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[Cy Mitchell]

I have tested all but one of the ED builds put up on the PTS. I have seen some positives in some of the builds over GH. It seems that the data garnered from those PTS builds is currently being evaluated to formulate a plan to move forward with ED at some point. While that data is being analyzed, I would like to put forth a possible alternative to ED.

IMO the PTS5 heat threshold did a good job of controlling energy weapons (Laser and PPC) but the combination of ED and Heat was less successful with ballistics and missiles. It also seemed to struggle with mixed builds that combined energy and ballistics.

With this in mind, I would like to see the Heat threshold and values from PTS5 refined but a different system added to control ballistics and missiles. I would call this system Rearm/Reload. It would work on the premise that each Mech has an internal system to move ammunition from storage bins in the Mech to the weapon systems. These reload systems have a finite maximum rate in which they can transport the ammo to the weapon. Therefore, you can overtax the reload system by having too many similar weapons on a Mech that are being fired simultaneously.

The way this would be simulated in MWO would be to have ballistic and missile weapon cooldown increase as more similar weapons are fired. Each individual weapon already has its own cooldown rate when fired individually. Firing another would add a percentage to the cooldown of both weapons. Firing a third would raise the percentage of increased cooldown for all three weapons, etc. The more weapons fired at the same time (within .5), the bigger the impact on cooldown and subsequently the possible rate of fire of the weapons.

So as not to be overly restrictive each ballistic or missile weapon might have a different number of weapons that could be fired at the same time before the reload penalty would kick in. For example, you might be able to fire 4 UAC2s without penalty but only one UAC20 or Gauss. This could be accomplished by assigning a number value to each ballistic or missile weapon and then setting a threshold where the Rearm/Reload cooldown penalty kicks in. That would prevent creative grouping of different ballistic or missile weapons from avoiding the penalty as is so common in the present GH. (2xUAC5/2xUAC10 KDK-3 for example). Double tapping would also potentially be affected as if an additional weapon was fired. All these numbers could be communicated as the weapons are equipped in the MechLab.

In this way, boating and mixed build ballistics and missiles would still be viable but Alpha strikes and DPS would be controlled. Each weapon would still have its heat factor and that along with the lower heat thresholds and changes to heatsinks from PTS5 would control energy builds and mixed energy - ballistics or missiles.

I have avoid proposing specific weapon numbers and cooldown increase percentages because those would all have to be determined through testing. I feel that managing the rate of fire of weapons that use ammo makes a little more sense than the current all encompassing heat system so I decided to submit the idea for consideration from PGI while ED or similar replacements for GH are still in the incubation stage.

[Y E O N N E]

PTS5 actually caused lasers to dominate. The increased cool-down and weight of the PPFLD weapons basically shoved the meta over to boating cDHS and cER MedLas, whose fantastic damage- and range-to-weight/slot efficiency allowed you to get a phenomenal DPS machine going.

The size of the their DHS, the nerfs to heat cap, and the nerfs to their own lasers just completely screwed over the Inner Sphere side. Without having to worry about big volleys being tossed down-range, Clan 'Mechs could just charge out in the open, take those small hits, and push the IS position since they still had plenty of heat-cap while the IS were ducking to cool off.

In two words: it sucked.

That out of the way, your idea is similar to mine, though inverted a bit. My idea was to have energy weapons have a naturally short cool-down timer and some given draw requirement when on cool-down, and when your total weapons cycle is drawing more than the threshold, it gets divided evenly across all of them and the cool-down lengthens. This creates a sweet-spot where you can balance total firepower versus cool-down to get DPS, or you can fire all of the guns for one massive volley in exchange for a longer cool-down.

Ballistics and SRMs would have fixed rates of fire and no draw on this energy pool, providing incentive to bring mixed builds since getting more DPS is not really possible with pure energy.

Energy requirements on Gauss and PPCs would be high enough to limit their joining together.

For added interest, total energy pool could be tied to weight class, so as not to create an environment where there is no reason to ever take a big, slow 'Mech.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 13 October 2016 - 07:11 PM.