Lupus Aurelius, on 10 October 2013 - 04:36 PM, said:
The Dual ERPPC mech - 4 volleys across 12 seconds, total 80 damage, until shutdown
The Dual AC10 mech - 9 volleys across 20 seconds, total 180 damage, and no shutdown
The Dual AC5/UAC5 mech - 14 volleys across 20 seconds, total 140 damage and no shutdown
The Dual AC2 mech - 34 volleys over 17.7 seconds, total 136 damage, until shutdown
The Dual Gauss mech - 6 volleys over 20 seconds, total 180 damage, no shutdown, negative temp. trend
The dual ERPPC mech, with 14 additional heat rating, and 1.4 additional cooling per second, can only volley 4 times before inducing a shutdown, with the possibility of taking internal crit damage every time you do. And that is if you only fire the ERPPCs, fire anything else and it get worse. And you are saying this is balanced? With double the DHS for the ERPPC mech, 30 crits just in DHS out of 46 to 51 crits available, and that's counting center torso, legs, and head. So 7 of those crits are not even usable for DHS.
But we'll go with the high figure, and say 44 max crits that you can get DHS in. So, having to utilize almost 3/4 of available crits that can fit DHS, in order to use 2 ERPPCs and get on a heat neutral map 4 volleys before overheat. you have a max of 14 crits to fit weapons, and the heat curve gets even worse for everyone you add, and guess what, the only thing you have tonnage and crits for is, guess what, energy weapons.
And you call this balanced? Hardly.
And what you are ignoring is that there are plenty of mechs that have only energy and missile hardpoints, with the ERPPC being the only pinpoint damage dealer in those 2 weapon groups. It is the only choice those mechs have for that damage type.
What you are advocating, therefore, is in order to compete in a sustained engagement, that those mechs are sub-optimal, and that one should choose a ballistic capable mech to have sustainable pinpoint damage, which all the ballistics have.
When it comes down to only one good choice, that is not balance.
This charting of damage shows exactly WHY ERPPCs are balanced. 80 points in 12 seconds. The only thing that can match that is The dual AC10 combo - something only 3 mechs can even mount.
Dual AC/10s with 2 tons of ammo each is 26 tons and 18 slots. That also gets a max 30 shots. It's also only going to do that damage out to 450 meters. Its tradeoff for this and generating minimal heat is that's about it for weapons loadout. With only 30 twin shots (60 total) wasting them for targets beyond 450 is generally unwise so that max of 1350 where you're doing 1 point from each gun is foolish. There is the K2, Jags and 3 Phracts (including Ilya) that can even carry it. Two 65 ton mechs and one 70 tonner. It's not that common but you see them and they're reasonably successful. Cool but lacking the UMPH that some of the other ballistic builds in those spots.
Dual ERPPCs - 14 tons and 6 crits plus all the DHS you can cram in. Same damage but out to 810 meters. 36% faster projectile speed for superior accuracy. Unlimited shots so you take every opening you can. Even out to the 1620m max range, there's no reason not to take the shot. Mountable passably well on everything 45 tons or heavier, especially shining on the larger mechs. It's the best per-shot pinpoint damage at long range in the game. The tradeoff is heat - repeated firing like is required in brawling will melt you. You need to get your kill with those 80 points of damage and get into cover to cool off. Fortunately the extra 12 tons of weight you save gives you room for other, cooler weapons to mount to play off against dual AC10 builds.
This is the whole balanced point of it. ERPPCs do pinpoint damage at the widest swath of range of any pinpoint weapon in the game - 1 meter to 810 meters it's 10 points. Unlike regular PPCs, which run cooler, it'll go point blank if needed.
Dual ERPPCs will do 20 points to a single hit location in the 1 or 2 seconds you're exposed and they'll do it out to 810 meters. Every other weapon that wants to get even close to that range requires exposing yourself to fire for longer durations and will spread your damage out via multiple shots over your target. That, or they won't have the same range.
The problem is that it IS balanced now for the way MW:O works and the power of pinpoint damage from 0-810 meters for only 7 tons and 3 crits. It leaves room for plenty of other weapons. The only way to effectively balance that, as we've seen from the absolutely terrible PPC meta that went on for months, is with appropriately high heat. Now it's got a niche that it works in and works well. In that niche it gets used terribly effectively. It just doesn't get to be superior to every other weapon in the game.
AGAIN. Like it was when it had lower heat. I realize you enjoyed that but pretty much everyone else hated it and hope those days never, ever come back.