Plasma MG

I wonder if anybody ever tried to make the plasma MG usable. With the current script values it is very obvious that nobody chooses this weapon:

Old values:

"Clip size" "200"
You overheat yourself after max. 25 shots. Why clip size 200?

"Cycle Time" "0.24"
"Reload Time" "8.0"

"Heat" "4"
"Heat to Target" "5"
"Projectile Spread" "0.03"
If you don't hit with every shot you will only overheat yourself. But with the projectile spread this works only on very close distance. And there is also no reason why an overheat weapon should also overheat the own tank.


My idea for this weapon is to make it primary a support weapon. I know that this will be used rarely but on maps like slaughtered, money or rainbowroad this can be a feasible tactic.

The 2 slot Plasma Machine Gun should give the tank driver a little advantage in tank combats. It should not easily overheat your target. It just should give an advantage if the enemy is driving at the heat limit.
With these values it will add up to 50 heat to the target in 5 seconds. Then the target has 8 seconds to cool down.
(Coolant engine needs 13 seconds to cool down completely)


New values:

Plasma Machine Gun
"Size" "2"
"Heat" "1"
"Cycle Time" "0.5"
"Clip Size" "10"
"Reload Time" "8.0"
"Projectile Spread" "0.02"
"Heat To Target" "5"


This new weapons should enable plasma support APCs. Together with APC spawn such an APC can be helpful from the background. Cycle time and spread are the same as for HE MG.
With one clip it can add 120 heat to the target in 5 seconds. Because of the new spread it should be easy to hit every shot. After this the target has a very long time to cool down and to react (10 seconds). Without tank support these APCs will be nearly useless. But in heavy tank battles it can overheat one several tank which can be destroyed from your teammates.

Plasma Heavy Machine Gun
"Size" "3"
"Heat" "1"
"Cycle Time" "0.5"
"Clip Size" "10"
"Reload Time" "10.0"
"Projectile Spread" "0.015"
"Heat To Target" "12"



And at last the research for Plasma should be much cheaper. 2 Minutes and 725 res is just too much for a support weapon.
Therefore I suggest:
Superheated Material Physics
400res, 60sec --> 200res, 30sec
Plasma Bullet Projectile
325res, 60sec --> 150res, 30sec

 

Did you count in that the enemy also fires his weapon, generating heat?

 

did you count in what happens if everyone on one side goes plasma apc? The other team just sits in there tanks slowly dieing.

 

Did you count that heat combat is gay and that support weapons are never used?

 

Thats why it was nerfed so bad that no one would use it.

 

I love it, I've been wanting to suggest this for , a long time but never got round to doing it.

 

Heat, is by far, the gayest thing involving tank combat. I'd rather see it NOT used at all.

 

I wouldn't mind seeing it go away either. Really its only a place holder for something that should be there. Load times. I know this isn't a reality simulator but, in real life tanks have something called "loading each shell".

Take out heat and increase load times for shells. This will solve many issues but, will create another issue. Combat gets slower(good? / bad?).

 

Therefore a tank with other weapons can add max. 60 heat to the enemy. After this the enemy has 8 seconds to react. I think that this should be enough but of course the values can be adjusted.

Because of the long reload time you need much more plasma APCs then attacking tanks to keep them overheated all the time. So I guess a team with only plasma APCs will lose them quickly.

Heat combat with damage is gay. But this is mostly about supporting plasma APCs (2 slot plasma MG isn't that important).
And there are some players who like to play the supporting role. It won't happen often but it could break endless tank battle rounds.

Why not try it out for some time? It is better then the current plasma MG.

 

Heat is a fun tool when using it, even though it's ass against it. There has to be something so someone can't fire a million nukes and missiles and cannons. I think that some weapons give away too much heat, like HE, what is the point of shooting it, if double HE overheats in like 4 shots.

 

Did anyone notice i made it a frickin laser.

 

Plasma laser?

But as I saw the laser the last time it doesn't move with the tank gun. And therefore the visual result was disappointing.
Maybe pulse lasers will work.

 

I can't change it from what is basically a bullet weapon

 

No. There are too many retarded people in this thread. A combat mechanic which allows you to STOP combat is really fucking gay. And even when plasmaMG used to overheat the enemy really easily, people never used it in support APCs. Why? Because it's fucking boring.

Best solution is to remove plasma, or give it some other effect. Heat is just a stupid mechanic.

 

But we already have a weapon which overheats the enemy and which is used quite often: HIT Missile.
And this weapon works because the long reload times. Therefore I changed plasma MG to the same mechanism.

And again:
Give the changed plasma MG a chance. It is better then the old one. Also due the long reload time and the minimal damage it won't break the balance. Then we can still think of removing it.
Also there are players who like to play the support role for a time. But I don't expect many of these players here in the forums

 

I like the support role of hang back from the front lines and spam missiles from my tank at the enemy base while they are busy fighting im taking out there shit.

 

Because HIT missile isn't totally gay too right?

 

The whole heat system is fucking stupid, and comes from empires' vehicle design being crudely based on Mechwarrior without actually including any of the depth or gameplay elements that make Mechwarrior fun.



fucking seriously, it needs an overhaul.

 

Replace heat stopping tanks to heat multiplying damage you take.
IE plasma MG is like jarate in TF2, a support weapon that boosts your damage output against a singular target.