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June 7, 2013
CHANGE LOG
Update
Greetings, Mechwarriors!
It's patch day, and the theme of today's patch is GAME BALANCE! Here we go...
The heat system has been significantly reworked. First, the default heat threshold has been increased. Next, Single Heat Sinks (SHS) have finally been given a place on the battlefield, while making high-alpha builds more risky and improving the viability of trial/stock mechs at the same time. Specifically, SHS still dissipate heat at the same rate, but now increase your heat threshold by twice as much per heat sink as before. Similarly, DHS have also had their heat dissipation rate doubled (they're now truly "doubles"!); HOWEVER, DHS no longer increase your heat threshold! What does this mean? It means that SHS will allow for a large amount of heat to build up before shutting down but at the cost of a slow dissipation rate (necessary for high alpha builds), whereas DHS will dissipate heat very rapidly but have a low heat threshold (ideal for modest, sustained fire). Which will you equip on your mech?
Pulse lasers have had their recycle times reduced across the board to better represent their intended role as the ultimate high-DPS brawling weapon, as well as providing better balance with their reduced ranges and higher weights compared to their standard laser counterparts. But to compensate, duration times have also been increased. Watch out for heat buildup!
To fix the problems of high-alpha builds with pinpoint accuracies, two crucial change have been made to the weapon convergence system. First, torso-mounted weapons now "fire straight down the barrel" and will no longer converge to a point (or to put it another way, they converge at infinity). Second, arm mounted weapons will still be converge onto the targeting reticle, but at a distance 10% further behind the object under the reticle. These changes will spread out the damage across the target mech when firing multiple weapons at once (especially at long ranges) while still rewarding good aim. Now when that 6 PPC Stalker alpha strikes at you, you'll still take 60 points of damage but instead of being cored in one shot, the damage will be spread more evenly across your mech.
Ammo for autocannons (except gauss) has finally been increased to double the TT amount to be on par with doubled armor from TT value. Flamers now affect the target's heat in a different way. ECM and NARC still isn't working quite right, so changes have been made to them as well. Ferro-Fibrous armor has been adjusted to provide a more direct benefit. Consumables have been tweaked slightly to provide more bang for the buck, but don't worry, they're still a long ways from P2W. That wall-hacking seismic sensor also has received a well deserved nerf.
There have also been significant changes to the XP and CBill awards. There is now an award multiplier for kills and kill assists that takes into account the weight of your mech and the weight of the enemy mech. The bigger your foe, the greater your reward! (and vise versa) Additionally, medium mechs are supposed to be the most common mechs on the battlefield (workhorses of the inner sphere), but it seems like half of every mech force are assault mechs. So, to encourage pilots to hop into a medium mech instead of an assault, all medium mechs now receive an additional end-of-round bonus to XP and CBills. Bottom line... Want to make more money? Pilot a lighter mech!
Exact values will be tweaked depending on actual game data and player feedback.
Heat Updates
Default heat threshold increased from 30 to 45
Single heat sink heat threshold increased from 1.0 to 2.0 per heat sink
Double heat sink heat dissipation rate increased from 0.14 to 0.20 heat per second
Double heat sink heat threshold decreased from 1.4 to 0.0 per heat sink
Double heat sinks mounted outside the engine are now equivalent to those mounted inside the engine.
Weapon Updates
Small pulse laser recycle time decreased from 2.25 to 1.25, beam duration increased from .75 to 1
Medium pulse laser recycle time decreased from 3 to 1.5, beam duration increased from 1 to 1.25
Large pulse laser recycle time decreased from 3.25 to 2, beam duration increased from 1 to 1.25
AC/2 heat reduced from 1.0 to 0.75
AC/2 ammo per ton increased from 75 to 90
AC/5 ammo per ton increased from 30 to 40
AC/10 and LB 10-X ammo per ton increased from 15 to 20
AC/20 ammo per ton increased from 7 to 10
ER Large Laser beam duration decreased from 1.0 to 0.75
SRM damge increased from 1.5 to 1.75 per missile
Flamers no longer increase target heat by a set rate. Instead, each flamer now negates the heat dissipation of 3 of the target's heat sinks (2 flamers negate the dissipation of 6 heat sinks, etc.). Flamers do not affect the target's heat threshold.
TAG laser range reduced from 750 to 450 (back to TT value).
NARC damage threshold has been removed. NARC beacons are now permanently attached to the target mech for the duration of the match.
A mech that has been tagged with a NARC beacon will now be targetable by enemy mechs at all times (even if no enemy mech has direct LOS), unless the NARC'd mech is shielded by a friendly ECM in Protect mode (see below).
Weapon Convergence Updates
All torso-mounted weapons now converge at a point an infinite distance away from the firing mech (that is to say, torso mounted weapons no longer converge to a point)
Arm-mounted weapons now converge at a point 10% further away than the actual distance of the object under the targeting reticle.
ECM Updates
ECM's offensive and defensive capabilities have been separated into different modes. ECM now has separate modes: "disrupt", "protect", "counter".
PROTECT mode forms the ECM bubble that hides friendly mechs, negates NARC/TAG, and increases missile lock time against them (defensive). Units cloaked by a friendly ECM in Protect mode cannot be targeted indirectly (i.e., by enemies without direct LOS); however, they can now be targeted by enemy units with direct LOS within the enemy's sensor range.
DISRUPT mode scrambles enemy communications, targeting, and navigation (offensive) per current capabilities. A mech equipped with ECM in Disrupt mode itself now also suffers the same disruptive effects as enemy units (no missile locks, no mini-map, etc.)
COUNTER mode cancels the one enemy ECM from operating within it's radius.
BAP no longer provides a counter to ECM.
Consumables
Airstrike and Artillery strikes now provide 3 strikes per match instead of 1. Unused strikes are not carried over from match to match (once a one strike is used in a match, the module will be consumed at the end of match).
Airstrikes and Artillery strikes have a global team cooldown timer of 20 seconds.
UAVs no longer have a duration timer and will stay in play until shot down or the match ends.
Modules
Seismic Sensor and Adv Seismic Sensor ranges reduced from 200/400 to 150/300.
Seismic Sensors no longer detect enemy movement if the mech equipping the seismic sensor is moving faster than 35 kph.
Upgrades
Ferro-Fibrous armor upgrade now provides 10% damage reduction to all weapons fire instead of providing more armor points per ton (but still occupies 14 slots of critical space)
Match XP/CBill Awards
All medium mechs now receive a 5% bonus to XP and a 10% bonus to all CBIlls earned during the match.
XP and CBill awards for kills and kill assists against heavier enemy mechs are now multiplied by a "weight discrepancy factor", which is equal to sqrt( Enemy Mech Weight / Your Mech Weight). For example, if a Dragon (60 tons) scores a kill against an Atlas (100 tons), the XP and CBills awarded to the Dragon's pilot would be multiplied by sqrt(100/60) = sqrt(1.67) = 1.29.
New Conquest capture assist awards: 10 XP/2500 CBills for liberating an enemy-controlled point (red to neutral), 5 XP/1250 Cbills for capturing an uncontrolled point (neutral to blue)
See you on the battlefield!
Edited by SerEdvard, 06 June 2013 - 11:34 PM.
