490 replies to this topic

[TheSteelRhino]

Butane9000, on 03 September 2013 - 03:53 PM, said:

I've had people in the MGA say they really like the changes to the Gauss. I still personally think PPCs would have been a better choice for a charge up weapon though.

While some will argue this game isn't heavily lore based (although presence of yen lo wang, heavy metal, protector etc would indicate otherwise) gauss riles in lore did have references to charging etc. PPCs had very high heat. This fits the battletech universe better. I have no issue with twin ppc mechs. There were lots of models (whammy, marauder, thug off the top of my head) that had a 2. And all suffered from heat issues. The fix fits what the game was originally intended to be.

[Primetimex]

The feedback link in that first post is incorrect - needs to be fixed.

Overall, I think the changes are steps in the right direction - tried out the rough and ready tutorial to - it is not comprehensive but should be enough to get novice Mechwarriors at least moving in the right direction. Hopefully PGI will build on it and add on other tutorials for weapon systems, navigation and so forth.

[Mista Whizzard]

Havn't played the patch yet, but seems that there may be several positive changes in this patch. A tutorial finally, HSR changes... however I thought the patch notes/changelog was pretty vague... but still no hardcore mode.

Any movement yet on launcher polls for critical issues?

Edited by Mista Whizzard, 03 September 2013 - 04:27 PM.

[Nik Reaper]

This approach could work in the long run , but I would vote to reduce the wind up time to 0.5 and see how it feels as it now reduces the dps the gauss does as the wind up is an a part of the firing-reload time or/and reduce the after fire reload time to include it.

[Felio]

About time lights got some love. I just hope you have more in store than better arm and torso movement. Realign their hitboxes to make them more durable, for starters. I've been running with 5 armor on each side torsi on my Jenners, and it's yet to become a problem.

Ravens and Cicada are ridiculously easy to leg, enough that I see them as free kills.

Same with Commando, simply because one alpha strike blows them to smithereens. Spider, I have yet to play the new patch.

[Least Action Jackson]

I'm liking the direction this patch went. I'm seeing a lot fewer alpha strikes, and the emphasis is on maneuvering and shot placement, since each shot counts for more now. Thumbs up!

[funksoulbrother]

being colour blind I find it really difficult to see when the guass is ready to go as all the grrens and reds just look the same I have to physically look at the bar to see, by then my target has moved, not a huge fan of the change as it stands I would like to see a guass ready icon or something easy to see on the HUD something not in green or red please

[knight-of-ni]

Will the gauss rifle no longer explode if destroyed while in an uncharged state? Seems logical.

[Deathlike]

I haven't much to say at the moment. The UAC jam rate is too generous... it went from 1 out for 4 shots (25% jam rate) to 1 out of 7 shots (15% jam rate). It should be closer to 20% (1 out of 5 shots). Right now, you're infringing on the LBX10/AC10/AC5 territory with the overly generous benefits.

Flamers do need a look at for sure... also with MPL and LPL (both a tad too hot, plus a range buff is needed).

Also, NARC needs to be looked at seriously.. since its usage is pretty low and LRM boats don't really benefit from it (it has little synergy at the moment over TAG).

Additionally, the Gauss firing length should be closer to 1.5 seconds instead of 1.25s (so that window to fire is twice as long as the delay).

I'm still very disappointed that mediums didn't get actual speed buffs (Blackjacks need them the most, specifically torso twisting for the 1DC) and specifically turning/accel/decel... it's relatively incomplete.

Edited by Deathlike, 03 September 2013 - 04:27 PM.

[Orzorn]

Sybreed, on 03 September 2013 - 04:00 PM, said:

I'm fine with the Gauss rifle change... except that unless you're really at long range, you're getting the short hand of the stick vs other ballistics. You need to have 2 to make the charge worthwhile, because firing one + managing the charge + cooldown is not very rewarding.

I don't know, that 2000 m/s is pretty damn rewarding.

I was getting killed with it that I never would have before (of course, the ERPPCs would have been getting the kills, but that's besides the point).

The Gauss, I find, is still good for snap shots as well. 2000 m/s means that, at any range, you have a really, really small chance of missing.

[DocBach]

Great changes for game balance today. I think both the ER PPC's and Gauss rifles now have a bit of character to differentiate themselves from standard ballistics, giving them all their place. PPC's do burst damage to one location still, at the cost of rate of fire, Gauss rifles take a bit more finesse to score shots at low heat, ballistics like the AC/10 are a compromise between the two.

For the Ultra AC cannon balance, as much as people hate the idea, I think the best balancing for Ultra cannons, especially with Clan heavy caliber UAC/10 and UAC/20's coming soon, is to treat them like the burst function from other FPS games, where the two shots point of impact is offset by recoil - perhaps the larger the caliber, the more effect of recoil. If such a change was put in place I'd also lower the rate the weapon jams, so it can put out quick DPS, but not as concentrated as currently which will help alleviate complains when people get instantly cored by UAC/20's that keep the same mechanics as the UAC5.

[3Xtr3m3]

Thanks for the post, info, and future direction roadmap Paul. It is greatly appreciated by us Noble Mechwarriors.

[Scromboid]

Aggressive updates until launch....

Cool. Get to it. I imagined you would have a more defined idea than "I'll have him look at it".

[AxeHammer]

thanks for the update.
Looking forward to more changes that create specific roles for weapons and chasis

Edited by AxeHammer, 03 September 2013 - 04:34 PM.

[Hellcat420]

leave the uac's alone, they were fine before the buff, and they are perfectly fine now.

Edited by Hellcat420, 03 September 2013 - 04:40 PM.

[DocBach]

Hellcat420, on 03 September 2013 - 04:36 PM, said:

leave the uac's alone, they were fine before the buff, and they are perfectly fine now.

will they be fine when uac10s and uac20s launch? Maybe a little foresight to consider when adjusting uac mechanics.

[Tvae]

You're looking for ways to diversify weapons? I have a really good idea for PPCs. Yeah, they look cool, have high heat and do nice damage, but they're really just a long range, accurate weapon currently. They have nothing that really defines them as the weapon we all know they're supposed to be - screaming hot lightning throwers. They should feel very powerful, but difficult to use. That difficulty is in handling the heat.

They are described in lore as being weapons where firing even two of them simultaneously is something that is pretty hard to bear for mech pilots, with three being almost suicide (Awesome pilots are braver men than I), and four? Well... double heat sinks are fairly new technology again, and I'm not sure I'd personally risk it until the tech improves a bit more. Even putting lore aside, it's how you've been balancing the weapon already, distinguishing it with that fact. So, my suggestion is to distinguish that element further... Make it the only weapon with ghost heat. It's a unique, interesting mechanic that increases the heat of using that weapon in groups, which makes perfect sense for a weapon that is supposed to be very heat unfriendly.

Personally, ghost heat never made much sense on any of the other weapons (except maybe AC20s). Also, the line of how many weapons it takes to cause ghost heat always seems to land in weird places (LRMs are stackable in ways which make equal missle counts cost different amounts of heat), and the system is still bugged in a few places (AC/2s have weird chain fire heat). I like the idea for ghost heat as a mechanic, and it works great at preventing larger numbers of PPCs. But it doesn't make sense for a lot of the other weapons.

Now, there are a few other places where it does its job well. AC40s are slightly less common, though such builds usually had their own issues anyways. I presume the SRM limits were in anticipation of the buffs they've been getting since, and LRMs are always spiking between OP and UP among the general populace, so it couldn't hurt to have the ghost heat for future 'OP' times. However, these all could have been fixed with other, smaller nerfs that are easier to understand for their respective weapons. I won't go into any of those here, but ghost heat just feels odd on a lot of other weapons, and kills more valid builds than OP builds it prevents. Plus, it seems the perfect way to distinguish PPCs and ER PPCs. Only downside is that it's a bit more work to re-balance a few of the other weapons that might be a small bit stronger without it.

Edited by Tvae, 03 September 2013 - 04:51 PM.

[Chronojam]

You gotta understand it's hard to be optimistic after the tragedy of the past half a year.

[SIN Deacon]

SSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!

[rawrcat]

Moving forward to a world of brawlers.