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- Jump jetting now cause:
- Screen shake - Jump jetting Mechs shake while jump jets are active.
- Cross hair shake - Cross-hair shake while jump jets are active.
- Weapon fire spread - Aiming weapons is randomly offset while jump jets are active.
- Screen shake - Jump jetting Mechs shake while jump jets are active.
- Cross hair shake - Cross-hair shake while jump jets are active.
- Weapon fire spread - Aiming weapons is randomly offset while jump jets are active.
While I agree that Poptarts were op and took very little skill to use, let's look at what they really did. Ignoring the issues of nausea caused by the screen shake(which is a very serious issue), the simple fact is the three changes were overboard for all reasons. I play a Spider 5D. Noone would say they are OP. In fact, they have come to have a very low reputation and only the most dedicated and skilled pilots can use them to potential. The JJ shake, combined with 151kph, and the previous patch's changes ppc cooldown makes the erppc spider nearly useless except at very close range, or when not taking advantage of your jump jets(PROTIP:This means death much of the time.)
These three changes can essentially be boiled to one solution that was devised by PGI: When in the air, it is completely random whether or not you hit your opponent, and where, oh, and you cant scout with JJs as easily to identify mech types because of the shake.
Screen shake makes it harder to line up enemies. That can be compensated to an extent with skill, but definitely not at the levels it is currently at for lights that move very quickly using more long range weaponry. It also lasts too long and should taper off the longer you use the JJs, not continue for a second while in free fall. Don't taper the degree of it too much or it will be too easy for poptarts, but it should taper off.
Ok, that seems reasonable. (You are now reading in Billy May's voice) But wait, there's more!
The crosshair shakes INDEPENDENTLY of the mech in the air, thus only giving an approximation of where your guns are aiming. The torso crosshair at the very least should shake at the same rate your screen shakes on a 1:1 ration. The arm one should also shake at the same or similar rate, and should be coordinated to the JJ shake, not going every which a way with no coordination with screens shake. This makes since and would provide a challenge that would keep everyone from running poptarts and would naturally deal with convergence using mechanics that are consistent.
The third change, however is the biggest issue: Weapon fire spread. This is completely, 100% random. The issue that brought it to light for me was when JJing in Frozen city, I hop on top of buildings and jump between them firing my erppc at the enemy team down the streets. A few were hitting, a few missing, I put it down to not being used to the new shake etc. Finally, one of my erppc shots didn't just miss, it missed by a mile. I'm talking the center of my screen was on the target with both crosshairs on the target(an Atlas nonetheless), and I see my erppc shot go to the right at near the maximum angle that a spider can pull off with his right arm mounted erppc. This concerns me very greatly. The shake had been billed as the thing that would cause randomness, not a random number that cannot be accounted for at all. This might be good for nerfing high alpha poptarts, but was an ill thought out move for pretty much everyone in the game. When a jenner pilot shoots over his target that is "too big to miss" not due to his own ineptness but due to a number that cannot be accounted for in gameplay, there will be complaints. I just was the first to get a massive offset.
A spider is not a simple poptart. It is a run and gun guerrilla warfare striker and scout, and the majority of it's fight time is in the air. If it doesn't it dies. It really is that simple. If you take away its ability to even do meager damage reliably, then you will find that you spent $100k or whatever you spent designing and testing and modelling etc on a worthless chassis or two(or three, as the commando is widely considered to be mostly useless as well). That leaves you with the Raven as most consistent light, and so it will once again be the only light seen in competitive fights.
PGI: Pick 2 of these 3(The ones that actually make sense hopefully, but my faith in your gameplay design choices is near to zero, especially with the fact that MGs and Flamers are still broken) The introduction of all three of these massive changes in one patch was not a good idea from a design perspective, especially after the way LRMs have been handled over the months.
PS: Since the shake changes, I have noticed that in my spider I get random screen shake when falling down hills or dropping off a building. This is independent of my use of JJs. I think it is tied to the continued shake that occurs for a second or so(I don't know the number) after letting off your JJs. It is very disorienting when that happens, and has occured even on smaller drops, including once when going off of a small rock in the garden area of river city. This isn't just collision shake, it is full on nausea inducing JJ shake. That could be part of the nausea issue.
PPS: Call me all the names you want. Call me a poptart defender. Do whatever. Poptarts are a legitimate strategy. The number of them deployed in the field was not good for MWO, but there is a place for them. The Highlander was specifically designed for poptarting, just not always in the MWO sense.
tl;dr Weapon fire spread that is completely random is not a good thing due to it not being able to be overcome through skill, and PGI used a nuke when a simple stick of dynamite would have sufficed.
Edited by Talimar1, 06 June 2013 - 06:04 AM.
