GOOD NEWS EVERYONE THEY'RE REDESIGNING PILOT SKILLS TO ADD MORE RESTANKING AND COOLANT FLUSH

Discussion in 'BattleTech (Harebrained)' started by Solis Obscuri, Aug 28, 2018.

  1. Solis Obscuri

    Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

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    Solis Obscuri, Aug 28, 2018
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  2. MagnusEffect

    MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    Holy shit.. why? :btears: Coolant flush is a dumb mechanic that didn't exist until some random game dev added it to Mechwarrior 3 or 4 (i can't remember which). It has zero history with the actual source material (everything they have written about it was retconned). It is easily my most hated game mechanic. It makes zero sense why dumping coolant from a closed system with a finite amount of fluid would cause your heat to drop. That's like saying "our engine is overheating! quick! dump half the water out of the engine!" It's stupid and I don't like these changes they are making. Modders have already done a better job of fixing most of the abilities:

    Ability Refocus
    Better Juggernaut
    Semi-permanent Evasion

    Except now my game is irreparably broken because of this fucking HBS official server garbage that keeps specific profile data of mine and its telling me my data is not synching correctly and so now I can't even play the game IN OFFLINE MODE! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.....................

    I don't usually care about a game this much, but fuck me.... this was suppose to be THE game I've been waiting on for a decade.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2018
    MagnusEffect, Aug 28, 2018
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  3. Trevnor

    Trevnor Tokin' Canadian Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    A coolant flush in the novels was swapping out all of the coolant for fresh coolant... while in a 'mechbay. During maintenance(battlefield or otherwise)
     
    Trevnor, Aug 28, 2018
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  4. MagnusEffect

    MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    exactly... but obviously this was not something flippantly done in the middle of combat on the move as depicted in most of the video games.

    The closest to canon I've seen that makes sense is externally mounted "coolant pods" which are basically just extra tanks of coolant bolted on to give mechs a reserve.
     
    MagnusEffect, Aug 28, 2018
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  5. Lardaltef

    Lardaltef Well Liked Berserker

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    Coolant pods are canon and flush coolant direct into a mech on the battlefield. Wouldn't hooking up to a coolant truck also kinda be a coolant flush? Though you right about a "flush" usually being changing liquids.
     
    Lardaltef, Aug 28, 2018
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  6. MagnusEffect

    MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    Paradox moderators just moved or deleted all my posts about coolant flushing without any explanation. I am now banned from the discussion. This is some serious fucking bullshit. :mad:
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2018
    MagnusEffect, Aug 28, 2018
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  7. Solis Obscuri

    Solis Obscuri Well Liked Hirdman

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    They're moving every criticism of it into off-topic. As far as I can tell coolant flush is a done-deal and they're just looking for Stockholm syndrome feedback on just *how* we want to kill our pilots to avoid heat management, not an actual approach to unfuck the skill trees.
     
    Solis Obscuri, Aug 28, 2018
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  8. MagnusEffect

    MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    Yeah.. this whole situation is fucked. The new abilities actually look generally worse than the originals. Why do devs always want to reinvent the wheel when there are already established good solutions to existing problems. In this point, the modding community had already found real solutions that were well balanced.

    The problem with both the new and old abilities is that they are far too tactically limiting. For example, Sensor lock is pretty much useless on any pilot that shouldn't be sacrificing their turn, but you can't get get Master Tactician without first gettin gsensor lock. So unless you go for a *very-specific-build* one of those two abilities is pretty much wasted. Likewise, Bulwark and Juggernaut are both on the same tree, but they don't work very well together at all.

    Before I was banned from the discussion I was going to make a Zoidberg reference and suggest a "why not both" solution for the new and old abilities. We have currently a total of 8, 2 on each tree, and you can only pick 3. But what if at each ability choice you had TWO options to pick from instead of one (for a total of 16 abilities). That just quadrupled the number of viable options that would actually play well together. Granted, some abilities would still need tweaking, but you could better tailor your pilot to your chosen playstyle.

    Want a better Juggernaut, but Bulwark is too defensive? Pick the alternative to Bulwark that stacks better with Juggernaut. Want Master Tactician, but Sensor Lock is useless to your pilot, take the other option that works better with Master Tactician.
     
    MagnusEffect, Aug 29, 2018
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  9. Damion Sparhawk

    Damion Sparhawk The Missing Link Viking

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    I like the idea of the trees actually being trees, currently their more like a stunted bush or something :p
     
    Damion Sparhawk, Aug 29, 2018
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  10. MagnusEffect

    MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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    As usual, "there's a mod for that":
    https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/154

    The settings can be customized, but by default it shrinks all the mechs down to proper scale with the environment.
     
    MagnusEffect, Aug 29, 2018
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  11. Lardaltef

    Lardaltef Well Liked Berserker

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    Honestly it's only the battletech universe games I can think of where the scaling is that messed up.

    Mechs range from 8 - 14 meters right? I believe the average height of a 2 story house is a little under 5 meters. So yeah mechs in pretty much every game have way overscaled. Now I really hope MW 5 has a proper scaling of mechs to everything else or it allows mods that can do it.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2018
    Lardaltef, Aug 29, 2018
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  12. Tuonela

    Tuonela Well Liked Berserker

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    I tend to give sensor lock on my front line mech / pilot. Before we get into sight lines my close range melee dude will sensor lock someone or a turret and my long-range back line will obliterate them before even engaging with direct line of sight weapons. But yea the progression isn't well thought out.
     
    Tuonela, Aug 29, 2018
    #12