Homeskilit, on 30 September 2015 - 07:35 PM, said:
I did not assume anything, I just thought it funny that what you described as wrong with my idea was exactly what was wrong with the current system difference being with modules you can choose which quirks you want to use. An example of the module system I described would be:
General Module +10% Energy Weapon Range
Specific Module: +15% ER Large Laser Range
The numbers are arbitrary but with this any mech can take the General Module and be viable but the Long Range Fire Support specialized mech can take the Specific Module (I vote against having both at the same time but that would have to be tested/discussed) and be slightly better at one thing but not all that much better.
I get your concept, I just strongly disagree with it. A 'Mech's geometry will determine what it's going to be good at, there's no need to exacerbate it by giving them access to exclusive quirks/modules/whatever. You know how stupidly overpowering a Locust 1E is now, precisely because it got quirks to let it laser-blast things with 30 damage from not quite 400 meters away with incessant ridge-humping? On a 'Mech that is already naturally adept at ridge-humping? And that's after the second pass; they knocked it
down to 365 meters, it used to be 378.
I also don't think the potential of a weapon should be different per 'Mech. A Large Laser ought to be 450 meters + an optional 45 on every 'Mech, period. I don't even like modules that give free upgrades, it's just a tax and leaves new or poor players at a significant disadvantage. The benefit should always be offset with a drawback, or it's just power-creep.
'Mechs should only receive hit-point and agility buffs. Weapons should be tweaked at the baseline, not ever quirked.
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Unfortunately that problem with the Atlas is never going to go away, but if it had the option to have Defensive Modules that increased its Armor and Structure, then it can go ahead and expose itself to fire those weapons. Or it can take said Offensive Modules and play much more cautious and focus on dealing a greater amount of damage at the cost of Defense.
No, that problem won't go away, but it also didn't used to be as much of a problem. Before Clans and quirks, an LL-Gauss Atlas was somewhat common and was actually a threat. Sure, a Stalker was a better 'Mech to bring that type of load-out on, but the gap between the two was marginal compared to where it is now. With quirks, an Atlas built that way is out-ranged, out-cooled, and out-burned by Stalkers and Battlemasters running LL builds or even PPC + ML builds. Those 'Mechs were buffed so hard to their strengths that, even up close, an Atlas gets wrecked more often than not. It can't even survive that short 150 meter jaunt from 400 meters to 250 meters because it gets absolutely flayed. And the sickening part? Even those over-quirked Battlemasters and Stalkers still aren't a match for the Timberwolves and friends. Yes, I can do well with them, even against Clan 'Mechs, but that's a function of skill and not equipment. If I run into a brawler HBR with a brawler BLR, and he knows how to drive at least as well as me, I'm toast.
If you make the weapons the same for everybody within a Tech set, you can prevent the kind of chasm you see between an LL-Gauss Atlas and an LL+Gauss Crab or an LL+Gauss Stalker. Stalker and Crab would still most likely win since this isn't the Atlas's strong suit, but with a smaller margin between the damage-in-over-damage -out ratios.
I don't actually think the Atlas needs much in the way of extra hit-points. Twist speed and angle, yes, hit-points, no. Basically, there is one particular playstyle that is much more reliable than the others, and it needs to be reigned in or the others need to be empowered. The Atlas can't play to its strengths because that one playstyle is too good. Universally, short-range weapons need a buff because they are all junk until quirked and are even then mostly junk, and mid-long range weapons need to be toned down across the board. Longer cool-downs would do it, and shorter ranges in some cases.
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There probably should be a hard cap on Lights speed (Had to do it, sry) not sure if 170 kph is it or not though as I have no experience on the subject. Taking a small, short range weapons load with a big engine on an assault should be a viable strategy and it saddens me that PGI would nerf that so much that it no longer exists. Small nerfs and tweaks to balance yes, nerf hammer into oblivion, no. The irony thought is that not only do they take away a strategy to combat the Clans range but they give the Clans 2 mechs in the Gargoyle and the Executioner that do the exact same thing.
PGI doesn't want to exceed 170 kph. They think it will break their netcode, which sounds weak to me.
And yea, that's exactly what I mean. The short-range weapons in this game are simultaneously too hot and too slow. They couldn't offer sufficient DPS even if they weren't cooking your 'Mech when firing full-tilt. Then, they took away the big engines, so now we have a whole bunch of short-ranged guns on 'Mechs too slow to use them.
If you look at my laser table several pages back, you'll notice I made the short range weapons colder and faster. The only way to stop standard lasers from being useless, especially after ER lasers are introduced, is to make them really good within their ranges.
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Almost everything in modern war-fiction is based in someway on wars of the past. In a "modern video game" the idea is to have a "fair" fight but that is not necessarily the case in a board game or novel. I did not play the TT but if I was given 40 pieces and my opponent had 15 superior pieces I am sure it would end being pretty even fight. I highly doubt the creators of the BT Universe had any idea what games would be like in the 21st century and so did not plan it as such. In the case of the the Clans being total high and mighty jerks? Only some of the Clans were like that.
But the makers of BattleTech have admitted that they goofed with the Clans. They introduced BV2.0 and asymmetrical warfare, as well as advanced IS gear, to try and unbreak it, but it never really worked.
Also, you having 40 pieces to his 15 and it being an even match is a fair fight if that's how the game was designed. This game is designed for 12 v 12, though, not 40 v 15.
Also, all of the Clans are high and mighty jerks. The Inner Sphere was managing to slowly rebuild on its own without their help, they panicked over the implicit obsolescence that meant for their existence, and decided to invade. They had absolutely no real need to invade outside of that chip on their collective shoulder and feeling entitled to a piece of what they had willingly abandoned. Kerensky was a traitor and his spawn should be annihilated with nuclear ordnance from orbit so their cancerous, Nietzchean society doesn't spread.
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