220 replies to this topic

[Diego Angelus]

verybad, on 21 November 2013 - 11:02 AM, said:

Yeah non stop, but with the ten second timer between shots How still are people playing in these 'competitive' matches?

Most of the ones I've seen fired don't even hit the target, just make a bunch of noise and 'splosions (finally)

They're great for driving a superior force off a capping point however.

I saw few kills with those and got killed once. It has many uses you see enemies gathered then fire the arty and watch them move around while pop tarts have clear skies to shoot, and if those are well coordinated then it can even turn game around.

[3rdworld]

Taemien, on 21 November 2013 - 10:22 AM, said:

Source? Something seems fishy about this statement, so I'll allow you to explain yourself a little more before I say why.

He is quite right. It isn't unusual to see 20 or more during the course of a 12 man.

Drunk Canuck, on 21 November 2013 - 11:17 AM, said:

Who needs a source? Clearly you don't play comp 12's so you are oblivious to how much they are used. My team is in Marik Civil War right now and when they got the buff, everyone started using them. Our first match after the buff, the other team was raining them down on our heads when we made contact. Now every team carries at least 6 of them between 12 players, plus UAV on top of that.

And Seismic was nerfed, which made consumables the most powerful module.

Edited by 3rdworld, 21 November 2013 - 11:28 AM.

[Victor Morson]

Stop trying to fix what is not broken.

Artillery & Airstrikes offer just enough value for their cost (in terms of both price and what you sacrifice) to make them attractive options. If you were to nerf them in any way they would fall below that line. They are right on it now, and I'm very happy with them.

Also they are far from random. I'm re-learning how to position myself to not give them an edge; people still like to ridge down near a cliff, so they can get popped from behind.

[gjnii]

The headshotting element is both very random and a non-issue against some mechs (Well I don't know for sure, but so far I've yet to take a hit to my atlas's window from one)

They're doing hitbox balancing right now, so I'd say either fix the hitbox or fix the headshotting nature of them. Or does someone out there still feel like catapults and jenners needed a nerf?

The fact that they can headshot a handful of select mechs really doesn't add anything to the game, and it definitely detracts from it.

I pilot Atlas's mainly, so I only care so much. if you lowered the damage I probably would try to ignore it, so maybe change the angle of impact or something?

Also, you can certainly launch an artillery strike while you're also firing your guns at the enemy (try it if you don't believe me), so to claim that you have to stand there exposing yourself to fire and contributing nothing else while you deploy your airstrike is mistaken.

[cheapcamper]

Arty strike is fine as it is， it discourages camping and act as a counter to heavier mechs with great amour of armor, and it is not like you cannot walk away for it anyway.... I like how it makes the game more dynamic by covering a push or buying time for retreat, if you nerf it it will just be neglegable like the old days

[Taemien]

John MatriX82, on 21 November 2013 - 10:45 AM, said:

Hmm play high level 12 mans and see it for yourself. It's not uncommon that each one of the 12 players brings an arty or airstrike. Given how seismic has become worthless and the dmg of those consumables has been considerabily increased.. oh there! A free module slot! = arty spamfest.

Drunk Canuck, on 21 November 2013 - 11:17 AM, said:

Who needs a source? Clearly you don't play comp 12's so you are oblivious to how much they are used. My team is in Marik Civil War right now and when they got the buff, everyone started using them. Our first match after the buff, the other team was raining them down on our heads when we made contact. Now every team carries at least 6 of them between 12 players, plus UAV on top of that.

Unless something's changed, you can't spam these things. Thats why I said the post was a bit fishy. There's a teamwide global cooldown on arty and airstrikes.

Not sure how to respond to them being used in 12 mans. On one hand its great that they're useful enough to warrant it. On another its pretty sad that 12 man players are actually getting hit by these things often enough to warrant their use.

[Satan n stuff]

3rdworld, on 17 November 2013 - 03:34 PM, said:

I would just like to see headshots not be possible with them.

That's actually a very good point, random hits like that really shouldn't instakill. Maybe dial the damage back down to 20 and increase the splash radius to keep the total damage output the more or less the same?

Edited by Satan n stuff, 22 November 2013 - 04:02 AM.

[John MatriX82]

Taemien, on 22 November 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

Unless something's changed, you can't spam these things. Thats why I said the post was a bit fishy. There's a teamwide global cooldown on arty and airstrikes.

By spam I mean that every time that the global cooldown is gone, you're under another rain, because now everybody brings it, often also an airstrike. And as far as I know global cooldowns are lowered when everyone employs improved versions so..

Edited by John MatriX82, 22 November 2013 - 04:23 AM.

[B1zmark]

Troutmonkey, on 18 November 2013 - 06:13 AM, said:

That's the problem, it's occurs too often. The damage from arty itself is fine but the random headshots are the killer.
How can a weapon that does 0-10% damage OR 100% insta-kill seem fine?

Stop stripping your head armour then.

edit* Changing head armour based on tonnage would make this less destructive against larger mechs who find it harder to get out of range of the strike zone.

Edited by B1zmark, 22 November 2013 - 04:42 AM.

[3rdworld]

Taemien, on 22 November 2013 - 03:28 AM, said:

Unless something's changed, you can't spam these things. Thats why I said the post was a bit fishy. There's a teamwide global cooldown on arty and airstrikes.

Not sure how to respond to them being used in 12 mans. On one hand its great that they're useful enough to warrant it. On another its pretty sad that 12 man players are actually getting hit by these things often enough to warrant their use.

They have a 10 second CD. You can pretty well spam the hell out of them.

B1zmark, on 22 November 2013 - 04:36 AM, said:

Stop stripping your head armour then.

edit* Changing head armour based on tonnage would make this less destructive against larger mechs who find it harder to get out of range of the strike zone.

The round does 40 damage. more than enough to headshot any mech in the game.

One of the matches against BSk last night 2 mechs were headshot by Arts in a single game.

Edited by 3rdworld, 22 November 2013 - 08:16 AM.

[Almond Brown]

Troutmonkey, on 18 November 2013 - 05:59 AM, said:

I'd disagree. There are plenty of fun ways to die, most of them involve glorious mech on mech action with each side shooting the {Scrap} out of each other, before your mech finally gives after taking too many blows. Walking for one minute and then randomly dieing without so much as seeing the enemy isn't very fun.

And any weapon that can instantly kill you, weighs nothing, generates no heat, takes up no crit slots, and requires only a millisecond to fire needs to have some downsides.

Having Betty announce an incoming strike would be completely fair in this instance, but the chance of insta-kills from headshots really needs to go.

Heck they could make arty awesome by making it an actual weapon system with one ammo, and a laser designator that must be held on the target location for three seconds to call in. I'd weight this at a tonne and 3 crit slots, seeing as it only has one use. This should only be available to lights and maybe mediums.

You got caught standing still for more than 5 seconds, one time, and the whole thing needs to be trashed? Wowzers. I hope a sniper never gets you, might as well close up the GD Game Shop for the QQ that would cause.

[Almond Brown]

3rdworld, on 18 November 2013 - 06:26 AM, said:

In a game with no respawns. Random deaths are not fine at all. Specifically ones that require no trade-offs by the other team.

40K c-bills (each or 80K x 24 max allowed per Team = 1,920K c-bills per Match for spam based usage) and the requirement to get into a good spot to drop it cleanly, and no Mech can carry more than 1 of each type, is NOT no trade-off. Sorry, a 12 man winner likely makes just around +/- 1mill. C-Bills in total earnings and would need to make 2+ to cover just the Arty costs. Yahh we WIN, reward? SFA!

That is like saying the Gauss sniper gives up nothing to shoot you for 15 full damage out to 660m and it ain't fair as you only brought 6 ML's.

Edited by Almond Brown, 22 November 2013 - 12:14 PM.

[Vodrin Thales]

John MatriX82, on 22 November 2013 - 04:22 AM, said:

By spam I mean that every time that the global cooldown is gone, you're under another rain, because now everybody brings it, often also an airstrike. And as far as I know global cooldowns are lowered when everyone employs improved versions so..

Teamwide cooldown is only 10 seconds as was previously stated. Between the delay and the time they take to fully go off, this means they can darn near be chained constantly. If they are nerfed I think it will be an increase of the global cooldown.

[Victor Morson]

Vodrin Thales, on 22 November 2013 - 12:44 PM, said:

Teamwide cooldown is only 10 seconds as was previously stated. Between the delay and the time they take to fully go off, this means they can darn near be chained constantly. If they are nerfed I think it will be an increase of the global cooldown.

This reduced cooldown (opposed to the original minute) is why they are useful.

Every time something is useful, some people are going to cry about it. The only thing I would accept is preventing one-shot kills to cockpits; I've almost never seen that - a total of 1 time in about 100 matches - so it's hardly a high priority, but that is a little questionable. Everything else - including the cooldown - is fine.

If you couldn't fire them in a team environment SOMEWHAT rapidly, they'd be less an area denial weapon and also be a hard sell for anyone to take, since there's a good chance they'll be sitting around the whole match unable to fire it.

This stuff is fine as is. They should be focusing on improving the accuracy upgrade or making it do something else entirely, because that's the only part of the Strikes that still needs work.

[Mcgral18]

I'd prefer a 15 plus second cooldown, as well as a damage change. Less daamge per shell, but more shells sounds like a nice compromise, 20 damage but 20 shots. It would prevent the instant killing via headshot, although I wouldn't mind up to 30 damage. A fully armored head wouldn't be destroyed.

The fact it's possible for that to happen isn't quite right for balance.

[Corvus Antaka]

Big red smoke - run.

more disturbing issue is how many people just stand around and get pounded by the arty strikes.

[Troutmonkey]

Colonel Pada Vinson, on 23 November 2013 - 02:01 AM, said:

Big red smoke - run.

more disturbing issue is how many people just stand around and get pounded by the arty strikes.

It's disturbing how often I don't see it. I can keep an eye out for mechs trying to flank me, I can't keep an eye out for a plume of red smoke magically appearing behind me causing instant death seconds later.

[Roadbeer]

Troutmonkey, on 23 November 2013 - 09:51 PM, said:

I can't keep an eye out for a plume of red smoke magically appearing behind me causing instant death seconds later.

Didn't you say in another thread that you realized that you only had 1 pt of armor on your head?

[Seddrik]

IMO strikes are way too common, way too fast and way too powerful.


PUGS & 12 MANS
Many a match I've seen back to back strikes. Not actual fights, lazers, ACs, etc. Forget torso twisting. Just strikes. Back to back. It really takes away from the fun of a round where you expect at least a little skill to be involved. Whats the point of targeting armor part if its all wiped out by one strike.. much less multiple strikes?

Just now I began a round, walked half the map in an assault, only to have a strike pound me (never did see it coming even tho I was panning left and right as I approached one enemy. I was totally fresh yet my leg was blown off without even a fight. Yeah. Lots of fun. I just logged because its so fun.

Make a 30 second (or even 1 minute) timer between strikes at least. That's from the start. Seen matches within the first few seconds off they go...

Please reduce their damage. All the theories and battle tech lore aside. If the game mechanic robs / reduces the need for skill in a battle and results in instant or near instant death... whats the point?

And its not really cost prohibitive. 40k cbills per? So what. If you win you'll make 100k still even after the choke hold on cbills came into effect.

Used to be a lot more face to face battles IMO. Right now people have gone back to sniping and now spamming AOEs. Bring back the fun of the battle please.

Edited by Seddrik, 18 January 2014 - 09:19 PM.

[Lukoi Banacek]

If you increase the global timer on it, I don't see a need to reduce the damage in the slightest.