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Note that the poll asks if you agree with the direction of the idea of having EMP as a more overheat/hud affecting type of ability rather than its current form, the rest below is just explanations/reasoning and additional ideas.
If anything I reckon EMP would work better as an overheat inducing ability rather than its current form, and watching the video again below it felt like even though there already is an overheat mechanic in place, that part looked and sounded pretty cool, a lot of people hate the current ability of rendering a player completely useless for 7 seconds, so instead use an already well established mechanic that can be triggered by other players instead of just leaving the responsibility to the individual all the time.
So what about this_
Something like this 00:39 to 00:46 ^ (in terms of visuals/sounds) - probably shave a second or so off the duration, match the AOE radius to the graphic, switch off all HUD including overheat bars (aesthetically causes sparking and random glitches) and cause weapons to overheat 15-25-35% quicker than normal depending on mech class as well as increasing current heat levels by about 10%.
- Doesnt completely shut down the player and remove 'all control' kindof thing, still gives a significant handicap to the victim and adds an element of gambling with the overheat increase but unable to see the overheat bars so it challenges flight or fight decisions more mid combat, more importantly it doesnt completely prevent the victim from action but still gives the aggressor are marked advantage for using an EMP while hopefully appearing as equally useful as an MG turret or shield for example in different situations.
- Variable punishment over mech classes ie: heavy mechs arent as penalized as opposed to lighter mechs whom still have a viable escape method due to their speed, so heavies 10%, mediums 20%, lights 30%. More incentive for people toting heavier mech classes than the lighter mechs, I would propose turret mode also be rendered immune to EMP
- Useful finisher to protracted fights, mechs who have been firing a lot will already be on moderate-high heat and gives a nice finisher/cut off ability while at the same time not being 'the first go-to option' in everyone's choice of attack, it would be more useful to push people into overheat when they've been firing a bit already or trying to conserve heat.
- If people care about the thematics of it and why heavies would be less affected by it, well the mechs look just as mechanically operated as they are electronically with all the motors/engines/vents to lights/screens etc, heavies being much larger have more room for shielding to be fitted and turret mode at the moment is just about useless but looks like its meant to pretty much be all like 'stop, hammertime'. A class mechs have much more mobility and room to breathe in EMP situations but due to lighter frame may not have as much shielding so they would be the most affected. Also may dissuade people hogging the fast-glass cannon builds all the time.
- On a side note about thematics and the canon of hawken and mechs, the deep noise at 00:44-00:45 is epic even if its coming from that explosion, can imagine its part of some huge reserve mechanical flywheel-based energy storage system that kicks into gear in the event of system failure to restart the batteries/other systems or something.... /geek
- Adds emphasis on builds investing in heat management talents espescially heavies as you can almost render yourself immune in the un-deployed state via internals and talents.
On a few other notes for additions/tweaks;
Values are up in the air, they could be different, I would opt for higher values to push the difficulty of being struck by one, but at the same time Id want to keep the values lower, in line with incentivising heat management talents to reduce the effects since, as it is, they only modify by very minor percentages per point. However doing that would reduce its value compared to other items, so a sweet spot will need to be determined.
A 'luck/gamble' element by making the initial overheat impact be between two values (ie: 5% and 15%) or if you dont like the luck-based element make it variable from the point of impact of proximity as per dEd101's initial suggestion in the Idea for EMP balancing thread to favor skill based EMPing (imo, the latter is better if anything).
That would also mean that since its easier to hit heavies due to their size and lack of mobility itll be easy to get as much of an effect on them as possible (that is.. if you had nothing else to throw at them assuming they are nearly immune to EMP), but lights who move a lot faster that get affected more - they just have to ensure at least not to be in the center point of the impact to buy more time which for them is easier to accomplish.
Causes radar and HUD values to be scrambled for an additional 5 seconds ie: you had 500 hp when you got hit by it, assuming you've been shot at a fair bit you actually now have 320 hp left, but displays 420 HP instead, and fuel would be affected similarly (visually you could have the number/icon flicker a fair bit to at least show the pilot that its not what it seems to be), but I think initial duration should be reduced a lot more in that case because THAT would be really disorientating.
Heavies could benefit further by not have their HUD shut off completely, but perhaps will glitch out with sparks and fuzzy bunnies over the duration much in the same way, they just get the ability to resist most of the overheat effects and complete loss of visual acuity.
Before calling bias, I mainly play infiltrator/lights by the way, the heavies need a bit of love i think.
Please feel free to
- on a side note, this is a culmination of various ideas around threads I cant recall, so apologese to those that I havent credited with the idea (I know someone else mentioned EMP could instead be an overheat thing rather than a switch-off ability)
Edited by Woobins, December 30 2012 - 01:28 AM.
