32 replies to this topic

[BigMooingCow]

Lentil, on 06 February 2013 - 08:35 PM, said:

+1 OP.

Living in "Override" is something that would be pretty daring... considering how quickly the mech seems to self-destruct. It would be a whole heck of a lot easier to understand.

Does the shutdown/startup sequence seem longer now that the pilot is being animated pushing the buttons? I can't really tell if it's added time, or just makes it seem slower.

I haven't clocked it, but I think it just seems longer because you're oftentimes sitting in the middle of a firefight getting hammered while your avatar screws around with buttons and you wonder if your mech is going to just power back down again after it starts up. That's my wild guess, at least.

[warner2]

BigMooingCow, on 05 February 2013 - 02:25 PM, said:

Well thought out common sense from someone who plays

This is so spot on I couldn't like it more.

The only thing I would add is that it was fine before, however your suggestion is also really good.

When I saw the patch notes, I thought EXACTLY that. All of that text to describe the heat/override system? That in itself suggests it's too complex.

This stuff sounds like it was built by a programmer getting creative, not a gamer who has designed something sensible then had it programmed.

This stuff is not "cool". It's just annoying.

Edited by warner2, 07 February 2013 - 10:22 AM.

[warner2]

Training Instructor, on 06 February 2013 - 01:41 PM, said:

I don't understand their justification for it.

What justification for it? I have not seen any, am eager to find out.

[Tsunamisan]

Why not make it Hit P to power up, Shift P to power down.

If a sequence is initiated say a power up then P does nothing. They need to drop the stupid queuing of the P key. All it does is makes players more worried about their heat status than the battle. I find my self powering up and then shutting down just because Betty or no visual prompt tells me that my mech is powering back up before i press P.

Seriously if they want to change a system they should leave the old one ad make it a toggle box in options whether the player wants to us ether queuing in game or not.

[BigMooingCow]

warner2, on 07 February 2013 - 10:21 AM, said:

This stuff is not "cool". It's just annoying.

Yeah, I think that's the acid test: is it fun? It seems most people agree that it's not. Just putting it back to the way it was will at least remove the annoyance. Adding a "live dangerously in no shutdown" mode may make the game more fun by giving a risk/reward for operating at high heat. I'm all for that, especially if I get to see more mechs steam, catch on fire and blow up!

[StalaggtIKE]

I don't mind the new mechanic, however the OP suggestion would be more intuitive.

[Sable Dove]

"Heat management is an important part of the game. The game should warn me when I'm not paying attention to my heat so that I don't have to manage it."

What?

The new system is leagues better than the old, in terms of depth. It seems complicated because PGI decided to give more information than usual on the mechanics. They could have simply given the basic instructions and let players figure it out.

It could be improved, for sure; the manual-power-up/down is poorly implemented, which is the only significant problem.
Making the override a toggle would be a good move, and so would limiting the power queue to 1 action so that players can't queue 10 start-ups and shutdowns and then wait for their mech to execute the entire queue. Or even better, removing the queue and simply making it power up/down per key press per action.

Mech overheats, shuts down; player holds/presses P key; as soon as the shutdown animation is finished, mech will start up; mech will not shut down manually unless the P key is released and pressed again, after the mech has started up.


Also, you can't 'override' the shutdown after hitting 100% heat, because the actual shutdown is nigh-instantaneous. You hit 100% heat, you are shut down. The mech takes a couple seconds to wind down, but for all intents and purposes, it is already shut down. Meaning you have to wait for it to wind down, then restart the mech.

Here's a couple tips for those of you who cant' quite grasp how to use the mechanic:
1. Rebind the override to something close to your normal hand position. I use LShift, but anything in that area works. You need to be able to activate the override while in combat. O is a terrible default key.
2. If you do shut down, do absolutely nothing. Unless you were at 99% and fired off 4 PPCs, your heat will be below 100% by the end of the shutdown animation, and the game will automatically start your mech back up.
3. Learn how much heat your weapons produce on each map, and override any time you think firing may overheat you. The override is not there for you to just keep shooting while over 100%; it's so that if you're close, you can brush against the 100% limit without risking a deadly mid-combat shutdown.

If you shut down at all, you're probably doing something wrong though. Try to monitor your heat more.

[BigMooingCow]

I'm not going to spend the whole game tapping away at the five-second override prevention key. If the current system remains in place, I'll either:

A: Do nothing, hate it, and ALT-F4 in anger every once in a while

B: Make an AutoHotkey script to spam the five-second key for me, so I'm ALWAYS in override mode

Edited by BigMooingCow, 08 February 2013 - 02:08 PM.

[Colby Boucher]

Make this a poll. simple, just a poll asking whether people agree with your idea. the devs are far more likely to notice.

[Deathlike]

Quote

There's a reason why overrides are temporary, not semi-permanent as some people would like. Otherwise safeguards for real systems need to be online at all times until we hit the "magical button" to temporarily disable them... usually, for controlled reasons.

Of course we don't actually die in these games, but to some degree, you can't have a permanent override for a safeguard. You would be complaining to the real things that would occur like the BP oil spill or even the nuclear reactors in Japan (I forget where). This is a semi-realistic take on war-machines that very likely will overheat and sometimes people will intentional risk dying if they think they can survive. This override feature is no different and should NEVER operate in a toggle or other means. Perhaps they should switch the old style most are used to, then we'll just shift to whining at how the scaled heat system is not what you like.[/color]

Override is not supposed to be the "ignore heat cheat code" where newbies don't realize how they are supposed to handle heat, or vets who think the heat scale is not favorable to them.

[Mounty]

I've always thought the whole idea of having your mech shut down in the middle of a fight was just plain silly. Fair enough having the weapons shut down, but whole mech?

I'm not suggesting they should change to this, it's just something about the game that always bugged me since table top.

But yeah, they need to chuck out the changes and go back to the way it was.

[TriOptimum]

Agreed. This is unacceptable and needs fixed. Just put it back the way it was before so when my mech powered down I could hold P until it powered back up. Now, sometimes it will power back on its own, sometimes it will wait for me to press P, and sometimes it will power back on but the powered down HUD will stay on (Bug), or sometimes it will power on and off multiples times in a row until I die, even if I just hit P once.

Edit: Override doesn't work very often, either.

Edited by TriOptimum, 10 February 2013 - 07:05 AM.

[Red squirrel]

Easy solution #25

P = power down
O = power up / override shutdown

very easy:
O will bring your mech online or prevent shutdown
P will bring it offline