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[Vidarion]

Note: I thought of this yesterday in a discussion about 'alternatives to ghost heat' and found a similar idea was briefly mentioned in the 'Ghost Heat 2.0' thread from February 2016, but I couldn't find many details. That being said, below suggestions may have been considered and rejected in the past so apologies ahead of time if that is the case.

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The point of this suggestion is to provide an alternate mechanic to the current ghost heat mechanic. By using cooldown times as the penalty basis, it slows the damage output via the firing mechanics rather than by inducing shutdowns and/or internal damage, thus maintaining some functionality of a mech without making it a sitting duck due to ghost heat. This is preferable to ghost heat / shutdown because the player is still able to contribute and function in a match even while waiting for their weapons to recycle.

Additionally, by making it weapon independent, it removes the artificial nature of the ghost heat limits while at the same time not removing penalties for firing large numbers of weapons at the same time (or in quick succession).

Lastly, while it does benefit loadouts that contain large numbers of weapons more than it benefits loadouts with few weapons, it also doesn't penalize the small loadouts.

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I've presented a number of different variations with the hope that it sparks discussion. My personal preference is what I've labelled as 'Variant 1'.

At the basic level, this represents the effort it takes for the weapon systems to recycle efficiently under load. The more load (i.e. the more weapons you're firing) your mech is under, the slower everything will recycle for the next shot.

Variant 1 represents an extension of the basic level that increases the penalty based on the overall heat level of the mech.

Variant 2 represents a variation when the large spike of an alpha strike (or really any simultaneous firing) creates additional load on the system (much like turning on multiple heavy duty appliances on the same circuit can blow a breaker) compared to firing systems one at a time.

Variant 3 represents a variation on the base idea, but leverages the remaining cooldown time instead of the total cooldown time and uses the same steeper penalty for simultaneous fire as variant 2.

Additionally, the numbers below are only to illustrate how such a system would work and not necessarily a recommendation for an actual implementation (though, honestly, it doesn't seem that bad to me)

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Cumulative cooldown penalty system:

• Each weapon fired increases cooldown by 0.1 * combined cooldown time for all weapons currently cooling down. Period.
  
  • Example: Fire 1 gauss, then a second gauss => cooldown would be 6 seconds for each (5s + (0.1 * 10s)).
    
  • Example: Fire 1 gauss + 1 C-SPL => cooldown would be 5.35s for the gauss and 2.35s for the C-SPL.
    
  • Example: Fire 6 C-ESL => cooldown would be 4.4s for each C-ESL (2.75 + 0.1 * 16.5) instead of 2.75s each.
    
  • Example: Fire 8 C-ERPPC => cooldown would be 8.1s for each one (4.5s + (0.1 * 36)) instead of 4.5s each.

Variant 1 :: Add a heat scale dependency

• Each weapon fired increases cooldown by 'heat scale' + 0.1 * combined cooldown time for all weapons currently cooling down.
  
  • Example: Dual gauss
    
    • At 0% heat, firing 2 gauss rifles would result in a 6s cooldown for each one.
      
    • At 10% heat, that would increase to 7s (5s + (0.1 + 0.1heat)*10s)
      
    • At 20% heat, that would add another second, and so on.
  • Example 2: Hex C-ESL
    
    • At 0% heat, firing 6 C-ESL would result in a 4.4s cooldown for each.
      
    • At 10% heat, that would increase to 6.05s (2.75s + (0.2 * 16.5s))
      
    • At 20% heat, that would increase to 7.7s
  • Example 3: 'Mechstar (8 C-ERPPC) - Combined 36s cooldown (4.5s * 8)
    
    • At 0% heat, firing 8 C-ERPPC would result in a 8.1s cooldown for each.
      
    • At 10% heat, that would increase to 11.7s (4.5s + (0.1 + 0.1heat) * 36)
      
    • At 20% heat, that would increase to 15.3s...

Variant 2 :: Light chain-fire + heavy alpha penalty

• Each weapon fired increases cooldown by 0.05 * combined cooldown time for all weapons currently cooling down.
  
  • Example: Fire 1 gauss, then a second gauss => cooldown for both gauss rifles would be 5.5 seconds EACH (instead of 5 seconds each).
• Each weapon fired simultaneously with another weapons increases cooldown by 0.5 * combined cooldown time for all weapons fired.
  
  • Example: Fire 2 gauss rifles simultaneously => cooldown for both gauss rifles would be 10 seconds EACH.
    
  • Example: Fire 4 C-SPL simultaneously => cooldown for each C-SPL would be 6 seconds (2s + (4*2s * 0.5)) instead of 2 seconds per C-SPL.
• Concerns / abuse: Macros would make it possible to avoid the 'simultaneous fire' penalty by firing milliseconds apart instead of actually simultaneously.

Variant 3 :: Remaining cooldown basis

• Penalties would be based on the remaining cooldown of previously fired weapons rather than on combined total cooldown time. Due to the nature of the penalties, it is possible to have weapons that appear to ALMOST (but not quite) finish their cooldown for a long period of time. For example, a 12 SPL mech, if it fired all of the lasers (1 at a time) before they each finished cooling would take an incredibly long time to cool down, but when it did, all the weapons would finish in approximately the same separation that they were fired.
  
• Penalty: 0.5 * combined cooldown time REMAINING
  
• Example 1:
  
  • You fire 2 C-SPL simultaneously => cooldown for each C-SPL would be 3 seconds (2s + (2*2s * 0.5)).
• Example 2:
  
  • You fire 4 C-SPL simultaneously => cooldown for each C-SPL would be 6 seconds (2s + (4*2s * 0.5)).
• Example 3:
  
  • You fire 1 C-SPL, wait 1 second, fire 1 C-SPL => cooldown for the first C-SPL would slow down so total time would be 2.5s (1s + (2s+1s*0.5s)) instead of 2s. Cooldown for the second C-SPL would be 2.5s as well.
• Example 4:
  
  • You fire C-SPLs waiting 1 second between firing.
    
  • The first C-SPL would reach 1s remaining before the second C-SPL is fired.
    
  • The second C-SPL would add 1.5s to the TOTAL cooldowns for both (1s + 2s = 3s * 0.5). The first C-SPL had already cooled for 1s, so it would have (2s + 1.5s - 1s) 2.5s left, while the second C-SPL would have 3.5s of cooldown left (2s + 1.5s).
    
  • 1s later, the third C-SPL fired would result in the cooldown slowing more.
    
  • There would be 1.5s remaining on C-SPL1 and 2.5s remaining on C-SPL2 and 2s remaining on C-SPL3.
    
  • The penalty for firing C-SPL3 would be (1.5+2.5+2=6 * 0.5 = 3s) 3s (total), making the cooldown remaining:
    
    • C-SPL1: 2s + 3s - 2s = 3s
      
    • C-SPL2: 2s + 3s - 1s = 4s
      
    • C-SPL3: 2s + 3s - 0s = 5s
  • 1s later, C-SPL4 is fired.
    
  • Penalty: 2s + 3s + 4s + 2s = 11s * 0.5 = 5.5s
    
    • C-SPL1: 2s + 5.5s - 3s = 4.5s
      
    • C-SPL2: 2s + 5.5s - 2s = 5.5s
      
    • C-SPL3: 2s + 5.5s - 1s = 6.5s
      
    • C-SPL4: 2s + 5.5s - 0s = 7.5s
  • and so on.