Russ Bullock:
Having read all of your posted comments in this thread so far I'd like to say a couple of things.
First, good on your for actually listening to your player base in regards to jump jets' new worthlessness, and the need for more chassis-specific quirks on IS mechs. I would encourage you to
over-boost the jump jets as much as possible, though. Increase their power as much as you are comfortable doing - and then do it even more.
There are numerous ways to allow jump jets to perform their intended feats of agility while still making pop-tarting a less-than-ideal tactic. Unlike what Paul Inouye said a couple of months ago, jump jets absolutely ARE intended to allow you to "rocket across the battlefield." That's what they are designed to do - at great cost to weapon accuracy, some cost to heat, and a possibility of damaging yourself with a bad landing. If your response to this concept is, "not everything translates from tabletop," well, I agree with that statement. So does pretty much everyone else, to varying degrees.
So let's just say that we cannot base JJ performance in MWO on their performance in TT. Fine. So why not base their performance in terms of
what adds the most fun to the game? Rocket packs that blast off sound MUCH more fun than the hover jets we have now. They sound much more fun than even their original methods of functioning. There are many, many ways to balance strongly accelerating jump jets. Weapon inaccuracy(during fall as well as lift), increased heat, limited in-air use after the initial boost. or even using a charge mechanic similar to gauss rifles.
As an example of said charge mechanic, you could either 1) hold the charge to the half point, getting half of your maximum possible initial thrust and distance, but able to land perfectly safely; or you could 2) hold the charge to the full point, going twice as far/high but receiving damage upon landing
and risking falling over(if you ever re-implement 'mechs falling over). Point being, balancing jump jets by making them boring is just bad. They should be FUN, first and foremost. All other things can be modified, but leave the FUN element primary.
The issue at the core of the pop-tarting problem is not the jumping mechanic itself. It never was. The real mechanic that made pop-tarting a problem is the fact that some weapons (autocannons and PPCs, namely) dump all their damage instantaneously, and into the same precise location. Now I know you've heard this all before, and I won't dwell on it. That's the way you want (Inner Sphere) ballistics to work, OK. It's y'all's game, not mine. The point is simply that there should be no illusions about what the problem's cause is.
You should still understand that
this is what made pop-tarting such a well-performing tactic. The fact you've made in-game gravity strong enough to pull 'mechs back down to earth about three times faster than they would at Earth-levels of gravity, thus making dropping down from a jump safer than hitting reverse after peeking around a corner, only compounds the fact that pinpoint front-loaded damage far outclasses damage over time when your targets have multiple body sections that register damage independently of each other. Compounding this advantage is the fact that the pinpoint damage weapons not only have the pinpoint advantage, they also have a massive DPS advantage!*
If you don't want to remove this type of damage, fine - but understand that's what led to pop-tarting, not jump jets themselves. I mean, all you would really need to do to prevent it ever being a problem again is to re-implement delayed weapons alignment. You know, the way lasers and such had to focus on the reticle for about a second in order to all converge on the same point? Why was that taken out, anyway? And is there any good reason you can't put it back in? It seems it would solve more than just the pop-tarting issue - it also increases time-to-kill, gives differing advantages to fast vs slow mechs (fast mechs dodge more shots, slow mechs cause more damage with each landed hit), and gives players a choice on unloading ALL THE LAZORZ constantly or waiting for a bit more accuracy - brute force vs surgical strikes. So tell me, why aren't you putting this back in!?
Now, finally...
Second, I actually
like the idea of some variants getting
weapon-specific quirks. Ignore the min-maxing nay-sayers who complain about not being able to do god-tier builds on 'mechs that were never meant to carry the builds they use. The Hunchback 4G was designed as a brawler, and its quirks should
absolutely reflect that. If someone wants a sniper they should still be able to do that, but because (in-universe) that would mean completely stripping apart and re-building the mech from the endoskeleton up, it should be less proficient at it than it is at its intended purpose. Each 'mech should have a role, and pilots should be rewarded for playing each 'mech to its strengths. I see no valid reason to reward them for playing a 'mech to its weaknesses.
And, at last.
Third, LOL at all the people complaining about Timber Wolves getting nerfed! Russ, ignore these people. The TW is a god-tier 'mech in MWO right now. There is no other 'mech in the game that is as clearly a good choice as the TW is. The Shadowhawk and Dire Wolf come close, but I would consider them "Tier 1" in your own categorization. The TW is on another plane of existence. Anyone complaining about their god-mech being brought down to a
reasonable, fair level cares less about the game being good and more about seeing themselves do as much stomping as possible with as little effort as possible.
*EDIT: A medium laser does the same damage as an AC/5, but only fires half as often...
and its range is also at a massive disadvantage. Now, yes, you can pack on eight of them instead of a single AC/5, tonnage-wise - but even then, the AC/5 STILL retains not only the advantage in doing ALL of its damage to a single point, instantly - it also maintains a huge range advantage
and an even bigger heat advantage. My point here is not that the AC/5 is grossly overpowered
per se, but that it makes little sense for the weapon with a pinpoint advantage (which is a stronger advantage than volume of damage, range, DPS, heat, or anything else) to also have a DPS advantage. And a range advantage. And a heat advantage. The only
disadvantage is tonnage, which is hardly enough to make it even.
Edited by Bloodweaver, 29 September 2014 - 05:57 PM.
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knightsljx, on 29 September 2014 - 02:52 PM, said:
So for example how many jump jets does it take a Victor and TW to get to the same turn speed as standing? Then I would assume any number after that gives it an increase of standing turn speed.
