Orzorn, on 06 May 2012 - 02:24 PM, said:
Better is subjective. What is better for one might be worse for another.
Personally, I would prefer to have the weapons in my arms, because that allows me a greater range of movement with those weapons. I can bring them to bear faster and in greater angles than if they were on my torso.
Yep and this is yet another proof that diversity is good, what is 'better' for you may not be 'better' for me, etc. There's a lot of sides to these coins, and that's why I am of the feeling that having chassis for sale is not pay 2 win since weight is weight.
True hardpoints /may/ be a cause for concern, but that just creates more diversity.
For example: King Crab we know has two ballistics hard points in it's arms, we know this, because it has 2 AC-20's there. You could easily swap out the AC-20's for Gauss Rifles, or AC-10's and use that weight elsewhere.
We don't know if there is a ballistic mount on the Atlas's arm where the PPC goes now. It could be there, it also might not be, we don't know. Even if it's not there we do know there are multiple missile mounts, so that instead of 2 gauss rifles, the Atlas can load in two LRM-20's instead.
Not precisely the same loadout, but, damage potential is pretty much on par between the two (Going by pure TT stats anyways). For someone who loves a missile boat, the Atlas is clearly the 'better' 100 tonner, for someone who prefers gauss the King Crab is clearly the 'better' chassis.
It all sort of proves my point, offensively weight tends to determine max firepower as there are multiple choices between ballistic, missile, and energy which makes all chassis of any given weight a cosmetic or play style difference over any other chassis of that same weight and /not/ pay 2 win.
Technology types being equal of course.
Iron Harlequin, on 06 May 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:
If the devs were under the impression that chassis are just cosmetically different, then why do any of the mechs looks different? Why not just make them all look the same? All the light mechs have the same model, medium mechs have a different model but still the same for the entire weight class, etc. if they were cosmetic only, then whats the point of them going to all the trouble of expending their effort making them all look so different. they've probably taken into account any number of arguments involving "well why would i want that mech over the one i already have?"
I mean c'mon, where on a catapult are you going to put a heavy gauss rifle? the dragon has room for it, but the catapult does not. they clearly have different hardpoints.
Where am I going to put gauss rifle? How about where the PPC's go *shrug*. We don't know the hard points, and there is catapults with ballistics hard points as variants.
As to why they have different models, cuz, it's the IP and people like looking unique. Why would they gimp themselves in such fashion as to make every mech look identical in it's weight class?