I'm seeing clans claiming victory in what they call pug stomps and IS claiming theyre crushing and destroying them with superior equipment...
However i've seen IS take ground so far in CW, and the maps contested seem to downplay many range advantages.
Many of the contested worlds which the IS has attacked rather intelligently I believe were chosen because the maps eliminate the range bonuses clan has. Up close clans lose much advantage as IS can do the infight much better due to cooler weapons and thus higher dps. In an open field Clan wins by superior range and speed in most cases.
Have 12's fought 12's? screenshots? I would like to see empirical data otherwise clan and IS both are simply spouting conjecture
and even on the subject of Timbys and scrows how do you balance it? they ARE op (because theyre uncontested you cant deny that fellow clan aligned mercs) because theyre top of their weight class with a high number of hardpoints much like the phract was when it was released.
All clan mechs have the immortal XL so why are these disgusting? because they become brawlers with halfweight engines that is all... the hunch can dish damage out left right and center but cannot match speeds or cooling rates because its engine is twice as heavy as the scrow thats about all (besides nutso hitboxes).
So what? movement penalties on st loss? fine but thats not an issue in an infight once its already begun speed is key to arriving to the brawl not always the brawl it self (at least not 20% speed anyway) I dont think this alone will solve your problems guys.
I personally believe the clan will be op until mixed tech is available. There is no other way to balance the two until you can slap whatever on whatever. 10 v 12 is not it because 2 pilots beat 1 in every occasion simply because regardless of weight class ALL mechs can wield similar amounts of damage the larger your mech the larger a single weapon system can be but your damage increase is only about 5~10 (it still baffles me that firestarters can wield almost as much weaponry as a hunchie). We know this from the common concept that you never want to fight 2 on 1 in this game because dude who passes behind you in an "inferior machine" can still bust all your back armor off.and all that does is say at any given time 2 clanners have to fight 2 to 1 and their mechs superiority is definitely not a 2 to 1 (we are all reasonable adults who can use smurfy read the values and can see that right?)
Now let me rephrase this... If we are to speak of balance 10v12 principles do not work as they put the battle in the favor of the IS (I mean lore wise this is actually partially why the clans lose ground). BUT it cannot stay as is because the IS machines and equipment ARE inferior (I mean players cannot resort to dirty tactics as its not that kind of game lol the only way ground is gained is through a shooting match lol)
In order for balance on the grand scheme of CW however we have a few options
here is where it gets fun
if we were to have the IS drop in on planets in lets say 4 mans to fight a 4 man of clanners and drop defenses before the full attacks begins leaving the planet vulnerable to assault thats a deliciously dirty freebirth tactic that the clans cannot partake of during their attacks, makes a small group friendly mode of CW AND that makes the defense much harder for clan(only one wave though dropship's current implementation really hurts the ability to win decisively on skill it should allow you to pick from a stock of mechs depending on the team comp and field type not be a stock of 4 lives that should be a different game type altogether lol also prevents that **** from taking so long XD)
and clan can only attack through batchall identifying their setup before the match locking them in and the IS is allowed to "identify" other mechs in their dropship and hide the one they are using.
This provides a significant tactical advantage for the innersphere and doenst rely on the clan players to police themselves in combat as these become game mechanics and not optional (like mech/weapon choice)
Any other ideas?
TLDR:
ST nerfs wont help balance you can have them too but only mixed tech will truly balance while keeping quirks for IS mechs only for IS equipment at that point no complaints can be made as if its op everyone can wield it and thus things are no longer "this side is X or that side is X" but "this thing is X" again which is better than where were at now
but as that is a ways off (and i feel the only way to do any kind of faction balance)
for CW balance we could look at:
Sneaky Sneaky 4 man pre attacks on planets for the IS
Full Disclosure Batchall for Clans
Please tell me what you think and please explain your own ideas use examples if you can =D
Edited by Sarevos, 28 March 2015 - 12:12 AM.