Ultimatum X, on 01 October 2014 - 07:15 PM, said:
I was thinking about this, and I agree on principle.
Practically speaking, it's harder to balance than it looks imo.
Just some thoughts on it.
Do we make it so that 1 JJ does basically nothing, so that in comparison 5+ JJs is now “worth it” in that comparatively speaking the other option of “less than max” is a false option? What about 2 JJs? Should that also be non-viable? Where is the cut off point for basic investment if your only goal is avoid crappy terrain issues and not jump-combat?
Also if we make less than 5 very weak, what happens to mechs that can only slot 2-3? Where is the cutoff point for functionality?
Or do we have more of a gradient scale of usage so that 1 JJ is enough to just clear problem terrain like rocks, and 5 JJs are completely amazing, enough to leap over tall buildings and enemies like an acrobat, having huge tactical and combat advantages? (This is sort of the direction I’d like to see, maybe not so extreme at the high end of 5+)
If we don’t make 5, or 7, or whatever “max” JJs amount amazing then the tonnage investment will always be hard to justify in a game where there is never a MUST HAVE JUMP JETS situation. (Which is good, there should not be must have situations the way the game is currently played). Tonnage is tonnage, and optimized builds are tight. This isn't TT, we don't use stock armor values, almost no one uses SHS, almost everyone who can takes endo, I'm not sure holding to some "must have 5 JJs" rule makes any sense in light of that either.
If we do make them really amazing, are the tonnage costs alone enough to balance them vs. mechs that can’t have any JJs? We have to worry about them too, it's not just "1 JJ user vs. 5 JJ user".
Well, one elephant in the room besides JJs is the slope climbing code. Mechs slowing down when they climb something steep makes sense and should stay, but mechs coming to a complete stop on modest inclines is just silly. Mechs should only outright stop entirely if they try to do something silly like climb a sheer cliff face. Otherwise, they should just get slowed way down. If hill climbing wasn't so ridunkulous, JJs would feel more like a supplementary item rather than an absolute requirement needed to transverse random cars and statues parked in the street.
As for the jets themselves, that might be tricky. I'd lean more towards having 1 jet be fairly meager, as that seems like the lesser evil. It should do
something, but not much given the relatively small investment. If we really need to, we can also scale the heat output to be just as linear as the jump thrust/speed/distance/whatever (right now, IIRC, most of the heat comes from the first jet and then any subsequent jets add only a little bit of heat).
No matter what we do, some major PTS usage would be crucial here. JJs that weren't hoverboards would very likely have a deep impact on the game and we'd need to see that before bringing any changes live.