3 replies to this topic

[Captain Mittens]

Equipment

Active Radar unit
Imo, current modules are too easy, with no trade offs, BAP/CAP are lackluster.
Maybe some more equipment, like something like an active radar system, let's you detect enemies within 400m(arbitrary value), but also let's them detect you. Like in other MW titles. Wouldn't allow missiles but would make blips like seismic.

Smoke Screen Missile
Smoke screen weapon would be awesome. Something that blocks detection and thermal, like an IR chaff cloud. IMo, would be an un-guided missile weapon, that just hits the ground you're aiming at. Would give a good counter to LRM/Sniper builds, allow teams to cross open terrain without getting totally shredded. These would be like 300-400m range, so if you wanted, you could shoot them in a direction, and they would explode in the air at max range.

Incendiary Missile
Not too sure about this, might be OP af, but a short ranged missile, like 250m, that would explode and coat the mech/area in white phosphorous. Instead of Adding heat like the flamers (too OP) it would simply apply a hot spot around the 'mech or the ground it hits, similar to the hot and cold patches in the academy temporarily increasing ambient heat for the mech by some amount. There would be some sort of cap for the really hot maps. I'm thinking something like 10-20s duration.

Laser AMS
A laser version of ams, generates heat, shorter ranged, and less effective than AMS but doesn't rely on ammo, better for support Lights, who can't waste tonnage on ams ammo. This might make people actually have to think about managing their AMS as well, turning it on when being defensive, turning it off when fighting.

ER-TAG laser
A longer ranged version of tag. Generates heat and has an exponential heat gain like flamers but can tag up to 1250m. So lights can lase targets from actual safety, and not within radar/Laser range. Limited firing window would mean that spotters would need to co-ordinate with lrm carriers, and might also choose to only lase the target as the missiles approach.

Frag Autocannon
Lower ranged, fires an explosive round that when it impacts or reaches max range, explodes to deal minor splash damage (10-20m radius. Punishes players that bunch up too much, good at hitting excessively fast lights, could be skill shot to explode behind enemy mechs to scratch their backs. I don't think we'd need the full range of sizes, maybe just a single Frag-10. I see something like a 450m hard max range, it would detonate, with something like a 10m, full damage range, and 25m 1/2 dmg area.

Cold Thrower
This is sort of an after thought, but like a giant AC unit. It could blow cold onto an allied mech at the cost of heating your own mech. The idea is if you're a short ranged brawler, and you're currently in a poking type scenario, you can find your local ER-PPC boat, and help it cool off. These would be small like flamers, so not a huge investment. Probably stupid.

[Elendil]

I think you're right that they need to focus on information warfare more.
I like the idea of a manually activated sonar ping which blips all mechs within range and line of sight on the mini-map for 2 or 3 seconds, but which also blips you onto theirs. That would be cool.

I also think that a smoke screen would be nice, but in addition they should have a module you can equip which masks your heat/IR signature, so that there's some kind of counter to heat and night vision (which are totally free for every mech and have no current counters).

The AoE AC would be pretty cool, although I can see a huge spike in team damage and kills if it ever gets implemented (I can just see hundreds of noobs using it indiscriminately).

And the cooling thing is a really great idea. I have all kinds of situations where I'm pinned down in a brawler with friendly snipers standing around, and it would be nice to be able to contribute.
The big problem I see is that it would predominantly help energy weapons, which have unlimited ammo and are already considered to be generally better than every other weapon.
I mean, I overheat in my LRM boats frequently, but imagine for a second a PPC boat who didn't need to worry about heat...

Edited by Elendil, 18 May 2016 - 11:46 AM.

[Captain Mittens]

The cooling thing was an afterthought, It would be really tricky to actually use.

[Miles McQuiston]

Smoke screen as long as it was only obstructed view and not an obstruction to sensors (maybe reduce range of sensors). Thus smoke screen protects from direct fire but not indirect (A Module would be better than ammo).