Lefty Lucy, on 11 August 2014 - 07:13 AM, said:
Doubled armor is also to keep 1-shot kills to a minimum.
I think any system that limits armor will simply produce a different set of "best" mechs, and might even limit mech variety rather than increasing it. For example the Timberwolf, already considered to be among the best (if not THE best) heavy mechs comes stock with near-max armor, whereas the Summoner isn't even close, so it would reduce even further the number of Summoners you see on the field.
Not a good plan.
1: The TBR is already better than the summoner. (Face it, Clan Wolf just builds better mechs than Jade Falcon
)
2: We must examine why it is that mechs like the Summoner (and Victor) come with less armor.
Example: The Summoner versus Timber Wolf- I can think of 2 reasons:
1: The TBR has 5 tons on the SMN
2: The Prime summoner has 5 Jumpjets, whereas the prime TBR has none.
So, how can we deal with this issue, while keeping Omni construction rules?
1st idea that comes to mind is locking the Jumpjets to the Omnipod. (The summoner has no choice but to have JJs because the prime variant has JJs. I think JJs should be locked to the omnipods on the mechs that do not have them on the prime. (TBR, KFX, etc..)
2nd idea: Give the SMN variants quirks for their loadouts. (Example: the Summoner prime has a primarily long range loadout, which in addition to the Jumpjets, leaves less room for armor.)
So, preliminary idea is to give the Summoner bonuses to its primary loadout.. faster LRM lock.. faster RoF for LBX autocannons, decreased heat from energy, etc.. Any number of things to encourage it to use the long range it was apparently designed for. Individual quirks as long as all Omnipods are of the same variant.
Could do something similar to the other omnis as well, including some negatives- Example: A TBR Prime, that switches a torso or two with the TBR-S would receive increased heat from Jumpjets. It already receives a negative in Torso twist, but as we can see, that is probably not enough. I do not want to heavily nerf clans, but I would like to encourage using uniform omnipods, beyond a pitiful 2.5% XP increase.
For Beasts like the TBR-S, perhaps we could slightly increase the RoF for SRMs...
----------------------------------------------------
Actually:
Full Stop-
Just had an idea to play around with: Hardpoint sizes- but NOT overly restrictive like making them only able to fit said weapons or smaller.
Perhaps instead:
Weapons of sizes different from the original would receive some sort of penalty.
Example: A TBR-S mounts 4xSRM6, meaning to Mount LRMs on there, the LRMs would receive either a [sic] heat penalty or perhaps a RoF penalty. Basically, anything other than SRMs or SSRMs would receive a slight penalty, and using the original weapon would result in a slight buff to the weapons in place.
Summary->
Example 2:
Original Weapon: Machine Gun.
Loading a small Autocannon would be a 5% decrease in RoF.
Loading a large Autocannon/Gauss would be a 10% decrease in RoF.
Using the original: Machine Gun would receive a 5% increase in RoF.
Example 3:
Original Weapon: Medium Laser.
Small laser would be a 10% less heat
Medium Laser: 5% less heat.
Medium Pulse Laser: No change.
(ER) Large Laser: 5% more heat
PPC: 10% more heat.
This just came to me, exactly, as I was typing- so it is akin to a writer jotting down an inspiration:
What do you think? Can something like this work? Is it a possible basis for something better?
Edited by Livewyr, 11 August 2014 - 08:24 AM.
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