JOATMON Incorporated, on 25 February 2021 - 10:05 PM, said:
I do like the idea of IS getting Omnimechs. I do think that the side torso death penalty should remain with IS omnis using XL engines as this keeps things a bit closer to the old original Battletech design.
Obviously this is a huge disadvantage for IS Omnis vs Clan Omnis.
And with Lore/tabletop, they did not have pinpoint accuracy. Hit/Miss then locations were determined by the roll of dice. Nor does MWO utilize even all of BT engine crit damage. ST loss for isXL, cXL and LFE is a flag check, once a ST is destroyed this happens. Actual engine crits, whether via ST or CT are completely ignored by the game thus no reason to stay with only ONE component of that setup. PGI could still use it for flavor, and technically is not locked into 3 engine crits + then a mech is out. PGI could increase that to 4 engine crits+.. heck they could increase it to 5 engine crits+ which would allow cXL equipped mechs to continue running as a stick in the same manner as mechs equipped with STD engines, though most Clan omnis currently do not have the ability to equip weapons in the CT due to setup.
Quote
There is a way to balance this however. If you look at the old BT lore, when the IS were attacking Clan in the Operation Bulldog and Serpent campaigns, they captured a Clan military depot. They then took a number of the Clan omnipod weapons and placed them onto IS omnimechs.
PGI is even less likely to allow this setup at all.
Quote
if we move that trait over to MWO, the IS Omnis would be significantly more fragile than the Clan Omnis, but more adaptable.
The idea would be maybe let a mech swap out an IS Gauss for a Clan Gauss to get a few tons back... but you would lose any ballistics bonuses as a result, but you can squeeze in a few more tons of ammo, armor, ECM etc.
Then for all players would be aiming for a ST for a guarantee kill, just as players did prior to the introduction of LFE for isXL ST check, ie remove a ST for a kill.
Quote
Now there would need to be safeguards in place to prevent massive abuse of this. The easiest way to fix that would probably be to ensure that IS omni mechs received NO modifier bonuses to any clan weapons/equipment they equipped. Additionally there could be some outright penalties such as -1HSL to clan energy weapons, increased heat penalty when breaking HSL limits, or a penalty to lock times when using Clan missiles (in addition to getting the Clan LRM streams vs IS burst fire.), or AC ballistic reload times.
And you are definitely giving PGI too much credit with their abilities. Even those players, including myself, who suggest PGI should change the isXL to survive the loss of one ST while giving the isXL, cXL and LFE different non-lethal penalties that is not a guaranteed instant death even at 0% heatbar is likely even beyond their interest.
25
