5 replies to this topic

[Geist310]

Talking points:
Power requirement.
Gas VS Fusion.
Fusion reactors ratings 20 to 400 with Mechs 20 to 100 tons.
Why do you even need a power requirement when you can just alter the Cool down time like you have in the past.
At what point is this no longer Battle tech / Mech Warrior ( Why many people will not play this version of the Battle-tech).

Today the military ( at least the US) has Laser * ( see all links below )
auto cannons , rail guns (aka Gauss cannon ) and all kinds of missile systems,
and all them 10 to 100 times more powerful than what we have in this game yet
they require no fusion reactors some run of two 12 volt car batteries and others off
of of gas power at the most. With the required, every weapon system that i have linked
is far more powerful than battle then and requires less power. Even Industrial lasers
today can run off the local power grid. Just to mention ammo caring weapons bring there own power in the form or explosive energy ( gun powder, C4, cordite...) which powers the projectile and the weapon system. why in the world would you need a megawatt of power to power them, you don't.

Today a gas burning turbine generator could produce all the power need for any one of the weapons systems mentioned and more and does. A 1 000-megawatt electric fusion power plant would consume around 100 kg of deuterium and three tonnes of natural lithium in a year whilst generating 7 billion kilowatt-hour. To generate the same amount of electricity, a coal-fired power plant would need around 1.5 million tonnes of coal. Our use of fossil fuels produces pollutants, including nitrous oxides and carbon dioxide. In particular, the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to burning fossil fuels are a significant contributor to global warming. Continued and increasing use of fossil fuels, with the consequent increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emissions, could have a profound effect on local climates. Energy consumption results in 78% of EU greenhouse gas emissions. **

In the game we have fusion reactors to move a 20 ton Mech to 100 ton Mech with various ratings up to 400. I find a few problem with all of them producing 30 so called power points and if I run out of power firing the weapons should not the Mech you are in shut down and would not a large 400 rated reactor that could move a hundred ton Mech have more power than a 100 rated Reactor. lets take a 100 ton mech one with a 300 engine and one with a 400
both can fire 30 points worth of weapons damage, yet the 300 rated engine gives far more weigh to add many more weapons.

In the your current system the balance between Clan and IS weapons is the heat and recharge ( refine time ) with some of the IS weapons able to fire faster DPS (damage per second) VS heat being about equal. Now with the additional time Clan has a definite advantage over time because because even though you added more time to both IS and Clan the % difference favors the clan weapons. ( which is a whole another issue ).
If you want to slow down damage just slow down the cool down on the weapons or make them heat up more much like you have done before but you have to use a multiplier not just added a second or two.

Of course one of the biggest problems now is your balance in game Energy VS Ammo fed weapons during a battle under the old system you could run out of ammo which made people one to bring energy weapons (EI: mix them) now non-energy weapons use just as much energy as energy weapons WOW what Novel IDEA ( not). In the real battle tech game it was fixed for a long time now your basically making a new game that is not like battle tech 1-4, You're Basically making a new game and it is not Battle tech any longer and my friends who have played Battle-tech for years will not play this version because it is to far away from battle tech.




*
https://en.wikipedia...ki/Boeing_YAL-1
https://en.wikipedia...i/GAU-8_Avenger
https://en.wikipedia...h_Rocket_System

**
http://fusionforener...ion/merits.aspx

[Wendel1300]

This is Battletech
not Logitech

[davoodoo]

Mind you theres that thing in battletech called handheld weapons.

Or hell even
http://www.sarna.net...hot_Gauss_Rifle
infantry variant of gauss rifle...

Weapons have their own generators when they require power. What do you think these 15 tons are used for on gauss or 5 tons on large laser...

Edited by davoodoo, 21 August 2016 - 10:57 PM.

[Znail]

Cooldown affects dps while the energy draw affects alpha strikes.

[LordNothing]

games tend to exaggerate weapon performance. if weapons in games worked like in real life, every weapon would be op.

[50 50]

I feel like this was educational and sciencey.

The power point system at the moment is simply testing a mechanic that is there to replace the old heat system where no-one could actually understand it without bending the space time continuum and breaking the 4th wall.

All we are testing at this very early stage is how the the system will work when exceeding the arbitrary energy limit.
If it helps, the 30 energy point limit is nothing more than a 'safe energy consumption level' which when exceeded means the weapons will generate more heat than normal.

To that extent, the system works very well:

• The audible warnings when firing a weapon group that exceeds that level is clear and distinct making it far easier to manage without having to glance at the instruments.
  
• The 4 heat levels with the small icon to indicate where and how dangerous the mech's current heat level is are both easy to understand and clearly indicated.
  
• The simple energy bar is a quick enough indicator to show that the energy is being used.

That this test introduced 3 new elements to how we can balance mechs will give us better options and variety in the weapon systems in an FPS game that has struggled to do so easily in the past.
We now have two elements that can be tied to the engine in a mech, which is probably a logical way to set the:

• Safe Energy Consumption Level.
  
• Energy Recharge Rate

And we can add variations to each weapon in terms of:

• Total Energy Draw

Some weapon systems such as the Gauss Rifle with the charge up mechanic may reserve an amount of energy, meaning other weapons can be fired while the charge is held but have less total energy to work with. There is a lot of finesse that can be used in this system when combined with the existing weapon stats which we shall begin to see in later test iterations.