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it is divided into these parts:
- Part 1: the idea behind this system
- Part 2: common heat system
- Part 3: weapons
- Part 3a: ballistic weapons
- Part 3b: energy weapons
- Part 3c: missile weapons
- Part 3d: support weapons
- Part 4: other equipment
- Part 5: mechs
- Part 6: conclusion
Part 1: the idea behind this system
the basic idea is that tonnage means power, and this is how we balance the system
- heavier weapons are stronger
- heavier engines are faster
- heavier armour lasts longer
- heavier mechs can equip heavier weapons, heavier engines and heavier armour, thus are stronger than lighter mechs
- if you equip the mech with 20 tons of weapons, those combinations should perform similarily (especially if they are pure ballistic, missile or energy)
- if you compare two 50 ton mechs, those mechs should also perform similarily (in terms of dealing damage), and at least 2x better than a 25 ton mech
Part 2: common heat system
lets leave out single heatsinks from this draft, they will be provided as an alternative when the system with double heatsinks (dhs) is working ok (because they are common for both clan and IS)
basic concept:
- heat cap is 30 heat for all mechs
- all heatsinks (engine and non-engine) are the same dissipation (dhs is 0.2)
- heat level is only affected by dissipation, by using weapons and by being hit by a flamer/ppc/other specific weapons
- dissipation is affected by heatsinks, environment, engine usage (->(engine rating)*(% of max speed)/some constant, for example 400*1/1000=0.4 heat generated when going full speed with 400 rating engine), jumpjets (-># of jjs), masc, ecm, mech powered on or off, dissipation can go negative
- as mech gets hotter, its performance decreases, it is possible but dangerous
- 0-50% heat no penalty, then 1% reduced movement (max speed, turning, twisting, arms movement, accel, deccel) per 1% heat over 50% (at 150% heat immobile mech)
- before overheat only movement penalties, after overheat damage to mech, shutdown is to prevent damage, if not shutdown, each equipment is critted for remaining heat over cap upon each use + heatsinks are critted for the heat divided between heatsinks (for example firing a 10 heat weapon at 29 heat and 20 heatsinks means you will go to 39 heat, 9 excessive heat means 9 crit damage to that weapon (and crit to structure) and 9/20=0.45 crit damage to each heatsink (and crit to structure))
- if you overheat, all heatsinks are critted (so also damage structure) for remaining heat over cap/number of heatsinks/10 damage each 1/10 second as cooling down, if there are not any heatsinks, crit damage goes to engine (and structure)
Part 3: weapons
for comparing the weapons, we need a common denominator
- to compare between ballistic/energy/missile, main things are dps, dps/t, range, damage/heat
- there are mechs which specialize in either of the categories, so there need to be viable options for support and main weapons in each of those (following the rule of the similar tonnage is similar power)
- more range = more tonnage or more recycle time or more heat (to balance between the weapon classes like ac2, ac5 and to balance the IS and clan versions of same weapon class)
- the weight and space of the weapon is fixed (so stock loadouts are compatible), usually the damage also
- for ballistic weapons, the damage/heat is constant for same weapon type (ac+lbx, uac, rac, uac and rac are hotter but have more dps (same damage in ammo/t though))
- for energy weapons, the damage per second of the beam is constant, pulse lasers do 2/3 damage of the standard weapon but are cooler and recycle faster (depending on the tonnage invested)
- for missile weapons, dps/t and range is constant for same weapon type (srm, lrm, ssrm)
Part 3a: ballistic weapons
here i provide the table with suggested values for ballistic weapons:
Spoiler
Part 3b: energy weapons
values of energy weapon and examples:
Spoiler
Part 3c: missile weapons
values and example for missile weapons:
Spoiler
- balancing the lrms is largely tied to the information warfare mechanics, so the values (accuracy, response, speed, dps) can change depending on how the target acquisition works (los, nlos, passive sensor mode, artemis, narc, tag)
- how to design missile speeds? 1 ton of ams should be able to mitigate 1 or more (define) ton of lrm/srm/ssrm, make the system transparent
Part 3d: support weapons
values for support weapons:
Spoiler
weapons to definitely revisit after the rest works - mg, flamer, uac/rac heat or cd (how short for no netcode or engine issues?), all missiles (lrm-clrm-ams, narc, tag, speeds)
Part 4: other equipment
this part is about other equipment and its worth for the tonnage and slots
bap, tc, case, engines, ecm, cc
i will only talk about the engines now, since they are the major thing between clan and IS
- clan xl engines have 2 slots less, thus they should receive some minor penalty (-10% accel/deccel)
- after having side torso destroyed (which means game over for IS xl engine), clan xl gets -35% movement penalty (max speed, turning, twisting, accel, deccel)
Part 5: mechs
for the start, lets remove all skills, modules, quirks
mechs are defined by two main things, tonnage and hardpoints (and shape for survivability, but that is a different part)
- if mechs of same tonnage are to perform similarily, they must have same disposable tonnage, distributed at the choice of the pilot (that means, unlock the clan fixed equipment (except engine) and upgrades (but make them stay in predefined slots))
- some mechs have only few hardpoints, when the tonnage invested into heavier weapons performs similarily to tonnage of combination of smaller weapons (the dps/t), they are not gimped by this lack of hardpoints
- some mechs have hardpoints on various parts of the mech, when the alpha is reduced (30 heat cap, penalties), they do not suffer so much if they cannot peek-n-hide
- mechs with actuated arms and hands lose some space, but gain versatility - can shield, can track moving targets, can raise hands on head level or above (this means, add a command to raise arms onto level 1 (waist), 2 (head), possibly 3 (depending on mech), remove all the twisting and turning superquirks so aiming with arms has its advantages compared to aiming with torso)
Part 6: conclusion
what this system offers:
transparent, easy to understand
standardized blocks, build/add anything (scalability) - new weapons, mechs, vehicles, maps, game modes
common resource - tonnage
thank you for reading
weapon values as text if interested:
Spoiler
edit: switched the rac2 and c-rac2 ranges in the text table
Edited by happy mech, 13 March 2016 - 02:38 AM.
