Solutions:
1) Shrink the hit areas on the machines and create more of them. Scale those hit areas based upon the size of the machine and varied quantity in order to preserve cross chassis balance. This can be touchy and will require a lot of testing. Logic behind the move would be 2 weapons mounted on an arm fired in tandem are likely to strike the same general area, but not strike the exact same point at the same time. Due to the fact that mechs are big, having an "armor plate" system protecting the general damage inner structure makes a degree of sense. Therefore, have plates on the external armor each having a specific value, but retain the total damage capacity of the internal structure true to the original in that it would allow for multiple holes to be created on the external, but the internal damage is at a set maximum.
1A) In implementing the armor plate location it preserves the concept of a lucky hit, through skill based shots that manage to strike the same plate twice allowing for faster than “normal” penetration to the internal structure rather than eliminating all armor within the regular hit location sections.
2B) It will help preserve the survivability balance between tiers of mechs through total armor allocation and total damage received. IE a larger mech has more armor per location area, but those location areas are larger allowing for easier grouping.
3C) It will retain the concept of complete armor outer depletion before inner structure is breached for those who do not hit the same hole.
3D) In order to retain cross balance of damage spread by allowing "splash" damage across smaller armor plate areas from larger calibur weapons or explosives. IE If a larger calibur weapon (AC 10/20, gauss, ppc, missile explosions, larger lasers) strike a point on the mech that adjoins multiple plate areas. For visual simplicity think of a hex map and how they meet at the edges and divide the damage as appropriate across all areas affected.
1D1) This assumes true ballistic weapons are burst fire, or single shot as required with actual trajectories and flight times.
1D2) This assumes beam weapons are actual beams that fire over time and does a damage over time model, which will require precision on the player's part to maintain accuracy at a specific spot for penetration purposes.
1D3) This assumes missiles will splash damage and spread over the mech like a moderate inline or X firing patterns would dictate.
1D4) This assumes that LBX auto cannons will retain spread rules and each pellet will inflict damage individually.
1E) External armor plates should be angular to a degree and can be harder to strike directly perpendicular depending on the angle of the shot.
1E1) Factor in general angles of attack and give a slight modifier due to deflection of the attack. For example reduce the incoming damage from 90% to 80% of the maximum damage rounding down if greater than 4 points of damage is inflicted. Damage reduction should occur only once per shot if striking a seam between armor plates
1E2) This also assumes any head or cockpit region is recessed and harder to land a shot on as a result of the angular plates.
1F) External armor plates have visual effects associated with damage allowing for players to identify by sight weakened areas or areas absent of external armor plating.
1F1) Employ effects such as smoke, outward/inward buckling, or metallic heating to represent damage.
2) Allow for movement to impact direct fire weapons in a predictable manner. A skilled player will then time the shots at either the apex of either foot step in order to avoid the natural side to side and up down jitter expected with a moving bipedal machine. Allow for impact shake and force applied to the machine when receiving damage bursts in a specific region, not an individual armor plate, to impact mech movement.
2A) This assumes not an overly exaggerated movement or shake as there should be stabilizers within the arms and torso hard points to compensate for "minor" movements.
2B) This assumes not an overly exaggerated sway when coming to a stop.
2C) This assumes shake only when major change of direction occurs, not when a continued velocity is present (jump jets).
2D) This assumes that the weapon turrets have an actual turn speed that varies by weapon category.
2E) This assumes that the area of the weapon mount has different firing arc potentials.
2F) This assumes that each weapon mounted has a different firing point of origin.
2F1) Allow for specific shot convergence at different zoom panes. Suggested zoom convergence points occur at x2 (400m), x4 (800m), x6 (1200m), x8 (1600m) and assumes for adjusted damage values and flight paths beyond optimal firing range.
2F2) When zoomed, impose a slower turret change speed.
2F3) When zoomed, impose a smaller firing arc.
2F4) Allow for more than one zoom magnification, but impose greater restrictions on movement for re-targeting in exchange for better grouping at that magnification.
2F5) Each zoom option, no-zoom, 2x, 4x, etc, has a different fixed convergence point in meters so that snapping to a zoom mode does not allow for automatic convergence to the same pixel as indicated by the player when the shots are fired. Turret rotation speeds to settle on that point are required. The convergence point is a general area size, not specific pixel in space.
3) Allow for the victim of an attack react to the incoming damage.
3A) This assumes that the machine speed to scale will be responsive and have good acceleration rates.
3B) This assumes torso rotation is relatively as quick or quicker than acceleration and turn rates of the mechs.
3C) This assumes arm movement to be true when aiming and can create collision effects with inbound attacks.
3C1) Purpose being that if the target realizes that lasers and bullets or missiles are streaking at them, they can maneuver to force the damage to spread out and not naturally concentrate more than it has to and sacrifice limbs if needed.
3C2) This also assumes that mechlab changes will reflect the size and shape of the weapon mounted in the arm. This also assumes that each weapon type and category will be visually identifiable by each player at range by both the mounted look and the style of projectile fired.
3D) *optional* Allow players to perform "advanced" maneuvers such as crouching/kneeling, covering up with arms, and going prone in order to give more mitigation to the player and make better use of cover where appropriate.
3E) Allow for MASC activation to be a faster than normal acceleration curve in order to help throw off aim of aggressors or alter impact zone of inbound weapon fire.
3F) Allow for friendly fire to occur upon instances of pilot error.
4) Allow for heat and electronic warfare to moderately disrupt precision based targeting of machines and reduce the accuracy of shots at longer ranges.
4A) This assumes items like visual magnification become blurred, thus creating a more difficult precision shot.
4B) This assumes longer missile lock accrual times at varied ranges under different circumstances or zoom.
4B1) Require longer lock times at range while hot.
4B2) Require longer times at range while ECM active or targeted.
4B3) This assumes existence of AMS shooting in limited bursts per missile volley.
4B4) This assumes lock difficulty with clustered objects. IE radar based lock opposed to laser guided.
4B4a) This assumption only made for LRM and streak SRM. MRM and normal SRM should be semi laser guided following the cursor path within the visual cockpit targeting area.
4C) This assumes target priority bias reduced when cycling objects. IE targets acquired either manually via cursor or cycling through console commands chooses non-ECM targets first over ECM covered targets.
4D) This assumes weapon systems can dummy fire against non-targeted opponents.
4E) This assumes C3, NARC, TAG, and BAP options for automatic snap to orientation when in use, that will be disrupted by ECM. C3 may not alpha strike team mates, chain fire only. This is more sanity preserving and anti-grief measure more than anything.
4E1) Master unit for C3 should have additional weapon listings for each C3 slave unit with weapons dedicated to the system. Firing of each listed C3 weapon based off of a zoomed gun cam image with step and shake as appropriate with the mech owning the weapon. Owning mech’s use of weapon is temporarily disabled while master is in use with possible transition times implemented between master control and mech control.
4E2) Missile lock via NARC, target designation via BAP, TAG, or C3 should give options to target through cycling commands prior to launch and making the launch a pilot choice rather than automatic. Allow for locks beyond maximum normal lock range of the mech mounting the launcher. This should not impact the maximum flight time of the missiles and allow for situations where missiles run out of propellant and fall to the earth.
4E3) Artemis IV shrinks the deviation pattern in flight of missiles to allow for the potential for max damage in a single armor plate a more common occurrence.
5) Assuming melee attacks occur within the game, allow them to strike where the blow lands on the target.
5A) Charging and DFA should be distributed damage ordeals over wide areas as they should represent multiple collisions occurring in a rapid succession.
5B) Each plate struck on the exterior would take a reduced amount of damage after the first.
5C) Allow for penetration to occur in regions where weapon fire created previous holes or weak points in armor. A big fist or axe will hurt, but the pressure per square inch is distributed over a wider area and can create breach points, but not penetrate unless all points of contact are breached.
5D) Deflection values do not apply to melee attacks due to the size and overall spread of the attack.
6) Some weapon values may need to be altered to fit better with the original intent of the core rules and additional armor present due to additional armor plate divisions.
6A) Missiles should have an optimal target lock range maximum and minimum allowing for a variable lock time between these points with bonuses associated for C3, TAG, and NARC.
6A1) Missile damage should be calculated in a blast/splash model not modified for deflection values. This will create situations where greater than “normal” table top damage is being inflicted, but it is simulating spreading the damage out across a wider area (see summary/simulated combat section for reference). Brief example: A LRM 5 pack fired in an X flight pattern will likely have a most concentrated point of damage at the center of the X generating 3 damage across a single plate due to explosion overlap between individual missiles, while the least possible damaged armor plate area will experience 1-2 damage depending on coverage. This allows for a potential bell curve, but will not peak out without extenuating circumstances, yet will inflict far more damage overall due to multiple armor plates struck.
6A2) Missile flight time/range should be roughly 1.5x the maximum optimal lock range in order to accommodate for indirect firing situations, missiles that need to correct direction while in flight, and accommodate for C3, NARC, or TAG locks.
6A3) Missile flight speed should cover 1km in roughly 3-4s.
6B) Have all auto cannons except the AC 2 and LBX versions fire a 3 shot burst per trigger pull (think battle rifle in halo). Have the bursts occur between .3 seconds to .5 seconds. Autocannon projectiles should cover 1km in roughly 1-1.5 seconds. Shots going beyond maximum range reduce damage per projectile by 1,2, or 3 per 100 meters depending on caliber.
6B1) The AC 5 would fire 3 rounds each shot doing 2 points each. More damage overall, but it can get spread out between plates.
6B2) The AC 10 would be 3 rounds doing 4 points each (bigger bump for damage, but I don't think it would be game breaking).
6B3) The AC 20 would be 3 rounds doing 7 damage each. (less of a bump, but more consistent with the original). AC 20 rounds should be large.
6B4) The Ultra variants electing to double fire would have to be handled differently, since streaming fire over really long periods of time will net less damage total.
6B5) The Ultra AC 5 would be 4 rounds doing 3 damage each.
6B6) The Ultra AC 10 would be 4 rounds doing 5 damage each.
6B7) The Ultra AC 20 would be 4 rounds doing 10 damage each. AC 20 rounds should be large.
6B8) Machine gun fire should be twin barrel 1 point per projectile fire and allow for constant fire over time. Heavy machine gun be tri-barrel 1 point per projectile and constant fire as well.
6C) Lasers should either be a beam or pulse in a 3 round burst depending on the weapon type. Beam discharge occurring over 1 second dealing damage every .25 seconds based upon where the beam strikes as guided by the player and limited by the turret rotation speed. Pulse lasers discharging 3 rounds between .3 to .5 seconds. Laser fall off beyond maximum optimal range should be at least 1 damage per 50m for smaller lasers ranging upwards of 1 per 100m for larger lasers (Nik Van Rhijn caught my unintentional damage fall off omission)
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6D) Flamer should be constant fire over time, but splash damage similar to missiles (heat is the real limiting factor on that one).
6E) PPC rounds should have a large projectiles and a flight time to cover 1km in roughly 2-3 seconds. Damage fall off past maximum optimal range should be 2 per 100m.
6F) Gauss rounds should have a large projectiles and a flight time to cover 1km in roughly 1-1.5 seconds. Damage fall off past maximum optimal range should be 1-2 points per 100m. The re-fire rate should be twice the PPC recycle time.
Edited by Phades, 19 November 2011 - 01:33 AM.
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Melissia, on 18 November 2011 - 09:04 PM, said:
