5
Roland, on 31 October 2013 - 08:16 PM, said:
But it's SIXTEEN tons of weapons. Not even including ammo.
It's 260% of the tonnage. Of course it's a more capable loadout.
How could it possibly be balanced if it weren't more capable?
I'm making fun of the comparison, because you seem to think that there is something wrong with 16 tons of weapons being more powerful than 6 tons of weapons.
It's 260% of the tonnage. Of course it's a more capable loadout.
How could it possibly be balanced if it weren't more capable?
I'm making fun of the comparison, because you seem to think that there is something wrong with 16 tons of weapons being more powerful than 6 tons of weapons.
If doing 90 damage before shutting down and getting killed is OK than I guess 1 ton of ammo is enough for two AC5 as well. That's 15 volleys and 150 damage before you run out of ammo and die! Sure it takes up 283% of the weight, but I guess that's the price you pay for more damage, more range, pinpoint targeting, camera shake, and no beams of light that lead every enemy back to your position.
Get real man. 90 points of damage with 6 ML is going to kill exactly nobody. You're never going to get all that damage on a single component unless the ***** is standing there for 10 seconds and letting you do it. Against a real opponent you're going to have that damage spread out across at least 2 and more likely 3 or 4 components and if it's a light mech you're not even going to hit for the entire duration to begin with. The only person dying from 90 damage and an overheat is the person firing it.
If we're going to make a comparison let's make it an even one. here is a Hunchback 4P with 5 ML and 21 DHS. It can burst 6.25DPS for more than 40 seconds and caps at 4.44 DPS. It has an alpha of 25 and can do it every 4 seconds. The 1 second beam duration requires that you aim at a single point on a moving and twisting target if you want to do all your damage to a single location. As it turns out the weapons and heatsinks require 16 tons, the same as 2 AC5 without ammo. It also takes 38 critical slots. http://mwo.smurfy-ne...85d31b6086f642a
Now consider a dual AC5 setup. You will do an even 6.67 DPS until you run out of ammo. Your alpha is only 10 points but you do it every 1.5 seconds. If you are at long range you need to lead the target but you only need to have your aim for an instant and you will do full damage to a single component. You also have more than twice the optimal range and over 3 times the maximum range. The target will get camera shake and smoke effects and there is no obvious tracer to lead other enemies back to your position. The weapons take 16 tons and if you take 6 tons of ammo you'll have 180 rounds (90 vollets of 2) which should last for most matches. That brings the total weight up to 22 tons. We're a full 6 tons heavier than the lasers. However, you only need 14 critical slots for the entire setup. There is no need for any external heatsinks so you have 24 critical slots to work with. On the 50 ton Hunchback you can take Endosteel to gain 2.5 tons at the loss of 14 critical slots. Now we're only 3.5 tons heavier and still have 10 critical slots to work with.
So what do you end up with? The ballistic mech is only 2.5 tons heavier yet it's far more effective. The range alone means that the laser mech can be killed before it's even able to cause any damage at all. If they do get close enough to damage they need to hold their beams on you for an entire second to do their full damage. If you are moving and twisting it will be literally impossible for them to hit a single component and their damage will be spread across 2-4 different areas of your mech. Even if you are standing still the camera shake and hit effects will make it difficult or impossible to isolate your components at any meaningful range.
If they somehow got within short range than the laser mech is probably critical in the CT or ST already. The ballistic mech most likely has a moderate but not severe amount of damage to their entire upper torso and one or both arms. With pinpoint fire it will only take 2-4 volleys at most to finish off the laser mech. The laser mech will need at least twice as much time to bring a component down from half health and even if they could manage that given all the movement, twisting, and camera shake, they will be dead long before there is enough time to do it.
It's simply no contest. This is all on 50 ton mechs that favor energy weapons as well. As you move up in mech tonnage the balance shifts overwhelmingly in favor of ballistics. The relative weight of the ballistic weapons becomes easier to manage and as long as the hardpoints are available you can simply add more weapons and you will increase the effectiveness of your loadout by an equal amount. At the same time, a heavier mech provides no exrta critical slots for more heatsinks so the laser user is essentially capped at the same heat dissipation regardless of which mech they choose. The only thing you can do to increase your damage is to take larger lasers for a bigger alpha strike but then the ghost heat system punishes you for doing that and it cripples your DPS to a fraction of what it should be. You end up stuck at a plateau of both alpha and DPS and there is nothing you can do about it. That's one of the main reasons why mechs like the Awesome 8Q are completely useless. It's a big slow easy target with the firepower and dps of a mech that has half it's tonnage.
If you don't see the problem with this there is nothing more that I can explain. All I can suggest is that you make an energy-only mech and see how well you do with it.
Edited by BrockSamsonFW, 31 October 2013 - 10:20 PM.
