Doc Holliday, on 27 February 2013 - 09:41 AM, said:
But word to the wise, it's not the Cat you're abusing. It's SRMs. Cats are fine; SRMs do too much damage. This is true whether you're using one SRM6 or six of them.
Totally disagree. I single SRM6 racks is decent, but hardly frightening. Ditto for 2. What IS the issue is the ability to boat 4-6 such racks, or 4-6 LRM15-20s.
Individually, taken on their own, both Mech and Weapon is fine. It's finding a way to minimize the advantages of boating that needs to be solved, not more damage yo-yoing. Simply make Hardpoints in 2 varieties, large and small, with LRM15/20 and SRM6/Guass Rifle AC10/20 (+LB-X) all counting as large, count all other weapons (this is just a rough idea, so this is not a hard fast in/out suggestion) as small.
Suddenly you can't fit Gauss and AC/20s where the Cat-K2 had MGs. The Catapult A1 would have 2 large and 4 small hardpoints(or better yet, 2 large and 2 small), the Stlaker would not have 5 large hardpoints, but 5 small ones, etc.
Something akin to this (with mods) would do far more for balance than nerfing a mech or a weapon. (Seriously, why should a commando with an SRM4 and SRM6 be penalized for people abusing the Catapult? Seriously, how many people find a stock CMD-2D frightening?)