Joseph Mallan, on 03 October 2013 - 06:43 AM, said:
But isn't this like saying that putting more Medium lasers on a Mech cause Atlases carry the most armor ruins the game for other Mechs? The problem isn't a couple streaks, its lots of streaks. I don't see a single player posting a build with less than 4 SSRMs. And those that do I don't see complaints about.
As with PPC's, it wasn't the boating that was the problem, that was just a symptom. Thus "ghost heat" didn't really address the problem, and just added complications. The real problem with PPC was that they had lowered the heat on them, primarily, amid other beneficial changes. They could remove "ghost heat", now that they've put PPC heat back where it should be, and you'd rarely ever see anyone boating them, as they're just too hot.
SSRMs are in a similar position. You see the boating as a problem, and I say it's just a symptom of the real problem. The real problem is that SSRMs are an auto-hit weapon. This, combined with the "out of the blue" damage boost they were given, makes them attractive to some people to boat.
I am not sure what could be done to SSRMs to make them actually balanced, under the current mechanic. Reducing the damage tends to make them useless, in most people's eyes, so that isn't really an option. It's my belief that until they can rework SSRM's mechanic into something that isn't exploitable, vs any mech, they should just remove them from the game. They can bring them back when they've found a balanced solution.