Jetfire, on 04 April 2015 - 05:50 AM, said:
If only PGI had the coding muscles to pack convergeance, hitreg and collisions into an elegant and efficient set of netcode...
Ultimately the solution to TTK, Alphastrikes and GH is a real heat penalty scale.
Example:
0-20% heat - no effect
20-40% heat - 5% speed reduction
40-50% heat - 5% all CD increase
50-60% heat - 10% speed reduction
60-70% heat - 10% all CD increase
80-90% heat - 30% speed reduction and CD increase
90-95% heat - 10% chance to do 0.5 DPS to random internals
95-100% heat - 30% chance to do 1 DPS to random internals
100+% - 2 DPS to all locations internals, random components in each location, automated shutdown
Now this is just an example, not the ultimate balanced version, but you could add this as well as warnings from Betty and markings on the heat scale and now keeping your heat managed is a clear task with real consequences, not just overheat shutdown. 90-95% is not the redzone but not auto shutdown so you have to decide if you want to redline it or run at a safe level.
This is a good solution, but i think it needs to go hand in hand with the death of ghost heat and a return of the ~30 point heatscale. In addition to that I think the heatsink system needs to get dynamically reworked for all the mechs. With different unique behaviors based on Single or Double Heatsinks. And even a mild difference between Clan Double Heatsinks and their Innersphere counterparts.
What I'd suggest is that the heatsinks dynamically adjust the heatscale, as well as having the varying dispersion rates for heat. To simplify this all chassis would start with 10 points on the heatscale. From there the number of total mounted heatsinks and the type of heatsink would dynamically effect your dispersion rates and cap for the heatscale. Using a penalty system for running high end heat like the one Jetfire presented would be ideal as the counter-balance system to the way this suggestion works to keep people going for more heat-neutral designs.
Inner Sphere Single Heat Sinks
Heatscale Cap increase by 1 point
Dispersion Rate of 0.12 heat per second
Inner Sphere Double Heat Sink
Heatscale Cap increase by .75 points
Dispersion rate of 0.24 heat per second
Clan Single Heat Sink
Heatscale cap increased by 2
Dispersion Rate of 0.13 heat per second
Clan Double Heat Sink
Heatscale cap increased by 1.5
Dispersion Rate of 0.35 heat per second
Now, I'll use the
Awesome 8Q as the example
Stock Loadout of 3 PPCs, 1 Small Laser
28 Standard Heat Sinks
Alphastrike heat build up of 32 Points of Heat.
Using that baseline of 10 points for every chasis as the starting point, then adding the 28 single heatsink boost. You'll end up with a total heatscale 38, with a 32 point alpha that'd put the heat at 84% from a single Alpha Strike. This doesn't include heat build up from movement or from the environment at all. Using heat scale penalties you'd also incur internal damage, and I'd add a few more high risk things like critical destruction (random heatsink blowing up in this case)
With that and having the dispersion rate of 0.12 for 28 heatsinks you get a heat reduction of 3.36 heat per second. Making it so if you did fire that alpha strike you'd need to disengage and cool off for 9.5 seconds to get your heat back down to 0 to do another alpha strike again - If that was your goal.
As for the Clan side, lets take the
Masakari Prime as an example
20 Clan Double Heatsinks
4 ERPPCs and LRM10
Alphastrike heat build up of 64
Using the 10 point baseline, adding in the 20 heatsinks at a rating of 1.5 cap increase that'd make the total heatscale 40. Compared to the alpha strike of 64 that'd put the masakari Prime at being a total Alpha strike heatscale increase of 213% over the heat cap. Which goes off the scale and would incur multiple hits of internal damage if not critical outright destruction. (this already happens for the Nova Prime doing an alphastrike in the current system). This shows where this system might break unless you're firing the ERPPCs in Pairs and letting it cool down between shots.
As that goes you'll have 20 heatsinks cooling at a rate of 0.35 which equates to 7 heat per second. Firing two ERPPCs at once would equal 30 points of heat making, and that's 75% on the adjusted heatscale, it for 4.3 seconds of cooldown between shots of PPCs allowing for a strong sustained fire capability with a clan mech of this design.
The math isn't perfect for this sort of system, but it's a proof of how the system would work. Would need to take other consistent stock configs and run the numbers to see if it works out overall. I selected the example mechs as they were for being generally high heat mechs.
I think having a dynamic system and allowing the users to have visibility into how it works will allow people to customize more to their specific play style, making the determinations between going high-heat/high-risk burst damage or lending more toward sustained fire combat with added exposure in combat. With a heatscale system that applies penalties for remaining at high heat levels. The changes to the heatscale system with the penalties within would require added UI, namely earlier heat warnings starting with probably a yellow flashing light around 50% and the red flashing light starting at 75% as additional information that they're entering the danger zone for heat.
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