Bishop Steiner, on 24 July 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:
And when that alpha-assault gets taken solo at PBR by the Spider that it can't turn fast enough to hit? What will we nerf on the lights to "give the Atlas a fair shot"?
You described a lucky hit. They happen. That has nothing to do with balance and such, and everything to do with the "**** happens" factor. And sometimes it does. Hell, my Mechs sometimes get one shotted thru the head, too.
There's a large difference between being oneshotted by a cockpit hit, or by a hit basically anywhere. My point about the 'lucky' was that it doesn't even require them to be a good shot, just spam weapons fire. If you seriously think that being able to one-shot a mech with a cockpit hit (lucky
or aimed) is at all comparable with being able to one-shot a mech by
hitting it at all then you've got a screw loose. And frankly, if this game is actually going to work then...yes, the Light should be the natural predator of the Assault. In a game like this, all mech classes need to be viable in their own right, and that means a looped food chain. Go with the TT model where Assaults > All and the game dies in a fire.
Bishop Steiner, on 24 July 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:
What would you suggest? Have all weapon damage significantly reduced so we have nothing but dakka-pew-pew paper cut weapons, and the matches become boring from that?
Split up pinpoint damage, in this case chiefly by re-lowering the PPC's projectile velocity and possibly slightly increasing that of the Gauss. Thus when alphaed at range on a target with any torso twist or lateral movement, they won't be pinpoint - there's a
huge difference between 50 damage and 20+25. UACs would also need a shot modelling change, what with the UAC/10 and UAC/20 turning up - basically the second shot needs to be at half cooldown, not simply doubling the damage of the shot (
80 damage pinpoint alpha anyone?). Seriously, I'd love to see the King Crab in the game, but not if PGI can't fix pinpoint damage such that the KC breaks the game. Note that they explicitly
avoided implementing the 2*PPC+2*Gauss-capable Victor.
Bishop Steiner, on 24 July 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:
IMO< ALL mechs have an equal shot. Whether the pilot is too lazy to actually use tactics and cover to take advantage of the attributes that make mediums and lights on par with an assault is not my problem. And that is the thing, lighter chassis are MEANT for hit and fade. If you think a Jenner should be able to go and slug toe to toe with an Atlas, and also be capper deluxe, etc, you are mad.
If a Jenner pilot takes out an Atlas toe-to-toe then the Atlas is either rangefit, at which point...yes they should, them's the breaks when you stuff your D-DC full of LRMS, or bad. Not that Atlai are a major issue for Lights compared with Highlanders and Victors unless they're SRM boating, the torso/arm split doesn't lend them well to short range engagements against Lights. That said, against a decent Assault pilot in
any Assault I don't toe-to-toe them in my Lights (
unless I'm caught on open ground, in which case it generally doesn't go well, cause I ****** up), I constantly hit-and-fade (
harder now with seismic giving them magic-through-walls-vision, but still doable).
Bishop Steiner, on 24 July 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:
I think too many people look for too much on paper black and white balancing, and fail to look at the whole picture. That is why there are those who cried the VTR sucked, and then there are those of us who realize it is amazing...... if you know how to do anything but facerape.
That's nice. Not remotely relevant though.
Bishop Steiner, on 24 July 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:
Since I regularly watch Jenner, Raven and even Commando Pilots contribute, spot, cap, and yes, KILL the OpFOr (I don't list Spiders because their hitboxes are SOOOOOOO borked). And Oddly enough, I still see plenty of every medium EXCEPT the Trebbie... and the few trebbies I do see seem to be run almost universally by pros.
Because I said they currently weren't able to contribute, spot, cap or kill didn't I? Ohnowait.
Bishop Steiner, on 24 July 2013 - 10:24 AM, said:
Lighter mechs, more maneuverable mechs require more skill, and a higher learning curve. You can't "balance" that out, because it is inherent to the design. It will always be easier to learn to facerape with an Atlas or Stalker. But those designs are also so inherently limited that it's laughable.
Well done, you can get good damage scores in a Light. So can I. That doesn't mean that it's not bad game design to be able to 0HK another mech with the longest ranged weapons in the game just by tagging it once anywhere that isn't an arm. That 50 point hit will kill anything 30 tons and below (or leg it, which amounts to the same) outright and leave your average Jenner or Raven on 2-6 CT HP.