57 replies to this topic

[Felicitatem Parco]

Just a question for the community. I couldn't find this using the search feature in the forum.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 14 January 2012 - 11:23 PM.

[Starbadger]

It seems like Mechwarrior/Battletech has always been about fighting heat as much as fighting the enemy 'mechs. I'd feel like something was missing if I wasn't reduced to scrap when I reached a berjillion kelvins. =)

[Kenyon Burguess]

i would love to see the TT scale in play. you would see a drastic reduction in the number of energy weapons on community mechs if they could suddenly suicide with 1 alpha strike.

[Elizander]

Ah, I remember loading a Daishi some 100 tonner up with 6 LRM 20s, presssing the alpha strike button, and immediately exploding due to heat. I think this was in MW3 or MW4... can't remember.

Edited by Elizander, 13 January 2012 - 03:42 PM.

[Vulpesveritas]

+1

Means much more balanced between ammo based and energy weapons.

[Lycan]

Yes.

Heat Management is part of the Mechwarrior/Battletech.

Having to decide if you wanted to get one more volley in but risk shut down or explosion, or take a moment and find some cover to cool down is part of the game.

[Felicitatem Parco]

I was thinking this would deter reckless Alpha-Strikes because you won't be risking just a shutdown, but straight death. It's one thing to Alpha your last opponent and suffer a shutdown when nobody else is around, but it's another to risk taking yourself out with them.

Also, this would have the side-effect of making the Inferno missiles and flamers much more deadly.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 13 January 2012 - 04:29 PM.

[Xavier Truscott]

I remember first time in a blackhawk prime in MW3.....lined up a shot and hit an alpha, promptly exploded....fun times.

There should be a consequence for firing off 100 heat worth of weapons besides just shutting down, like potential ammo explosions, pilot damage, or just engine going critical.

Would definately love to see rising heat effect movement speed and targeting to some degree as well.

[VYCanis]

instant death? ehhhh, i dunno, but creeping death, yes

I'd like to see something like the expanded heat rules where stuff just starts breaking at random.

So that typical redlining is mostly just hampering abilities, and avoiding shutdowns, and trying not to stay hot for too long less your ammo begins to cook.

but ridiculous redlining to the max (like from cramming 4 er ppcs into a medium or something equally ridiculous), your mech should be moving like it's got rickets and arthritis, stuff should randomly be breaking, electrical fires breaking out, any ammo is bound to have cooked off by now, heatsinks get busted as coolant boils out through stress cracks, engine shielding potentially gets burnt through (making the problem way worse), weapons get damaged, pilot can get damaged, sensors damaged, weapons, whatever. Essentially hang out in the deep deep red too long and your mech dies by degrees.

Edited by VYCanis, 13 January 2012 - 04:51 PM.

[Nik Van Rhijn]

I think a lot of people who are used to MW3 &4 would have a nasty shock if heat was correctly implimented when using stock mechs of the era.Most mechs can't even run and fire all of their weapons at once

[Xavier Truscott]

Nik Van Rhijn, on 13 January 2012 - 04:59 PM, said:

I think a lot of people who are used to MW3 &4 would have a nasty shock if heat was correctly implimented when using stock mechs of the era.Most mechs can't even run and fire all of their weapons at once

Actually, that would be the good part of it. I love the panther, but hate when they upgraded it to an er ppc because heat build up made it so you could only fire it sparingly. Constant firing of a mad dog's primary config meant high heat problems fast. Heat was always a huge balancing point in games.

[Naduk]

mechs/pilots should only die from heat if the override is put in
just like in MW2 if you reached critical heat your mech shut down, but you had a few seconds to override it
if you did that you could keep fighting and likely explode if you kept creating heat or use it as time to esscape
i think that system was great

however i would like to see its effects become alot more diverse
the mech should not just explode every time at the reactor level
there is thousands of things that could go wrong with excessive heat levels in a machine of war
ammo could explode, the pilot could black out, certain controls could stop responding or be sluggish, windows would fog or bead with sweat
reactor could go critical, electronic systems could burn out suffering permenant damage, ammo feeders could warp and jam

i would like to see a progressive amount of suffering on both the mech and the pilot
so we get a much more real sense of just how hot it is getting

[Morashtak]

Naduk, on 13 January 2012 - 05:55 PM, said:

however i would like to see its effects become alot more diverse
the mech should not just explode every time at the reactor level
there is thousands of things that could go wrong with excessive heat levels in a machine of war
ammo could explode, the pilot could black out, certain controls could stop responding or be sluggish, windows would fog or bead with sweat
reactor could go critical, electronic systems could burn out suffering permenant damage, ammo feeders could warp and jam

i would like to see a progressive amount of suffering on both the mech and the pilot
so we get a much more real sense of just how hot it is getting

Add cockpit smoke and eventual fire and you should get the point across fairly effectively

[Felicitatem Parco]

New questions added to the poll to reflect community posts

[Liam]

Theoretically there is no reason why a mech should explode after firing 4 PPCs or 6 ERLL in alpha strike, so long energy generation for these weapons is deactivated. If you can fire one PPC you should be able to fire more than 6 ...

From that point where reactor starts to produce energy for your weapons again (reload),
1.) you will need to much time for 6 PPCs (in standard reactor mode, let say critical but not dangerous critical)
2.) or reactor will explode by generation needed power (to high thermal losses, reactor over stress).
3.) or shut down of the reactor, no power generation (no weapons reload [energy weapons, gauss included]), instead cooling down the weapons ... etc.

I would go with 3. solution.

Edited by Liam, 13 January 2012 - 07:00 PM.

[Halfinax]

It depends on if you mean character death, or destruction of the 'Mech. For the former, no, but for the latter undoubtedly.

[Felicitatem Parco]

Well, we have no idea how the game will deal with Character Death or Mech losses... We don't know if there will be an ejection system at all, or even if pilots can die. So, for now, I'm just ging to say "pilot death" simply means "end of the mission for you" without the Mech actually blowing up.

[AncientxFreako]

Heat management is one of the greatest aspects of battletech versus other game genres. But I'd love to see something else added to the use of PPC's...

I've spoken to friends who were in a house that got struck by lightning...and they told me about something I've never heard before... the lightning hit the chimney and they told of all the normal stuff, unbelievably loud and so on, but what also happened was that they all were physically and mentally stunned/dazed on their feet for more than a minute....as if they'd been knocked out on their feet. Should this be something that happens to a mech pilot who fires his/her ppc's if not equipped with certain insulation technology? If so, do we assume that all mechs have this insulation in the event of a ppc hit? Should a certain amount of mech damage negate this insulation, effectively leaving the pilot open to this form of unconciousness...causing him/her to become a sitting duck?

[Sarajevo]

Overheating shouldn't hurt the pilot. The pilot is insulated in an escape pod right? If the mech gets so hot as to cause enough damage to the mech to make it inoperable, the pilot has no choice but to eject. Yet there should not be an auto eject feature. If the mech explodes from overheating then too bad for the dumb pilot (who should be killed).

Edited by Sarajevo, 14 January 2012 - 12:49 PM.

[Undead]

Agree that the actual pilot shouldn't be at risk of getting killed (how would that even work, would your account get locked? That would be awful), but the mech should certainly be at risk of exploding. In the event of catastrophic failure the pilot should be forced to eject and considered a "kill" for mission objective purposes.