The weapons that are most favored at any given time are the ones that can cause the most damage to other battlemechs for the least cost.
That is because we don't have a PURPOSE to other weapons.
We don't need LRM's to knock out fixed emplacements with indirect fire. (and they can't lay down minefields yet)
Flamers can't light woods and buildings on fire and/or create smoke screens.
There's no infantry or battlearmor for machine guns and flamers to kill.
There are no fast moving vehicles for UAC/5's and medium lasers to deal with.
There are no inferno rounds for SRM's yet.
There are no aircraft for ER Lasers and AC/2's to shoot down.
MELEE?
As long as this game continues to be limited in 'stuff to do' we'll see mechs boating only one or two weapon types. It is not because the weapons are imbalanced; it is because there is only so much to do in the game. So, no matter what the purpose for the mechs, they are all converted to mech hunter-killers. Mechs are meant to be the most versatile weapons on the battlefield, not the ONLY weapons. The are versatile because a lance or company of mechs can field a variety of weapon systems to deal with any threat. In this case, the only threat is other battlemechs, and so we get endless threads complaining that all mechs are built the same, and that certain weapons are OP.
Let me put things into perspective:
PPC's are not common weapons mounted on mechs in 3050. Of the mechs we have available, there is the K2, ONE variant of the highlander, awesomes (build especially FOR ppcs), one cataphract. I might be missing a few, but think about it: There are no PPC equipped Dragons, Hunchbacks, Centurions, Ravens, Jenners, Spiders, Commandos, Trebuchets, Stalkers or Atlases.
As long as we have a mechlab where we can frankenmech our mechs into something unrecognizable, there's not really a point to buying many mechs. The only reason you see some mechs out there at all are because people are leveling up variants, looking for a challenge, noobs, or griefing.
Give us vehicles, turrets, bunkers, infantry, battlearmor, VTOL's, fighters, aerospace, etc. and the mechs will become a lot more varied and interesting, and so will the overall game.
aniviron, on 20 April 2013 - 10:16 PM, said:
The problem with this logic is that it is non-falsifiable. For example: machine guns are fairly clearly broken right now, and yet, they have still generated many passionate threads on the forum recently.
Machine guns are not broken. They just don't have a PURPOSE in game. If your lancemate had battlearmor crawling all over him, you'd turn your machine guns on him and kill the battlearmor without doing significant damage to his mech. But if you up machine gun damage to be a mech killing weapon, then should battlearmor appear, you'd be regretting buffing machine guns because you'd do as much damage to them as you would your buddy who you're trying to help. Flamers too...
Edited by Peiper, 20 April 2013 - 10:20 PM.