215 replies to this topic

[Sturmbringer]

Joseph Mallan, on 24 September 2013 - 07:56 AM, said:

FYI. As a Former Grunt, I would... Try using a M203 or Mk19. Accuracy with some weapons is not an imperative. Now for a Sniper... the Gauss is now a stupid weapon!

But you hit 1, 2 & 3 right on the head.

Also FYI. In my country every male is forced to join the military for 8 months, Im trained in the STG 77 and various hunting rifles. Just to imagine close quarter combat in a city or a sniping scenario using a weapon which has to be charged and LOOSES charge again is insane.

[Equalizer]

I voted "Not effective enough" simply because it feels sluggish to use with the charge mechanics. Don't get me wrong here - I do okay to very well with it due to the projectile speed, HOWEVER it is annoying as hell when you lose your charge just because you need an extra half second to line you shot or undercharge trying to hit a light that's about to duck under cover. Granted, I'm not as skilled using it as 90% of the community seems to be, but still I have some in-game experience with 38 mastered mechs, half of which can (and sometimes do!) carry gauss. Also, we could argue all day if its DPS is fine or if it even matters, since it is high alpha "sniper" weapon, but the bottom line for me personally is that it does (it is currently 3 DPS at best). I actually tried fighting other long range builds at about 500-ish meters with different gauss setups (2x LL/1 gauss Orion and 2x Gauss Jags) and the result is I lose like 80% of the time to ALL other ballistics, except AC20 and most mixed energy/ballistic builds. Triple UAC5s or quad AC5s for instance will melt me to slag with barely being able to pull 2-3 shots. And that in my book is not very effective long range weapon.

[Alistair Winter]

Sturmbringer, on 24 September 2013 - 07:49 AM, said:

My opinion: The overall DPS of the Gauss has been nerfed to the ground. I cant hit jump snipers anymore, therefore its useless for countersniping or snapshots against enemies who are ridge humping or leaving cover just for a second.

Not trying to start a long discussion here, but in case my advice is useful to someone out there:
Usually, people who are hiding behind cover tend to be somewhat predictable. The most greedy players will emerge from cover on the same spot repeatedly, as long as they do damage. More cautious players will try to emergy from cover in slightly different places, around the same area. After they've taken a shot, they'll predictably vanish for a moment and then reappear. If you're using a gauss rifle, this just means you need to charge the gauss rifle so you have it ready to fire when they're visible enough for you to take that shot.

Someone even asked me in public chat today if the charge mechanic is still implemented, presumably because the person thought it was odd that I made the shot as soon as I had a clear line of sight.

Brixx, on 24 September 2013 - 07:51 AM, said:

Well, making kills is always something that you pretty easily achieve with High-Alpha-Pinpoint Builds. That does not imho make it that op. Same story with the 2xAC20 Jäger I pilot. Easy kills, yet I deal a lot more damage/contribute more to the group with my other mechs. Those "OP" builds are op when your enemy makes them that way, i.e. getting totally distracted by chain UAC5s or panic whilst being shot at by dual gaussies... once you adjusted to that, they are not that much of a big deal.

I'm not sure I understand. How do your other mechs contribute more significantly to the team, while doing less damage and scoring less kills? Unless you're winning battles single-handedly by ninja capping, of course. Someone getting 4 kills isn't always enough to win the battle, but if you have two or three players with the ability to get easy kills, then everything else becomes trivial. Especially since so many players are so sick of capping / defending base that a lot of tactics go out the window.

Huntsman, on 24 September 2013 - 08:00 AM, said:

This is the first time I have ever in the history of any MechWarrior game since MechWarrior 2 said these words but...
"If you are effective with the current gauss rifle, then you're a better player than I."

Hehe, I know the feeling, I said the same thing about people who were still able to successfully poptart even after PGI introduced monster vomit-inducing cockpit shake. I could hardly use jump jets to move around at that point, let alone try jumpsniping.

Corpsecandle, on 24 September 2013 - 08:00 AM, said:

Fair enough, I hadn't considered the speed increase as a defensive measure and you've made a good point. However, I still don't know if it's worth it (for me) since most of the time I'm pretty good at picking targets that are too busy to return fire (or at least was when I was using gauss regularly).

You're probably right that other builds work better for you, but your argument here is actually backwards, because the benefit of attacking an unknowing enemy is much higher for the gauss rifle than, say, LRMs, UAC5s or medium lasers. I just need that Atlas to carelessly show me his back for a little over a second to strip his rear armour and turn his CT yellow. He has no warning, as would be the case if ballistic shells started pinging off his armour or the LRM warning started sounding.

[Corvus Antaka]

I think it's perfect. Still OP if anything, 0 heat, 30 dmg from a dual setup, unbelievable sniper with the new flight times.

[Gaan Cathal]

Adridos, on 24 September 2013 - 07:55 AM, said:

It was untouched, though.

It is better than ever before, but it has that mechanic associated. You master the thing and you'll get the strongest gauss to date. You don't and the weapon's more or less useless for it's weight to effectivness ratio.

Incorrect. The charge-up time has effectively been added to the recycle time, reducing the ROF. It's not a hugely significant decrease, of course, unless you add in the DPS lost on shots not makeable with a charge-time (brief target visibility).

[Brixx]

Alistair Winter, on 24 September 2013 - 08:25 AM, said:

I'm not sure I understand. How do your other mechs contribute more significantly to the team, while doing less damage and scoring less kills? Unless you're winning battles single-handedly by ninja capping, of course. Someone getting 4 kills isn't always enough to win the battle, but if you have two or three players with the ability to get easy kills, then everything else becomes trivial. Especially since so many players are so sick of capping / defending base that a lot of tactics go out the window.

Because most teams operate on the basic swarm intelligence and the IQ-level of a bread stick once in combat. Outmanouvering and distracting is ways to easy. Just think about "Don´t hunt the Jenner!" - this friendly exists with a reason.
People are always at the same places doing the same **** - taking advantage of that is not exactly that hard AND disturbing/distracting DOES in fact help without giving you that many kills/damage. And again, you can do a lot of kills with your OP-builds, but you hardly deal that much damage. Mostly I see like around ~600 DMG on these builds, along with like 6 kills. Most of them are just killsteals etc. I see so much Damage take place on Mechs that are basically out of the game, i.e. Atlas without Arms, Stalkers with the same stuff, freaked out XL-guys with a torso side wide open and just running around trying not to die but hardly hurting anyone etc... instead you could like focus on the dangerous guys etc. But nope, people go for the kill instead of contributing something one way or the other. If its all about *********** at Theta... well, don´t **** with them and do something.

[Lensman Prime]

Comstar Focus Group, MavRCK and Kosmonaut made really good arguments for this being a broken mechanic in the game. Both in the lore and in gameplay.

Thread is "About Gauss and Moving Forward Feedback" page 21.

The game mechanics are wrong, not as bad as the UAC5 mechanics were with the key stroke recovery, but not good for the game. Thankfully we're still in beta .. oh, wait ... we're not.

C'mon guys get some focus groups to help with this stuff.

[Monky]

Gauss feels fine. It's an incredibly good weapon with a high tonnage price and risk of volatility that has a skill gap so you actually have to think 'is this the best weapon for my playing ability'.

It fits the feel of a high tech deathmachine flinging slugs of pain out to the horizon at ludicrous speed.

I'm happy. I'm sorry other people are not happy. I think there are improvements to be made in communicating the state of the gauss rifle in game (charging, charged, not charged) like a simple indicator over/around the arm crosshair (since that is the common focal point when aiming). Other than that, I like it.

[PEEFsmash]

I think they actually got this one right. I'm proud.

[Funkadelic Mayhem]

The PPC needs a charge time as well.

[Ashnod]

I Can't even use the Gauss rifle anymore after coming back and attempting to use it, why is the only indicator of the charge a sound based one, Cant hear? Cant shoot to bad. (at least spam clicking the gauss doesn't even work if you cant hear it charging/readying)

[Alistair Winter]

Ashnod, on 24 September 2013 - 12:16 PM, said:

I Can't even use the Gauss rifle anymore after coming back and attempting to use it, why is the only indicator of the charge a sound based one, Cant hear? Cant shoot to bad. (at least spam clicking the gauss doesn't even work if you cant hear it charging/readying)

Next to your crosshair, one of the six yellow group indicators will turn green when the weapon is charged.

[VIPER2207]

i'm fine with the charge-mechanic, the damage, the crit slots and the weight.... but i wish it would have greater range and higher travel speed.... with current range and speed, it's no weapon for sniping, and the potential damage on destruction plus the charge-mechanic make it useless in close-range... so it's both, but can't perform realy good in any situation

[Livewyr]

I don't mind the charge-up mechanic... but it needs to last longer.

(Russ says it's supposed to mimic the hold-breath mechanic of FPS snipers... but no hold breath mechanic lasts only as long as the stabilization...)

[Eleshod]

Gauss is fine and the poll clearly shows this.

[Perigrinial]

I voted other, because it is about useless now. Mostly due to poor implementation. An audible queue and the bars in the weapon group area turn green? With all the noise, explosions and stomping, I don't always hear the audible. It also needed a display or indicator near where I am aiming! So now I glance up and down and miss shots for no good reason. I understand the concept, but again, very poorly implemented.

[VIPER2207]

Rufus the Brute, on 24 September 2013 - 01:20 PM, said:

It also needed a display or indicator near where I am aiming!

the weapon-group icon around your crosshair becomes green when the rifle is charged, yellow when idle, orange while charging...

[Drehl]

well... I liked the new mechanic from the first day of implementation and I still like it.

imo it could use a decreased cd (to bring the overall dps with the new charge back in line with the old rifle) and a more obvious (and/or customisable) sound and "indicator".
maybe it would also be good the make in only explode while charged.. to offset the (more or less) complicated charge. (but imo this is just "nice", it's also ok as it is.)

the weird side-effect of the new mechanic is... it made the gauss far harder to use in mixed builds than it is in gauss-only builds. I don't think that was their intention...

[Voivode]

iHover, on 24 September 2013 - 07:15 AM, said:

They have made it dang near useless. If the where going to add the delay they should have put something on the recital to let you know its "charge" status. Id use ER PCC for sniping before Id bother with it. No delay and no need for ammo.

If you notice around your reticle there are several boxes. Each of those boxes represents a weapon group. If you charge up your gauss you will notice the corresponding weapon group box next to the reticle goes through the same charge up phase and turns green when the weapon is ready to fire.

[Alistair Winter]

I just decided to do a 20-match test of my double gauss Cataphracts. 10 matches done with the CTF-3D. Average damage is 470 and my KDR so far is 7,67. Got 6 kills in one of the matches. I used to feel like I was exploiting the game with this build, but after reading this thread and seeing how many people think the gauss is a bad weapon, I have a clear conscience

The thing about the double gauss is that enemies only need to make a single mistake before it's all over. Jagermech with XL engine running away from me? Gone. Jenner standing still? Gone. Catapult facing me head-on with that nice, fragile cockpit? Gone. Very few other builds can take advantage of mistakes so quickly and decisively.

Drehl, on 24 September 2013 - 01:31 PM, said:

the weird side-effect of the new mechanic is... it made the gauss far harder to use in mixed builds than it is in gauss-only builds. I don't think that was their intention...

Oh, absolutely. I've stopped using it on my Centurions. Not the first time one of PGI's changes has an unintended side-effect, which the fans totally predicted. Less synergy = more boating.