402 replies to this topic

[Blood Skar]

46 pages on the quirks summary...and thats just IS mechs...

Constantly revising all of those quirks must be hugely time consuming? Not to mention extremely hard to actually see how effective each quirk is.

Isn't there a better way to balance?

Edit: Looking over some of those IS quirks...they are huge +50% ones in there to accel/decel/torso twisting etc.
I'm hoping the Clan mechs are going to have similar...otherwise we will have a huge disparity. Especially as you are taking away most of our Mech Efficiencies(from the Mech Skill Trees).

Nvm....i read you wont be making as drastic changes to Clan Mechs quirks as you have to IS Mechs quirks.
This is a huge buff to IS Mechs over Clan Mechs. On top of Clan Mechs having Double Heat sinks nerfed and we have negative quirks on some mechs (-20% in some cases with certain omnipods) and Clan laser range nerfed.

So IS Mechs are the new Clan Mechs?

Looks like i might be rebuying up all my old mastered IS mechs then.

Those hunchback buffs wow...the HBK-4SP is going to be a monster...

Edited by Blood Skar, 13 November 2015 - 10:58 PM.

[John1352]

I like the look of this. There seem to be less of the specific weapon quirks and more general bonuses, letting you put the weapons you like on, rather than missing out on quirks if you don't use weapon X.

I'm not sure about the amount of structure quirks in there, maybe a bit too much, but perhaps that will be an advantage of IS mechs?

AC2s will still be really hot. I'd get rid of the crit bonus and set heat to 0.5 or 0.6.

If clan laser range needs nerfing, just do it to the optimal, then max = 2x optimal.

[Sug]

LRM missile speed increase would be nice. Some strange Awesome nerfs. Victors got a little love. That's nice.

Edited by Sug, 13 November 2015 - 10:45 PM.

[Hastur Azargo]

Umm, so, did the community take kindly to axing of the efficiencies? Where does making mechs handle worse factor in TTK increase?

Also, PGI, if you're reading this, please don't go the War Thunder way with information warfare. I don't know of a single factor that ruined that game for me more than the reduction of targeting ranges that resulted in half the team getting killed while the other half never even knowing where the enemy is, or even that a battle was taking place.

[Tarogato]

For once some quirk changes that I can agree with. I'll provide in depth feedback on the individual chassis later, there's some things that could be improved, but I like a lot of what I'm seeing.

But please, can we consider adding a change to the PTS? Reduce cLPL damage by 1. It's seriously really friggin' strong in this game and it's already way over buffed compared to how it was in TT. It just needs to be knocked down a peg to help punch a hole in the laservomit meta.

[kka]

I like EVERYTHING.

I especially like:

• PGI listened the community about the loss of optimal range

This was so unintuitive. The simpler, the better.

[Gas Guzzler]

I'm for sure going to take my VTR-9S out for a spin to dance with AC20/SRMs/MLs

[YUyahoo]

PGI could you please turn all the structure bonus into armor bonuses...increasing structure only increases the chance for internal components to be criticaled and destroyed, increasing armor increases true survivability.

Also, why the speed nerf to the highlander, was going 68kph just too fast for a 90 ton mech that otherwise had nothing going for it? please give it back its 5% speed increase (or make it 7.5% to compensate for the needless skilltree speed nerf)

[PraetorGix]

InnerSphereNews, on 13 November 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

Subject to your feedback, the changes outlined in this PTS session are scheduled for release onto the Live servers on December 1st.

So, you will take feedback into consideration, then:

InnerSphereNews, on 13 November 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

Lasers
• Clan ERSmallLaser MaxRange reduced to 360 (400)
• Clan ERMediumLaser MaxRange reduced to 688 (810)
• Clan SmallPulseLaser MaxRange reduced to 297
• Clan MediumPulseLaser MaxRange reduced to 561

NO.

InnerSphereNews, on 13 November 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

• Clan Double Heat Sink capacity will be reduced from -1.4 to -1.1. This is reducing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.

NO.

InnerSphereNews, on 13 November 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

'Mech Efficiencies
• Kinetic Burst: 22.5% -> 7.5%
• Twist X: 10% -> 2.5%
• Hard Brake: 25% -> 7.5%
• Twist Speed: 20% -> 2.5%
• Arm Reflex: 15% -> 2.5%
• Anchor Turn: 10% -> 2.5%
• Speed Tweak: 10% -> 7.5%

NO NO NOT AT ALL.

Edited by Cmdr Hurrell, 13 November 2015 - 11:40 PM.

[Gas Guzzler]

Range nerf: Necessary
Clan DHS nerf: Insignificant, if your mech has 20 DHS it amounts to like a 3-4 heat decrease in heat capacity, AND your DHS now dissipate slightly faster
Skill tree nerf: Yeah I'm a little bummed as well, especially for mechs that have low base torso twist angle like the EXE/Mauler

[ShinVector]

Ahhhh... Weapon quirks are back... Booo...

The IS inter-chassis imbalance is back and here to stay...

Edited by ShinVector, 13 November 2015 - 11:45 PM.

[Diddi Doedel]

Did I read that right? The Clan DOUBLE heatsinks now have the same heat capacity as an Inner Sphere SINGLE heatsink?

[Davers]

Chuanhao, on 13 November 2015 - 08:51 PM, said:

Best thing to do is now MOVE on and look at other mechanics like game modes, Solaris, FINALLY.

Tired of hearing about Solaris- I am sure leaderboards will show up eventually. If you were thinking that there would be really interesting subsystems for managing a stable of mechs or betting, just remember we thought we were getting that for CW too.

kka, on 13 November 2015 - 11:18 PM, said:

I like EVERYTHING.

I especially like:

• PGI listened the community about the loss of optimal range

This was so unintuitive. The simpler, the better.

Nothing in this game is as unintuitive as heat sinks. 3 varieties, all with completely different stats/slots, and NONE of them really 'double' anything. If new players are supposed to understand them, then grasping 'Press R to do full damage at long ranges' is pretty easy.

[PraetorGix]

I feel I need to put this in terms PGI will be compelled to listen:

YOU WILL LOSE MONEY

Axe the mech efficiency tree and you are basically taking away most of the incentive to grind 3 variants. Sure, the speed increase is still (mostly) there, but, why would I bother in the case of the faster mechs? I won't grind a chassis I don't like that much only for the speed buff. So, in that way, you have less people paying MC for extra variants, less people returning Cbills earned through grinding to buy extra variants, and less people actually playing those extra variants, which as you know translates in less opponents for the paying players. You know much more than me about the F2P model for sure, but this is a basic concept that nobody could deny.
Axing the efficiency tree is bad for you, bad for us. Please, do not do it.

Edited by Cmdr Hurrell, 15 November 2015 - 01:49 AM.

[Hastur Azargo]

Also BNC-3S didn't get much needed heat gen quirk... Still gonna run too hot.

[Navid A1]

Cmdr Hurrell, on 14 November 2015 - 12:00 AM, said:

...
.... Sure, the 10% speed increase is still there,...

its gonna be 7.5% actually

[Bluttrunken]

Azargo, on 14 November 2015 - 12:03 AM, said:

Also BNC-3S didn't get much needed heat gen quirk... Still gonna run too hot.

Because Banshees definitely need more quirks.

[Kshat]

I like the general outline on how this might play out. But it needs some finish, that's for sure. But that's what the PTS is for, isn't it?

So, in general:

- I like most of the balancing of the IS-quirks. Some "glitches" appeared, nevertheless. Like, Panther 10K is still a joke. Maybe an UAC Jamchance-Buff would hep. Or that they removed most MG-quirks. Sorry, but an Arrow without MG-quirks, especially to range, will result in simply another laserboat. And I miss those AMS-perks. Gave some incentive to mount AMS, despite not being rewarded by ingame metrics. Or most teammates
I especially like that PGI DID tone down most of the ridiculous quirked mechs, like the Dakka-Dragon or TDR-5SS (quick note: TDR 5S will be next "meta", got even slightly better) without completely braking them.
Not so sure about how the Grid Iron plays out. Quirk nerfs AND Gauss-nerfs will hurt him. Might see another pass.

- I liked that most mechs which really had been left behind in terms of performance got an overhaul. Like a lot of the Resistance-Mechs. Or the Atlai. The movement-quirks will be great on them.

- Regarding the general gameplay: I think the heat-balancing, especially that IS-SS got a niche now, are the right direction.
I like the changes made to ACs, especially to AC2s (how do LB-X2 and UAC2 evolve, regarding the critchance?). Much needed. And looong overdue.
The changes to SRM might backfire. New PUG-Meta seems to be the return of the splat-brawler. Need to keep an eye on this.

- The changes to Clan-Lasers seem interesting - if PGI adjusts several other metrics to balance them out. Like, heat and burn time. Especially the burn time nerfs made after Revival need to be cut back.
Another point is the matter of the Clan-ERLL. It is, as it stands, the single true medium range weapon the clans have. In other words: after the max range of the Clan-ML is cut back, there is a HUGE performance gap for clan players in the range of ~500 - 600m. The single weapon to effectively counter the IS-LL, especially with quirks, would be the Clan-ERLL. If you are not willing/not able to sacrifice several tons to go for Clan-LPLs.
As it stands, the IS-LL will reign dominant in this range bracket, without competition. Even more incentive for IS-players to see the LL as their standard weapon of choice, especially on larger maps like those seen in CW.

Now, if we add in that MOST of the laser range quirks of the IS are still in the game as of PTS4, a lot of IS-Mechs will have a similar range profile with their lasers. With substantially shorter burn time, slightly lesser alpha, but way higher Damage/Heat-efficiency. And, as I said: the moment we leave the optimum CL-ML-range, the IS-LL is the dominant weapon by far. And easy to boat, too. There is simply no incentive to use anything other if you decided not to brawl.
Adding in some of the "funny" quirks, like +30% range, reduced burntime etc, you'll see mechbuilds which are just out of any competition.

P.S.: seems nifty to give the Stalker 4N 5% more range on all energy weapons, resulting in +15% for LL, and not painting it "green for buffs" Heat dissipation should be better overall, so the LL-boat wil be even better than now...

P.P.S.: Can't see how the cut back of Mechskills/efficiencies coul improve the game. There isn't ANYTHING wrong with the simple concept of "play longer, become slightly better". It's in some ways the bread and butter of most F2P-games. For ages.
The community said "we want changes to the skills system", because some of the skills are just boring, unintuitive or simply DYSFUNCTIONAL.
Who said we want a skillsystem which could be neglected? Maybe tone down the importance of the heatskills, but give us some neat other skills in their place.
Maybe it is not fun to grind mechs for the grind. But it is fun to play a mech which you actually like to play and are able to improve not only on your gameplay, but slightly on the mechperformance, too. It is the same, easy to exploit, habit which make "a new item" or "skillpoints/talents" fun.
And that's where it becomes interesting: if you would change the skillsystem to some kind of talent-tree where you could actually make a choice what you want to improve, things might become more fun.

Edited by Kshat, 14 November 2015 - 12:29 AM.

[Ionna Silver]

Looks cool, but ALL locusts need torso armor quirks, hope to be heard!

[Boyka]

I can accept anything but not this: Speed Tweak: 10% -> 7.5%

In a game you have to walk MINUTES before do something a speed nerf is unacceptable, expecially in big maps, expecially for assault and heavy mechs, expecially for all engine low cap builds.

You need lots of matches and XP for unlock mech efficiencies, hope these changes are not for Steam release to help newbies against mastered builds, cause that's symply stupid, is like keep your virginity after doing sex more and more times.

Edited by Boyka, 14 November 2015 - 12:47 AM.