24 replies to this topic

[SirLANsalot]

Been seeing a lot of ******* out there suggesting convergence or hardpoint restrictions. However there are major drawbacks to both of them, not to mention it would completely break the game as it is now.
Hardpoint restrictions is literally restricting what PGI wants Mechlab to be, complete creativity. The more mechs we get, the more builds we will see, all the way from the 6 SL jenner, to the Twin AC20/3LL Victor, and everything in between. Some people will intentionally try to break this and abuse it, others will try to find a way to counter it. Since with 100% complete freedom to do what you want with your mech, means you can always find a way AROUND XX "op" build.

Convergence is just a way to nerf pure skill. Yes, noob, SKILL which is hand eye coordination, knowing when to fire when not to fire, and how to LEAD a target with ballistic guns or how to HOLD onto a target with lasers. All of that is skill and people are getting better at it, knowing how to deliver there payload to your mech. However people are also learning how to hide, toso twist, and generally how to spread that damage around there mech, rather then just slugging through it.

So the main point, how dose one fix these high alpha builds, but without completely overnerfing one system? While also giving other mechs more attraction because it is undesirable to do it with XX mech.

Answer, stacking heat penalties. I have explained this before in other threads, but am now putting it into its own thread. If you look around at the other "big bore" weapons there all self balancing in one way or another. Big bore Ballistics (AC20/AC10/Gauss/LBX) are all very heavy and high crit usage, not to mention ammo hungry. Big bore Missiles (LRM20/LRM15) are high crit high tonnage (LRM20) meaning you cant spam them even on a 90 ton mech. Missiles are even more ammo hungry then ballistics are. The mechs that use LRMs can only, at most, "boat" 4 or 5 of them tops and they have to sacrifice A LOT to do it.
What about Energy? Energy guns are small, light wight, weapons whos drawback to them is high heat. In MWO Heat only stops you from shooting into oblivion, there are no other penlites to it. This means the Big Bore Energy (PPC/ERPPC/LL/ERLL/LPL) which are small crit space, and even not all that heavy (7 tons tops) are free to shoot till they overheat. You can also boat them on the bigger mechs but Big Energy is not intended, nor made, to be boated. Boating in of itself is fine and intended on some mechs. Its the Big Energy being boated that is NOT intended.

As i mention before Staking Heat penlites is what will fix this issue, without messing with what PGI wants, and without completely overnering the entire game. This penalty would be applied only to Big Energy, but could also be applied to other weapons if issues creep up with them as well. First Big Energy would be placed into two Groupings, LL/ERLL/LPL would be in group one (later big energy clan tech would be placed in these two groups too), and PPC/ERPPC would be in Group Two. A limiter would be placed on ALL mechs, and would be adjusted based on there STOCK variant. The limiter would be 2 of one group being placed on a mech, and if you exceed that limit then ALL weapons of that group would start generating more heat. So for example, If I place 2 Large Lasers (heat of 7) they would operate as normal, but if I place a 3rd Large Laser on the mech, then ALL Large Lasers (group 1) would generate 1 additional heat each (8 heat). Well that doesn't seem all that bad, just means those 3 will be a little warmer, well then lets place a 4th one on. Once a 4th one is placed (2 over limit) then ALL large lasers would then be generating TWO additional heat on top of the current extra (so 3 extra heat all total or each LL being now 10 heat). Now thats getting pretty hot, even for just ONE gun, and the 5th would make each one 13 heat (+6 total) and the 6th would be 17 heat (+10) and so on. This means EACH LL would be doing that much heat every time it was fired. It also means no one can get around it by just chainfireing, or holding for .5 sec so they dont get a penalty. No one can get around this by mixing LL and ERLL because they are grouped together, thus counting as the same tward the limiter. You could MIX the two groups and thus get "around" it but then you are using two DIFFERENT guns, and operate very differently which means you are now doing want this system is intending you to do.

Now what about mechs that start with more then 2? The limiter would be adjusted based on that variant alone. So an Awesome 8Q would have it PPC limiter (group 2) at 3-4 but its Group 1 Limiter (LL) would still be at 2. This system would be based on Stock +1, so if that mechs stock loadout had 3 PPC's then the limiter would be at 4 before penlites apply. Some mechs are made to do that job of the big bore energy boats, but they have there own limitations to doing so.

This system dons't stop you from building a 4 or 6 PPC stalker, but it dose DISCOURAGE you from doing it. It means you can do it, but you are going to pay for it. As for the Midum Laser, IT IS MADE TO BE BOATED!

[Roland]

Quote

Convergence is just a way to nerf pure skill.

A modified convergence system does not require randomization, and thus is not at all at odds with purely skill based gameplay.

You are under the mistaken impression that a convergence system requires a randomized cone of fire, which it does not.

[Homeless Bill]

On Stacking Heat Penalties:

Spoiler

Stacking heat penalties will be extremely arbitrary and difficult to balance. Sculpting such an intricate layer on top of the heat system sounds dangerous. There are so many weapon combinations that I think it will be extraordinarily difficult to integrate into what is already a delicate system.
It will punish players for certain alpha strikes, but it won’t prevent them from doing it. Even assuming the heat balancing goes well, the penalties will have to be ridiculously severe to truly deal with things like the 4xPPC Stalker. It still doesn’t solve that single, massive, focused burst that’s enough to leg a light whether by a skilled or lucky hand. It just means they’ll have to be a little smarter about picking their shots.

Refer to “The Coming Storm” to see my thoughts on why solving ballistics is so important. Heat penalties are completely incapable of solving the problem for ballistics (particularly the Gauss).

Verdict: Incapable of solving ballistics, lots of unintended side-effects, will mess with the most delicate system in the game, punishment – not prevention.

On Penalties for Running Hot:

Spoiler

This is Canon, but I disagree with implementing it. I see no good reason to punish running hot for a couple reasons. 4xPPC Stalkers often run relatively cool until a heavy engagement, while a lot of brawlers and fire support ‘mechs run consistently hot. Gauss snipers run extremely cool, and larger ballistics in general don’t have too many heat problems. It hits random builds and energy weapons with a ridiculous penalty, while leaving a lot of cheese (and large ballistics) completely untouched. It will skew balance in a big way and will mandate weapon rebalancing.

Verdict: Ineffective with large ballistics, punishes the wrong things, will undoubtedly mandate a weapon rebalancing.

Why fixing the cheese of today (PPCs) is not enough:

Spoiler

Most of the solutions I see being thrown around are solutions to the current symptoms of our problem: PPCs. Heat and PPCs are being debated ad nauseum simply because they are the flavor of the month. PPC boats are a serious problem, but to ignore large ballistics is a dangerous mistake. I fear that the tunnel vision about the current metagame will result in PGI ignoring the impending problems that will be introduced by new ‘mechs and the arrival of the Clans.

Not many people think ballistics are a huge problem right now, but I’d argue that’s only because we don’t have a particularly scary ballistics platform in the game. The AC/40 Catapult has to sacrifice speed, and the AC/40 Jagermech is really squishy because of its profile and XL. They’re still cheesy and too good for their weight, but they have exploitable weaknesses. If, however, PGI decided to drop a Mauler, Devastator, or Thunderhawk on us, there would be untold amounts of whine.

That exact thing could be said for PPCs: if we didn’t have any assaults that could boat 4+ PPCs, they wouldn’t be nearly as reviled. Heavies have to make serious sacrifices to boat them and don’t have the armor to take serious punishment, just like the current scenario with ballistics. When an assault starts boating something unbalanced, it becomes immediately apparent.

The minute PGI releases a ‘mech that can mount 4xUAC/5s plus change and has the ability tank a good amount of damage, the community will be ******** its collective pants. Even if they add ridiculous heat penalties to the autocannons, the Gauss rifle will continue to dominate. 2xPPC + 2xGauss and 3xGauss builds are impossible to solve with heat.

Even more dangerous than new ballistic ‘mechs are the Clan ballistic weapons. The Clan UAC/20 is a mere 12 tons and 8 critical slots. The double-tap will be able to put 40 damage on a single spot. Now imagine a ‘mech with jumpjets that mounts two of them. You’re imagining a stock Hunchback IIC, and it’s absolutely terrifying. Something drastic must be done to prevent Clan assault ‘mechs from being able to kill an Atlas with a single alpha.

My suspicion is that PGI’s plan is to avoid any assault ‘mech that can boat large ballistics simply because they have no good way to balance them – which is a really ****** solution. There’s no reason that balance issues should prevent awesome ‘mechs like the Mauler from showing up.

And if ballistics weren’t bad enough, Clan missiles will bring a host of problems: half-tonnage, no-minimum-range LRMs will make previous LRMageddons look tame, and lightweight SSRM6 packs will make the Splatcats of yesterday a laughing matter. Though the arrival of the Clans is not an immediately pressing issue, it’s better to have a system in place now than to ignore the horrible balance problems for later.

Thunderhawk, Annihilator, Mauler, Hunchback IIC, Devastator, and many other chassis will remain relatively unaffected. A temporary bandaid just isn't worth it anymore. Any fix should be comprehensive enough that they won't need to revisit this issue later down the road.

Also, numerical limit = buff to pinpoint weapons. A numerical limit to decide stacking penalties essentially shafts all weapons that spread damage (SRMs, LRMs, and lasers) when compared to weapons guaranteed to put all their damage on a single location. Boating penalties should be applied differently to different weapons.

Because I've spammed it everywhere else...

Edited by Homeless Bill, 01 July 2013 - 11:44 AM.

[Sybreed]

SirLANsalot, on 01 July 2013 - 11:26 AM, said:

Been seeing a lot of ******* out there suggesting convergence or hardpoint restrictions. However there are major drawbacks to both of them, not to mention it would completely break the game as it is now.
Hardpoint restrictions is literally restricting what PGI wants Mechlab to be, complete creativity. The more mechs we get, the more builds we will see, all the way from the 6 SL jenner, to the Twin AC20/3LL Victor, and everything in between.

Sorry but I stopped reading there. The more mechs we get, the more obvious it is that the game is broken. The quickdraw was supposed to bring something else? All I see is fast 60 tonners that can boat PPCs better than the Dragon. Complete creativity led to the complete boredom that the game is currently, so yeah, I'm not too hot on creativity right now and I'll say again, creativity in this game is an illusion.

Although, i have to give credits to your solution, you're trying a different approach to the boating problem, but others before you recommended the same thing and wasn't received so well, mostly because it's too unintuitive and arbitrary.

[FactorlanP]

Roland, on 01 July 2013 - 11:35 AM, said:

A modified convergence system does not require randomization, and thus is not at all at odds with purely skill based gameplay.

You are under the mistaken impression that a convergence system requires a randomized cone of fire, which it does not.

I totally agree. In fact, the current pinpoint convergence is much less skill based than a convergence system that required the pilot to fire from a preset optimum range for pinpoint, or required the pilot to wait for the weapons to converge before firing.

What we have now is instantaneous pinpoint convergence.

Consider this... What if you are fighting two different enemy mechs. One mech is 40m away, and the other is 325m away. The current system allows you to switch between the two targets at will, and your weapons will ALWAYS converge at a pinpoint.

What if... When you switched targets from the 40m guy to the 325m guy, you would be required to target the new target via the R key. Then a few seconds would elapse as your weapons adjusted for the convergence at the new range. This elapsed time could be several seconds, and your target reticule would give you a cue when your weapons had converged on the new target. This convergence time could possibly be improved through Pilot Skills, or possible purchasable modules.

No random generator, or cone of fire. In fact, being forced to wait for weapons convergence would actually require MORE skill to fire at the optimum moment, not less.

Edited by FactorlanP, 01 July 2013 - 11:50 AM.

[Conraire]

SirLANsalot, on 01 July 2013 - 11:26 AM, said:

Convergence is just a way to nerf pure skill. Yes, noob, SKILL which is hand eye coordination, knowing when to fire when not to fire, and how to LEAD a target with ballistic guns or how to HOLD onto a target with lasers. All of that is skill and people are getting better at it, knowing how to deliver there payload to your mech. However people are also learning how to hide, toso twist, and generally how to spread that damage around there mech, rather then just slugging through it.

For the most part I stopped reading after that. Because no intelligent person calls others noobs and expects any kind of respect in return.

Torso twisting means nothing, when a single hit can strip off a limb, or side torso, especially on lighter mechs. This is why most mediums are rarely ever played, outside of the occasional treb or ecm cicada.

The thing is, each mech brought into the game should add it's own unique flavor to the game. And we don't have that right now. Right now we have, I'll strip everything off and put an ac20 or PPC's wherever I can fit them, regardless of the mech chassis.

And just out our curiosity, how does limiting the amount of slots available to a given set of hardpoints limit ones ability to customize? Other than preventing obvious abusive builds from existing. There would still be a lot of ability to customize outside of those builds.

I also love the justification of skill. When 90% of the people that run cheese builds, outside of that cheese build, when you fight them its like hitting a beetle with a 2x4.

[SirLANsalot]

The system is made to penalize mechs and builds that are not supposed to take a lot of Big Energy, while not touching those that DO. It also ENCOURAGES diversity on your mech and rewards you for doing so. Later mechs that boat big energy, will be untouched and will be allowed to do as they are designed to do. All this dose is makes it so mechs NOT made to take Big Energy, will have to pay HARD for it.

As for the number? 2 LL or 2 PPC is a perfect number, as most guns are used in PAIRS and rarely are solo or alone on bigger mechs.

[Roland]

Dude, do you realize that you are effectively just describing what PGI is apparently already planning to implement? And that it's not actually gonna do much.

[Lostdragon]

How does your system deal with a CTF that can do a 40 alpha with 2x GR and 1 ERPPC but still have 50%+ heat efficiency? What happens when there is a mech that can mount 3x GR? Or 3 GR and a PPC? Heat is not a limiting factor when your main weapons generate very little heat. If you don't address the issue with at least a two point approach all you are doing is shifting from one optimal weapon to the next.

[SirLANsalot]

Lostdragon, on 01 July 2013 - 12:51 PM, said:

How does your system deal with a CTF that can do a 40 alpha with 2x GR and 1 ERPPC but still have 50%+ heat efficiency? What happens when there is a mech that can mount 3x GR? Or 3 GR and a PPC? Heat is not a limiting factor when your main weapons generate very little heat. If you don't address the issue with at least a two point approach all you are doing is shifting from one optimal weapon to the next.

What is that mech having to sacrifice to make that build? Ask yourself that when thinking about what MIGHT happen. The illya can already do 3 GR, but it literally has to go almost no armor, and a VERY slow eng. The assaults can tank 3 GR? What are they sacrificing do to it? Usually its speed and maneuverability to take such big heavy guns that take ammo too. What are PPC boats sacrificing to do there build? Nothing. Heat is what there sacrificing, and Heat isn't the limiting factor its supposed to be.

Roland, on 01 July 2013 - 12:33 PM, said:

Dude, do you realize that you are effectively just describing what PGI is apparently already planning to implement? And that it's not actually gonna do much.

No its not. PGIs system is too easy to circumnavigate and doesn't stop the boating altogether. My system DOSE stop it, by making it VERY hot no matter how you shoot it.

[Lostdragon]

SirLANsalot, on 01 July 2013 - 01:01 PM, said:

What is that mech having to sacrifice to make that build? Ask yourself that when thinking about what MIGHT happen. The illya can already do 3 GR, but it literally has to go almost no armor, and a VERY slow eng. The assaults can tank 3 GR? What are they sacrificing do to it? Usually its speed and maneuverability to take such big heavy guns that take ammo too. What are PPC boats sacrificing to do there build? Nothing. Heat is what there sacrificing, and Heat isn't the limiting factor its supposed to be.




No its not. PGIs system is too easy to circumnavigate and doesn't stop the boating altogether. My system DOSE stop it, by making it VERY hot no matter how you shoot it.

Here is a Muromets that fields 2x GR and 1 ERPPC. In comparison to the popular 2x ERPPC 1 GR CTF 3D it loses about 7 kph going from a 280 to 250 and it loses some armor but it has 5 more point of alpha damage and 59% heat efficiency. It has 50 Gauss ammo so that is 25 potential 40 point alphas plus whatever you could do with just the PPC after that, so 1000 plus damage potential. If you drop some more armor to fit another ton of Gauss ammo you get 1200 damage from 30 alphas before you run the GRs dry.

ILYA MUROMETS

It is not hard to figure out that if you restrict alphas based primarily on energy weapons that people will gravitate to builds like this. Especially when there will soon be assault mechs that can do this even better. You didn't change the high alpha pinpoint damage meta, you just changed which mechs and builds best fit the meta.

[SirLANsalot]

Lostdragon, on 01 July 2013 - 01:39 PM, said:

Here is a Muromets that fields 2x GR and 1 ERPPC. In comparison to the popular 2x ERPPC 1 GR CTF 3D it loses about 7 kph going from a 280 to 250 and it loses some armor but it has 5 more point of alpha damage and 59% heat efficiency. It has 50 Gauss ammo so that is 25 potential 40 point alphas plus whatever you could do with just the PPC after that, so 1000 plus damage potential. If you drop some more armor to fit another ton of Gauss ammo you get 1200 damage from 30 alphas before you run the GRs dry.

ILYA MUROMETS

It is not hard to figure out that if you restrict alphas based primarily on energy weapons that people will gravitate to builds like this. Especially when there will soon be assault mechs that can do this even better. You didn't change the high alpha pinpoint damage meta, you just changed which mechs and builds best fit the meta.

However now we are talking about the GR, which was cried about over and over and over again in CB with the gauss kitty. Only now its the same build, on different mechs. No the system doesn't address ballistics because ballistics as stated in the OP, ARE SELF BALANCING! GR are sniper guns, which cost 15 TONS....EACH, to put on a mech and 7 CRITS. Both of those are 2 of its drawbacks, another is its AMMO dependent! Compared to say the PPC, which is 5 damage less, 200m more opti range, half the tonnage and no ammo. Its drawback is SUPPOSED to be Heat, which ISN'T as much of a drawback as its supposed to be. Hence my system addresses that, all other guns are self restricting, both in mechs and in there own ways (do we ever see mechs with more then 4 ballistics?). Gauss is 15 damage, 4 sec CD.....AC2's do a better job at damage then the GR (compare 2 AC2 vs 1 GR, AC2 wins).

[DocBach]

lack of foresight - when clan PPC boats come and can boat 1 gauss and 5 ERPPCs reliably without heat problems that do 90 damage pinpoint per salvo, you're going to wish for a more in-depth solution - and having an adaptive convergence that is dependent on player choices like heat and gets tighter and more accurate the longer the player holds his reticle over the target increases the amount of skill needed to land every shot on target.

Edited by DocBach, 01 July 2013 - 09:59 PM.

[SirLANsalot]

DocBach, on 01 July 2013 - 09:56 PM, said:

lack of foresight - when clan PPC boats come and can boat 1 gauss and 5 ERPPCs reliably without heat problems that do 90 damage pinpoint per salvo, you're going to wish for a more in-depth solution - and having an adaptive convergence that is dependent on player choices like heat and gets tighter and more accurate the longer the player holds his reticle over the target increases the amount of skill needed to land every shot on target.

re read the post, clan guns are in the mix too, being added to there respective groups.

[Otto Cannon]

Sybreed, on 01 July 2013 - 11:45 AM, said:

Sorry but I stopped reading there. The more mechs we get, the more obvious it is that the game is broken. The quickdraw was supposed to bring something else? All I see is fast 60 tonners that can boat PPCs better than the Dragon. Complete creativity led to the complete boredom that the game is currently, so yeah, I'm not too hot on creativity right now and I'll say again, creativity in this game is an illusion.

Current system with good weapon balance and convergence mechanics = Variety.

Current system as it is now = Different mechs used, but mostly with current 'best' weapon.

With limited hardpoint 'solution' = Same mech used by everyone with current 'best' weapon.

[Lostdragon]

SirLANsalot, on 01 July 2013 - 09:52 PM, said:

However now we are talking about the GR, which was cried about over and over and over again in CB with the gauss kitty. Only now its the same build, on different mechs. No the system doesn't address ballistics because ballistics as stated in the OP, ARE SELF BALANCING! GR are sniper guns, which cost 15 TONS....EACH, to put on a mech and 7 CRITS. Both of those are 2 of its drawbacks, another is its AMMO dependent! Compared to say the PPC, which is 5 damage less, 200m more opti range, half the tonnage and no ammo. Its drawback is SUPPOSED to be Heat, which ISN'T as much of a drawback as its supposed to be. Hence my system addresses that, all other guns are self restricting, both in mechs and in there own ways (do we ever see mechs with more then 4 ballistics?). Gauss is 15 damage, 4 sec CD.....AC2's do a better job at damage then the GR (compare 2 AC2 vs 1 GR, AC2 wins).

I don't think you fully grasp how important high pinpoint damage is, so I am probably wasting my time, especially since you compared the AC2 favorably to the GR. You made a lot of points about the drawbacks of the GR that are well known, but the fact remains it is possible and will continue to be possible to field more than one of them along with one or more PPCs.

If your heat system makes it impractical to do big alphas with multiple PPCs then you will see builds like I posted eating everything else for lunch. As long as it is possible to put 40+ points of damage into a single location then builds that can do that will be the defacto best builds.

If AC2s are so much better than the GR then why do people take the GR instead? The fact is the AC2 is not good compared to the GR. Groups of AC2s are good for DPS, but burst weapons like the GR are favored because they can kill much more efficiently. The reasoning behind this is very simple. DPS builds require you to expose yourself and allow the enemy to spread damage by twisting. A high burst build does huge damage and can then take defensive action until weapon cooldowns are over then fire again. High burst is low risk and high reward. You can core any mech with a few alphas and hide in cover while your weapons cool. DPS is high risk low reward because it takes an alpha build a fraction of the time to deliver the same amount of damage you can and you have to constantly expose yourself to high alphas.

TL:DR, until there is a comprehensive solution to address high alpha damage those builds will be king due to the low risk high reward nature of that playstyle.

[Zaptruder]

How To: Fix High Alpha Wihtout Compleatly Changing The Game.

1. Look for any of the numerous convergence/divergence solutions.
2. Implement.
3. Enjoy a significantly more balanced game.

[Zyllos]

Lostdragon, on 02 July 2013 - 06:16 AM, said:

DPS is high risk low reward because it takes an alpha build a fraction of the time to deliver the same amount of damage you can and you have to constantly expose yourself to high alphas.

This is a one of the two big reasons why "alpha strikes" are just dominating over DPS builds.

Why release a constant barrage of weapons fire where you have to maintain a facing when you can just fire all your big weapons at once then dodge and torso twist to gain an advantage?

The other reason is the obvious stacking of weapons damage onto a single point when fired at the same time.

Whatever system to be implemented to limit the power (but not the viability) of alpha strikes has to do two things:

• Keep players from applying all their weapon damage in a single salvo that hits the same location
  
• Penalize players that torso twist with reduction in DPS

The 2nd problem has existed in almost every PvP game in existance. It's always better to do a bunch of damage immediately than even more damage over time because instantenous damage is impossible to respond to where DPS isn't. That is part of the reason why a CoF is heavily favored in alpha strike situations because your damage application should be taken out of the hands of the shooter if their shots are done in such a manner where the shootee can not respond to the damage application.

The 1st problem is unique to MWO due to multiple weapons and specific hit locations. If a specific location is the key place to hit to destroy a mech, any and all other damage to other locations is pointless. But that is the beauty of the CBT system is that while you want to consistantly hit a weaker spot, if you randomly open another spot, that is just as bad, if not worst.

But whatever implementation is needed to fix the above problem, does not fix the issues between available hardpoints across mechs/variants, heat related issues, and tonnage limit issues. Each of these problems will have to be dealt with in their own individual ways but neglicting one of the four above (convergence, heat, hardpoints, and tonnage) will leave the fixes for the others in an uncompleted state. That is the nature of a Battletech game, all the systems extremely independent and automatous but interconnected and need to feed off each other.

Edited by Zyllos, 02 July 2013 - 07:00 AM.

[Conraire]

I have to look at things from a perspective of foresight. I also have to look at things from a perspective of having played Mechwarrior since the earlier 90s on PC. And slightly before that for Pen and Paper RPG's.

As we all know, all mechwarrior games prior to Mechwarrior 4 pretty much allowed for unlimited full customization of mechs. No hardpoints, etc. And it lead to the very same issues we have here with boating. Mechwarrior 4 stopped that a bit, with it's hardpoint system, but it still had problems. Which is why they implemented their current hardpoint system here. This system also tries to keep each chassis variant true to their original form.

You see the problems we have now. Now, imagine that same problem, with Clan Tech weapons, which hit harder and have a longer range. Where instead of PPC's doing 10dmg each, they do 15dmg each, are lighter, and use 1 less Crit spot. I hate to tell, you. But no heat stacking penalty will ever stop the high alpha user from clinging to those builds for dear life. Rather than just alpha striking, they'll chain fire 2 or 3 groups of them instead. Which with pinpoint convergence wouldn't fix the problem.

Where they went wrong with the game.

• Adding heatsink boost amount to the heat cap.
  
• Making double heatsinks not true doubles for purposes of heat removal
  
• Not limiting hardpoint space to reflect that IS mechs aren't Omnimechs. And even most clan mechs aren't Omnimechs.

The heat cap was suppose to be a 30pt heat cap, that gave penalties for anything above a certain amount of excess heat. Excess heat was anything over the amount of heatsink dissipation you had. For example in TT it was more than possible to build a hunchie 4P with 9 medium lasers, that would never over heat with double heatsinks. But, on the same Note, it was Impossible to build a stalker with 6 PPC/ERPPCs that wouldn't blow itself up after the first alpha, or otherwise spend the next round or two shutdown cooling down. This was the reason why the medium laser and mech were the work horses of the game.

When they changed the way the heat cap worked. It caused the double HS nerf. Pretty straight forward there. Making mechs that were designed to boat a given weapon, unable to do so. Apparently out of some fear of people boating small lasers.....

And, most mechs in Mechwarrior/Battletech, aren't Omnimechs. Even by Canon. The clans front line attack mechs are omnimechs, but the bulk of their mechs are updated regular chassis, that were retained from the exodus. Hunchback IIC for example. And IS mechs, at least until 3052 when DCMS releases the first one, aren't omni at all. There for a mech like the stalker with it's arm pods would have certain space partitioned off for energy weapons. And certain space partitioned for the missile weapons in those pods. And of course any HS that would be attached to said weapons.

[Lostdragon]

Great post, Zyllos. Another thing that is very backwards right now is the reward for skill. Maintaining DPS to the correct spot on a moving target while you are moving requires much more skill than lining up a huge alpha every 4 seconds. It takes a very steady hand to keep a stream of AC shells on a target at any range. You have to constantly adjust your lead to maintain fire on the target, but with an alpha strike build you do not need that skill. You only need to lead long enough to line up one good shot. After you take that shot you have 4 seconds to act defensively before you line up another shot.

So in addition to being low risk high reward relative to a DPS build an alpha build is also low skill high reward. This does not mean it doesn't take skill to aim an alpha and consistently hit the right spot, it just doesn't take nearly the same amount of skill as putting AC2 rounds into the CT of something for the amount of time needed to core a mech.