Wintersdark, on 13 September 2016 - 06:18 PM, said:
Avoiding the TT argument, because dumb, I *would* like to see penalties for running too high of heat. That's also something people have been asking for since forever, but Russ has addressed that directly - and recently - with a solid no. *sighs*
I dunno... that really was before they did all the work. ED is directly convertable to TT. The mechanics are all in place. We just need the penalties.
Even without the penalties, as I've shown, it STILL applies restrictions on burst damage, DoT, etc. While you don't get all the movement penalties and such that come with it, because of the way the penalty bar dissipates, once you get near shutting down, if you keep firing, you're always in danger of triggering that. You still have the pure alpha reduction. It's not much beyond what's practical, but it's something. And really, most people aren't looking for much beyond what's practical. They just kinda want what's practical. This does that, at a minimum.
It's just a better way to do it.
And moreover: And a HUGE selling point here...
It's cheaper to implement.
Unlike ED, this requires no real changes to any of the other live server systems. You can plop this right onto the live server with all your current weapon values intact and they'll all function with the same degree of balance they currently do. It's a LOT less work-intensive to make work.
I have two primary concerns that all my internal tests have NOT answered for me:
1) The effective heat cap for low-cap mechs will be lowered compared to their current MWO levels. You're basically stripping down to the bare system here. That means that Kodiak-3 gets a nerf. But it might mean lights get a nerf too. I was actually surprised how much firepower lights put down during testing on the live numbers due to their buffed heat cap. I do not know if the slightly lower values for these mechs will greatly effect their total output. IF their output is unduly nerfed by restoring uniform valuing, I suggest actually buffing cap/dissipation by weight. 100-tonners would get nothing... plain cap. 20-tonners might get a noticable but not UNFAIR bump. Just to ensure their output remains a little higher. This is something I just can't test for. This is one that's more on what FEELS true, because you really don't want to make lighter mechs less effective, even if it's fair.
2) Effective dissipation rates for the penalty bar are still tied to the effective heat cap. Mechs that have higher dissipation rates (more sinks) will likely spend less time under penalties if this rate stays equal. My question would be... is it fair for mechs that invest more into their heat cap to spend less time being penalized? This, too, is an intangible. Mechs with high heat caps will tend to break into penalties more often and more easily than low-cap mechs by the nature of their weapons. You'd be into and out of trouble with regularity. If you're going to exceed your cap, you'll probably do it by more in a high-cap build, and thus high penalty dissipation is fair. You may likely spend just as much time penalized overall.
However, is the total amount of time being penalized more important, or the time it takes to SHED penalties once you've taken them on more important? If it is the latter, then rather than a rate of 1/10th of your unused heat cap, I suggest a rate of the percentage of your unused cap times a fixed rate of all mechs of 3pts/second (or whatever works best). This is a small buff to the amount of time low-cap mechs spend penalized, and a nerf to high-cap mechs. However, in this regard, they're actually being treated 100% equally. Heat cap and dissipation variable by mech, penalty cap and dissipation fixed by mech might be more fair.
And a final note about adding utility to SHS. To give these new life and to offer the low-cap, high dissipation folks the alternative they want, I suggest doubling the dissipation rate of SHS... effectively keeping their cap at 1pt per sink, but making them dissipate at the rate of doubles. All sinks will dissipate at the same rate, but only truedubs will give you extra capacity. This means you dissipate your half-sized heat cap in 5 seconds instead of 10.
This needs a LOT more testing. I've only run it on a few builds with fairly encouraging results. But this SHOULD give some mechs an alternative means of setting up their firing rates. I'm looking at the Awesome here. Double dissipation is just a starting thought. Maybe 1.5 would be better. This requires testing.