Wintersdark, on 27 February 2017 - 10:20 AM, said:
I've felt that way. Speed is why you go faster - speed and heatsinks. But twist and turn cap how far you'll go lower. Once you hit "twisty enough" more doesn't matter a lot - it's icing on the cake.
You're arguing my point against 1453R though, speed IS the real reason you change engines size, because speed is critically important. He fears everyone's going to mount 250's and the game is going to slow to a crawl, but that's ridiculous.
i haven't actually read through most of this thread, but yeah, that's a bit of an exaggeration. in fact, i expect average speeds would drop very, very little. however, i also don't see enough mechs benefiting from this to make it worthwhile.
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Preaching to the Choir. Both are valid choices, and while most tend to prefer the Gyr, the Linebackers speed has its place (though I argue it has too much speed, as diminishing returns on tonnage:speed means it gives up a lot to get that speed). The timber wolf / Gyr is a much better comparison.
it's not a perfect comparison seeing as how the linebacker is 10 tons lighter, but it's a good example of the diminishing returns on larger engines (which you're already aware of). i really like the linebacker because it's different from the other heavies. it's not the best, but it at least has that slight edge in maneuverability, and i'll be very sad if it loses that.
this isn't just a problem for omnimechs, either. what do you do with mechs that have very high engine caps? do you quirk them to be on the same level as mechs with locked engines, or do they get left out because they have the option of taking something smaller?
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Mechanically that's hard to do because engines don't give mobility, speed does. From a coding perspective that makes this much more complex. You're not changing a property of is engines, you're adding code to the mobility calculation. You can't just if (IS) add x%, because then large engine is Mecha gain even more agility.
Engines lack the ability to carry modifiers to the mech. Also, setting modifiers per engine still screws with things because speed (and thus mobility) are a factor of engine vs. tonnage, so if you have say 250 rated engines +10% turn rate, that would be a HUGE buff to lighter Mecha using it (they move fast with a 250 and thus have very high base mobility, add a percentage and they gain a LOT) while it isn't helpful for a large mech running that same engine as they gain little.
That's why the decoupling of mobility from the engine size is good. It's also a complex change, but it solves a lot of issues where the current formula messes things up.
would that really be a bad thing, though? most IS lights already have significant mobility quirks and still struggle to remain competitive. if necessary, the effects of engine size on mobility could be reduced either across the board or just on the extreme ends of the spectrum. perhaps i'd have to see it in action, but i can't imagine this would upset the balance of the game too much.
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