1453 R, on 15 May 2013 - 06:20 AM, said:
The reticent thing was a brain failure on my part. My apologies. The point of the statement was the opposite of that written, yes. I had meant to state that players should be more reticent to build abominations like hexaparticle Stalkers for fear of losing the game in a manner which a BattleMech moving thirty klicks an hour and which can only fire its weapons twice before shutting down cannot impact.
It's not that I don't like PPCs, Atheus. I'm an old hand with MechWarrior, PPCs are an iconic weapon I've always gotten along with. It's less, even, that I dislike the current state of the metagame. Though I do – intensely – it's what happens in any competitive game. Gimmick overspecialization builds are a Thing, and will never not be.
What I don't like is this notion folks such as yourself and Keifo are so enamored of. The notion of giving players no handle whatsoever to pry these sugar-frosted a**holes out of their chosen toaster, and of giving the a**holes in question no reason to ever push their throttle button again once they've lumbered to their chosen spot. Why is this the desired state of the game? Why are you so interested in giving these players free license to never have to worry about anything but which rock makes the most ideal foxhole ever again?
Both artillery and airstrikes are absolutely useless right now – and even if they weren't, I flat refuse to spend eighty thousand C-bills a match trying and failing to get people to MOVE *********. The only possible lever I have to pry these massed assault 'Mechs out of their giant circle jerk 'mutually supportive defensive positions' is to go stand on their magic lose square and force them to come for me. I certainly can't rely on my own team to help me do it any other way – they'll all be too busy establishing their own giant circle jerk 'mutually supportive defensive positions' within extreme PPC range of the enemy's giant circle jerk 'mutually supportive defensive positions' and trading potshots for half an hour.
I never thought I'd miss the days of mindless brawling and people forgetting that weapons with ranges greater than 270 meters existed...but pretty much anything is better than where we're at right now. And you're trying to get rid of one of the very few things, good or bad, that's working against the current exceedingly foul metagame.
WHY, man? Why make it any easier on them than it already is?
While I get what you are trying to say, you are also heavily exaggerating everything you are talking about to try to make your point more compelling, which just has the opposite effect.
1. The 6 PPC mech is extremely rare. Few people add more than 4, and I would posit that most who try 6 will eventually cut back to 4, because it's frankly a much stronger loadout. (
4PPC vs
6PPC vs
XL6PPC). The 6 PPC stalkers's drawbacks just make it a weak mech. You don't like PPC boats, fine. You used a rare, bad mech which is either uselessly slow, or uselessly fragile as your example. (It's rare because it's bad).
2.
"no reason to ever push their throttle button again once they've lumbered to their chosen spot." This does not reasonably describe any match I have played so far. Even when it does happen that mechs park somewhere, more often than not those guys lose. The solution is to move your team and engage from a different direction, or have a one or two break off and hit from a flank to divide their attention, then push hard with your equally strong force. There is no such thing as a place in MWO where you can just park your mech and shoot anyone who shows up and expect to win like that. If your whole team just parks, you're going to lose, no question about it. You're heavily exaggerating this issue as well.
3. Art/Air strikes are useless. Agreed. I hope they stay that way, so long as they're consumables.
4.
"The only possible lever I have to pry these massed assault 'Mechs out of their giant circle jerk 'mutually supportive defensive positions' is to go stand on their magic lose square and force them to come for me." — more exaggeration. If you truly believe this, you haven't tried all that hard.
5.
"WHY, man? Why make it any easier on them than it already is?" It's not any easier for either side of any battle (except for Alpine, where the upper base has a bit of an advantage imo). Matchmaker snafus aside, both teams have the same tools, and the same opportunities. Snipers are strong right now, and that could stand some re-balancing, but that doesn't make totally bypassing the enemy team by hitting an unpopular, usually willfully ignored pressure point an interesting solution.
6.
"trading potshots for half an hour." give me a break. I rarely see matches cross the 10 minute mark, or even the 8 minute mark. The majority of my matches on small maps are over in 4-5 minutes. All you're doing is making yourself look more hyperbolic.
7. Brawling: it is still a vital part of fighting in River City, Frozen City, to some degree Forest Colony, even Caustic the majority of fights usually happen at 300m or less. On those 4 maps, if snipers want to try to stay at 500m+, they're going to have to be incredibly strong, and/or have an incredibly timid and naive opponent. The larger maps are heavier on sniping, but even in Tourmaline I usually have no problem getting in range to use my medium lasers on my HBK-4P. Your problem with snipers has more to do with Alpine than anything else, which along with Tourmaline still has an inflated map selection percent. But frankly speaking, when my team isn't a bunch of timid pansies I usually have little problem brawling on Alpine either, once the teams are in solid contact. Brawling just takes a little more thought about positioning and maneuvering, which is better than bad, it's good! Do I wish brawling weapons were a touch stronger? Yes, but not by much; a 6ML Jenner is already pretty darned vicious. SRM's are pretty much thing I'm looking at hardest.
If you restate your case without using massive exaggerations to make your point, maybe it will make sense to me. As it is, though, the argument doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
5
