OneEyed Jack, on 18 July 2014 - 07:58 AM, said:
Don't make me slap you.
The sad part is you actually believe that.
Ghost Heat has effects, but it most certainly does not work. It did nothing to any of the weapons that were an issue. Regardless of PGIs back-pedaling denials, we all know what the goals of GH were.
- PPCs weren't limited by GH. They were limited by having the normal heat increased.
- AC20s simply don't care.
- Lasers are already in a bad enough spot, and don't need the nerfs.
- SRMs were only ever bad when the code was broken and they were doing more damage than intended, by a HUGE margin.
- LRMs pretty much ignore GH.
- All missiles have GH mechanics that simply make no sense at all.
- AC2s actually got the effect in reverse of what PGI claims GH is supposed to do, FFS. They nerfed the least effective way to play them, and now they've nerfed the entire weapon into obscurity, so being held down with GH is like a punishment for being amusing.
So tell me, aside from punishing people for trying to play weapons that are already disadvantaged, exactly what does GH do that could be described as "working"?
Yes I believe the game would be worse if we had no GH.
Even if only for PPCs, the effect was badly needed to reduce the 40 dmg alphas.
you could shoot 4-5 PPCs instead of the curent 3 (with GH).
3x double 20s makes you shut down.
Try a Direwolf with 3 or 4 UAC20? instant shut down. Would be no problem without GH
Lasers are still in a bad space (worse than PPCs), but there are still people using a BM with 6 LL and alpha them with 99% heat (on cold maps) to good effect (killing people in 1-2 shot).
It's not that Lasers are as strong as PPCs, but alpha striking lots of them was way stronger than spacing your shots.
4+ LLaser can do a lot of damage and adding GH makes the shooter space the shots, or (if he wants to take the heat) deal with the penalties.
I use 3 LL builds (like Warhawk with 3ERLL, Gauss, 2SRM6) and I use 3 or 2 of them roughly equally often.
SRM boats like the splat cat are the only ones really affected by the GH for SRM or Streaks.
If you have more than 3 SRM6, you can deal a lot of damage.
The effect of 24 SRM with 2 damage each, even with the missile spread, can be very devestating.
Firing 4+ LRM 10/15 does a lot more heat than firing 2/2 groups.
It limits the amount of 50+ missile volleys, not the chainfired streams.
The Missile launchers over 2/5 are linked together and use the highest penalty. Nothing else to "make sense".
The AC2 was first affected (bugged) because of the short cooldown and has GH, to limit the stun-lock ability of macro'd 4-6 AC2s.
It is not very effective in dealing FLD pinpoint damage to one spot, but you could see nothing or shoot back at all, if you got into someones chaingun barrage.
All these changes lead to more time to deliver your damage, or heat penalties if you still want to group fire.
It's a basic
Risk vs Reward mechanic that gives the player the
choice without removing the ability to do so.
It also gives you a reason to consider taking different weapons and not boat a single weapon (type).
That GH had not "fixed" everything is partly due to GH not ruling out all cases and party because players adapt, change builds, or just learned when they could take the risk (like your example with the LRMs, or my Example with the Laser).
IMHO ghost heat is not the bad voodoo many people believe it to be and not a band aid, but a "feature" for balance.
(same as the 2 gauss charge at the same time)