54 replies to this topic

[darrencheesecake]

This game has undergone major balance sergery, with stuff such as the heat penalty, LRM's being completely remodled, PPCs has the heat generation doubled, the noob frienly 3rd person view and the once "I win button" ECM.

The reason why all these major balance patch was implimented was becasue PGI tried to balance the level of skill. Skill is always unbalanced because everyone has different strengths and weakness.

Right the know the weapons seemto be balanced although the LRM seem a tad fast. I remember when they were slow but very powerful, enabling lights and mediums to close the distance and expliot this weakness. Now no one would get near them because they travel so fast giving little time for anyone to counter them.

PPC used to be over powered because they travelled so fast (2000m/s) but didn't produce that much heat and did a fare amount of damage. People would load 6 of them on their stalkers and anihilate their enermies from long range but they did have the same weakness as the LRMS, they were useless at close range. Now they've been slowed down and had there heat double because of they were slightly OP at range. They are design to be used as a single weapon for some long range capability but it needs some sort of splash damage. Not doing additional damage but rather disabliling the ECM for 4 seconds if a mech is hit within the blast radius. This would make targeting lights with ECM easy to track down as thier ECM is disabled but no damage is taken unless with a direct hit from the PPC.

ECM was extremely over powerd as I remember, pretty much anything but lasers, SRMs (not streaks) and close range ballistics very viable so everyone wenting brawling. Now the ECM has been nerfed and has a counter of PPC's, NARCS and UAV's but no one changes the mode of their ECM. But this gadget is difficult to balance but I has been improved. If futher balance was needed, maybe a timer can be applied to ECMs so that pilots would have to be skilled to use it. For instance once turned on it stays on for 10 seconds then takes 40 seconds to regenerate energy. If hit by PPC it is paused and contiunes when the effect weres off as well as being turned of manully but theres a on and recovery ratio of 1:4 seconds.

Also auto connons could be nerfed for a new purpose in the near future. Discuss if the game is fine or needs balancing.

[El Bandito]

Just fix the SRMs so brawlers can feel rewarded for their playstyle.

Edited by El Bandito, 27 March 2014 - 05:53 AM.

[Werewolf486 ScorpS]

Broken weapons management system breeds imbalance and ignorant devs breed bad game play. Game sucks, doesn't feel like stompy robots but more like a regular old first person shooter with the Atlas being a 400lb Lineman from the NFL and the Spider moving like a magic flying fairy with weapons. All previous iterations of MW an Atlas felt like a big slow mech and the lights felt like fast awkward robot. Game is still a bad Beta!

[darrencheesecake]

Yeah SRMs do need a buff. Maybe splash damage (doesn't have to be much) and 300m range.

[Joseph Mallan]

Cause when you can bring lots of weapon X and not weapon Y weapon X looks OP.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 27 March 2014 - 06:04 AM.

[anonymous161]

Werewolf...why are you still playing then?

[Redshift2k5]

Weapons are generally fine.

LRMs a bit too fast but getting a speed nerf next patch (slower than current, higher than pre-buff). Front loading multiple pin-point longrange weapons is still powerful but countered by also having LRMs as a viable weapon instead of a joke. Lights are as good as they ever were so that's fine.

SRMs need work. Large laser alpha penalty could probably be raised to 3.

[DONTOR]

Why does every game ever have OP weapons?

[Joseph Mallan]

DONTOR, on 27 March 2014 - 06:54 AM, said:

Why does every game ever have OP weapons?

Because often players think their Toon should be immortal?
I don't see a OP weapon. I see good combinations that maximize killing potential but No single weapon is OP. I don't read any crying that a PPC is to powerful or a Single AC(Ok here we do have some light Mech pilots), Is one LRM20 OP? Nope its 3+PPC, 50+ Missiles, 2+ ACs... Always. More. Than. One. So the weapons themselves are not OP... Maybe the HP mix is allowing to many.

I personally think PPCs should have their own HP. In the future we will have 3 more types of PPC... Look at TRO 3075 and see what Boating OP is all about!

[FupDup]

Because some are more overpowered than others. Welcome to aggressive weapon balancing. Enjoy your stay.

[Khobai]

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Why Do Some Weapons Seem More Overpowered Than Others?

Because some weapons ARE more overpowered than others.

[FupDup]

Khobai, on 27 March 2014 - 08:52 AM, said:

Because some weapons ARE more overpowered than others.

I beat you to it 4 minutes ago.

FupDup, on 27 March 2014 - 08:48 AM, said:

Because some are more overpowered than others. Welcome to aggressive weapon balancing. Enjoy your stay.

[Joseph Mallan]

Since when is 1 PPC Overpowered?
Or 1 LRM?
Or 1 Auto Cannon?
Or one Laser?

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 27 March 2014 - 08:56 AM.

[Khobai]

Quote

I beat you to it 4 minutes ago

lol. I noticed.

But its going to get hilariously worse with clan tech.

Because if PGI's plan is to make IS mechs and Clan mechs equal, and PGI isnt going to change the tonnage/crits of clan tech (so clan stock builds stay the same), then the ONLY way to keep clan tech equal to IS tech is to make it WORSE than IS tech. So either clan tech is going to be really overpowered or its going to be outright worse than IS tech.

[Joseph Mallan]

Khobai, on 27 March 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

lol. I noticed.

But its going to get hilariously worse with clan tech.

Because if PGI's plan is to make IS mechs and Clan mechs equal, and PGI isnt going to change the tonnage/crits of clan tech (so clan stock builds stay the same), then the ONLY way to keep clan tech equal to IS tech is to make it WORSE than IS tech. So either clan tech is going to be really overpowered or its going to be outright worse than IS tech.

They can keep the Clan mass/crit and leave it with IS damage. It sucks to me but, I guess I have more fortitude than the average gamer of today.

[Khobai]

Quote

They can keep the Clan mass/crit and leave it with IS damage. It sucks to me but, I guess I have more fortitude than the average gamer of today.

If they do that then clan tech is outright better than IS tech and clan mechs and IS mechs wont be equal.

Clan tech that weighs less, actually has to have worse stats than IS tech, to be equal. Because it already has the huge advantage of lower tonnage/crits.

For example, a clan LRM20 is only 5 tons instead of 10 tons. Even if its identical to an IS LRM20 in every way, its still significantly better because it weighs 5 less tons. A clan mech can have two LRM20s for the same tonnage as an IS mech with one LRM20.

So the only way that works is if clan LRM20s have super long cooldown times. Like 7-8 seconds lol.

Edited by Khobai, 27 March 2014 - 09:13 AM.

[FupDup]

Khobai, on 27 March 2014 - 08:57 AM, said:

lol. I noticed.

But its going to get hilariously worse with clan tech.

Because if PGI's plan is to make IS mechs and Clan mechs equal, and PGI isnt going to change the tonnage/crits of clan tech (so clan stock builds stay the same), then the ONLY way to keep clan tech equal to IS tech is to make it WORSE than IS tech. So either clan tech is going to be really overpowered or its going to be outright worse than IS tech.

I'm expecting/predicting a bit of both. I imagine the larger energy weapons are going to be hilariously crippled. I wouldn't be surprised if the CERPPC and even the CERLL/CLPL will have a heat limit of 1. The LB-X Autocannons we don't need to worry about, because their cluster shots suck right now. Flamers will be trash. MGs will be meh.

SRMs I'm not sure about. PGI might make those do the 2-at-a-time volley fire like they plan to do with SSRMs. SSRMs will probably be reasonably effective against targets w/o AMS, but once you add in AMS then they might become nigh useless. LRMs will probably be okay-ish. They don't eat up as much tonnage as IS Lurms and they'll be able to deal a bit of damage under 180 meters.

The real elephant in the room is the Clan Ultra Autocannons. Those thing make me want to find a corner to hide in and never come out.



This being said, I think the biggest nerf of all is actually going to be their plans to restrict Omnimech customization, rather than the actual weapons themselves. Slow lights and over-engined heavies (XL350 Thor and XL375 Mad Cat are LOLOLOLOL) won't be able to make very good use of the weapons, no matter how good the weapons turn out to be. Those monster-sized engines in particular actually sort of negative the weapon tonnage advantage, because they eat up so much of that "saved" tonnage.

But a well-built mech like the Ryoken will probably be a beast. Some will suck popsickles, some will be decent, and some will crush all comers.

Edited by FupDup, 27 March 2014 - 09:04 AM.

[Khobai]

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Slow lights and over-engined heavies (XL350 Thor and XL375 Mad Cat are LOLOLOLOL) won't be able to make very good use of the weapons

Right but thats not really a problem. Because players just wont use those mechs. Theyll just use the ones that have normal sized engines like the Daishi instead.

[Joseph Mallan]

Khobai, on 27 March 2014 - 09:03 AM, said:

If they do that then clan tech is outright better than IS tech and clan mechs and IS mechs wont be equal.

Clan tech that weighs less, actually has to have worse stats than IS tech, to be equal. Because it already has the huge advantage of lower tonnage/crits.

For example, a clan LRM20 is only 5 tons instead of 10 tons. Even if its identical to an IS LRM20 in every way, its still significantly better because it weighs 5 less tons.

You say that like I want my opponent to be my equal. you didn't think I spend over two years learning how to fight the OP Metas cause I wanted a fair fight didja?

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 27 March 2014 - 09:15 AM.

[FupDup]

Khobai, on 27 March 2014 - 09:11 AM, said:

Right but thats not really a problem. Because players just wont use those mechs. Theyll just use the ones that have normal sized engines like the Daishi instead.

I consider the Daishi to fit into the "undersized" engine category. It has a top speed of 53.5 kph after speed tweak. It'll pack a huge wallop, but its hilariously slow speed will make it a magnet for attracting fire. Especially LRMs, the Daishi is going to have a lot of issues against Lurms. Maybe arty/air strikes, too. The Daishi is one of those mechs that is hard to decide if it will be "good" or not (most others are clear-cut and easy to tell).