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[RacerX]

I played the PTS last night and read the notes for the new energy draw system. I've been playing MWO since closed beta. After reading the patch notes I was left with the feeling that this proposed system imposed a layer of complexity on top of an already complex weapon balancing system for new players to the game.

When I read: "power draw" I was actually hoping for some fun new mechanic being added to the game. Instead of adding more math on top of the heat scale how about this idea?

If my reactor has 30 points of energy per turn (predetermined period of time such as a second) then any action that draws more than 30 points from the reactor has visible and game mechanic effects on the entire mech. Why must we keep driving all negative effects directly into an already over burdened heat scale? Why not take a lesson from the table top game and add negative performance effects such as movement penalties, sluggish weapon convergence, negative HUD artifacts such as static or corrupted status displays for a period of time. Essentially, as weapons over draw power then that extra power must come from somewhere. In this case the power is being robbed from other critical systems. Making the effects visibly noticeable, some by the player and others by the adversaries, you make the game much more interesting. Why can't we see a leg being dragged along the ground or sparks shooting from a missing arm. Maybe the mech leans to one side or targeting is way out of alignment when the heat scale reaches 90% or a torso section is missing which unbalances the mech?

Those of you in colder climates can relate to this real world example. In the middle of the winter you may notice the lights in your home dim momentarily at the same time your furnace turns on. In this case the furnace requires more amperage than what it can immediately draw from the circuit and is robbing other connected circuits until the power requirements to startup are met or no longer needed. My furnace has a boiler. I can tell you for fact that my furnace is not blasting away all summer to save up heat for those cold winter months. It only produces the right amount of heat for when it needs it. If I take a hot shower and eventually I'll force the furnace to turn on both maintain my shower's current temperature level but will work even harder because it needs to heat the cold water from coming into the system faster than it normally would. When this happens the lights will dim and oil will be expended. Why can we not say the same of a battlemech reactor being called upon for random, sudden burst of performance such as a 2LL Raven with a small reactor or a Bores Head with a massive number of weapons?

I think this would, at the very least, add an interesting dymanic to the game, add penalties that are easily understood and plainly obvious to pilots of any skill level, and remove the heat scale as the only possible way to punish/balance combat.