Ignoring the usual "CLANZ OP!!1! NO IZ OP!1!!" drinking contest for a few moments...
The iML and iSL are in a sad state and could use help - and this is coming from a guy who's mostly a dedicated Clan pilot. Lowering heat to 3 for the iML and 1 for the iSL would be a decent start, but it wouldn't be everything. As some folks have noted (believe it was Kiiyor who pointed this out), the 'drawback' of longer Clan burn times is as often as not no such thing, as the impulse damage -
[[Terminology Break. IMPULSE DAMAGE: defined as the damage per 'tick' of a beam weapon, usually approximated as damage per 0.1s, in order to compare raw DPS numbers between two beams. End terminology break]]
-of Clan lasers is often as high
or higher than Spheroid impulse damage, meaning Clan beams get damage on target faster than Spheroid beams.
Obviously, this is balony.
Sphere standard lasers should be reliable, easy-to-use workhorse guns with a low heat load, viable for use in massed groups or in conjunction with other, higher-heat weapons. Every modifier you add to a laser (ER, Pulse, ER Pulse, X-Pulse, Heavy, whatever) adds to its heat. In addition, Sphere beams should generally have higher impulse damage than a typical Clan beam of the same type. This is somewhat twitchy as there's no such thing as Clan standard lasers to compare against, but for the moment:
iML
5 Damage
4 Heat
0.90s Burntime
---
0.55... Impulse
1.25 DPH (7/6)
cERML
7 Damage
6 Heat
1.15s Burntime
---
0.61... Impulse
1.16 DPH (7/6)
As we can see, the iML deals
less impulse damage, less damage per tick, than the cERML, and has only a slight edge in DPH. The cERML puts more damage on target for the same burn time than the iML, for nearly the same overall heat. To this, we add the fact that the Clan beam has 50% more range and a staggering 40% overall absolute damage increase, meaning any given Clan 'Mech needs far fewer cERML to accomplish the same overall damage as a 'Mech with iML. Which, of course, means Clan 'Mechs need fewer hardpoints to be dangerous, and that Clan 'Mechs with
more hardpoints are ludicrous. Looking at you, my beloved-yet-so-busted eight cMPL Cauldron-Born, or the unholy sprintmode horror that would be the Phantom.
Two cERML deal very nearly the same damage as three iML, for the same heat (12), over a much greater distance, with almost identical impulse values. This is not what we need. Try this, instead.
iML
5 Damage
3 Heat
0.75s Burntime
---
0.66... Impulse
1.66... DPH
cERML
7 Damage
6 Heat
1.25s Burntime
---
0.56 Impulse
1.16 DPH
Look at that. Even with what could be considered a pretty hefty swing in the balance of the two weapons, and the sort of balance change that would get the forum userbase
screaming, the iML comes out only 0.1 impulse damage ahead of the cERML. The two guns still deliver close to the same damage per tic, though this time the iML comes out, properly, ahead. The DPH difference is huge, however - you can now fire two iML for every one cERML. Our previous comparison starts looking a bit less extreme - four iML deal 20 damage to three cERML's 14 for the same heat, which starts to really show an advantage in close-quarters brawling.
The Sphere, however, would state that this advantage is still not sufficient, and they might well have a point. The Clans still have a huge advantage in boatability given how dangerous individual cERML are, and in order to really derive the benefit their significant edge in DPH gives them, the iML needs to be boated en mass at levels few Sphere 'Mechs are capable of. Let's try another adjustment.
iML
5 Damage
3 Heat
0.75s Burntime
---
0.66... Impulse
1.66... DPH
cERML
6 Damage
5 Heat
1.25s Burntime
---
0.48 Impulse
1.2 DPH
See,
now we're getting there. The iML pulls
significantly ahead in impulse damage, dealing nearly half again the impulse of the cERML, and while the DPH gap has closed slightly, it's still something of a yawning gulf in favor of the iML. The Clan laser still deals 20% more overall damage than the Sphere laser, and does it at a huge advantage in range. But if the Sphere laser's carrier manages to close in, it has serious advantages in impulse damage and DPH that give it a very decided edge in a brawl. The reduction of the Clan laser's maximum damage point also pulls the hardpoint dilemma's fangs - three iML deal noticeably more damage than two cERML, as one might expect, and Clan 'Mechs need more overall weapons to pull off the same ridiculous damage numbers.
The iLL and iERLL are a great case of how to handle things like differences between standard and ER lasers. Add 50% more range? Also add 25% more burn time. Assuming for the moment that the standard iML is a 5 damage, 3 heat laser on a 0.75s burntime, and the (more than usual) fictional standard cML is a 6 damage, 4 heat laser on a 1.00s burntime, and we start seeing a predictable, sensible pattern emerging. cERML deals the same damage at
significantly greater range, but for an extra point of heat and over 25% more time.
Apply similar principles to the rest of the energy weapons. ER is treated as a laser modifier - take a 'standard' laser, give it X extra heat, 50% increased range, and 25% increased burn time, and you have the resulting ER laser. Clan lasers deal more damage, but for more heat and also over an increased burn time - 'Clan' becomes another modifier to add to the base standard laser to derive final values from. Pulse, as a modifier to the standard laser, decreases burn time by some random, balanced, yet awesome amount (I'm hoping for 50% reduction myself. Dream big!), cuts range by 25%, and increases damage, to produce a close-quarters laser.
The important thing is to apply the same formula across
all lasers. Balance the base lasers - the iSL, the iML, and the iLL - then balance the modifiers/formulas one applies to those lasers. The 'Clan' modifier is rebalanced to work better, the "ER' modifier is rebalanced to work better, the 'Pulse' modifier is rebalanced to work better. Once you have the base weapons balanced and the modifiers balanced, the resulting modified weapons should be far closer to balanced. All you'd need to do is make a few post-process tweaks to account for final performance, rather than (more) massive swings.
It also sets the stage for later advances in laser technology. The Clan's ER Pulse lasers are treated as a brand new modifier, X-pulse lasers are a new modifier, Heavy lasers are a new modifier. Micro lasers are a new base weapon type that nobody really cares about, but the important thing is that this sort of thing would let Piranha lay out a fundamental rebalancing framework that would
fix the damn problem.
And we'd have a lot less "F*** CLANZ AND THER LAZORZ" threads like this one.
Edited by 1453 R, 19 August 2015 - 02:15 PM.
1
Dimento Graven, on 19 August 2015 - 01:30 PM, said:
