stjobe, on 26 July 2015 - 01:57 PM, said:
Don't get your hopes up. The much-vaunted "rebalancing" is just the Re-Quirkening with a new way of ranking the 'mechs. MWO's issues with pin-point accurate, instantly converging, front-loaded damage are way too deep in the core game to be fixed by something like that. It would need a major re-write.
I don't think PGI is even capable, much less willing, to even try to fix it at this point.
Okay, maybe I phrased/worded that badly.
I know it will probably end up as nothing more than "The Second Quirkening", with the addition of some sort of "Battle Value" system for all the weapons and equipment, but until we get more details on how that will work...
IF we get more details that is, we can at least hope, right?
At the very least, we can hope that the quirk system this time will do what it was supposed to do in the first place, make all chassis attractive in one way or another.
stjobe, on 26 July 2015 - 01:57 PM, said:
It will be the same, or similar, shite every day this game exists, unless PGI by some miracle decides to go back and re-do some of the very earliest design mistakes they made, like
* NOT reducing damage and heat per shot by the same factor they increased rate of fire.
* NOT implementing any heat penalties besides shutting down at 100% heat (in a franchise where heat is instrumental)
* NOT realizing that front-loaded damage is plain better than spread damage (and compensating for it somehow)
* the epic-level, mind-boggling stupidity of thinking having perfect accuracy (in a franchise well-known for its poor accuracy, I might add) would somehow make the game more attractive to the eSports crowd.
These are fundamental game design mistakes that are at the core of this game. The flaws aren't superficial, they're deep within the game, and they are there by PGI's stupidity and ineptitude. I don't see them changing any of them. I don't think they can, and I don't think they care.
So it is what it is. It might get minor improvements, but we'll never see any major changes.
*shrug*
It is what it is.
I absolutely agree that the heat system is at the very core of the piss-poor weapon balance system, however, given my experiences in MW2/Mercs/MW4, the heat system in those games is more or less identical to the one we have in MWO.
The few times I did run missiles in MW2/Mercs, I almost never experienced ammo explosions, even though I was running fairly hot most of the time... Depending on the mech I was using anyway. Especially the heavy mechs, I'd usually find myself somewhere in the 50-75 % range as I always used that circular heat-scale indicator.
In the light/medium mechs I almost never reached the 50 % mark unless I was running a Crab or something with as many lasers as I could pack on... Which was usually 2 Large and 3 Medium I think. Now that was a hot little mech, but god did it eat other mechs for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The real problem is the TT rules for accuracy and related issues (i.e the dice percentage numbers which dictate whether you miss wildly or hit whatever part of the mech you're shooting at), don't translate at all to an FPS, especially when we have mice capable of altering their precision parameters... DPI isn't it?
The only thing I could really suggest for accuracy is taking the code for the MASC/JJ reticule bounce, and use that to make it so that the weapon being fired has a chance to miss wildly if fired beyond their optimum range, all the way out to their rated maximum. You still have a chance to hit your target, but it's a wild gamble and I dare say would probably not go off well with the comp players.
It's a bit heavy handed I admit, but it would help slow down the TTK for lasers, reduce the laser vomit and would make ACs a much more viable choice for a primary weapon as they already have considerably longer ranges than lasers, thus making them more accurate at those ranges, but still having a chance to miss.
I remember from reading my Gray Death novels, I can't remember if it was the first or second... I think it was the first, Thunder Rift, towards the end during the fight at the space port, Grayson was saying or thinking something while in his Shadow Hawk about the medium laser having a theoretical range of like 1 kilometer, but only being truly accurate out to about 300 meters due to the decline of technology... The so called "Targeting Computer" just barely deserving the name.
Missiles are unfortunately where I draw a blank on making them more a more viable choice compared to ACs/Lasers. A speed increase is sorely needed, that much I'll say, but the combination of their speed and angle is the really big problem. How do you fix that?
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Sereglach is right though. As fun as it is debating TT to FPS rules, that's a different topic and deserves its own thread.
Back on topic with the Unseen, I think it's more likely Russ and PGI will wait a while before announcing anything. I imagine they'll be in contact with CGL often enough, getting updates on CGL's work re-imagining the Unseen, getting their renders and what-not, then having internal meetings with the art team, figuring out how they can take CGL's work and work it into their own system.
I don't imagine we'll hear anything from PGI for a month, minimum, probably more. PGI have a lot on their plate with the re-balance, re-done Forest Colony, Resistance 2... Whatever they have planned for November, since Resisatnce 2 come out in September and October... And then Origins in December.
November or January is when I'd expect anything to be said on the Unseens.
Edited by Alan Davion, 26 July 2015 - 02:38 PM.