Varent, on 10 January 2014 - 09:23 AM, said:
oh I agree with the testing whole heartedly.
And its not about the fact that I prefer those weapons. I prefer those weapons because find FLD ineffective on a brawling mech. That said I know some have found some success with it and some like it and kudos to them. However I truly find it to be a crutch and one very easy to knock out from under someone. I have never put up the same numbers on a brawler with an ac20 that I have with mechs that use smaller more effective weapon systems.
Putting up numbers isn't always a good thing. I think we discussed this a few dozen pages ago, but if you out up 1000+ damage and don't get a kill or assist, that 1000+ damage was worthless at the end of the match. Put up 500 damage and get five kills out of it, though, and you had a good match. That is where effective damage matters, and a couple people have shown how FLD is extremely more efficient damage compared to all other types. Your subjective feelings to the contrary are only that - subjective feelings.
Sandpit, on 10 January 2014 - 10:42 AM, said:
I feel like Jesse James or Wild Bill sometimes. Every young gun out there wants to make a name by trying to take a shot at me when I post a snarky remark once in a while after offering several pages of constructive conversation....
Most "op" threads come about because someone got rolled by a specific weapon being fired in a coordinated effort by a decent team working together. AC20 is fearsome. Getting hit by 2, 3, or 4 at once? Your mech melts. That's why I usually argue about the whole "op" thing. If a single weapon is not "op" then it doesn't magically become "op" just because you got hit by a few of them
FLD are much more effective weapon-vs-weapon than any other type. I'm not saying they are overpowered, but they are out of balance (how's that for semantics?).
Btw, I like several of your suggestions, but still want a shot at you, lol.
WarHippy, on 10 January 2014 - 11:13 AM, said:
Even though I would rather see autocannons remain as a single hard hitting projectile the only real problem I have with making them burst fire to spread the damage is what it will be like getting hit by them. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to have someone chain fire 3 or 4 ac5s that fire a burst of 5 1dmg projectiles? The screen shake and noise would be enough to drive you insane. That being said...
I really like Mallen's idea of individual weapons being accurate and grouped weapons causing some form of cone of fire, which in turn could give pinpoint talent and targeting computers real value in this game.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I would want burst-fire ballistics to have a reduced shake relative to the increased rate. So, instead of 100% shake at 100% power, each shell that hit would do 50% shake at 50% power twice as often, or 25% shake at 25% power four times as often, etc. it would be less of a shake more often.
Mawai, on 10 January 2014 - 11:42 AM, said:
You can always go test your hypothesis. Take an AC40 Jaeger to the testing grounds. How many shots does it take to kill the target and how many mech sections are damaged ... then do the same thing with 4xASRM6 (You can even use the same mech). How many armor sections are damaged and which kills the mech faster?
So ... since I have my own jm6-a ... here are the results .. testing grounds .. forest colony snow ... 200m from target ... center torso target from front to keep things simple ...
Commando
AC40 - one shot kill
4ASRM6 - 2 shots - one volley - 7 total ASRM6 - first volley damaged 6 separate mech sections
Cicada
AC40 - 2 shots - 3 rounds total
4ASRM6 - 3 shots - 9 total ASRM6 - 7 mech segments damaged in first shot
Catapult
AC40 - 3 shots - 5 rounds total
4ASRM6 - 4 shots - 15 volleys total
Centurion
AC40 - 2 shots - 4 rounds total
4ASRM6 - 3 shots - 10 volleys total
So ... overall the 4ASRM6 is not as effective at killing opponents as the AC40 since although the damage potential is higher that damage is distributed over more of the mech so it does not kill the opponent as efficiently.
Now to test another popular hypothesis ... are SRMs more effective fired one by one?
4ASRM6 fired at Catapult LA from 200m - damage was distributed over 5 mech segments - head,ct,lt, rt. la
4 shots - 13 total volleys required to blow off LA
Fired individually 13 volleys required to blow up RA
Atlas
4xASRM6
3x4ASRM6 volleys through LT armor - total 20 volleys to blow off arm
ASRM6
Total 20 ASRM6 individual volleys to blow off the other arm.
So .. at least in the testing grounds ... a single ASRM6 does the same damage whether fired separately or together. (as it should).
Great examples. I'm sure they will be disregarded by the opposition for some silly reason, but still great testing examples.
Varent, on 10 January 2014 - 12:00 PM, said:
You also arent taking into the account of a moving target as well. also keep in mind the weight differential between the 2 systems and the fact that you can run more overall firepower because of that. You can also be effectively faster and run more ammo overall for higher kill potential. Lastly if you lose one of your ac (which is amazingly common since all it takes is to get to the core of the arm and they pop like a cherry) you lose half your effective firepower where as its harder to strip a machine gun (usually a heat sink) and 2 missle systems from an arm and you also have lasers in the torso.
You cant just look at a gun from a raw numbers stand point of damage but need to look at it with overall effectiveness and how it translates into a build on a mech.
And as I predicted...
Varent, the optimum conditions for SRM spread are two stationary mechs at an exact distance - it doesn't get any better for them! The more you and your target move, the more unbalanced the disparity is between FLD and other weapon types. In combat, you are almost never in that good of a situation, because even if the target is shutdown for a few seconds, you are still moving and/or have other enemies pressing you and making you take less than perfect shots.
I am not disputing the raw potential of SRM boating vs AC boating - they may have the exact same possible damage - but their effective damage is going to be widely different even without HR and other combat conditions involved. This was an ideal situation for SRM, and yet they were still out classed. You are just being silly at this point, lol. Tons of respect to you, but you have to see that...