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We are updating Jump Jets to bring the gameplay aspects surrounding them back into line where they should be. Again, it is very important to remember that Jump Jets are for maneuvering purposes only and not meant to make a 'Mech fly around the environment.
In order for us to reach our goal, two new aspects have been updated to Jump Jets.
First: Jump Jet Heat.
Table Top (TT) rules add 3 heat instantaneously upon using any number of Jump Jets. Now naturally we can't do that without severely penalizing anyone using a Jump Jet no matter the duration or how many are being fired. What we're doing for MWO is creating a baseline Heat Per Second for a single Jump Jet. This single Jump Jet causes a maxed Single Heat Sink 'Mech to hit around 3% heat. Adding 4 more Jump Jets will take this same 'Mech to around 10% heat after a full burn.
What this does is not cause a 'Mech to overheat.. but essentially it will stop the 'Mech from cooling down while Jump Jets are in use.
Second: Jump Jet Thrust
There are 2 aspects to how Jump Jets lift your 'Mech off the ground. The first is the initial boost that pushes your 'Mech off the ground and slightly forward. The second aspect is how much each Jump Jet adds to your total height gain through Jump Jet use. These numbers have now been updated to reflect what was mentioned above about Jump Jets being used for navigational purposes over rough terrain. The fact that a single Jump Jet was producing almost the same amount of thrust as 4 Jump Jets on the same 'Mech obviously didn't make sense.
Jump Jet's are now doing much less compounded lift than before. The initial boost is also providing less vertical lift than before. This means that across the board, all 'Mechs will be not be jumping as high as they were before. It is still possible to do snap turns using any number of Jump Jets, this change only affects vertical displacement.
Why This Change is Needed
The combination of Fall Damage, Jump Jet Heat, Jump Jet Thrust changes culminate into a change in gameplay dynamics in keeping 'Mechs feeling heavy and more tank-like. The way everything was playing out was that 'Mechs felt more like light and agile exoskeletons.
One common misconception that I've seen concerning these changes is that this was supposed to "fix" the "pop-tart meta". That is not the case. Just to be clear, we are not trying to remove pop-tarting from MWO. It is a valid, tactical means of play. The way we want to address it is from a cost per performance view, not eliminate it. The changes in this update do affect the pop-tart meta builds but only by increasing costs in tonnage, space and having to adapt to less vertical thrust.
Feedback can be posted here: http://mwomercs.com/...pdate-feedback/
