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Atlas DDC: 2xSL 2xLBX10 3xSRM6 ECM
Blackjack DC: 2xAC2 6xML
Maddog A: 4xLRM5 2xLRM10 4xCERML BAP TAG
Enforcer 4P: 1xAC2 1xUAC5 4xML
Atlas K: 2xERLL 2xML 1xGAUSS 1xLRM10
Orion K: 3xLL 1xML 1xLRM5
Timberwolf C: 2xCERLL 4xCERML 1xMGUN 2xLRM10
Arctic Cheetah Prime: 6xCERSL ECM
Direwolf B: 5xUAC5 4xCERML
Panther 10P: 2xAC2 1xSRM2
Summoner D: 5xSRM6+Artemis
Timberwolf C: 2xUAC5 4xCERML 2xSRM2
Catapult C4: 2xLRM20 2xLRM5 2xSL
Warhawk Prime: 4xCERPPC
Grasshopper 5H: 3xLL 4xML
Executioner Prime: 6xCERML 1xGauss
I will try to address some overarching issues first and then dive into specifics. Firstly infotech is unnecessarily complicating the game at the moment and a detriment in most cases to gameplay. I know you guys probably spent a lot of time on it, and it sucks to hear that, but that’s the truth. You also have to keep in mind that with the upcoming Steam release, we already have one of the most complex shooter/sim games on the market. While this complexity is surely a draw for many of our pilots “the thinking man’s shooter”, I feel like infotech will push the game into WAY too complex territory and dissuade more Steam customers than it attracts. At least we tried infotech for all mechs and there ARE things we can salvage from it, a lot of things. More on that later.
That’s the bad news, the good news is that we are moving in the right direction when it comes to core balance of the game. The reduction in skill efficiencies went a long way towards curbing the domination of lasers on the field as well as making mechs feel like mechs again. They feel like they carry tons of weight now. Additionally the reduction in agility means that when you come out of cover to fire, you are exposed for longer, helping to narrow the gap between ballistics, which need facetime to be able to effectively return the damage that lasers put out.
The addition of armor and structure bonuses to inner sphere mechs helps, but in today’s 12v12 environment, with so many mechs on the field it is more important to match firepower for firepower since that advantage is present whenever you shoot your guns, but extra survivability only helps when you are taking damage. I will say this though, the bonuses to the Atlas let it lead pushes, which is cool since assaults die to focus fire so fast nowadays that most assaults pilots have given up on the push playstyle altogether. Unfortunately I feel like the extra survivability is not enough given the reduction in agility in the Atlas’s case. I partook in Deathlike’s testing session and went 1v1 against his Atlas K (3xLPL 1xAC20) starting from about 350 meters in my 5xUAC5 4xCERML Direwolf. Though he did his best to twist damage, I was able to simply stare him down and out damage him, saving my lasers for pinpoint damage on his CT when he rotated to fire his shots off. The take away from this is that agility and firepower are MUCH more important in today’s 12v12 environment than extra armor and structure.
The AC2 heat changes felt great. I was able to suppress enemies without overheating whether it be on my Blackjack, Panther or Enforcer. The SRM changes were good too. I was able to extend the range at which I could hit enemies much further since I could reliably lead at greater ranges (part of this I am sure was also down to the reduced agility of all mechs). Unfortunately, even with Artemis on the SRM6s, I am still seeing multiple missles miss mediums and even heavies from too broad a spread. Please try a 15% reduction in spread for the next phase. I feel like that will pull SRMs into a competitive spot when coupled with the velocity increases. The LRM changes were good. I liked the increased cooldown of clan LRMs as a way to offset their significantly lower tonnage. I also liked the increased cooldown of the Gauss Rifle as it made it a lot harder to sync up with your lasers after the first shot.
I would like to see the pinpoint skill replaced with a hillclimb skill as this would alleviate the clutter problem on most maps without a redesign and allow assaults to make use of more of the map (to possibly take shortcuts so they don’t get nascar’d on).
Right, back to infotech now. Though for the most part it makes the game worse, it can be applied to great effect in 1 specific case: light mechs. Currently the light mech meta is boating small lasers because scouting is not viable. I believe that infotech, applied correctly to chassis that are not good at boating small lasers would open up another viable playstyle, actually scouting. For example give the Raven 3L a 1200 meter sensor range so that it can report enemy positions and loadouts without doing or taking damage. This would also greatly help lights as with the current reductions to acceleration and deceleration on the PTS, their ability to poke without taking damage is severely reduced since lights seem to have lost more in relative agility compared to other classes. Also making lights take longer to appear as a Dorito would greatly aid their ability to flank and get in weapon range before being focused by the entire enemy team. This would effectively give all lights a light version of the current live ECM with the goal of increasing their effectiveness at all levels of play including comp.
I believe that infotech applied to the light class and coupled with a change to LRMs so they are only indirect fire when an enemy is tagged/narc’d would instantly give us two additional forms of role warfare to supplement our current direct fire damage role: scouting and fire support.
That about covers everything I have to say without overwhelming you with information. My suggestion for the next phase of PTS
1) Balance weapons. I am including my weapon balance ideas at the end of this post. Then quirk IS mechs so that they match clan firepower.
2) Add additional survivability to mechs which have bad hitboxes/geometry or are simply lacking in hardpoints. Examples Jenner CT, Orion ST, Atlas everywhere, except maybe Boar’s Head.
3) This will really be the tricky part. Incorporate infotech into the light class.
-PPCs: No reason to take them currently as they are hotter, heavier and more prone to missing than large lasers. Solution: Increase velocity by 35%, add cockpit shake to impacts and make it so each impact raises the heat on the enemy mech by 1 point.
-LBX: No reason to take them as they spread damage like crazy at anything other than point blank range. Solution: Decrease cycle time by roughly 35% relative to ACs so that the sandpapering damage they do actually adds up. Increase velocity by 20% too.
-SRMS: Not taken because they spread damage like the LBX, but have an even slower travel time and thus are more prone to missing. Solution: Increase missile speed (you guys already did this) by 35% and tighten spread by 15% (this still needs to be tested).
-LRMs: Garbage when ECM is on the field (on live) and enemy players know how to position well, cheese when neither of those hard counters are present. Solution: Make LRMS capable of indirect fire only when enemy is TAG’d or NARC’d and increase velocity by 35%. This will also contribute to role warfare as scouting and providing fire support will be real things, turning the light meta from small laser boating to at least having a second viable playstyle with the inherit cat and mouse games that come along with it. I would also propose a reduction of TAG range to accompany these changes to 500m so that lights can’t just paint enemy mechs from a range where they cannot realistically risk interception. One additional thing, I think this idea come from either Deathlike or Andi, but make LRMS fly in a much straighter line when used as direct fire (like previous MW titles) and have them arc only when used as indirect fire.
-MGUNS: Absolutely garbage damage currently; kills many light chassis as their ballistics slots are worthless. Solution: increase damage by 65%.
-LASERS: King of the battlefield currently. Solution: decrease overrange to 1.2x as a starting point, allow ballistics to keep their current overrange. Also the IS MUST get the ISERML as that weapon is the bread and butter of medium range trading and without it any attempt to balance IS vs Clans will either be OP or insufficient.
-ACs: Not taken because they are much more likely to miss than lasers. Solution: Increase velocity by 25%, also lower the heat of the AC2 family so that it doesn’t overheat anything other than assaults when used. Many medium chassis (Blackjack family with exception of 1X) have no place on the battlefield currently because they can’t maintain suppression with the AC2 without overheating. I understand that this was done to kill the AC2 machine gun macro, but surely there is another way to handle that mechanic other than to penalize all the players that don’t resort to borderline cheating/cheese? (You guys already decreased the heat in this PTS so yay for that!)
-Flamers: I actually think this weapon just got a bad rap and I’ve used them to great effect (especially the clan version at only .5 tons being able to basically shut down a FS or AC’s damage). Always open to suggestions though.
-Increase ammo per ton so that ballistics and missiles have longevity without having to invest huge amounts of tonnage. Mechs are carrying 2x armor after all. This will be especially felt in CW matches.
Edited by Kristian Radoulov, 09 November 2015 - 02:32 PM.
