6 replies to this topic

[Prop42]

Hi everyone. I'll be honest, I'm completely new to the Hawken forums, and not exactly experienced with forums in general.

 

But anyway, I thought up a concept: How about some form of mech that specializes in suppression? Now, I know this kind of thing sort of already exists, but my concept was to take it further: How about a mech that is completely based around making it impractical (but not impossible) to cross or stay in a certain area? I had some visuals thrown together in MS-Paint to help explain it, but since I'm a complete idiot who can't figure out how to upload things for use on forums, I'll just explain as best I can.

 

My specific concept is to have a form of light (possible something else, I'm not quite sure) mech with a secondary weapon that allows for what I said above to occur (I explained that horribly). Picture it like this: Imagine you have a shotgun. Now imagine that every pellet in a shell explodes when it hits something, and that it fires absurdly fast. Now imagine it as a giant, complicated cannon mounted onto a mech.

 

Basically, it would rapidly fire bullets (hitscan projectiles, in terms of the gameplay) that explode on contact, doing very minor damage over a somewhat significant area of effect, in random directions. Since so many of these projectiles would be being fired over a short time, it would turn the target area into a "no-man's land" of constant AoE damage over time; enough to significantly weaken you if you tried to walk through it, but not enough to be practical in direct combat with enemies. To balance it, however, it would generate huge amounts of heat over short periods of time, roughly enough that you could fire the weapon for... say, 8 seconds before overheating. The mech it is mounted on, in addition, would have poor overheat recovery, say, an extra 2-3 seconds (total of 6-7 seconds of inability to fire), but would also have an ability that, for a short time, would drastically decrease heat generation, enough to allow you to keep an area unpassable for 15-20 seconds. And, for a primary weapon, possibly some form of weakened submachine cannon? Hell, just stick a Hawkins-RPR on it. Basically, anything that would make it impractical for 1v1 combat, thus relying on your team for support in scenarios with fighting.

 

What do you guys think about my idea? Needs work? Balanced? I'm pretty eager to know what you think of it.

[SparkyJJC]

From what you have explained, I would say that the Grenadier and maybe even the Rocketeer specializes in area denial however I can see where you're coming from.

I wouldn't say sticking such a weapon on a light mech would work, for obvious reasons.
Maybe sticking it on a slow-ish B class would work so the mech can be taken out with relative ease while still being able to hold out for a while under fire.

Listening to the TF2 developer commentary can help when it comes to area denial.
Valve had trouble balancing the sentry as it was originally either not viable at all or able to tear the enemy to shreds with the sentry being incredibly hard to dispose of.

The same kind of thing could happen here:
Either the mech will be able to seal off entire areas and be incredibly hard to dispose of because of this or using such a mech would be basically shooting yourself in the foot.

 

The concept of a hitscan rapid-fire frag-round shotgun seems kind of OP and reminds me of Battlefield 3 before the USAS+Frag combo got nerfed, and would probably need rethinking. Reducing frag pellet damage didn't do too much in that case.


It most likely needs more thought but I like the idea.

Edited by SparkyJJC, 13 April 2015 - 12:17 PM.

[Loglino]

I believe it is a worthy idea, but could use some work. I am sure someone will find an issue. It isn't too much like a mech already in the game, so that is a good point.

[AxionOperandi]

Sounds interesting, sort of a incendiary round flack cannon?

[KOS_Baconman]

 

You have a shotgun. Now imagine that every pellet in a shell explodes when it hits something, and that it fires absurdly fast. Now imagine it as a giant, complicated cannon mounted onto a mech.

 

Basically, it would rapidly fire bullets 

Yeah, we already have the T-32 Bolt

[Prop42]

I'm having weird difficulties getting the quote thing to work for some reason.

 

Anyhow, I was thinking more of an AoE DoT weapon, rather then just frag rounds from battlefield. Frag rounds from battlefield are basically semi automatic RPGs with much less travel time and damage. If you've ever played Loadout, think along the lines of the flak dispersal for launchers.

[Paradox23]

I'm not sure such an idea would work as rapid-fire, as it probably would be overpowered.  Deviating a bit from the main idea, I'd strongly suggest something that initially behaves as a projectile before exploding on contact and releasing rapid-fire, hitscan fragments as a sort of AoE Area Denial cluster bomb for a few moments.  Perhaps to avoid being too OP, such a thing could have high heat generation to ensure it isn't being spammed.  Again, it's just a suggestion upon a suggestion, which means it's worth even less than a grain of sand. 

Edited by Paradox23, 13 April 2015 - 04:40 PM.