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What do the clans bring to the table? This is a loaded question. The answer is different for every player.
For some, they get to play with the bogeyman of battletech. There is a certain appeal to playing the monster.
For others, living partly the lore one liked is the answer. If you haven't read any of the old novels, phelan Kell's first contact clan encounter is an excellent summation of the mindset. His incredulity upon first encountering a MadCat (Timber Wolf) pretty much matches a lot of opinions on it being OP.
Others play clan mechs because they think these particular stompy robots look cooler.
Still others play the clan mechs because they're flat out better, and giving up that advantage is stupid.
Lastly, we have the players who want to be able to have a win button. You know who they are, and their barely hidden commentary about how IS mechs are overpowered, or that they SHOULD be casually crushing the opposition, or who utterly lose their cool when IS mechs get a buff.
There's a few in every crowd.
What SHOULD Clan mechs bring to the game?
In my OPINION (Your mileage may vary, just disagreeing with me isn't enough to result in butthurt, only debate) the clans could have been a vehicle for engaging asymmetric play. You can have things which perform wildly differently in the same match and still have them be "fun" together. If this were not the case, we wouldn't have Atlas (not my favorite to drive) on the same field as a locust (with me cacklIng gleefully while dying in GLORIOUS FIRE) without the kind of screaming fits we see about dropping an Atlas vs. a Dire Wolf in a duel to the death.
Why?
They are not equal. They are not equal in any situation.
It's not "they are not equal" that is the problem with this concept.
The problem is "in any situation."
Tabletop dictated strict rules of engagement for deploying clan mechs. There was a strict and merciless code of honor adhered to on the field.
Once a clanner fired upon a target, that was HIS opponent and by god if another clanner engaged that target before one of them was dead?
The entire clan unit would turn and exterminate the offender, ignoring the IS freebirths. Backshots were considered the purview of cowards and clanners stoo face to face and traded death with their enemies.
By the same dint, the IS pilots had no such constraints, and a lot of clanners died because they would engage with honor only to have four mechs focus fire on them, one at a time.
It was a race to destruction. Four clan mechs (and one in reserve with his thumb up his *ss) engaging four separate mechs AT ALL TIMES. In turn the IS would tear them apart one by one by ganging up like hyenas on a steak.
It was asymmetric combat. The IS could win, with difficulty. But it was possible.
We cannot have that kind of Asymmetry in MWO because clan mechs are piloted identically to IS mechs. The tactics are the same. You cannot force a clan mech in MWO to adhere to the TT limiters.
Because the clan mechs have no limiters, and because the IS has no clear advantage they can exploit? We are in the current mess we have now. Let fly the cries of "NERF THE TIMBER WOLF NAO!"
PGI limits matches to roughly even tonnage, but even after you have modded your awesome to hell and back?
The Warhawk is still more powerful in a 1v1. There is a clear advantage in all situations.
The only exception is when the enemy mech is entirely short range in Alpine peaks or the pilot is the very definition of the word "moron."
Any counter dependent upon the stupidity of the enemy is not a counter.
so how do we preserve the Asymmetry of clan mech power and have a balanced game?
We can't use the table top limiter, that requires player cooperation. And players WANT TO WIN.
But in order to balance out, either the clan mechs need a clear, exploitable limiter or the IS needs a clear, exploitable advantage.
If we do this by tonnage the IS drop decks would need an average of 50-100 extra tons. Tonnage is a piss-poor balancer since a stormcrow can match, and frequently decimate, a Thunderbolt in 1v1 combat.
The other option is to make the IS and clan mechs the same. The differences ironed out until clans and IS were capable of doing identical feats. Making them effectively the same.
Kind of a crap option.
I LIKE asymmetric combat. I LIKE running around in a Locust pissing assaults off like a crack-tweaking two-year old.
But how can we have the asymmetry in IS Vs. Clans and have it fun for BOTH SIDES? Until this is answered, we don't have balance.
How do we have asymmetry of clan mechs vs. IS in pubs so that it's fun for all?
Sure, clan mechs are supposed to be potent. But how is it good for fun and game balance for one side to have clear and continuous advantage and expect the other group not to absolutely get mad about getting their asses kicked continually?
Edited by BreakinStuff, 27 March 2015 - 08:20 AM.
