61 replies to this topic

[J0anna]

It is less than 2 weeks til our mechs arrive and there are still far too many questions that already should be answered.

1) What do targeting computers do? If nothing, can we remove them? Answered

2) Do clan weapons have ghost heat? (Yes) If so, is it the same as IS weapons? (No) And if so, will double tapping a UAC-20 result in a ghost heat penalty? (did not seem like it) What will happen if we mount 2xUAC-20's on a Dire Wolf, will a double tap be like firing 4 at once? (Once again did not seem like it)

3) It was stated in a NGNG broadcast that Clan Double heatsinks are "very efficient" what is their exact value? (Still not sure - they seem pretty good) This is very important since some clan weapons are hotter and many builds only work with true double heat sinks.

4) Since UAC's fire in burst mode, what is the duration of the burst? (pretty short) One would assume it's less than weapon duration, so would UAC-2's have a ghost heat penalty if fired in more groups than 2? (Answered - does not appear so) Would the penalty be for each burst? Are the bursts for all UACs like pulse lasers or do they have a cone of fire like MG's? (Seemed pretty straight)

5) What was exactly meant by "redistributing armor" on clan mechs? Can we add armor or not? (Yes) The limitations on Omnimechs means we will be removing some weapons on certain mechs to get our armor up to MWO standards - throwing in an additional balance mechanism. Has this been accounted for? (Appears so)

6) Since IS mechs are significantly better than 3050 mechs fielded against the clans in TT and are in fact much more like Star League era mechs - has this been taken into account when "balancing" clan weapons? (I think so)

7) What is the speed of "ripple" fire on SSRM's? (Fast)

8) Since you told us what configurations are available, could you let us know what extra torso's/arms are available (i.e. will we get the Kit Fox "C" right arm)? (Yes)

Was expecting a post this week on our weapons, maybe this will prompt them. I have a feeling that these questions haven't been given too much thought, but detailed communication on our weapons and their capabilities would be welcome and may even help people sitting on the fence. I can completely understand people wanting to make a more informed decision, and information can only help.

Far better than any post - the opportunity to play (and in my case watch - damn work) answered MANY questions. I'm beginning to think PGI's plan is to let the freebirths be the masters of front loaded damage (FLD) while the true descendants of the Star League are the masters of DPS. It is an interesting concept and one that I think has potential - at first it would appear to be fail, but our weapons have significant range advantages and thus can put some damage out while closing. I am beginning to think the only way the freebirth weapons will lose their FLD is if they significantly out perform Star League Descendants weapons in competition, and while I still think that might happen, watching today's stream makes me think twice.

Edited by Moenrg, 12 June 2014 - 10:34 PM.

[Innocent]

The only reason to withhold this information is the belief that players would react negatively and either return or not purchase clan mechs.

[Lucian Nostra]

Another big question is how much damage for how much heat. IS weapons have dramatic changes like the LL being 9 for 7 heat vs TTs 8 for 8. Or ERLLs being 9 for 8.5 vs 8 for 12.

Will clan ErLLs keep their 2 damage advantage over IS makes.or will they be more inline TTs #s.

Also.. Erppcs..

[Revis Volek]

Could this be a role play tactic/? To try to keep what the "clans" have as a secret until they arrive? I mean in canon no one knew the mechs, weapons or tactics until the clans showed up. Keeping us in the dark could be why they are doing this. Or, which seems more likely, they are still making changes, mistakes, screw ups and will continue to patch and band aid this until....id say at least 2 months after injection. Seems like this is gonna be another "LIVE" beta test with hot fixes and server down time.....*sigh*. I will wait to purchase any more premium time until after they fix all the stuff that will inevitably go wrong with the Clan injections.

[Saber Avalon]

If you haven't already, check out my post it has all the info on the clans I could find.

1) Targeting computer we're supposed to get a post this week about per Russ: https://twitter.com/...502883351408640

2) Nothing said to that but I'm sure we will, how they go about it though, that's another story.

3) They've stated clan heat sinks are the same as IS, they're more "efficient" because they take up one less critical space. They also stated, with the quirk system, that some omni-pods could affect heat generation and loss. But yeah, no exact values.

4) They gave the UAC20 as an example and it fires a 5 round burst with every round doing 4 dmg. Expect similar for the other UACs. No idea on the ghost heat. I would assume it counts for each pull of the trigger, so each burst. I'm guessing the burst will be similar to the current IS UAC5 when double tapped but a bit faster in succession. Obviously 5 rounds instead of 2 and all firing at one press of a button, no need to multi-tap.

5) I sent Niko a PM about this, it says he read it on the 3rd but he hasn't responded yet. I was waiting till the Targeting computer post came out to pester him again, in case they lump it in there.

6) Check the post I linked, they're trying to balance clan mechs within 5 tons of an IS equivalent and they've listed many balancing steps that should bring them in line.

7) When they stated ripple fire SSRMs I thought X-5 with an SRM 6 on its 2 tube launchers.

8) Would love to know this too.

[Pariah Devalis]

I am curious about the beam duration mechanics in the clan lasers. Specifically, if a clan beam does 10% more damage vs an equivalent IS laser, is the beam duration 10% longer or is it a flat increase regardless of the damage increase?

It sounds like an odd question, but it could make or break Clan lasers, especially considering how bad off lasers are viewed competitively.

[NocturnalBeast]

Innocent, on 05 June 2014 - 08:43 AM, said:

The only reason to withhold this information is the belief that players would react negatively and either return or not purchase clan mechs.

Or that they have not finalized the details yet.

[Saber Avalon]

Ed Steele, on 05 June 2014 - 09:09 AM, said:

Or that they have not finalized the details yet.

Russ stated the clan patch is in testing lockdown, so no more changes till release. They know.

[Innocent]

Ed Steele, on 05 June 2014 - 09:09 AM, said:

Or that they have not finalized the details yet.

That is a frightening scenario with 2 weeks to go.

[Koniving]

Innocent, on 05 June 2014 - 08:43 AM, said:

The only reason to withhold this information is the belief that players would react negatively and either return or not purchase clan mechs.

Ed Steele, on 05 June 2014 - 09:09 AM, said:

Or that they have not finalized the details yet.

PGI has a track record of doing things at the last minute. Whether it's releasing information or actual attempts at balancing... they tend to wait until there's no time left and then either rush it out or miss the deadline.

I think it's likely they haven't finalized anything. They've been burned a few times about "promises" so communication with the player base on anything that 'might change' has ceased completely. We won't see it until it's concrete.

[J0anna]

Saber Avalon, on 05 June 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

If you haven't already, check out my post it has all the info on the clans I could find.

4) They gave the UAC20 as an example and it fires a 5 round burst with every round doing 4 dmg. Expect similar for the other UACs. No idea on the ghost heat. I would assume it counts for each pull of the trigger, so each burst. I'm guessing the burst will be similar to the current IS UAC5 when double tapped but a bit faster in succession. Obviously 5 rounds instead of 2 and all firing at one press of a button, no need to multi-tap.

I have, it's great, and what prompted me to post this.

UAC-2's pose a interesting problem. Remember how they were getting ghost heat due to the fast fire skill. The response was anything firing less than 0.5 sec was at risk for this. UAC-2's should be able to fire every 0.35 seconds (before Fast Fire), here's hoping this is addressed before the weapons are available.

In reality UAC's should not have ghost heat at all. Ghost heat was to limit pinpoint damage and the burst fire already does that.

[Kodiak Jorgensson]

Saber Avalon, on 05 June 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

3) They've stated clan heat sinks are the same as IS, they're more "efficient" because they take up one less critical space. They also stated, with the quirk system, that some omni-pods could affect heat generation and loss. But yeah, no exact values.

this caught my attention i like the idea of it, it would be nice to see more chassis / variant specific quirks like this for the inner sphere mechs too.

[Saber Avalon]

Moenrg, on 05 June 2014 - 09:21 AM, said:

I have, it's great, and what prompted me to post this.

UAC-2's pose a interesting problem. Remember how they were getting ghost heat due to the fast fire skill. The response was anything firing less than 0.5 sec was at risk for this. UAC-2's should be able to fire every 0.35 seconds (before Fast Fire), here's hoping this is addressed before the weapons are available.

In reality UAC's should not have ghost heat at all. Ghost heat was to limit pinpoint damage and the burst fire already does that.

Sweet, glad it prompted discussion.

I remember that being mentioned in a command chair, I think. They were going to go back and do a sweep of heat mechanics and I'm pretty sure they mentioned the AC2. I'm about to head to work so I can't go looking for it right now.

That's a valid point, but think about the hexa AC2 jagger and imagine three or four CUAC5s for example, a constant stream of rounds, shaking your screen, ramping up damage. I'm sure they'll get ghost heat but uniquely applied.

[1453 R]

Moenrg, on 05 June 2014 - 08:22 AM, said:

It is less than 2 weeks til our mechs arrive and there are still far too many questions that already should be answered.

1) What do targeting computers do? If nothing, can we remove them?

2) Do clan weapons have ghost heat? If so, is it the same as IS weapons? And if so, will double tapping a UAC-20 result in a ghost heat penality? What will happen if we mount 2xUAC-20's on a Dire Wolf, will a double tap be like firing 4 at once?

3) It was stated in a NGNG broadcast that Clan Double heatsinks are "very efficient" what is their exact value? This is very important since some clan weapons are hotter and many builds only work with true double heat sinks.

4) Since UAC's fire in burst mode, what is the duration of the burst? One would assume it's less than weapon duration, so would UAC-2's have a ghost heat penality if fired in more groups than 2? Would the penality be for each burst? Are the bursts for all UACs like pulse lasers or do they have a cone of fire like MG's?

5) What was exactly meant by "redistributing armor" on clan mechs? Can we add armor or not? The limitations on Omnimechs means we will be removing some weapons on certain mechs to get our armor up to MWO standards - throwing in an additional balance mechanism. Has this been accounted for?

6) Since IS mechs are significantly better than 3050 mechs fielded against the clans in TT and are in fact much more like Star League era mechs - has this been taken into account when "balancing" clan weapons?

7) What is the speed of "ripple" fire on SSRM's?

8) Since you told us what configurations are available, could you let us know what extra torso's/arms are available (i.e. will we get the Kit Fox "C" right arm)?

Was expecting a post this week on our weapons, maybe this will prompt them. I have a feeling that these questions haven't been given too much thought, but detailed communication on our weapons and their capabilities would be welcome and may even help people sitting on the fence. I can completely understand people wanting to make a more informed decision, and information can only help.

Best knowledge/speculation/semi-logical mass guessing on each subject:

1.) No idea. Given PGI, the current lead theory is Command Console Syndrome. If the thing’s not fixed to the base chassis, and it’s not in any known or current OmniMech I know of, you can remove it just fine.

2.) You can rest absolutely assured that Clan weapons will suffer from ghost heat. Double-tapping UACs shouldn’t impact Ghost Heat, but I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it did on launch, and was later* patched into working properly. No assurances on how CUACs will work yet, and no official confirmation of ghost heat for Clan weapons, but I can absolutely guarantee they’ll get Ghost Heat’d. Otherwise the Warhawk would crush anything and everything in front of it.

3.) Most likely that was stated in regards to their size, not any extra efficiency of IS DHS. Clan DHS have the same cooling capacity as IS sinks in 66% of the physical space, making them much more efficient for their size. Don’t expect any extra cooling benefits over IS DHS, just expect to be able to cram more of them in a ‘Mech if you can find the tonnage.

4.) Nobody’s got a clue. However, it is almost certain that a single trigger pull of a CUAC counts as a single trigger pull for purposes of ghost heat. The separate shells of the burst itself won’t trigger ghost heat penalties – it would be absolutely stupid if firing one autocannon once triggered ghost heat. As for how long/short the cannon burst is nobody’s said word one. I’m assuming/hoping somewhere in the realm of an IS pulse laser, but that’s just a faint pipe dream on my part.

5.) Nobody’s confirmed what redistributing armor means. Pessimists assume that the word ‘redistribute’ excludes adding or removing armor, and that the ‘Mech will be illegal if its final armor total doesn’t match its initial armor total, and they may well be right. The only release ‘Mech this will be a serious problem for, if true, is the Summoner. Optimists are assuming that Piranha’s going to let us play with armor as we see fit, adding and/or subtracting points in order to patch up weak plating or shave an extra half-ton somewhere for a laser upgrade. Once again however, to the best of my knowledge nobody’s 100% confirmed it one way or another.

6.) We can only hope. It would make sense, but PGI’s done things that make no bloody sense before. That said, as I remember it Paul’s goal was to make the weapons more-or-less equivalent with each other, just different in flavor, and let the OmniMech customization restrictions thing balance the ‘Mechs themselves.

7.) No official clue whatsoever. All I can say is ‘slower than you’d like. Guaranteed.’

8.) I’m going to bet that we won’t see any extra OmniPods on sale at all in the initial release. We get what we get in the Clan packages and extra OmniPods come later, when Piranha needs more money. Doesn’t make sense for them to flood the market with extra configuration options on top of the brand spanking new OmniMechs we’ve already got. Once again, however…no official news.

You know, I’m sensing a theme here…

[Tannhauser Gate]

Lucian Nostra, on 05 June 2014 - 08:44 AM, said:

Another big question is how much damage for how much heat. IS weapons have dramatic changes like the LL being 9 for 7 heat vs TTs 8 for 8. Or ERLLs being 9 for 8.5 vs 8 for 12.

Will clan ErLLs keep their 2 damage advantage over IS makes.or will they be more inline TTs #s.

Also.. Erppcs..

They already said that Clan weapons will be better but also require more skill to use such as lasers will do more damage over a longer time thus spreading the damage over more armor if your aim is sloppy. ACs will fire a pair of shots again doing more damage but spread out requiring greater skill to use.

[_Comrade_]

Welcome to the world of PGI, where you don't get information till the last minute....

When CW launch date apporachs....the day before it comes out they will announce what bonuses you get for joining which faction and people will be like I WANT TO CHANGE FACTION now....watch it happen.

And if only we knew what targeting computers did. Maybe they would of sold MORE MECHS WITH TARGETING COMPUTERS. Yea PGI you pretty much shot yourself in the foot there

Edited by Grimwill, 05 June 2014 - 10:05 AM.

[Zerberus]

Moenrg, on 05 June 2014 - 08:22 AM, said:

It is less than 2 weeks til our mechs arrive and there are still far too many questions that already should be answered.

1) What do targeting computers do? If nothing, can we remove them?

Dev post announced for this week, but yes.

Quote

2) Do clan weapons have ghost heat? If so, is it the same as IS weapons? And if so, will double tapping a UAC-20 result in a ghost heat penality? What will happen if we mount 2xUAC-20's on a Dire Wolf, will a double tap be like firing 4 at once?

I see absolutely no logical or even realistic reason to even consider the possibility of it not being there, with the exact same mechanics it has today. Like it or not, it`s a significant balancing factor, and it is to be assumed that the mechanics will be factored in when redesigning the clan weapons ( since which GH penalties apply depend on the weapon{s} used))

Quote

3) It was stated in a NGNG broadcast that Clan Double heatsinks are "very efficient" what is their exact value? This is very important since some clan weapons are hotter and many builds only work with true double heat sinks.
4) Since UAC's fire in burst mode, what is the duration of the burst? One would assume it's less than weapon duration, so would UAC-2's have a ghost heat penality if fired in more groups than 2? Would the penality be for each burst? Are the bursts for all UACs like pulse lasers or do they have a cone of fire like MG's?

5) What was exactly meant by "redistributing armor" on clan mechs? Can we add armor or not? The limitations on Omnimechs means we will be removing some weapons on certain mechs to get our armor up to MWO standards - throwing in an additional balance mechanism. Has this been accounted for?

Again, dev post announced for this week, but yes.

Quote

6) Since IS mechs are significantly better than 3050 mechs fielded against the clans in TT and are in fact much more like Star League era mechs - has this been taken into account when "balancing" clan weapons?

No, clans will obviously be balanced for stock mode uising TT values, as that is what the wide mass of the players plays

I`m sorry, but why not just ask "Are you completely ********, or are you working on the game we actually play?". I just wouldn`T expect an answer from anyone with any sense of self esteem

Quote

7) What is the speed of "ripple" fire on SSRM's?

8) Since you told us what configurations are available, could you let us know what extra torso's/arms are available (i.e. will we get the Kit Fox "C" right arm)?

Again, dev post announced for this week, but yes.

Quote

Was expecting a post this week on our weapons, maybe this will prompt them. I have a feeling that these questions haven't been given too much thought, but detailed communication on our weapons and their capabilities would be welcome and may even help people sitting on the fence. I can completely understand people wanting to make a more informed decision, and information can only help.

AAAAH, so you`re one of those people that redials tech support every 5 minutes to ask if the guy is already on his way, and then wonders why it takes longer, gotcha.

[Lily from animove]

DarthRevis, on 05 June 2014 - 08:56 AM, said:

Could this be a role play tactic/? To try to keep what the "clans" have as a secret until they arrive? I mean in canon no one knew the mechs, weapons or tactics until the clans showed up. Keeping us in the dark could be why they are doing this. Or, which seems more likely, they are still making changes, mistakes, screw ups and will continue to patch and band aid this until....id say at least 2 months after injection. Seems like this is gonna be another "LIVE" beta test with hot fixes and server down time.....*sigh*. I will wait to purchase any more premium time until after they fix all the stuff that will inevitably go wrong with the Clan injections.

I am quite sure, in canon, the clans did knew their mechs, and we are goin to be clanners if we bought the package, dont we?

[Mordin Ashe]

I wouldn't blame them for intentional delays. At this point it is like more info = more money from clan packages. But yeah, looking forward to any intel we can get, targeting comupter and weapon stats included.

[William Warriors]

Good luck in expecting a reply from PGI..