Posted 30 December 2013 - 11:50 AM
I personally believe that the way MechWarrior 4 balanced Clan tech would a good example to follow.
While Clan tech is to be superior to IS tech in terms of weight and space, it would be counterbalanced by heat build-up and recycle time. Take the IS ER Large Laser and compare it to the Clan version.
While the IS would do less damage in one shot, the Clan would take longer to reload as well as generate more heat. Then test fire them over a 10 second interval, in which due to the lower heat and reload time of the IS version, it can be kept firing longer and more often, offsetting the initial lower damage. This way, over that 10 second interval, both lasers do approximately the same DPS.
Take this idea and apply it to all clan tech, higher heat and recycle time compared to the IS counterpart. This would be justified in both game terms and fluff terms, as Clans performed short trials as opposed to running battles, where higher burt potential was more important than sustained DPS.
Or, to go another way, change the mechanics of each weapon. Give the lasers a longer burn time, around the area of 1.25-1.33 seconds. Have pulse lasers fire off more "pulses" per use than the IS, instead of 5 pulses, up it to 7-8 pulses per shot.
Change the Clan LRMs from a long-range support weapons, to a long range, direct barrage weapon. While the IS fire at around a 45 degree angle, give the clan version a 20-25 degree firing arc, drastically reducing the fire-support capabilities and making it more direct fire, this would also be justified in fluff, as support roles would be "dishonorable".
Not much can be done about the Clan LBX line, but an interesting idea can be considred for the UAC line. Since Clan UACs are much better and do not jam as much, change their mechanic a bit. While the IS can be "double tapped" with a risk to jam, the Clan does not. While the Clan version would not jam, it could not double fire either, but would have a lower reload than the IS version, with much higher heat. This would be balanced by introducing a "spread" mechanic to the Clan UAC, where continually firing the weapon would cause shots to veer off-center in am manner similar to shooting while jump-jets are activated. This would force the player to decide whether or not to fire more conservatively, or risk missing their shots.
As for Omnimechs, following the fluff would result in its own balance. Instead of having multiple variants to one Omnimech, just have only one version, but increase the needed XP for each mastery by 3-5 times an IS mech. Also, have parts such as the engine, structure, heat sinks, armor and the "hard wired" weapons be locked and unchangeable. This would mean that the Adder would be required to keep the Flamer, or the Hellbringer keep its 3 medium lasers and 2 machine guns. But, to keep them "Omnimechs" remove all weapon-type restrictions on the omni-slots. The only limit that would be inforced would be the number of weapons that you could put in that space, as well as criticals.
An example would be to take the Hellbringer. While you would be stuck with the medium lasers and machine guns, as well as only putting missiles in the missile rack, the arms are free to put whatever kind of weapon you want in, so long as it has the space and criticals. So lets say we have 4 omni-slots in the arms, you could put 4 small lasers, 4 large lasers, a gauss rifle and 3 medium lasers, 2 SRM launchers a UAC 2 and a medium laser, or whatever you wanted.
This would also indirectly balance Clan mechs by placing the majority of their weaponry in the arms, making them much more vulnerable to disarmament. So having a mech like the Direwolf, while owning massive firepower, its ability to fight can be halved by blowing off one arm, since only one weapon, the LRM rack, is placed in a torso.
Also perhaps implementing more Clan-like features into clan gameplay to further differentiate the clans would help balance the Clans. Such as preventing a Clan mech from targeting a mech that an allied unit is already targeting, or that getting kill assists actually subtracts from the total match earnings in order to give an incentive for Clan players to behave more Clan-like, thus providing another indirect balance.
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