66 replies to this topic

[NocturnalBeast]

Liking my Black Knights so far, I have a 100% KD with it and 100% W/L after 4 games (most games with fellow knights).

Edited by Ed Steele, 24 September 2015 - 07:44 AM.

[Grayson Sortek]

I tried playing around with this because I like to tinker. I couldn't really design anything that was super effective at any particular role with these things. The quirks are also a bit odd since they don't really distinguish the different variants very much. Ooooo one has ERPPC quirks while another one has PPC quirks... Ooooo big difference. The hardpoints are also incredibly similar, so what is the big difference supposed to be?

You know why I like the other Battlemechs PGI? Because they are unique and interesting. They have these differences that really distinguish them from one another, which is why I have multiple Jenners, Catapults, Orions, Hunchbacks, etc. There is no distinction between these variants and that makes them boring. I don't care about balance as much as I care about the 'mechs being interesting.

[NocturnalBeast]

The Black Knight is exactly what I expected it would be, a Grasshopper without JJ, which is fine. I can fit a bigger engine in my BK and more HS than I can with the GH.

[Grayson Sortek]

Af

Ed Steele, on 24 September 2015 - 07:46 AM, said:

The Black Knight is exactly what I expected it would be, a Grasshopper without JJ, which is fine. I can fit a bigger engine in my BK and more HS than I can with the GH.

After reading around the forums this seems to be the general consensus. I'm going to try out mostly XL builds since the LT and RT don't seem to have big hit boxes.

I still wish the quirks made the variants more distinguishable, but I'll have to see what I come up with on my own.

[NocturnalBeast]

Grayson Sortek, on 24 September 2015 - 12:07 PM, said:

Af

After reading around the forums this seems to be the general consensus. I'm going to try out mostly XL builds since the LT and RT don't seem to have big hit boxes.

I still wish the quirks made the variants more distinguishable, but I'll have to see what I come up with on my own.

I was able to put Endo, Ferro (nearly maxed armor) and a standard 355 in mine.

[Greyboots]

Frost Lord, on 21 September 2015 - 07:25 PM, said:

second the black night is a mid range mech.

I'm not anti BK like many, I've actually done quite well in them, but no they aren't mid range mechs.

With the way they are designing maps at the moment there is an exceeding amount of ground clutter and low rises. This means the BK is constantly clipping terrain especially on the newer maps. I understand completely why a lot of people are unhappy with it and I think PGI sort of deserves some of the derision they're getting over it.

They work OK in river city if you "play the normal way" but struggle in many places, they're quite poor in Viridian Bog and Forest Colony. They also underperform in Crimson Strait due to the constant "looking up and down" battles in the rail yard. Combine this with a laser vomit meta construction and hot maps are also slowing them down. This means they struggle to excel on the majority of maps.

Releasing cool looking maps and then charging for mechs that just don't work very well on them in a lot of cases wasn't terribly bright on PGIs part. Hopefully they pay attention and learn to talk to each other a little better between teams and also learn that some of their ideas on giving certain mechs "roles" is kind of broken.

Mechs need a "role", there needs to be something a little different and unique about each, but too fine of a point on their "role" means "Well, I can't choose mechs according to maps because which one I get is random so I HAVE to take something balanced for all-round play".

Then combine this with the new PSR. Mechs that vary so greatly in performance are going to be very wobbly for PSR. Some times they'll do great, others they'll do abysmally. With ELO gone there's no longer any real buffer against this and design goals like "roles" as on display for the BK are going to constantly frustrate players. When you KNOW that if you had high weapon mounts you would have had 3 kills and 700 damage but because of poor mech design only got 180 and 1 kill, because most opposing players know to take advantage of those low weapon mounts, this is going to cause issues.

So while the BK is capable of being quite fast and doing some great damage the low hard points are going to be the bane of it's existence.

The quirks? I don't see the point in complaining. In all liklihood these will be "good quirks" after the rebalance is done by the looks of it.

It should have been open knowledge that R2 mechs were not intended to be competitive mechs before the packs went on sale. Illegal, not illegal, I'm not an expert in those things so I have no idea. It IS, however, quite dishonest.

Please understand I am happy with my R2 pack purchase and I am not airing any personal grievances. Truth be known I bought it for the Mauler and just bought the entire pack because the money was there. That doesn't mean I don't understand why a lot of people are quite dissatisfied with the BK and probably both mechs still to come. I also understand completely that people expect to be getting the "new ubers" when buying stuff in F2P games which leads to unrealistic expectations but in this case I don't think that's a huge factor here.

Something as simple as well-rounded hardpoints for current map design principles isn't out of the ballpark of realistic expectations.

Hopefully PGI learns something this time and get a few more things right next time around.

[Dawnstealer]

My second time out with the BK, I had 4 kills and close to 500 damage...