47 replies to this topic

[TimberJon]

LASERS ONLY - Not all energy weapons

Hi All. I'm going to have to pool all the laser discussions with a poll because I have issue with the lasers in the GDC 2012 video footage.

Not too happy. I was excited about a slightly slower pace game, lacking the circle-strafing as was mentioned. Call me a whiner, but I see circle strafing. Even with torso twisting having limits... Now this video was planned really well to give us little bits of each functionality. The missiles are great. but I don't like the lasers. I thought of a cross between MechAssault and MechWarior 3.

So I will open it to the floor with kind of a varied poll, mostly because I don't want too many people posting long lists of how they think lasers should operate. They are lasers. I will try to cover the bases. Let me know if you think I should modify any part of the poll.

I wish I could post this above the poll, but if you have never played MWLL before, you can see how all the lasers in the game operate here: http://youtu.be/pTjDjVo39Gc

If you havn't seen the video yet, grab the link from my sig.

Edited by TimberJon, 10 March 2012 - 09:47 PM.

[Sassori]

I like that lasers build up and then lance across armor like in the books. Pulse lasers /should/ be a machine gun like spray of laser pulses. That's what they're supposed to be.

[Sp12]

There's so much more skill involved in tracking an enemy target over a duration than clicking as soon as the crosshari goes red.

[Blackfire1]

Short answer? They are utterly sexy as they are now. The longer beam time means more skill needed to get the full damage on the part you want.

[wwiiogre]

don't care, know it will be well done, not gonna fuss, just gonna wait and see and play with what I get

chris

[TimberJon]

I apologize, in the books they are referred to as "a wave of emerald light" and "pulse laserfire". I seem to have misplaced my Capellan Solution books but I know that the Wraith had only pulse lasers. Could anyone snag an exerpt from either of those books on how the pulse lasers were described?

I do get that it will take more work to keep them on target but my first thought was of "beam clutter" during combat. The lasers on screen in the footage really lit up the screen.

Also, How do we differentiate standard lasers from pulse if they are both damage-over-time weapons... and if pulse lasers fired instead like they do in MWLL it would just be a laser machine gun. Will they instead shoot a scatter of laser bolts similar to an LBX cannon?

Edited by TimberJon, 10 March 2012 - 09:39 PM.

[trycksh0t]

TimberJon, on 10 March 2012 - 09:34 PM, said:

I apologize, in the books they are referred to as "a wave of emerald light" and "pulse laserfire". I seem to have misplaced my Capellan Solution books but I know that the Wraith had only pulse lasers. Could anyone snag an exerpt from either of those books on how the pulse lasers were described?

The issue with using the books for descriptions is different authors have different takes on what each weapon would look like. I've read several BattleTech novels in my time, and no author uses the same description of pulse laser. However, looking at Sarna, pulse lasers are described as follows:

"Pulse lasers differ from traditional laser weaponry in that instead of firing one powerful beam, they maintain laser beams fired off in quick succession."

To me, that says they should look identical to the standard lasers, just rapidly cycled on-and-off over the course of their duration, instead of the constant beam in the video.

On-Topic: Loved 'em the way they are, that's how lasers should always have looked. I'm curious why the OP didn't like them, aside from looking like a cross between MechAssault and MechWarrior 3. I should point out that, IMO, MechWarrior 3 had some of the best looking weapons of any MechWarrior title.

[TimberJon]

You're right of course, and I will bow to Sarna. MWLL I believe did pulse lasers right. In MW4 they were too precise. I sometimes just had wayyy too many kills when mounting about 6 of them.

[UncleKulikov]

I would prefer something much closer to this:


lasers would have a capacity, a certain amount of time they could be discharged before they need to recharge. The longer the laser has been fired, the more damage it does.

[pesco]

Blackfire1, on 10 March 2012 - 09:24 PM, said:

Short answer? They are utterly sexy as they are now. The longer beam time means more skill needed to get the full damage on the part you want.

This.

Also, MWLL pulse lasers look good and seem to match sarna.net's idea of them. I never much liked the look they had in MW3.

[GDL Irishwarrior]

I voted for normal lasers to fire like in MW3/4, but only because that meant voting for the 3 style. You see, lasers fired differently in MW3 and 4. In 3, they were a brief beam that could be swept across multiple target areas if you were turning/torso twisting at the time (Basically what we saw in the gameplay video, but faster). In 4, meanwhile, they were a beam with longer duration, that would go to ridiculous lengths to lock onto whatever your crosshair was on when you fired. This led to very odd-looking situations if you were turning and/or quickly torso twisting when you fired...

As far as pulse lasers go, I looked up the LL version on YouTube, and I think that version is definitely the way to go. It looks cool, and seems closer to canon than any of the previous versions.

Edited by GDL Irishwarrior, 11 March 2012 - 07:10 AM.

[zverofaust]

Why is this even a ques5tion, the lasers from the video are perfect. Pulse lasers should basically be the equivalent of laser machinegun, firing a very short duration beam (1/4 of a second) with a very quick reload, so you can basically full auto FZT-FZT-FZT-FZT instead of the beam laser's FZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT.

[EDMW CSN]

The lasers now are alright, the fact that it must deal DOT is accurate with fluff. Pulse lasers will be basically the laser machine gun burst ala MWLL, which I hope MWO will be "copying" too.

[Alkero]

IMO, MW:LL did lasers right, all three lasers: Standard (including Clan, Extended Range, and Heavy, this was done very well in MW:LL IMO because it was definitely a damage over time, and it awards the players with the skill to hold the crosshairs over an enemy longer), Pulse lasers (I'm referring now to MW:LL's Novacat with 6 Clan Large Pulse Lasers, you would place your reticule over an enemy, fire, and over a period of roughly 2 seconds, it would fire about 4-5 times in rapid succesion, i.e. Burst Fire on a modern day assault rifle kinda thing), and lastly X-Pulse Lasers (Now in this area I am a little weaker, not knowing if there are other variations of the X-Pulse..so if anyone wants to help me out, go for it..nonetheless, I still have used them extensively in MW:LL and they fire much like a Fully Automatic assault rifle except no ammo limitations, only heat limitations) any thoughts? things you disagree on?



EDIT: I would like to also say, I have not played MW3 BUT, from what I'm hearing it sounds the same as MW:LL, I would suggest that those of you who chose the option "MW3/4" change their vote to "MW:LL"...."whaaaatt I know I'm biased towards them, but I feel they honestly did things right in that game!"

Edited by Alkero, 11 March 2012 - 07:45 AM.

[Shai tan]

I do remember liking how the lazers were done in Mech 3.

[Volume]

MW:LL is as close to perfection as we got - second choice is MW3, since they're basically the same but some differences (pulse lasers and such) but I definitely want lasers to be less front-loaded instant burst damage. I really love the gradual over-time effect that they look to currently have. Should distribute the damage more evenly

[chewie]

lets not forget MPBT please you bunch of youngsters

They had some goo effects in that.
Especially the lightning effect for the PPC.

Much better than the current versions shown.

[Vtack]

I like the long discharge time for the laser and the damage over time aspect. it does some nice things from a balance and variety standpoint. lasers now distinguish themselves from autocannons and missles in terms of how they do damage. Instead of previous iterations of the game where a laser weapons (not counting pulse tech) did damage to one specific section of a mech immediatly we have damage that can be done to multiple parts of the mech and that damage occurs over a period of time. This makes lasers a bit more difficult to mamages as compared to AC/10 or something where the round either hits or it doesn't. In the past especailly MW2 and 3 laser boats were great because it was instant hits to specific areas. Your aim over time wasn't important. Its the difference between taking a photo and taking a movie. Now long range laser boating just got way more difficult and I like that.

[Kenyon Burguess]

im really waiting on mechlab informtion with some number attached to figure out how much i like the lasers. for me, how they look is meaningless, its what they do that worries me.

[ManDaisy]

All I can say is that I love how they actually balanced the lasers without nerfing them (mw4) or making them too powerful (mw3). The fact that they lose damage over range, but have infinite? range also makes for some interesting changes, giving everything the ability to at least fight back vs a missile boat. I like the long duration as well, MWLL duration is still too short and can lead to laser boating.

Edited by ManDaisy, 11 March 2012 - 11:23 AM.