Okay, because I see this argument over and over and over again:
Clan mechs are better. Period. They just are. They're
supposed to be.
When FASA designed this game, it was a ROLE-playing game, not a tabletop combat game. Oh, it had that element, for sure, but the FASA guys weren't that kind of game designer. They were "You suit up in your heat-vest and walk over to your mech..."-kind of designers.
The Clans were a STORY element that were NEVER meant to be balanced. The only thing that the Clans were was an external, existential threat that would unite the Inner Sphere: the only thing that possibly could. They were supposed to be this massively powerful, alien, unstoppable force that the IS had to deal with...in a ROLE-PLAYING setting.
Ever since that time, in all the computer and tabletop (the actual mech fighting mech mechanics of the game), no game designer has been able to balance to Clans to IS. The only way to do it is to either boost IS mechs to the point where they're basically Clan mechs (so that would be those two viable VARIANTS everyone cries about), or two reduce the effectiveness of Clan mechs until they're basically IS mechs.
[side note, here: VARIANT - the IS has two variants that are actually effective against the Clan mechs and start to reach viability. The reason you see so many Stalker 4Ns out there is because it's the only mech the IS has that consistently matches up to Clan mechs. I actually heard a Clan player crying that a 4N was better than his Timberwolf. An 85 ton Assault mech...was as good...as his 75 ton heavy...]
The way that FASA tried to balance this was twofold: role-playing and numbers. The Clans had a huge honor system that the Clan players of this game do not (and I don't blame them: it's a computer game). Clans fought one on one, limited their own numbers, etc, etc. Matches were balanced because of role-playing.
Second, Clans limited themselves with numbers. Clans would regularly engage the IS with half or less the numbers and STILL win. That was the point.
MWO has neither of these elements, so you get a lot of "CLAM OP" threads. The problem? I don't know how PGI fixes that. Clans were never meant to be balanced. They weren't originally designed to be balanced. And every game designer (including FASA, by the way) that has taken a stab at them has failed.
That said? After the map reset? I think I'll probably focus on IS vs IS fights and leave the Clan front alone. I think Kurita had the right idea pushing into Davion initially.
And finally, I'm betting that this event ends with a 60-66% Clan win. Why? Because, all things being equal (player skill-wise), this is the truth of the game:
Clan Prebuilt > IS Prebuilt
Clan Prebuilt > IS PUG (duh)
Clan PUG < IS Prebuilt
Clan PUG > IS PUG
Since we won't see too many PUG v PUG matches, you can toss the last one out. Let's see what the % is at right now:
52%. And I'm guessing that's because of the Asia and Europe populations leaning towards IS. As NA wakes up, watch that percentage swing back up.
Edited by Dawnstealer, 26 April 2015 - 08:09 AM.