Soulscour, on 24 April 2013 - 12:29 AM, said:
The only thing that has changed in the game that made PPC usage so prevalent was the heat decrease. I think if they reverted PPC heat back to its previous levels , people would play PPC less but more than prior to the buff. AC 20 builds and Large laser boating would then be the next thing people constantly complain about. Its a endless cycle.
Are you sure that was the only change? I remember:
People tried 6 PPC Stalkers before the change, after the change, and it only recently gained popularity, after a severe missile nerf that removed the alternative long-range weapon platform from the game, and severely hurt brawler offensive abilities as well.
I also would point out that those Hexa-Stalkers and what not are not heat efficient at all. They overheat basically on the second salvo. How much will raising the heat really change things here? Will it add another second a PPC Sniper has to stay in cover before popping off another alpha?
I remember people complaining aobut the Splatapult (90 damage alpha) and the Whackapult and Dual AC/20 Jagermechs (40 damage alphas) and even further back, in Closed Beta, the Gaussapult (30 damage alphas)
Isn't the problem perhaps acutally that the alpha potential in this game is too high, which is aided by convergence and the heat system. The heat system only punishes sustainability of firepower, but does nothing to stop alphas. You have a giant heat capacity. but the heat system is not the only thing to blame. Ballistic weapons will
never have the type of heat issues that PPCs have. But give me an assault that can carry 3 Gauss Rifles (or even just 2 AC/20s and some additional weaponry), and you'll see people complain about it.
The problem is this game does have mechanics in play that makes alpha strikes a good idea, and almost none that provide drawbacks to alpha strikes. Convergence means our alphas hit the same spot. Heat capacity means energy-heavy loads are best off front-loading all their damage - kill the enemy before you shutdown and if necessary, wait for 10 seconds between shots.
---
I wish PGI could go back to the drawing board and think some of these aspects through.
Here's my new guideline on how to adapt table top stats to a real time game with mouse aiming and convergence
1) Any converted weapon can deal no more damage per shot than the critical slots it occupies.
2) Table Top Damage and Heat Values are used as a basis for all damage and heat values of a mech, but adjusted in accordance to the rate of fire. So if the PPC fires every 5 seconds, it would need to deal 5 damage and 5 heat per shot.
3) The rate of fire is now selected so that rule 1 is observed
Results after the first 3 steps:
Small Laser: 1 damage and 0.3 heat every 3.33 seconds
Medium Laser: 1 damage and 0.6 heat every 2 seconds
Large Laser: 2 damage and heat every 2.5 seconds
PPC: 3 damage and 3 heat every 3.33 seconds
Clan ER PPC: 2 damage and 2 heat every 1.33 seconds
AC/2: 1 damage and 0.5 heat every 5 seconds
AC/5: 5 damage and 1 heat every 10 seconds
AC/10: 7 damage and 2.1 heat every 7 seconds
AC/20: 10 damage and 4 heat every 5 seconds
Gauss Rifle: 7 damage and 0.47 heat every 4.66 seconds
Clan Gauss Rifle: 6 damage and 0.4 every 4 seconds
4) now adjust to taste. Some weapon might not be worth their weight anymore in a game with convergence and mouse aiming, some weapons were never good to begin with. You might also want to put weapons on more standardized recycle rates, and avoid recycle rates longer than 5.
(...)
Next steps would be adjusting the heat capacity of mechs (and any heat penalties you want to add) based on the typical heat load of mechs. For example, if most recycle times are below 5 seconds, it would serve well to lower the max heat cap down from 30 to 15.
This ensures that no mech can exceed a certain "ceiling" in terms of alpha damage output, and there is less point in building an alpha-strike boat. The maximum number of weapon-useable slot is less than 50, but if you keep hard points in play, this wil never be reacheable. A 6 PPC mech would now have only an 18 damage alpha. You don't even need double armour to deal with this.
It also has other gameplay effects - a fast striker that sweeps in and out like a Jenner could still have a sizeable alpha strike ability utilizing many smaller, light weight weapons, but he'd lose in a sustained engagement. That would probably help a lot in balancing the weight classes.
Edited by MustrumRidcully, 24 April 2013 - 01:04 AM.