9 replies to this topic

[MechanicalWraith]

Title says it all, MWO is advertised as a 'thinking man's shooter' where critical thinking and tactical fire-trading wins the day - RNG weapon jamming runs counter to that theory with Ultra and Rotary autocannons performance varying so wildly as to make or break whole matches on the luck of a single UAC or RAC boat.

The proposal:

Remove random jams. With RNG out of the way UACs and RACs alike can be truly balanced with mundane ACs, no more synchronously losing all your UACs on the first double-tap only to have your whole lance shredded by a foe who's RAC-5s miraculously never jam. Jam-able weapons would have a certain period of safe firing (the jam-bar), followed by a guaranteed jam when that period is expired.

(optional) Exponential cooldown. In order to make using RACs and UACs more skill-oriented, they could be given an exponential cooldown behavior whereby ceasing fire while the jam bar is near empty results in faster cooldown - improving overall DPS - perhaps even beyond that of a standard AC's tonnage-to damage ratio when played optimally, albeit at the expense of burst damage.

Edited by MechanicalWraith, 17 May 2018 - 04:10 AM.

[BTGbullseye]

Ghawblin, on 17 May 2018 - 10:24 AM, said:

I mean, I actually like the current jam mechanics.

Current jam mechanics for the UACs are "if this weapon is firing, apply chance to jam", not "if weapon is firing a second time before cooldown completes, apply chance to jam".

[MechanicalWraith]

Ghawblin, on 17 May 2018 - 10:24 AM, said:

I mean, I actually like the current jam mechanics. I get that giant stompy war machines aren't "realistic", and neither are lasers, but weapon jams make sense and the current mechanic does to. When the indicator gets fairly close to filling out, you get a higher chance of a weapon jam.

I don't think that's quite how UACs work, right now it appears to be intended as a flat chance to jam (in the weapons xml file you can see a decimal value for this) if you attempt to double-tap - however...

BTGbullseye, on 17 May 2018 - 08:27 PM, said:

Current jam mechanics for the UACs are "if this weapon is firing, apply chance to jam", not "if weapon is firing a second time before cooldown completes, apply chance to jam".

This effect also crops up with annoying frequency, but is still off-topic in this thread, which calls for RNG to be removed altogether. Luck is not skill, and in a game that tries to be a contest of skills, is not much fun either... My suggestion does not eliminate jamming - it just makes that risk predictable, and most importantly, balance-able. Instead of double-tapping at the risk (roll of the dice) of breaking your weapon, you double-tap safely at the risk of finding yourself in a situation where your jam-bar is too full to keep double-tapping (rather like heat-management), this is a different kind of risk, but I honestly believe it to be a better model than we have currently.

Edited by MechanicalWraith, 20 May 2018 - 05:30 AM.

[TheoLu]

BTGbullseye, on 17 May 2018 - 08:27 PM, said:

Current jam mechanics for the UACs are "if this weapon is firing, apply chance to jam", not "if weapon is firing a second time before cooldown completes, apply chance to jam".

That's not what I'm seeing in game. I'm seeing "if this weapon is firing but not being-double tapped, never jam" and "if this weapon is fired again before its normal cooldown bar has dissipated, apply chance to jam".

[Cichol Balor]

BTGbullseye, on 17 May 2018 - 08:27 PM, said:

Current jam mechanics for the UACs are "if this weapon is firing, apply chance to jam", not "if weapon is firing a second time before cooldown completes, apply chance to jam".

A UAC only runs a check on jam chance during the second shot however it is a flat chance no matter at what point during the cooldown you shoot.


as for the OP there is nothing wrong with the jam mechanics and they in no way make it any less of a thinking mans game. They force unpredictable situations and force adaptation. Not to mention require RNG manipulation and mitigation starting even before the match. While UACs can be frustrating if you are relying on them to much racks already have a decent amount of firing time before any chance to jam and firing two or more independently removes all chance of jamming.

[KursedVixen]

While i do think that UAc's jam too much removing jam al together espically from Racs is a bad idea I honestly think with their higher fire rate Racs should jam more....

Edited by KursedVixen, 24 December 2018 - 06:39 AM.

[Cichol Balor]

KursedVixen, on 24 December 2018 - 06:37 AM, said:

While i do think that UAc's jam too much removing jam al together espically from Racs is a bad idea I honestly think with their higher fire rate Racs should jam more....

UAC still do far more damage per match than a regular AC on average so I don't think they need any less chance.

As for Racs they do less front loaded damage and far less focused damage. Being as they are mostly to suppress a higher jam chance would make them near useless. However because of how much control you have over them jamming I do feel a longer unjam time wouldn't be the worst thing

[kilgor]

UACs should fire as a normal AC with jam chance on double tap and then a long jam time. RAC jam chance should increase the longer they fire.

[Cichol Balor]

do you have any legitimate balancing concern that you feel RACs need to be nerfed in this way? because you generally need a pretty good reason to add in MORE rng where currently control is maintained