AC-2, AC-10, AC-20 are all just about where they need to be IMO.
I'm willing to bet that most of the complaints still come from the AC-5 and UAC-5 Boats such as Ilya-M, and JagerMechs.
And people who use 2 AC-5 or UAC-5 in combination with PPC's to do the meta.
I would go as far as saying Gauss is also in need of something, but Heat would be good enough there as well.
If they were really serious about nerfing AC's, they'd start with dialing back heat on the Lasers a little.
Far as I'm concerned its not a huge issue with AC's being hugely overpowered as much as it is Beam weapons running way too hot in their comparisons.
Also, Single AC weapons are far from a problem, its boating 2-3 AC-5's or UAC5's or in the case of the JAG-DD loading up to 5 AC-2's, you'll never cool it, but in that short time that you're pissing lead, you're dealing some insane damage pinpoint accurate over vast distances.
I tried a 5x AC-2 build on my Jag once, and I was legging people or chopping off arms from 800 meters within about 1.5 seconds, thats a shitload of damage in such a short period of time. Granted I could only fire about 5-6 shots per cannon before I was near shutdown, but it didn't matter much because the damage was already dealt and I had plently of time to walk away to cool down.
Dial heat up a little bit on AC's, Dial back heat a fair ammount on Beam weapons, and you have a pretty simple solution.
There is also the issue of range, Honestly AC's should never lose as much damage over that range, since they use HEAT or HEDP ammo that explodes on contact according to the books.
Where AC's tend to do the most damage is 300 meters and under, anything over 400 and beyond takes a significant ammount of skill to land consistent damage, especially on any moving target.
Convergence could be the key, but not in the way you think.
If aiming at targets that are in short range(10-200m) had slower convergence, so that it is more of a shotgun effect within that range, it could balance things out considerably.
Let convergence be range based, and the farther away a target is, the quicker convergence comes together.
Its about Time on target, and up close these AC's do significant damage with high precision almost instantly because of their high speeds.
If AC's kept their precision ONLY for medium to long range (300-1000m+) it could make a significant impact.
It would need to be unique to each AC as far as how each one behaves as they've all got their own range bracket.
Its the little things that would help, what we don't need is a huge global nerf on the entire AC lineup.
Also, changing Ammo counts per ton isn't going to be the magical nerf that you think it will, besides I've been told over and over that Sarna and TT #'s will never get changed for tonnages or slot counts.
Good players will always be able to put damage "on target", less ammo just makes them need to be more efficient, or get up closer in which case nothing has really changed.
The only way to effectively balance these weapons is how they behave, ala heat, accuracy, range, the soft changables.
Perhaps setting up AC's to use Explosive Ammo instead of Pinpoint AP slugs is a better solution, make 50-70% of their damage hit on target, remainder is splash on nearest armor spots, Get rid of the Pinpoint accuracy, might require a range buff though, AC-2 would need to remain as is for damage.
Edited by Mister D, 31 March 2014 - 04:45 AM.