GreyGriffin, on 23 June 2014 - 09:04 PM, said:
Why specifically target individual weapon systems and chassis in order to keep a tactic under control rather than adjust that tactic's core mechanics to bring it to parity with every other style and element of gameplay? Why is this gross triage that doesn't address the core issue the first suggestion to rap off the keyboard of a player who claims to understand the underlying mechanics on a deeper level than all the nubs? What makes OP's opinion any better than the rest of the bad balance suggestions that go up every day?
Ignoring the argument from authority fallacy, what are the fundamental underlying reasons that these specific changes were suggested?
Well, since your real question is this...
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Why specifically target individual weapon systems and chassis in order to keep a tactic under control rather than adjust that tactic's core mechanics to bring it to parity with every other style and element of gameplay?
I'll just be addressing that specifically.
The most effective weapon systems in this game are those that apply their damage in a single shot. This includes all varieties of autocannons, the gauss rifle, and PPCs. This is due to it being more difficult to torso twist against FLD while also allowing your mech to torso twist immediately after firing.
These weapons do not necessarily sync up well together post 400m due to the differing speeds of the weapons, but it's close enough to be usable. Other weapon systems and combinations can offer a higher alpha strike damage, but it's much more difficult to make this damage effective damage than it is with a FLD mech.
Combined with JJs, FLD mechs become overpowered. This is due to the risk/reward factor of the playstyle getting all out of whack. JJs allow you to expose very little of your mech to return fire and you can effectively get free damage when piloting a jumpsniper correctly. Currently, 1 or 2 JJs is enough to accomplish this goal and thus the sacrifice for being able to do it is incredibly small. There is also no inherent risk with JJs. They only provide benefits, such as the increased climb rate which is necessary now that hill climb is in.
You have often suggested that, since the problem is JJ fire, to implement a cone of fire mechanic when jump jetting. The problem with this is that it removes jump sniping from the game entirely. If you are not able to put out accurate fire jump sniping ceases to be dangerous, allowing teams to push with impunity. The increases the speed of the game since brawler weapons deal more damage than sniper weapons, which is somewhat against the design goals of MWO and Battletech in general. Furthermore, lights and mediums, as well as jump brawlers would be severely impacted by a cone of fire solution. Even if the cone of fire was minimal, MWO necessitates and rewards being able to land consecutive hits on components. Due to the high TTK of this game compared to others, for your own mech to survive you need to be able to quickly take out the enemy mechs. There is no healing in this game. The only damage mitigation is going to come through kills. If you are a shot or two away from death and you take perfect aim at an enemy mechs side torso to strip it, and you miss through RNG, it's just a frustrating moment. You did nothing wrong. You did things to the best you are capable of. The game, however, decided that you should die despite this.
Cone of fire also does nothing to increase the skill floor of jumpsniping. It does not make the tactic more difficult to use. Just more annoying and more random. In general it will still be just as accessible as it is today, and jump jet capable mechs will still have a major advantage over non-JJ mechs. Hill climb is not affected by cone of fire, nor is the damage transfer JJs provide.
However, implementing JJ scaling, JJ heat, and fall damage puts in actual drawbacks to JJs. Scaling will require you to bring more JJs if you want to gain their benefits, lowering the tonnage available for heatsinks. Jumpsniper builds are already treading water when it comes to sustained DPS in comparison to SRM builds. Less heatsinks will further tip the close range fight in SRM mech's favor. JJ heat limits the amount of times a jumpsniper can jump and decreases their already poor heat to damage ratio. They will be able to jump less, therefore lowering their overall DPS. Less damage will be flying downrange. Fall damage puts in a consequence for using JJs, or rather using them poorly. Players unfamiliar with the tactic and JJ behavior will no longer be immediately effective without suffering consequences. Furthermore this limits the amount of jumpsniper spots in the game, at least without fall damage, as some spots require a full JJ burn leaving no fuel to feather your fall.
If necessary, Bishop Steiner's suggestion regarding JJ shake during the first part of the fall down could be implemented as well. Instead of .5 seconds (due to the 1 sec minimum fall for fall damage) I would probably put the duration at .3. In any case, this will further increase the skill floor of jumpsniping, though by itself it does little to really hurt top players. They'll just adapt.
To summarize, the reason I prefer JJ tweaks over JJ cone of fire is to:
1) Keep jumpsniping a valid tactic, but not an overpowering one.
2) Prevent impact on JJ lights, JJ mediums, and JJ brawlers.
3) Prevent the further impact of RNG mechanics in the game, which are inherently annoying in a competitive game. Given that CW will eventually exist, this game is competitive.
4) Increase the skill requirement to actually jump snipe effectively.
5) Introduce JJ drawbacks to balance out the dichotomy between JJ mechs and non-JJ mechs.
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