Alistair Winter, on 08 October 2013 - 02:28 PM, said:
Do you ever miss that feeling of dread when you see the most deadly battlemechs in the BT universe? Like that feeling when you're playing Doom 2 and you run into a
Cyberdemon and all you can think is
"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod, don't panic, don't panic, don't panic! Fear is the mindkiller!"
Even in WoW, I remember a slightly raised heart beat during the early days, when the game was still new and you ran into an enemy player with epic PvP gear and some kind of fearsome PvP title.
In MWO, there's none of that. You'll see a team with 7 assault mechs and they'll probably still only do 200 damage each. Two of them are stock green Champion mechs, running around shooting randomly at buildings and trees. The guy that ends up doing top damage is a Spider with a PPC.
Of course, I'm a big advocate of equally powerful mech classes, as long as everyone is free to choose any mech without consequences. You'll often see me on the forum, arguing that light mechs and medium mechs need a buff. But in my heart of hearts, I wish certain assault mechs were just death incarnate, to the point where a whole team would panic at the mere sight of them. And I'm not just talking about assault mechs being powerful, but also the sense of dread when you know that they are probably piloted by some of the best pilots in the game.
We'll still have that with CW, I guess. Some merc companies will get a reputation for their skill. And anyone who's a member of the Wolf's Dragoons is going to be a big deal. But I still want to bump into an Atlas on the battlefield and just gasp "
MY GOD!"
TL;DR - Blah, blah, nostalgia. Games were so much better when I was young. Since Wolfenstein, FPS games just aren't what they used to be.
All mechs should be equally essential
in their role. That does not mean that a Scout Mech should be able to go toe to toe with an Atlas with only needing to run in circles for tactics. To have ANY chance, a Light Mech should either need to bring friends (the classic using 3 Locust to course larger mechs) or some REAL savvy tactics and hit and fade warfare.
Instead, we have an Atlas that is a lumbering brute able to level anything in front of it, but that's just ***, it's so slow and clumsy, very little actually stays in front of it. So we get a single Spider with a large laser and MGs, running around it's feet with impunity, especially since half the time, directs hits don't register, and those that do, don't transfer correctly. (I think, but am not sure, this is partially how the damage mechanic and hit thing work in conjunction. It seems, at least, that if I nail a spider from the side, with 2 AC20 at once, like it counts it as a 40 pt single strike, not 2 strikes for 20. In other words, almost half the damage gets wasted in transfer, instead of the first shot tearing off the arm, then transferring the remaining halved damage, and the second shot hitting the torso directly, if that makes sense).
Simply put, a solo spider, against a fresh solo Atlas, should need to be a significantly better pilot than the Atlas to win. Right now it seems just the obvious, with the Atlas having a higher learning curve to actually be effective, and almost any ***** able to run in circles in a Spider.
If 20-35 ton mechs were supposed to be just as effective prime battlers as Heavies and Assaults, no one would build and field the larger mechs, as they are vastly more expensive and much more tactically limited in speed and mobility. And that's the issue I see, the balance FPS crowd want to be able to take a Scout and go toe to toe with an Assault unit. That is simply nonsense. One does not take a solitary Corvette against a Battleship and live to tell about it, and that is the Combat difference in this analogy. The Assaults are supposed to be the single most effective, but least versatile killing machines, with each class below being more versatile, but less inherently destructive.
We do not see this, and thus, I see an Atlas or a Spider in my Boom Jager, I'll go hunt the Atlas every single time. Even when I hit the Spider, half the time it doesn't register, whereas I can ambush and blow that Atlas to kingdom come. Think about that. Does it REALLY sound right and "balanced" when one would rather face off against a 12 Million Cbill "Avatar of Destruction" than a lowly 1.5 million Cbill scout?
We need reasons to WANT to use all units. We need reasons for Scouts to actually IDK, go Scout something? Lase for Missiles and Artillery, disrupt the rear? Assaults should be dreaded when they arrive, but due to their low speed should be such that one usually does NOT use them due to their slow speed and versatility. Most of the toe to toe battles should be done by the Mediums and Heavies because of their very versatility (and affordability). We currently have none of this, as even in the 12 man ques few people have any incentive for the "role warfare" touted at inception, and instead, Lights are just wolfpack hunters, and it all still devolves to cap races or furballs, with little in between.
Anyone else miss those Missions in MW2, 3 and 4, where you had to escort something, so you needed to be able to do a certain minimum speed, but still needed enough fire power to fight what you found, so you were by mission parameters FORCED into a Medium or Heavy? Or the fast recon missions where you needed to avoid detection, so an ECM scout was the only sensible choice? Or when you knew you were defending an important Objective from an all out Assault, so you brought the biggest guns possible, period?
(Though I liked the split assault mission in MW4 Mercs, where you face attackers at the factory, then another unit far to the North, then have to be able to get BACK to the Factory in time to face off two waves of Assault Mechs. So you needed tons of firepower, but could not afford to be slow)
The laack of mission with those parameters is part of why the roles are so non existent in this game.
Edited by Bishop Steiner, 09 October 2013 - 12:43 PM.
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