Hey, OP!
I really hope, that at least your post will get a reply... Well, some reaction at least.
But even if so, I'm SO pessimistic about that. I mean, I, personally, was here since the beginning of august 2012. Till a certain point everything was improving.
Then, at certain point the first BS got implemented, the thing that most of the (forum attenders) player base hated. Then second BS. Then the devs devoted more and more time trying to explain to everyone, that BS is not a BS, but is actually a good thing. And things started to feel progressing slower...and slower...and slower. Till a complete standstill around, I'd say, the New year, maybe February. And then went to regression, where we are now, as devs keep devoting enormous resources to try to make people love the BS and totally ignoring the issues, that even the dumbest one has already seen (like, say, perfect convergence, ECM being stupid and so on).
The more they follow this path, the more they try to persuade people that BS is not a BS but a candy - the harder it will be to get back.
Roland, on 24 June 2013 - 08:03 AM, said:
No. This is a mistaken impression.
The problem is not those builds. Those builds are merely symptoms of the problem.
The problem is that you can fire any number of weapons, and they will magically hit a singular point in space. This is what leads to the current metagame. It's exactly what has been the driving force in all competent mech design throughout the entire history of mechwarrior.
I understand that many people are afraid to deal with this core issue, but it's the real reason for the gameplay that you have now.
And that gameplay IS NOT NEW. It's exactly what we saw in prior incarnations of Mechwarrior. It's always been about putting together the biggest alpha strike you could, because the damage modeling in the game rewards being able to focus damage through a single panel.
Earlier in beta, there were some fools who disputed that this was the case. They said that their garbage mixed range/DPS configurations were effective in MWO. But they weren't. They just happened to be playing against other garbage players, giving them the mistaken illusion that those configurations were effective. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. But as things progressed, it's gotten to the point where even the trash players now understand some of these basic fundamental aspects of mech design, and now yo finally see that essentially everyone has migrated to high alpha builds.. because those builds WILL ALWAYS BE BEST WHEN WEAPONS CONVERGE PERFECTLY. You can, potentially, run mixed range lances, if team coordination is well orchestrated, and if brawling weapons offer significant damage efficiency over long range mechs.. but those are some big caveats, and the latter isn't the case currently.
You either deal with this issue, or you get our current meta. Those are your options.
I don't really care either way. I can play with whatever the devs give me, but folks who argue that convergence isn't at the core of everything you see in the current metagame are either fools, liars, or both.
Hey, Roland. Every time I see a post like yours, I keep remembering my own post, offering to fix the convergence back in CB (such a pity it got slaughtered, I've spent quite some time doing all the math there and drawing pictures). I kinda got flamed to death on 6+ pages. And I kinda remember people, that were flaming like a lot about things like "no stupid randomness in my game, it will kill all the skill blah-blah".
Funny enough, now I sometimes see same people whining about high alpha builds (it's not about you anyhow, your post just triggered the memories). And the funniest thing ever is, that if you see them replying in a post about convergence, they still tend to reply like "no randomness in my game, it will kill all the skill blah-blah". How do you think, what should it take for them to make this logical connection in their brains? =)
Edited by Undead Bane, 25 June 2013 - 02:22 PM.