6 replies to this topic

[Kael Posavatz]

I was hoping to get something straightforward and user-friendly that would be both easy to use for those of us who've been around for a while, and easy to explain to new players coming in.

With every weapon heading in the direction of having its own values (not there yet, but we seem to be heading that way), especially when those values don't match up with damage potential, this is neither.

Ghost Heat at least had the virtue of something that could be figured out while tooling around in the mechlab, and mixing and matching weapons as you took damage (and lost weapons) wasn't too big of an issue.

[cazidin]

...I just had an amazing idea. Why not put a weapon's energy draw IN THE MECHLAB WHEN YOU MOUSE OVER IT? This would effectively eliminate any confusion.

[Malcolm Vordermark]

cazidin, on 24 August 2016 - 01:47 PM, said:

...I just had an amazing idea. Why not put a weapon's energy draw IN THE MECHLAB WHEN YOU MOUSE OVER IT? This would effectively eliminate any confusion.

Thats not what intuitive means.

[Kael Posavatz]

cazidin, on 24 August 2016 - 01:47 PM, said:

...I just had an amazing idea. Why not put a weapon's energy draw IN THE MECHLAB WHEN YOU MOUSE OVER IT? This would effectively eliminate any confusion.

Because they could have done the same thing for Ghost Heat and never understood why someone might want it?

My point was that Energy Draw was supposed to be simpler, more straightforward, easier to understand, etc. And instead it is starting to look exactly like Ghost Heat except 'weapons of Energy Value ##' instead of '# of weapon A, ## weapon B, etc.'

Simply swirling all the colors on your palette together does not make it easier to paint a picture in any color other than mud brown, but that seems to be the direction we're going.

[JC Daxion]

Kael Posavatz, on 24 August 2016 - 01:41 PM, said:

Ghost Heat at least had the virtue of something that could be figured out while tooling around in the mechlab, and mixing and matching weapons as you took damage (and lost weapons) wasn't too big of an issue.

How is adding up to 30 difficult? Look at power draw of weapon.. add weapons, when you get to 30 that is a group that can fire with out a penalty. I am baffled at how this is hard to figure out.


Ghost heat had one huge problem, all you had to do was mix builds, and poof high alpha's no extra heat.. this fixes that.

cazidin, on 24 August 2016 - 01:47 PM, said:

...I just had an amazing idea. Why not put a weapon's energy draw IN THE MECHLAB WHEN YOU MOUSE OVER IT? This would effectively eliminate any confusion.

and why would they do that on test? it would add tons more work for programmers to change it on every tweak. They do it before it pushes to live, and you do it once.. Not 10-15 times as they tweak the system.

Edited by JC Daxion, 24 August 2016 - 11:56 PM.

[Kael Posavatz]

JC Daxion, on 24 August 2016 - 11:55 PM, said:

How is adding up to 30 difficult? Look at power draw of weapon.. add weapons, when you get to 30 that is a group that can fire with out a penalty. I am baffled at how this is hard to figure out.

It is not "difficult" or "hard" in the sense that it is "not easy". It is "complex" in the case that it is "not simple".

Intuitive--spontaneous, without requiring conscious thought; easily understood or grasped.

Damage=Energy Draw was pretty intuitive. But in ED PTS2 it is no longer the case that D=ED. Instead it's about halfway between D=ED and where Ghost Heat is, and ED values are trending towards Ghost Heat, especially since it appears PGI will continued to leverage ED as a tool in a quest for "game balance". This adds complexity, and makes it less intuitive.

I'll say this for Ghost Heat, they've largely left it alone.

The thing is, Ghost Heat is something new players struggle with. They struggle with it constantly. Part of the problem is that it runs in the background and the in-game information amounts to a little icon that lights up, and provides no information about how much heat-penalty X of weapon Y will generate. People have asked for a better in-game information display. PGI has not, to the best of my knowledge, responded at all.

Most of those new players go one of three ways:
1) memorize the loopholes and ignore everything else

2) spend an inordinate amount of time struggling to understand the nuances and eventually are able to calculate when they can take the heat penalty and when they cannot

3) give up in disgust/frustration and uninstall the game


1) Are the people PGI is trying to thwart, 2) are the people PGI is trying to give an easier time to, 3) are the people PGI is trying to retain by making them #2.

ED-PTS #1 was...less than optimal. The ED in #2 is no longer intuitive and it lacks simplicity. About its only advantage over Ghost Heat is that it gives the player a new warning graphic before he starts taking heat penalty, and that comes at the price of finding something else it stick in his face.

[davoodoo]

JC Daxion, on 24 August 2016 - 11:55 PM, said:

How is adding up to 30 difficult? Look at power draw of weapon.. add weapons, when you get to 30 that is a group that can fire with out a penalty. I am baffled at how this is hard to figure out.

Its more difficult than simply having popup saying you cant fire more than x of y at once which gh got...