22 replies to this topic

[Will9761]

Thinking about certain new weapons, there are certain ways that could be made to work given their descriptions from lore (taken from sarna). It could something that could be talked about and explored down the line.

Variable Speed Pulse Lasers
Description: Developed by Word of Blake and Free Worlds League technicians, the Variable Speed Pulse Laser (VSP) family has only been seen on a few units when they first appeared during the Jihad. Similar to a Snub-Nose PPC the VSP inflicts more damage at close range in exchange for a drop-off in damage at longer ranges. Unlike the Snub-Nose PPC, which fires a single bolt of energy, the modified pulse laser system can alter the speed of the pulses fired based on the distance to the target. This allows the Variable Speed Laser to generate more damage and increase the odds of a hit at short range, but the damage and hit probabilities drop off at medium and long range.

Variable Speed Pulse Lasers initially were available only to the Word of Blake and Free Worlds League Military in small, medium, and large sizes. After the Jihad, the weapons would soon be used throughout the Inner Sphere by the thirty-second century.

How they could work: I would say, this weapon could act as a mix between ATM damage and the pulse laser family. The longer you are, the lesser the damage, the closer you are, the higher the damage.

PPC Capacitor
Description: The PPC Capacitor is an extra component that can be added to any type of Particle Projection Cannon. Its main purpose is to inflict more damage on an enemy in one shot. However, this comes at the expense of significantly raising the heat generated by each shot. The Inner Sphere introduced the prototype PPC Capacitor in 3060, and the production version in 3081, while the Clans wouldn't introduce it until 3101.

How they could work: You wouldn’t have to add them as equipment, but you could turn them into PPC variants like the light and heavy ppcs. MekTek’s Mechwarrior 4 also did this with their PPC Capacitors as well.

Plasma Rifle
Description: The plasma rifle was developed by the Capellan Confederation. Based upon their man-portable version, the Confederation created what is essentially a massive flamer. Plasma weapons use the power of the fusion engine or power amplifiers to power an electromagnetic accelerator to a stream, pulse, or toroid of plasma (i.e. very hot, energetic, and excited matter). The plasma is created by using a lasing process to flash cartridges of plastic foam into white-hot projectiles that cause thermal, as well as physical, damage. Because this foam ammo is inert, it will not explode even if destroyed.

How they could work: Because the Plasma Rifle has been described as an ammo-dependent flamer, it could act as a laser disgusted as a flamer. MekTek's Mechwarrior 4 did something similar to this, but with a purple flame.

Bombast Laser
Description: Developed by the Lyran Alliance in 3064, the Bombast Laser was designed to be the ultimate word in laser weapons. During the design process, its engineers had to reduce the weight of the weapon. This sacrifice came from the power supply, which made the weapon slow at charging. To make up for this, the engineers added the ability for the warrior to adjust the yield of damage inflicted by the weapon. The power management, however, proved to be impractical and distracting in the field for its users. The weapon reached prototype production by 3064. Its unusual glow from building up its power became a popular visual effect on Solaris VII, making the weapon popular as well.

How they could work: Bombast Lasers would be the laser equivalent of ATMs, the longer the range the lesser the damage, the shorter the higher the damage.

Multi-Missile Launchers
Description: The Multi-Missile Launcher is capable of firing both short-range missiles and long-range missiles, including any special munitions designed for them, as well as using the Artemis IV fire control system. Originally designed by members of the Battle Magic mercenary unit in 3067, the MML helps simplify logistical needs of cash-strapped mercenaries, while simultaneously allowing them to take maximum advantage of special munitions.

How they could work: Just like the Clan ATMs, the MMLs could be the Clan equivalent for the: The longer the range, the lesser your damage, the shorter the range, the higher your damage. After all, PGI did this for the ATM to compensate for the lack of ammo switching between Standard, ER and High Explosive rounds.

Thunderbolt Missiles
Description: The Thunderbolt Missile was developed for the arenas of Solaris. Unlike most missile systems, the Thunderbolt was a single missile that smashed into its target. Though it was effective in the arenas, it didn't see widespread use in the field because the single missile was very vulnerable to anti-missile systems. The missile launcher, though small, was awkward to mount and would only fit on the left or right torso of a 'Mech.

How they could work: They would act as missile versions of the autocannons. You just have to be careful since an AMS could destroy it.

Inferno Missiles
Description: The Inferno technology was introduced as an SRM ammunition type, but has been used in LRMs, bombs, and Arrow IV missiles. In addition, vehicle flamers, fluid guns, and sprayers can also use an "Inferno fuel" that replaces the ammo with tanks of incendiary chemicals.
Inferno SRMs deal no damage, however for every missile that strikes the target, increase the unit’s heat level by 2 points during the Heat Phase of the turn in which the infernos hit.

How they could work: They wouldn't cause damage, but every missile that lands cause the target to heat by +2.

Rifles
Description: The "Rifle" family. The precursor to the modern Autocannon, the Rifle was based on the main guns used by tanks on pre-spaceflight Terra. The Rifle used heavier rounds and larger propellant loads to fire its shells. It was phased out of service with most major powers because it lacked stopping power against most battlefield units.

How they could work: They could act like Autocannons, but with less damage.

Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle
Description: The NAIS developed the Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle (or SB Gauss) in an attempt to bring the functionality of an LB-X Autocannon to the Gauss rifle. Though the cluster-like ammunition made it easier to hit a target and was particularly effective in the anti-aircraft role, unlike the LB-X family, the Silver Bullet couldn't fire standard Gauss Rifle ammunition. The Silver Bullet also couldn't benefit from a Targeting Computer. These drawbacks, coupled with the weapon's high cost and relative fragility of the ammunition feeds, made the weapon very unpopular with MechWarriors. The Federated Commonwealth canceled the project in 3051.

How they could work: Since SB Gauss Rifles have been described as “LBX meets Gauss”, you could give them 15 damage and they would spread just like regular LBXs, making it a “Gauss Shotgun”.

Edited by Will9761, 22 January 2024 - 02:23 AM.

[KursedVixen]

Cauldron will turn sliver bullet gauss into a sniper rifle just like they did to HAgs. Rifles are obsolete.

MMl's will not work as PGI cannot do ammo swapping.

Bombast laser: WHy can't you just use a binary laser?

Thunderbolt missile: Too much damage and besides Cauldron hates auto-aim weapons which are mostly missiles.

Chemical lasers: Nobody would use them first you have to load ammo which is explosive it does less damage than even the heavy medium laser at the same range.... Dead on arrival.

[Will9761]

KursedVixen, on 06 December 2023 - 11:19 PM, said:

Cauldron will turn sliver bullet gauss into a sniper rifle just like they did to HAgs. Rifles are obsolete.

MMl's will not work as PGI cannot do ammo swapping.

Bombast laser: WHy can't you just use a binary laser?

Thunderbolt missile: Too much damage and besides Cauldron hates auto-aim weapons which are mostly missiles.

Chemical lasers: Nobody would use them first you have to load ammo which is explosive it does less damage than even the heavy medium laser at the same range.... Dead on arrival.

MML: This is why I said PGI could turn them into the equivalent of the Clan ATM's. Remember in lore, Clan ATM's could also change between ER, HE and Standard rounds, but PGI had to compensate for the lack of that feature as well. So MMLs could have a place in MWO as well.

Bombast Lasers: They range from 7-12 damage and since you can't change shots, the ATM damage mechanic would compensate for that. Also what if I want to use Bombast Lasers?

Thunderbolt Missile: They could be transformed into Autocannon versions of Missiles without the lock-on. I'm sure PGI can improvise something.

Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle: Some IS players also treat Gauss Rifles as brawling weapons. Look at the regular Gauss Rifle and Heavy Gauss Rifle for example, so who's to say that SB Gauss Rifles wouldn't get the the HGR treatment?

I see your point on the Chem Lasers though. Still it doesn't hurt to see new things.

[JumpingHunter]

I always took Plasma Rifle more as some sort of "heat-damaging PPC with ammo", and given how horribly underpowered heat-damaging weapons are in MWO right now, i would really like to have a Plasma Rifle added in. I would also be super glad to see Thunderbolt missiles, even if they will have some balancing factors. Always loved singular and big missiles.

Rifles could be a proper ballistic equipment for lighter mechs, like mediums and etc, even with less damage or less range it would be neat to have something like that.

MMLs, though, idk about, they always seemed too heavy and too wide-spred in terms of spheres of usage, MML3, for example, weights more than SRM4 while dealing less damage, and in LRM fire mode it shoot weak 3 LRM missiles that make even LRM5 look like a normal weapon on this background. I think they are just too heavy to be of any proper use.

Bombast Laser is interesting to think about, but i'm afraid that it will be overshadowed by Binary Laser that deal more damage at any range that the Bombast can operate on, while only taking up 2 more tons.

Chemical weapons (not only lasers, Chem PPCs and maybe even Fluid Guns too) are my personal dirty dream, because i love my crude periphery tech, but they will be soo much worse than current meta weapons that aside from some nerds nobody would ever consider using them. MAYBE Large Chem Laser will have some use on hotter mechs with one ton of ammo (i think it's supposed to be rather generous in terms of rounds per ton), but that'd be very unlikely.

VSPLs are interesting on paper, but IIRC they weight twice as much as normal Pulses, which means 4 times as much as normal lasers, and they REALLY should be doing a good damage in return, but in this case i would argue that last thing MWO needs right now is EVEN MORE LASER ALPHA DAMAGE META.

PPC Capacitors i would really love to have, but i suppose just giving PPC +5 damage straight forward is not really that good. I think of two ways of implementing this: first way is to make CapPPCs become charge-based weapons, like Gauss Rifles, where if you just tap the fire button you fire normal PPC, and if you hold it you chagre the capacitor and then the PPC fires with +5 damage. Also this should give CapPPC a necessary jam chance, and relatively high one. The second way is to make PPC Capacitor into a skill tree, that would consist of, lets say, 15 nodes, each of which would increase PPC's damage and heat by, like, 0.333 units (not percents), so in total any PPC would get +5 damage and +5 heat. THOUGH, light PPCs should be either excluded from this or heavily nerfed, as they will be super OP because of lower weight. This could also add a progressively increasing jam chance.

As for Silver Bullet - i would have really liked to have one, because i like shotgun-like weapons, but after seeing how horribly wrong and blatantly overpowered PGI and Cauldron managed to make them, i do not trust them in touching anything with more range than 400 meters ever again. it's better to have only one pinpoint HAG than two of them, with inner sphere having access to one.

Overall, i like the ideas, i would love to have them in game, and i would actually use most of them, but the problem is that most of these are sidegrades to existing weapons at best, and most of people will still use meta whenever possible, so massed out lasers and gauss snipers will still be taking up 80% of battlefield, unfortunately.

[torsie]

Only if the Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle does that *chuck-chuck* sound every time you want to shoot it

[KursedVixen]

JumpingHunter, on 07 December 2023 - 02:21 AM, said:

I always took Plasma Rifle more as some sort of "heat-damaging PPC with ammo", and given how horribly underpowered heat-damaging weapons are in MWO right now, i would really like to have a Plasma Rifle added in. I would also be super glad to see Thunderbolt missiles, even if they will have some balancing factors. Always loved singular and big missiles.

Rifles could be a proper ballistic equipment for lighter mechs, like mediums and etc, even with less damage or less range it would be neat to have something like that.

MMLs, though, idk about, they always seemed too heavy and too wide-spred in terms of spheres of usage, MML3, for example, weights more than SRM4 while dealing less damage, and in LRM fire mode it shoot weak 3 LRM missiles that make even LRM5 look like a normal weapon on this background. I think they are just too heavy to be of any proper use.

Bombast Laser is interesting to think about, but i'm afraid that it will be overshadowed by Binary Laser that deal more damage at any range that the Bombast can operate on, while only taking up 2 more tons.

Chemical weapons (not only lasers, Chem PPCs and maybe even Fluid Guns too) are my personal dirty dream, because i love my crude periphery tech, but they will be soo much worse than current meta weapons that aside from some nerds nobody would ever consider using them. MAYBE Large Chem Laser will have some use on hotter mechs with one ton of ammo (i think it's supposed to be rather generous in terms of rounds per ton), but that'd be very unlikely.

VSPLs are interesting on paper, but IIRC they weight twice as much as normal Pulses, which means 4 times as much as normal lasers, and they REALLY should be doing a good damage in return, but in this case i would argue that last thing MWO needs right now is EVEN MORE LASER ALPHA DAMAGE META.

PPC Capacitors i would really love to have, but i suppose just giving PPC +5 damage straight forward is not really that good. I think of two ways of implementing this: first way is to make CapPPCs become charge-based weapons, like Gauss Rifles, where if you just tap the fire button you fire normal PPC, and if you hold it you chagre the capacitor and then the PPC fires with +5 damage. Also this should give CapPPC a necessary jam chance, and relatively high one. The second way is to make PPC Capacitor into a skill tree, that would consist of, lets say, 15 nodes, each of which would increase PPC's damage and heat by, like, 0.333 units (not percents), so in total any PPC would get +5 damage and +5 heat. THOUGH, light PPCs should be either excluded from this or heavily nerfed, as they will be super OP because of lower weight. This could also add a progressively increasing jam chance.

As for Silver Bullet - i would have really liked to have one, because i like shotgun-like weapons, but after seeing how horribly wrong and blatantly overpowered PGI and Cauldron managed to make them, i do not trust them in touching anything with more range than 400 meters ever again. it's better to have only one pinpoint HAG than two of them, with inner sphere having access to one.

Overall, i like the ideas, i would love to have them in game, and i would actually use most of them, but the problem is that most of these are sidegrades to existing weapons at best, and most of people will still use meta whenever possible, so massed out lasers and gauss snipers will still be taking up 80% of battlefield, unfortunately.

Plasma rifles would be nice ,but you'd have to make the clan one do damage too instead of just heat.

[Will9761]

KursedVixen, on 07 December 2023 - 07:46 PM, said:

Plasma rifles would be nice ,but you'd have to make the clan one do damage too instead of just heat.

Funny, I don't recall Clans having Plasma Rifles.

[KursedVixen]

Will9761, on 07 December 2023 - 09:11 PM, said:

Funny, I don't recall Clans having Plasma Rifles.

Plasma cannon i think it was called.

https://www.sarna.ne...i/Plasma_Cannon

the clan plasma cannon does only heat damage through melting armor and burning infantry alive... unlike the plasma rifle which does some kinetic damage.

Edited by KursedVixen, 07 December 2023 - 10:04 PM.

[Will9761]

I could see the Clan Plasma Cannon with more damage.

[KursedVixen]

Will9761, on 08 December 2023 - 05:21 PM, said:

I could see the Clan Plasma Cannon with more damage.

i would think both plasma weapons should do mostly heat so like a flamer but long range and possibly acting like how napalm would a temporary heat increase for a few seconds after impact.

and the ammo doesn't explode kinda like gauss rifle but nor does the gun....

aside from inferno lrms or srms they would be a viable heat weapon.

Edited by KursedVixen, 09 December 2023 - 09:07 AM.

[Will9761]

KursedVixen, on 09 December 2023 - 09:03 AM, said:

aside from inferno lrms or srms they would be a viable heat weapon.

I could see the possibility of Inferno SRMs and LRMs working in MWO. They may not cause damage, but it would be funny seeing Jenner IICs and Javelins making people panic and die due to overheating.

[KursedVixen]

Will9761, on 09 December 2023 - 03:53 PM, said:

I could see the possibility of Inferno SRMs and LRMs working in MWO. They may not cause damage, but it would be funny seeing Jenner IICs and Javelins making people panic and die due to overheating.

perhaps they work like switching artemis. as far as equiping them.

Edited by KursedVixen, 09 December 2023 - 05:10 PM.

[Will9761]

Definitely and if that doesn't work, PGI could go the route of making them as a weapon variant.

[KursedVixen]

Will9761, on 09 December 2023 - 05:25 PM, said:

Definitely and if that doesn't work, PGI could go the route of making them as a weapon variant.

uhh i think that's pretty much what i said ,but eh.

[Will9761]

I was agreeing with you...

[Will9761]

Three weapons I cannot see in this game for the life of me are: Re-Engineered Lasers, Improved Heavy Lasers and Extended LRMs. Here's why:

Re-Engineered Lasers - They are essentially Heavy Pulse Lasers. I feel that they would be over shadowed by VSP Lasers with the idea of VSPLs doing more damage the closer the target is.

Improved Heavy Lasers - In lore, the regular Heavy Lasers are known to mess up your sensors if you use them, but since MWO doesn't have that effect, Improve Heavy Lasers would be useless.

Extended LRMs - They can be implemented, but the question is why? LRMs are fine on their own, so the don't need an ER variant of them.

[KursedVixen]

Will9761, on 10 December 2023 - 09:54 AM, said:

I was agreeing with you...

and i was just pointing out a minor detail no argument.

[Will9761]

KursedVixen, on 10 December 2023 - 06:18 PM, said:

and i was just pointing out a minor detail no argument.

No arguments here from me. It's all good.

[Will9761]

ProtoMech Autocannons and Light Autocannons. I can see both of these being in MWO, for the IS I can see them as faster Autocannons, as for the ProtoMech Autocannons, I could see them as Clan equivalents of Light Autocannons. Though the question is, how would the ProtoMech ACs function. Will they be more like the IS ACs or keep the regular Clan style?

Edited by Will9761, 22 January 2024 - 02:20 AM.

[simon1812]

Forgot Streak LRMs