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Suggestion: Structure Quirks, Comprehensibility, And Npe


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#1 Queen of England

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Posted 15 September 2015 - 08:01 PM

Quite a few of the 'mechs in the PTS environment have multiple large structure quirks. For example, the Atlas AS7-D has:
  • Additional Structure (CT) +50
  • Additional Structure (LT) +47
  • Additional Structure (RT) +47
  • Additional Structure (LA) +48
  • Additional Structure (RA) +48
  • Additional Structure (LL) +47
  • Additional Structure (RL) +47
That's 7 of its 17 total quirks. Those are obviously some large structure quirks, but its not instantly obvious just how much tougher the Atlas really is than a generic 100-ton 'mech. A unquirked 100-ton 'mech has 614 armor and 313 internal structure, for a total of 927 hit points. The AS7-D quirks add 334 internal structure, giving the AS7-D about +36% durability compared to an unquirked 100-ton 'mech. While that isn't difficult to figure, it certainly isn't visible at a glance that those large structure quirks only make the 'mech about a third tougher than a normal 'mech, especially given that the total structure value for 'mechs isn't available to the player in the game itself. These values are generally known to veteran players, but will be especially confusing for new players who aren't familiar with the various third-party resources for the game.

Mechwarrior Online has another way to do full-'mech durability quirks, an example of which is the Top Dog on the live server. The Top Dog has:
  • Structure Strength (All) +12.5%
  • Armor Strength (Full Body) +12.5%
This is similar in final effect to giving out a quirk for each section, but makes it much simpler for the mechwarrior to understand, at a glance, how the Top Dog compares to other 65-ton 'mechs: it is 12.5% tougher. This also saves some development effort – the Top Dog XML file has two values for the enhanced durability, instead of 7 for the AS7-D. I'd suggest replacing the current array of durability quirks on the AS7-D with:
  • Structure Strength (All) +35%
  • Armor Strength (All) +35%
I feel that makes the display of the quirks more concise, and the effect more apparent.





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