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Also the PTS shows that some systems don't get influenced my the ghostheat at all, it seams, while others are skyrocking for no reason. Could be bugs but I think we might have reached a limit to what ghostheat can do and have to look for other solutions.
Well it got me thinking of how the old TT rules for heat where working.
Battletech never tried to prevent alphas but made you live with the consequences firing an alpha.
These consequenzes where:
- less movement speed
- makeing it harder to hit targets
- early shutdown risk
- ammo explosion
How could we translate this into MWO?
- less movement speed
Overall reduction in mobility. Less movement speed AND less twisting speed the hotter you go.
Effects on different gamestyles
Brawling: Either you risk going slower or fire less frequently
Alpha: You can alpha but you risk becomming an Urbie with its 60 engine
Scouts: Either be more carefull or run cooler weapons. On the other hand heavier mechs will also have more diffuculties to follow your movement as they heat up.
Jumpsniping: Problematic because of the mechanic of there beeing a sweet spot where the screenshake stops. That shouldn't happen OR your get a flat damage reduction while Jumping.
- making it harder to hit targets
"Harder to hit" is currently represented by giveing weapons a falloff in damage.
With the change to the HPPC on the PTS, giveing it a reverse falloff instead of a no-damage-zone, I would say we take over that mechanic here too.
The hotter you get the less damage you do.
I would go this unlogical route because people are constanly try to murder you when you dare to translate "harder to hit" with "I take away your pinpoint accuracy"
Also falloff in damage is a proven mechanic that is working. People keep their pinpoint accuracy but would be faced with the consequenz that their next alpha might not do as much damage.
Brawlers won't have that much trouble here as they should have a playstyle that is keeping their overall heat down anyway.
- Early shutdowns
This was originaly a dicerole...and I don't like to role a dice here but its a very importend part of the heatscale.
So how to turn this from a random thing into a skill based one?
My idea would be that when the "shutdown" alarm sounds you have a certain timewindow to hit the override button.
As there are 4 times on the original heatscale, where you could shut down, I would say the timewindows are (would need testing of timing as its quite easy to reach the override button):
1) 4Sec
2) 3sec
3) 2sec
4) 1sec
5) SHUTDOWN and you don't have a saying in it. The mech will shutdown at max heat.
So when you are alphaing and calculate your heat to be 90% of the heatscale you should allready be hovering over the override button to prevent a shutdown.
Again I won't prevent an alpha, just make it risky.
- Ammo explosion
Again a role of the dice mechanic and for this I don't have any idea how to turn it into a skill thing.
One could make it so that you automaticly cook some of your ammo at high heats, loosing a shot or two in the process but thats to punishing I think. Also it dosn't gives you any means of preventing the loos...except that you never go that high in heat in the first place.
From all the mechanics I would say this is one to skip.
- When does what happen?
The old TT heatscale would have to be adepted to work with the larger heatscale of MWO.
Here is an image for those who don't know the TT heatscale
Currently when we pilot mechs we are around 25-29 heat on this scale. Now take a look what would happen.
Lets say you just hit 26 heat/~87% heat. That would result in you haveing 1sec to hit "override", everything except a light beeing an Urbie with a 60 engine, you twist very slowly and your shoots do very little damage...untill you cool down.
Overall it should take out some of the speed of the game as you have to be more aware of your heat. TTK should rise a bit and alphas, while not prevented, would now come with a risk of beeing an easy target as they don't just move into cover or twist away.
I think this system would be better then ghostheat as it isn't bound to specific weapons or weapongroups. You can mix weapons as you like without a strange value that is hard to determin.
