IraqiWalker, on 31 July 2014 - 08:36 PM, said:
I have to say. I pretty much enjoyed the majority of this post while reading it.
I want different manufacturer variants for my lore-fix, but in all honesty, it would break the balance right now. As it stands IS mechs have great PP FLD with their ballistics. If they lose that and their guns become DoT, we will get a proper and more accurate re-enactment of Operation Revival. Culminating with the entire player base playing only clan mechs.
I also run my Orion as an Atlas lite btw. (Just got my hands on a second one when I bought the Protector a couple of days ago).
IMO the fix is to have the IS weapons with faster refire (more total DPS) but shorter range. More weight/space but less heat. Result? IS packs less weapons total with less range but equal (or even higher) DPS and lower heat (allowing for better sustained DPS).
Clan mechs have better durability (clan XL) but less tonnage flexibility. They do not always have more speed but IS mechs should have engine tonnage cap removed on BOTH ENDS, allowing for more swings in build options.
Final result? IS mechs have more tonnage flexibility to exploit their strengths, Clan mechs should have more omnipod flexibility to exploit frankenmech mixes to get a 'tactical' advantage.
One on one Clan mechs XL design gives them a big advantage as does range and total per-weapon DPS. IS mech designs are better at exploiting massed fire, better overall mobility (as we see now) and generally better hit-boxes (as we see now).
Result should be everyone, IS and Clanners, get an increase in ability to tank damage as there's less overall PPFLD on the field. IS Lights and Mediums will likely end up being faster than Clan ones but packing less firepower - making them better at hit/run and horse archer tactics as well as scouting (which is not directly lore but relates to the lore 'feel', IS better at making/exploiting group vs solo tactical situations) while IS heavies and Assaults will likely be slower but with bigger overall guns (Clans having ERLLs and ERMLs, stacked UAC/XL 5s and 10s or LRMs mixed with ACs and lasers while IS has AC10s and 20s mixed with SRMs and LLs along with some dedicated missile boats).
IS mechs end up designed around a niche, conceptually think of the Boomcat - it has vulnerabilities but you met one around the wrong corner in River City and you had a Bad Time. Clanners, conversely, tend to be omnipod frankenmechs. A good mix of weapons able to deal with a lot of situations. Their hardpoint layouts favor that as opposed to trying to fit 1 niche; even the Timber Wolf 4xSRM6A + 4xCERML, while destructive, spikes heat too bad to deal with, say, 2 or 3 IS mechs of inferior weight.
This lets you give IS mechs weapon flexibility but fixed hardpoints but Clans would have hardpoint flexibility but fixed weapons. As in, no multiple designs of weapons for Clanners, just IS.
Remember; with mixed mechs on each team as they are currently IS mechs and their XLs suffer *more* more from other IS mechs PPFLD builds. I can protect my side torso from CERLL fire and waterfall Clan LRMs. The problem is when I'm getting armor all over stripped by Clanners and then some chump with 2PPCs + 2AC5s pops my side torso out. Removing IS PPFLD will benefit IS mechs more than Clan mechs. Because of Clan XLs you can more easily tank with one side and shoot with the other in Clan mechs, mitigating the PPFLD advantage better as you shoot between weapon cycles.
Make sense? The idea that PPFLD is an IS advantage vs Clans is an illusion. It's an IS advantage against IS. Against Clanners it's way less relevant. Except for the Dire While they're all solid at twisting to mitigate damage and having a solid spread of torsos across their almost universally fat frames. . When you're shooting PPFLD, if you're not one of the top 10 or 20 players in the whole game you're going to put your 1 shot for full damage every 4 seconds into the wrong torso. Against a Clanner 99.999% of players are literally better off being able to walk their damage across the target to the point they want.
DOT for everyone. That will play to the IS strengths, not the Clanner ones. Just keep IS cycle times generally lower, range shorter but heat lower. Burst duration lower (like AC20 being 4 shots of 5, 10 being 3 shots of 3, AC5 being 2 shots of 2.5 each). You can even play with slightly higher IS projectile speeds in return for longer burst duration.
Just keep Clanners as they are now. Make it the 'base line' and they don't get different manufacturer choices. Hardpoint flexibility, weapon limitations. IS gets hardpoint limitations but weapon flexibility.
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