116 replies to this topic

[Iron War]

Cut the duration of all the PLs in half. Would help keep damage in one location.

[Mad Dog Morgan]

Your values on small pulse laser ranges are off. They are currently at 60m.

[Odnir]

I don't think this is a good idea. It turns pulse lasers away from the drive-by-shooting and torso-twist favourable weapon that they are, and into the energy equivalent of the quintuple AC/2 boat, except for short range only. You could fly in with a JR7-F, blow someone's leg off or torso or back to shreds in no time, and then just run away to cool off. Wash rinse repeat. Jenners are already fantastic for this, and this just makes them way better.

[Scromboid]

At the very least something needs to be done.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Had to vote Abstain since there's no "you're close but not there yet" or equivalent option.

The one big problem I have with your proposed system is that it eliminates the accuracy advantage that Pulse weapons are supposed to have. High damage with a short burn time makes them concentrate damage more effectively than standard lasers (which is why there are proposals to give ER lasers a slightly shorter burn time and a slightly longer recharge time to keep the net fire rate neutral).

I prefer a far more careful approach to modifying Pulse weapons. My beginning suggestion is as follows: universally reduce burn time and recharge time by a quarter second each (0.25s). Heat might need to be lowered by a point on each weapon to compensate for the higher ROF and subsequently higher HPS.

The ideal for game balance should be frequent, small, iterative changes, rather than periodic sweeping reworks. A slight change to burn time and recharge time (and maybe heat) should be enough to generate new data for PGI to evaluate the weapons further. It may well be enough on its own, or it may require further tweaking, but at least you have two close data points that you can use to make informed judgements.

[Crimson Fenris]

Levi Porphyrogenitus, on 17 June 2013 - 11:27 AM, said:

I prefer a far more careful approach to modifying Pulse weapons. My beginning suggestion is as follows: universally reduce burn time and recharge time by a quarter second each (0.25s). Heat might need to be lowered by a point on each weapon to compensate for the higher ROF and subsequently higher HPS.

Not a bad idea, and will makes medium pulse lasers slightly more interesting, at least for their 2 tons, and the SPL getting a better dps than ML, why not, considering the greatly reduced range...

[Shakespeare]

Right now I only use Pulses if there's a single energy slot and I need to cram every ounce of power into it. They ARE useful, always have been, but repeated heat increases have reduced their overall utility. MPLs, in particular, are inferior to MLs in most circumstances, particularly with range being so important right now.

They could use a slight cooldown boost, or slight damage boost. Nothing huge. The reduced DOT window is already dialed in okay, IMO. I'll continue to use them occasionally (particularly on my atlai), but in order to be a reasonable alternative to lasers, give it something more to justify the tonnage/heat.

[Tice Daurus]

I want one caveat on this, I have no problems with them doing this as a Pulse laser different damage different firing DPS system, but some people here have suggested that the range be increased. This CANNOT happen because this would then violate cannon drastically because the range is set and Clan weapons had a better range. Later years down the road, Clan weapons and Inner Sphere weapons started to match each other weapon for weapon because NAIS reverse engineered the weapons and then passed them around to other House states so the balance could be preserved, but it was at least 3055-3060 before that started to happen and it happened slowly.

So no increase in weapon ranges for the Inner Sphere pulse lasers until later. Can we all agree on that please?

[blinkin]

Tice Daurus, on 25 June 2013 - 09:27 PM, said:

I want one caveat on this, I have no problems with them doing this as a Pulse laser different damage different firing DPS system, but some people here have suggested that the range be increased. This CANNOT happen because this would then violate cannon drastically because the range is set and Clan weapons had a better range. Later years down the road, Clan weapons and Inner Sphere weapons started to match each other weapon for weapon because NAIS reverse engineered the weapons and then passed them around to other House states so the balance could be preserved, but it was at least 3055-3060 before that started to happen and it happened slowly.

So no increase in weapon ranges for the Inner Sphere pulse lasers until later. Can we all agree on that please?

i like the shorter range because it actually makes them slightly different from standard lasers.

[Tice Daurus]

blinkin, on 25 June 2013 - 09:52 PM, said:

i like the shorter range because it actually makes them slightly different from standard lasers.

No. No. No.

Same range. 'nuff said. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?

[blinkin]

Tice Daurus, on 25 June 2013 - 09:54 PM, said:

No. No. No.

Same range. 'nuff said. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?

i meant with respect to the standard lasers. i am not suggesting any range changes. i don't think they would be necessary if other changes were made.

[aniviron]

Niko Snow, on 09 June 2013 - 03:13 PM, said:

Interesting ideas!

Does this mean some of these suggestions are being passed along the the gameplay team?

[Adran]

Why isn't this real yet?

[Leafia Barrett]

Funny thing is, this is a simple game of changing numbers. Reduce heat, reduce cooldown, reduce damage, reduce duration. This wouldn't be hard to implement, especially considering the complexity of some suggestions in comparison.

[focuspark]

blinkin, on 22 April 2013 - 03:43 PM, said:

no i haven't created any threads about pulse lasers, but i have been strongly advocating one created by focuspark:
http://mwomercs.com/...__fromsearch__1

the idea in this current thread tends to be a much smaller change than the one suggested by focuspark, but i do find this one to be acceptable as well. honestly any change to make the pulse lasers actually different from standard lasers in a significant way.

Yeah the "other idea" was mine, and I agree this is a good suggestion as well. +1 support

... good to see blinkin still poking around these forums. I've about given up on the game, makes me sad, I'm only back because I couldn't resist the opportunity to pilot a Locust around a battlefield. The joy of that, sadly, won't last long and I'll be back to not really caring much about MW:O anymore :-(

[Tice Daurus]

There has been a bit of a shift of some disappointment that the game hasn't progressed faster. However...you have to remember that Closed Beta started in May of last year, and it's still in an Open Beta and approaching Release. As the game has progressed, I remember the fond old days where we were lucky the game was able to last more than 3 games before the client crashed. To where it's been from then, to where it is now, it's a hell of a lot better, but there is still a HELL of a lot more work to do to get the game to where it needs to be. My guess is that it won't be until NEXT year to where we start to see even more stuff added to the game to get it to where it needs to be to even feel somewhat comfortable to feeling like Mechwarrior.

However, the more this idea is discussed, the more I'm liking this idea to change the damage of the lasers and make them more of a rapid pulse damage system, not like it is now. However, I've said it once and I've said it again...don't change the range of the Inner Sphere weapons. They need to be at a disadvantage to Clan weaponry for quite a while until the years start to catch up to Clan levels. The ranges for Inner Sphere need to stay the same.

[blinkin]

Tice Daurus, on 15 July 2013 - 08:40 PM, said:

There has been a bit of a shift of some disappointment that the game hasn't progressed faster. However...you have to remember that Closed Beta started in May of last year, and it's still in an Open Beta and approaching Release. As the game has progressed, I remember the fond old days where we were lucky the game was able to last more than 3 games before the client crashed.

i never saw too many crashes, but i do remember the memory leak that would cause your FPS to drop to around 4 after about 10 matches in a row. that one plagued me for a long time.

[Tice Daurus]

blinkin, I could venture a guess to say that if the DEV's were to have posted a book on all of the problems they have encountered, we'd have to subscribe to the Encyclopedia Britannica to see them all posted. And if I were to list the top ones I remembered were doozies, we'd be here until next patch day...on the 30th of July, and today is the 16th.

[blinkin]

Tice Daurus, on 15 July 2013 - 09:19 PM, said:

blinkin, I could venture a guess to say that if the DEV's were to have posted a book on all of the problems they have encountered, we'd have to subscribe to the Encyclopedia Britannica to see them all posted. And if I were to list the top ones I remembered were doozies, we'd be here until next patch day...on the 30th of July, and today is the 16th.

now i just laugh/cry whenever people complain about nothing ever getting fixed. most of them have no idea how much crap they DON'T have to deal with.

[Jyi]

I somewhat like this idea. I'd just want this implemented to a lesser degree than is proposed here.

I like pulse lasers as short duration precision short range weapons, but I think the cooldown and heat are currently way too high to balance out the insane weight of the weapons. However, if they were to have a really short cooldown, they'd become a "lol, I ran in your face with my pew pews" -braindead weapon - at worst they'd be an extremely annoying rainbow-colored light show blinding your eyes. So I'd like some reduction in the cooldown and some reduction in the heat, maybe even reduced duration for dealing the damage faster. That way they'd be both a good brawling weapon, but also good for hit-and-run -tactics. Their weight would still easily keep them balanced compared to standard lasers.