356 replies to this topic

[Mahnmut]

Some decent changes/tweaks. Why can't we see more of these on a regular basis? I understand that the dev team is small so major features take longer but these sort of balance changes should be more frequent. It would really give a sense that the game is progressing.

[Bhael Fire]

These changes seem good. You made them sound scarier in the ATD4 vid.

[DrXitomatl]

Seems like the right direction. Not everything we wanted, some things we didn't, but better than the current state.

Some other changes I want to see:

Flamers: More damage, less heat production for user
MG's: More range. They had better MG's in World War II
PPCs: Longer cycle time
Pulse Lasers: Shorter duration of action -- 1/2 second for all pulse lasers
Arti/Air Strikes: Further dmg reduction. We went from 10 to 40. That was crazy. How about 20?

Edited by WM Xitomatl, 28 May 2014 - 04:59 PM.

[Imperius]

Deathlike, on 28 May 2014 - 04:54 PM, said:

-snip

I play and balance the game in my own little world of Paul! New Word of Paul (Word of Blake)

Edited by Imperius, 28 May 2014 - 05:16 PM.

[TygerLily]

Lol, PGI should adopt the Planetside 2 dev's approach:

[Wildstreak]

LegoPirate, on 28 May 2014 - 04:26 PM, said:

a big list i posted on reddit. implement pls.

I read a few lines and got my hopes up some of this was true until this last line.

LegoPirate, on 28 May 2014 - 04:26 PM, said:

Heatscale Removed for: ac2s SRMs LRMs medium lasers

limit upped to 3 for Large Lasers

Mechs with no ballistic hardpoints have their heatscale limits upped by 1 (ex awesome can now use up to 3 ppcs or 4 LL's with no penalties)

Hunchback Right torso now takes 10% less damage from all damage sources, on all variants except the 4SP

Awesome Treated like a Medium for Torso twist/turn Speed purposes
engine cap for all variants increased to 400

I have no idea why MLs got a heatscale but LRMs need to stay for those Assault LURMboats.

Hunchbacks need to be modified so only the AC20 makes the Hunch weakness as in the TRO description.

I have never seen an Awesome design that would want to run up to a 400 engine. The PB having it makes it interesting, the 8 series are more for fighting at range and do not need a speed increase. Getting to use more PPCs/LLs is enough.

Kassatsu, on 28 May 2014 - 04:30 PM, said:

Not gonna lie, I actually can't argue with those changes.

I mean I could sit and say "It's still not enough! Meta won't change!" etc., but honestly, it's a huge step in the right direction. One thing I can say is gauss rifles might see a very short, very small jump in popularity due to the range differences.

Almost tempted to use smplas or smlas now. Almost.

Locust-1E is best run with SPL & SL combo so it favors that variant.

[Jay Z]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This is exactly how good balance works, little tweaks to bring things into line. I hope this continues on a more regular basis (monthly instead of yearly) for most weapon systems.

Keep up the good work.

[Thorqemada]

Apreciated changes, hope they work out as intended - Long Range Meta will probably be Gauss + (ER)PPCs (a Top Dog can do that easily an even Macro it).

Imho SL and SPL should be in line with MGs at 120m range.

And it would be very neat if Missiles would enter ballistic flight after their burntime - that would open up cool usages for them like true indirect fire.

Paul, do you have thought about making all Missles (including SRM) guided?
It would become the only reliable weapon for Hardware and Connection disadvantaged Players and fits as well the Canon bcs SRM be not Dumb Fire Missiles - they have a Basic Guidance System!

Tech Manual p229:
"Today’s vehicular-scale missile launchers are a broadly varied
weapon class used to deliver clusters of self-propelled—and usually
self-guided—munitions to a target."


PS: 35 damage can still kill a Mech on a random based Head Impact...

Edited by Thorqemada, 28 May 2014 - 05:28 PM.

[Leroifou]

Good changes however I would also have increased the cooldown on air and arty to 15 seconds. At 10 seconds CD it's not an area denial weapon, it's a main source of DPS for a team for very little effort/skill.

As for Paul's rebuttal of not playing the game, I also don't understand why that keeps coming up.
A lead dev (or lead anything for that matter) is generally busy, you know, leading. They don't have time to spend hours playing. That's their testers' jobs. All they can do is listen to their testers' feedback and make decisions based on that...

[Wildstreak]

Reno Blade, on 28 May 2014 - 04:52 PM, said:

I think the AC nerf normalization is not a "fix" for the meta snipers or poptarts.
It's to correct the inbalance between ACs and Lasers.
Imho a step in the right direction.

Now the ACs need burstfire like clan UACs and the PPC needs some delay/splash and we are set.

I knew I forgot something.

PPCs: Give PPCs a cone of fire similar to LBX. Define these 3 areas:
PPC 90m / ERPPC 0m - all damage hits on target.
PPC 540m / ERPPC 810m - 50% damage on target, 50% damage around cone edge.
PPC 1080m / ERPPC 1620m - 1 point damage on target, 1 point random spot around cone edge.
The rest should define itself.

[Eddrick]

Looking forward to the changes. It will be nice to encounter more short range fights.

[Forte]

Monky, on 28 May 2014 - 04:37 PM, said:

I will never understand the dev team's approach to pulse lasers.

In a few updates, we'll have a 2 ton clone of a medium laser! Hooray!

Guys, you need to give these weapons functional niches rather than try to cram them into identical holes.

AS AN EXAMPLE;
Pulse lasers already have a shorter beam time than normal lasers. Why not capitalize on this and shorten it FURTHER, allowing higher effective accuracy and less spread as a benefit compared to the higher burn time but lighter lasers? This is a good direction to move in and once it was chosen as an initial feature of pulse lasers it helped keep them from being completely useless in pub matches. Take it in that direction and you have a unique and functional alternative to the normal lasers that might even be viable in competitive matches. Keep going with what you're doing, and you're making a 2 ton medium laser.

Another thing I was reading about was X-lasers? http://www.sarna.net...e_X-Pulse_Laser
http://wiki.mechlivi...=X-Pulse_Lasers

MWLL had an interesting concept for them that could be used here. Basically make it a laser machine gun, slower fire rate, a scaling heat vs time of activation, but we could hold it on target and just keep pulsing. Keep it short range and it could be a fun but balanced weapon, as anyone that uses it would be overheating like a mofo.

[Drunk Canuck]

Monky, on 28 May 2014 - 04:37 PM, said:

I will never understand the dev team's approach to pulse lasers.

In a few updates, we'll have a 2 ton clone of a medium laser! Hooray!

Guys, you need to give these weapons functional niches rather than try to cram them into identical holes.

AS AN EXAMPLE;
Pulse lasers already have a shorter beam time than normal lasers. Why not capitalize on this and shorten it FURTHER, allowing higher effective accuracy and less spread as a benefit compared to the higher burn time but lighter lasers? This is a good direction to move in and once it was chosen as an initial feature of pulse lasers it helped keep them from being completely useless in pub matches. Take it in that direction and you have a unique and functional alternative to the normal lasers that might even be viable in competitive matches. Keep going with what you're doing, and you're making a 2 ton medium laser.

You know, it's this kind of attitude that makes me wonder why PGI listens to feedback. The problem with the Medium Pulse Laser is that heat and range are not worth the extra weight in this game. It's meant for short range, but it's so ineffective and even running a small group is far too inefficient for close in fighting. I'd be more inclined to run a fast brawler with MPL's and an AC10 or 20

[Mcgral18]

Merchant, on 28 May 2014 - 05:11 PM, said:

I knew I forgot something.

PPCs: Give PPCs a cone of fire similar to LBX. Define these 3 areas:
PPC 90m / ERPPC 0m - all damage hits on target.
PPC 540m / ERPPC 810m - 50% damage on target, 50% damage around cone edge.
PPC 1080m / ERPPC 1620m - 1 point damage on target, 1 point random spot around cone edge.
The rest should define itself.

Heck, I'm tempted to say the other way around. Cone close range, and it gets more accurate as you get further away. Then when it's at 540M (or optimal range for ERPPC) it will strike as it does now. When you go past optimal range, the cone starts again up to whatever size when it reaches max distance.

That doesn't really affect its long range efficiency, but will make it a much poorer choice in a close range engagement.

[Helmer]

Gyrok, on 28 May 2014 - 04:53 PM, said:

Needs to be dropped to 30 damage per shell, that way one round will not cockpit a mech...surely that is not too much to ask.

Between maxed out armor and internal structure the head has 36 pts of damage it can take. So as long as a pilot doesnt skimp on head armor, they can still sustain a direct head hit and survive (until someone sneezes on their head)



Cheers.

[DaisuSaikoro Nagasawa]

Some of you are so entitled in your action. Saying what needs, should or must be done. Be aware you only speak for yourself and others (no they arent just wrong) may have different ideas all together.

Get over yourselves. Your ideas, suggestions and opions are just that.

Anyway interesting changes. Curious to see how this changes the over all game.

[Jman5]

Helmer, on 28 May 2014 - 05:32 PM, said:

Between maxed out armor and internal structure the head has 36 pts of damage it can take. So as long as a pilot doesnt skimp on head armor, they can still sustain a direct head hit and survive (until someone sneezes on their head)



Cheers.

This is a common misconception, but the head has only 15 internal hitpoints. So even with a fully healthy/armored cockpit you only have 33HP there.

check out smurfy's if you don't believe me

[L Y N X]

We will adapt to the weapon changes.

However, I think you spelled denile wrong... try denial next time as an attempt to deny or discourage camping. My apologies if this has already been pointed out. REF:http://www.urbandict...php?term=denile
Please take the humor as it was intended..

Really like the laser changes, I think you had to make the AC nerfs otherwise the clan AC's would not make sense, I think you guys know this too. To bad about the AC20 though it will be less used on big SLOW mechs, though still useful on a hunchy imho.

Edited by 7ynx, 28 May 2014 - 05:45 PM.

[Level1Firebolt]

I don't think this will fix the strike problem. I won't bother repeating what others have already said on this.

Laser and AC changes are welcome and overdue.

Still waiting for mech quirks.

[Mystere]

Praetor Knight, on 28 May 2014 - 04:11 PM, said:

I wonder though, with strikes being at 35 damage, there could still be instances of head shots by Strikes (so I could see a reduction to ~31/32 if there's issues).

Well, otherwise, it won't be Artillery!

In all seriousness, though, don't you think that was intentional?