"How would this mid game flank work if you could see on the map which general direction the enemy was shifting? Even a medium sniper going opposite of the flank would show up... It just seems that these risky maneuvers would become even riskier"
That the data would be delayed –let's say by 10 seconds– and aggregate –that is to say all heat data 'collected' in an area shows up as a (big) cloud rather than being precise– it would only give one a general idea of where someone might be or might have been. Because of the delay, where a medium sniper was 10 seconds ago mightn't be where they'd be sitting by the time even a 130km/h+ light rushes over to that general position.
This is further complicated by the fact all weapons-fire would contribute to the heatmap. If it's an Artemis LRM user they could fire off a volley of missiles at a hill away from their position to heat the map up there; the missiles' streams wouldn't create all that much of a signature, but the explosions would. The missiles leaving the pods on the mech and the mech heating up from the firing would be variable in how much it'd contribute based on several factors, one of those being the net heat generated. If a mech 'holds' the heat for longer then it's going to be more pronounced on the map while moving. If it dissipates it quicker then it's going to create a hotter area on the map where it was at the time of firing, but not 'follow' the mech as much while it's moving. The rate of dissipation would mean an element of firing vs moving would come into play since you'd need to determine whether you're going to create a spike in your chosen direction of travel or not.
If the firing takes place from an underground position or an area otherwise obscured by physical objects (the bridge or collapsed highway in River City, the tunnel in Frozen City or from under trees) the signature on the map is either going to be non-existent (tunnel) to be less pronounced (bridge/highway); similarly a mech moving under these is going to be either much more difficult to see or simply not appear. OTOH, if a mech comes out of the tunnel on Frozen City it'll produce heat at any one of those 3 points; once again, since the signature is going to be delayed on the map, it's going to be pronounced, but that doesn't mean it's going to be of particular use by the time someone gets there.
If a mech trying to create decoy hotspots does their firing while standing next to a heatsource (geysers/springs on Caustic Valley, lavaflows on that lava map the-name-of-which-I-forget, etc), they're going to be much less pronounced or virtually-invisible on the map when doing so. As a trade-off, because they're near a heatsouce their mech is going to have a higher heat when they start running which means timing and/or their route away from their position both become more important.
Lastly, most importantly, because the data is
delayed by such a span of time, at least one person is going to need to sit there watching their map for changes and determining whether those changes are because of decoy actions, whether they're 'world' heat anomalies, or if it's a mech, where that mech might be headed based on where they were 10 seconds ago, things of that nature.
With the map obscuring their view and preventing them from aiming around it ought to be decently obvious whether someone is checking their thermal map (or pretending to) and taking some pot-shots at them before running away again. They, the one being shot at, then need to decide whether they try to pin-point the location of the enemy using the normal map and looking around, or sit there taking hits for 10 seconds to see where the heat on the map increases and relay that information instead, hoping whoever was shooting at them hasn't long-since vacated the area by the time their teammates get there.
As a bonus, gauss rifles generating virtually no heat and doing a lot of damage per shot along with it being nigh impossible to determine where the projectile came from unless you're one of the other guys (and even then), sitting around watching your map-checker makes you vulnerable not only because you're a target in plain sight, but because those shots might give you no clue as to where they are/were in the end.
Being a system reliant on collecting data from an orbital dropship I'd say a clear line of sight and not being particularly close to things like buildings to ensure a strong signal should be a further requirement. On maps like the bog that practically guarantees you'd need to sit around on one of the plateaus near the edges, and then you're still trying to use it on a map where it may be of minimal/no use to you. In other words, like many other things in the game, the map (play arena) will have a very large role to play in the effectiveness of various tactics/systems.
Edited by AnonyTerrorNinja, 11 January 2016 - 07:38 AM.
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adamts01, on 10 January 2016 - 11:27 PM, said:
