TA Balance Mod

TemplarArmos Weapon Balance Mod

Current Version: 1. 15

Overview

This mod was created to better capture the feel and pacing of weapons from the classic BattleTech tabletop game.

All weapon damage is based on a 10-second damage model — for example, the AC/20 is designed to deliver roughly 20 damage per 10 seconds, and all other weapons are balanced relative to that baseline.

Because armor values in MechWarrior 5 are roughly double those of the tabletop version, this was factored into all damage calculations.

Weapon Damage and Heat Modifiers

Weapon Type — Damage / Heat Modifier

• [] Ballistic Projectile — 2×

  [] Ballistic Trace — 1. 5×

  [] Energy Projectile — 1. 75×

  [] Energy Trace — 1. 75×

  [] Missiles — 2×

  Design Philosophy

  Weapons with travel time, ammunition requirements, or large spread patterns receive higher modifiers, while hitscan or non-ammunition-based weapons receive smaller boosts.

  For example, an AC/2 and a Machine Gun differ in classification — the former is projectile-based (affected by travel time and ammo), while the latter is a trace weapon (instant-hit), resulting in different scaling.

  Ammunition Balance

  Ammunition-based weapons gain higher sustained damage potential but are limited by their ammo supply.

  • [] A Medium Laser can fire indefinitely (unlimited potential damage).

    [] An AC/20 with one ton of ammo caps out at roughly 224 total damage.

    All projectile-based weapons — Standard, Burst, and Rapid Fire variants — use the same ammo bins. To make each feel unique while maintaining shared resources, I adjusted them as follows:

    Burst Weapons: Long cooldowns, higher per-shot damage, lower sustained DPS, lower heat generation, higher damage per ton of ammo

    Rapid Fire Weapons: Short cooldowns, lower per-shot damage, higher sustained DPS, higher heat generation, lower damage per ton of ammo

    Example: AC/10 Variants

    Total Ammo per ton: 50

    • [] Standard — 2. 0s cooldown, 4. 0 dmg/attack, 20 DP10S, 6 Heat/10s, 200 dmg/ton

      [] Burst — 4. 0s cooldown, 6. 0 dmg (1. 2×5 burst), 15 DP10S, 4. 5 Heat/10s, 300 dmg/ton

      [] Rapid Fire — 1. 0s cooldown, 2. 5 dmg/attack, 25 DP10S, 7. 5 Heat/10s, 125 dmg/ton

      Clan vs. Inner Sphere Balancing

      To bring Clan weapons closer to their lore-accurate performance (without making them overpowered), I implemented the following range-based distinctions:

      Inner Sphere Weapons

      • [] Optimal range = what would be Medium range on tabletop

        [] Damage tapers to 50% at maximum range

        Clan Weapons

        [*] Optimal range = Long range (also serves as max r