231 replies to this topic

[Tombstoner]

KraftySOT, on 19 September 2014 - 10:43 AM, said:

But some cant...i think he was trying to speak to the philosophy of handling a pre existing IP...you know you cant do wrong, doing more of the same, but you know youll lose someone if you make changes. You might get new people but thats a gamble, and when dealing with someone you didnt originally create, the best policy is to just go with what the original authors of the idea intended.

You get this is comics all the time, same thing...you have a pre existing thing, the comic, and then someone translates that to a movie...in the 80s there were all kinds of horrible comic to movie adaptations that completely abandoned the lore of the characters. They "made the hulk breath fire" so to speak. Something that the much loved Hulk television series, didnt do.

Theres always translation problems...but it seems to me after the past 15 years of ridiculusly successful comic to movie adaptations that are almost spot on plot wise...that Stan Lee is right. You dont change a good thing.

Still waiting on a decent wonder women movie.....

[Lefty Lucy]

Tombstoner, on 19 September 2014 - 10:40 AM, said:

This is because of PGI's alteration of the TT values and failure to correctly adjust damage/heat values for increased rates of fire.

I don't necessarily agree with their reasoning, but I can see why they did it. In the "lore" (i.e. fiction) even the lowly Locust gets hot in the cockpit under sustained fire, however in TT the locust needs two engine hits to really start generating heat.

They wanted to capture the feel in the Lore of every mech worrying about heat build up, so they designed a heat system where you can't be heat neutral without totally gimping your mech design, like 20 DHS to cool 4 MLs.

Personally, I've always advocated a high dissipation/low cap system, because it would simultaneously prevent big alphas while also allowing mechs to "ride the scale" better, but PGI has chosen to go with adding invisible complexity on to their base system instead (ghost heat).

[KraftySOT]

Kind of case in point. Tim Burtons Batman. Not bad. Not great. Alot of fanboy rage over the whole, Joker killing his parents and dying thing (batman totally killed him, might as well have him wearing a pink cap and breathing fire)

The Dark Knight? Man that thing killed at the box office as did the other ones, unlike the shoddy spiral of shame that was the original Batman series.

When you have something that people have loved for a long, long time....if youre going to mess with it and take license...you damn well better be good at it.

Tombstoner, on 19 September 2014 - 10:47 AM, said:

Still waiting on a decent wonder women movie.....

rofl fair point.

Lefty Lucy, on 19 September 2014 - 10:47 AM, said:

I don't necessarily agree with their reasoning, but I can see why they did it. In the "lore" (i.e. fiction) even the lowly Locust gets hot in the cockpit under sustained fire, however in TT the locust needs two engine hits to really start generating heat.

They wanted to capture the feel in the Lore of every mech worrying about heat build up, so they designed a heat system where you can't be heat neutral without totally gimping your mech design, like 20 DHS to cool 4 MLs.

Personally, I've always advocated a high dissipation/low cap system, because it would simultaneously prevent big alphas while also allowing mechs to "ride the scale" better, but PGI has chosen to go with adding invisible complexity on to their base system instead (ghost heat).

See now I totally agree with everything you just wrote.

[KraftySOT]

See now ill give it to PGI

They made a game that LOOKS as good as this:



Im honestly pretty sure you could make a game that plays like this.

[Joseph Mallan]

Tombstoner, on 19 September 2014 - 10:47 AM, said:

Still waiting on a decent wonder women movie.....

Here she is

Stefka Kerensky, on 19 September 2014 - 10:20 AM, said:

I can only say that MAXTECH is the best BT TT book EVER...
Truly a must, imo.

And this we play is NOT a whatsoever giant robot videogame.

We need to bring MWO toward BT, because now it's too much "casual", imo.

Must agree. We played a lot of MaxTech with our CBT games.

[KraftySOT]

Mech combat is slooooooow in that intro. But devastating once it happens. What I like most about that intro from MW3 is that it really looks no better than Fallout3...

The falls, the engine explosion, even the damage effects, the tanks and infantry...the time it takes to fire and lock weapons...I mean thats the game we all wanted to play when we watched this intro the first time.

And notice that the Atlas's lasers totally dont converge on a pin point.

I mean come on lol

And look how much bigger that Atlas is than the Timber...

I WANT THAT.

[Koniving]

Joseph Mallan, on 19 September 2014 - 10:08 AM, said:

How many Heat sinks does this theoretical Mech have Kon? Cause I bet I can fire more than One at a time. The HellStar can fire all 4 of its PPCs on one pull thanks to the plethora of Double sinks it has.

It was someone else's thereotical mech. My Battlemaster with 7 PPCs had 17 DHS.
Those 4 PPCs are fired across 10 seconds. Do they hit the same body part?
I also know that those PPCs will hit up to 4 different body parts and in the best case scenario might hit 3 on one body part, though not necessarily at the same time.
And if you want to claim lack of convergence, well then how are you going to aim 4 weapons down 4 different sights at once?

Now in lore, you have a delayed charge up which helps dissipate the heat. You also have heatsinks that absorb about 50 to 75% of the heat immediately, and dissipate the rest of the heat over time.
Lets take your Hellstar then.
The Hellstar's got 30 DHS, 60 cooling across 10 seconds.
Lore-style.
0 seconds: Fires 60 heat. We won't even take the charge up into account here and the heat division there.
Heatsinks absorb 40 heat immediately. 4 ER PPCs are fired. Heatsinks are heavily occupied, + 20 heat to total threshold.
1 second: Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 34 left. They absorb 6 more heat bringing it back to 40. Currently at 14 heat.
2 seconds: Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 34 left. They absorb 6 more heat bringing it back to 40. Currently at 8 heat.
3 seconds: Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 34 left. They absorb 6 more heat bringing it back to 40. Currently at 2 heat.
4 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 34 left. They absorb 2 more heat it bringing it to 36. Currently at 0 heat of threshold.
5 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 30 left. Currently at 0 heat of threshold.
6 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 24 left.
7 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 18 left.
8 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 12 left.
9 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed leaving 6 left.
10 seconds. Heatsinks dissipate 6 heat from what was absorbed, leaving 0 left.

BT simplified.
Fires 4 ER PPCs. Magically hit 4 different things.
Sinks 60 heat.

BT real time.
Fires 4 ER PPCs. Magically hit 4 different things.
200% heat, shuts down.
10 seconds later: 0 heat, starts up.

BT/MW reasonable:
You wouldn't fire 4 shots at once, leaving yourself unable to fire ever again. Especially when the books have that ACs can take up to 100 shots to do their damage, lasers take up to 20 zaps to do their damage, etc. Are you gonna fire all 4 ER PPCs and be helpless for 10 seconds? What are you gonna do when you're looking down the barrels of 2 UAC/20s with nothing you can fire for 9 seconds?
Instead:
0 seconds. Fire 1 ER PPC. 50% heat. (15)
1 second: Cool 6 heat. 9 heat.
2 seconds: Cool 6 heat. 3 heat. Fire 1 ER PPC. (15+3 = 18)
3 seconds: Cool 6 heat. 12 heat.
4 seconds. Cool 6 heat. 6 heat.
5 seconds. Cool 6 heat. 0 heat. Fire 1 ER PPC. (15)
6 seconds. Cool 6 heat. 9 heat.
7 seconds. Cool 6 heat. 3 heat. Fire 1 ER PPC. (15 + 3 = 18)
8 seconds. Cool 6 heat. 12 heat.
9 seconds. Cool 6 heat. 6 heat.
10 seconds. Cool 0 heat.

This is much like the Warhawk, except it is still 66.67% threshold in doing the same thine.

[Lefty Lucy]

KraftySOT, on 19 September 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

Mech combat is slooooooow in that intro. But devastating once it happens. What I like most about that intro from MW3 is that it really looks no better than Fallout3...

The falls, the engine explosion, even the damage effects, the tanks and infantry...the time it takes to fire and lock weapons...I mean thats the game we all wanted to play when we watched this intro the first time.

And notice that the Atlas's lasers totally dont converge on a pin point.

I mean come on lol

And look how much bigger that Atlas is than the Timber...

I WANT THAT.

I noticed mechs dying in seconds after engagement. Also the summoner totally 1-shotted that light. Wasn't really that slow.

[KraftySOT]

Weird quoting isn't working.

Theyre all damaged. Its not that different really from the end of a MWO match. The only difference is mechanics. They don't seem to be alpha striking and acquiring a target takes longer. Which if you do that you don't need the double armor values. The Atlas had no problem taking 2 clan ERLL to the CT even damaged. Looked like the AC20 and 3 medium or small lasers did in the timbers XL and it went nova.

The single PPC taking out the light is a little silly ill grant you.

In the TT though, armor is pretty thin and weapons pretty strong you just miss a lot. When you get to faceto face where the to hits are low for everyone, the fight is over in a turn or two. 10 or 20 seconds.


And that said, brawling in this game is great...that's spot on. The TT values and such and heat scale would be nice, but it feels right mostly.

Its the weird rules PGI came up with combat the lrmaggedon and the long range poptarting...which if you TTd tose things, they wouldn't have been a problem.

Edited by KraftySOT, 19 September 2014 - 11:23 AM.

[Hagoromo Gitsune]

KraftySOT, on 19 September 2014 - 10:32 AM, said:

Nope. I dont want to ruin the game. I want to make the game better, more BT based, more sim like, more challenging, more rewarding, more in line with other games, maybe get us to Steam, Esports....that would be very cool.

I want to see a mechwarrior computer game shown the same love, with the same presence, at things like Dragon*Con and GenCon, as the battletech table top.

I want to see the table top tournaments going down in the same hotel lobby as the PC game tournament. I want those two communities to be one n the same. Unity and success.

Lol, let's just drop a dice than...mhu-ha-ha-ha

With such an "improvements" you can forget about E-sports or ESL for MWO. Or MWO become arcade alike mech shooter MMO like WoT/War Thunder/CS, or you and bunch of BT TT fangirls just can gtfo and take MWO with you. We not gonna let you with such a "loadout" came into ESL. Never. Uhm-uhm. It's just gonna be another "Niko and the Reddit".
You just simply does not came into someone's house seting your rules.

Trust me I got a right to speak for ESL, I'm a ESL member and moderator already for more than 5 years. I'm also BT fan for 20 years already, bu not a BT TT. So...no.

Edited by Hagoromo Gitsune, 19 September 2014 - 11:28 AM.

[KraftySOT]

+

And you can tell that how those final minutes of that "match" went, the combat was slow but lethal right up until the end.

We'll see what the CW maps (the hype ray hit me) and that attack/defend bring, but without the ghost heat and such and a better more TT heat system, its probably going to be a sniper lrm fest, or maps that are so closed in to prevent it instead of just makin a TT heat system that properly punishes the attempt at pop tarting from 900m.

You could have fixed that problem with makin weapons have a cone of fire, and time on target to converge system that makes It unlikely to hit the same location on a mech at 900m

[Hagoromo Gitsune]

KraftySOT, on 19 September 2014 - 11:27 AM, said:

+

And you can tell that how those final minutes of that "match" went, the combat was slow but lethal right up until the end.

We'll see what the CW maps (the hype ray hit me) and that attack/defend bring, but without the ghost heat and such and a better more TT heat system, its probably going to be a sniper lrm fest, or maps that are so closed in to prevent it instead of just makin a TT heat system that properly punishes the attempt at pop tarting from 900m.

You could have fixed that problem with makin weapons have a cone of fire, and time on target to converge system that makes It unlikely to hit the same location on a mech at 900m

I think you don't have no idea what is a cyber-sport/E-sports at all and on about.

[KraftySOT]

Hagoromo Gitsune, on 19 September 2014 - 11:23 AM, said:

Lol, let's just drop a dice than...mhu-ha-ha-ha

With such an "improvements" you can forget about E-sports or ESL for MWO. Or MWO become arcade alike mech shooter MMO like WoT/War Thunder/CS, or you and bunch of BT TT fangirls just can gtfo and take MWO with you. We not gonna let you with such a "loadout" came into ESL. Never. Uhm-uhm. It's just gonna be another "Niko and the Reddit".
You just simply does not came into someone's house seting your rules.

Trust me I got a right to speak for ESL, I'm a ESL member and moderator already for more than 5 years. I'm also BT fan for 20 years already, bu not a BT TT. So...no.

I honestly dont even understand what youre saying.

Esports:

http://en.wikipedia....ectronic_sports

You speak for dozens of leagues and companies? Weird.

Next point:

"improvements"? Could you detail out exactly what about the multiple people proposing the 30 heat scale you dont like, why, why it wont work, and why it wont work in whatever esports league youre affiliated with. Also the lack of pin point convergence, thats in every game in an esports FPS tournament, would disqualify it is what youre saying?

Can you make your response a little more coherent next time? All im reading is "I HAVE NO ARGUMENT BUT I HATE TTers AND THIER STUPID IDEAS, I REPRESENT ALL ESPORTS AND YOUR IDEAS WILL DOOM THIS GAME!"

Heres some CPL listing from Poland in 2011 for BF3:

http://www.esl.eu/eu...p/team/6236904/



Could you explain to me, what about BF3s aiming system does, or doesnt, qualify it for the CPL?

Is battlefield 3 striving to be more realistic than call of duty disqualifying it from being in the CPL?

Clearly not.

Would MWO be disqualified from esports if it was more like the board game?

Clearly not.

[Fut]

Hagoromo Gitsune, on 19 September 2014 - 11:23 AM, said:

Or MWO become arcade alike mech shooter MMO like WoT/War Thunder/CS, or you and bunch of BT TT fangirls just can gtfo and take MWO with you.

I'm with Krafty on this one, I really don't understand what you're trying to say either...
Although, I do think that if us BT TT Fangirls, as you call us, could take MWO with us it'd be for the best. MWO would be a lot more fun if it stuck closer to the TT.

Besides, the changes we're discussing move MWO further away from being Arcadey. Right now it's all about cramming as many big weapons into your Mech as possible and pressing one button over and over again (hint: the button is ALPHA-STRIKE!). Doesn't get much more arcadey than that.

Edited by Fut, 19 September 2014 - 11:44 AM.

[KraftySOT]

Here I find this to be helpful when trying to propose an argument:

• Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.”
  
• Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
  
• Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
  
• Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. What survives, the hypothesis that resists disproof in this Darwinian selection among “multiple working hypotheses,” has a much better chance of being the right answer than if you had simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
  
• Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will.
  
• Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations. Of course there are truths to be sought in the many qualitative issues we are obliged to confront, but finding them is more challenging.
  
• If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them.
  
• Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the dataequally well to choose the simpler.
  
• Always ask whether the hypothesis can be, at least in principle, falsified. Propositions that are untestable, unfalsifiable are not worth much. Consider the grand idea that our Universe and everything in it is just an elementary particle — an electron, say — in a much bigger Cosmos. But if we can never acquire information from outside our Universe, is not the idea incapable of disproof? You must be able to check assertions out. Inveterate skeptics must be given the chance to follow your reasoning, to duplicate your experiments and see if they get the same result.
  
  
  I thought about this before I started arguing about TT adaptation. Most of the ideas presented, the convergence, the heat, the ecm, etc, are very good ideas, and unless youre going to counter with why they wont work , what good are you doing?
  
  http://mwomercs.com/...22#entry2893422
  
  These are good ideas. So is the radar solution to ECM, with the passive /active sensor range thing that was bumped recently.

Between Kono, Homeless Bill, StJobe, and some of the others who have written lengthy articles on these issues, especially on heat because thats the OP....the solution to these problems just so happens to be very close to the TT.

You dont even have to acknowledge that its based on the TT..

Theyre just damned good ideas.

Heres another good heat idea:

http://mwomercs.com/...50#entry3502450

[KraftySOT]

And you dont have to remove instant heat or it disapating over time...just link it to the weapon recycle times.

If you have a PPC doing 10 heat, and 10 heat sinks, and arent moving, by the time you fire the PPC again, your heat should be gone.

If you have the 30 heat scale, not the 100% scale, and have the proper effects for it, movement penalties and aiming penalties, then youve got a good cap on loadouts globally, you dont have to arbitrarily nerf and buff things.

The system in BT numerically, is very, very balanced. Especially with the trade offs between heat, fire power, speed, and armor. You have alot of options to get crazy 6 PPC load outs, but you simply cant also have armor, jump jets, a targeting computer heat efficiency and speed.

Even if the only penalty for 30 heat is shutting down, if you have those aiming penalties, the alpha strike isnt a garauntee to kill what youre shooting at even if its a lighter mech. But you are garaunteed to shut down and be defenseless. Risk vs reward is the core of battletech.

When you have guys insta killing mechs, its a problem. When you add things that are waaaay unpopular (ghost heat), its a problem.

What needed to be fixed was the insta killing and guys jumping up and insta killing. Thats a problem that needs to be dealt with at the source, namely, the ability to hit a single pixel on an enemy mech and blow him up instantly. You cant nerf other unrelated system as a global cap to that ability.

Which it didnt even do...people still instagib peoples CTs. So now you have a frustrating arbitrary system, that doesnt totally stop what it intended to stop.

Why WOULDNT you want to listen to the TT people who told you this from the start. Back in Closed Beta it sounds like from this thread.

[Hagoromo Gitsune]

KraftySOT, on 19 September 2014 - 11:36 AM, said:

Fut, on 19 September 2014 - 11:39 AM, said:

Wow-wow! Do you realy match MWO with BF3? OMG/Facepalm.

To match BF3 you need a least 90% content added, and so, and so... stable understandable balance between fractions IS/CLANS. Till now MWO fails in every thing, so there'll be no E-sports for you. Deal with it, or get over it.

Edited by Hagoromo Gitsune, 19 September 2014 - 12:14 PM.

[Roadbeer]

So, lots going on here. Lots of maths taken from the myriad of TT rules that have come out throughout the years... Everyone (except the ones saying that this is MechWarrior and not BattleTech, who need to just uninstall) is more or less right.

The overlying problem is, BattleTech has never really gotten it right when translated into realtime. Yes, conceptually we get that the 10 second rule isn't the mech just standing there waiting for stuff to happen, but computers are piss poor at conceptualizing, so you need to kludge that into real time. A few games have done it "well" but none have really "gotten it right".

Since I've come to the acceptance that this is PGI's "Interpretation" of BattleTech (a fine print I lost my mind over when I finally noticed it) I'm just going to put this out there.

1. Cone of Fire: Yes
Now just STOP before you say "But computers". In 2014, an M1A1 Abrams is capable of hitting it's target at 50mph, but I'll defy you to tell me that a gunner put a shell down the barrel of an enemy tank without finishing the sentence "and it was a damn lucky shot". Remember, we're battling with tech that's several hundred years old at this point and the civilization has stagnated, if not slightly regressed from the point the tech was "new".
Computers can do a lot to mitigate the effects of physics, they cannot fundamentally break the laws of it. I don't care if you hook Deep Thought up to your PPCs and ACs. It's only going to be able to anticipate the 10,000 environmental effects between the barrel and the target. It can't nullify them.

2. Heat mitigation and damage tables: Yes.
Nothing to say on this other than "Do it"

3. Heat generation, boating, and stuff: See below.
Ok, so there has been a system implemented to disincentivize boating and ALPHA strikes. Nobody likes it (well, nobody who's paying attention anyway). It's unnecessarily complicated, violates the spirit of a lot of the game, and unintentionally penalizes a lot of "lore" and "viable" builds in the interest of preventing edge case builds.

I'm going to put out, what in my mind, is a fairly simple solution to the "ghost heat" conundrum.

Have everything that is active, generate heat.

ECM, BAP, Active/Passive modules. Everything that is turned on, generates a fixed amount of heat. the cumulative buildup of equipment would be a better disincentive to high heat weapon builds. The high end would be ECM with something like [6] and the low end would be like 360 Target at [2].

I think, this would allow the (re)implementation of 2.0 DHS, allow for heat neutral mechs, remove the bristling juggernauts of top end weapons and best of all, wipe away the need for voodoo heat mechanics.

Just putting it out there.

[Training Instructor]

ugrakarma, on 19 September 2014 - 07:40 AM, said:

No thank you. Never. I understand what you TT guys are aiming at but you fail to understand that this is a First Person Shooter - not a tabletop game nor a simulator of any sort. Below is just an example of the heatscale in OP.


WHAT TT HEATSCALE WOULD DO IN MWO

5 Heat (16,6%) - -1 Movement Points

On a Jenner this means ~9% speed reduction. Max speed reduced from 152.7 kph to 139 kph. On an Atlas however this means 20% a drop from 60.4 kph to 48.3 kph with 340 engine.

8 Heat (27,6%) - +1 Modifier to Fire

A random number generated (RNG) variable to make you miss your shots where you aim them at. Skill reducing variable.

10 Heat (33%) - -2 movement Points

Jenner takes 18% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 124,9 kph. Atlas takes 40% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 36,2 kph.

13 Heat (43%) - +2 Modifier to Fire

Even more RNG to make you miss your shots.

14 Heat (47%) - Shutdown, avoid on 4+

33% chance to shutdown. More RNG. Skill reducing variable.

15 Heat (50%) - -3 Movement Points

Jenner takes 27% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 111 kph. Atlas takes 60% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 24.2 kph.

17 Heat (57%) - +3 Modifier to Fire

Even more RNG to make you miss your shots - at this point you'll be spreading dmg like a day one rookie.

18 Heat (60%) - Shutdown, avoid on 6+

50% change to shutdown. More RNG.

19 Heat (63%) - Ammo Explosion, avoid on 4+

33% chance to ammo explosion. Possible fatal. More RNG - think of arty headshots.

20 Heat (66%) - -4 Movement Points

Jenner takes 36% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 97.1 kph. Atlas takes 80% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 12.1 kph.

22 Heat (73%) - Shutdown, avoid on 8+

67% chance to shutdown. More RNG.

23 Heat (77%) - Ammo Explosion, avoid on 6+

50% chance to ammo explosion. Possible fatal. More RNG.

24 Heat (80) - +4 Modifier to Fire

More RNG penalties to aim. Nearly impossible to hit anything (think of firing while using jump jets)

25 Heat (83%) - -5 Movement Points

Jenner takes 46% speed reduction. Max speed reduced to 82.5 kph. Atlas is unable to move at all.

26 Heat (87%) - Shutdown, avoid on 10+

83% chance to shutdown. More RNG.

28 Heat (93%) - Ammo Explosion, avoid on 8+

67% to ammo explosion. Possible fatal. More RNG.

30 Heat (100%) - Shutdown

100% chance to shut down.


On suggestions like HUD flicker - I'm all in. But to add random elements to skill based shooter is just not going to work.

Bad mech to pick. The Jenner's, due to coming in perfectly under the ghost heat threshold while also getting the benefit of 10 true dhs and low weight JJ, are still extremely effective gunboats. Needs have barely affected them for the past two years.

[Christof Romulus]

IsaAurinkoinen, on 19 September 2014 - 02:03 AM, said:

I call BS. How this is killing creativity when you are punished boating lots of same weapon. If you want to run more same weapons than GH limit, you just have to manage you heat better. GH isn't real problem to many, idea of it is not from TT/canon is. If you think GH is problem, maybe you are just bad in this game? Sorry. Thou love heat scale penalty idea. We need more hot maps and penalties to run too hot.

+1 for THIS GUY.

Seriously, Ghost heat was created to stop everyone from filling every energy slot on their mech with PPCs and every ballistic slot on their mech with AC 2's. This is the exact opposite of creativity - it was bland and everyone was doing it!

This breaks down weapon combinations that aren't combinations - A large laser firing with... OH A LARGE LASER! Perfect! Same range, damage, cooldown, and if fired from the same body location, no additional effort is required! Sooooooo creative!

Mechs that utilized multiple weapon systems were at a disadvantage to those that stacked the same weapon. Ghost heat helps mitigate this and thus creates builds that aren't entirely ONE weapon system.

The ONLY downside that I see is that it punishes stock builds - which are the only mechs that I think should either be exempt, or have some perk or quirk that makes it possible for the stock builds to function.