BigBenn, on 07 June 2016 - 07:54 AM, said:
"breaking the meta" will be impossible unless two things happen: First, PGI needs to address the lack of penalty in terms of boating a weapon of one type. A mech with all lasers is the most obvious "meta" mech there is. The second "meta" mech is one that is all loaded with SRM's or S-SRM's. I've yet to see a mech loaded up with LRM's or ballistics be "meta", they both have their inherent weaknesses otherwise we'd be seeing far more of them. Sure, certain few mechs can take quad AC5's and be devastating, but how often is that? The easiest way for PGI to address the boating of the same weapon type is to INCREASE drastically the heat penalty (aka "ghost heat") for mechs that use weapons of the same type. Lower the number of LL's to 2, ML's to 4, and SL to 5. For SRM's, lower the number to 2. ENCOURAGE chain fire or designated group fire, and discourage alpha strikes. Mechs that reply on massed weapons of the same type (Wolfhounds, Black Knights, etc etc), can be quirked up a bit, but not much.
Secondly, another adjustment is needed in terms of weapon balance. Lasers in particular need a bit of a nerf. Lengthen the duration slightly or the cool down time slightly. Heat, at least on an individual basis, is fine, imo.
Tertiary- there are a host of mechs that receive NOTHING in terms of a quirk for a single weapon that is iconic to their image. Case in point: Warhammer -6R. Why not give it a major range buff for the SRM6? Or give the Highlander armed with gauss a major gauss specific cool down quirk? Etc Etc. I strongly believe that some mechs are left in the hanger because they dont lend to boated weapons and instead rely on "combined arms" to prevail. Those combined arms mechs are what PGI should want on the playing field, not mechs consistently with the same boated weapons.
Problem is, that the laser meta crowd always cry foul anytime something attempts to disrupt their easy-mode gameplay.
The InfoWar PTS laser range nerf is the only example I can really think of, granted that had literally everyone up in arms, not just the meta-humper crowd, that kind of thing was just stupid and whoever came up with it should be ashamed.
The Ghost Heat 2.0 "Power Draw" mechanic was supposed to address the failings of the current ghost heat system, but that's either been put on the back burner or abandoned altogether. Which it is we don't know until we hear from Russ or someone else in authority at PGI.
As to your comments about specific mechs and specific weapons, the last mech I really know of that tried something like that was the Grid Iron Hunchback which with its quirks allowed the Gauss to fire as fast as an AC2 just about, which quite frankly is just ridiculous.
The biggest problem I feel there is with the heat system is that the heat takes too long to be delivered with some weapons compared to others. Heat from lasers takes much longer to be fully delivered than say, AC weapons.
I often talk about how MW2/Mercs had a much better heat system because, quite frankly it did. Part of that was due to the more limited game technology back then, but part of it was also due to the fact that the game followed core Battletech rules almost to a T.
All weapons delivered their heat instantaneously, especially lasers, and because lasers fired in bolts, which was also how they fired in the novels at the time, you could fire them faster than you can fire lasers in MWO currently, but at the same time you also racked up your heat really quickly, and if you weren't careful you could get into some serious trouble.
Another factor was, the override wasn't a simple toggle like it is here, you got several warnings about the reactor shut down and you had to override all of them... Which of course if you overrode your shutdown 2 or 3 times, by that point you'd reached the end of the heat scale and your mech tended to just blow up right then and there.
On the flip side though, there were a few weapons in MW2/Mercs that... Quite frankly were laughable in terms of how pathetic they were. The PPC and the Gauss specifically. People think the PPCs travel slow in MWO? Go back and play MW2/Mercs, PPCs traveled 10 times slower in that game, and Gauss wasn't much better, it didn't travel quite as slowly, but it was still way slower than it is in MWO.
Those weapons were relegated to fights within about 100-150 meters because of how slow they traveled, where as any other weapon could reach out to easily 500 meters if you aimed right, even small lasers, which can only reach, what? 200-something meters in this game at max range?
On a completely different topic, why, why, why, do you have to sign into the MWO forums 3-4 times a freaking day? Seriously, literally every other forum I've been a part of you can stay logged in for weeks at a freaking time, but not here? That needs fixing more than anything else IMO.
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