25 replies to this topic

[Joseph Mallan]

John Archer, on 22 May 2014 - 09:41 PM, said:

I believe Russ Bollock mentioned that he wants to see battlemechs live longer. I am assuming than what they currently do.

See he problem with Russ saying this is it is in direct conflict with my wants. I wan MY Mech to live longer but yours to die quickly! My solution to the problem is I need to be shot less while shooting YOU more/harder.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 23 May 2014 - 06:07 AM.

[OneEyed Jack]

Levi Porphyrogenitus, on 22 May 2014 - 07:41 PM, said:

I think that all they do right now is let weapons that roll a crit on a location have something to apply damage to, which in this case only matters because 15% gets kicked back into your Internal Structure.

I don't believe they actually take crits in the current system at all. Like FF and ES, I believe all of the automatic components (gyro, actuators, life support, etc) are not factored into random crit determination at all.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

Merchant, on 22 May 2014 - 07:10 PM, said:

That is the question I wanted to ask but forgot.
Engine Shielding.
First Engine crit did 1 point damage to Shielding.
Second did 1 point to Shielding.
This is not simulated?

Yeah, not simulated... sadly.

[Zolaz]

MWO isnt a simulator or a thinking man's shooter it is billed to be. Maybe in 2020.

[Wildstreak]

Don't know if anyone suggested anything before so apologies if I suggest it again, not trying to steal credit.
Just things that came to me.

Ideas I thought of to give these padded crits some use.
I will not give something a use just to give it one, rather only when it can be.
Suggestions are also designed to be simple, not complex, and work within existing MWO features. There are enough complicated issues out there (Matchmaker, CW, Clans, etc.), I will not pile onto them.

Starting with an easy one.

THE 4 ARM ACTUATORS

Hand Actuator
In TT, damage affects physical attacks.
In MWO with no physical attacks and rarely do Mechs carry weapons in hand, leave it a padded crit.

Upper & Lower Arm Actuators
In TT, damage causes negative modifiers to weapon and physical attacks.
In MWO, we do have weapon attacks. We also have a Basic Efficiency, Arm Reflex, that adds a speed increase of 15% to Arm movement. So hits to these Actuators could decrease Arm Pitch, Yaw and Movement Speed.

Shoulder
In TT, damage locks the arm, imposes strong negative modifiers and later damage to other Arm Actuators have no effect.
In MWO, I think Arms are linked so what affects one affects both though it would be nice if they were treated as seperate. I will treat them as linked for simplicity.
One Shoulder hit cuts all Arm Pitch, Yaw and Movement Speed in half before other modifiesr are applied. Both Shoulders being critted locks Arms either in the position they were aimed when the second Shoulder was hit or they auto center forward and cannot be moved. It would be like forcing Arm Lock on to those who leave it off.

THE 4 LEG ACTUATORS

I can do these, I just need to find the detailed information on what happens when a limb is blown off for reference, it will have an effect on decisions.

GYRO
In TT, the Gyro can take 2 hits despite being 4 crits.
First hit means you might fall while Running or Jumping.
Second hit means you fall & cannot get up. You can crawl only to turn and shoot while prone.
In MWO, we would need collisions, knockdowns and even then this might be complex to code. But we could have a surrogate system for now that is far simpler.
Much like how Arm Actuator crits could decrease Arm Pitch, Yaw and Movement Speed, Gyro hits can do the same for Torso Pitch, Yaw and Movement Speed. We have 2 Basic Efficiences, Twist X and Twist Speed, that give bonuses so penalties should be easy. These can be applied for each crit thus 3 of them with the 4th crit doing what both Shoulders does, the 4th Gyro crit either locks the torso in place or centers it then locks it.

LIFE SUPPORT
In TT, this produces effects on the MechWarrior.
In MWO, these effects have no way to be simulated simply so I would treat this a Hand Actuators, leave it as a padded crit.

SENSORS
In TT, first hit applies a penalty to fire, second prevents fire completely.
In MWO, for now I would simply make this:
First Hit: Flickering HUD giving the pilot a harder time. Remember the HUD bugs?
Second Hit: HUD goes out. There is a key that does this so it is doable easy. I even saw a vid where someone turned his HUD off for a bit and fought without it.
Not as severe as TT but looks easy to me to do.

That's it until I get that data on what happens when a leg goes. No major effects, no big coding, mainly used penalties opposite existing game bonuses or effects already in game with only 2 no defined.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

As the game progress's we may see some function arrive for each of these locations.

Keep in mind that the Clans will be entering with an 'Advanced Targeting Computer'
- If PGI follows the reference material this item gives the ability to target specific locations on enemy Mechs'.
(say a leg actuator or specific torso, but more likely just the 8 front/back locations we have now.)

There indeed should be cause and effect with these separate locations taking damage, specifically the legs, for those that carry ammo in these locations. If there is any damage to the actuators then there should also be damage to the 'feed belts' that move the ammo. Limiting the supply or cutting it off. Again similar effects for arm and shoulder joints and actuators, limiting the amount of travel of any weapons and ammo supply.

In the Lore, the Mech's Di computer will continue to 'reroute' signals through any available path to get to a damaged location and keep it functioning, until it falls off. With may redundant systems for everything, so a failure in a major system can be 'taken over' by another. We should not see immediate reduction in function of elements from initial damage, it's accumulative damage that will start to slow down and reduce function, as more subsystems or paths fail.

Sadly, in game now, I can shoot a Mechs hand and receive general arm damage throughout the arm. The game and net code have quite a bit of difficulty just detecting a weapon strike on a limb, let alone a specific location. It's getting better, but it's not there yet. Hopefully the code will mature and improve to the point of 'unique' locations all along each structure of the Mech.

On a plus note, we are seeing sensors being destroyed while they are inside a section of the Mech, similar to a weapon destruction. And with some of these sensors and components being placed on the top or outside of the chassis they should be damaged much earlier. Yes, AMS, I'm looking at you. Sitting exposed on the top of most Mech's it should suffer damage when missiles do get through. (but I'm sure there would be an uproar if that started to happen.)

The cockpit systems have yet to be built out, damage, control, vision, communications, sensors all need updated pass's to tweak effects and reduced function. Cockpit breach's should only be a concern when on hostile environments or atmospheres. And there are still no effects to the pilot from excessive heat build up, say reduction or blurring in vision, or loss of some control while aiming. So, lots more to be done for PGI, and the list just gets longer.

9erRed