16 replies to this topic

[Octantis]

With the incoming clans we are going to be seeing ER Medium Lasers. Will inner sphere mechs eventually get ER Medium Lasers?

Just wondering because I have a few builds that would benefit from a bit more range.

Edited by Egomane, 01 May 2014 - 11:44 PM.

[FupDup]

You get to wait until the game timeline is 3058, which translates to roughly 2021 in real life. This game will almost certainly be dead by then (how many F2P games get to live that long?).

[AlmightyAeng]

Octantis, on 01 May 2014 - 08:01 AM, said:

With the incoming clans we are going to be seeing ER Medium Lasers. Will inner sphere mechs eventually get ER Medium Lasers?

Just wondering because I have a few builds that would benefit from a bit more range.

No.

[CeeKay Boques]

There's a module that will allow you to increase your mediums by "a bit more".

[CDLord HHGD]

FupDup, on 01 May 2014 - 08:03 AM, said:

You get to wait until the game timeline is 3058, which translates to roughly 2021 in real life. This game will almost certainly be dead by then (how many F2P games get to live that long?).

You do know that the 1:1 timeline is out the door right? We are currently in the 3050 era (and may be per day right now) but there will be time jumps when eras get stale....

[Daekar]

Clan tech will not be usable on IS mechs for very legit balance reasons. I'm afraid the range module is your only option unless you want to mount real longer range weapons.

[FupDup]

cdlord, on 01 May 2014 - 08:18 AM, said:

You do know that the 1:1 timeline is out the door right? We are currently in the 3050 era (and may be per day right now) but there will be time jumps when eras get stale....

The timeline is so far out the door, that we currently still only have mechs and gear from that era. Mech building has been pretty stale for quite a while now...(hopefully the Clans can mix this up a bit, but the IS will still be boring).

[Davers]

cdlord, on 01 May 2014 - 08:18 AM, said:

You do know that the 1:1 timeline is out the door right? We are currently in the 3050 era (and may be per day right now) but there will be time jumps when eras get stale....

Mechwarrior time puts the year at 3051.

http://mwomercs.com/clock

[CDLord HHGD]

Davers, on 01 May 2014 - 08:21 AM, said:

Mechwarrior time puts the year at 3051.

http://mwomercs.com/clock

Yeah, currently, but the devs are on record saying that there will be time jumps periodically.. I just cannot find it, it was a year or so ago now....

[Sephlock]

cdlord, on 01 May 2014 - 08:18 AM, said:

You do know that the 1:1 timeline is out the door right? We are currently in the 3050 era (and may be per day right now) but there will be time jumps when eras get stale....

You mean, like... now?

[Mechteric]

Technoviking, on 01 May 2014 - 08:15 AM, said:

There's a module that will allow you to increase your mediums by "a bit more".

Its not just a "bit" more, its a whopping 4%!!! That's like the amount of distance an Atlas would cover in 1/5th of a second!

[Jun Watarase]

Hmm, i dont think most people are excited at the though of full level 2 IS tech though. For one, all the energy stuff assumes you are running full 2.0 DHS, not the MWO 1.4 ones. Most competitive builds dont use any ER or pulse weapons because they are far too hot, which is a significant problem currently.

I think its pretty silly when most mechs top out at about 18 DHS due to crit space limitations and just 4 med lasers with 12 DHS still runs very hot on heat neutral maps, with full efficeincies. Anything at 60% cooling efficiency or below will overheat FAST. Meanwhile someone boating ballistics simply holds down the mouse button and watches as mechs pop. You cant even dissipate heat during the laser burn time, which is 1 second. This also makes chainfiring non viable for lasers, fire a single laser, no heat dissipation at all for 1 full second.

Another part of the problem is that the tabletop stats are based off the idea that more range = higher chance to hit = more damage. So if you look at ER large lasers (which most people think is underpowered in the TT), you pay 4 more heat for 120m more range. Heat is still manageable though thanks to DHS, so given the choice everyone would choose the ER large laser (unless it was a very niche build).

In MWO however, paying 4 more heat per shot for 120m more range doesnt make sense at all, given that max range has little importance, and you are going to struggle with heat with the normal large laser anyway. Your normal LL has a max range of 900 meters...it's optimum range being half of that. 900 meters is huge, and even if you are sniping, you will almost always be doing it at 600 meters or below anyway.

And if you wanted more range....well theres the PPC. The PPC runs cooler, does pinpoint damage instantly AND doesnt have a burn time so you can dissipate heat immediately. It has almost the same range as a ER LL, and does more damage. Sure it weighs 2 tons more....but who cares, to dissipate the extra heat of the ER LL, you would need more heatsinks anyway, which would take up way more crit space.

The 90 meters min range does provide a drawback...but it is very easy to stay out of the 90 meters min range when its a realtime game. In the TT, if you were to say, move a AWS-8Q, and then have an enemy mech run into min range, well, you would be screwed, because you cant move the awesome anymore this turn. But you can react in realtime to an enemy's moves in MWO, so this kind of situation is much rarer and your teammates should be focusing fire on the mech hugging you at point blank range, which conveniently has his rear armor exposed

Because of that, taking the PPC over the ER LL is a no brainer and thats what most people do..

Pulse lasers also run far too hot, which again is why most people dont take them.

ER med lasers wise, they produce 2 more heat for 90 meters more range. Med lasers currently reach out to 540 meters. When did you ever wish that your med lasers had just a tiny bit more range? Probably never. Instead you probably wished they werent so hot.

If we had strict ranges, then i could see range being very very valuable, but when the long range weapons in the game can do damage out to nearly 1000 meters...range is a non issue.

ER PPCs, a favourite weapon on the TT, are hated here because they generate a whooping 15 heat.

Still i think some weapons could provide more options. Snub nosed PPCs for example, if you had a limited number of energy slots but wanted something with more punch than a med laser, you would go for either the LL or PPC. Snub nose PPCs would provide another alternative. Ultra AC10s might make some variants good, the ones that can only mount 1 ballistic but dont have the space for a AC20 (lets face it, a single AC5 or UAC5 just does not cut it, and AC10s are lackluster now).

Sadly thats in the minority, the entire LBX line is currently worthless (pinpoint meta vs close ranged sandblasting, guess which is better?), UACs jam too much, rotary ACs will probably jam too much, light gauss rifles are pointless (few people like them on the TT as it is, given that you can pay 3 tons more for nearly double the damage), light PPCs are inferior to standard PPCs, so on and so forth.

Larger sized streak launchers might force lights to be more cautious though, but sadly they are still sand blasting weapons (that dont even hit 100% of the time).

I cant imagine PGI trying to balance clan tech or the rest of the level 2 weapons though, i mean, they cant even balance pulse lasers after more than 2 years...

[Mister Blastman]

Don't worry--clan weapons are being nerfed into the ground so hard you'll be glad you aren't using them.

[Androas]

FupDup, on 01 May 2014 - 08:03 AM, said:

You get to wait until the game timeline is 3058, which translates to roughly 2021 in real life. This game will almost certainly be dead by then (how many F2P games get to live that long?).

Most, if not all of them. The only "failed" F2P games, are those 1:1 copies from asia games

[Strum Wealh]

Sephlock, on 01 May 2014 - 09:20 AM, said:

You mean, like... now?

You're looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now.
What happened to then? We passed then.
When will then be now? Soon...

[Jonny Taco]

cdlord, on 01 May 2014 - 08:18 AM, said:

You do know that the 1:1 timeline is out the door right?

Quite true, it's more like .3:1...

[Sephlock]

@ the OP: Quite probably, but I am not sure how they'll balance it given how they are handling Clan tech. Maybe IS knock offs will just be somewhere in the middle?