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[Drifting]

I like the idea of the Energy draw system but this implementation won’t change much

Energy draw is meant to reduce large Alpha strikes right, Ghost heat also.

Ghost Heat failed, Energy draw is failing, why? Because they don’t stop large Alpha strikes, just punish you for doing them.

Currently energy draw is just a more visual version of Ghost head, it’s easier to see but the effect is the same (a punishment not a reduction). If you want to reduce large Alpha’s then reduce them, EG. If the weapon draw depletes the available energy the other weapons just don’t fire. The Alpha has been reduced.

Enough people have mentioned the BattleTech heat penalties, if you want to penalise large Alpha strikes this would be a better option than rebranding Ghost Heat.

I think if you are going to use Energy draw you have to go all the way. Base the amount of energy available on the Engine used, maybe modified for the chassis. Assign an energy amount to every item (even modules). Where appropriate scale it for the chassis EG a Light Mech running would use much less energy than an Assault Mech running. Maybe STD engines can have an “overdraw” amount that scales with engine size. This overdraw would result in a Ghost Heat like punishment because if any Mech should have a large Alphas it should be the Assaults. But the overdraw is limited if you exceed it something stops functioning. All of the above can be tweaked by quirks

Thecounter to large Alpha’s is more armour, what about adding items that allow more armour to be added? Maybe unused hard points could hold more armour, it doesn’t stop people playing the way they like & might lead to new low weapon count, high armour tanks.


The community has thrown out a bunch of ideas, maybe even better than mine (crazy talk). Use them because Energy Draw is just an improved Ghost heat, sure it’s better but it still doesn’t stop large Alpha’s

[cazidin]

Atm. It seems like Energy Draw doesn't have the goal to stop alpha striking completely, but to make it a more tactical choice when you do because you will suffer serious penalties for it. It also has successfully put an end to the 50+ laser alpha strike of DOOM! So. There's that.