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It's kind of true, loosely, sort of, as long as the tech remains separate. But Russ has even acknowledged that eventually MixTech WILL happen. And you think the QQ now is bad?
Let's just look at the Weapons:
Energy:
-Clan Pulse Lasers vs IS Pulse Lasers: Mostly Upgrades
(slightly longer beam duration on clans, otherwise better)
-Clan ER Lasers vs IS ER Lasers: Really hard to say, ATM. Beam Duration sucks on C-ERs, but CERMLs are pretty insane for 1 ton.
(traditionally IS ERSL and MLs have always sucked)
-IS Standard Lasers vs Clans: Well, win for the IS, as the Clans don't have any.
(C-ERSL is superior to IS SL though, and the IS ML has always been unfairly burdened with 1 pt more heat than it should.)
-Clan ERPPC vs IS ERPPC: Pure 100% Upgrade
(IS does have a standard PPC, which is cooler, but does less total damage, lower velocity, less range, and has a minimum range. There is a reason it is even less used than the hotter IS-ERPPC)
-Clan Flamer vs IS Flamers: 100% pure upgrade.
(It's worthless trash for both factions, but it's half the weight worthless trash for the Clans)
Ballistics:
-Clan LB-10X vs IS LB-10X: Pure 100% upgrade.
(No reason to think other LB-Xs will be different)
-Clan UAC5 vs IS UAC5: Despite extra weight, IS UAC5 is superior, due to PP-FLD.
(Probably be the same when other UACs are introduced. Probably ALL UACs IS and Clan, should be burst fire, with velocity and burst duration balancing weight factors.)
-Clan AC vs IS AC: IS AC clearly superior.
(Clan ACs which should not even exist, are lighter, but burst is purely inferior to PP-FLD, and weight difference is not enough to counter.)
-Clan Gauss vs IS Gauss: 100% pure upgrade.
-Clan MGs vs IS MGs: 100% pure upgrade
Missiles:
-Clan SRMs vs IS SRMs:
(I forgot about that massive .075% damage boost. For half the weight, and an SRM6 that takes up 1 less crit. Thanks Aniviron!)
-Clan SSRM2 vs IS SSRM2: 100% pure upgrade
(No reason to think larger launchers won't be also)
-Clan NARC vs IS NARC: 100% pure upgrade.
-Clan LRMs vs IS LRMs: Marginal to Moderate in favor of Clans.
(One of the few instances it's relatively close to a sidegrade. IS LRMS hit en masse, and thus tend to defeat AMS better, but Clan launchers are half weight, and for chainfire LRMing are better. I give the clans the nod because of half weight, but not half effectiveness. Not that I am arguing they should be half as effective. But even as bad as LRMs overall are, at half weight a clan mech can usually afford to bring a rack, just in case.)
Support:
-TAG and AMS are a wash.
-C-ECM vs IS ECM: 100% pure upgrade
-CAP vs BAP: 100% pure upgrade
And of course, we will see a whole host of other goodies, from MRMs, to HAGs, to Light and Heavy Gauss to RACs introduced eventually too, to further muddy the waters. And this doesn't even begin to address the inherent OmniMech Customization vs Battlemech Customization arguments, the dreaded Clan Battlemech Customization balance issues to come, basic structure, armor and engine comparisons, etc.
All of which, IMO need to be balanced against each other in a bubble, because once mixtech comes, the general "faction vs faction" balancing act will completely and utterly fail. Weapons need to be balanced vs weapons, chassis vs chassis, and gear vs gear, and then only then, should quirks be added to make up for any real bad shortcomings.
So, while I have ideas on all these things, to one degree or another, this is simply to show why so much of the balance arguments and methods presented are short sighted and will fail. Starting with PGIs. More as a "food for thought" PSA, I suppose.
Provecho!
Edited by Bishop Steiner, 18 May 2015 - 01:37 PM.
