Upon reading a related thread about the stamina system I started thinking about what would be ideal in a stamina system and what I dislike about the current system.
Ideally I think we would all like to see a system that reproduces as realistic a model as possible. To this end I'd like to see a system that produces appropriate incentives for players to reduce the use of "Run & Gun" type of play. I would also like to keep from over punishing those who carry a heavy loadout but move methodically and carefully.
The premise for my suggestion is that a soldier, even one who is fairy heavily laden (up to 80 to 100 lbs.) can move at moderate speeds for at least a few hours without his combat effectiveness being overly impaired. However that same soldier will become impaired if he moves at a very fast pace with this kind of load.
The thing I most dislike about the current system is that a heavy load affects your ability to hit a target without regard to wether or not you have moved at a speed that will impair you. The most broken thing in the current system is that if you spawn with a large load you are unable to aim properly. However if say you drop one of the ammo cans from your Minimi your aim immediately begins to improve even if you are standing still. I feel this is quite unrealistic.
Given these ideas and premises I propose the following: A non-linear fatigue system, a system in which load no longer directly affects your combat effectiveness, load would effect your ability to jump/climb & quickly change speeds, load would act as a variable when calculating how much fatigue you are losing or regaining.
How this would work.
At the start of the round everyone is assumed to be at the same level of fatigue and combat effectiveness. All players are recharging at a rate that makes it fairly easy to jog to a position or walk in an aimed mode. When combat starts the players gain the addition of combat stress. Combat stress increases due to contact, shots fired, bullets coming close to the player, a team member hit, a team member hit near the player, a team member killed, player hit, a team member killed near player. Of course the player getting killed resets the combat stress to zero
. The idea is that the stress level is added as an activity and starts effecting your total combat effectiveness just like moving, jumping, etc. Total stress level would generally be equal to the highest stressor and not cumulative. Other things like being supported by teammates, downing an enemy, etc. might lower overall combat stress. The combat stress part of the system is optional but I think very realistic.
Now here is the interesting part of the system. The Combat Effectiveness Meter CEM would drop whenever you preformed a stressful activity. The more stressful the activity the more the CEM would drop. The CEM would be non-linear in that the lower you caused it to drop the slower it would recharge. That is that low stress activities would reduce the CEM but it would return very quickly. This would result in the following: a lightly loaded soldier could sprint a good distance and still be able to function effectively while a heavily loaded soldier sprinting the same distance would find that he is unable to perform the same tasks as the lightly loaded soldier because his CEM is lower and he is not regenerating fatigue at the same rate. Now the burden that was no problem earlier is now preventing him from moving around without greatly impacting his recharge rate because the rate is so low that even walking around with a load that was not a problem when he was at full now greatly impacts his recovery speed. The only way around this is for him to stay put until he has caught his breath or lighten his load while he is moving. Added to this is the level of wounds a soldier has taken. Wounds would count twice because they will have a constant drain on the CEM and will in addition to this be multiplied by your load. Lastly the max Combat Effectiveness Level would be 100% minus combat stress and wounds.
The Math
The formula for making this work would be something like this:
Fatigue recharge rate - Combat Stress + Wounds ((Activity+Wounds) x Burden level) = change in Combat Effectiveness
Remember that this equation is dynamic because the FFR is determined by the total combat effectiveness.
The effects of a low CEM
A low CEM level should, of course, effect breathing as it does currently. In addition to this I have a suggeston. Mouse sensitivity ramping. The way it would work is this: at 100% CEM, mouse sensitivity is normal but as the soldier becomes more fatigued the mouse senitivity is low when the player starts to move the mouse and then ramps up to normal. The speed of this ramping is determained by how low the CEM is. I would also like to see the inertia of the weapons increase as the CEM decreases.
Ideally I think we would all like to see a system that reproduces as realistic a model as possible. To this end I'd like to see a system that produces appropriate incentives for players to reduce the use of "Run & Gun" type of play. I would also like to keep from over punishing those who carry a heavy loadout but move methodically and carefully.
The premise for my suggestion is that a soldier, even one who is fairy heavily laden (up to 80 to 100 lbs.) can move at moderate speeds for at least a few hours without his combat effectiveness being overly impaired. However that same soldier will become impaired if he moves at a very fast pace with this kind of load.
The thing I most dislike about the current system is that a heavy load affects your ability to hit a target without regard to wether or not you have moved at a speed that will impair you. The most broken thing in the current system is that if you spawn with a large load you are unable to aim properly. However if say you drop one of the ammo cans from your Minimi your aim immediately begins to improve even if you are standing still. I feel this is quite unrealistic.
Given these ideas and premises I propose the following: A non-linear fatigue system, a system in which load no longer directly affects your combat effectiveness, load would effect your ability to jump/climb & quickly change speeds, load would act as a variable when calculating how much fatigue you are losing or regaining.
How this would work.
At the start of the round everyone is assumed to be at the same level of fatigue and combat effectiveness. All players are recharging at a rate that makes it fairly easy to jog to a position or walk in an aimed mode. When combat starts the players gain the addition of combat stress. Combat stress increases due to contact, shots fired, bullets coming close to the player, a team member hit, a team member hit near the player, a team member killed, player hit, a team member killed near player. Of course the player getting killed resets the combat stress to zero
. The idea is that the stress level is added as an activity and starts effecting your total combat effectiveness just like moving, jumping, etc. Total stress level would generally be equal to the highest stressor and not cumulative. Other things like being supported by teammates, downing an enemy, etc. might lower overall combat stress. The combat stress part of the system is optional but I think very realistic. Now here is the interesting part of the system. The Combat Effectiveness Meter CEM would drop whenever you preformed a stressful activity. The more stressful the activity the more the CEM would drop. The CEM would be non-linear in that the lower you caused it to drop the slower it would recharge. That is that low stress activities would reduce the CEM but it would return very quickly. This would result in the following: a lightly loaded soldier could sprint a good distance and still be able to function effectively while a heavily loaded soldier sprinting the same distance would find that he is unable to perform the same tasks as the lightly loaded soldier because his CEM is lower and he is not regenerating fatigue at the same rate. Now the burden that was no problem earlier is now preventing him from moving around without greatly impacting his recharge rate because the rate is so low that even walking around with a load that was not a problem when he was at full now greatly impacts his recovery speed. The only way around this is for him to stay put until he has caught his breath or lighten his load while he is moving. Added to this is the level of wounds a soldier has taken. Wounds would count twice because they will have a constant drain on the CEM and will in addition to this be multiplied by your load. Lastly the max Combat Effectiveness Level would be 100% minus combat stress and wounds.
The Math
The formula for making this work would be something like this:
Fatigue recharge rate - Combat Stress + Wounds ((Activity+Wounds) x Burden level) = change in Combat Effectiveness
Remember that this equation is dynamic because the FFR is determined by the total combat effectiveness.
The effects of a low CEM
A low CEM level should, of course, effect breathing as it does currently. In addition to this I have a suggeston. Mouse sensitivity ramping. The way it would work is this: at 100% CEM, mouse sensitivity is normal but as the soldier becomes more fatigued the mouse senitivity is low when the player starts to move the mouse and then ramps up to normal. The speed of this ramping is determained by how low the CEM is. I would also like to see the inertia of the weapons increase as the CEM decreases.
