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Boating multiple pin point weapon systems has been standard practice for a while now in this and any prior MW title. The benefits of doing so are, of course, more damage on a specific part you want, reduced need to expose yourself for extended periods, and the ability to fire and shield to extend your own mech's lifespan, which does throw in a little extra skill factor between a well piloted mech vs a less skilled individual.
The downside to boating multiple high damage pin point front loaded weapons, especially if they are long range weapons, is that it punishes brawler builds, who not only need to cross distance, but then need to contend with fairly rapid rate of fire from those ranged builds. Totally eliminating high pinpoint long range damage, however, would make it far too easy to brawl and punish those players who do enjoy the long range game.
The idea I propose is, let us call it, Ghost Recharge. Again, it could be applied globally (alongside or replacing ghostheat) or be applied specifically to certain chassis as a quirk.
Simply, the more of a given weapon or weapons MOUNTED (not fired, mounted) on a mech, the longer the cool down of that or those weapons on the mech. An example would be, say:
"Any additional Gauss or (ER)PPC mounted to the mech increases Gauss and (ER)PPC cool down by 1 second."
As applied to practice application, one gauss would fire at its current rate if fire, two would fire one second slower, three ERPPC would fire two seconds slower, and two gauss + two PPC would fire three seconds slower. The trade being made here is that while you are allowed to have the current front loaded pinpoint firepower, the rate of fire, and overall DPS, suffers. High pinpoint, low fire rate. Low pinpoint, high fire rate. And if you are the kind of person who wants a simple fluffy explanation of reason, "the power drain required to feed multiples of a given weapon result in a slower recharge to them."
If the cooldown delay value varries by weapon, you could even use it to tone down ballistic boating builds or increase the gap between lrm5 rain clouds. Or, well, any system taken in bulk. It would promote builds with less of a given weapon system while (slightly) toning them down the more you equip.
Again, this thread's purpose is to discuss the pros and cons of the idea. I am sure there are many aspects of it, both good and bad, that I would personally never see, and would be curious about community thoughts about it.
Edit for Clarity:
I was picturing it like a cooldown based penalty as opposed to a heat penalty, with each weapon getting specifically linked and given appropriate values, with cooldown increasing happening only for each weapon beyond the allowable baseline, and with that penalty automatically incurring based on your mech loadout - not based on what you fire, which would allow it to circumvent macro bypasses entirely.
Also, to reiterate, it could be used as a NEGATIVE QUIRK, as opposed to a global cap, meaning it could be applied to specific trouble chassis while leaving underperformers alone.
Edited by Pariah Devalis, 12 January 2015 - 04:41 PM.
