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So what happens when knockdown is back in? Lights suddenly cannot run through enemy or friendly mechs at stupid speeds without going face first down or something equivalent. This encourages lights to have a more variable speed, slowing down a little in some areas, speeding up when the coast is clear, or staying at further range since they cannot escape THROUGH an assault mechs legs. This sill be good for the game, and i love piloting light mechs, it is a challenge and it will become more challenging which is good.
I would like to extend this a little bit further in fact - not to punish lights but i feel it will add a lot more to the complexity and tactics of the game. I propose that impact damage and blocking be added to the mechanics if possible.
What does this mean?
- Impact damage should occur when any mech travelling at a high enough speed collides with an object, be it a mech, a building, a cliff face or whatever. This would nto be devestating but enough to make people think twice about it - but not cause any damage at slow speeds.
- Mech Blocking should mean that mechs cannot move through other mechs. An Atlas in the middle of a narrow street should stop a mech going through it. If the mechs collide they should cause damage to each other (minimal) but if the knockdown does not occur (pehaps by not having high enough sped etc) both mechs should reduce thier speed to 0 and end up at a standstill.
Repercussions - Impact Damage
With these 3 mechanics added all players would need to watch their speed in built up locations. At the moment speed is still king. Even on larger mechs who want to take more weapons, the trade off of speed AND agility (torso twist etc) is hardly worth the extra bang for your buck so to speak (My opinion - but i feel that higher engines often bring better results).
High speed and high agility are amazing to have, but people frequently hit 100% and ram into buildings, slide off them, ram into another spin and re-engage like a deranged pinball game. While you lose your speed when you collide, you can quickly slide off and be running again. Unless people feel they are disengaged from combat an can slow down to line up shots - full speed ahead is often the best way to go.
If you had to really watch where you were moving then in a built up space such as the refinery or the city you would need to be traveling at slower speed to round corners making you a bigger target. A slower mech such as a stock Hunchback which was designed to be a city fighter would be quite at home trundling down streets and keeping in cover using their extra firepower to hit fast mechs forced into a slow mode rather than frenetic bumper car mode.
Assault mechs being torn apart by lights in the open might seek cover in some buildings and wait for light mechs to engage them in their comfort zone (Or the lights could decide no thanks and move off to another target or flank etc)
Forcing fast mechs to consider their speed as well as slower ones makes cover more useful than jst blocking LRMs, it forces a different mod of play that is extremely deadly and more immersive.
This will reduce the power of faster lighter mechs and even faster heavy mechs such as the dragon in tighter spaces.
Repercussions - Mech Blocking
This might be included in the knockdown fix but I wanted to expand on it. Not only are larger mechs more armoured and carry more guns, they occupy a larger space. They should have ability to deny entry to a certain area in a head on engagement. Walking right up to an assault should be damned deadly - it is already - but i see people slipping past them, blasting them with SRMs then moving through the mechs to come up from behind and not having the fear that they perhaps should due to phasing through a mech.
Mechs should not be knocked down if they just clip each other - it gets silly as we have seen. However at a slower speed they should certainly collide, stagger, and be left looking at each other with some extra dents in their armour.
A pair of mechs sanding side by side on a street should stop anyone from running through them but instead need to flank or find a away around. This denial of entry to areas should be a defensive mechs strong suite and it doesn't exist. This would be better than always being knocked down as well, but a lower speed alternative (scaled by weight etc)
Repercussions - Knockdown
We kinda know this one.
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The point is that the rambo style charging everywhere is detrimental to a tactical game. This is fast paced enough without making people feel that 100% throttle is nearly always best in a fight. Most of these rules would only make a big impact in built up areas also, more open maps would function very much the same.
While i think knockdown has to come back i think all of these mechanics would add an interesting element, especially when we get to having multiple capture points and leaving a big slow mech to defend in a built up area would be more viable forcing engagements on their own terms as a defensive mech should.
Some might think this is overkill, but without skidding rules etc from TT this would be a different way to punish players for not thinking about thier speed. Lights would rule the open ground but slower mechs get a major boost within city areas.
What do you think?
Edited by Asmudius Heng, 03 December 2012 - 11:40 PM.
