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Something like this (and I would like to preemptively apologize for the art
):
Alternatively an always present boarder could be present to give an advantage even if the target is undamaged.
When a torso is damaged (no armor left, some damage past that) on the front but the armor is intact on the back (or vice versa) there should be a visual representation of armor from the back side. (Again I apologize for the art and poor color choices.)
And with a border.
This would also help with targeting at a distance.
Balance Considerations
Part of the mech that are visually obstructed should not be highlighted. While this seems unimportant as you already have a box around a target you can't see, it would give a major advantage to shooting through trees. This would also give the advantage of knowing when an otherwise hard to see target is behind cover.
The highlight should not appear until target info is gathered. The targeting computer will not affect this process in any way. This means that the targeting computer will benefit from beagle active probes, target info gathering modules, and anything else that expedites target info gathering. Likewise ECM will negatively impact a targeting computer.
Heat/Night Vision
The targeting computer should not work with heat and night vision. Otherwise the targeting computer almost completely overcomes the weaknesses of these vision modes. This would also make the opportunity cost considerations more interesting for these modes.
Hit Location Outline
Each section of the target mech could be separately outlined regardless of damage. This would bestow a benefit before any damage occurs.
Additional Possible Features/Alternatives
Convergence Help
The targeting computer assumes that you want to converge at the distance of the target regardless of what you are pointing at. This would help hit moving targets at range with more munitions as the convergence would be closer to correct regardless of how much you must lead the target. This would increase the skill needed to use the targeting computer as now your weapon convergence is going to depend on proper targeting.
Alternatively it would adjust the convergence away from the target if pointing directly at another mech or more than a certain angle away from the target or something similar.
Ballistic Help
Also ballistic weapons could automatically be adjusted up to compensate for distance to selected target in a similar fashion.
Both of these helps would still operate in heat and night vision modes.
Heck, if it did just these two things I would be pretty happy, but they do nothing to benefit energy weapons so that would need to be addressed.
Energy Weapon Lock
When an energy weapon is fired it locks onto the point struck. During the duration of the shot moving the cross-hair away from the initial point will have the weapon trail behind targeting a point between the cross-hair and the initial point of contact. If the cross-hair moves a certain threshold the lock is lost and the weapon centers on the cross-hair. An illustration is helpful in this case:
The biggest problem with this is that it gives much of the advantage of pulse lasers to all lasers. Pulse lasers are underutilized as it is. I would suggest that different lasers lock better then others. For example pulse lasers have a larger threshold and follow cross-hair divergence less then vanilla lasers and even less than ER large lasers. Different sized lasers might behave differently too.
I worry that Energy Weapon Lock (in general, but more so with pulse) might be OP and work too well against light mechs.
These suggestions do almost nothing to help PPCs so that must be considered also.
Similar Suggestions Made Previously
After coming up with this I did a search for other suggestions for the targeting computer.
Lead indicator - problematic as different weapons have different leads. This could be overcome by only showing a lead indicator for the currently selected weapon. (Or one for every weapon, but that is messy.)
(Edit) Someone mentioned a year ago that this also takes away a major advantage of light mechs. Legging a running Jenner with an AC20 across the caldera in Terra Therma (I've done it!) should have you jumping out of your seat. With a lead indicator it becomes almost routine. It shifts the game in favor of Ballistics weapons more than it already is.
Highlighting selected body part of choice - too hard to select intended part to target while fighting and overcome by main suggestion.
Ballistic Drop Adjustment - Similar problem as lead indicator. Could be overcome by auto adjusting guns up to compensate for distance to target lock as opposed to the original suggestion of "whatever you are pointing at".
Alternatively it could work as part of a lead indicator after applying the suggested improvements.
Some level of auto aim - No. See problems with light mechs and the lead indicator mentioned above.
I may also be suggesting what was already mentioned here (but I never played MW2 so I don't know)
TT Purists
As I understand it (I'm not a TT player) the TT describes the targeting computer as a system of computers, stabilizers, actuators, and gyroscopes that enabled the pilots to better aim at their targets.
Using this as a guide for designing the in-game equivalent we run into a few problems.
This implies that without this system it's harder to aim in general. The cross-hair is shaky, shots have some spread, you have to hold your head just right for things to line up, etc. The targeting computer is supposed to combat that to make it feel more like, well... like it does right now for everyone.
The convergence/ballistic/energy help suggestions above was as close as I think we can get to the spirit of the TT without suggesting auto-aim and nerfs to the accuracy and handling of the existing weapon systems. Alone it would not be worth the 1 ton per 5 of direct fire weapons, (unless dealing with light mechs, the energy weapon buff should be considered carefully), introducing problems to the existing systems is probably a really bad idea, and this leaves PPCs out in the cold. More needs to be done.
Let me know what you think.
--Xistic
Edited by Xistic, 19 May 2014 - 07:14 AM.
