12 replies to this topic

[Evex]

I was pondering something about the game, and well a few items came up that might make good discussion topics. Instead of housing a seperate thread for all of them, since they sort of merge into each other at some point, I just decided to make a general discussion topic for tem.


Topic 1 Splash Damage and Self Destruct.

Essentially should a battlemech take damage when standing next to an exploding fuel tank, enemy mech, or any thing enviromental that makes a big boom, if so if an enemy mech has lost most of its weapons, should the pilot be able to try a kamikaze run and Self Destruct their lance.

Topic 2 Passive Radar

How will this work in game, and will ECM and BAP still work when its on? How do you expect players to counter some one who all ways has passive radar on?

Topic 3 Battlemech destroyed

Since the devs mentioned an inventory. Do you think that when a mech is destroyed, i.e a pilot ejects from it. That the mech is lost to the player, and they have to buy another "copy" of that battlemech, or should the battlemech be labeled crippled? In the case of the mech being crippled should the player have to pay a repair fee, and should destroyed equipment need to be replaced on the mech.

[LordDeathStrike]

Evex, on 10 April 2012 - 03:10 AM, said:

I was pondering something about the game, and well a few items came up that might make good discussion topics. Instead of housing a seperate thread for all of them, since they sort of merge into each other at some point, I just decided to make a general discussion topic for tem.


Topic 1 Splash Damage and Self Destruct.

Essentially should a battlemech take damage when standing next to an exploding fuel tank, enemy mech, or any thing enviromental that makes a big boom, if so if an enemy mech has lost most of its weapons, should the pilot be able to try a kamikaze run and Self Destruct their lance.

Topic 2 Passive Radar

How will this work in game, and will ECM and BAP still work when its on? How do you expect players to counter some one who all ways has passive radar on?

Topic 3 Battlemech destroyed

Since the devs mentioned an inventory. Do you think that when a mech is destroyed, i.e a pilot ejects from it. That the mech is lost to the player, and they have to buy another "copy" of that battlemech, or should the battlemech be labeled crippled? In the case of the mech being crippled should the player have to pay a repair fee, and should destroyed equipment need to be replaced on the mech.

firstly, there is an H in mechanics

splash damage is a must, especially when destroyed mechs go nuclear, thats why you back off once they are disabled before you finish them. no you cant suicide your mech with self destruct. because even if your mech is disabled its still worth more then your life, you arent allowed to blow it up on purpose. (this was exploitable in mw3, you could have an energy weapon mech that had to chain fire to stay alive, and alpha strike with it for a 100% chance of going nuclear when you were doomed anyway)

as far as passive radar it only limits range or detection, bap and other scouting tools reduce this limiting effect.

you never lose a mech, you only have to pay to fix them, devs have said this umpteen times

[CCC Dober]

Crippled Mechs would be a nasty twist. In the MW4 campaign you had to wait 2 fights for the Mech to become operational again. A damaged Mech was out for one fight. Using the same concept in MW:O would mean that taking damage above a certain threshold would either deny you the chance to fight again or you would need to pay a possibly crippling repair bill to circumvent it (somehow). While realistic, it would not be much fun. You'd either be spending major dough or hopping through the chassis while waiting for your Mech (that you really want to play, instead of waiting). Ofc you could also try to avoid damage in the first place, but the team would probably suffer if you happen to take over a Mech that requires you to take damage in order to play your designated role (i.e. Atlas).

[frostfly]

In the current rules (following the acutal tech) makeing a mech nuclear is not a main rule. I do believe they still print it as an optional rule. splash damage yes, mechs going "nuclear" please no.

[Swiftfire]

I've used splash damage to great effect in the previous MW games. Let the mech get close to a fuel supply and hit it with a couple of LRMs = one dead/severely damaged mech.

[Big Mek Jake]

Splash damage should always take effect. Mechs going nuclear shouldn't happen EVERY time. You can destroy a Mech without causing the reactor to go critical right?

[syngyne]

Lolimadeaprofile, on 10 April 2012 - 08:46 AM, said:

Splash damage should always take effect. Mechs going nuclear shouldn't happen EVERY time. You can destroy a Mech without causing the reactor to go critical right?

I honestly wish 'Mechs wouldn't go critical at all. It's silly.

I like one of the above poster's comments about an ammo explosion, though. Being close to a 'Mech cooking off should definitely net you some splash damage.

[AC]

The suicide run was the result of Microsoft making all mechs explode in a spectacular manner just for effect. This isn't realistic and resulted in the now common suicide run. I REALLY hope this isn't included in MWO.

[Evex]

I can see some one fixed my sleep deprived spelling error. Any way there has been one word thrown around, and I'm currently wondering what it means. That word being criticals. I'm assuming that when people mention criticals they are refering to the space of an empty mech, or something like a critical hit in a video game that does extra damage. Can some one explain to me what exactly a critical is when it comes to mechwarrior, and why people keep using the word when refering to mech customization?

[Nik Van Rhijn]

Critical spaces are the spaces that equipment (weapons etc) are put into. The other meaning is critical hit ie a hit on a critical space containing equipment. You may also see TAC which is "through armour critical" where a shot penetrates for damage before all the armour is removed from a section.

[That Guy]

Splash damage:

No, a mech should not take armor damage from things that explode near them. why? thats what armor is for. armor is tough, and ment to stop things from hurting it. the basic over pressure and heat from an explosion wont do anything to armor designed to stop that very force (it takes heating that armor to hundred of not thousands of degrees instantaneously in a very small spot to do damage from say, a laser or particle beam).

most damage isnt from the "explosion", but rather the fragments. in all cases they will probably be too insignificant to do any noticeable damage to a mech. the exceptions are things like directional charges, shaped charges, and EFP's (explosively formed penetraters), but again they rely on direct contact (shaped charge warhead directly striking target), or KE projectiles and not the explosion to do damage. those however are all specifically designed weapons, and not fuel tanks or reactor breachs. so no, no splash damage


Sensor:

these have never been well defined in how they actually work. in my mind the active radar is a high power radar/microwave pulse that images out an area in high resolution, and feeds that data into a computer which then IDs objects based on its looks to determine the threat (also working off the assumption that in the next 500 years people have made programs that can ID things based on vision alone. That is a very tough challenge facing modern day AI engineers and programmers). this essentially lets the battlemech "see" and spot targets much like a human does.
in addition to these are the passive detectors such as thermal, radio, magnetic and seismic. they all work like the box says. thermals detect heat, the radio listens for other radar pings (an alerts you if you have been pinged by enemy or enemy radar guided missiles) and other noise, magnetic looks for the large amount of electromagnetic noise that accompany s most modern electrical equipment, and of course the seismic, detecting vibrations in the ground. all of this data is collected by the mech to create the images we see on the HUD

in game terms the going passive should only eliminate the radar pings reducing situational awareness. the passive sensors should work better than in past games as they only collect the data that others are giving off. your mech sill is giving off heat, and is still making alot of KE and EM noise.
So with radar active, "ping! enemy marauder 2500m due east behind that ridge line"
Passive "there is something hot on that ridge-line, is also emitting radar"

since the radar would work like an "eye" there really is no way to hide from it, and running passive simply does not shine a flashlight into the eye of an enemy, immediately alerting them of your presence.

Also, I would envision most mechs not having a 360 radar, with only a 45-90 degree cone of coverage, wile the passive sensors have detectors 360.

ECM:
I see the ECM as nullifying alot the EM noise that mechs produces. In addition of they detect an enemy radar ping, it blasts a similar beam of microwaves at the source essentially blinding the mech.

BAP:
honestly i dont remember if these thing have been defined on how they work, or if i just forgot, so ill pass

but ultimately its a game, and as long as PGI defines how sensor and electronic equipment works before hand, and builds game play mechanics around that, it should be fine, rather than the simplistic magic radars or days past.

battlemech destruction:
the devs have already covered this, so there is nothing to say. read dev blogs and the QA if you care. and since you asked, you do care, and you will read

[Big Mek Jake]

That Guy, on 10 April 2012 - 01:55 PM, said:

battlemech destruction:
the devs have already covered this, so there is nothing to say. read dev blogs and the QA if you care. and since you asked, you do care, and you will read

It has been said and so it shall be.

[Bongo TauKat]

I loved MW3 where you fell over if you got BOOM'd. However, it you did something silly like pop the heat to 60 on a Classic BT scale, you were a mushroom cloud.