23 replies to this topic

[Hobosapien]

nostra, on 06 January 2013 - 07:46 PM, said:

Canonically speaking...should flamers make your own heat go up at all? Every bit of background fluff about them states that they flush plasma/fire/heat directly from the 'mech's reactor core...wouldn't that then act like a giant heat-sink if anything? It would put a TON of heat on your enemy and possibly even lower your own.

I think of it this way... The flamer is a sort of "projectile" Heatsink, in that your mech doesn't necessarily "flush" heat so much as over charge the reactor specifically for the purpose of flushing through the flamer (think plasma burst), therefore heat of the firing mech would increase from said over charge (since not all of it is "flushed.") If flamers acted as coolant pods, ALL heatsinks would be flamers in some capacity (mainly because it would look cool as hell.) I would like to see flamers retain the current heat generated (as in exponential increase) on a mech firing them but switch the effects on the target mech. Something like a diminishing heat buildup that caps off around, say 85-90%? testing required of course but I don't like the idea of burst firing a flamer for maximum effect. Flamers in terms of mech v. mech combat are VERY specialized weapons, and a pilot should be prepared to use them as such (bring more HS than the other guy!) I'm no TT player myself (though I have THREE whole megamek battles under my belt) but maybe a few pre-shutdown heat penalties wouldn't be so bad of a flamer buff in itself? Slowed speeds or ammo issues? Maybe some HUD glitches? Just my 2 cents from the bottom of a whiskey glass

[Grimhew]

I like the idea of Flamethrowers, and causing heat distress to other mechs, but I also agree with people that we have to be careful to avoid "stun-locking" mechs that make the game less fun. As per the comment towards battletech and inferno-gel/napalm, I would much rather see these implemented because the drawback seems obvious to me for these weapons; if someone who has Inferno-Gel SRMs or Inferno-Gel Flamethrowers receices a critical hit to those weapons it will cause them to explode, engulfing the mech carrying the weapon in an inferno of their own ignited gel.

Perhaps something that could make both machine guns and flamers userful would also be the addition of a game mode that involved infantry somehow?

[Heart of Storm]

Best use I've found for flamers is to distract enemy pilots, my Jenner runs 4 medium lasers and a flamer, against heavys and assaults I aim for their face and let them have it with the flamer.

Does no damage but they can't see at all, which increases my survivability massively, you can damn near neutralise an enemy mech with a bit of practise which is a huge help for teammates in a heavy/assault brawl

It works less well against faster mechs, although flamering enemy lights in the face and watching them run into walls is pretty darn fun.

I swapped my tag out in exchange for the flamer some time ago and cant ever see myself going back..

Edited by Heart of Storm, 23 January 2013 - 04:16 PM.

[Heketon]

In his Command Chair - Weapon Balancing post

Paul Inouye said:

What does that mean to you? After I've completed my first pass at multiplier numbers and after it goes through testing, you will notice that the Machine Gun will become a formidable weapon when used against a component that has no armor. Basically it will start to shred items that are mounted on the targeted component.

The same will go for the Flamer.

In other words, my flamer Jenner is going to get longer teeth.