1978 replies to this topic

[Bristov]

First reaction to your clan explanation is that you are basically going to ruin the clans. With the proposals you have described you are changing clan tech to inner sphere tech. What is the point of clan at this juncture? If game balance is the BIG concern, why can't you make simple changes?

I.E

1. Only change heat requirements on Clan weapons...increase it enough to where it limits how many weapons you can possibly fire. This lets players keep the advantages of clan weapons but they will only be able to run a few at a time...this would keep damage output comparable with inner sphere.

Or....and

2. Change battles from 12 vs 12 to 6 vs 12 (Clan vs Inner sphere) Keep skirmish option for 12 vs 12 Inner sphere.

Keep it simple...you are going down the road of making things too complicated or drastically changing things so much it can no longer be called Mech. Warrior.

Lastly, if people are expecting complete balance with the clan, then they have no idea of the original game which this MMO is supposedly emulating.

Now to keep down the flame responses...these are just ideas that came to mind. I am sure there are smarter people with better ideas that would work, but what MWO is planning just does not sound like Clan anymore.

[CPL Madison]

you need to leave the clan mechs and weapons as they are, otherwise its no longer mechwarrior

heres what I think you should do:

Take a look at EVE Online Alliance Tournaments which use a scoring system for each ship

In Mechwarrior for example each 12 man team could have say a maximum 100 points for their team


IS Assault Mechs could be worth 15 points
IS Heavy Mechs 10 points
IS Medium Mechs 6 points
IS Light Mechs 4 points


Clan Assault Mechs 25 points
Clan Heavy Mechs 18 points
Clan Medium Mechs 12 points
Clan Light Mechs 8 points

Now I have just plucked these numbers out of the air but you can see where im going with it

I think this would go a long way to fixing the balancing issues


feel free to flame me

Edited by CPL Madison, 18 December 2013 - 12:04 AM.

[BurningRanger]

I don't like all the messing around with the weapon stats. Clan weapons will still be better than their IS counterparts and you know people will kill for any slight advantage they can get.

I don't know, if it's been mentioned yet (cba to read all the 54 pages), but in Classic Battletech there is something called BattleValue (BV). Every small piece in a Mech does have a BV. All added up together will make the BV of that Mech. As Clan tech is supperrior you'd pretty much end up with a DireWolf having like double the BV of an Atlas (don't know exactly, but you get the point). Taking this into the matchmaking can't be too hard (if something like this isn't already implemented). People can then choose to be the lone guy in a Daishi or part of the double Atlas team.

Another thing I'd suggest: Don't mix Clan and IS in the matches. Always have all Clan or all IS on one side. Then you can use the Clan's team sizes "against them". A company of IS (3 Lances = 3x 4 Mechs = 12 Mechs; as is right now) would face a Binary of Clan (2 Stars = 2x 5 Mechs = 10 Mechs).

Also don't allow Clan weapons in IS Mechs and vice versa.

[WarPig AU]

DEVS..READ THIS NOW...
YOU ARE GOING ABOUT THIS WRONG!!!
TO SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATE CLANS INTO THE CURRENT VERSION OF MWO THE REAL QUESTION IS...
HOW ARE I.S. MECHS GOING TO GET ACCESS TO THE CLAN TECH?
NOT "HOW ARE WE GOING TO ALTER CLAN TECH TO BALANCE THE GAME".

CLAN TECH SHOULD NOT BE ALTERED.

CLANS WIPED OUT I.S. FORCES BECAUSE OF THEIR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE.
ANYONE LOOKING AT BUYING THE CLAN PACK (MYSELF INCLUDED) IS ACTUALLY PAYING REAL MONEY.
MONEY THAT WE EXPECT WILL ALLOW US TO HAVE CLAN TECH, IN IT'S PUREST FORM, AT OUR FINGERTIPS WHEN WE USE A CLAN MECH.

YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WHEN YOU SAID "THE CLAN INVASION STARTED AN ARMS RACE" IN THE INNER SPHERE.
SO WHY NOT INCORPORATE THAT INTO THE GAME?

WHY?
BECAUSE EVERYONE PLAYING THE GAME FROM NOW UNTIL THE CLAN PACK COMES OUT WILL HAVE I.S. MECHS.
I.S. MECHS THAT THEY HAVE EITHER PAID MONEY FOR OR EARNED CB FOR.
IN ORDER TO MAKE THESE MECHS VIABLE (NOT OBSOLETE) WHEN THE CLAN PACK COMES OUT THEY SHOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO HAVE ACCESS TO CLAN TECH.

SO WE HAVE ESTABLISHED 2 THINGS THAT ARE ABSOLUTE TRUTHS.
1. CLAN TECH SHOULD NOT BE ALTERED FROM THE CURRENT BT UNIVERSE TO FIT THE GAME.
2. INCORPORATE INNER SPHERE ARMS RACE INTO THE GAME FOR INNER SPHERE MECHS.

THE QUESTION REMAINS...HOW DO WE INCORPORATE THE ARMS RACE INTO THE GAME?

SOME SUGGESTIONS ARE (FOR I.S. MECH CHASSIS ONLY):
1. A TECHNOLOGY TREE SIMILAR TO THE PILOT TREE (BASED OFF XP)
2. A SALVAGE SYSTEM.
3. PRICE POINT (CLANTECH IS RARER THEREFORE MORE EXPENSIVE).
4. POINTS SYSTEM BASED OF IN GAME PERFORMANCE (SEE STATS AT END OF GAME).
5. A COMBINATION OF SOME OF THESE SUGGESTIONS.

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS .. FEEL FREE

P.S. YES I AM AWARE I AM TYIPING IN CAPS...I AM VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS.

P.P.S. I HAVE 14 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN SOFTWARE TESTING AND TEST MANAGEMENT ... HIRE ME

Edited by WarPig AU, 18 December 2013 - 12:15 AM.

[Taemien]

Javin, on 17 December 2013 - 03:07 PM, said:

I think Clan tech should remain the same. To equalize everything just make clan mechs cast 1.5 or 2 x their tonnage in drops. Then Clanners can really show how much better they are.

Except that.. clanners aren't any better and many people chose clan over the years to cover their rear against IS opponents.

Look at this thread. Its evidence enough that the clan fanbois want superior tech just so they can rolfstomp anyone who doesn't choose clan tech. They don't want balance, they want weapons and mechs that can clean house. Now they are crying because their toys aren't what they always were.

Its why many of them didn't touch MWLL. Over there the Gauss Rifle was balanced between the two factions. Clan did slightly more damage per shot, but the IS one did slightly more DPS over time. Now we're seeing similar balance designs coming here.

I know many clanners out there aren't part of the clan fanboi bandwagon, and to them I am grateful. They are the few that make for good opponents. But you other scrubs that are complaining that your {Scrap} isn't OP are giving your peers a bad name. Do as they do, man up and show us how good you really are with what you are being given.

When the IS pushes back to the Pentagon Worlds, we'd at least like SOME competition when we get there.

[30ft SMURF]

So... just a reminder in case anyone was realy wondering... Clan Tech is just IS tech that was 'lost' for a long time. There is no reason clan tech wouldn't work in an IS mech. The only reason the clans failed to conquer the entire IS was due to their adherance to an honor based system designed to waste/risk the least ammount of lives. Apparently CW isn't going to have any bidding system for clan units to challenge a full company of IS mechs with only one star or negotiate other terms/conditions for victory.

That being said... The Clans are clearly not here. This is quickly becoming the Canadian Bacon spin on big stompy robots and continues with damn near every patch to become less about mechwarrior and more about some way to keep making money off of a game where your primary fan base would burn your facilites to the ground if it didn't require a passport to leave their country... From today forward I think I'll have to advocate the hostile takeover of PGI and maybe even the country they reside in as the freedoms they have taken go way beond any natural rights I'm aware of.

[Karl Streiger]

Clans wiped out IS forces because of superiority of there pilots.
Because i like abstraction - i always thought that the damage increase of the Clan Weapons - is simple a slight increase of fire power that couldn't be otherwise be implemented.

For example a average Clan Warrior is 3/4 same is a veteran IS warrior 3/4 - means in one on one both are equal.
Because of 2d6 - you simple can not make the clan warrior behave like 2/3 - the average clan warrior should only have a slight advantage over the veteran IS warrior -> thats why the damage of the weapons is increased.
(So instead of shooting just the large laser -> a clan warrior is capable of calibrating the system really fast - so that the same large laser hit instead a weak spot)

But hey - in MWO - we have allready clans - take those high elo players - and field them vs a average (500-1000 matches) elo player.
Both may use - the same Mech - the advantage of the high elo player could be hardly be measure able
So you need increased damage for ClanWeapons to give Clan players a slight advantage over IS Mechs even - when there pilots are equal.

[Ace Selin]

I am fine with how they are implementing Clan tech apart from the inability to alter the amount and distribution of armour, which I think will lead to some easy kills. considering weapons are being balanced separately I don't see the need for this restriction.

[BurningRanger]

30ft SMURF, on 18 December 2013 - 12:25 AM, said:

So... just a reminder in case anyone was realy wondering... Clan Tech is just IS tech that was 'lost' for a long time. There is no reason clan tech wouldn't work in an IS mech.

Sorry, but this isn't correct. Clan tech is not Lostech (=lost tech; technology that was lost over roughly 250 years of constant beating the {Scrap} out of each other, stomping facilities that produced hightech stuff into the ground on the way). Things like ER lasers, Streak SRMs and Double Heatsinks are Lostech. Clans are former IS people that left the IS before that tech was lost, yes, and they took a bunch of those hightech weapons with them, yes. But they refined them over those 250 years, making them even better than the old hightech weapons (if the R&D caste didn't make any progress on the weapons in 250 years, they'd be all fired, right?).
So there is actually a reason why Clantech might not work in IS mechs.

[FiveDigits]

With the currently proposed system a Clan Omni Mech is less customizable than an Inner Sphere Battle Mech.
An Omni can

• swap out weapons/ammo/misc equipment
  
• add Heat Sinks

A Battlemech can

• swap out weapons/ammo/misc equipment
  
• add and remove Heat Sinks
  
• switch engine
  
• adjust and distribute armor
  
• perform up/downgrades
  
  • Endo-Steel
    
  • Ferro-Fibrous
    
  • Artemis

The supposed advantage of the Omnis' ability to switch components and their associated hard points does nothing more than multiply the variants of the mech chassis.


This is in no way in the spirit of BattleTech. If you are imposing the canon limitations on Omni Mechs then you'd have to do the same for Battle Mechs (only field mods).

Edited by FiveDigits, 18 December 2013 - 12:58 AM.

[wickedlegendz]

Overall as far as the dev. team, the game, owners etc. I unlike as it seems many do, I have no complaints as I personally know what it takes to not only run a business but design, implement and create.

I do happen to have many, many ideas that may be of value and helpful though that only time and consideration will tell.

Now with that said on to the issue at hand of actually discussing and being apart of the solution instead of the problem lol .

In regards to the problem of bringing the clans into the game without detriment to the balance of it, like the game over all I have several ideas one of which I will mention but, unfortunately due to time constraints I will have to leave it at that for now unless someone i the creative department wishes to chat a bit about it and brainstorm on the other possible solutions I have thought about. from what I can see after being a MechWarrior as well as a MechCommander fan and player since they first came out, it seem to me that the most obvious and best solutions are at times the simplest.

What I mean by that I mean there doesn't necessarily have to be any changes to the clan mechs or clan tech. the clan mechs as well as the clan tech can be used virtually in the same manner as it was and has been since the clans were introduced into the original games without trying to balance out how they work or run compared to IS mechs. it really comes down to match balance, how and what mechs are dropped into a match. As it is, while the match balance may need a bit of refining still ( though I think a lot of the complaints comes down to how a pilot and team runs they're mechs as well as whether or not a randomly generated team works together or not ) it all seems to be working better than it did at one time. With the balancing system setup now we have semi or like mechs dropped on either side with a few adjustments to it to include clan mechs and to some extent the tech they're running with...
Now here's the trick of it, which I think not only follows cannon as best as possible in regards to how clans and clan pilots acted in the battletech world but, will go along way towards appeasing people in general. when clan mechs are dropped into match, if the amount of clan mechs are limited to say for example 6 per side out of the 12 dropped into each match and each clan mech being balanced as best as possible on each side with the opponents mech along with starting a whole new set of matches in which specific clans on each side may battle it out 12 on 12, 1 on 1, or 6 on 6 along with completely random clan only drops all semi based upon the battletech world history as in nova cat or ghost bear teamed up with IS groups or some clans battled against each other without going to far into the battletech history and taking away from the fast paced fun game that is already running and having to follow certain battles and historic out comes in the battletech world etc. While it might seem like that would drop the rate of people playing IS non omnimechs with a bit of adjustment to how said matches with clan only tech work like having one clan only match of whatever configuration and then those players having to drop into a random open match after the completion of that match. So that the players still have to compete not only alongside other IS mechs but against as well . I also think it would be a great idea to have tournaments of various sorts, which people can compete against each other and other preset teams of balanced mechs unless each team agrees to the match previously which also gives the player some say as to how they will drop as an individual or team or however is decided upon as far as that goes but, after thinking about it, that seems to be a very simple and yet effective solution the best solution to implementing the clans to many, many people who I know personally that have either left the game temporarily until the clans are put into the game or have yet to play. In regards to tournaments I would say that due to an individuals internet connection that is for some reason they're connection drops or whatever that the team not have to face another team of a now higher number or have the match end.. Maybe each team have possible fill ins in such an event or a random drop in or maybe said match be paused until said player can reestablish his or her connection and rejoin the match.
Again while I do have many, many ideas since I don't work for PGI and I do need to make money, I don't have the time to lay them all out in every possible configuration.. If you have any questions or would like to toss around a few ideas at some point feel free to contact me.
Have a nice day and thank you for your time,
WickedLegendz

[ravenkk]

GalaxyBluestar, on 17 December 2013 - 11:38 PM, said:

i'm thinking 8clanvs16 IS would be perfect and dropship mode 24-48vs 12 clans would be such a fun game! do we do fun games around here?

i think put Clan mech in a numerical advantage compare to IS mech would be the best, no need to altered

value of tech, no major complain and easily balance for the Dev and PGI.

if any one support idea like this sort and read this Please spread the idea around.

Edited by ravenkk, 18 December 2013 - 01:17 AM.

[Frost Lord]

Njal, on 14 December 2013 - 02:15 PM, said:

One of the things that helped the IS againt the clans was double tonnage and physical attacks which the clanners refused to use. So make a MadCat worth 150tons in matchmaking and allow us to kick it to pieces. In that case i would not care for weapons balancing.

yeah they should start by making it 2 lances to 3 that's only two short since clans fight in lances of five.

[Frost Lord]

WarPig AU, on 18 December 2013 - 12:10 AM, said:

DEVS..READ THIS NOW...
YOU ARE GOING ABOUT THIS WRONG!!!
TO SUCCESSFULLY INTEGRATE CLANS INTO THE CURRENT VERSION OF MWO THE REAL QUESTION IS...
HOW ARE I.S. MECHS GOING TO GET ACCESS TO THE CLAN TECH?
NOT "HOW ARE WE GOING TO ALTER CLAN TECH TO BALANCE THE GAME".

CLAN TECH SHOULD NOT BE ALTERED.

CLANS WIPED OUT I.S. FORCES BECAUSE OF THEIR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE.
ANYONE LOOKING AT BUYING THE CLAN PACK (MYSELF INCLUDED) IS ACTUALLY PAYING REAL MONEY.
MONEY THAT WE EXPECT WILL ALLOW US TO HAVE CLAN TECH, IN IT'S PUREST FORM, AT OUR FINGERTIPS WHEN WE USE A CLAN MECH.

YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WHEN YOU SAID "THE CLAN INVASION STARTED AN ARMS RACE" IN THE INNER SPHERE.
SO WHY NOT INCORPORATE THAT INTO THE GAME?

WHY?
BECAUSE EVERYONE PLAYING THE GAME FROM NOW UNTIL THE CLAN PACK COMES OUT WILL HAVE I.S. MECHS.
I.S. MECHS THAT THEY HAVE EITHER PAID MONEY FOR OR EARNED CB FOR.
IN ORDER TO MAKE THESE MECHS VIABLE (NOT OBSOLETE) WHEN THE CLAN PACK COMES OUT THEY SHOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO HAVE ACCESS TO CLAN TECH.

SO WE HAVE ESTABLISHED 2 THINGS THAT ARE ABSOLUTE TRUTHS.
1. CLAN TECH SHOULD NOT BE ALTERED FROM THE CURRENT BT UNIVERSE TO FIT THE GAME.
2. INCORPORATE INNER SPHERE ARMS RACE INTO THE GAME FOR INNER SPHERE MECHS.

THE QUESTION REMAINS...HOW DO WE INCORPORATE THE ARMS RACE INTO THE GAME?

SOME SUGGESTIONS ARE (FOR I.S. MECH CHASSIS ONLY):
1. A TECHNOLOGY TREE SIMILAR TO THE PILOT TREE (BASED OFF XP)
2. A SALVAGE SYSTEM.
3. PRICE POINT (CLANTECH IS RARER THEREFORE MORE EXPENSIVE).
4. POINTS SYSTEM BASED OF IN GAME PERFORMANCE (SEE STATS AT END OF GAME).
5. A COMBINATION OF SOME OF THESE SUGGESTIONS.

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS .. FEEL FREE

P.S. YES I AM AWARE I AM TYIPING IN CAPS...I AM VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS.

P.P.S. I HAVE 14 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN SOFTWARE TESTING AND TEST MANAGEMENT ... HIRE ME

thing is no one likes being on the side getting rolled ever. also the clan weapons weren't just gaffataped on, they would need to be modified and re manufactured so it wouldnt just happen over night so why not balance the game now then boost the weapons when/if they get to the point where the IS get more advanced mecks?

[Jo Biteme]

Dear PGI, firstly thank you for an enjoyable game. It has given me many days of stress relief. Regarding the new clan mech; I understand the limitations and translation mismatches when making an online game from a paper/board based origin.

Do keep the updates coming and keep the transparency going. There is too much hate going on here. Best thing to do is take it out on an enemy mech during a drop. Saved me from going insane with my daily job many times.

Have a good day .

[ATao]

I strongly feel that the suggested way of balancing clan tech is horribly wrong. It opposes the core principle of Battletech. Clan tech is better than any sphere tech in operation revival period. That is Battletech. That is the core. There's no need to screw it over and make upside down.

Now as table top balanced clan tech via honor levels we need our own rules to even things out a bit. There are two major parts here: mechs, weapons&equipment.


Mechs are the easiest thing to balance. Just allow sphere mechs to use clan xl engines, clan dhs, all clan w&e and that's it. Just like it was in MW3 and MW4 games we have enough sphere chassis with efficient hardpoint layouts and/or useful quirks (like high arm elevation on stalker and jager). If you use these chassis in conjunction with clan w&e they'll compete with any clan mech without a single problem.


Now it all boils down to balancing w&e. And I believe that's a good time to reimplement a proper economy into the game. Make repairs cost again. Redo ammo costs from scratch (so there won't be things like some % player pays and some % is free). Make clan tech COSTLY to both buy and maintain. So if a guy plans to gain some cbills it will be more cost effective for him to ride sphere tech unless he plays with like 100% victory spree.

I seriously can't imagine how can you make a good CW in the future without creating a good economy model first. You were talking big about all those black markets, bonuses for holding planets etcetc. Do you even realise that all this will be just a casual {Scrap}, pure cosmetics without r&r and real profit/loss system? Waging wars should cost money. Loosers should loose money and resort to cheaper and less superior tech. This pressure should motivate them to find new ways to be successful. On the other hand a hard earned victory and clear profits through spoils of war would feel like appropriate achievements.


My tl;dr is that it's quite easy to balance sphere vs clan mechs. On the other hand w&e is the choke point to it all. But even this part should be balanced with the clear understanding that clan tech is superior. Other ways than nerfing clan tech stats should be used.


P.S.:
I'm a Battletech fan. I'll stick with the game no matter what because it's BT game and there are no online BT-sim alternatives. I bought legendary founder's pack to support the development of one of my favourite titles. I could have easily bought overlord phoenix package. I didn't because I realised how noobish as gamedevs PGI are, because they still didn't deliver the quality product they promised. I can preorder your warhawk pack to support you once again. I'll make a decision based on how you handle this clan tech design thing. If it'll remain as you described in the Paul's post, I won't buy. Make clan tech superior (at least somewhat) and balance things out via other ways than nerfing and I'll buy. Simple as that.

Edited by Alexander Malthus, 18 December 2013 - 02:07 AM.

[Frost Lord]

CPL Madison, on 18 December 2013 - 12:02 AM, said:

you need to leave the clan mechs and weapons as they are, otherwise its no longer mechwarrior

heres what I think you should do:

Take a look at EVE Online Alliance Tournaments which use a scoring system for each ship

In Mechwarrior for example each 12 man team could have say a maximum 100 points for their team


IS Assault Mechs could be worth 15 points
IS Heavy Mechs 10 points
IS Medium Mechs 6 points
IS Light Mechs 4 points


Clan Assault Mechs 25 points
Clan Heavy Mechs 18 points
Clan Medium Mechs 12 points
Clan Light Mechs 8 points

Now I have just plucked these numbers out of the air but you can see where im going with it

I think this would go a long way to fixing the balancing issues


feel free to flame me

I think the clans would just take heaps of lights and mids with the odd heavy and assault forcing IS to go predominantly heavy's as lights would get cut down by the mids that hit like heavy's but can still keep up with them and assaults (after getting hammered by OP LRMs) wouldn't be able to hit anything as they would be too slow and lights would just get dominated by everything, if they kept clan weapons the same. but restricted wait allocations they would be better off reducing the number of mecks starting and or there deployment could be disadvantaged eg one lance leader or all leaders could be positioned forward as if he was making a challenge to one on one combat then relised the the IS were not going to oblige and would need to regroup with his lance thus making it posable they would take some damage before hand (this wouldn't work for all game modes tho)

[Bloodcat]

The whole clan weapon balance idea looks like a disaster.

Why treat the poor clan LRMs that way. Just arbitrarily give them a minimum range like IS LRMs. Like you have arbitrarily removed the minimum ranges from IS AC2, AC5 and Gauss. The scaled minimun range is a stupid idea...or you would have used it already.

Please do not be so daft as to change the weight or critical spaces of clan technology.

And before anything. FIX AND BALANCE THE WEAPONS AND TECH WE ALREADY HAVE!

PLEASE!

I would beg, but it isn't really begging if you have paid for a service is it?

[Shadowdragonne]

Greetings!

First off:
Since the books never really get into how the Clan tech is better other than game stats, having Clan ER lasers have longer beam durations seems to be a reasonable excuse for why they are more powerful and have longer ranges or whatnot.

However, I do have some other commentry.

I would like to point out that the Clan pod tech used in the Omnimechs was weight limited. While the TT game kinda left the Pod weight vs. locations rather vague, you could impliment a system where the pod is designated by location AND weight-- i.e. your Omnimech the Far From Gruntled Badger has 40 tons dedicated to pods. Each arm has one 5 ton pod, and each side torso has one 15 ton pod. The hardpoint restrictions are no longer necessary to track, maybe only the number of hardpoints for balance. Rather than the IS 3 Missile hardpoints, just have 3 hardpoints. Permamently mounted weapons (not pods) maintain the hardpoint restrictions.While not perfectly meshing with canon it is a functional change that helps maintain balance and is simpler to impliment in both the player and programmer ends. Also I would point out that as far as JJ go, canon states any Omni may add or remove them.

Not all Clan mechs were Omnimechs - add those in as well.

Restricting what can be configured isnt going to balance the combat. What will is adjusting the queue. If a player drops with a Clan mech, he is on the Clan team. No IS mechs. They drop in 5 man Stars and no more than 2 stars drop. That gives the IS players a roughly 20% (17%ish) advantage right there.

Allow Clan group drops to bid how many of their team fights once dropped (if dropping as a star, how many points fight, if dropping as two stars, how many stars fight and maybe an extra point or two) and if they pull in reinforcements or the players who are not supposed to fight do, they recieve less moneies and xp. But make that an OPTION if you are not going to force the players who use clan mechs to play clan style.

Set up the queue to drop a 4, 8, or 12 man team vs. an equivilent 4, 8, or 12 man IS team, or 1 (vs. 4 or 8 man) or 2 (vs. 12 man) stars from clan teams. Make it selectable as to whether or not you fight against the clan mechs.

-OR- If you are not going to make it Clans vs IS on the drops.... Do not allow the queue to drop one side with no clan mechs and the other side with more than zero. Balance the numbers of clanners on each side.

MAKE THE MAPS BIGGER. Part of the problem is that with the maps being so small, light mechs are not utilized as they should be. Finding the Clan mechs for elimination makes sense as a light mech job. The only way to make the light mechs do their job is to make bigger maps.

Impliment the ability to fall down - both Clan and IS mechs. Especially to small little mechs running flat out at high speeds and turning inside a turn radius physics says "skid" but MWO says "OK!"

Make Clan tech exclusive and expensive. You want that Clan LRM20? Fine. Triple the cost, and if you want it to ACT like a Clan LRM 20 you pay for Clan Missiles as well. Load IS LRMs and not only do you lose the minimum range bonus, it might jam because they are not perfectly compatable systems.

Speaking of Jamming, the Ultra AC/5 jams WAY TOO FRIGGIN MUCH. It should have a 1 in 12 chance to jam. At BEST. Fix that.

LRM Minimum Range - the IS LRM's in the TT version can still be fired at units within the minimum range, they just have a to hit modifier. Well, since there isnt really a "to-hit" roll for MWO make the LRM's have a penalty against the number of missiles that hit rather than they dont work at all. Reduce or elimintate the penalty for clan LRMs.

As an example:
Missile Hits @ 120 - 179 meters: IS max 55%, Clan max 75% of fired can hit.
Missile Hits @ 90-120 meters: IS max 40%, Clan max 55% of fired can hit.
Missile Hits @ 0-90 meters: IS max 20%, Clan max 40% of fired can hit.
Artemis adds 5% to the base chance, and always round up.
Possibly scale the percentage of missiles that hit with the range rather than lump them into range blocks - similar to what you are thinking of doing for the Clans currently, but realistically both sides should have this capability with the Clan tech having an advantage over the IS tech.

From the TT rules point of view, LRMs in canon did not lock onto a target prior to firing. They were sighted with the crosshairs and fired and the pilot hoped for the best - that was what made the Streak SRM system so deadly. This lock -on system for LRMs somehow got put into the computer versions of the game many incarnations ago and stuck. Missiles were barely intelligent, and had next to no tracking capability whatsoever. The Clans didn't much improve that over time. Yet another balancer if implimented. And if you do, adding lockable missile fire for LRMs on the IS side might be handy. And reduce the flight arc. They fly way too high. They should almost be direct flight. When fired at targets out of sight, they become short range artillery - i.e. indirect fire.

Add in the pilot tree at the Elite or Master levels for IS mechs: Can use Clan tech.

Maybe make the ability to modifiy the clan mechs part of the Basic tree items for each mech - only the experienced pilots would get the priviledge of using the Omni version of the mech.

As time goes on impliment IS versions of Clan tech that have similar stats. The books really got one thing wrong in their history of the Inner Sphere- education would have been a top priority to anyone with half a brain to maintain the currently available technology not to mention further developments. It is reasonable to postulate that after the Clan invasion this would begin to happen.

Get the IS C³ computer implimented. It is an IS only item, KEEP IT THAT WAY. That will be a huge balancer right there.

Add some tech items for the IS that are not canon. You have deviated already so this isnt a big deal I would think. For example:

ER LRM's - increased range to 1500 meters or so, damage .9 per missile
Heavy LRMs and SRMs - 50% more damage, 50% less reloads
Swarm and Thunder LRMs
Inferno SRM's -- Yes I know the Clans had these three missile types in cannon but its about balancing out the Clan advantages here.
Small, Medium and Large sized Gauss guns, And get rid of the charge delay before firing. No designer in his right mind would do something like that. That should be part of the cycle rate.
Light PPC - half size and heat, half damage, same ECM disruption
Stealth Armor - Expensive and bulky, but handy


One thing to keep in mind, the Clan advantages are extremely powerful on the open plains. Where there are limited sight lines, the range advantages are cancelled. Where there are places to hide (give me tunnels and caves!), sensor advantages (if any) are cancelled. Better, bigger maps, with some long sight lines but lots more short ones are an answer. It doesn't matter you have an ER LL with 50% more range than me, if you cant get a clear shot until I am in your face.

Damage per hit is harder to cancel out, as is the ability to carry and fire more weapons, but both sides have Ferro armor and Endo steel and double heat sinks.These already unbalance the game between long time or frequent players and new or occasional players. Yes, as written the Clans are way overpowered for this or any MMO. Be smart in what you do to balance them though and make the limitations make sense. It would help if you had already implimented CW, then all players could choose IS or Clan, and then you could go from there.
Now that I am rambling, I step off soapbox

Shadowdragonne.

Edited by Shadowdragonne, 18 December 2013 - 02:41 AM.

[D Sync]

Clan has always been superior to IS, IS can equip the clan stuff because it is better.

Clan used fewer mechs with better weapons and armour, IS had weaker weapons and armour with greater numbers.

Clan targeting computers were superior to IS, remove pinpoint and implement the computers (no more cheaters, yes people cheat at FPS games).

Ah, the long-sought-after balance.