is, at best, a temporary solution.
Actually, it leaves no direction for MWO. There is no future of MWO with this boating penalty.
WHY?
Perfectly legitimate builds are nerfed. Even stock builds (the Hunchback and Awesome) are nerfed. The boating penalty is nerfing builds that were not strong to begin with.
For example, My 3 large laser brawling C1 catapult turned useless because of the dice-rolling (random) jump jet reticle feature.
Now I can easily call my 3 large laser catapult garbage because carrying
3 Large Laser's is "boating".
It's disappointing that players don't have the freedom to build their own mech.
Curbing the freedom of customization is undermining the theme of "role warfare" and
finding a mech with a loadout that suits yourself.
I say that MWO has no future with this boating penalty because there are plenty
of mechs (stock and variants) that have not even been released yet that get nerfed with this penalty. How are clans going to be introduced?
Are assaults with 2 clan er ppc's and 2 gauss rifles just NOT going to
be introduced in the game? Very poor and simplistic way
to "balance" a game. This problem is evident in the fact that the Victor 9A
with two ballistics hardpoints (arm and torso)
was not one of the variants introduced.
also in response to the boating heat penalty:
Jakob Knight, on 17 July 2013 - 07:08 AM, said:
No matter what you do, players will adapt and have other players screaming for the devs to swing the nerf bat again for them. Until no mech is capable of doing anything, and players decide to go play something else.
The solution to 'boating' (which some mechs are designed to do, mind you) is not to keep slapping on restrictions but to have players use their brains to outthink those builds. Every weapon comes with its disadvantages. Mounting lots of only one weapon means you have nothing to cover those disadvantages. Got a 6 x PPC Stalker? Get up in his face where his weapons don't do damage. Got a 3x GR Cataphract? Run around him to his base and cap it while he slowly tries to trundle back. Got a 6xERPPC Hunchback? Wait till he shoots then headshot him while he's shutdown.
Point is, this is not a solution, and we've seen this sort of thing in one form or another since the game began. It isn't going to change because instituting these changes simply adjusts the environment for everyone, making other builds slide in where the 'boats' are now. Maybe next time it will be that Brawlers are able to close in and kill long-range support mechs without fear of death (remember that, anyone)? Maybe it will be that Scout mechs will become better than Heavies for main combat (again, remember that)? Maybe people will simply make every mech a gausszilla because they are not penalized by this system? In any case, there will be builds that work better than others, and those unwilling to think of tactics to beat them will cry for the Devs to 'do something to make the game what it should be'.
In conclusion,
the boating heat penalty is only a temporary solution at curbing the current meta.