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"Boating is the problem" seems to be the new cry of the underhive. Allow me to explain why this is wrong. Boating is not the problem... it is the reactionary symptom of the imbalance of the game.
Of course, we also need to point out that when "Boating is a problem" it is used almost exclusively for LRMboating. Full confession I run LRMs almost exclusively with a little long range sniping thrown in. Why? Because it's a more fun game experience for me, and my system is slow and chokes if I try to brawl making it a miserable experience. We never hear much about ACboats or Energyboats in comparison (save for those cheering over the recent PPCs nerfs right now) because they are not as big of a problem really. When's the last time you heard someone freak out over an AC2boat or an MLboat or even an ERLLboat? You really don't.
So... WHY is boating (specifically LRMboating) the symptom and not the problem? Because it is spawned from necessity of the current game balance.
Ask yourself this. What good is a single AC5? Not much. Two on the other hand is a good mix on many mechs. Same with two AC10s and the infamous AC40 combo (2 AC20s) is a fearsome monster. Is this boating? Many would say no. Why? Because you do not need to and mostly you can't put more on a mech (Clan mechs not included in this example. they're their own bag of carnivorous worms). Same goes for energy. Nobody complains about the 9ML hunchback because that thing will overheat and explode if it is not careful thanks to Ghost Heat.
So why is having 4-6 LRM launchers boating? Why is it even neccessary? Because unlike a single AC5 or PPC... they can't get the job done. What threat is a single LRM5 on the battlefield? It has 1000m of range, has no damage drop off and causes 5.5 damage per hit in optimum conditions! Why is this not better than an AC5? Why is an LRM10 not better than a PPC or AC10? The sad part is we all know why and it's a multi layered elephant in the room nobody wants to address because there would have to be a very painful adjustment to the game both from PGI's position and the players.
The problem is the Counters issue. This is a great deal larger than just the Information Warfare Pillar PGI has talked about in the past. It includes non ECM assets as well. A single LRM 20 should be feared on the battlefield, but because of all the counters, it's just a nuisance. We have ECM, AMS, Betty's warnings, Radar Deprivation and soon to arrive Chaff modules to stop them.
Of course, then we have the ability to use other people's targets NARC, TAG, BAP, Adv. Sensor module, Adv. Target Decay Module, 360 Target Module all out there to buff the LRMs in counter to all the protections no other weapon must suffer. Oh! and if you notice, there are no LRM weapon modules, and Mech modules that contain all the modules to help a LRM mech have been reduced unless mastered... in most cases.
Getting to the point. This game of counters is what's causing boating because let's face it, you need the mass of missiles to make your mech competitive. A single LRM10? A joke. 2 AMS and you go from 11 points of damage to a max of 2.2 if you can shoot at them at all. They are dodge-able unlike almost every single DF weapon by any pilot who is skilled enough to find cover. So why even fill that slot when a bigger energy or ballistic weapon will produce better results? And so Energy and AC boats build up because the counters aren't there and they can poptart or ridge hump to their heart's delight and the hue and cry is much less from the crowd because they're already doing that.
So how do we deal with the symptom of LRMboating? Short answer, remove the necessity by removing the reasons that make it so. Currently, AMS has one broken buff, and one OP nature. Fix these two things and you will reduce the need to boat immensely.
1. AMS ignores terrain and can shoot through solid objects to stop LRMs.
2. AMS targets all missiles in their sphere.
AMS must be reigned in by having it react to scenery. I should not be watching AMS come through the floor of the Manifold Ziggurat or the Crimson Straits parking garage to shoot down my missiles aimed somewhere else. They go through your own mech as well as others. The problem is I understand why AMS does this, and I get why PGI did it this way: AMS is a bubble field, not a directed weapon because the math was too hard and the animations were too crazy difficult on people's computers. The problem is, it creates an unfair advantage against missiles of all types. What's worse is this is a problem that would require a fundamental rewrite of how AMS works. This means issue number 2 must be addressed.
AMS targets all enemy missiles in their radius whether they are targeted at that mech or not. This creates the 'umbrella shield' many of us LRMpilots know and hate and force us to just push the clouds of missiles more and more making people scream and animations to bog down. It's to burn up AMS to take it out of the game and get SOME damage through early.
What's the cure to this? Actually it's the simplest and possibly the most fair and effective cure in lieu of not being able to make AMS hit scenery and mechs: Limit AMS to only target missiles shot at the mech it is mounted on. Suddenly, I don't have to worry about having all my missiles burn up. AMS users know that they only will have a lessening of the damage. I can change my LRMboat builds around to create more balanced builds currently not possible if I want to run LRMs because I must devote myself to the weapon for any effectiveness on the battlefield.
That deals with only one counter, but it would reduce the necessity.
So, what's going to stop me from boating anyway? We already have a cure for this in place, we just need to make it a harder cure: Missile Tube limits. Right now, I can mount any size launcher on a missile hardpoint that has fewer available tubes. If it's an LRM20 and only 5 tubes available, it fires in a sequence of 4 groups of 5. The best way to handle this would be to only allow 5 to fire with each trigger pull and still have the weight, slot, heat and recycle rate of the LRM20. Nobody's going to do this. They'll match the tubes. Some mechs will require reduction in the number of tubes, but for the most part, the issue is solved. That deals with the ability to boat. Yes some mechs will still be boats, but like ECM and AC platforms, they will be much more limited in who does and can.
We do not need any more LRM nerfs to their effectivness. Fixing AMS will reduce the necessity to LRMboat and possibly eliminate the need to buff their effectiveness through higher speeds and damage because they would get a spillover buff from fixing AMS.
You notice of course, I don't dig at ECM so much (which I'm still convinced is broken but could be solved by making it the weight and size of an AC2 or at the very least an LRM15.) because there are some good counters, and broken counters to it. It's not perfect, but not as broken as AMS. The only area it is broken is that it does not affect the targeting systems of direct fire weapons. ECM should cause similar issues to those weapons because of how I have had it explained to me by Devs when I complained about it blocking TAG under 180m and by their own logic, all weapon systems should have difficulty targeting them. This could be done through adding the jitter caused by JJ when aiming at mechs inside an ECM bubble. It also could be used to warn ecm is in play in a certain area. You can still dumbfire LRMs at an ECM target, so you should still have the ability to dumbfire with the DF weapons affected with better, but reduced results.
So, as you can see, the need for boating is a symptom of underlying flaws in the system with two very obvious culprits. This should be addressed through reducing the need by fixing the broken AMS and ECM systems while decreasing the ability to boat huge numbers of missiles on most mechs through hardpoint restrictions. Effectiveness increases brought about by this would then allow for a greater variety of mech designs to be more functional on the battlefield pushing the LRM back into it's weapon's role as a support weapon on a mech. Yes you might see more mechs packing a launcher or two with 20 missiles or so, but the 50+ crowd would diminish dramatically for there still would be better ways to play the game in the direct fire arena.
Boating is the symptom, not the problem. Fix the problems and watch the symptom go away.
Edited by Kjudoon, 12 August 2014 - 10:23 AM.
