Artgathan, on 22 April 2015 - 12:08 PM, said:
- Max armor as a function of stock armor (where the cap on the armor is +X% of the stock armor instead of the current values which are based on mech tonnage)
The problem with armor caps is that stock mechs with low armor like the Jagermech, Locust 1M, Kit Fox, Mist Lynx, Cicada, Jenner, Victor, Gargoyle, Summoner, Hellbringer, Vindicator, Blackjack, etc. get smashed down into the ground, while mechs with high stock armor don't get hurt at all. I'm also going to mention that "three certain offending Clan mechs" coincidentally come with their optimal armor stock...
Armor is king in Battletech; The most efficient weapons per ton can't match the efficiency of armor even with 1x armor values in TT. Having more armor is an upgrade to having less armor, not a tradeoff. 1 ton of armor is always better than 1 ton of guns, it's not a choice. The most min-maxed mechs use max armor or something close to max for this reason.
Maths:
TT Standard Armor: 16 points per ton
Current most efficient IS weapon per ton: Small Laser, 6 damage per ton
That makes armor 167% more efficient than the most efficient IS weapon. For Clans, the ER Small Laser reduces the gap a bit, but armor still wins in the end (standard armor is 60% more efficient than the Clan ER Small).
IS and Clan Ferro have even better efficiency per ton than that. The most weight-efficient weapon that I know of in all of BT is the Heavy Small Laser, which gives 14 damage per ton. It still slightly loses to armor. If we factor in MWO's doubled armor, these ratios get even less favorable.