit a "shot" at the target. (The burst can be held or stored in the ring at energy to give the experimental electronics time to work, but the average output current is still limited.)" you get one shot, then the accelerator has to build energy again. Because of the energy requirements of maintaining the velocity of the particle stream until required to fire, I believe a fair compromise is to remove the ghost heat penalty, and instead make the ppc negate a heat sink's worth of cooling power (to represent that it needs a dedicated cooling system while it is being powered. Until there's a mech that can fit 8 simultanious ppcs, a mech won't be "heat unstable" in this manner, incapable of cooling down after shots (and it would supercritically overheat itself if it alpha striked anyways)
LRM changes
LRMs aren't realistic or fun to use. Judging from how light they are in term of shots per ton, and the non-splash damage nature of them, it can be assumed that they're a semi-active radar homing missile; nato code "fox one". http://en.wikipedia....e_radar_homing. The missile itself doesn't poses a radar; it instead picks up the radar waves generated by the mech's own radar system, and uses that to guide itself onto the target, explaining why the LRM has to have a lock from the mech's own guidance system
LRMs produce heat, something that isn't supposed to happen significantly with a real life missile system. my proposed changes to replace ghost heat are two-fold
1. Because of the logistics of an ammo feed system that loads new volleys of missiles into a multiple-missile-launcher, compounded by the presence of multiple launchers, if an alpha strike of missiles is fired, each launcher involved shouldn't reload at the same time, or should reload slower. perhaps, one launcher at a time will reload, then the next launcher in the "stack", starting with the first launcher to cease firing, would be reloaded, lengthining the reload time of the total alpha strike while leaving chain-fire unaffected. Essentially,
2. If a target leaves the view of the mech, it should immediatly be de-locked, because there wouldn't be enough radar data to achive an active lock (perhaps also, some radar information would be available still as radar bounces off the surfaces near the target. The mech would still target an enemy that left line of sight, but missiles would immediatly delock). However, because a futuristic fire control system would most likely assign each target its own ID, if the target re-enters line of sight it should immediatly re-lock onto that last target that was selected, because it would remember it as the last target. this instant-relock effect would last for the duration of the current "target decay" of 2 seconds (and target decay modules would therefore be very useful). the artemis fire control system should also be updated; it would act as a much more powerful target-locking radar, allowing faster lock time, lengthed re-lock time, and would reduce the missile spread. additionally, it should lengthen the targeting range of the mech, since the radar would be focused on that singal target.
3. LRMs have an unrealistically short range. a javelin missile (argubly the closest in terms of usage to the lrms) have a max range of over 4000 meters. A stinger missile, the closest in terms of weight-per-munition, has a range of 3 miles. Without an artemis system, the mech should be only able to lock onto targets in range of the current radar system (affected by BAP, modules, etc), since the actual range of the missile is practically only affected by the strength of the radar system. comparatively, the artemis system shouldn't boost the radar range of a mech; it would simply allow the mech to lock onto targets outside the natural targeting range of the mech by placing the cursor over the target. it's already affected by line of sight, so it's not an unfair change.
4. to compensate for the instant-delock effect, the missile speed should be increased significantly so they get on target faster; a stinger missile hits a peak speed of around 470 m/s. 350 m/s would be a fair speed, at least to me.
5. if de-lock occurs, and the target becomes re-locked, the missiles should also relock onto the target instead of just traveling in a straight line unguided until impact like they currently do.
autocannon changes
Autocannons shouldn't have ghost heat, because it's not like more gunpoweder or anything is magically burned. Compared to the other weapons, however, the mechanic to fix this is much simpler; Chance to jam. it can be assumed each autocannon has its own dedicated feed system, and if fired singley, it would practically never jam due to the inherent reliability of the system. however, the feed system of a gun is only intended to handle the firing of that gun, not other guns; the combined recoil of an alpha strike would stress the feed systems of all guns, therefore, each weapon involved in the alpha strike should be at a risk of jamming. the bigger the gun, the more recoil it contributes, but also the more resistant to jamming it would technically be. This would mean if 2 ac/20s were alphad, they'd have an equal chance of jamming eachother. However, if one ac/20 was fired along with one ac/2, the ac/2 would have a very high chance to jam (because the ac/20 ). if 4 ac/2s were fired simulanious, they'd all be very likely to jam. similarly, an ultra ac/5 fired simulaniously with another ac/5 or an ultra ac/5 would have the same chance of jaming as if it had performed a double fire.
Laser changes
Because the lasers have to cool down between shots, rather than constantly firing like some real lasers can, it can be assumed the firing-medium/electronics of the laser has to cool after a peak firing time. Therefore, Lasers should negate an amount of cooling per second for the duration of the laser's cooldown phase, to signify some of the mech's coolant system being re-routed to prioritize cooling down the lasers. Larger lasers could negate more cooling per second, as could the pulse-varient of any laser, while small lasers (especially regular, non-pulsed small lasers) would essentially have no effect on the cooling of the mechs during the cool-down phase.
The end reasoning for the lasers not just having increased heat penalties is that the total capacity of the coolant system isn't afffected; a mech could chainfire small lasers endlessly, but it can't alpha strike endlessly, meanwhile, it would reduce the number of alpha strikes somewhat, and also increase the cooling time between max heat to minimum heat in a manner that more penalizes alpha strikes. a mech's heat would still be representitve of the total heat of the coolant system and the reactor. if a laser wasn't connected to the coolant system, it would fire one shot, and take a long time to cool off naturally, while the rest of the mech would dissapate the heat of the reactor running hotter. Alphas get penalized because the mech might not dissapate any heat at all between volleys, so alphas make your mech overheat that much faster.
SRMs
I've always had a problem with SRMS because they are missiles, not rockets; a missile has guidance, while a rocket does not. therefore according to the name, SRMS should be able to lock on like LRMS, and if no lock, they just fly straight like they already do. Does this make them into streaks? No. streak SRMS would still require a lock to fire, ensuring they aren't wasted and none of them miss, while they still would do more damage on their own than a comparitve regular srm, keeping them superior in some aspects to regular srms. Streaks would have tighter groupings as well (and perhaps a faster travel time or something?)
TAGs
Tags should be better. it's a laser.
1. Tag range should be much, much higher if not unlimited.
2. at the 750m range, can still target mechs, but doesn't give missile tracking strength bonus
3. ECM mech can't be targeted past 750m, and within 750m still don't give a tracking strength bonus.
NARCs
suck.
1. Make them travel faster so they've a better chance to hit
2. 100% increased tracking strength. You literally could not have a more ideal target than a trasmitter yelling "hit me", so there's no excuse for missing.
3. Narcs should negate ecm of whatever it hits for its duration, but not other ecm in the area (so the mech could still be covered by a different mech's ecm).
Edited by Chihuahuablend, 15 March 2014 - 11:12 AM.
