http://www.sarna.net.../Hardened_Armor
Hardened Armor weighs twice as much as standard armor, effectively gives 50% damage reduction, reduces your max speed by 10kph or so, and makes it easier for your mech to fail piloting checks (i.e. get knocked down)
Obviously the damage reduction can be lowered if 50% is too high, but Hardened Armor would add a completely new role to the game: Tank. Instead of just boating heatsinks you could choose to boat armor instead.
The reason adding a tank role is important is because often on maps like Frozen City, you get teams lined up on both sides of the dropship, and neither team wants to commit to attacking because the defender gets a huge advantage, which makes for a very boring game. By adding mechs that can tank large amounts of damage, you decrease that defender advantage, because the attacker can push over using the tanks to absorb the initial damage. Right now, without hardened armor, even atlases get obliterated in seconds.
Edited by Khobai, 22 December 2012 - 08:36 AM.