94 replies to this topic

[Lorcan Lladd]

Start macro;
 
Hold down (right mouse button);
Wait 750ms;
Release (right mouse button);
End macro;

But that does not help you much if you need to be able to fire at will for the duration of the match, does it? It merely automates the process of charging and firing the weapon.
So the below could be more helpful.

Start macro;
 
On hold (key) {
Hold down (right mouse button);
Wait 2000ms;
Release (right mouse button);
}

Ah, that's better.
Automatically charge the Gauss Rifle as many times as necessary while you hold down a specific key, so you need only release it to fire.

[Jack Spade Ward]

Duymon, on 14 September 2013 - 11:03 AM, said:

Gauss got buffed as a sniper weapon, but slightly nerfed as a brawler weapon. However, that doesn't stop people from having a near 0-travel time super low heat 15 pinpopint strike when people hug them.

It takes more skill to use the gauss rifle now and there are still many people who are still dangerous with them. It still amazes me how so many "skilled snipers" prepatch can't adapt to a new mechanic to a good sniper weapon.

You really think so? A sniper weapon needs to shot in that milisecond, not a nearly second after!!! Sniper weapons are precise weapons! The gauss was nerfed, no doubt about it! This is Mechwarrior or am i mistaken? In BT and MW Gauss weapons always done 0 heat, very heavy and a long reload time. This mechanic is just stupid! And dont talk to me about skill, that is BS! The current mechanic STILL benefit boating! If you want to mix your gauss with another weapon, guess what, it just wont work. And what about hiting your own mates on a fight? Due to the delay? Its just stupid! Put the gauss has it was!

[Jazzbandit1313]

The gauss reminds me of a single shot .50 CAL. Its powerful, but slow to reload, and with an incredibly fast round. PGI pretty much sacrificed the ability to fire instantly for a much faster and better projectile speed. which really balances it amazingly

[Dirkdaring]

The change is stupid. It was only put in to stop 2xERPPC + Gauss boats, and failed miserably at that as people just charge, release and press the other button at the same time.

There are times when I just do a facepalm at the developers, they really do have no idea what they are doing anymore.

[MadChemist56]

Lightfoot, on 10 September 2013 - 01:35 PM, said:

No, it's a bad fix because it makes the Gauss unplayable to new players and many current players, but gives it to experts and Gauss-boats. ......

It's one of those ideas that sounds good, but no one can make it work. Suggest doing something that allows everyone to use the Gauss Rifle. Games need a level field of play.

Just wanted to say that I enjoy the new mechanic but in doing so, I think I'll just poke a few holes here/toss in my 2 cents.

I'm by no means a "gauss expert" and I do not boat gauss. In fact, the only mech I currently run with a gauss rifle is my Phract 3D and there is only one gauss on it. First game with the new mechanic, 5 kills - 4 of which coming from the gauss rifle and all of which at or below 400 meter range. Did I miss a few shots because of holding too long? Yeah sure but it really wasn't that hard to figure out the mechanic and get the timing down.

The "problem" as I see it, if there is one, is when you need to pop off a super quick shot (like trying to hit a light buzzing around you at close range). In that situation, if you don't have other weapons, you're just hosed - hopefully you have buddies to help you. It's not really a problem because that's obviously not the intended use of the GR anyway.

[Lunatic_Asylum]

Gauss is perfect right now, and no tweaks are necessary anymore for the weapon.

P.S. One question: macros seem to be a way to script a fight, if one is being honest, which is against the rules. How does it get accepted by PGI? Why would one ever use them?!

[Vassago Rain]

lunticasylum, on 16 September 2013 - 09:57 PM, said:

Gauss is perfect right now, and no tweaks are necessary anymore for the weapon.

P.S. One question: macros seem to be a way to script a fight, if one is being honest, which is against the rules. How does it get accepted by PGI? Why would one ever use them?!

A macro is me telling my keyboard or mouse that one press will do a sequence of actions.

For instance, in crysis 3, people will have macros that let them press one key to change from underslung grenade launcher to a gauss module. So instead of going through the menu, and pressing 10 buttons, you press one, and it's the same result. If the game had a hotswap button, there'd be no need for this, but since it doesn't, and we live in an era where Joe Bob can program his mouse, not having a feature won't stop people from having said feature.

[Numba1assassin]

I'm posting because all my friends stopped playing this game, and therefore so have I. It's a little sad to see so much less activity and attendance in the teamspeak channels. I believe too many were disgusted with the excessive heat nerf's, and especially the Gauss nerf. I kind of want a refund of my money now. I suppose all I can really do is give my 2 cents on how the rework should have culminated, and hope PGI takes it into consideration.

First off, I feel like snipers as a whole have become too severely gimped to be viable anymore. There were only 2.5 real sniper weapons in this game, and the 2 principal ones have been gimped into uselessness. Brawlers are reigning supreme right now, and there is still an overwhelming boating issue with LRM's. The changes should have gone more like this:

The ERPPC is supposed to be the Sniping/long range version of the PPC, however it draws an extraordinary amount of heat to be viable now. The minimum distance requirement for the ERPPC and ONLY the ERPPC was the correct implementation. Add in the heat penalty for having more than 2 ERPPC's firing was a good implementation as well. PGI should have stopped there, not the additional heat that came with the last patch. Especially not the loss of projectile speed, that was stupid!
The regular PPC should have been reworked to be more of a medium range weapon with some brawler capabilities, I mean it is the shorter range version isn't it? If PGI was so insistent on applying a charge up mechanic that the now awful Gauss posses, they should have instead of applied it to the regular PPC. That way the manually charging short range version could have had some gameplay similarities to the Mechassault version, thus have some built in nostalgia. That way, the prechargeing ERPPC excels any sniping, and the manually charging medium range version has a skill curve that can potentially boost DPS, and people can relate to (those who have played Mechassault). The shorter range PPC shouldn't have a minimum distance threshold thus accentuating its shorter distance use, and it's manual charging mechanic will hinder the addition of other weapon systems that would cause a larger alpha coefficient. WIN WIN!

Therefore since the hated manual charge mechanic has been applied to the short range PPC's, it can be removed from the Gauss rifle so that it can once again be used as a sniping weapon. Why? Because who the hell snipes with a weapon that THEY MUST MANUALLY CHARGE BEFORE THE SHOT! It's just not a ballistics mechanic! You put a bullet in the chamber, and have your gun ready for firing! How about you ask Law enforcement or the military if they would prefer to use rifles they have to manually charge before firing? The overwhelming weight, too few rounds per ton, and long cooldown were significant drawbacks enough. Now add precharging, and cooldown on too of that just makes it rediculous.

Now this comes full circle to the problem that we had before the nerf, which is how do we balance the 2xERPPC+Gauss mechanic. I personally felt that this wasn't such a big issue. There aren't very many sniping weapons in MWO, and naturally your going to clump the very few that are available. The reason this starting becoming a problem was because PGI kept nerfing PPC's over, and over, and over. Thus people needing to undermine all of the excess heat with the overwhelmingly heavy Gauss rifle. Now the Gauss rifle can't even snipe, so what's the point of using it. I would have approached it by applying a lot of little fixes. Increase the cooldown of the Gauss by .5 secs, but in turn increase its projectile speed. Prohibit the grouping of ERPPC's in the same weapon group as the Gauss. Possibly lump a heat penalty with ERPPC's and a Gauss in which the Gauss would accrue penalty heat as if it were another Gauss. And of course, give Gauss a minimum distance threshold equal to the of the ERPPC, so that brawlers have an advantage if they close the gap. That's it, don't touch it anymore!!!!

I feel that the culmination of all of my suggestions would have made a better approach to the horrendous patch we just endured. Hopefully get some players back, although unlikely now that MWO has a bad rap, and GTA just released. I pray MWO can make a comeback, and I suppose I'll check the patch notes in about a month to see if MWO has reverted back to decent gameplay before it went all mystery fun house.

[Enigmos]

Gauss is a railgun, not a cartridge based weapon. A cartridge based weapon uses the energy stored in the propellant to force the projectile from the barrel. A railgun uses electromagnetism to pull the projectile from the barrel. Different mechanics. It makes sense to have to charge up the capacitors to properly energize the coils.

[Joseph Mallan]

OriginalTibs, on 17 September 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

Gauss is a railgun, not a cartridge based weapon. A cartridge based weapon uses the energy stored in the propellant to force the projectile from the barrel. A railgun uses electromagnetism to pull the projectile from the barrel. Different mechanics. It makes sense to have to charge up the capacitors to properly energize the coils.

As long as you are not calling it a Sniper weapon you are 100% correct.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

Jazzbandit1313, on 04 September 2013 - 09:07 AM, said:

I believe that the recent changes have balanced the Gauss Rifle quite well. The delay on the trigger makes it a more risky and difficult weapon to snipe with, and the projectile speed and weapon health are a bit more realistic IMO. It's still has the benefit of low heat and high damage output with the penalty of high weight. the rifle feels much more natural to use on my mechs now.

So... let me get this straight... a non-canon solution of allowing a charge up time for gauss is ok... but having the canonical "minimum" range requirement... and leaving the high ability to explode on you and lowering ammo isn't a viable balance tool?

No, screw that, screw the "Charge up" time... it's a {Scrap} mechanic by a {Scrap} dev to "fix" a problem that wouldn't have existed in the first place if they had just given the damn thing it's minimum range, and lower ammo amount.

[Spokig]

I agree OP, the guass is perfect now. Gives a risk while brawling but still makes it easy to snipe with.
getting those quick shots on lights and leading is just as easy as its always been.

Nuff said.

[Lupus Aurelius]

Spokig, on 17 September 2013 - 11:16 AM, said:

I agree OP, the guass is perfect now. Gives a risk while brawling but still makes it easy to snipe with.
getting those quick shots on lights and leading is just as easy as its always been.

Nuff said.

Jacking up PPCs 2 heat and ERPPCs 3 heat, after already having increase both 1 heat and adding ghost heat and overheat penalties was totally unnecessary. Right now, they are hotter than they were in closed beta with the ghost heat system, and everyone, including PGI, said they were too hot then. When the first nerf with the 1 heat increase, ghost heat, and overheat penalties were released, you almost never saw a mech with more than 2.

For those mechs that have only missile and energy hardpoints, PPCs are the only pinpoint weapon they have, In order to use lasers with the 1 sec beam duration, you have to keep yourself exposed during that whole time, whereas ballistics you can fire and duck under cover, and LRMs, hell, you don't have to leave cover at all. Added to that, in order not to drag the laser damage ove several areas, you have to keep it on that point the whole second, despite terrain and you movement, and theirs. Moving over rough terrain, you or the target, will jiggle that beam all over hell and creation.

Gauss, with the current mechanic, is pretty useless unless the target is stationary or coming at you. Targets moving from cover to cover can now do that without fear of a gauss hit, because by the time you react, then charge, it's behind cover again. As a sniper, most of you time is setup, prep for the shot, aimed at a location waiting for the target to expose itself. The charge timer effective negates being able to get the shot off in time on targets that are moving between close cover points.

People keep using the stupid excuse of "you're unskilled" or " I have no problem with it" trying to justify why the mechanic is ok. In no way is that a validation. There is no precedence in BT/MW for this, from an engineering point of view you would never design a weapon this way, and the main reason was people were complaining about the dual PPC/Gauss combo. But with the cycle times on those weapons, all 4 secs each, and the heat mechanic, it pretty much ended up with chain firing PPCs until too hot, then taking shots with the Gauss until you cooled down. There was nothing uber about it, and it worked particularly well on the Misery.

So yes, they were overnerfed. They had limits before the latest changes that were sufficient. It got a little speed and 2 more health, but at the cost of being able to lead a shot and fire instantly, with too short a window to keep it as effective as it was. And it was not overpowered then, the issue was people wanted to stand in the open going dakkadakka, but the big ol' mean gauss hurt them.

PS - forgot the obligatory "you're wrong", " you must be brain damaged", and my favorite " 6 million years of hominid evolution to evolve a cognitive consciousness, if this is how you use it, go back to the trees and start over"

[Corpsecandle]

I understand that their goal is to create a 'sniper only' weapon, but I question if such a weapon has any place in the game.

I'm an exclusive pugger, and this paints my impressions. I've never dropped in a group, and I don't have any desire to do so in the immediate future (this may change once there's a universe to interact with, but right now I don't see the point). As a pugger, I find that bringing 17 to 18 tons of over specialized equipment isn't worth the skills I would need to build in order to use it properly, much less the risk that it introduces to my mech. In my gaming environment no one is ever going to hang back to protect me and no one is ever going to give me a heads up that a snarl of lights is coming my way. In short, I'm going to get into some sort of brawl in just about every game. Bringing such a resource intensive weapon system that performs so poorly in the every-man-for-himself sort of combat that a pugger lives in is just ludicrous.

So I'm just not going to equip it anymore. As a weapon in my game, it's just a liability.

Now I'm sure there will be others who say they make it work just fine in pugs, to which I would simply ask: why bother? Does the Gauss, as it stands, bring enough to the table to be worth the gimicky firing mechanic? I don't see how it does. I'm willing to bet you would be more effective if you swaped that thing out for something else and redistributed the tonnage to heatsinks, alternative firepower, or engine.

Edited by Corpsecandle, 17 September 2013 - 02:12 PM.

[Dimento Graven]

I too question the logic of adding the additional firing delay to make the gauss a "sniper only" weapon. If that were the case, please add a minimum range to the weapon, that would make more sense than an extra delay, because even WITH the extra delay it's possible to head shot Jenner moving at max speed at 30 meters (which I've personally done).

Anyway it was **** poor decision which resulted in all the 'average joes' immediately switching to the UAC5, which proved its balance leanings towards a dumbed down MWO.

The AC/2 and AC/5 should have their original TT minimum ranges applied to help balance them, they are the only two weapons which do not retain their original minimum range now.

Edited by Dimento Graven, 17 September 2013 - 02:34 PM.

[PLEXI]

I primarily run Dragons mounting Gauss Rifles as a main weapon. I absolutely detest the charge up mechanic mostly for lore and realism reasons (Gauss explosion when the capacitors are not even charged?)... BUT The Gauss is still a fantastic weapon system, especially with the speed increase, and barely takes that much more effort than before to use correctly.

I almost always disagree with PGI's choices in the development of this title, but in a round about way this has succeeded in what needed to happen. The Gauss should be more of a niche long range weapon, and the charge up mechanic does make it slightly more difficult to use in CQC emulating the minimum range.

[Morikuro]

OriginalTibs, on 17 September 2013 - 11:01 AM, said:

Gauss is a railgun, not a cartridge based weapon. A cartridge based weapon uses the energy stored in the propellant to force the projectile from the barrel. A railgun uses electromagnetism to pull the projectile from the barrel. Different mechanics. It makes sense to have to charge up the capacitors to properly energize the coils.

There's a double charge up now, is the issue. We're still getting the old 'recycle is charge up time' since the gauss can expode whenever it is hit, but you also have to charge it up before the shot.

Edited by Morikuro, 17 September 2013 - 02:56 PM.

[A Man In A Can]

You could technically say that the cooldown time is the time it takes to reload the sabot round into the firing chamber which is separate from the charging of the capacitors if you're willing to entertain that idea.

[VikingFarmer]

I love the new guass rifle last few days I've been compiling footage for this video. I figure I would let my actions and game play speak for me

[Lightfoot]

I just fiddled around with the Gauss all day, using 2 on a Cataphract. Pretty useless in actual combat. Anything else is much better even at 600 plus meters. I get the feeling from reading the posts that the people who like it, are using something else, they just like not being hit by Gauss rounds.