changes to the Mech Bay

[Morgan Blake]

Hi, I'm helping Ben with looking after the mech bay area of the board.

One thing I would like to do is make the TRO information larger and easier to read. Easier said than done I have found out. It will require a bit of editting for each post.

Are there any other changes you would like to see in the mech bay ?

any specific Mech information ?
weapon heat individual / total ?
total number of heat sinks per mech vs heat generated ?

any and all ideas welcome. if I can implement them I will.
please feel free to answer as many times as you wish with any request.

The floor is now open to suggestions...

[Captain Adam "Gunman" Wolf]

In order to help keep posts and such in a more realistic light, it probably would be a good idea to have the total heat generated by a 'mech listed. Most of the TROs that I've looked at in the mech bay already have the number of heat sinks listed but if we could have some way of showing it in a graphical form, or even just a small comparision chart it would make it easier for those not as familar with the BattleTech technology to keep things within a realistic bound.

An example of a comparision chart that could be used simply in a basic text form could be as follows, the formatting may need to be worked on but it should give the basic idea.

Mech Name : Puma
Armaments : 2x PPC
Heat Sinks : 14 double heat sinks (28 heat max)

Heat Comparision Chart

Weapon | Heat Generated | Remaing Heat
PPC (right arm) | 15 | 0
PPC (left arm) | 15 | 0
Total Heat | 30 | 2

Or something along those lines where it shows the amount of heat each weapon creates and then shows how much of that heat can be dissipated by the heat sinks. Unless you think that's getting to techincal, in which case you can simply give each 'mech a "heat efficiency" rating, similar to the MW4 PC game, and simply rate a 'mechs loadout depending on how much heat is left over after an Alpha Strike. A mech that is fully capable of dissipating 100% of its heat after an Alpha Strike would have an excellent heat efficiency rating, where as a 'mech that will overheat or have a rather high amount of excessive heat after an Alpha Strike would have a very low heat efficiency rating.

Just my thoughts anyways.

As far as making the posts larger/easier to read, I'm not sure if you can keep the pre-formatting that is created by most of the programs that are used to create custom 'mech loadouts. I dont remember exactly how the formating works on this board as I haven't messed with it in quite some time.

[Gen Miyamoto]

Anything the adds to the general accuracy of posts, I am in favor of!

[Morgan Blake]

would players like the FASA record sheets for their mechs ?

ie


members.cox.net/btech2/BL-KNTDonnerschlag.pdf

[Captain Adam "Gunman" Wolf]

Personally the FASA record sheets aren't much use to me simply because I can create my own FASA approved record sheets with the program I use to create custom 'mech designs. Although it doesn't have the pretty picture of the 'mech that yours does. I think it might be a good idea that everyone at least takes a look at the record sheet, simply because it can give people an idea of how the heat works and everything if they dont already know. The heat chart on the record sheets is about the best reference out there, to the best of my knowledge, as to how your 'mech will react to increases in heat.

Now I'm not saying that we should follow that chart exactly point for point, but it would definately give a much better reference than say, perhaps those that are used to the MW4 heat system where its down in, I believe, Kelvin. I personally prefer to work with the smaller more manageable numbers of the CBT heat scale.

Anyways, I think that the record sheets could allow for a more realistic representation of heat and possibly other things in our posts. I guess the big question is though, how realistic do we want to try and force things? I mean in all honesty if we did it "By the Book", as the saying goes, half of us would wind up dead on our "easy" missions, lol. I'm with Miyamoto on wanting to see a little more realism though, mind you the last posts that I've read in the Bloodhound OP have been absolutely incredible and all of them quite realistic as far as the damage they take and what not.

Well thats enough rambling about stuff, I think having the record sheets available upon request would be a good idea. Although it may be better to have them available in something other than PDF format if possible. Just for those of us stuck on slow dial-up and/or slower computers. Perhaps a text or image, and a PDF version could be made available?