Freebrewer Bmore, on 12 May 2015 - 07:19 AM, said:
Static valuation is the problem, though, whether you're talking in terms of tonnage or of BV. We need a dynamic system that continually adjusts itself against the OP flavor of the month, because there will be an OP flavor of the month regardless of how well you try to devise BV, or tonnage allocations, or quirk/weapon balances, or whatever.
Static valuation is not the problem with Battle Value, any more than Battle Value has anything to do with controlling flavor of the month. I'm talking about putting 'Mechs together using static component values so you can have the same valuation across ALL 'Mechs. A Hunchback mounting 6 Medium Lasers -with the current hardpoint system of the game- would have the same valuation from those 6 Medium Lasers as any other 'Mech carrying them. That's the way it should be. Flavor of the month is always going to be a problem, and that problem should not be fixable through Battle Value. If some jerk designs their 'Mech to be meta, then meta values are what they are going to get from them. The POINT of Battle Value is that it not only accounts for the pilot, it also accounts for the strength of the machine in combat. Will you have machines that are fairly powerful but have a low BV? Yes. I'm not saying you won't have builds that are fairly light on BV and fairly powerful; what I am saying is that BV will allow the use of actual buckets for matching teams based on the build values you get in the MechLab, as coupled with the MechWarrior's Piloting and Gunnery Skill. Battle Value is not meant to help flavor of the week, it is designed to make it more likely to have even buckets in all game types, using a single value, as opposed to using Pilot Elo's -which none of us can be made aware of, for whatever reason-, followed by age of a MechWarrior or group in the matchmaker, followed by weight class mixtures, and finally by tonnage matching, which then have these "valves" open up the longer the matchmaker is searching.
This allows for many matches that are fairly even, but it allows for more matches that are lopsided. With BV bucket matching, the only number you would need, teams can be matched up even faster, more evenly, etc. Remove all of the quirks from 'Mechs, let them be as they are, put Battle Value on them IN THE MECHLAB, use a multiplier to that Battle Value based on a game-determined Piloting and Gunnery Skill IN THE MECHLAB, right as the 'Mech is saved and, then, when the pilot hits Play, that value for that 'Mech and that pilot are dumped straight into the bucket with the rest, the matchmaker works to level the numbers, and it doesn't have to be 12 vs. 12, within 5% of each other's number, and away we go!!!
I don't care, at this point, about handling monster of the week builds, as I have been learning to ignore those types of builds, and beating them, anyway. A 'Mech is a 'Mech, it has tonnage, critical slots, and PGI added hardpoints for weapon limitations; 'Mechs have to be built within the rules, and all of the individual values of the 'Mech are added together to make the whole.
Would you have Jesse Owens and Jackie Joyner-Kersey, separated into the parts of them that make them who they are, and those parts valued individually and dynamically, to compare them? No, JJKs muscle strength, endurance, bone density, heart health, and many other factors would be placed each on the same scale as the corresponding parts on Owens. It's got to be the same with 'Mechs to be fair. After all, why would a Large Laser mounted on a Locust behave any differently than one on a Wolverine? It's the very same weapon, it should have the very same stats, period.
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