25 replies to this topic

[Peace2U]

Don't know if this was posted before. The 'search' tool in the forums as more like tossing a coin in the wish fountain.

I believe it would be fair to provide some minor benefit for mechs equipped with hand actuators.
After all, we are loosing a valuable slot for them (or just give us the slot, and we'll call it even).

For example: mechs with hand actuators will incur less contact damage since they can 'block'
contact like a NYC pedestrian.

And, NO, having a cool looking robot hand is not a benefit - not in a war zone (maybe if Mr. Trump starts a Miss. Robot Universe pageant that he can MC???)
Peace-All

[thievingmagpi]

A bit of crit padding doesn't hurt

[El Bandito]

Very simple.

1. PGI should give battlemechs the option of removing hand actuators.

2. Mechs with hand actuators equipped should gain +15% hill climb bonus.

The ability to remove hand actuators is very important as it will allow IS mechs to cram in 3 DHS in a single arm as opposed to mere two.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

How about something actually related to the functions hands are supposed to perform?

Such as, for example, making the power cells in Incursion easier to collect.

[Appogee]

WrathOfDeadguy, on 22 August 2018 - 09:05 PM, said:

Such as, for example, making the power cells in Incursion easier to collect.

Great idea.

[HammerMaster]

Hand actuators need to be made relevant so you can
Pick up salvage (crescent Hawks anyone?)
Assist will hill climb
Pinch off pesky NARC beacons
Pick up batteries in incursion ( no hands, NO BATTERY FOR YOU!)
Melee (never gonna happen sadly)

Profit?

Edited by HammerMaster, 23 August 2018 - 06:21 AM.

[ShiverMeRivets]

If you remove the hand actuators you lose the ability to pick you mech's nose.

[Hiten Bongz]

Maybe I'm ignorant AF, but how the hell does hand actuators == better HILL climb? You guys usually walk up hills with your hands IRL or something? Lul

Now if you meant scaling a mountain with your mech hands...but then you'd need mech sized harnesses, carabiners, crampons...etc.

Edited by Hiten Bongz, 23 August 2018 - 04:52 PM.

[Khobai]

Hand Actuators could give any or all of:

+X% hill climbing bonus
+X% capture speed/pickup speed bonus
+X% knockdown recovery time (if knockdowns are ever readded)

I think that would be fair for 1-2 crit slots

ShiverMeRivets, on 23 August 2018 - 05:36 AM, said:

If you remove the hand actuators you lose the ability to pick you mech's nose.

considering your pilot is in the mech's nose thats probably not a bad thing

WrathOfDeadguy, on 22 August 2018 - 09:05 PM, said:

Such as, for example, making the power cells in Incursion easier to collect.

power cells need to be made more integral to winning incursion

thats one of the reasons the gamemode is bad.

I feel it should be impossible to attack the enemy base unless youve collected X powercells first to disable their defenses (i.e. your dropship has to strafe the enemy base's defenses 3-5 times before you can reasonably attack the enemy base). that would stop early base rushing in incursion and refocus the early game on fighting over and collecting powercells.

Edited by Khobai, 23 August 2018 - 05:16 PM.

[jjm1]

The fixed hands feel particularly obnoxious on the Hellfire when you can just remove them and fix all its other flaws simply by picking another clan mech.

[Shadowomega1]

Just add in basic melee functions, which would be great on mechs with Hand Actuators, or even the option to grab a pesky leg humping light, pick it up and place if cockpit first into the ac20 barrel

[Moochachoo]

Shadowomega1, on 23 August 2018 - 09:10 PM, said:

Just add in basic melee functions, which would be great on mechs with Hand Actuators, or even the option to grab a pesky leg humping light, pick it up and place if cockpit first into the ac20 barrel

Would love melee.

On a related note, can we lift the arms of humanoid mechs so we can shoot our arm weapon from the shoulder instead of the hips.

[Rafe Yomin]

It has a tiny effect: It adds a hand, which can help with shielding a little bit if you're lucky.

[Peace2U]

Thanks for all of the interesting comments on this topic.
It is unfortunate that we will not see melee combat with the current graphics limitations, and excessive re-coding involved.
That would sure provide an avenue of benefit for mechs equipped with hand actuators, but sadly, we must devise a more practical trade off for the loss of a critical slot.
I kind of like the idea that only 'Handy' mechs could pick up batteries, but that would pi$$ off too many players.
It would be fair, however to provide a small capture advantage for incursion batteries, assault bases, or conquest capture points.
Would you be willing to agree to, a 10%, capture speed-up for single handed mechs, and a 20% capture speed-up for dual handed mechs (after all, they have sacrificed 2 critical slots)?

Of course, for the sake of balance, the option to remove the hand actuator(s) should be available so that the user could forfeit the capture bonus in lieu of the additional critical slot.

I have to add a personal Nyuck-Nyuck back to Shadow OM, for his idea about picking up the leg humpers.
Kind of surprised no one suggested using them to wipe the chassis grease from our mech bottoms - - - - -.
(image burned into my brain)
Peace-OUT

EDIT:
NOTE: I would encourage Khobai to start a new topic based upon his comment about the importance of battery collection during 'incursion'. (Terrific idea)

Edited by Peace2U, 24 August 2018 - 06:09 PM.

[HammerMaster]

Peace2U, on 24 August 2018 - 05:53 PM, said:

Thanks for all of the interesting comments on this topic.
It is unfortunate that we will not see melee combat with the current graphics limitations, and excessive re-coding involved.
That would sure provide an avenue of benefit for mechs equipped with hand actuators, but sadly, we must devise a more practical trade off for the loss of a critical slot.
I kind of like the idea that only 'Handy' mechs could pick up batteries, but that would pi$$ off too many players.
It would be fair, however to provide a small capture advantage for incursion batteries, assault bases, or conquest capture points.
Would you be willing to agree to, a 10%, capture speed-up for single handed mechs, and a 20% capture speed-up for dual handed mechs (after all, they have sacrificed 2 critical slots)?

Of course, for the sake of balance, the option to remove the hand actuator(s) should be available so that the user could forfeit the capture bonus in lieu of the additional critical slot.

I have to add a personal Nyuck-Nyuck back to Shadow OM, for his idea about picking up the leg humpers.
Kind of surprised no one suggested using them to wipe the chassis grease from our mech bottoms - - - - -.
(image burned into my brain)
Peace-OUT

EDIT:
NOTE: I would encourage Khobai to start a new topic based upon his comment about the importance of battery collection during 'incursion'. (Terrific idea)

I'm for if you have hands you can do stuff.
Never mind mix max cry of the top tier/meta pukes.
You min/max for damage not salvage or objective.
Ergo you don't get to participate in salvage grabbing or Objective grabbing.
LOGIC.

[Koniving]

Peace2U, on 22 August 2018 - 08:29 PM, said:

Don't know if this was posted before. The 'search' tool in the forums as more like tossing a coin in the wish fountain.

I believe it would be fair to provide some minor benefit for mechs equipped with hand actuators.
After all, we are loosing a valuable slot for them (or just give us the slot, and we'll call it even).

For example: mechs with hand actuators will incur less contact damage since they can 'block'
contact like a NYC pedestrian.

And, NO, having a cool looking robot hand is not a benefit - not in a war zone (maybe if Mr. Trump starts a Miss. Robot Universe pageant that he can MC???)
Peace-All

At the moment they do provide benefit.

Each actuator has 10 critical health and can serve as the destination for critical damage, absorbing it without consequence to you from a gameplay perspective. Free crit padding and soaking to keep your arm weapons functioning longer.

This means in an arm with a hand actuator, there's a total of 4 slots and 40 critical HP available to soak damage in place of your equipment. Of course this is reliant entirely on chance...

[Eisenhorne]

HammerMaster, on 26 August 2018 - 03:56 PM, said:

I'm for if you have hands you can do stuff.
Never mind mix max cry of the top tier/meta pukes.
You min/max for damage not salvage or objective.
Ergo you don't get to participate in salvage grabbing or Objective grabbing.
LOGIC.

Man, you seem to constantly be putting down people who want to be good at this game.

It must be upsetting, being stuck constantly losing because you actively make poor choices on what mechs to bring.

[IIXxXII]

Quote

HAND ACTUATORS

I wouldn't mind hand actuators having a "thumbs up" taunt to flash at allies.

They could point a finger in the direction of enemies when the "enemy spotted" command is active.

If PGI was feeling feisty, bored and uncharacteristically PC one day, they might even flash a middle finger.

[HammerMaster]

Eisenhorne, on 26 August 2018 - 04:22 PM, said:

Man, you seem to constantly be putting down people who want to be good at this game.

It must be upsetting, being stuck constantly losing because you actively make poor choices on what mechs to bring.

Oh man! We we're doing so good at agreeing!
Don't misunderstand where I am coming from. I am ok at this game until the antipathy sets in. And my issue is ya you can tweak but when you min max to the point where you taint the ip with min/max Tom foolery rather than bringing a lore flavor loadout. That's the issue. A "good" player could in theory take a stock loadout.
A crutch player well...armless kdks and hbrs.
But ya. Guns shoot correct?
Hands do what?
MANIPULATE the environment. So have hands DO SOMETHING worthwhile.
No hands? NO MANIPULATION of the environment.

Edited by HammerMaster, 27 August 2018 - 04:25 AM.

[Eisenhorne]

HammerMaster, on 27 August 2018 - 03:25 AM, said:

Oh man! We we're doing so good at agreeing!
Don't misunderstand where I am coming from. I am ok at this game until the antipathy sets in. And my issue is ya you can tweak but when you min max to the point where you taint the ip with min/max Tom foolery rather than bringing a lore flavor loadout. That's the issue. A "good" player could in theory take a stock loadout.
A crutch player well...armless kdks and hbrs.

See, the problem with this logic is that you're blaming the players for taking the best choices. A "good" player takes the mech that is the best, without regard to arbitrary rules that you imagine the game should follow. If you have two players of equal skill, the one with the optimal laservomit hellbringer will ALWAYS kill the one with the "lore" variant. Don't blame the player for that. It's a game. You're supposed to try to win. If you're not bringing the best possible mechs, you are at a significant disadvantage, and so is your team because you're probably not pulling your weight.

If you want to blame someone for this, blame PGI instead of the players. They could have implemented more specific hardpoints. For example, machine gun ballistic mounts instead of just ballistic mounts, or PPC mounts instead of just energy mounts. They didn't though, so players are free to optimize their mechs for specific roles. If you don't, you are just putting yourself at a significant disadvantage for no real reason. Don't blame players, calling them " top tier/meta pukes".... we're just playing the game PGI has made. Don't try to make it something it isn't. It isn't a deep, battletech lore centric game. It's a slow mech shooter with battletech inspired rules and settings.

Trying to will it to be something else with imagined rules is just... delusional.