50 replies to this topic

[Riffleman]

Now I understand roles are important for mechs, but I think they need more than that and maps tailored to them to help balance what I see coming as another version of mechwarrior where its an arms race to the top.

Again I know this goes against the fluff, please dont hate me.

What if we did something crazy, and made it so that light and medium mechs made HALF the heat that heavy and assault mechs produced when firing energy weapons?

Game breaking or helping diversity?

[Adridos]

Lights and mediums would slaughter everything then and we would have to balance them.

Half the heat is simply too big of an advantage.

[Der Zivilist]

Light Mechs rarely have heat issues to begin with, since they don't have enough weight allowance to mount oodles of heavy weapons.

[Riffleman]

Adridos, on 18 July 2012 - 12:23 AM, said:

Lights and mediums would slaughter everything then and we would have to balance them.

Half the heat is simply too big of an advantage.

I can see half the heat for an erppc being a pretty big advantage, how about 1/3 less heat?

Der Zivilist, on 18 July 2012 - 12:25 AM, said:

Light Mechs rarely have heat issues to begin with, since they don't have enough weight allowance to mount oodles of heavy weapons.

I dunno about that, at least in the other mechwarrior games I have played if I stick 4 medium pulse lasers on a jenner, I could probably spam and overheat pretty quick. I realize the game isnt supose to be spam lazor till u ded, but it happens to all of us occasionally, weither we get the bloodlust to finish someone off, or panic and see whos gonna take out who first in a slugfest. I personally dont think it would be too bad.

[Kottonmouth]

Half is too much. A reduction could be possible if it really did add balance, not just make lights a stronger fighting force. They aren't designed to be power houses, they use speed. Nothing should ever give a light Mech a direct advantage or parity with an assault in a toe to toe slug out.

[Terror Teddy]

Do we really want to see a Clan Light Omnimech with 2 PPC's and only 1/3 the heat...PUMA im looking at you...or heavy pulse lasers? Im pretty sure we could make some with X3 PPC's...

A mini-Me Awesome.

No, bad idea, very,very bad idea.

[Ezrekiel]

With double heat sinks lights can easily counter 20+ heat already, and now you'd want them to be able to do an effective 40+heat ?

Remember, light Mechs being fast and mobile should try to get into the rear of heavies/assaults. With rear armor being what it is, light Mech salvos would suddenly be massively overpowered.

[Sean von Steinike]

No thank you.

[Federick Steiner]

Let's keep the lights light and the assault's massive. I agree that some tweaking may be needed in order to allow for gameplay to work in the FPS setting, however hate the idea of truly balancing the classes. Each Mech weight class has a role, it is a part of the game. If balance is needed we should look to alter the map, terrain advantages or size of the squads.

[Riffleman]

Ezrekiel, on 18 July 2012 - 12:43 AM, said:

With double heat sinks lights can easily counter 20+ heat already, and now you'd want them to be able to do an effective 40+heat ?

Remember, light Mechs being fast and mobile should try to get into the rear of heavies/assaults. With rear armor being what it is, light Mech salvos would suddenly be massively overpowered.

Well to be fair half again, so only 30

[Deathz Jester]

[FiveDigits]

canon vs. cannon

Also ... no

Edited by FiveDigits, 18 July 2012 - 12:55 AM.

[l33tworks]

Riffleman, on 18 July 2012 - 12:18 AM, said:

Now I understand roles are important for mechs, but I think they need more than that and maps tailored to them to help balance what I see coming as another version of mechwarrior where its an arms race to the top.

Again I know this goes against the fluff, please dont hate me.

What if we did something crazy, and made it so that light and medium mechs made HALF the heat that heavy and assault mechs produced when firing energy weapons?

Game breaking or helping diversity?

You just made a big mistake my friend...

If you ever wanted to go down this road
Its acrually the other way around. Physics, man!.

Given the same heat output, and thats exactly what we have here as you say given the sane weapon ladout, The BIGGER something is the better and faster it radiates heat and cooler it will run.

Not only that but it will take longer to heat up as well

What do you do when you want better cooling for your car ( GTR)
Bigger radiators.
For your PC water cooling? Bigger radiators.

For high voltage electricity transformers running the same watts? Guess which stays cooler. the bigger one

I'm not exactly sure why lights already have less heat problems to begin with?

[Freakiie]

Game breaking and not helping diversity.

If you implement this you'd turn 99% off the lights/meds into laserboats, that's not really what I'd call diversity. It would also make the role warfare part completely obsolete, because who the heck would take an actual scout light like the Raven? "Pffft, scouting is for n00bs, I blast yo face with ma PPC!"

I prefer balancing being done with the MM far more than adding all kinds off advantages to certain roles. Just make it so that due to a tonnage limit you can't drop 10 assaults and 2 lights. Make it more something like 2 lights, 5 meds, 3 heavies, 2 assaults. That way you got diversity. Of course not everyone can use his Atlas then, but that was what PGI tried to achieve all along.

[Assault One]

Definitely game breaking. This will encourage light and mediums to just boat medium lasers, and well, there goes your diversity.

[Khorloch]

Assault One, on 18 July 2012 - 01:13 AM, said:

Definitely game breaking. This will encourage light and mediums to just boat medium lasers, and well, there goes your diversity.

My thoughts exactly. Part of the reason the Mechs are balanced is because they all use the same weapons.

[Terror Teddy]

My first thought is very much along 'why?'

When do you overheat a light mech? Usually when you outfit them with weapons that generate LOTS of heat or dont manage your heat levels.

[Temu]

Once everyone has tested mechs and settled in, we might find less light mechs being fielded, but they will be for the most part piloted by people with the skill and mindset for them. Then you have the gray area between med and hvys. You will see more players gravitating to assaults..but it will be a mix of those who excel at the role, those that can't understand bigger doesn't mean better, and those that are too impatient to really learn how to pilot a mech. Hard part will be figuring out what assault is truely dangerous from the assaults you have to watch just because it's an assault.

[Rogen]

I don't think it is necesary or even if it is good idea.

Lighter mechs have less of a heat problem due to the fact that they carry less equipment, while having same number of free heat sinks.

[Redshift2k5]

Everyone always seems to forget modules

Lighter mechs will have better acceleration/decelleration, faster torso turn, faster leg turn, smaller profile, lots of things that don't show up on paper but definitely will impact gameplay and gives lights/mediums a leg up on their heavier opponents.

Modules will be an important part of role warfare, and I bet we'll see lighter mechs able to bring more of these modules to a fight than a heavy. BAP, GECM, NARC, and TAG will also give big tools to let lights stand up as powerful enablers that can really swing a fight in their favour