Crazy idea: comments and/or ridicule welcome

[widowmaker]

Had a crazy thought and decided to throw it out to see just how insane it is. What do you think about allowing called shots for guided missiles?



I know, it flies in the face of tradition, since everyone knows that called shots can only be made with direct-fire weapons, but these are guided missiles, after all. *Prepares to duck flying tomatoes*

Another idea that just occurred to me: how about including TAG? It could work as a dual-skill system: the jock first paints the target using his/her/its Energy Weapon skill, then maintains the 'lock' using the Electronic Warfare skill, similar to using the Scanner skill to maintain a scanner link. Allied Titans would then get a bonus to hit the target using appropriate weapons. Possible? Feasible? Probable? Ludicrous?

widowmaker

[Thorgrim]

Well, guided missiles are guided (by something), it doesn't mean they're "calleable". Also, they're composed of multiple warheads, and their "propulsion" system is less than perfect for calling shots. Those are the reasons why missiles can't call shots - and GMs are missiles

[Peter Why]

I don't know how the GMH is assigned to a location on the target titan's body, but I do like the idea of a pre-missile beam attack heating up a part of the body and increasing the chance of a heat-seeking missile hitting it (presumably not after a hit from a Cold Light Gun).

[Thorgrim]

Just like any other weapon

[returnfire]

How about any of the following:

* New weapon- "Meson Blaster" (MB): this weapon penetrates through the titan and may damage multiple locations. It does 1 damage to the external armor on its way in, PLUS 1 damage to all internal locations that the energy beam strikes though, PLUS 1 damage on its way out. By the way, it has a 10% chance (per body part) to damage an internal system when it strikes through the internal structure.

For example, you hover over an enemy titan and fire the MB. Suppose that the energy beam enters through the head and exits through the right leg. The enemy titan gets 2 damage on the head (1 ext, 1 int), 1 in the RT (int), 1 in the LOT (int), and 2 in the RL (1 int, 1 ext). I know this may be very hard to implement, but again, it's a crazy idea

* "Meson machine gun" (MMG): 1.0 ton, 1 slot, 4 heat, reload in 8 secs, +5% hit mod, and does 1 damage + 1 internal damage. Can fire two shots like an MG at range 0 and has a 20% chance of doing internal system damage.

* Long range NMs with a -15% chance to hit penalty.

* New weapon- "Heat ray" (HR): basically it heats the enemy up using sheer energy, not ammo. The amount of heat done to the enemy titan also decreases with range. And an added bonus: if the enemy is already in heat red or heat white, hitting it with one of these will require it to perform a DCS skill check immediately (with a slight penalty on the location hit by the HR).

* New weapon- "Hydro Guass Cannon" (HGC): Like the GC, except that it fires a concentrated beam of water. It requires 2 PU to fire and you can reload more ammo if immersed (-1~-3m water only; you can't reload in swamp, lava, or acid )

* New weapon- GME 2 Rack (it should take 4/5 slots for game balance)

* New CC weapon- "Sledge Hammer" (SH): 8.0 ton, 3 slots, 10 heat, 12 PUs to reload, -10% hit mod, and does 5 external damage. It also increases instability by 80%. However, if you miss, you have to make a piloting skill check similar to a missed kick.

* When a titan is hit by a CLG, its heat should drop by random(5) degrees.

* When an NM rack or flamethrower attacks a hex with frozen water, the ice should melt. If a titan is on it, it has to make a piloting skill check.

* Titans should be able to drop to the prone position voluntarily (requires a skill check- if it passes, there is no falling damage).

* Titans should be able to turn in air using 20-25% JMT.

* And finally, recon titans should be able to swim in -3m water when prone

[Coyote27]

How about any of the following:

* New weapon- "Meson Blaster" (MB): this weapon penetrates through the titan and may damage multiple locations. It does 1 damage to the external armor on its way in, PLUS 1 damage to all internal locations that the energy beam strikes though, PLUS 1 damage on its way out. By the way, it has a 10% chance (per body part) to damage an internal system when it strikes through the internal structure.

For example, you hover over an enemy titan and fire the MB. Suppose that the energy beam enters through the head and exits through the right leg. The enemy titan gets 2 damage on the head (1 ext, 1 int), 1 in the RT (int), 1 in the LOT (int), and 2 in the RL (1 int, 1 ext). I know this may be very hard to implement, but again, it's a crazy idea

Too hard to implement.

* "Meson machine gun" (MMG): 1.0 ton, 1 slot, 4 heat, reload in 8 secs, +5% hit mod, and does 1 damage + 1 internal damage. Can fire two shots like an MG at range 0 and has a 20% chance of doing internal system damage.

I like this.

* Long range NMs with a -15% chance to hit penalty.

Maybe... dunno if it's worth it.

* New weapon- "Heat ray" (HR): basically it heats the enemy up using sheer energy, not ammo. The amount of heat done to the enemy titan also decreases with range. And an added bonus: if the enemy is already in heat red or heat white, hitting it with one of these will require it to perform a DCS skill check immediately (with a slight penalty on the location hit by the HR).

Interesting.

* New weapon- "Hydro Guass Cannon" (HGC): Like the GC, except that it fires a concentrated beam of water. It requires 2 PU to fire and you can reload more ammo if immersed (-1~-3m water only; you can't reload in swamp, lava, or acid )

Heh. Unrealistic, but fun. It should be able to put out fires, too.

* New weapon- GME 2 Rack (it should take 4/5 slots for game balance)

Nasty. I like it.

* New CC weapon- "Sledge Hammer" (SH): 8.0 ton, 3 slots, 10 heat, 12 PUs to reload, -10% hit mod, and does 5 external damage. It also increases instability by 80%. However, if you miss, you have to make a piloting skill check similar to a missed kick.

Hmm.....

* When a titan is hit by a CLG, its heat should drop by random(5) degrees.

This is only logical. Maybe CLGs could have a small effect on shields to make up for this.

* When an NM rack or flamethrower attacks a hex with frozen water, the ice should melt. If a titan is on it, it has to make a piloting skill check.

Yeah!

* Titans should be able to drop to the prone position voluntarily (requires a skill check- if it passes, there is no falling damage).

Useful, maybe... hmmm

* Titans should be able to turn in air using 20-25% JMT.

Yes they should.

* And finally, recon titans should be able to swim in -3m water when prone

Hahahahha! Could be very hard to hit that way too. Massive skill check. Crazy enough to be used frequently. :p

[Thorgrim]

* When a titan is hit by a CLG, its heat should drop by random(5) degrees.

* When an NM rack or flamethrower attacks a hex with frozen water, the ice should melt. If a titan is on it, it has to make a piloting skill check.

* Titans should be able to drop to the prone position voluntarily (requires a skill check- if it passes, there is no falling damage).

* Titans should be able to turn in air using 20-25% JMT.

* And finally, recon titans should be able to swim in -3m water when prone

* The weapon is called (cold light) gun , not cold gun.

* Been asked (turning to water -> which causes a skill check), and refused. Jumping from/to such an hex should have the same effect. Also suggested, jumping up/down from woods could have a chance to ignite them, as if it was a FT attack - also refused. Uh, that's before someone asks for it too

* And why would you want to do that?

* Been asked and refused. Play balance.

* Any titan except assaults should be, since prone height is size/5 But jump ports just can't hold sustained underwater operation

[tarendelcymir]

I rather like the meson machine gun and the heat ray. The GME2 is pretty cool, too. The others...eh, interesting, but either too hard to implement, or not very practical.

As Iceman asked, though, why would you want to lay your titan down? If you want to hide, crouching should be enough, and you can still fire most of your weapons. When you're prone, not only are you limited to only arm and head weapons, but your back is exposed and most titans have less CBT armor than other locations.

[returnfire]

* And why would you want to do that?

Well, I can think of two uses:

1. One of your titan has been locked (and heavily bombarded) by many enemy titans at the same time. If the titan is in a hex with heavy cover (dense woods for example), dropping to the prone position will make the enemies lose lock on the titan. By "prone," I mean facing up, which means that the titan will have its CT facing upward. Besides, if this is a missile titan linked to another titan, it can still fire 2 LRM12's or 2 GMH4's using the scanner link... :rolleyes:

2. Your titan is in heat red/white due to FT/NM hits. Drop into that -3m water hex for an extra -6C/sec (-8C in polar) heat dissipation

Hahahahha! Could be very hard to hit that way too. Massive skill check. Crazy enough to be used frequently.

* Any titan except assaults should be, since prone height is size/5 But jump ports just can't hold sustained underwater operation

See if this can be implemented: since a swimming titan moves its legs and arms often, it can fire in all directions!

And I forgot to mention these:

* There should be a GMH 3 Rack (9.0 tons, 4 slots, 9 heat, 11 ammo, reloads in 22/23 secs, and costs $15000).

* Power axes and chain saws should be able to chop down wood if the titan attacks a hex with one of these.

[Thorgrim]

If he is being heavily bombarded in a wooded hex, chances are the woods will be reduced very quickly, thus negating you your action
BTW, once your "hidden" your scanner range is also severely decreased, so chances are you'll lose lock too. Adn prone is usually not face up anyways... when you go prone, do you face up?!

If you're already in water, those NMs/FTs will have a negligible effect on you. And the time it should take you to go prone (with no damage), by the time you get prone, by your reasoning, you'd be shutdown already

The chopping wood suggestion, it's years old

[Thorgrim]

See if this can be implemented: since a swimming titan moves its legs and arms often, it can fire in all directions!

BTW, you can't turn while prone (swimming is in the "prone" position), and only arm and head weapons can be fired :sleep:

[Peter Why]

That comment about swimming made me think: why not crawling (and I'm not talking about the swimming stroke!) as an alternative movement. Low profile, extremely slow, no weapon use possible other than CBT against an opponent in the same hex ... but it should be possible when one limb has been put out of action. You would only be able to handle very small terrain slopes, too.
But it would be useful after being brought down in burning hexes.

[Thorgrim]

Extremely slow like in 600+ secs to crawl out of 333m of burning heavy woods?

[Peter Why]

I was thinking of crawling speed as simply being the next step in the progression of flying, running, walking. Definitely a last resort, with a piloting skill roll; after all, we already have a number of last resorts adding fun to the game, like blowing yourself up or carrying on firing at a fallen enemy when you're overheating.

[Thorgrim]

I was just pointing out that if you lost a leg, your reg should be at least at medium damage (when losing an arm, you can still get up) . With the heat coming from the woods, before you could leave the hex at crawling speed you would have already shutdown - and eventually explode.

[rosary]

BTW, you can't turn while prone (swimming is in the "prone" position), and only arm and head weapons can be fired :sleep:

What about the 'back stroke' I can see it now titan-at's surfing the Methane pipeline 'waves' of Savannah Prime. Sunscreen 20,000

Personally, I'd like to make an SD TOS

[Peter Why]

True, I stand incinerated. I withdraw the suggestion .. I suppose it was only due to a feeling that a good jock should still be able to move his titan to some extent if it had a missing limb; I then tried to find a use for this.

[joeweal]

Well, imho 'guided' means that the missile posesses a guidance system but is in most times not actively guided. I compare the ToS GM-Hs with the good old Sidewinders from aerial sims. The home in on heat but you can't control their flight. I don't think its necessary and justifying the programming work to have something like target illumination. I guess it would be necessary to make the guiding process quite difficult, too, and so it would just make the upper class pilots even more deadly...
(just my 2 Euro-cents)

[Rei Kiryu]

How about setting up one of the team's titans as a sort of "spotter unit". Equipping it with a special type of radar (equipped in place of a normal scanner, obviously this would have some sort of penalty, such as requiring more power or taking up more space or weight). Then the titan carrying this could be used to scan an enemy titan, and the others could link their scanners to it and gain the ability to make guided missile called shots on the target titan. Although as the missiles aren't accurate enough, the called shots are less likely to succeed than normal called shots.

Just a suggestion. [;)]

[Thorgrim]

That'd have to be a "weapon" that'd fire a sort of homing beacon on the target. The location hit by the homing beacon would be the one hit by the missiles. But then the missiles would always hit that location.