3 replies to this topic

[Reno Blade]

The PPC Capacitor comes live in 3060, but it could be worth taking a look at the values and mechanics to balance PPCs now and to "future proof" them before we add the Capacitors in the future.

quote from Sarna:

Spoiler

The PPC Capacitor is an extra component that can be added to any type of Inner Sphere Particle Projection Cannon. It's main purpose is to inflict more damage on an enemy in one shot; this comes at an expense though, as it significantly raises the heat generated by each shot.

Game Rules

The Capacitor must be located in the same location as the PPC to which it is mounted. The Capacitor is required to be charged before firing. So long as the capacitor is charged, the next shot fired by the associated PPC deals an additional five damage and increases the heat generated from firing that weapon by five points. If the associated PPC is not fired by the end of the firing phase, the energy may be permitted to dissipate, generating no heat, or else retain the charge, generating another five points of heat. The associated PPC may not be fired on the same turn that the capacitor is charged. The PPC Capacitor is compatible with both standard and ER versions of the PPC.

Critical Hit effects: One critical hit to the Capacitor disables both the capacitor and the associated PPC, although the PPC is not considered damaged and may be rendered usable for combat with a five minute repair check at easy difficulty. Two critical hits to a PPC Capacitor renders it completely destroyed, and one hit causes a difficult repair job which costs 75% of the purchase price and takes three days of repair time.

Now lets take a look at possible MWO mechanics:

PPCs will be available as PPC, ERPPC, PPC+Cap and ERPPC+Cap variants.
Capacitor variants are named with the +Cap at the end.

Capacitor PPCs use 1 more slot and 1 more ton.
Capacitors adds 5 damage.
Using a PPC with Capacitor works similar to the charge of Gauss, but has two charge-stages.

Stage1 savety zone - shots standard PPC (no damage or heat difference).
Stage2 charged state - adds damage and heat.



Stage1:
- Click on the weapon group will start a charge up with two levels.
The first stage is a savety zone of [1] second that will produce no heat and will fire the PPC without loading the Capacitor.

- Triggering the weapon group again in this savety zone will fire the PPC the same as the "standard PPC".

- Triggering the weapon group before 0.25 seconds will fire at the minimum chargetime: 0.25 seconds.

- Holding the trigger down will not fire the PPC, but let you go through the first stage of savety charge and then stop the charge there, just like the Gauss charge to prevent stage2. (works only in first charge level)



Stage2:
- Waiting longer will put the Capacitor into affect and charging it up.
- After a [1] second chargetime in stage2, the Capacitor is now fully loaded and can be released at any time.

- The charged state last a maximum of [5] seconds.

- The stage2 charging and charged state produces [2] heat per second untill fired or dissipated at the end.
This would be a maximum of [6] seconds (charge and charged) with a maximum of [12] heat for the full duration, if not fired.

Triggering the charged weapon as soon as possible would be after [2] seconds ([1] for stage1 and [1] for stage1) charge up and would do additional [2] heat (for the stage2 charge).




Additional considerations:
All PPCs have a "delay" of 0.25 seconds when triggering the weapon.
All PPCs will have a default 50/50 distribution of the damage.
50% of the damage is dealt to the impact location and 50% is split to adjacent locations (see Clan ERPPC).

Capacitors will add all damage to the first component, the impact loaction and no damage to the splash component.

This leaves the PPCs with these stats:

PPC_________5dmg, ______5splash, __10heat, ______________7tons, __3slots
PPC+Cap____5dmg (+5), ___5splash, __10heat (+2 to 10heat), __8tons, __4slots
ERPPC______5dmg, _______5splash, __10heat, _____________7tons, __3slots
ERPPC+Cap__5dmg (+5), ___5splash, __15heat (+2 to 10heat), _8tons, __4slots

Clan-ERPPC__7.5dmg, ____7.5splash, __15heat, ___________6tons, ___2slots



Disclaimer:
I think that this distribution would balance it better than more on-spot damage with more heat.

All values are choosen with average impact to the game in mind and not min-maxing.
The time for the Charged state could be shorter for more heat to discharge faster, or have higher downside (heat) for charging, but I felt that the charge time is already a difficulty enough and the values allow to keep the charge longer with the HPS of a ERLL (2.0/sec).

I went with the click to charge to make it possible to use the "normal" mode of the PPC and to make it possible to stop charging without firing and without going through the full stage2 charge which adds heat.

[Reno Blade]

Ofc, the whole two-stage mechanic could be left off if you always would charge the capacitor if you had a PPC+Cap installed.

In this case you would just charge it up and release after releasing the button, or if the time is over, discharge without shooting.
But the charged time would still need to produce heat like in the original rules.

[General Taskeen]

For an idea on how it actually fires, that could be simplified a bit.

Simply tie a Capacitor to a button press.

As in press "C" to activate Capacitor Charge. And show in the weapon bar a visual of when it is "fully charged" but firing it any time before it is fully charged simply does its normal heat/damage numbers and resets the charge.

Imagine this is the PPC in the weapon bar charging

[----->+++]
[-------->+]

(the arrow being a charge bar moving until its complete)

The capacitor can then be shut "off" with the button press and it would fire normally.

Edited by General Taskeen, 16 August 2014 - 07:35 AM.

[Reno Blade]

That would be too easy