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Weapon Adjustments


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#1 MasterBLB

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Posted 19 July 2014 - 09:44 AM

Hello devs

I'd like to represent few adjustments for MWO weapons,whose I believe will improve gameplay.
Please be aware that they are a whole,introducing them only partially probably won't work as expected.

Gauss Rifle
Once really good weapon,now overnerfed due to some weir ideas of dev team.To back it into glory such steps are needed:
1.Removal of the charge mechanic
Justification:
This change will make gauss again a viable choice for brawlers.Enough balance factor there is mass of the weapon + ammo,fragility and exploding upon destruction.

2.Change cooldown mechanic so only 2(perhaps 3) gausses can cooldown in same time,other must wait till they'll finish.
Justification:
Gausses are rather sniper weapon,and as these they should be able to strike immediately as target appers.But with removal of charge mechanic that arises a problem when 3 or 4 gausses are equipped,the carrier can alpha all of them no matter distance.
That's why I propose the change.If introduced,high alpha snipers still can do theirs job as it's meant to be,however time interval between full alphas will be lowered.If attacked by sustained DPS mech snipers can defend themselves,yet with only partial of their potential as they couldn't use in sustained fight all of gausses equipped.That would give edge of advantage to brawler mechs whose are better suited for prolonged fights,as it should be.
At the same time,all these beloved by players GaussPhracts,GaussCats etc will work as before of introduction of charge mechanic.

3.Any PPC equipped on the mech increases cooldown of all gausses by 0.5s
Justification:
Another story are poptarts.You've admitted that poptarting is valid tactic in MWO and should not be hampered.But what we see in game it's otherwise,you constantly try to influence poptarts,usually messing other game aspects much more.
So,I'd like to propose something which will affect poptarts while allowing them to exist,and won't harm other mechs.
It's easy to imagine that both gauss and PPCs require energy to charge,and while having these weapon systems at the same time it'll affect each other.So it's logical that due to lower energy flow gauss requires more time to charge capacitors.
That change is similar to those from point 2 - 2 PPC+1 Gauss poptarts can still be vaild builds,however they won't be able to shoot full alpha that fast as before.But the real balance is close quarters fight,they will be in greater disadvantage than before due to longer cooldown of gauss.

Changed as mentioned above gauss will become good weapon - useful for brawl,sniping and poptarting but having meaningful limitations in each of these roles,so other ballistics still will be competitive to it.

ER PPC
In your attempt to not make clan ER PPC utterly superior to IS counterpart you've nerfed its direct damage output.That's wrong,the weapon is meant to be vastly better due to canon.
But I can understand your decision,that's why I'd like to propose:
1.For clan ER PPC
Justification:
To bring at least part of BTs power of clan ER PPC make it deal 12.5 damage into component directly hit,and 1.75(2.5 total) to its neighboring ones.Why these values?Because a hit from 2 C-ER PPC will deal 25 damage in point,more powerful than 2xER PPC IS version which is canon,but the difference won't be so distinct like it is in BT (just one IS medium laser damage) which will help to maintain balance.

2.For IS ER PPC
Justification:
Well,due to balance reasons I'd propose to drop heat generation by IS ER PPC to 12.5,maybe 13 heat.

These changes in ER PPC would make both of them better - clan ones will be a bit more powerful as they should be,but IS ones would have advantage of being able to shoot more often.

Clan ultra autocannons
Very simple change there,decrease number of shots in burst by 1,to a total:
UAC20 4 shoots 5 damage each
UAC10 3 shoots 3.3334 damage each
UAC5 2 shoots 2.5 damage each
UAC2 1 shoot 2 damage
also,make it shoot a bit faster,say around 5 frames.
Justification:
After longer play it becomes obvious clan autocannons are vastly inferior to IS ones.Personally,I'd make them to behave exactly like IS counterparts,but I know that balance must be maintained,and your idea does that quite well.So at the begining just that small change,then see the results.
You can always make LBX cannons once slug ammunition is introduced to behave exactly like IS autocannons.Without ultra ability,clan ones should be balanced against IS tech.

LRMs
In general,they are quite well set weapon,however a little adjustment would be useful.
1.Increase their damage to 1.2-1.3
Justification:
Before you started to mess with LRMs due to not damaging legs enough they were good weapon - potent,but possible to avoid once got enough experience.Now,with all these ECMs around and splash damage removed power of LRM can be safetly increased.

2.For clan LRMs either reduce spread of salvo by 25%-50%,or make them largely more accurate and attack mostly torso.
Justification:
Now they spread too much,and due to ghost heat clan mechs drivers are not completely free to equip more launchers to offset that.
Personally,I like making them more accurate more,that would strengthen their unique ability to be fired below 180m,meanwhile leaving their weaknesses to AMS system.

3.Alter flight paths
Justification:
a) When an attacking LRM mech has line of sight during launching volley LRMs should fly using mild arc,direct flight path and not changing it when target will hide behind an obstacle.This would have two good effect - 1st for LRM boat whose could be more dangerous during direct combat;2nd one for the attacked mech,as it could allow to hide behind an obstacle lower than a skyscraper and avoid damage.
B) In indirect fire mode the current flight model should be used.
c) If there is active spotter LRM should be able to strike at steeper angle,making covers less efficient.

All above improvements for LRM would make them really good weapon again,and a countermeasure for poptarts.

Streak missiles
Well,these are inferior compared to SRMs as they surprisingly have bigger spread,negating their auto-target ability.Moreover,they still can aim a destroyed leg which leads to waste of damage potential.And clan wersions 4 and 6 have ungodly high cooldown.
Seriously,there are no reasons to choose the streaks over SRMs.I propose such changes to improve them:
1.Restore old flight mechanic,when streaks targeted mainly central and side torsoes,and only sometimes limbs.
Justification:
Aiming manually there is possible to put practically all SRMs 6 into chosen component.Streak 6 spread like crazy,they are even unable to be reliable anti-light mechs weapon once streaks were.Besides,with removed splash damage one missile is no longer able to damage few components at once.Proposes chances to hit a component are as follows:
Streak 2
CT 80%
ST 15%
Limb 5%

Streak 4
CT 70%
ST 20%
Limb 10%

Streak 6
CT 60%
ST 25%
Limb 15%

2.Reduce cooldowns for clan streak 4 and clan streak 6
Justification:
Current values make them unplayabe unless massively boating on fast mechs able to run behind cover and wait for cooldown to be expired.But what for these who are meant to participate in prolonged fights,or designed to fight off these pesky light mechs?
That's why I think cooldowns should be reduced.I made calculations and new cooldowns are:
Streak 4 - 4.5s which make it 1.7777 DPS.Currently Streak 4 have 1.5238 DPS so the change is not so big increase.
Streak 6 - 5.25s which increase DPS to 2.2857.Ingame Streak 6 has 1.7141 DPS,but difference in cooldown between SRM6 and Streak 6 will still make both of them viable choice.

Clan er small laser and clan er small pulse laser
Well,a minor change here,just increase C-ERSL damage back to 5.It was not ovepreforming before,and it was canon value,so why change it?You can reduce its range back to previous value as well.
C-ERSPL should deal 5.25 damage and generate 2.25 heat.


While designing the changes I tried to maintain your initial assumptions about balance.Just after returning over a year absence I can see clearly what is not functioning perfectly.
But even in the current state,I'm impressed how well you devs were able to balance clan mechs and tech against IS - both sides have advantages and none is utterly superior to opponent.Well done.
I am certain with these changes game meta will diverse even more,and more new,interesting builds will be invented,also good old ones might will get reason to be re-introduced.

Kind regards,
MasterBLB

Edited by MasterBLB, 19 July 2014 - 09:46 AM.


#2 MasterBLB

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Posted 23 July 2014 - 10:38 PM

Well,no one agrees/disagrees?





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