Sandpit, on 27 November 2013 - 05:44 PM, said:
I'd have to disagree a bit. Clan warfare isn't steeped in honor (although they'd like everyone to believe that) so much as it's steeped in: They had limited resources and could not allow conflicts to deplete those resources. They came up with strict guidelines to dictate what could and could not be attacked and how warfare was handled because they couldn't afford another Inner Sphere fiasco. There are tons of moments in lore and canon that show just how dishonorable clans and clan members can be. It's less about honor and more about logistics. So take that you test tube clanners! That's what I think of your "honor" PTOOEY!

It's true that is how the original system started out, and in most part the Majority of Clan Mechwarriors keep to the structures of the system, however, it is a system that was designed to utilize the smallest amount of resources for the objective. The idea being to prevent waste, attrition and destruction of resources.
The Clan Mechwarriors were bred to be excellent pilots and superior gunners, and this applies equally across all ranges. Look at the Maddog, this is in its prime and common variants a Ranged Fire Support battlemech. It is designed to provide Missile support for the star or binary.
By forcing a 'Balance' to short range brawling would actually 'hurt' the game as a whole because it would garantee that in IS vs Clan, IS mechs would come loaded for bear at range, and just hammer the Clan mechs down before they can get to range with overlapping LRM and ranged ballistics.
Look at the random 12vs12 drops presently, group comes in that has little ranged fire support and ecm verses a group that has a good amount of ecm and plenty of LRM/Ranged fire support. The first group usually gets chewed to bits before they get to range, and the amount of damage means mech deaths snowball rapidly. And I have been on the recieving as well as giving end of that equation.
Personally they should fine tune the damage down, maybe the ranges a little, not take a nerf bat to the mechs. As much as writers/original intent is with regard to the Clans, smashing the 'effectiveness' of clan mechs down too much will result in a huge amount of disatisification from those who have grown up with the clans as they are.
Now this system does need balance, but the clans don't need to be complete brawlers. There are those of us who are clanners, some of us prefer to provide support roles within our units.