Many people speak from experiences in previous Mechwarrior multiplayer titles, where clantech was just a way of saying "better." Others speak from their experience in the tabletop game, where advantages, to a degree, obsoleted an entire generation of technology. (I disagree if you play in BV balanced matches, but I digress.) Varying degrees of emotional bitterness surround discussions of clan technology, really preventing any meaningful discussion from happening - either from genuine Clanners who have been harassed, ostracized, and marginalized by a community that embraces the Succession Wars era, or from Inner Sphere players who feel like Clanners are just cheating.
Many people suggest that Clan tech should just be better and more expensive. I disagree. An economic solution is a good way to just separate haves and have-nots in a competitive multiplayer action game. In an MMO, the only barrier to money is time.
I suggest, instead, a more elegant solution. Just make clan weapons different.
As an action game, there are a thousand more variables that can be executed than in a tabletop game, simply by the addition of real time. Clan ER Lasers are longer ranged and do more damage? Well, they have a longer recycle rate, as well. An IS Medium Laser can pump out 1 shot per 3 seconds, an IS ER Medium can recycle once per 4, while a clan ER Medium takes 5 seconds to recharge.
Clan Pulse Lasers are the win? Well, now instead of a quick and instantaneous burst of multiple laser shots, you fire a continuous beam that you have to keep trained on your moving, juking target for a precious quarter to half second to net your increased damage.
Clan ER PPCs omgwtfbbq? In exchange for not taking feedback at short range (how I would model PPCs' minimum range is that the firing mech would take the traditional PPC HUD crackle if it's fired point blank), and boosted damage, you get not only increased recycle time, but your projectile is smaller, making it more difficult to score hits.
I think you get the idea.
In addition, I think that the heat curve could definitely use some remodeling in MWO. This could allow Clan weapons to really emphasize their increased heat load, and make those tiny clan DHS a necessity rather than a luxury, and make clan weapons mounted on IS mechs into a real decision - can you spare the crits for heat sinks, or do you want to ride the redline?
Here, in this context of an action simulation, there's a real chance to express balance in a more unique way than just the handful of statistics that make up the Clan armory in the tabletop game. And I think that if we encourage game-building like this, we can get a satisfactory experience for both sides of the Kerensky Cluster.
Edited by GreyGriffin, 13 November 2011 - 03:53 AM.