Ghost Badger, on 30 March 2015 - 12:29 PM, said:
If I had a genie who only granted wishes pertaining to MWO gameplay and mech diversity (it's a VERY specific genie) I would ask for:
1) 20% greater C-Bill rewards
2) The return of repair and re-arm and
3) A deep discount on repair and re-arm on mechs that are tied to the faction you're fighting for. It'd be nice to see that faction bit actually matter when it comes to what mechs you're taking...or see people play at a monetary disadvantage if they want to take something else.
RnR is never going to be anything but a bad idea. Either it's expensive enough to matter and will therefore cause a return to suicide grinding, launching into matches without repairing, and exploiting whatever free % of rearm ammo is granted by carrying x tons more than you actually want. Or it will be so cheap that it will do absolutely nothing except add yet another layer of grind ontop of a game that already has far to much of it.
RnR just does not work for MWO. Also nothing should be balanced by cbill cost, balance should be derived from functionality inside the matches themselves. Mech A being 50% better than Mech B is not balanced by Mech A costing Y% more bills as that makes no difference once the game starts. An XL Engine is not balanced because it's more expensive, it's balanced because it makes your mech easier to kill and consumes more critical space.
Bishop Steiner, on 30 March 2015 - 02:00 PM, said:
Mech diversity requires:
1) Basic Weapon Balance
2) Light Quirks to fill in the gaps.
Instead we get unbalanced weapons, and quirks designed to "create a meta" for each chassis.
Meh.
A few things would radically increase diversity in matches I think. First a complete redesign of the Heat system, make it cap out sooner but increase more gradually and cause performance problems if you stay to hot for to long. Second, break convergence so that not every single hardpoint on every mech hits the same spots. The end result would be lower alphas and higher sustained damage, which would increase the viability of mechs with non-optimal hit boxes. Part of the reason some mediums are simply worse than say a Storm Crow or Shadowhawk is because those mechs have hitboxes that let them survive the insane amounts of pinpoint damage currently flying around.
Next Quirks need to be completely rethought. It was such a massive mistake to make Quirks almost entirely focused on weapons. Not only that but they give quirks to certain chassis based on the "Meta" and not on what that mech was actually supposed to be doing or using. Change up quirks to be less damage centric, give something like the Raven quirks focused on ECM/BAP/TAG effectiveness, give the Hunchback critical hit resistance to anything stored in it's hunch, give the Crab a damage reduction to impacts that hit it vertically, make the Direwolf immune to vertical cockpit damage thanks to the massive canopy. Give some mechs resistance to certain kinds of damage, and make mechs more proficient with the weapons they were designed to carry - not whatever the current meta happens to be.
Lastly, Role Warfare needs to stop being a virtually neglected concept. Mech customization is too high, there aren't enough restrictions on what kinds of weapons or equipment mechs can carry. Damage has become virtually the only concern in the game, every mech is built like an Assault mech focused first and foremost on massive alpha damage. I've said before weapons should have defined physical sizes and some mechs simply shouldn't be able to carry them. A hunchback looks like a hunchback because it's built to carry a cannon it's weight class isn't designed for, a Catapult has massive missile racks because thats how much room an LRM 20 launcher is supposed to require. When you remove size restrictions, you make some mechs completely pointless as people will just take something else with better geometry.
Relatedly, consumables need to be turned into equipment. Air and Artillery Strikes should be part of the Scout/Command Mech roles. Right now every scout loads down their mech with as much firepower as possible, but that's not supposed to be what a scouts for. With every mech in the game being able to pull magic Strike cards out of their arses, or equip BAP or anything with an energy hardpoint or missile hardpoint can bring along a NARC or TAG it diminishes the need for specialization and in turn build diversity suffers.
Edited by Quxudica, 30 March 2015 - 02:22 PM.
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