- 1st: It is likely everyone will be able to own Clan mechs, not just Clan players, and that they will be arriving before the Clans are even a playable faction / factions exist in CW.
- 2nd: Clan mechs won't be "more powerful" than Inner Sphere 'mechs. More on that below.
One, PGI is horribly, horribly wrong (lack of competitive testing we've often vocalized against from the start) and Clan 'mechs will be vastly more powerful just due to the nature of things like 2-slot DHS, reduced slot usage for Endo, XLs that don't kill the 'mech, etc.
Second, PGI is right and they nerf Clan mechs so badly that they are no longer Clan mechs in anything except skin.
.. assuming the Second doesn't come to pass, but the first does (which in my opinion is FAR more likely due to the nature of them), here's where I have an issue: If Clan mechs are even moderately more powerful than IS mechs, and everyone is allowed to buy them, you've just thrown out the usefulness of the entire 'mech library.
While the cynical might suggest that this is to make us buy brand new 'mechs ASAP and "upgrade", I don't really think that's the intent: But that is precisely what will happen if this is allowed. It will mean a short term cash boost for PGI no doubt, but in the end, it will utterly break the game if left unrestricted. I doubt there will be a % clantech limit or anything like that in any given drop, after all.
Basically every 'mech you own right know, including your Phoenix 'mechs, will go straight in the trash pile when the Clan pack comes out unless, again, they are restricted to Clan faction players with some sort of other balancing mechanic (asymmetrical tonnage/players/something!). There will be literally zero reason to drive a Shadow Hawk if the Shadow Cat is available that does everything stronger, faster, and better in a 10 ton lighter package, period. Again, even if the guns aren't terribly OP, unless they completely rechange all of the weights & crits... they are going to be OP in other ways.
Anyway, I would be more than alright with a handful of exceptions - allowing the very top ranked players in the NPC-run factions to run Clan tech, or perhaps leaders of mercenary units running Clan tech wouldn't bother me much, but again, if they allow anyone to drop Clan mechs as any other mech, it will outright crash the "mech economy."
Thus this petition to keep Clan mechs in the hands of Clan players and vice versa, finding another way to balance Clan vs IS than "both sides can own all the mechs." I want the IS 'mechs to stay viable in this game and if players have the option for both chassis, it is outright impossible.*
* Before anyone brings up MW4, I would like to strongly remind everyone that in 3068+ the IS has gained a LOT of new technologies that helped dramatically we don't have right now. Even then in Living Legends a solid Clan light cost roughly the same resources an IS Heavy, so were a rarity on the field because of that. Also in Mech4, we only ran puretech in Leagues; in pug games most people put Clan tech on the IS chassis, making the tech base moot. So it's worth noting where past games went wrong/right on this, and why it would be in particular disastrous for MW:O with it's "owning mechs" mechanics.
Edited by Victor Morson, 29 October 2013 - 05:54 PM.