7 replies to this topic

[Victor Morson]

As we all know, the Awesome is the bottom tier assault 'mech right now. It's guns are too low and hitboxes too big to suggest taking it over the 5 ton heavier Stalker, and with no tonnage or Battle Value system involved in matchmaking outside of Assault = Assault, even taking one nerfs your team unless you're running a fast 9M/PB capture gimmick, such as in Conquest.

Provided that those things are not yet coming, one thing that would go far towards restoring the Awesome is a simple quirk that gives it 10% (ish) better heat efficiency, or takes less heat from energy weapons.

That one little change would suddenly make it a viable option between that and the higher gunned, better hitbox'ed 5 ton heavier Cousin, the Stalker. Sure you can't get the guns down range as fast, but that extra heat bonus would sure make it a trade-off to consider.

Anyway so far the Quirks have been relatively minor. But in this case, I think it might be worth experimenting with the idea of using them to add incentive to piloting one. The perk would not even need to apply to the fast variants, as they already have their niche.

This could rescue a few other variants too, but I see no reason not to start with this to test the waters.

[Trauglodyte]

I would agree with you but I think that the game should go in a different direction. Right now, we have free reign when it comes to mech design and are only limited in the number and type of weapons carried. As it stands, the best build is always the buidl that has the most of the heaviest hitting weapons possible. And that is fine if PGI decides to do nothing to curb those issues.

BUT, what if PGI gave an incremental bump to the basic piloting skills, and maybe a damage bump, for each weapon carried that matched the stock load out? The Awesome is designed, at least the 8Q and 9M, to carry 3 PPCs and yet, for the tourney, I ran with 1 PPC and 3 Lrg Lasers. The Stalker is designed to run with 2 Lrg Lasers or 2 PPCs with the remainder of the hard points split between SRMs, LRMs, and Lasers and yet everyone is loading up with Quad PPC/Lrg Laser builds or the completely assinine HexaPPC. What if, by staying with the basic load, you could become deadlier because that is what the mech was designed to run? The "extra" hard points would, of course, not be figured into the bonuses.

[Carrioncrows]

You can't play with heat efficiency like that.

I already run a 4 ppc awesome, you give it better heat and it will blow past all the other assaults

[Victor Morson]

Trauglodyte, on 25 April 2013 - 12:51 PM, said:

BUT, what if PGI gave an incremental bump to the basic piloting skills, and maybe a damage bump, for each weapon carried that matched the stock load out?

What would happen is people would quit because that is terrible, and most of us do not want to play stocks in a game with customization.

A BV system would make everyone happy, since you could easily add a modifier for the quantity of high-rated guns carried. Living Legends did that with it's cbill pricing system and it worked out well; it didn't nerf the Laser/PPC boats at all, and let them shine as they should, but it also made them pricey resulting in people driving sub-par gear a lot.

But that is way, way off topic.

Carrioncrows, on 25 April 2013 - 12:54 PM, said:

You can't play with heat efficiency like that.

I already run a 4 ppc awesome, you give it better heat and it will blow past all the other assaults

Except it's actually inferior, vastly, to the 4 PPC Stalker right now. Because the Stalker is more survivable, has guns higher up (so you can fire when cresting hills much quicker) and is all around a far better 'mech.

If the Awesome could handle it's heat better, if anything, it'd put it on even ground.

PS: If you're runnning any Awesome other than the 9M or PB, you're already making a huge mistake.

[Trauglodyte]

I'm not talking about playing stock mechs. I'm just saying, for example, the 9m is built around 3 ER PPCs, 1 Sm Laser, 1 Md Pulse, and 2 Streak SRM2s. You can customize it all you want but for each weapon - WEAPON - that matches the stock build, you get +1% (as an example) to basic efficiencies. If you want to run 6 Md Lasers and 1 LRM 20, go for it. If you want to run 3 PPCs and something else, great, you'd get +3% to basic efficiences for using 3 of the 7 stock weapons.

[Victor Morson]

Trauglodyte, on 25 April 2013 - 01:12 PM, said:

I'm not talking about playing stock mechs. I'm just saying, for example, the 9m is built around 3 ER PPCs, 1 Sm Laser, 1 Md Pulse, and 2 Streak SRM2s. You can customize it all you want but for each weapon - WEAPON - that matches the stock build, you get +1% (as an example) to basic efficiencies. If you want to run 6 Md Lasers and 1 LRM 20, go for it. If you want to run 3 PPCs and something else, great, you'd get +3% to basic efficiences for using 3 of the 7 stock weapons.

This is a horrendously complicated idea that will just encourage way more min-maxing. All you'd do is throw out all the current good variants, and have people look for variants with X number of "good guns" on them, then modify those.

[Asmudius Heng]

IMO all mechs should have some sort of small quirk to encourage closer to stock roles. Will not stop people moving out of them, but if we have open slather customisation like we do now with some mechs waaaaaay better than others then mechs need something to differentiate them and give them more purpose.

The awesome biggst trouble however will be weight class matching were PGI thinks and Awesome is the same as a Stalker or Atlas. Tonnage matching would at least put this closer to bringing a cataphract etc.

[Victor Morson]

Asmudius Heng, on 25 April 2013 - 05:38 PM, said:

IMO all mechs should have some sort of small quirk to encourage closer to stock roles. Will not stop people moving out of them, but if we have open slather customisation like we do now with some mechs waaaaaay better than others then mechs need something to differentiate them and give them more purpose.

I do agree with this. Slightly faster missile lock times for the Catapult, for example, would be a great way to offer a bonus to it's signature role, without forcing it down anyone's throat or locking customization. Or maybe a slight Autocannon +ROF for the Hunchback and Jaggermech, etc.