2 replies to this topic

[Navid A1]

I like most changes that was introduced in the energy draw system.

While its main focus is on direct fire alpha... it makes an already bad issue even worse.

LRM5s are the king of the indirect weapons in terms of weight, efficiency, dps, accuracy... pretty much everything.
A role that should have been carried out by LRM20s and LRM15s

Currently you can fire 3 LRM5s with no consequence... with energy draw you can fire 8 of them with no consequence.
Meanwhile You can only fire 2 LRM20s or LRM15s which are heavy, ammo wasting, have massive cooldowns and are highly inaccurate.

here is a comparison:
8x LRM 5s (at 16 tons)


2x LRM 20s (at 20 tons)



The solution:
- DO NOT ANNIHILATE LRM 5s
- Normalize spread across all launchers of all sizes (LRM10 levels) and introduce a new mechanic:
example:



I know it may sound harsh to some of you.. but please take a look at how LRM20 would be if it had LRM5 level spread:
8xLRM5s fired with LRM20 cooldown to simulate 2xLRM20 with small spread:


As you can see, even if you reduce LRM20 spread to LRM5 levels you get:
8xLRM5 at 16 tons and 8 crits killing an atlas in around 30 secs
2xLRM20 at 20 tons and 10 crits killing the same atlas in around 50 secs

Seems pretty fair to me.

What do you think?

Edited by Navid A1, 24 August 2016 - 11:09 PM.

[Mawai]

You make a good case for some renormalization of LRMs.

4 IS-LRM 5s take 4 slots, weigh 8 tons, deliver 20 missiles, costs 8 heat, has a 3.25s cooldown, and have a tighter cluster/less spread so fewer miss and more hit specific components.

1 IS-LRM 20 is 5 slots, weights 10 tons, delivers the same 20 missiles, costs 6 heat, has a 5.5s cooldown and a wider spread for missiles.

It is pretty clear that the only advantage to an LRM20 is that it costs 2 less heat which is entirely negligible. Moving to the new energy draw system allows a mech to fire 8 LRM5s at the same time which only emphasizes the existing advantages.

LRMs are a difficult to balance weapon system since they synergize well when used by multiple mechs allowing for LRM rain on momentarily exposed targets to quickly take them out despite the fact that the missiles spread their damage. A single mech armed only with LRMs is typically very vulnerable as soon as an opponent closes the distance. However, several mechs with LRMs can determine the outcome of a match by both suppressing enemy fire as well as doing distributed damage that opens weak points for folks with pinpoint damage weapons to finish off.

Anyway, the LRM5 should not be strictly better than LRM20s ...

[Navid A1]

It took 64 LRM5 salvos to kill a fully armored (stock) atlas.
Same number for LRM20 was 28 salvos.

Let us imagine that LRMs have the same spread equal to LRM5's. Now, it will take 64/4 = 16 salvos for an LRM20 to kill the same atlas.
Now lets bring in the cooldowns. LRM5 has 3.74 cooldown in PTS, and LRM 20 has 6.33 cool down
Lets imagine a mech has 4 LRM5s and another mech has 1 LRM20:
The mech with 4 LRM5s will kill the atlas in 16 salvos of LRM alphas which is 56 seconds
The mech with LRM20 (lrm5 spread) will kill the atlas in 16 salvos.. but this time in 95 seconds

Considering that an LRM20 is a 10 ton weapon (compared to 8 tons for quad LRM5), same spread with current cooldowns would be a fair trade. Certainly nothing to be freaked out about.