2 replies to this topic

[AbsUserName]

Why lasers are so much better than everything else?

Ok, the medium lasers are Inner Sphere "work horse" (I don't remember where I read that), but:

- a full damage is possible in a single component (as if lasers are PPCs);
- SRMs are nerfed into the ground without double range (LRM have ~double range vs TT)
- SRMs are nerfed into the ground without lock-ons (could go on with low speed, low ammo, etc)
- no ammo explosions (!!!) from heat -- very unBattleTech
- almost no penalty from high heat (slower movement, worse targeting, etc)

It's like PGI wanted us all to pilot laser boats to the exclusion of everything else.

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On light of these and other glaring advantages of lasers (hitscan, infinite ammo, etc), it's clear we need more balanced weapons to get more varied payloads. I suggest we turn to the Battletech game for inspiration:

- lasers do damage like the cER-PPC: the targeted component receives up to 5 damage per blast, the surrounding components receive the rest of the damage (the damage glow indicates that)
- either
-- lasers are continuous burn weapons and require face time like almost every other weapon, or
-- lasers fire in very short bursts of 5 dmg, requiring much more refined aim and possibly spreading the damage
- other changes are possible, open to suggestions.

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With balancing changes like these, perhaps the weapons are a little more balanced and we could see more variety in the game, unlike the current state of lasers and... more lasers.

BT has a quite simple weapon balance (but rich with possibilities):
- ballistics are heavy but have great damage/heat ratio;
- missiles are crit-seekers but have ok damage/heat ratio;
- energy are infinite-ammo but have poor damage/heat ratio.

This balance is somewhat upset (to put it mildly) in the current implementation of the rules.

[AbsUserName]

in the suggestions to balance the lasers, i remembered one I had thought earlier:

- have the mech adopt evasive techniques visually similar to how the mech shakes when hit by ballistics: when a laser hit is detected the mech heaves and twists voluntary to spread the damage. This doesn't affect aim and perhaps can be toggled.

[Lily from animove]

because every laser works synchron, since they have the same tavel speed (hitting instant) not even AC's have comon speed.
And the best, you can boat them efficiently, which with any other wepaon does not work, because of slots and hardpoints and tonnage.

PPC's are heavy, AC's are heavy even LRM's are heavy.

ML's and SL's weight enary nothign and with a heattreshold of MWO you don't need additional DHS as long as you cna retreat for a few seconds. You just dish out increadible amount fo damage, and fall back to cool off.

If we had fixed 30 hetatreshold and better cooling, it would work differently, and makes some cool wepaons as mix more appealing.

I can go with a 12 laser mech and fire way too much. in MW3 you woudl already have shut down or exploded.
Also compared to TT our lasers whoot nearly 3x as fast. So DPS wise SL/ML's are just damage beasts that are easily boatable by weight.