4 replies to this topic

[innociv]

I'd like to see weapons properties aligning them better to light/medium/heavy mechs rather than a "nope, you can only use these guns on this mech" system.

It sounded to me like there is 7 primary, 4 secondary, and the mech you use doesn't matter_

Mech weapon bonuses:
It'd be neat if there were certain properties on the mechs that made certain guns simply work better on them.
Like maybe the light or medium has better accuracy, so better for sniper sort of roles and no benefit for rockets/missiles.
Maybe Heavies get faster loaders, which would only work on guns that have loaders(rockets/missiles, cannons, any guns that have a clip/drum).  This would notably maybe give them a better advantage with rockets/missiles not because the load speed is increase, but because the other mech with the accuracy bonus doesn't do anything for rockets/missiles.  So, comparably they're better than to other guns.
The least benefit, then, with a faster load speed would be on things with drums/clips.  While it is a benefit, reloading say 50% faster on a two second reload, then 3 seconds of firing, it's a 1 second decrease out of 5 seconds which is only a 20% reduction.  While on a rocket, it might have a 0.5 second cooldown after firing, 1 second reload time, so a 50% faster reload is taking 0.5 seconds off of 1.5 for a 33% reduction.

It's a flat effect, but that flat effect gives more or less benefit based on how the weapon works.

I guess I could go into more detail, but you get the idea.
Just something simple and intuitive, not something really specific where you have to look up on a wiki for stat changes for each gun and mech.


Another balancing mechanism is thrust vs weight:
I don't see why a light mech shouldn't be able to use the two heaviest weapons, but if it weighs 18tons, and the lightest weapons are 2tons, and heaviest 7tons(for two of them), we can do a little math.

Random numbers for arguments sake:
Light mech:
/w lightest weapons 20 tons
/w heaviest weapons 25tons
29,000 lbs of thrust
Heavy mech:
/w lightest weapons 40 tons
/w heaviest weapons 45 tons
51,000 lbs of thrust

Light mech /w lightest is 145% more thrust than weight.  /w heaviest is a mere 116%.
Heavy mech /w lightest is 127.5% more thrust than weight. /w heaviest is 113%.
That's nearly 3x the thrust between lightest and heaviest weapons for light mech, but only double for the heavy, merely because of the mechs different weight and thrust.  To me, that's simplicity and balance in harmony.

Light mech /w lightest = 63% faster in the air than the heavy.
Light mech /w heaviest = a mere 23% faster (and they're both pretty slow air wise).

With this, you balance how mechs handles with different weapons without arbitrary things.  Light mechs lean toward light weapons, heavies toward heavy, but you can still use either for other possible weapons as the player sees fit.

Numbers subject to balance and all.  That's about 4.4m/s acceleration on the high end(i think).

/edited to make it more concise.

[SixSeconds]

Perfect, except I'd like to switch the bonuses; rockets have negligible recoil and heavy mechs would be stable, so they should have the sniper/autocannon bonus and lights should get explosives.

[innociv]

That's true.

Then you'd maybe have cases where people still use light mechs for the sniping guns because they can get to spots the heavies can't. It's an interesting give-and-take against such a simple mechanism.

[SixSeconds]

Reminds me of the evolution of Chromehounds, actually; players began using more powerful weapons on faster, less stable chassis, simply because their skill levels were high enough to effectively pilot them.

Maybe heavies should get an accuracy bonus, mediums a cooldown bonus, and lights...I don't know. What's a good bonus for a light mech_

[innociv]

I think a faster loading speed would be good on mediums.

Loading meaning for reloading weapons, but I guess it could also mean for single shot weapons.  Like on a canon, they have reloading mechnisms.
I like that because it makes the bonus less defending on weapons.  You could have a weapon that fires a barrage of missiles/rockets(as seen in one trailer), but in such a case you'd get less of a bonus because there is a longer firing period before the loading new missiles.


It's a good question, then, what bonus lights would get..
Maybe less recoil_  That's a benefit to automatic weapons.
Accuracy is good for slow firing weapons where the first shots recoil doesn't affect the second.  Lower recoil is better for rapid firing ones.

The seems really blah, though.  Really, heavies might as well have both an accuracy bonus and recoil reduction.


You could have equipment be fixed for each mech...  I don't think that'll be a popular idea, with people wanting customization, but it makes sense and makes balance easy.  Then light mechs could have something that makes it so missiles can't lock onto them and stealth, medium mechs get faster reload and something else, and heavies get better accuracy and lower recoil.

Or I guess, then, it actually makes sense to make the equipment limited for each mech instead of just balanced by weight.