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AC, on 15 November 2013 - 11:52 AM, said:
No YOUR missing the point. Your looking with a microscope when you need to back out and consider the system as a whole. Who cares about the 7k. Maybe you let it take an AC20, maybe not.... the point is that right now the slots are generic. You can't balance the individual chassis. So the mechs that seem OP can't be balanced with slot limitations. Once you add in the limitations and create some chassis to chassis balance, then maybe the underperforming mechs like the Trebs will seem more desirable compared to the OP mechs we field now.
The details matter. Whether or not you like/use/care about the 7K is irrelevant. However, limitations that pertain to other related mechs DO matter. This means hitboxes, hardpoints (# and locations), the mech scale... details matter. There's VERY little that would make Trebuchet better at this point in time, as anything other than a poor LRM boat that the KTO is better at being.
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Not to mention that you can give the mechs a unique flavor. Maybe the Hunchie is the only medium with an AC20, maybe trebs are the only mediums with LRM's and JJ's, maybe Awesomes are the only mechs that can take 4PPC or 3ERPPC.... the point is that the chassis have no uniqueness. I was looking at an Orion last night, and decided not to buy it because it didn't do anything that any of my other mechs could already do. This is ultimately going to impact PGI's bottom line and the longevity of the game.
Lots of mechs ARE unique, but the question you have to ask yourself is that unique attribute a positive or negative. The Stalker's high arms are a positive thing... so whether or not they carry PPCs, they will still be very successful at hill humping with lasers. The Trebuchet's large arms are a NEGATIVE thing... where they are easy to blow off and are large... and the worst part is that they often carry 50+% (at worst, they carry like 80+%) of the weapons. I speak of things that are not just from a labbing side, but a usability side.
Besides the Awesome's terrible arms and hardpoints won't make carrying 3-4 PPCs optimal. It's like saying the Boar's Head can reliably shoot short light mechs that are less than 50m in front of it. That's simply not the case. The Atlas's default cockpit view makes it invariably difficult to shoot light mechs, especially with the rather low arm positioning... sure it has articulation, but that won't help you shoot what you cannot see.
The point is, you have to match the lab side of building a mech with the "actual usage" side of it. We can debate what is and isn't a good mech, but the point is that limiting hardpoints doesn't magically make bad mechs suddenly better. It's as simple as that. Only a confluence of factors can change a mech's usefulness, so you can't just ignore the details. It's like asking for the opinion about the Spider... it still sucks, but the only real factor that has changed from its debut until now is the poor state of HSR.
Edited by Deathlike, 15 November 2013 - 05:33 PM.
