Adding a cost to armor

[veevoir]

I . . . don't think Heavy/Assault 'Mechs are cheaper in the long run, unless you're using them to stomp the same enemies you would in Light/Medium 'Mechs. Heavy 'Mehcs facing other Heavy 'Mechs are going to take a lot more punishment and lose more parts, which should also be factored in. These 'Mechs are more likely to probably have a penchant for having ammo bins explode, save for the ones who strip it out. Honestly, based on tabletop and other experiences? You'll only get off easy if you're going after low-difficulty missions before Heavy or Assault 'Mechs (and vehicles) start making regular appearances.

And even then, "easy" is only one round away from "what the hell, why is the Thunderbolt on the ground?" if things align exactly wrong.

But this is false equivalence.
Facing heavy mechs - heavy/assaults will suffer more damage, true.. but the same is true for lights/mediums. And if damage suffered will be enough to crit ammo bins on a heavy - imagine what it would do to medium/light. Oh, and the kicker? Fixing structure on all mechs seems to cost the same. So still - damage that will tear off a limb from heavy would probably mean rebuilding a med/light from grounds up.

The incentive to bringing heavy mechs is always moar firepower, not the lower running costs which are counter-intuitive, to say the least. You want bigger toys? Pay bigger money and take bigger missions to pay for them.

 

[Jack Ryan]

So I am wondering ( and hopefully some of you modders and or Devs can answer this...) if there is a way to add repair cost for armor, It does not have to be extravagant but maybe something like 2500 cbills at 25% or less, 5000 cbills at 50% or less and so on.

I think that would add a bit more difficulty without making it prohibitive.

Just a thought

Why add a cost to something that you can, quite literally, pull right off the battlefield from all the facings of mechs and vehicles that still have armor remaining. Think about how they abstracted ammunition costs into ammo bins. Most contracts would cover refit and reload as a standard portion of the contract. There's no need for armor to be a part of the refit cost, perhaps, until later when Ferro-Fibrous and other advanced armor types start becoming available, where their costs are much higher. If we want a higher challenge, as other threads have already noted, we can dial down the salvage percentages.

 

[Holy.Death]

I . . . don't think Heavy/Assault 'Mechs are cheaper in the long run, unless you're using them to stomp the same enemies you would in Light/Medium 'Mechs. Heavy 'Mehcs facing other Heavy 'Mechs are going to take a lot more punishment and lose more parts, which should also be factored in. These 'Mechs are more likely to probably have a penchant for having ammo bins explode, save for the ones who strip it out.

Everything that applies in combat to heavy/assault mechs applies to light/medium mechs. Except heavy/assault mechs cost the same amount to keep them operational (in the cubicles) and have more armor and weaponry, meaning they can take and deal more damage than lighter mechs before losing parts or being blown up entirely. And armor is free of charge. So I fail to see how heavy/assault mechs would be more expensive in the long run.

 

[Ac0lyte]

Why add a cost to something that you can, quite literally, pull right off the battlefield from all the facings of mechs and vehicles that still have armor remaining. Think about how they abstracted ammunition costs into ammo bins. Most contracts would cover refit and reload as a standard portion of the contract. There's no need for armor to be a part of the refit cost, perhaps, until later when Ferro-Fibrous and other advanced armor types start becoming available, where their costs are much higher. If we want a higher challenge, as other threads have already noted, we can dial down the salvage percentages.

This is how I see it, too. The Ammo and Armor are covered as "expendables"in the contract, everything else is your dime.

- Shane

 

[CuCulainn]

Why add a cost to something that you can, quite literally, pull right off the battlefield from all the facings of mechs and vehicles that still have armor remaining. Think about how they abstracted ammunition costs into ammo bins. Most contracts would cover refit and reload as a standard portion of the contract. There's no need for armor to be a part of the refit cost, perhaps, until later when Ferro-Fibrous and other advanced armor types start becoming available, where their costs are much higher. If we want a higher challenge, as other threads have already noted, we can dial down the salvage percentages.

yup.

 

[Kereminde]

But this is false equivalence.
Facing heavy mechs - heavy/assaults will suffer more damage, true.. but the same is true for lights/mediums. And if damage suffered will be enough to crit ammo bins on a heavy - imagine what it would do to medium/light. Oh, and the kicker? Fixing structure on all mechs seems to cost the same. So still - damage that will tear off a limb from heavy would probably mean rebuilding a med/light from grounds up.

You would think so. I keep pointing out, this has played out differently in practice thus far. When you're bringing Heavy/Assault to face Heavy/Assault the primary way of dealing with damage is to weather it instead of not getting hit. You just won't get evasion high enough to avoid getting hit once you're in close/middle range. When you bring Light/Medium and facing Heavy/Assault the primary way of dealing with damage is not getting hit - and they can do that fine. It's viable, and perhaps even less expensive an option - so long as you're approaching battles with the thought in mind of "I need to limit the amount of times the enemy gets to shoot at me" instead of "I need to bring as much firepower to bear as possible".

Because once the enemy starts being mostly Heavy, they're going to have more firepower.

Everything that applies in combat to heavy/assault mechs applies to light/medium mechs. Except heavy/assault mechs cost the same amount to keep them operational (in the cubicles) and have more armor and weaponry, meaning they can take and deal more damage than lighter mechs before losing parts or being blown up entirely. And armor is free of charge. So I fail to see how heavy/assault mechs would be more expensive in the long run.

Heavy/Assault 'Mechs can take more punishment because they don't have any avoidance factor. Since they're getting hit more often, they need the armor to take it - and since they're getting hit more often there's a much greater chance of something other than armor getting broken in the process. Also the longer battle goes on and a unit doesn't die outright from armor damage, the more likely a 'MechWarrior dies from head shots. In Beta skirmish, the best way of taking an Atlas was to simply knock it down three or four times.