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[Duke Nedo]

0. PTS

I like a few things with all this

• the Diamond way of visualizing is great
  
• the underlying analysis and BV assignment is also a good notion
  
• the willingness to go into info warfare is excellent

let's build on that.




What I don't think are good ideas are:

• Giving all mechs structure instead of fixing the underlying problem, see point 1.
  
• The messy way quirks are handled, that's not new for this pass. See point 2.
  
• Absence of clan vs is balance, see point 3.
  
• Considering info warfare to be a balance parameter. I'd rather this stayed the **** out of faction or chassi balance, but rather play a big role in "role warfare".

The starting point here is that all current quirks are removed, both positive and negative. ALL numbers here are just for making examples, should not be taken literally.




1. Clan vs IS XL normalization

This is the major weight-saver for clan mechs. Very briefly, the simple implementation would be to:

• Clan XL has 10 slots of which 4 are in the STs
  
• IS XL has 12 slots of which 6 are in the STs
  
• Destroyed slots required for engine death: 4 (i.e. both clan and is die from losing two STs but not for one)
  
• Penalty for Clan ST loss: 2/10 slots = 20% penalty to top speed and heat dissipation
  
• Penalty for IS ST loss: 3/12 slots = 25% penalty to top speed and heat dissipation

I assume this could be implemented by just editing XMLs.


In order to make STD engines worthwile (both IS and future clan versions) would be to give all mechs equipping a STD engine +25 structure to CT.


2. Organizing Quirks in a comprehensive manner

I'd suggest just assigning names to cluster and formalize them, something along these lines:

Naming conventions (just examples out of the blue)

Agility
High power engine......................Acceleration/deceleration rate
Engine overdrive........................ Max speed
High power servos..................... Yaw speed
High power actuators................. Arm speed
High power suspenders............. Fall damage
Jump jet capacity....................... Jump jet burn time
etc, add more


Information
Advanced target scanners.......... Detailed infomation time - baseline bonus
Long range scanners.................. Detailed information - long range bonus
Advanced targeting computers....Target acquisition time
Target extrapolation.................... Target retention time
Information relay......................... Target sharing time
etc

Durability
Reinforced core........................... Additional Structure (CT/ST)
Armored core.............................. Additional Armor (CT/ST)
Reinfocred legs........................... Additional Structure (LL/RL)
Armored legs............................... Additional Armor (LL/RL)
Reinforced arms.......................... Additional Structure (LA/RA)
Armored arms............................. Additional Armor (LA/RA)
etc, add more

Offense
Long barrels................................ Balistic velocity and balistic range (linked)
Advanced loading mechanism..... Balistic cooldown
Thermo dump panels.................. Heat dissipation
Active weapon cooling................. Energy/balistic heat generation
High power capacitors................. Energy cooldown
etc, add more

A new idea could be to use balanced quirks in this format:
Low frequency wave generators...... Energy range +x3%, energy damage -x% (i.e. +15% range, -5% damage linked)
High frequency wave generators..... Energy range -x3%, energy damage +x% (i.e. -15% range, +5% damage linked)
Needs thought and work, but could perhaps make sense?

Quirk amplitude (in general, but actual bonus could be individual for every quirk)
Mark I: 5%/5pt
Mark II: 10%/10pt
Mark III: 15%/15pt
Mark IV: 20%/20pt
Mark V: 25%/20pt

Example, the nomenclature would become:

Awesome 9M
Reinfocred core Mk V (+25 structure)
Armored core Mk II (+10 armor)
Thermo dump panels Mk III (+15% heat dissipation)
etc

3. IS vs Clan balance as well as IS vs IS and Clan vs Clan balance

If point 1 is done, then personally I don't think Clan vs IS balance is that far off. Not outside the range of reasonable quirkening. There are a few equipment bandits, like 3t lighter Gauss without drawbacks, DHS, MGs, AP, ECM, etc, but in the greater scheme of things there is some asymmetric balance in play. I wouldn't mind some tweaking here and there, but whatever strategy PGI choose here, DO IT NOW, before applying quirks.

As for actual quirkening for balance, I'd love if they used some rational and transparent guidelines here.

The idea of "roles" is great for deciding which branch quirkening should drive at, but please please, do not force every chassi type to have one variant of each type. That doesn't make any sense to me. Use imagination to make the different using the quirks at hand instead.

I'd like for quirks to be divided between:
Chassi specific quirks: Quirks needed because of a particular chassi handicap (Dragon CT) or feature (Cent shield)
Role specific quirks: "Tanks" would get more armor, little info quirks (to make them visible and get hit). "Destroyers" would get Offense quirks, no durability quirks. "Skirmishers" would get speed and agility etc.
Variant specific quirks (omnipod specific): Quirks needed because of how many hardpoints are available and where they are located. Help the bad variants.

For example, if we consider some weak mechs, two of our favourite Dragons, Flame and Fang. If we assume they are all "heavy skrimishers", they need mobility and offense. They also have unfavorable CT geometry, so they may be in need of a "tailored" chassi-specific quirk. Fang has all major armament in the arms, while Flame has ~half the armament in a good ST balistics position and the rest in arms (4E). Flame is more E focused being the only Dragon with 4E, while Fang is just a rather bad design.

DRG-ALL (chassi specific): Reinforced core Mk V (+25 structure)
DRG-ALL (role specific): Engine overdrive Mk II (+10% speed)
DRG-Fang (variant specific): Long barrels Mk IV (20% range/velocity), Advanced loading mechanism Mk IV (20% balistics cooldown), High power capacitors Mk II (10% energy cooldown)
DRG-Flame (variant specific): Advanced loading mechanism Mk II (10% balistics cooldown), Thermo dump panels Mk II (10% heat dissipation)

Something along these lines is what I had hoped for.

Edited by Duke Nedo, 13 September 2015 - 02:37 AM.

[Duke Nedo]

Another friendly suggestion when they are meddling with balance is to move away from additive bonuses to multiplicative bonuses.

I.e. Right now two 25% bonuses stack into one 50% bonus, so 2x 25% cooldown bonuses with an original 4 seconds cooldown leads to a 2 seconds cooldown. Sounds good?

Problem is when you push it a little further, say we give something 2x 50% bonuses, to a total 100% cooldown bonus, leading to 0 seconds cooldown. Or while we're at it, add a third bonus of 12% from say a module and we now get a 112% cooldown, meaning it's ready to fire again before it was even fired? Clearly, adding bonuses like this is just wrong. Only time it is useful is if the end user is supposed to be able to add bonuses up without using calculators.

The mathematically sound way to do it is to add them multiplicatively, so that two 50% bonues add up to one 75% bonus (0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25), which in the example above would give a cooldown of 1 second instead of 0 seconds.

That will save PGI some potential headache in the future, especially with cooldown quirks and modules.

Edited by Duke Nedo, 14 September 2015 - 03:21 AM.