HEAT SCALE
Everyone’s favorite topic from two years ago I know. But recent talks around everything going on have only made me think on just how dated the current heat scale is in the current game, and that it is due up for another iteration to re-enforce and refine the intent that lead to its implementation in the first place.
Much like my prior Assault mode proposal, I want to try to provide something tangible for implementation and why. So forgive the length of this one. I do want to say that for this one I consider myself to simply be wildly expanding what Homeless Bill has proposed in the past. I don’t agree with everything in his proposal, but much of I write here is going to be similar to his, so credit where credit is due on some of what I type here.
Rough reasons heat scale was originally implemented:
- To curb the use of single weapon spam mechs that where heavily dominant in previous mechwarrior games.
- To limit the effectiveness of single weapon group alphas
- To Limit the effectiveness of high damage pin point
- To encourage diversification in weapon loads
- To reduce overall TTK.
- Fails to account for weapon synergies
- Clan tech provides ample opportunities to get crazy high alpha synergies.
- No visual indication of how / when this is triggered in game.
- Has curbed single weapon spam only to replace it with double weapon synergies dominating.
- Does very little to curb the TTK when weapon synergy combos so easily circumvent the damage output intentions of heat scale.
- Is compromised by quirks offsetting or negating the intentional drawbacks of the system.
- Only really affects energy weapons. Most Missiles and Ballistics can all but ignore the effects of the system.
Which alpha creates more heat for a mech?
![Posted Image](http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a627/Spiralface/Weapon%20Heat_zpsavawl45s.jpg)
This chasing of the highest damage combos to circumvent the heat scale on single weapon spam has led to essentially synergized “combo weapons” like lasers vomit, Gauss / AC 5 PPC before it, and Gauss ER ML's now. That can end up capitalizing on alphas for massive alpha strikes well above what any single weapon spam of the same weapon could ever do. And much higher then what many accepted as the “norm” for the time heat scale was originally implemented.
And as long as heat scale exists in its current state, the game Meta, especially on the clan side, will primarily revolve around what kind of weapon synergies can you use to circumvent the currently implemented heat scale, while maximizing pin point / focused point damage. Which is why the clan meta has begun to solidify in the state that it is currently in.
It doesn’t have to be like this though.
I would like to propose the following:
Heat Scale 2.0 High End Proposal
- Replace the hidden heat scale mechanics with a universal “engine power draw” meter.
- All weapons will create an energy usage spike that is applied to the meter based primarily on their damage output. With all weapons contributing to the same meter.
- The meter will dissipate over a short amount of time. Replicating the hidden “second between shots” already in the system with something more visual.
- Firing weapons that exceed this meter will incur both a flat heat penalty, as well as a percentile recycle penalty for all weapons still in recycle states from firing.
This aspect is much like many other proposals out there, so I don’t wish to dwell on it too long (as we’ve all heard the ideas before.) But for the sake of completeness, the idea of this is that all weapons create an “energy spike” when fired, which fills up a meter to represent the energy draw created from the said weapons. (Often referred to a threshold meter in other proposals,) when you fire too many weapons together, or in rapid succession to one another. The only difference form what others are proposing to what I am proposing is that I wish for the system to be scalable and universal, as well as affect recycle times in addition to heat spikes. Which makes it a bit more universal of a punishment rather than easily ignored by weapons such as ballistics and missile weapon systems.
Rough mockup image showing a heat spike of around 15 points:
![Posted Image](http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a627/Spiralface/Heat Scale_zpsdymjzqly.jpg)
The ballpark mechanics I would set as a base line would be:
- Initial Weapon engine draw values equal their total damage output with “spread” weapons like LRM’s, SRM’s, and LBX clusters accounting for 75% of their total damage potential in the spike. Triggered every time a weapon is fired. (So a ML would have a energy draw value of 5, while a single SRM 6 would have a draw value of 9.)
- Some weapons can be exempt from these draws. (MG’s, flamers.)
- The engine power draw meter allows for 30 points of “safe draw” before penalties kick in.
- This meter reduces at a rate of 30 points per second. Only when weapons are not in use. (full second to fully cool down. Will not reduce the meter throughout the duration of laser burn times.)
- Whenever you trigger weapons that bring your meter past 30 points, you will immediately receive .75 heat for every point of heat that exceeds 30 points and will add 1.5% weapon cool down time per point to all weapons in the cool down process. (So a dual AC 20 firing both cannons would go 10 points over the threshold generating 7.5 heat and adding 15% more time to the weapon’s cool down timer.)
These changes should have the following results:
- Penalties are no longer binary, but dynamic to the amount on the meter itself. Currently, if you fire that 3rd PPC at .0001 seconds before the invisible “ghost heat timer” cools down, you still incur the full penalty from the ghost heat. In this proposed scenario, it’s the METER that provides the penalties, so if you get your timing slightly off and incur a single point over on the meter, you are only punished for .75 heat and 1.5% cooldown. Not 100% of the full penalty value.
- UI should visualize the process making it easier for newer players to understand what is going on.
- What triggers the penalties still adheres to what the developers had initially set up for their initial implementation.
- Doesn’t punish Clan weapon effectiveness or efficiency’s as a generalization, but provides a dynamic give and take to how the clan’s UTILIZE those weapons in the field. Making Clans still carry potential to dish out massive damage, making them a more skill focused faction as was initially proposed at their launch.
- Creates more tactical depth between utilizing weapons with the intent to maintain DPS, or restrict DPS in favor of doing massive spike damage.
- Removes the massive ghost heat punishments by focusing more on alpha’s applying moderate, GENERALIZED heat, while affecting DPS (Less punishing to new players when your mech doesn’t shut down from underneath you when you’re just learning, more game play depth in what it takes to get the most out of a mech.)
The main intent of these changes is to adapt a play dynamic that rewards players who are able to ride the power threshold, while discouraging PURE high alpha being the sole way to augment your weapon systems. But without completely negating the use of a sudden burst of high alpha damage. Rather, add a tactic to using it.
At a top down level, this would ideally see high alpha damage cost a mech its sustained DPS in addition to its heat penalty. Making the pill a bit tougher to swallow for a sustained engagement to rely solely on alpha after alpha being the primary way mechs engage each other. As well as not being able to simply ignore the penalties by relying on primarily low heat / high damage weaponry. (As who seriously cares about the heat penalty on 4 SRM launchers being fired in their current state?)
But at the same time, consider reducing the heat penalties on mechs that do exceed the threshold to allow the high alpha to always be a tactical option for someone.
As a rough example, if a Meta Timber wolf C was punished with a 45% recycle time penalty for firing all of its weapons at once, (Written before the recent nerfs, let’s just assume the May 19 patch was reverted,) a mechwarrior in an open engagement would have a risk / reward dynamic to whether he would need better general DPS in his engagement by riding the threshold line, or if he wants to risk his DPS to potentially maim, or cripple an enemy mech while he has a good shot.
While this won’t eliminate high Alpha damage, it does increase the “cost” of having builds that synergize weapon load outs for the sole purpose of maximizing damage. As that synergy would only come at the cost of sustained DPS if they wished to capitalize on it. But still leave it as an option for mechwarriors skilled enough to know when to push a mech to alpha, or when you need to focus on doing more sustained damage in an engagement. (Just another tool in the hands of a skilled mechwarrior to use at the right opportunity.)
Additionally, adding a per second cool energy draw disbursement would punish those kinds of mechs that wouldn’t care at all about either extra heat or lower recycle time due to low counts on both. (Looking at you 5 UAC 5 Direwolf.) This way, if you find yourself going over the threshold, you don’t “auto reset” and instead being to see a downward curb in your weapons sustained usefulness if you intend on breaking the threshold consistently.
Conclusion
I’m well aware that this is nothing more than a rough outline of ways to potentially improve off of the proposal already put out by Homeless Bill and others. But as recent rumblings from the town halls, quirks, forums, youtubers, and podcasts have started to circle back around to the old Time To Kill being an issue, this seems like a good opportunity to revisit a system that was implemented with the best of intentions, but could probably use a 2.0 re-look pass applied to it to fix the shortcomings of the current systems that sees single weapon spam simply replaced by weapon synergies that are specifically there to bypass heat scale for massive weapon alphas anyways.
The goal isn’t to dissuade the use of high alpha’s, but rather provide a more well balanced and well-rounded alternative, that provides more of a give and take so that they are no longer the SOLE contributing factor to the effectiveness of a mech.
Thanks for sticking with this admittedly long proposal.
Edited by SpiralFace, 25 May 2015 - 06:35 PM.