9 replies to this topic

[SgtExo]

TL:DR - Change the drop weight distribution from 3/3/3/3 to 4/5/2/1 to match with canon weight distribution and reduce the high dammage and fast kill time that is seen in game now.

There has been allot of crying and yelling about the over abundancy of dual gauss and LRM boats on the forums. While there has been allot of back and forth, and allot of suggestions proposed, I have not really seen one proposal that I think would help allot of new people, not change any game mechanic, and would be canon to Battletech and the TT sources.

This solution is changing how many mechs of a weight class are included in each drop.

Right now the MM tries to get 3 mechs of each weight class in the drop. While it is commendable that PGI has tried to make every weight class a viable choice, they do not all contribute as much.

Medium mechs are supposed to be the workhorses in battletech not because they are good, but because they are cheap. The stock builds are too slow to survive in MWO where half the enemy team is heavier than you and can carry more weaponry, armor, and often have the same speed as the mediums. This is a problem because of the many bigger mechs that can very quickly render a medium into a stick, if not destroy it outright. This might happen due to running into a dual gauss mech, or being spotted and rained on by 3 or 4 lrm boats. Most of the mechs that will cause this will be in the heavy or assault weight class.

So to help make drop a bit safer and interesting, I would like to see the weight distribution from TT instead of the four weight classes being equal. In TT the weight distribution of the IS mech forces for the 3050 timeframe is of:

Light 30%, Medium 40%, Heavy 20%, Assault 10% = 100%.

For a 12 man drop this would look like:

Light 4, Medium 5, Heavy 2, Assault 1 = 12 mechs.

With this, almost half the team would be medium mechs, and their would be less heavy and assault mechs combined than mediums. In my opinion, this would bring down the total DPS of the drops and let mechs not have to death blob as much. We would be seeing allot less mechs that are able to bring 50+ lrm tubes with enough ammo to last a whole match.

In conclusion, Assault and Heavy mechs are supposed to cost allot and not be to common with the bulk of the forces made up of Medium and Light mechs. This in turn would make matches more interesting.

[Telmasa]

As stated in the other discussion thread about this, I'd like to see a middle-ground option like 3-4-3-2, or 4-4-2-2.

[MindWalk3r]

Its a good idea, and makes sense from cost perspective in relation to real life use of military workhorse mechs. However, i would suggest making mediums more useful by increasing speed uniformly by tonnage. No reason a 35 ton raven with a top speed of 150 kph and average speed of 130 with a good loadout cant translate more linearly to a 40/45/50/55 ton that on average is running at 80 kph with slightly more firepower. increased speed/ engine on the majority of mediums might make em as competitive as the stormcrow and actually usable instead of the steep decline in speed from lights to mediums

[Telmasa]

Err...most mediums from 40-55 tons already DO run at 80 kph or higher, with considerably more firepower than the raven. Even the Cicada, a 5-ton upgrade from the Raven, is noticably more survivable and can carry more firepower.

Shadowhawks, for instance, can run around 89 or so with an XL275, and mount a PPC and a pair of AC/5s, or a bunch of missiles with some ML and/or machine guns.

[Tarogato]

I'd be game for 3/4/3/2. All the way.

4/5/2/1 is a bit extreme. How the heck is Steiner supposed to participate with a setup like that?

[happy mech]

do you realize this is a player thing, not a matchmaker thing?
or are you talking about private matches or group queue?
i think weight limit is a much better solution for organized matches

to the dual gauss and lrm argument
lrms were powerful when they could chase a 171kph commando, now they are ok, you even got ams
dual gauss got pathetic dps and mobility, even with a slow mech you can outmaneuver it using your sides

[The Massive]

It's not matchmaker. It's players. How do you force players to run mediums if they don't want to, without affecting your player base?

By the way, player base is code for profit.

[FrontGuard]

Maccasimus, on 31 October 2014 - 04:41 AM, said:

It's not matchmaker. It's players. How do you force players to run mediums if they don't want to, without affecting your player base?

By the way, player base is code for profit.

This is totaly correct... If everyone wants to play a Heavy, what you going to do? Stop game play till they change?

No... Slap together the Mechs in the most even way you can and let us play!

[Koniving]

SgtExo, on 30 October 2014 - 12:49 PM, said:

I like what the idea implies. But as mentioned it is not the matchmaker, but the viability of the chassis. With the poor way the game is designed, assault mechs are blatantly superior to heavies, which are superior to mediums, which have the short end of the stick because some lights are better than mediums too, even when going the same speeds.

In the end, what we have is a paradox where heavies to assaults are simply better.

So, here is what might be a more practical idea.. For Faction play, aka Community Warfare, we're going to have a Drop Deck. Currently the range is something between 140 and 240 tons.
What if... we weren't limited to 4 mechs?
What if we could drop with 2 mechs to 10 mechs?
240 / 20 tons = 12 Locusts.
So lets do this. Say the limit is 200 tons.
You can bring as few as two 100 ton mechs, or you can bring up to ten 20 ton mechs.
Know what we have? A viable choice.
You can swarm with lots of easily killed mechs, or use a limited number of sturdy assault mechs. Rather than "You must have 4 mechs," perhaps instead have "You must use within 10 tons of your maximum limit."

See "What 3/3/3/3 cost us" for a Community Warfare example of this using a global tonnage rather than an individual player tonnage. It wouldn't take much to change adapt it.

This way you can play an assault, be almighty, or you can play the fragile things and bring many backups.

Edited by Koniving, 31 October 2014 - 06:57 AM.

[MindWalk3r]

i like the tonnage idea, but maybe keep it something closer to what it is, and compromise. keep it at 3/3/3/3, but tonnage would reflect one 100 ton, one 90 ton and one 80 ton assault for example. with quirks this maybe much more natural and feasable with little to no change in gameplay. So set it up for a tonnage max where max tonnage is high medium low from each class combined for example, then maybe allow match maker as much freedom as possible and voila