Faction-specific Perks
Posted: 23 Jun 2015, 04:36
As a method to increase faction differences and add character to each side, we could look at making some perks Faction-specific, applying ONLY to Mechs of that faction. There would still be an assortment of universal Perks - like Heat, Jumpjets, MASC, Radar etc - but each faction would also have access to a selection of unique Perks.
These will include Perks we already have, namely weapon Range perks, but which will be limited to specific factions. Others will be brand new. I'd like to do some "Alternative Ammo" types. These are covered in-depth in BT, such as here. Most of these different types of ammo will only differ in the amount of damage they do or include special abilities like Inferno LRMs which coat targets in flaming gel.
Many of these Perks, especially the ammo type ones, include drawbacks to their use.
Here are some extended examples:
Federated Suns
- Autocannon Range
- Armour-Piercing Munitions: Does increased damage to armour, less to internals (or same to internals but with dyndamage)
- High-Explosive Munitions: Does increased damage to internals, less to armour
- Precision Munitions: Small self-correcting system on shells (tracking!), but 1/2 the ammo capacity (either a new ammo type, or each shot consumes 2 ammo)
- Caseless Ammo: More ammo per ton but some drawback (less range? jamming potential?)
- Note: None of these special munitions apply to Ultra or Rotary ACs, only regular.
Lyran Alliance
- Gauss Range
- Improved Electromagnets propel rounds faster = more kinetic energy = more damage per shot (can reduce Heavy Gauss dyndamage effect)
- Faster SSRM lock-on = faster RoF? (Slight)
Draconis Combine
- PPC & MRM Range
- PPC Capacitor: PPCs do 5 more damage (+50% for a standard PPC) but also generate 5 more heat (again +50% for standard PPCs)
Free Worlds League
- LRM Range
- Thunder LRM: Missiles with mine warheads that leave behind explosives when they hit the ground (not when hitting a target, as it explodes like normal)
- Inferno LRM: Coats targets in flaming gel, reduced damage but huge heat generation
- Semi-Guided LRM: Can use TAG/Narc just like Arrow. For our purposes, they do increased damage to targets lit by TAG/Narc.
- Swarm LRM: Scatters submunitions around impact, doing splash damage around target.
Capellan Confederation
- Thunder LRM: Capellans are the biggest users of these apparently
- ECM Range
- Enhanced ECCM: For when we make ECCM (ECM negating enemy ECM), make this immune to being negated.
- Reflective Stealth Armor? Makes it immune to TAG or something. Or some other perk to do with Stealth Armor.
How these are implemented, particularly the "alternate ammo", is a mystery to me. If we can just swap weapons on a Mech, and make subvariants of these weapons, that would be cool. Otherwise, most of them are simply changing the amount of damage they deal, or rate of fire, or adding secondary effects (flaming targets for Infernos or leaving behind a small mine for Thunder LRMs).
I think this would be a cool way to really hammer home the different playstyles of each faction, as everyone gets pretty unique Perks in addition to the universal ones available to everyone.
These will include Perks we already have, namely weapon Range perks, but which will be limited to specific factions. Others will be brand new. I'd like to do some "Alternative Ammo" types. These are covered in-depth in BT, such as here. Most of these different types of ammo will only differ in the amount of damage they do or include special abilities like Inferno LRMs which coat targets in flaming gel.
Many of these Perks, especially the ammo type ones, include drawbacks to their use.
Here are some extended examples:
Federated Suns
- Autocannon Range
- Armour-Piercing Munitions: Does increased damage to armour, less to internals (or same to internals but with dyndamage)
- High-Explosive Munitions: Does increased damage to internals, less to armour
- Precision Munitions: Small self-correcting system on shells (tracking!), but 1/2 the ammo capacity (either a new ammo type, or each shot consumes 2 ammo)
- Caseless Ammo: More ammo per ton but some drawback (less range? jamming potential?)
- Note: None of these special munitions apply to Ultra or Rotary ACs, only regular.
Lyran Alliance
- Gauss Range
- Improved Electromagnets propel rounds faster = more kinetic energy = more damage per shot (can reduce Heavy Gauss dyndamage effect)
- Faster SSRM lock-on = faster RoF? (Slight)
Draconis Combine
- PPC & MRM Range
- PPC Capacitor: PPCs do 5 more damage (+50% for a standard PPC) but also generate 5 more heat (again +50% for standard PPCs)
Free Worlds League
- LRM Range
- Thunder LRM: Missiles with mine warheads that leave behind explosives when they hit the ground (not when hitting a target, as it explodes like normal)
- Inferno LRM: Coats targets in flaming gel, reduced damage but huge heat generation
- Semi-Guided LRM: Can use TAG/Narc just like Arrow. For our purposes, they do increased damage to targets lit by TAG/Narc.
- Swarm LRM: Scatters submunitions around impact, doing splash damage around target.
Capellan Confederation
- Thunder LRM: Capellans are the biggest users of these apparently
- ECM Range
- Enhanced ECCM: For when we make ECCM (ECM negating enemy ECM), make this immune to being negated.
- Reflective Stealth Armor? Makes it immune to TAG or something. Or some other perk to do with Stealth Armor.
How these are implemented, particularly the "alternate ammo", is a mystery to me. If we can just swap weapons on a Mech, and make subvariants of these weapons, that would be cool. Otherwise, most of them are simply changing the amount of damage they deal, or rate of fire, or adding secondary effects (flaming targets for Infernos or leaving behind a small mine for Thunder LRMs).
I think this would be a cool way to really hammer home the different playstyles of each faction, as everyone gets pretty unique Perks in addition to the universal ones available to everyone.