833 replies to this topic

[Wintersdark]

Tristan X, on 03 September 2013 - 10:15 AM, said:

Really? They killed sniping? How dramatic. These changes mean that, as a sniper, I will have to slightly adapt how I fight. But I assure you, sniping has not been "killed". I will still be able to shave your armour off at a distance, and people will continue to complain about it.

I'm sure you're an intelligent person - it won't take you long to adapt to the changes.

Exactly. This is the thing:

Sniping is absolutely fine. Slightly lower sustainable DPS; but that's ok for a sniper who - by nature - will duck into cover to cool between shots.

What people are really upset about is now their sniper builds won't be able to sit back and snipe, then wade into a brawl with some of the best brawling weapons too. Snipers will still be devastating at range, but oh so vulnerable up close.

Quote

PPC always had a minimum range - this is nothing new. Was there a bug in the min damage before? I don't know, since I'm partial to the ER PPC. Either way, this is not new at all.

The PPC used to scale linearly from 0 to 10 damage at ranges from 0m to 90m, so 5 damage at 45m. This meant the penalty was largely irrelevant, because it's extremely uncommon to be inside 50m from your target; at least for long.

[Appogee]

Why is the Protector wearing an orange safety jacket...?! Is it escorting Ravens across the lava bridges on Terra Therma?

[Tezcatli]

Suprentus, on 03 September 2013 - 10:28 AM, said:

That's not why they were bad. Buffing heat doesn't make it easier to hit anything. The heat alone made both the PPC and ER PPC liabilities to take to the battlefield, and it wasn't just lack of HSR. Now we want to go back to making them liabilities, especially when every other map is a hot map now?



There's quite a huge difference between waiting 3-5 seconds to cool down for SRMs and waiting 5-10 seconds to cool down for PPCs and ER PPCs. I didn't think I'd have to explain that difference.

They're a liability. If you choose to make them a liability in my opinion. As with the heat of any weapon system in the game. I don't boat past a certain a mount of medium lasers because the overheat would be ridiculous. I think it remains to be seen in game just how bad it is.

[Roadbeer]

D1al T0ne, on 03 September 2013 - 10:32 AM, said:

I paid real money for this mech because I wanted to run with 2 AC/2's and 2 PPC's while gaining a C-bill boost. All I'm saying is that it's the last Hero Mech that I will buy for a specific reason since the developers seem to want to make giant sledgehammer swinging changes to the game at a time instead of tweaking.

Maybe I'll buy more Hero Mechs when they realize what a tweak is.

Lulz... just lulz

This is serious business, you should start a poll

[Scrawny Cowboy]

Glad there was a patch afterall today. Quite a bit where weapon balancing is concerned. Don't like the intial write up for some of the PPC nerfs buf I'll let in-game decide that.
Am curious, as others have pointed out, what will become of ghost heat? It's only more obvious that it is crippling smaller weapon boating like AC2's.
Gonna leave my PPC x4 and Gauss Rifle RS Atlas as is just to see how this patch changed the meta.

[W A R L O R D]

Well-sir!....looks like no Atlas Hero 'Mech this time...

[Szkarlat M]

Thumbs up, sounds like a good patch. Will have to test it out when the servers come back online.

People will learn to adapt to the balance changes with PPC/Gauss. There is QQ everytime some major tweeks are made as it breaks people's builds, nothing new.

Been hit by nerfs breaking builds before, and its simple really. You learn to adapt. Either find a way to keep your build viable or try different builds. In all honesty, there are so many different weapons loadouts and the hardpoints allow you to customize the {Scrap} out your mech.

To everyone complaining, you'll be surprised that the end all be all build you originally thought was great can be matched or bettered by different builds. It makes you learn to better with different weapon systems and overall increases your skill level.

Contrary to public opinion, balanced builds are just as viable as cheese builds if you understand how to operate it.

See you all on the battlefield

Nice one PGI.

[Vammatar]

Protector looks good!

[Rabcor]

If this patch is as good as it sounds.....

Garth Erlam, on 03 September 2013 - 08:26 AM, said:

New In-Game Tutorial

• Click the button for the Game Modes menu (in the upper right corner of the main menu) and choose TUTORIALS.
  
• You will be loaded into a tutorial that will walk you through the basic movement controls.
  
• You will automatically use a Cataphract CTF-3D for the duration of the tutorial.
  
• When the tutorial is complete you can continue to practice in the tutorial level or press ESC and quit out to the main menu.

Gameplay

• Gauss projectile speed increased from 1200m/s up to 2000m/s, internal health increased to 5 (up from 3).
  
• Advanced Zoom Module's implementation slightly changed giving it increased picture fidelity. Instead of returning to the default FoV before overlaying the PIP, it now zooms in closer and then applies the PIP zoom.
  
• Small changes to the third person camera position and angle to better show off the lower half of the 'Mech.

Performance

• Made various improvements to host state rewinding system and hit detection overall.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the 'Mech walk animation wouldn't adjust correctly to the Engine Rating.
  
• Hanging cockpit items will now move when the 'Mech walks.
  
• Weapon door light indicators in the cockpit are now working correctly.
  
• Fixed a hang that could happen to certain users during combat.

You must indeed be gods among developers, there are things in there i never expected to see. (Hit detection fixing, cockpit item animations, fixing a hang, fixing adv zoom, tutorial) i think the dudes over at warframe still don't have a proper tutorial, i'd even be willing to bet that they still have the same terribad tutorial that practically just teaches you to press WASD, space and left click with ur mouse.

Also kudos for how fast you guys patch!

Now let me go grief the ER PPCs i can't use anymore

Edited by Rabcor, 03 September 2013 - 10:37 AM.

[Enigmos]

Patch is up

[Rhaythe]

JohnnyWayne, on 03 September 2013 - 10:32 AM, said:

I am. For reasons.^^ I mean the enemy can always get a lucky shot thats no question. But if you do it properly: No issue anywhere.

I fly an AC/40 build now and again. Just because, y'know. Whatever. It's not as fun as a dual-LBX, 4MG brawler on a 300 engine, but yeah. It definitely gets kills.

Until you run out of ammo, anyway.

As far as it being the end-all, be-all for Jager? No. Heck, no.

[HammerSwarm]

I am looking forward to the kintaro buff, and while I like the idea of the Orion I will not be buying the hero mech until I see, A.) all of the variants, and B.) my conditions for spending more money on this game have been met. (Separate but Equal Queues)

I don't think I can say enough bad things about the kintaro's center torso prior to the patch. It was very bad. Fixing it will improve the viability of the mech.

I am not for or against the PPC changes until I try them. I still don't favor the Gauss change but I will give it a go.

Most worry some to me is the disappearance of DX11 from the patching schedule and not even a hint of CW or UI 2.0.

I would almost expect a soft launch of these features next week.

[Bata]

This is terrible, truly terrible... What you guys are doing is trying to save the body by cutting off a limb. Again... There are only so many to cut before there are none left.

[Ryokens leap]

Thanks for the patch, hoping for great things in Sept. Anyone at PGI take note of the poll where players overwhelmingly responded that they are still playing MWO because its Mechwarrior/ Battletech and not because its MWO? Big ups for the Spider fix... Oh wait, never mind.

Edited by Ryokens leap, 03 September 2013 - 10:40 AM.

[WOLFSTAR]

UNPLAYABLE ????

Are you trying to make people leave this game? What are u doing? Who will want use a Gauss Rifle worse than ever? More heat, charging time? Should be increased gauss damage at least to 25 to balance this! Max Alpha is not enough?
PPC BOOOST HEAT!!! Do you think this game will be only played with lights or with missles?
I spent a lot of time AND MONEY and i love this game but ..........
In that way you will make this game unplayable! And I will not play a unplayable game much time again and i think i will not the one.
Take care of this post please.
Best Regards

Paolo Pisano (WOLFSTAR)

[Wintersdark]

D1al T0ne, on 03 September 2013 - 10:32 AM, said:

I paid real money for this mech because I wanted to run with 2 AC/2's and 2 PPC's while gaining a C-bill boost. All I'm saying is that it's the last Hero Mech that I will buy for a specific reason since the developers seem to want to make giant sledgehammer swinging changes to the game at a time instead of tweaking.

Maybe I'll buy more Hero Mechs when they realize what a tweak is.

Well, that was a really silly idea.

Did you honestly thing balance changes wouldn't change what weapons are good? Are you new to online multiplayer games? Did you somehow fail to read the disclaimer in every multiplayer games' TOS? The game changes all the time. What's good and what's bad will always change. Always had, in every continually developed game. Always will.

Adapt, overcome. PPC's still work; a pair of AC/2's and PPC's will still be a viable build, but in a lot more trouble up close. *shrugs*

This is the danger - and it's true in every online game - in taking and relying on the "best" weapons. They will get nerfed, sooner or later.

[NoiseCrime]

arghmace, on 03 September 2013 - 10:01 AM, said:

Ok, I understand where you're coming, but first of all the PPC's are far from useless even after this.

I appreciate you can see my issue.

However i've not found PPC over-powered at this point (neither being hit by or using them), and already could be severely disadvantaged in close range combat. With a double ERPPC I could fire three salvos max from walking heat level (still not enough to kill anything, other then maybe 2 perfect cockpit shots), now i'm worried that will drop down to 2, making my ability to actually perform any serious amount of damage at range irrelevant (other than assist spamming). I mean I had a lot of fun with my sniper builds, but even with good hit ratio I never felt like I was doing a huge amount of damage, but I could help control the battle field and cause some disarray. While I can still cause some disarray I feel that any damage is going to be further reduced and other mechs are simply going to rush me now, losing any hope of controlling the battlefield.

Quote

But most of all, you being a new player, I would very much recommend that you try out different ways to play. Where's the fun in playing only with PPC's? Try different mechs, different weapons and builds on your current mechs, different play styles... Just sticking with one style seems not a good idea for a new player.

I maybe new, but i've clocked in over 40 hrs in a week, 400+ games and countless more hours reading the forums and using the strangely better web built apps than the one in game to design, spec out and plan mechs. I would love to play other mech's but the grind for money is just absurd (hence ending up paying for a medium mech just to ensure I could have 3 of a variant for going elite). I would love to get a proper heavy but their base cost is huge and then to outfit them is the same cost again, there is just no quick way to do it.

Besides the only style i've not played is out and out brawling, a style I don't enjoy, I prefer to be in control of a fight, and not slugging it out with who's got the biggest weapon. That was what I so enjoyed with my 3 Cicada's they gave me 3 different play styles, a sniper, a harasser and a mini-brawler, each played very differently and enjoyable in different ways. Though the key was always the infiltrator/sniper and so these changes feel like i've not just lost a sniper (potentially), but the entire variant feels like a waste.

Mind you playing around in smurfy, I see I can swap out for two ER LL for a tiny amount of less damage, 25% less range, but almost 50% less heat than 2*ERPPC (post patch). Obviously it means keeping on target for a whole second and getting a bit closer, but if that works my sniper may have just become more over-powered as I can add in 2*SM PL, extra heat sinks and a few other things, meaning i can probably do more damage than before and defend myself against close range combat much more effectively.

It may not work out, but if it does I suspect the next patch is going to nerf this as suddenly this feels way over-powered compared to my simple 2*ER PPC build I had.

Edited by NoiseCrime, 03 September 2013 - 10:38 AM.

[Boymonkey]

To all the cry babies....change and adapt heck who knows you may just enjoy it.

[SiR SockMonkeyDonkey]

Garth Erlam, on 03 September 2013 - 08:26 AM, said:

[color=cyan]It's patchday! And that means - servers come down at 10am PDT, and will be back up by 1pm PDT! I'll update this as soon as the servers are back. So without (orion) further time wasting, here's some patchnotes to tide you over![/color]

Cheers,
Garth

EDIT: And we are LIVE! Enjoy the patch!

UPDATE

Greetings MechWarriors!

Can you believe it's September already? (ORION) Wow time flies when you are working hard (ORION!) on features! Much love to those who know patience and understanding (ORION). This patch is (ORION!) dedicated to you.

Speaking of patience (ORION), this month the Orion makes its début in the game! The “Protector” Orion Hero ‘Mech is sure to be an instant classic with a paint job that is simply gorgeous. The Orion Standard variants will be available for MC on the 10th and for C-bills on the 17th.

We have 4 new Trial ‘Mechs! One of which is our new champion, a Centurion CN9-A ©, with a great load out for all players to try out. Don’t forget this New Champion ‘Mech comes with a 10% XP boost and will be on sale Sept 17th!

We have our first tutorial covering the basics of movement to help out new players. We will be working on more tutorials in the future as well. (ORION!)

Gameplay! Look at all those changes! (ORION) A nice variety of changes, some of which are small, and some are really big. Hello better Advanced Zoom!

Host state rewind has had some improvements, and as a Ballistic fan I couldn’t be happier! Now I can bull’s-eye womp rats in Canyon Network. (ORION!)

We have so many more great things on the horizon!

Until then, I will see you on the Battlefield! (And maybe at the Launch Event too!)

Matt Newman (with some edits from Garth)

Content

New In-Game Tutorial

• Click the button for the Game Modes menu (in the upper right corner of the main menu) and choose TUTORIALS.
  
• You will be loaded into a tutorial that will walk you through the basic movement controls.
  
• You will automatically use a Cataphract CTF-3D for the duration of the tutorial.
  
• When the tutorial is complete you can continue to practice in the tutorial level or press ESC and quit out to the main menu.

(Link to tutorial post here)



New Hero Mech



"Protector" ON1-P

• Tonnage: 75
  
• Engine: 300 Standard
  
  • Top Speed: 64.8 kph
    
  • Max Engine Rating: 360
• Torso Movement:
  
  • 90 degrees to each side.
    
  • 20 degrees up and down.
• Arm Movement:
  
  • 20 degrees to each side.
    
  • 30 degrees up and down.
• Armor: 448 (Ferro-Fibrous)
  
• Internal Structure: Standard
  
• Weapons & Equipment:
  
  • Left Arm: Medium Laser
    
  • Left Torso: PPC, SRM 4 w/ Artemis IV FCS
    
  • Right Torso: Gauss Rifle
    
  • Right Arm: Medium Laser
• Hardpoints:
  
  • Left Arm: 1 Energy
    
  • Left Torso: 1 Energy, 2 Missile, 1 AMS
    
  • Right Torso: 2 Ballistic
    
  • Right Arm: 1 Energy
• Heat Sinks: 10 Double
  
• Jump Jets: 0 (0 Max)
  
• ECM Capable?: No
  
• Module Slots: 2
  
• Movement Archetype: Large
  
• 30% C-Bill Bonus

New Trial Champion Mech





Centurion CN9-A©

• Tonnage: 50
  
• Engine: 275 Standard
  
• Top Speed: 89.1 kph
  
• Max Engine Rating: 275
  
• Torso Movement:
  
  • 100 degrees to each side.
    
  • 25 degrees up and down.
• Arm Movement:
  
  • 35 degrees to each side.
    
  • 35 degrees up and down.
• Armor: 322 (Ferro-Fibrous)
  
• Internal Structure: Endo-Steel
  
• Weapons & Equipment:
  
  • Left Torso: SRM 4 w/ Artemis IV FCS x3
    
  • Center Torso: Medium Pulse Laser x2
• Hardpoints:
  
  • Left Torso: 3 Missile
    
  • Center Torso: 2 Energy
    
  • Right Torso: 1 AMS
    
  • Right Arm: 1 Ballistic
• Heat Sinks: 11 Double
  
• Jump Jets: 0 (0 Max)
  
• ECM Capable?: No
  
• Module Slots: 2
  
• Movement Archetype: Medium

New Trial Mechs

• Raven RVN-3L
  
• Centurion CN9-A©
  
• Quickdraw QKD-4G
  
• Stalker STK-5M

Gameplay

• SRM2 and SRM4 cooldown times reduced to 2.5s and 3.25s respectively.
  
• PPC damage under 90m has been reduced to 0.
  
• Gauss Fire Delay:
  
  • The Gauss Rifle requires a 0.75 second charge before it will fire.
    
  • Once charged, the shooter has 1.25 seconds to fire the round.
    
  • If not fired during the 1.25 second charge, the Gauss Rifle will instantly dissipate the charge and require another charge to fire.
    
  • Both the cooldown bar and the weapon group ready light will turn green when the Gauss is ready to fire.
• PPC base heat increased to 10 (up from 9).
  
• ERPPC base heat increased to 15 (up from 13).
  
• PPC/ERPPC projectile speed slowed to 1500m/s down from 2000m/s.
  
• Gauss projectile speed increased from 1200m/s up to 2000m/s, internal health increased to 5 (up from 3).
  
• Reduced the size of the Kintaro's center torso hit boxes by increasing the coverage of the side torso and leg hit boxes.
  
• Reduce lava damage/second by 30%.
  
• Advanced Zoom Module's implementation slightly changed giving it increased picture fidelity. Instead of returning to the default FoV before overlaying the PIP, it now zooms in closer and then applies the PIP zoom.
  
• Small changes to the third person camera position and angle to better show off the lower half of the 'Mech.
  
  • Known issue: The tops of the following 'Mechs partially obscure the player's view of where the crosshairs are aiming. A fix is currently being worked on.
    
    • Cataphract
      
    • JagerMech
      
    • Orion

Performance

• Made various improvements to host state rewinding system and hit detection overall.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the 'Mech walk animation wouldn't adjust correctly to the Engine Rating.
  
• Hanging cockpit items will now move when the 'Mech walks.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Kintaro's lower center torso would clip through the upper center torso when twisting.
  
• Weapon door light indicators in the cockpit are now working correctly.
  
• Fixed a number of stuck bugs in River City, Frozen City, and Forest Colony.
  
• Fixed some geometry clipping issues in Alpine Peaks.
  
• Fixed bug where BlackJack's rear center torso would incorrectly apply damage to rear side torso.
  
• Fixed bug where Kintaro ragdoll would react wildly upon death.
  
• Fixed a hang that could happen to certain users during combat.
  
• Fixed a desync bug for the UAC5 where the client would incorrectly fire a shot right before jamming, where the server wouldn't.

We thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you on the battlefield!





- The MechWarrior® Online™ Team

My heavies and some of my medium mechs will need tweaking, but my Lights are going to feel OP . Can't wait for all the light jousting

[KKillian]

I found nothing wrong with the gauss to begin with, since the fragility nerfs its been an arm only weapon IMHO, slow, heavy, very limited ammo...and it still manages to kill me when it blows half the time if my torso armor isnt tip top. If anything needed a charge time it was ppc's, those are the main devastation on my poptart. This is coming from an almost 1mill xp Cata3D. I laughed openly at the reduction in ppc heat and had a field day when that went live, ppc heat increase was definetly needed.

Damage under 90m for a normal ppc? I honestly cant remember a situation a non er ppc at point blank did anything but overheat me, I dont even use my ER's at pb range unless I am sure they are going to finish the target, my only defense is usually my gauss. Overheating point blank is pretty much good game so I hardly think people shooting standard ppc's under 90m really needed looking into. I can easily guess how most of those brawls turned out.

I suggested a very long time ago that the ppc's get a charge time as it makes sense from most every angle. I totally agree the jump snipers are overpowered, I played that build to death and can tell ya first hand it needed adjustment, I cant agree how they are going about it. In no way do these changes hinder that playstyle, I should be able to adopt the gauss charge no problem and being that I only carry one of them the micro management will be minimal. PPC's on the other hand are my bread and butter... other than leading a target slightly I never really had heat issues to begin with due to the fact I pick when I am able to fire, unless I push too early heat management is hardly an issue, more detrimental to brawlers esp with the 0-90 nerf.

Now trying to charge 2 seperate ppc's while aiming and leading the target would be much more of a hassle and take twice the skill than trying to manage a single gauss on an arm hardpoint that I only fire half the time due to ammo conservation and the fact the arm weapons hang lower on virtually all the jumpjet mechs, coordinationn of gauss and ppc together is usually done to targets that are not moving and clearly open. When I ninja shots over hills I mostly only use my ppc's as the gauss will hit the ground or a teammate unless I expose myself with extra height.

Wanna nerf poptarts? Firsthand, charge up ppc time. This patch affects people attempting to brawl with gauss and ppc's much more than it affects me hideing behind buildings picking parts off people at 1000m. Unsure if that is the intention.
Adapting to the currect changes for any decent sniper shouldnt be a problem at all.