6 replies to this topic

[Teliri]

Consumables idea is very good, it give players additional tactical possibilities, why not extend it further?

1.Artillery is actively used now, but I have not seen air strike for a long time, may be replace an air strike on the discharge of mines? It works in a similar way as the air strike, on the line from the point to the player discards a set of ten mines, which cause damage to the enemys legs, mines are visible on the ground, but in the heat of battle in the rugged terrain they can be difficult to detect, mines gives huge tactical possibilities at playing in defense or in ambush especially for light mechs, you can mine the narrow passages, which are the main line of attack, or block the enemies maneuvers and retreats or deploy mines behind you if you are being chased for the pursuer to slow him down, or vice versa lure a powerful enemy in trap, in books mines are used almost constantly, and it's a good way to deal with Clans which obviously stronger than the Inner Sphere even though the Quirks system

2. a more dubious proposal, however: the call of helicopters? at the point of the call is coming couple of helicopters that fly in circles and firing of nearby enemies(also noticing them on the radar)such like this: http://www.solaris7....or_H-7_3026.jpg small attack heli armed with AC2 and SRM4, according to the technical readout it can be shot down with two shots of PPC, these helicopters can be used to increase the firepower of you own in the battle, calling them in the rear enemy we get a couple of guns and rockets into the bargain, and causes enemies to turn out and spend precious seconds on their destruction, assault mechs can use helicopters to aid in the battle against light mechs, you can call them in combat as an alternative to UAV, or you can use them to protect the base or control points, the enemy will take time to deal with them, and in contrast to the artillery that can be missed and not to cause any damage at all the helicopters necessarily hurt somebody, even though not much

This consumables preferred for the Inner Sphere, as I guess Clans prefer a fair fight not tactical tricks

There are many other options, I think these two options the most simple and logical. personally i want more tactical diversity, attracting additional combat arms other than mechs, but do not want to play in the transformation of the DoTA or Team Fortress

what do you think guys?
Offer your options

[Kalimaster]

I like the idea of mines. Nice.

[RapierE01]

The Chopper Idea sounds nice. Clans could get a Star of Elementals for the same task.

[shellashock]

I like the idea of vibromines dropped from an airstrike, but I have some concerns about it.

Would the mines have a timer before deactivating/exploding? Would suck if you dropped some mines and walked back onto them 10 minutes later because the enemy didn't set them off and you forgot about them.

If mines lasted for the whole match, would the server get bogged down checking updates from (assuming each airstrike drops 10-12 mines each) a maximum of 240-288 mines at one time plus the typical calculations?

Would mines be invincible until they are triggered by stepping on them (or timer expired induced explosion), or would they be like fragile turrets that explode when dealt enough damage?

What kind of art would they be given? Would they have a mined "hedgehog" look to them (look up Czech hedgehog), or would they be a different/more futuristic design?

[Teliri]

shellashock

I guess that mines require a few seconds to activate, so if they were thrown straight at you, you have time to escape, and I guess that mines should has friend\foe recognition (this is the 31st millennium), ideally allied mines should be displayed on the radar (possibly not every mine but icon at the point of discharge until there is at least one operating mine in a minefield, like UAV or turret marker)

I guess that the mines are disabled some time after the reset, for example 5 minutes, plus there is a charge timer for all team like for air strike, so no one can cover the entire map with mines, but a couple of ways to close the enemies will probably, also not every the player will take mines someone prefer artillery, so I do not think that it will be a problem the server, besides mine is static object, so information about its coordinates must be transferred at the time when the mines arrives and at the time when its explodes, the client makes the rest of calculations, but I'm not a programmer i am an artist, I find it easier to draw this mine or helicopter)

and about art, let me introduce you...
MINE!

normal, dffuse and spec maps makes it cool looking
ideal round battletech design and less polygons than in the AC projectile
if you wondering about texture i think its like turret base ore something like that:

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

1 - Mines

Three modules. Minefield Drop, Improved Minefield Drop, Priority Minefield Drop.

Minefield Drop places a red smoke cannister where the cursor is aimed. After 10s, a volley of Thunder munitions impacts the target area from off-map launchers, deploying 6 mine clusters. Each cluster does 10 damage to any mech closer than 10m to one edge of the cluster when it triggers. Clusters trigger when they take more than 10 damage, or when a hostile (they have integrated IFF receivers) mech of 55 or more tons comes within 5m of the cluster.

Improved and Priority Minefield Drops reduce the time to drop to 6s, and increase the number of mine clusters deployed to 10.

Costs would be the same as other consumables.

2 - Close Air Support

Close Air Support calls in a pair of heavy gunship helicopters to orbit the area, with an orbit radius of 200m centered on the location where the module was triggered. Each gunship flies at a speed of 200 m/s and fires 4 MLs and 1 LL at the nearest visible enemy within optimal range for a given weapon. They remain in play for two minutes or until destroyed.

Improved and Priority Close Air Support calls in a third heavy gunship helicopter, and extends their time in zone to three minutes. There would be a global team cooldown of one and a half minutes.

Cost would be the same as other consumables.

3 - Jump Infantry Platoon

Jump Infantry Platoon would generate blue smoke at the point of aim, designating where a high altitude transport will overfly the battlefield, dropping after ten seconds a platoon of anti-mech jump infantry armed with a mix small lasers and SRM2s. They would operate as 3 squads, each armed with two lasers and one missile launcher, and each squad would be destroyed upon taking 10 points of damage. MGs and Flamers would do ten times their base damage againt infantry squads. They would engage the nearest enemy within the optimum range of their weapons, and would move to engage any enemies who enter a zone within 150m of the target drop point.

Reinforced and Elite Jump Infantry Platoons would increase the number of squads deployed to 5, and decrease the time until they arrive to 6s.

Pricing would match other consumables. It would be Inner Sphere Only.

4 - Elemental Point

Elemental Point would be deployed instantly around the mech using the module. It will deploy 5 Elementals, each armed with a single MG, a single SL, and a single SRM2. They will follow within 10m of the mech that deployed them. Each Elemental will be destroyed after taking 6 points of damage. They will show up on sensors with their own symbol.

Reinforced and Elite Elemental Points will increase the health of each Elemental to 10.

Pricing would match other consumables. It would be Clan only.

[Rasc4l]

Very good proposals, especially the mines and elementals. I think mines should be IS only and elementals (naturally) clan only.

The helicopter might be a bit more difficult as they can easily be OP, because 1) some mechs without arm weapons may not be able to shoot them at all and 2) crappy hitreg will make sure you'll never hit them. Due to the second reason, they should have only something like 1-2 health so they drop easily. And also run out of ammo quite soon.