StaggerCheck

I was messing around in the Mech Lab and the training grounds today, checking out the weapon reload/recycle rates and comparing how often I could fire the weapons on my Cataphract in succession without shutting down. I also took note of how long it would take to automatically start up again and cool off back to zero.

If I can fire my pinpoint alpha strike five times in a row over a 20 second period of time before shutting down, yet it takes my Mech 25 seconds to start up again and cool off, what is really the difference between firing your heavy weapons once every four seconds versus once every eight seconds? Is PGI going for burst damage game play in an effort to create 'excitement' for the player? If they are, I think it is severely hampering their efforts to balance the game. Honestly, even if you start up again and are back up and active, you have to wait a longer period of time to fire even one weapon, let alone your blocked out alpha strike. If your weapons are waiting and ready, yet you cannot fire them for a few more seconds... what is the difference? There is now an artificial weapon delay working against you that lasts longer than four seconds, anyway.

To my way of thinking this sped up style of game play is rather silly, considering it is one of the major factors in weapon boating and pin-point alpha strikes. Would it not be just as enjoyable to have a weapon table that had some staggered weapon profiles with regard to rate of fire, so that most weapons didn't fall into the same four second or less window?

I'm thinking something like this... put heavy ballistic [10+ tons] and energy [5+ tons] weapons into a category that would have recycle/reload times in the neighborhood of five to eight seconds. Put all other weapons into another category of two to four seconds. Any weapon that is firing rather quickly and frequently would have a modified damage value to keep balance with the less frequent heavy weapons. Ammunition bin levels would reflect the firing rate of the weapon, as well, which should help with ammunition requirements. Putting less tonnage into ammunition will allow for more tonnage being allocated toward weapon hard points and other options.

I don't know. I am fairly concerned with some of the weird and convoluted ways PGI is trying to tackle weapon boating and/or alpha striking in game. It seems to me that they are bound and determined to keep the current heat system and pin-point targeting as core features... to the point that I fear the game may get away from them.

Thoughts?

I played ten matches today... well, eleven, actually, but I won't bother counting the game on Alpine Peaks where not a soul on either team actually saw an enemy combatant.

I have been following the game closely for months via the patch notes, forums and a little messing around in the Mech Lab/testing grounds. I have stayed away purposely due to said patch notes and what I was certain to be horrible game play at the moment. [Collisions, hit detection, LAG shield, PPCs, etc. etc.] I should have known better, given that PPCs are all the rage and jump sniping is still in vogue, but I just couldn't help myself... it had been so long and I had always had a good time in game. Some of those issues had been fixed, so I asked myself... 'How bad could it be?' I put aside time for ten games in my Cataphract 3D... and I wasted all of it.

How the [expletive deleted] has the game gone from fun in Closed Beta to this insta-kill-alpha-strike disappointment?

It took me three games to notice that trying to line up Ultra AC/5 shots is a losing proposition, given that you have to... you know... line up your Ultra AC/5 shots. No... it is much better to take instant delivery weapons like the PPC or Gauss Rifle, because they minimize your exposure. You can use Ultras, sure, but you better be in the rear with the gear when you do so... and not the focus of enemy attention on the front lines. The first match of the day I exposed myself for what didn't seem longer than two seconds and I was cored through the CT. Next match, AC/20 shot through the faceplate, from who knows where, as I didn't see my attacker. Next match I was cored again by what looked like the light set up for a RUSH concert. All three deaths were while on the move... not just standing there like some lemming. My matches were rather short, I am sorry to say, despite game play and tactics that would have served me well months ago. Adapt and overcome, they say.

Long story short... I went from a pair of Ultra AC/5s, Large Laser and two Medium Lasers at the start of my day... a Mech configuration I had done rather well with when ELO was first introduced... and ended the day in a cheese-tastic Gauss Rifle and PPC monstrosity that was deadly, yet strangely unsatisfying. I mean, don't get me wrong. I just love the challenge of one-shot kills on practically any Mech I got in my sights, but coming from the way the game was months ago during Closed Beta or, more recently when ELO was first introduced, to today? Well... the game has devolved, put it that way.

I just packed it in and called it a month. I cannot honestly understand how some players are vocal and supportive of how the game is being played right now. Learn to play. Change your tactics. Adapt or die. Welcome to ELO... it will sort out your game play level.

Why would anyone want to learn how to play this? As soon as I went to the cheesegrinder I was instantly competitive again. Is that ELO, my having learned to play all over again by game six, or was it the fact that I was running the same crap everyone else was, and it suddenly meant that I was getting my shots off first?

PGI, if any of your staffers are reading this, you cannot honestly think that the way the game has gone is a positive, can you? I sure hope Paul's investigation is going to result in some serious changes, because it is laughable to see some of the load-outs being utilized at the moment. They are mostly all built to the same specs... bend the heat system, maximize lethality for concentrated fire... and ride through the shutdown sequence.

Why do they fire this fast in the first place? I'm talking about AC/20s, Gauss Rifles, PPCs, Large Lasers and their ER versions. No wonder people are boating them. They are the naval guns of the BattleMech. They should be like a major investment on the firing line, but they're not. This game would be better served if the truly heavy weapons had a slower rate of fire, like seven to ten seconds. I know the first reaction of some Mechwarrior or FPS purists would be, "That would be boring!". No, actually, it would not. It would bring about more balanced, tactical play.

Some people are already scrolling down to the reply window to tell me how crazy/stupid I am, which is fine. They will miss the following explanation. The fact of the matter is that a game like World of Tanks can boast 40 million registered users, and their game mechanics often have people waiting upwards of fifteen seconds between shots with ONE GUN... and one gun only. If that game play style is so horrifically boring, how is it that they have that many registered players? Even if you take away half of them and assume they are no longer playing, that is still 20 million players. We have zero clue as to the number of people playing MechWarrior Online, but I would hazard a guess it does not approach anything close to WoT.

So, the question becomes, how do you appease the Mechwarrior players and the FPS players with a more 'exciting' experience, yet still maintain game balance with the slower heavy weapons? I think you do it with the smaller weapons like the Medium Laser, AC/5, AC/2, SRMs, etc. You keep them firing on a five second cool down or less, but adjust their damage output and ammunition levels to compensate. Ammunition levels are critical, because the reason many people end up boating things like PPCs is due to the extra tonnage we all have been allocating to ammunition. This takes weapons that require ammunition from independent systems to all-or-nothing investments.

Mind you, none of this works without a revamp of the heat system, a more restrictive Mech Lab that would put higher emphasis on the Hard Points, a slacking of the pin-point targeting system, a... um... you have to...

OMG, I just realized that this game is so fundamentally broken... deeply so, right down to the core! Raising PPC heat from 8 to 9 won't fix anything, but go ahead and give it a shot, PGI.

TL/DR: Aaaaaiiiiieeeeeeee!!!!!!!

For those Highlander pilots out there, and for those people who have braved the game since the last patch dropped, I'm wondering about the two topics from the title. I haven't seen a bunch of complaints to do with the Highlander cockpit hit-box, which means they either screwed it up like the Awesome and Cataphract and then hot-fixed it, or they hit it out of the park. Which is it? Is the Highlander easy to cap, or did they get it right?

As far as the jumping abilities of the Highlander, it seems to me that they gave the Heavy Metal two bonus jump jet slots. I have yet to see any details on the new variants, but seem to recall seeing something about three jump jet slots rather than five. Given those assumptions, will the Highlander be able to clear anything on the maps other than a few small hills or half-buried buildings? I don't care about jump sniping, to be honest. I prefer a Mech that can create distance by hopping over otherwise impassible terrain features to frustrate relentless attackers.

Many thanks in advance to any insight that is offered!

Howdy PGI, just a dose of feedback for you this fine and lovely morning. You don't have to remove River City Night, as many people have suggested... you guys just need to lighten up a bit... the map, I mean. It is wonderful that you have introduced a map that makes great use of night vision mode, even though most players default to thermal. I know you are working on a fix for that, but my point is rather the absolute pitch black feeling everyone gets on River City Night. That, more than anything, is what is killing it for most players. I don't think it is so much the target identification that bothers players... it is the feeling that we have next to no clue where obstacles are on the map, it is so dark. We fear stubbing our Mech toes on buildings.

I'd suggest a moon in the evening sky to brighten things up a bit. You could even be inventive and give it a red or yellow surface to add the spooky factor to the reflected light. Hell, even a, "That's no moon... that's a space station!" situation would work. Either that, or change the hour a bit so there is a smidgen of sunlight in the sky for players to work with. Any situation where we didn't have to burn our retinas out just to maneuver in the environment in the first place would be a great start.

Cheers!