I request PGI to employ people who A ) are good at game balancing and can close the gap between meta and **** builds, and B ) can create maps that actually play as they are viewed, without worrying about detrimental landscape flaws.
I will be covering a few issues that are pretty GENERAL to the GAMEPLAY. We will have a DISCUSSION about what needs to be changed in this game. I'm sorry if this post is huge, but quite frankly, there are a huge amount of issues that need to be fixed. Moderators, please see the front page of general discussion for reference and validation if you are tempted to move this to off-topic.
1) HIT DETECTION
This has been a known issue for months now. Why has it not been fixed? Almost all 'mechs are vulnerable to this bug, but since ballistics are currently God Mode, I feel like the biggest losers are 'mechs that use lasers and SRMs (streaks are an exception). Even with that said, certain ballistics such as UAC/5 are affected more than others (due to the hated and unjustified mechanic of jam on first shot, which is an entirely different topic). I'm sorry that I don't have screenshots to prove what I'm saying, but everybody who has played more than 5 drops knows what I'm talking about. There is no need for proof in this case. Everybody has been in this situation: your targeting reticle is square in the middle of an enemy 'mech and you fire. you see the slugs (or SRMs) pass through the space between the center torso and the side torso of the enemy 'mech, and no hit is registered..... Wait, what? There is no space between those torsos....why didn't my slugs/missiles hit? This NEEDS to be fixed. I'm not sure why hit detection is such an issue, but I know a lot of other games that rely on hit detection and they all work fine.
Please please please fix hit detection before releasing any more hero 'mechs or any content that is not widely requested.
2) BALANCING OF WEAPONS
Yes, a meta build is inevitable in a game of this type. There is no way to completely balance multiple weapon systems. However, when certain weapon systems are completely ignored by the ENTIRE player base, and those weapons are non-existent in the upper HALF of the ELO tiers, there is definitely a problem. SRMs are mainly what I'm talking about, along with the opposite end of the spectrum with the meta of 2x ppc paired with 2x ac/5. This builds off of point number one, because the hit detection issues just compound the problem.
Please please please fix weapon balancing before releasing any more hero 'mechs or any content that is not requested.
3) MATCHMAKER
Nobody can argue that matchmaker is FUBAR. I find that I roll the other team about 5 times before I am bumped up a bit in ELO and get rolled by poptarts about 5-10 drops. It doesn't stop there. This problem is exponentially more serious when you get significant tonnage differences. Yes, there are arguments that say smaller tonnage is justified by speed and stuff, but this is a dumb argument since there are so many pinpoint damage weapons. Whenever my Misery's ac/20 doesn't magically slip between the side and center torso of a firestarter or spider, it wrecks it. Sometimes, a light 'mech can get away with killing larger mechs, but as long as the assault pilot isn't an idiot, the light 'mech is usually screwed. Please Please Please Please Please make the matchmaker give us even teams. If my team has 8 assaults and the other team has 8 lights, why the **** doesn't MM give each team 4 assaults and 4 lights each??? This is assuming premades aren't involved, which is a whole different topic.
Please please please fix match maker before releasing any more hero 'mechs or any content that is not requested.
4) MAP FLAWS
This has been as issue from before I even started playing at least a year ago. Right now the first thing that comes to mind is weapons and consumables hitting invisible walls on maps. Buildings extent out much further than what the graphics display. Lasers/ballistics will impact on the thin air that is found around buildings and landscape. Once again, I would like to provide proof, but everybody knows what I'm talking about.
Please please please fix the map flaws before releasing any more hero 'mechs or any content that is not requested.
tl;dr, this game has a lot of issues that are known, but have so far been ignored. Please stop releasing new bad content before you fix the old bad content. This is a generally good game, and it has a lot of potential, but right now PGI's focus seems to be on releasing more broken content over fixing any of the old content.
Edited by TheRealAbray, 18 May 2014 - 10:00 PM.