9 replies to this topic

[Veranova]

Someone may already have come up with this before, but I haven't seen it that I remember.

So ghost heat isn't effective at controlling alpha's where a combination of weapons are used.
Gauss + PPC is a big example of this, and the Dire Wolf has taken it beyond the realms of what makes sense. 50 points pinpoint is mental, but ghost heat is hopeless to control this without breaking more sensible builds.
So my idea sits around changing how ghost heat is created.

The idea said:

It makes sense to me to use a Power Scale system for alpha balancing.

Every weapon would be assigned a Power Draw value, and every engine would be assigned a Power Pool and a Recharge Rate, rising with the size of the engine. This system would add a new dynamic to the game alongside heat, instead of creating a roadblock to alpha builds, it would just facilitate the penalties we currently get from ghost heat.

A power meter would be added beside the heat meter, and sit at 100% by default.
Whenever you fire a weapon, the power draw is deducted from your power pool, and then the power pool recharges very quickly afterwards, although the rate could be used to slow DPS appropriately.
You would not be blocked from firing more than the available power however, but if you did so the reactor would spike and create excessive heat.
It's in lore that reactors provide unlimited power, however any spike of draw in a power system creates increased waste. So this is actually explainable instead of non-sensicle.

The ratings would even be based directly off the max "appropriate" alpha, and weapons assigned a value matching their damage, except for non-pinpoint systems. So it would be easy to understand.

I would expect that most Engine ratings would sit around 25-35 points in power pool, so not a huge swing.
100-245 = 20
250-295 = 25
300-345 = 30
350+ = 35

Examples said:

For instance an IS 300-345 could be assigned a power pool of 30, the Gauss 15, and PPC's 10.
Then when a Victor-DS goes Gauss+PPC and alpha's it would be 5 points over power, and create 5 points of additional heat. However the IS 350 could have a rating of 35, which would force DS pilots to make the decision between a little extra heat or a more highly optimised build.

An Atlas DDC with AC20 2ML 2SRM6 would be running a Standard 350 so would have a power pool of 30, but SRM 6's would be assigned a power draw of 6 instead of their damage. So on alpha an extra 12 points of heat would be created, encouraging the Atlas to split up its fire slightly. SRM's are actually dangerous now, but they're not pinpoint so don't deserve a rating based on damage.

Clans of course run fixed engines, and so power pool's could be tailored to the mech chassis. The Dire Wolf runs an XL300, so sticking with IS numbers (30 power pool, 15 per gauss 10 per PPC), a Gauss/PPC build would have to split its fire up, or incur 20 points of extra heat per shot. Again alpha'ing is not in-viable, however it would be discouraged.
A scale could be used similar to Ghost heat, where a higher overdraw causes a higher penalty, so at 20 points of overdraw, the Dire Wolf could create 30-40 points of heat. This could be used to prevent 6PPC Stalkers coming back in to play, control boom-jagers, and the like.

I think that this gives a pretty flexible way of controlling alpha's without breaking current or future builds, and would actually be a fun system to manage much like heat is.
Pilots would have to consider a balance of a big engine versus weapons, and the numbers I've used are attempting to allow current optimised builds to work, while pushing them up to their highest optimised engine size. 330-350 are popular in the Dragon Slayer currently.

Edited by Veranova, 22 June 2014 - 04:46 AM.

[DeathlyEyes]

We could entirely remove any need for this sort of mechanic by reducing the heat cap in mechs. An increased cool down rate can make up for this loss in capacity. High damage builds relying on Gauss rifles usually already suffer from Gauss Explosion issues and really don't need to be messed with. The Cataphract 3D is a perfect example. If there is a 3D running 2 gauss rifles all someone needs to do is take it's Gauss arm. The Gauss rifle explosion transfers inward and destroys the interior gauss rifle and probably the mech with it. The Direwolf really isn't an issue because it's pretty much a sitting duck. it has very little torso movement and only goes 48 kph.

Really I think ghost heat and similar mechanics need to be eliminated because they just add confusion to solve a problem that can be solved with a simple system.

Edited by SLDF DeathlyEyes, 20 June 2014 - 04:07 AM.

[pwnface]

I wish ghost heat didn't exist either, but I don't think we need another complicated mechanic to balance weapons/alpha builds. Yes the 2xppc 2xgauss direwolf can hit incredibly hard but it has glaring weaknesses such as fixed engine size (slow as ****). The direwolf tends to get focused immediately due to the massive amount of weaponry it can hold. A competent light pilot can easily back hump a dire wolf into submission without getting hit once. Just for lols here is a video of me killing a dire wolf with an armorless spider:

[XxXAbsolutZeroXxX]

Veranova, on 20 June 2014 - 03:40 AM, said:

ghost heat isn't effective at controlling alpha's where a combination of weapons are used.
Gauss + PPC is a big symptom of this

Are you sure gauss & PPC combos are a result of ghost heat.

And not a result of gauss rifles generating near to zero heat?

[Ph30nix]

if you walk face first into a direwolf you deserve some pain. try some situational awareness.

direwolf gives up ALOT to be able to have that kind of fire power and even so that build isnt that great and they can be picked apart by a smaller faster mech very easily.

[pwnface]

I think yes partially because of ghost heat. Remember when 4ppc stalkers ruled the land? Actually since ppc heat has increased significantly since back then, it kind of makes 4ppc stalker builds less practical anyway. Ergo, remove ghost heat pretty please

If I had a direwolf I would run 2xppc 2xgauss simply because if you are going to be slow as **** you need a larger area of influence (sniping) and pinpoint damage is king. Trying to crawl to an enemy with short range weapons doesn't sound appealing at all.

[Veranova]

Homeless Bill seems to agree as-well.
http://www.qqmercs.com/?p=3987

He has a slightly different angle in some respects, but it's a promising idea I think.

[NextGame]

just remove ghost heat altogether, it has no business being here in the first place.

[Kitane]

Ph30nix, on 20 June 2014 - 04:24 AM, said:

if you walk face first into a direwolf you deserve some pain. try some situational awareness.

direwolf gives up ALOT to be able to have that kind of fire power and even so that build isnt that great and they can be picked apart by a smaller faster mech very easily.

More likely: "If you enter a match against Dire Wolf, you deserve some pain."

Staying out of sight of a Dire Wolf is an obvious thing, but avoiding sight of all enemy Dire Wolves for the entire match while trying to fight them isn't realistic even with godly SA.

It takes only a second to get wasted by that 60 damage long range alpha.

[Veranova]

Kitane, on 24 June 2014 - 05:12 AM, said:

More likely: "If you enter a match against Dire Wolf, you deserve some pain."

Staying out of sight of a Dire Wolf is an obvious thing, but avoiding sight of all enemy Dire Wolves for the entire match while trying to fight them isn't realistic even with godly SA.

It takes only a second to get wasted by that 60 damage long range alpha.

This is exactly it. 4x3 will no doubt help enormously, but if a Dire Wolf is forced to break its fire up a little, that doesn't REALLY hurt its scariness. You just have slightly longer in front of it before you're equally as decimated, which I think is all anyone really wants.