Varent, on 23 December 2013 - 08:54 AM, said:
Weapons are overall fairly balanced, or at least close enough to balanced that its getting really annoying reading threads about them not being 'perfect'. Its not a perfect world we live in, stop expecting a game to be perfect.
Not even close to being balanced....
LRMS - High Range, Overcomes soft cover, Low general overall heat for there use. When an enemy mech lacks ecm or ams coverage and are caught out in the open they can be eaten alive in seconds. Only thing that stops it is stacked ams or ecm. Tag defeats ecm, narc defeats lack of lock when used properly. people complain its op when there are tons of them raining down on you. well yes if you got caught out in the open or step outside of ecm bubble or didnt bring ams, you probly are writing your own death warrant, its cost and reward. Some players complain there underpowered because of ecm and ams etc. To this id say bring tag, wait for the right times to rain missles and use positioning well. The good players make it work still regardless.
For the most part, I agree with you. The big issue I have is that the flight path is a little too high for indirect fire without a helper like TAG or NARC, and they defeat cover far too easy. The idea of being mobile for an LRM users is extremely important, and most people fail at that, shoot at 800m and then complain.
SRMS - low weight, high damage, spread damage without artemis. low heat overall for the damage potential. Overall good weapon with the exception of hit detection but even with that said they still do tons of damage overall. great brawling weapon with the only major complaint by anyone being the hit detection, admitedly if this is the least you have to complain about id say thats doing pretty good.
SRMs are trash. Hit detection is terribad and effectively removes them as a truly effective brawling weapon.
NARC - Actually works quite well in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing with it. I run with a mech pilot who swears by it and its actually alot of fun to watch him run up and hit a mech with it while we all zone in on them with LRMS.
NARC is bad. Too heavy, too slow, too much of an investment, and honestly isnt that effective. Keep the tonnage of the weapon, but make it ammoless, with a 10sec cooldown so people dont troll with it. Make it not LOS required for shooter after firing, (unless I missed something and they changed that) and just make it last 30 seconds and remove the entire damage thing.
streak SRMS - I cant find anything wrong with these. you can bring beagle to defeat ecm if your having issues or a tag, other then that these tend to work great in the roll they are assigned to.
SSRMs are stupid easy mode. Damage is too high. Lower the damage, and change the weighting more to CT as an offset.
machine guns - roughly the same dps as a medium laser. no heat. weight cost of 1.5 effectively with ammo and 2 slots. Can usually get up to 2-3 machine guns per ton of ammo and do fine in a match. Good crit rate, great brawling weapon overall. great in its roll.
LOL. Screw this crit seeking s_it they are trying to do, and just make the weapon actually do real damage, as is fire 5 shots that do .2 damage per shot, lower ammo count slightly, and run with it. Tweak as needed.
autocannons - Generally high weight, require a good amount of ammo and some of them produce large amounts of heat when used incorrectly. Alot of slots are required and due to that they are also vulnerable to being targetted by a smart enemy who will try to take out your weapon system if its the primary one. People complain because....high alpha, lowish heat, good sustained damage on some. I would argue they paid for it with slots and weight and if your smart you should target the weapon systems or avoid them or not put yourself into a position where you are in range. People complain also because, ac2 has too much heat, and ac20 has too much heat when fired with a second. people also complain with uac5 jam chance. ac2 however is a great long range supression weapon that I would argue when used correctly can bt devastating to enemies at range. When used at range its not that hard to duck in cover every once in awhile to cool down. ac20 has rediculous alpha potential and strength that should be avoided fighting in close when you see it as an opponent. That said its not that hard if your using it to space out your shots a split second to avoid ghost heat when using two of them. Regarding uac5... I use this weapon extensively and consistently get over 1000 damage at least once a week using them. I have never had an issue with the jam chance. I kinda see that as a cost of doing business. When they jam, take cover and wait a few seconds or torso twist until they unjam then keep fighting.
ACs are good, but the triple range thing is bad for balance. AC20 being more effective at 540m than an AC10 is broken. Lots of good ideas on how to fix this, CoF past effective range, use a curve for ballistic drop off instead of line, cut range to 2x, etc.
Gause Rifle - the charge up is annoying, but that said they have amazing range and are capable of cockpitting mechs at range if you roll with two of them. they also produce no heat and can therefore be spammed to keep peoples heads down at high range as well. While the charge time makes it difficult its not impossible and honestly it has now defined this weapon as what it should be. A snipers weapon meant to be used in back with someone taking there time and lining up there shots. Thos that want to jump snipe have simply gone on to use autocanons now so it really didnt effect to much.
Good weapon all around still. Can brawl with it if you can time it right.
Lasers - high heat, lowish damage, no ammo cost, decent ranges on many of them. Lasers have and always will be backup weapons. Think of them as the sidearm your carrying around just in case your main weapon fails. That said they can be utilized as primary weapons on some mechs but those mechs usually are ones that are set into support rolls. Accept this, live with it, and move on. Yes this means your 6 laser whatever is nerfed. It does not mean you cant play it. It simply means its now a support mech with a roll as such. Its easy to throw on medium lasers to just about any mech in existence for the purpose of a backup weapon and when you combine them with enough heat sinks you can still be potent.
Lasers are the PRIMARY weapon in Battletech. Because they are so bad, we have the meta we have now. Add in bad hit detection, being too hot, ghost heat, etc... Nuff said.
Flamers - They actually do overheat mechs. I dont see much point myself in runing more then about two of them. But ive successfully kept mechs shut down while ripping them apart with autocannon and missle. Its quite funny really.
Good for you. Try that on a decent player and he will just tear you up. They actually do not work as they should. You should be able to shut someone down, you cannot actually do that in this game.
PPC - good range, good alpha, high heat, no damage under 90 meters. The end all be all jump sniping weapon. allows for high precision alpha with a large amount of heat sinks and weight invested overall to be effected. Defeated by enemies who get past the 90 meter minimum range. People complain because they dont like being jump sniped or alphaed. Those same people usually complain because they dont utilize cover properly or get in range of the ppcs minimum range either. Its pretty defeatable and balanced for what it is long as your smart and pay attention to the field of battle and dont use (scrap) builds yourself.
ERPPC - Amazing range, good alpha, omg high heat.... Not utilized much anymore just simply due to its high heat but that said it still has its uses. it works very well when used in conjunction with gause rifles on a dedicated sniping mech. It also allows you that one or two extra hits againsts mechs that get in under normal ppc range. Overall balanced for what it is when you realize its a sniping weapon.
You are about spot on here. PPCs should not be a weapon you brawl with. They are slightly overpowered with the heat mechanics used in this game as you can just alpha 2 of them over and over with no consequences with the huge heat caps we have.
Ive played this game since closed beta. Seen the ups and downs of all the weapon groups and mechs as they have come in and out of favor on multiple levels. Frankly the weapons overall are in a pretty decent place right now. I will admit some playstyles are overplayed and perhaps overpowered but that has nothing to do with the weapons themselves.
So have I. The game is worse now that it was a year ago. Because herp derp PPC/AC meta mid to long range game with little to no brawling is so much fun.
Weapon balance will never be achieved until they fix the heat system and change ghost heat.
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