47 replies to this topic

[Bombast]

Time for another poll. And it is an absolute doozy. This time, we'll be looking at construction related technologies and non-weapon equipment that was excluded from the previous technology poll. An expirimental weaponary poll has been put together, but will not be included with this batch.

The rules, as usual.

• The cut off point will again be 3068.
  
• Experimental technologies will be included in all categories.
  
• Technology has been grouped together when appropriate.
  
• Artillery has been excluded, as have special munitions.
  
• Non-fusion engines are excluded, as have technologies that, due to MWO's rule set, have no discernible benefit (Increased piloting roles, exclusively anti-infantry, etc), and Drone/Robotic equipment/control. Interface system have also been exlcuded.
  
• Laser Heat Sink are already in the game as quirks, and thus are excluded.
  
• Due to the Clans general lack of experimental construction technologies, some categories have been combined for them
  
• Due to the weight of options, the equipment questions have unlimited votes, but please try to honor the intent of the poll - Only vote for ones you are really intrigued by. Please keep it to 1-3 votes for the stuff you'd really like to see, or you think would really add something to the game.

Please feel free to discuss everything as per usual!

POLL LINK

Inner Sphere

Armor

Spoiler

Light-Ferro-Fibrous - An armor that exists in between Ferro-Fibrous and Standard. It only takes up 7 crits, but only provides 6% more armor per ton compared to Standard armor.
Stealth - Providing protection equal to standard armor, when combined with a Guardian ECM, Stealth Armor reduces the chance of detection and being hit by enemy fire. The system generates heat when active, and requires 2 crits in every arm, leg, and side torso.
Hardened - Allows more armor to be placed on a battlemech, at the expensive of reduced agility. Provides protection against armor piercing munitions.
Reflective/Reactive - These armor types provide the same amount of armor per ton as standard armor, with the benefit of reducing the damage of certain weapon types (Reflective reduces energy damage, while Reactive reduces explosive damage). Both also have signigicant crit investment requirements
Patchwork - Allows different kinds of armor to be equipped on different locations of the battlemech.

Structure

Spoiler

Endo Composite - A structure that exists in between Endo-Steel and Standard. It only takes up 7 crits, but only provides a 25% weight savings from standard.
Composite - Composite provides the same weight saving benefits of Endo-Steel, but without the crit investment. It reduces the amount of damage internal structure can take by half.
Reinforced - Reinforced structure can take twice as much damage as standard internal structure, but weights twice as much.

Engine

Spoiler

Compact Fusion - Compact engines weight 50% more than standard engines, but take up half as much space, so that 5 crits are available in the center torso.
Light Fusion - Existing in between standard and XL engines, the Light Fusion engine weights 75% as much as standard engines, and only take up 2 critical slots in each side torso, allowing mechs to survive side torso destruction.
Extra-Extralight Fusion - XXL engines weight 75% as much as standard engines, while using twice as many side torso slots as XL engines (4 for Clans, 6 for Inner Sphere). The Clan version subjects equipped mechs to side torso mech destruction. XXL engine generate twice the amount of heat as other engines in relation to movement.

Gyro

Spoiler

Compact - Compact gyros weight 50% more than the standard gyro, but take up two less crits.
Extra-Light - XL gyros weight 50% less than the standard gryo, but take up an additional two crits.

Cockpit

Spoiler

Small - Small cockpits weigh 2/3s as much as much as a standard cockpit, and frees up one crit.
Torso Mounted - Torso mounted cockpits move the pilot to the center torso, consuming two crits in the center torso and one in each side torso, and allowing the mech to remain functional after head destruction. The sensors remain in the head, however. 3 extra crits are opened up for usage in the head. Destruction of both side torsos destroys the life support equipment.

Equipment

Spoiler

M-Pod - A single shot explosive that fills the area surrounding the user in shrapnel. At point blank range, the damage is significant, but damage reduces sharply as distance increase. Max range of a Machine Gun.
Angel ECM - A slightlyheavier version of the Guardian, it has twice the strength, counting as two ECM units when competeing against ECCM equipment.
Bloodhound Active Probe - A slightly heavier version of the Beagle, the Bloodhound can defeat most stealth systems, such as ECM, Stealth Armor, and Null/Void Signature Systems.
Laser AMS - An AMS unit that uses a Small Pulse Laser instead of a machine gun, the LAMS weights more and generates significant heat, but requires no ammunition.
C3 Systems (Master, Slave, Improved) - C3 systems improve communication between units. Unknown benefits to MWO.
Coolant Pod - A piece of equipment that, when activated, improves heat sink effeciency for a short period (SHS: 100%, DHS: 50%). Expended once used, and explodes like ammunition if struck.
HarJel - As long as a location with HarJel equipped has armor, damage to that location will be slowly repaired. Once armor has been completely stripped, HarJel no longer functions. When a HarJel system is destroyed, all equipment in that location is rendered inoperable.
Partial Wing - Partial Wings improve jump capacity by 60 meters (But only if Jump Jets are already equipped) and improve battlemech cooling. Partial Wings weight 5% of the battlemechs overall weight (Rounded up to the nearest 0.5 tons) and occupy 3 crits on each side torso.
Supercharger - The Supercharger boosts battlemech speed by as much as 25%. They take up 1 crit (Which must be placed in a location where engine crits are) and weights 10% of the engine's tonnage. The speed boost from the Supercharger is cumulative with MASC. Unlike MASC, damage caused by excess use and failures are applied to the engine.

Clan

Armor

Spoiler

Stealth - Providing protection equal to standard armor, when combined with a Guardian ECM, Stealth Armor reduces the chance of detection and being hit by enemy fire. The system generates heat when active, and requires 2 crits in every arm, leg, and side torso.
Hardened - Allows more armor to be placed on a battlemech, at the expensive of reduced agility. Provides protection against armor piercing munitions.
Reflective/Reactive - These armor types provide the same amount of armor per ton as standard armor, with the benefit of reducing the damage of certain weapon types (Reflective reduces energy damage, while Reactive reduces explosive damage). Both also have signigicant crit investment requirements
Patchwork - Allows different kinds of armor to be equipped on different locations of the battlemech.

Structure, Engine, Cockpit

Spoiler

Reinforced Structure- Reinforced structure can take twice as much damage as standard internal structure, but weights twice as much.
Extra-Extralight Fusion - XXL engines weight 75% as much as standard engines, while using twice as many side torso slots as XL engines (4 for Clans, 6 for Inner Sphere). The Clan version subjects equipped mechs to side torso mech destruction. XXL engine generate twice the amount of heat as other engines in relation to movement.
Torso Mounted Cockpit- Torso mounted cockpits move the pilot to the center torso, consuming two crits in the center torso and one in each side torso, and allowing the mech to remain functional after head destruction. The sensors remain in the head, however. 3 extra crits are opened up for usage in the head. Destruction of both side torsos destroys the life support equipment.

Equipment

Spoiler

Angel ECM - A slightlyheavier version of the Guardian, it has twice the strength, counting as two ECM units when competeing against ECCM equipment.
Light Active Probe - A lighter version of the standard Active Probe, with slightly inferior capabilities.
Watchdog CEWS - An electronic warfare package that combines the abilities of the ECM and AP.
Nova CEWS - An elctronic warfare package that combines th eabilities of the ECM, the AP, and the Inner Sphere C3 system. While constructed in 3065, it was hidden, and general Clan practice has banned it from usage in all but a few specific instances.
Laser AMS - An AMS unit that uses a Small Pulse Laser instead of a machine gun, the LAMS weights more and generates significant heat, but requires no ammunition.
Light TAG - A TAG that weights half as much as the standard, with inferior range.
Coolant Pod - A piece of equipment that, when activated, improves heat sink effeciency for a short period (SHS: 100%, DHS: 50%). Expended once used, and explodes like ammunition if struck.
HarJel - As long as a location with HarJel equipped has armor, damage to that location will be slowly repaired. Once armor has been completely stripped, HarJel no longer functions. When a HarJel system is destroyed, all equipment in that location is rendered inoperable.
Partial Wing - Partial Wings improve jump capacity by 60 meters (But only if Jump Jets are already equipped) and improve battlemech cooling. Partial Wings weight 5% of the battlemechs overall weight (Rounded up to the nearest 0.5 tons) and occupy 3 crits on each side torso.
Supercharger - The Supercharger boosts battlemech speed by as much as 25%. They take up 1 crit (Which must be placed in a location where engine crits are) and weights 10% of the engine's tonnage. The speed boost from the Supercharger is cumulative with MASC. Unlike MASC, damage caused by excess use and failures are applied to the engine.

Edited by Bombast, 18 January 2017 - 08:21 PM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Clans never got stealth armor, just btw.
Patchwork would take extra coding effort as well so I would go ahead and count that one out as well.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 18 January 2017 - 01:21 PM.

[Bombast]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 01:21 PM, said:

Clans never got stealth armor, just btw.
Patchwork would take extra coding effort as well so I would go ahead and count that one out as well.

Sarna says that the Clans have Stealth armor, they just never used it, and Skunk Wurks allows it to be equipped by Clans, so I just erred on the side of caution.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Bombast, on 18 January 2017 - 01:25 PM, said:

Sarna says that the Clans have Stealth armor, they just never used it, and Skunk Wurks allows it to be equipped by Clans, so I just erred on the side of caution.

They have stealth armor for Battle Armor, not mechs and vehicles. Unless I missed something that retconned it into Clan tech recently.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 18 January 2017 - 01:31 PM.

[Dreammirror]

Good concept & ideas, but given pgi's limited budget and man power, I doubt we'll see anything like this in the game, ever.

[Quxudica]

Quote

Coolant Pod - A piece of equipment that, when activated, improves heat sink effeciency for a short period (SHS: 100%, DHS: 50%). Expended once used, and explodes like ammunition if struck.

This is how Coolant Flush should have worked since the beginning, instead of being a magic card we pull out of our mechs ***.

The game desperately needs more actual equipment, as alternatives to weaponry. The equipment selection in MWO is pathetic, with the vast majority of it being tossed into builds as near afterthoughts. A big issue with MWO's anemic role warfare is it's lack of support. ECW loadouts amount to tossing in an ecm or beagle and forgetting about it, the most used and actively useful are relegated to powerup consumables and every other ounce of weight is generally dedicated to nothing but weapons. Would be nice to see actual support loadouts become meaningful and to start moving the game towards more than just an arena shooter with mech skins.

Edited by Quxudica, 18 January 2017 - 02:01 PM.

[Lupis Volk]

You really need an all of the above option.

[Bombast]

Dreammirror, on 18 January 2017 - 01:38 PM, said:

Good concept & ideas, but given pgi's limited budget and man power, I doubt we'll see anything like this in the game, ever.

A lot of it probably is a no go, but I didn't want to make that judgement. Thought I'd let everyone get at everything and see what they think of it.

Lupis Volk, on 18 January 2017 - 01:58 PM, said:

You really need an all of the above option.

Trying to find out what stuff people want and like most, not necessarily everything everyone wants. I suspect that, given the choice, 'All Of The Above' would win any poll, with people just chiming in now and again to point out the one thing they don't like.

[RestosIII]

Excuse me? Did you just list HarJel as an INNER SPHERE tech? M8, you're getting ahead of yourself here. If anyone's going to use HarJel, it's going to be the Clans. Same reason the Inner Sphere should be the only ones with RAC's.

Oh, and both sides should have Laser AMS.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

RestosIII, on 18 January 2017 - 03:23 PM, said:

Same reason the Inner Sphere should be the only ones with RAC's.

Clans get RAC's as well.

[RestosIII]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 03:24 PM, said:

Clans get RAC's as well.

In 3069, and only RAC/5's. And I don't think they should get them in this game, specifically to keep faction flavor different.

[1453 R]

RestosIII, on 18 January 2017 - 03:25 PM, said:

In 3069, and only RAC/5's. And I don't think they should get them in this game, specifically to keep faction flavor different.

I'm with Restos on this one. RACs are just...such a Sphere thing. Screw efficiency! Screw waste-not-want-not! I want ALL THE BULLETS!!

Anyways.

Surprised there's not more love for the CEWS systems on the Clan side, and super surprised that Reactive/Reflective are so soundly beating Stealth Armor currently. It's...it's Stealth Armor! Oh well. Suppose I'm just more of an EW guy than everyone else.

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...GIVE ME MY WATCHDOG, DO YOU HEAR ME PIRANHA?!!

[Bombast]

RestosIII, on 18 January 2017 - 03:23 PM, said:

Excuse me? Did you just list HarJel as an INNER SPHERE tech? M8, you're getting ahead of yourself here. If anyone's going to use HarJel, it's going to be the Clans. Same reason the Inner Sphere should be the only ones with RAC's.

Sarna.net said:

The Diamond Sharks introduced this system in 3059, but by 3067 the Lyran Alliance had reverse-engineered the system.

And Skunk Werks agrees. Again, I've opted to err on the side of caution and include everything everywhere if it's even hinted at being possible (In this case, TacOps says it's possible) and let the people doing the poll decide.

I am finding it amusing, however, that when I set a hard line on one poll people complain about weapons that have been out of production for decades or only exist in a NAIS vault, not being on (the poll). And when I say 'Ok, here's everything, you decide,' people seem only happy to jump on me there as well.

Quote

Oh, and both sides should have Laser AMS.

I know. It shows up on both equipment polls. With 6 votes a piece.

Edited by Bombast, 18 January 2017 - 03:39 PM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

RestosIII, on 18 January 2017 - 03:25 PM, said:

In 3069, and only RAC/5's

They get both in 3069.

[Metus regem]

HarJel would be nice, if our mechs were subject to flooding or vacuum exposure, but since they are not, it's moot.

HarJel II and III... to that I say



Say no to mech health packs.... seriously.

A component that lets you get armour back by taking damage in that location with HarJell II/III is bull sh*t!

[Quicksilver Aberration]

1453 R, on 18 January 2017 - 03:29 PM, said:

Surprised there's not more love for the CEWS systems on the Clan side

I don't understand why you are surprised considering running ECM/AP combinations provide you with no extra benefit over running one or the other since they aren't allowed to work together in this game, plus it would still be limited by hardpoints. The Nova CEWS one is just the future broken POS that the Society used.

[RestosIII]

Bombast, on 18 January 2017 - 03:30 PM, said:

I know. It shows up on both equipment polls. With 6 votes a piece.

With the Laser AMS, I was just stating my opinion that both should have it no matter what.

[Snowbluff]

Oh god are reflective and the other one the worst ever. Don't let those in.

[1453 R]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 03:33 PM, said:

I don't understand why you are surprised considering running ECM/AP combinations provide you with no extra benefit over running one or the other since they aren't allowed to work together in this game, plus it would still be limited by hardpoints. The Nova CEWS one is just the future broken POS that the Society used.

Well, obviously the idea behind the Watchdog CEWS would be that it would be designed to break the rule of "ECM or AP, not both".

Also let's face it, the competing options outside LAMS are kind of butt. Light TAG and light Probe both (AMENDMENT: light Probe would be an all right option for those times when you have half a ton left free on your 'Mech and nothing really relevant to do with it) are not really good, HarJel is...I don't even know how this would work in MWO...we already have weight/slot-free coolant pods because Piranha loves money, and Angel is Sphere-ish to my understanding. What're we supposed to get?

Frankly it'd be cool if the Sphere got Angel and the Clans got the Watchdog as their "Advanced ECM Slot" options, as another nod to the direct combat-focused, "screw this 'tactics' stuff!" Clan combat doctrine. More Different But Equal to be had! Sphere gets exceptionally powerful ECM, Clans get basic ECM-plus-direct-combat-sensor-boosts. Makes sense to me.

Edited by 1453 R, 18 January 2017 - 03:43 PM.

[RestosIII]

1453 R, on 18 January 2017 - 03:38 PM, said:

Well, obviously the idea behind the Watchdog CEWS would be that it would be designed to break the rule of "ECM or AP, not both".

Also let's face it, the competing options outside LAMS are kind of butt. Light TAG and light Probe both are not really good, HarJel is...I don't even know how this would work in MWO...we already have weight/slot-free coolant pods because Piranha loves money, and Angel is Sphere-ish to my understanding. What're we supposed to get?

Frankly it'd be cool if the Sphere got Angel and the Clans got the Watchdog as their "Advanced ECM Slot" options, as another nod to the direct combat-focused, "screw this 'tactics' stuff!" Clan combat doctrine. More Different But Equal to be had! Sphere gets exceptionally powerful ECM, Clans get basic ECM-plus-direct-combat-sensor-boosts. Makes sense to me.

Only reason I'd ever consider light probe and light TAG is so that a few lore builds, like one of the Mad Cat MK II builds, would be capable of being added to the game. That's... about it.