17 replies to this topic

[Captain Katawa]

Everyone knows that an Awesome is one of the least poular mechs and after playing it for a while I both fallen in love with it and found out that it's not for no reason.

Comared to Stalker it has both MUCH more vulnerable hitboxes, lower hardoint placement, less emty slots due to more actuators, AND less weapon slots which makes it comletely unfair.

What was making it so special in tabletop was it's ability to carry more PPCs than other mechs but for whatever your reason is you don't want to imlemend classic mechlab, OKAY i get it. It doesn't mean an Awesome doesn't need a buff. I also understand that you have lots of better stuff to do than redesigning the model and reworking hitboxes, FINE. There still can be a way help an Awesome and it's fans.

What I suggest is to do is
1 simply give Awesome more energy hardpoints.
2 un-nerf Medium lasers back to for 3 heat each.

Stalker 3f has 6 (SIX !) energy hardpoints mounted high on it's small and hard to hit body with also 4 missile slots which makes 10 in total. Awesome 8Q has 7 energy slots and only two of them are placed in it's arms. 8T has three missile and four energy slots with only one in it's arm.
So for everything except LRM Awesome is simply inferior to stalkers and LRM is also done by them not much worse.
For it's huge size Awesome should get something back to not be a complete lackluster and what I advice is hardoints for medium lasers. Back then these would be used to pack PPCs but now people rarely use them too much, at least they don't pack six of them and shutdown fire doesnt work so easily. But medium lasers could help it to become more powerful in closer combat combined with SRM. I think that a 8Q should get two hardpoints in it's chest and 8V one more in it's side torso with one in it's arm, 9M shoild get one more for the arm.

What aboul lasers, this is a weird decision to make mediuns less heat effective considering that they have MUCH shorter range and take TWICE as much hardoints. Getting it back to 3 will do just right, assuming you're trying to fight high alha and sniing you should give people a reason to ever bother with close combat.

In my oinion if it's done it will allow Awesome to be actually played as an Assault mech more effectively and make it somewhat of a viable mech which it deserves.
Each mech should be best at somethng right?
Then why not giving an Awesome something that only it can do like boating the most medium lasers which is suosed to be the most heat effective but short ranged weapon?

[Drasari]

I think another way of doing things is to give mechs a bonus for things they were meant to do lore wise. The Awesome for example should be able to boat say....3 or 4 PPC's without Ghost heat penalty or a -1 to PPC/ERPPC heat and half ghost heat. The crit slots do need to be fixed regardless.

Things like that IMO, would make up for the huge torso.

[Captain Katawa]

That seems good but too good to happen like hardpoint size.
would be great if devs done it.

[UnwantedProblem]

I like the idea of un-nerfing the medium laser heat to 3... really, 6Mlas jenners would be lovely to play....

Spoiler

sarcasm to everyone who didn't notice it

But giving the Awesome more hard points, would be lovely (and taking away that stupid hand actuator, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT MEANT FOR!?)

[Captain Katawa]

If we think absolutely positively (stupidly positively) it might be used in future for punching or holding a shield one there is melee if they ever do this

[Captain Katawa]

Actually imagine that there are MASC mechs, ssrm 4 and 6, collisions are back and HSR and hit registration really work so no lag shield, I think that 6 ML Jenner won't be as scary as it used to be and it will have lots of it'd own problems.

[Fred013]

Better fix: change PPC alpha limit without ghost heat from 2 to 3 jst for the awesome. (Or maybe 4?)

[Stardancer01]

The Awesome is by far the most common and widely used assault mech in the inner sphere. I would not be surprised that it will take the lions share of bonuses in showcasing each of the inner sphere’s factions/houses equipment and battle dogma.

I would be very disappointed if it didn’t get a different ability from each of the great houses, allow I would not be surprised if mercenaries didn’t use assault mechs much.

[Roland]

If the hitboxes of the Awesome in game matched what you see in the mechlab, that alone would make the awesome infinitely better.

In the mechlab, the "shoulder pads" are shown as arm panels, but in game that region is considered side torso.

[ManDaisy]

Sorry Roland, fact is the only part thats gets hit on an awesome, shoulder pads or not, is the center torso. I would suggest expanding the side torsos inwards to shrink the center torso, in addition to making the shoulders part of the arms. Only then would the awesome be awesome.

Edited by ManDaisy, 03 September 2013 - 09:40 AM.

[Zyllos]

Honestly, the only things I think that will save the Awesome:

• Hardpoint sizes
  
• Pin point accuracy changed

Having new hardpoint classifications would put the Awesome squarely back into the "only 3x PPC assault mech" in the game.

Pin point accuracy changes, like Homeless Bill's suggestion, would make the Awesome more survivable due to damage being spread between the Left/Center/Right Torso sections instead of only hitting CT most of the time.

These two changes would 100% fix the Awesome and place it back to being the only PPC boat in the game until another mech comes out that can equip many of these large weapons by default. And it most likely will not fall into the 80t range, and with tonnage limits coming soon, still leaves it in the unique position of being the lightest assault mech with 3x PPCs attached to it.

[aniviron]

Zyllos, on 03 September 2013 - 10:05 AM, said:

Pin point accuracy changes, like Homeless Bill's suggestion, would make the Awesome more survivable due to damage being spread between the Left/Center/Right Torso sections instead of only hitting CT most of the time.

These two changes would 100% fix the Awesome and place it back to being the only PPC boat in the game until another mech comes out that can equip many of these large weapons by default. And it most likely will not fall into the 80t range, and with tonnage limits coming soon, still leaves it in the unique position of being the lightest assault mech with 3x PPCs attached to it.

You are only thinking about this as though the awesome gets to retain the current aiming system while everyone else gets convergence removed.

The awesome has the lowest weapon mounts of any mech in the game.
The awesome has the furthest-spread-apart weapon mounts of any mech in the game.

Thus, if you remove the ability of every mech including the awesome to converge fire, the awesome becomes an even bigger joke than it already is. Imagine this: because your weapon mounts are so far apart, you aim at any other mech. Doesn't matter which one, they are all narrower at the shoulder and hip than the awesome. Your crosshairs are directly centered on your opponent's CT. Marvel as four PPCs speed right by and slam into the walls on either side of your opponent, since none of your weapons are able to converge at the targeted point but just travel forward in two parallel straight lines, spaced wider apart than any mech.

Another fun scenario: because your weapons do not converge at the aim point, you can't aim your weapons up without aiming the whole torso up. The awesome has pretty miserable torso aim angles on the vertical. Watch in awe as you find yourself unable to hit any opponent who is above you, ever. Enjoy aiming at center mass on that atlas only to have your lasers hit it in the legs every time.

No, I don't think I want convergence to stop working the way it does for the awesome. Sure, other mechs would have a harder time hitting it, but anyone piloting an awesome would find themselves in a situation where their weapons are suddenly much harder to aim than every single other mech in the game; and I don't think the awesome needs that handicap too.

[SaJeel]

Idk if that would do the trick for the Awsome but something needs to be done for sure, any suggestion is better than none ^^

[Baine3FreakofNature3]

The most important thing about an awesome was that it could be deployed with a huge number of energy-based weapons simply because it was designed to vent heat as well as to have a very high heat capacity.

I suggest giving the awesome either 40% more heat sinks or allow their heat threshold to go above 100% without sustaining damage immediately. Maybe make it 120,130%. We all know all heat sensors are configured to a standard, and with the awesome's specifications I think it's reasonable to put in such features.

Increasing it's base heat sink number without increasing it's occupied tonnage is the easiest fix though. Also, If it's awesome, I think the head should have a single energyhardpoint(If it doesn't already).

[Captain Katawa]

Doesn't look like they will ever give it more crit slots or magical ghost sinks outta nowhere, BUT if they actually start giving latform individual bonuses like they promissed us some time ago Awesome should simply get 15% more capacity and 10% more dissipation to it's basic which would make 138% of normal heat capacity and 125% dissipation rate which together would make difference.

And what's more important is to NOT give the same stuff to Stalker.

Edited by Captain Katawa, 03 September 2013 - 08:22 PM.

[WhiteTiger]

Everyone has Great ideas about the Awesome. I like the hitbox idea as I quote from the BattleTech Technical Readout 3025 "The Awesome is also hard to beat in its defensive stance. Its all-around protective armor is stronger than that of almost any other mech, as it can withstand even more punishment than it can mete out."
The other factor that made the Awesome one of the most feared mech on the battlefield is it's ability to carry 3 PPC's. In BattleTech the PPC is among the most effective weapons available to Battlemechs. Though after this patch it maybe relegated back to obscurity. People complain so much about the PPC being an uber or OP weapon, but they forget that in BattleTech the PPC is supposed to be the uber/Op weapon. By bringing the PPC back to prominence and allowing the Awesome to boat them without a "Ghost heat" penalty would go a long way to helping this mech.
I also need to bring this up to balance out everything, in order for the Awesome to have these features it needs to sacrifice speed and maneuverability to attain those offensive and defensive features.

Offensive - Bring the PPC back to prominence, keep the heat but bring the speed back to pre-patch.
Remove the "ghost heat" for the Awesome.
Defensive - Fix the hitboxes.
Increase the armor value
Balance - Reduce the maximum speed and maneuverability.

Take it from an old mechwarrior, reflecting the nuances of the different mechs will only enhance the playability and joy of piloting our favorite mechs.

Edited by WhiteTiger, 03 September 2013 - 10:44 PM.

[aniviron]

Captain Katawa, on 03 September 2013 - 08:20 PM, said:

Doesn't look like they will ever give it more crit slots or magical ghost sinks outta nowhere, BUT if they actually start giving latform individual bonuses like they promissed us some time ago Awesome should simply get 15% more capacity and 10% more dissipation to it's basic which would make 138% of normal heat capacity and 125% dissipation rate which together would make difference.

And what's more important is to NOT give the same stuff to Stalker.

Speaking of crit slots, it'd be nice if the hand and arm actuators did something besides take up slots. In TT, I could reach out and punch someone for a PPC's worth of damage if they got too close, or grab things. That hand actuator was neat. Here, all these extra actuators do is make it so that I have two extra unused and unusable crit slots in my arms that can't fit DHS, while the Stalker has no such problems, letting it actually cool off better than the Awesome.

[Bendak]

So much B U T T H U R T for a mech there is no problem with. Awesome was one of the easiest to level up. 2LLas in each arm just melts everyone. CT size is a mute point if you are part of an organised team(even in PUGS) that is face melting all that take you on.

Edited by Bendak, 27 September 2013 - 02:34 AM.