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[InnerSphereNews]

Greetings MechWarriors,

UPDATE 11/18

PTS has been updated with the following changes:

• QKD-4G [C]: Missile Cooldown changed from +1000% to +10% (the crazy shenanigans will be sorely missed).
• LCT-1V: Laser Range Quirk removed (Energy Range Quirk is still present).
• WVR-6K: Energy Heat Gen changed from +10% to -10%.

UPDATE 11/16:

The Quirk Change list XML and PDF have been updated with the following information:
• AWS-8Q entry has been added.
• BLR-1G Phoenix variant entry has been removed (Quirks are same as BLR-1G)
• LCT-PB entry has been added.
• Clan 'Mech entries have been added (only covering Clan 'Mechs which have received Quirk changes).

The PTS4 server was activated today at 5:00 PM PST (November 17th at 1:00 AM UTC)

The Public Test Server (PTS) will be activated next week for a new session of the 'Mech Re-Balance Public Test. The PTS is tentatively set for Monday, November 16th.
Subject to your feedback, the changes outlined in this PTS session are scheduled for release onto the Live servers on December 1st.

Before getting into the details, we'd first like to start by sending out a huge thank-you to all who participated on the PTS's so far and has provided feedback on the changes as they made their way in. It was this feedback, along with watching how players adapted and played the game with those changes in place, which helped us come to some solid decisions on where the re-balance was headed.

There were 3 major components involved with the re-balance:
• Weapon and Equipment Balance
• Information Warfare implementation
• Re-adjusting the Quirks applied to the various 'Mechs

To keep this post short and easy to digest, and address the most critical concerns people may have, the post is broken down into 4 basic parts:
• What worked
• What didn't work
• What still needs further investigation before implementation
• What you'll see in PTS4

What Worked

Most of the Weapon and Equipment changes made on PTS3 worked as intended. General population response was positive. Overall, we feel these changes are going in the right direction. Most of these changes are present in PTS4 and are outlined later in this post.

What Didn't Work

One key feature that didn't test well both in metrics and player feedback was the loss of optimal laser range on non-locked targets. This feature was meant to really drive home the importance of getting targets by pressing "R" in order to further address Role and Information Warfare design pillars, but ended up falling very short of target, not only in player feedback, but in how it would change the game in general.
This feature has been pulled from further investigation and will not go into any future builds. It is a dead subject.

What Still Needs Investigation

Information Warfare is something that we really want to see enhanced with additional features in the future to diversify 'Mech roles on the battlefield. Sensor range adjustments, sensor profiles based on physical size of a 'Mech, changes to information sharing between friendly 'Mechs, and the ability to target your enemies based on an aggregation of the mentioned changes.
While we feel that these changes were steps in the right direction, and while many of you in the community agreed, the systems simply need a lot more time to tune and get right. Instead of pushing this feature out and adjusting from there, we've decided to hold off on most of these changes until we feel we have a build of the game that reflects our combined wishes as to how Information and Role Warfare will pan out.
As a result, most of those Information Warfare features from previous PTS's are not included in PTS4.

What You Will See in PTS4

AutoCannons
• IS LB10-X AutoCannon ammunition count increased to 20 (up from 15) to match the AutoCannon10 ammo count.
• All Gauss Rifles have had their cooldowns increased from 4.0s to 5.5s.
• IS and Clan Autocannon/2s and Clan Ultra AutoCannon/2s have had their base heat reduced to 0.8 (down from 1.0).
• IS and Clan Autocannon/2s and Clan Ultra AutoCannon/2s now have the ability to crit internals at the same rate of chance as machine guns with a 1.0 damage multiplier. This means when an AC/2 does crit, it will do 2 additional damage per crit.

Missiles
• IS LRM20 spread reduced to 6.2m (down from 7.0m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.75s to 5.5s.
• IS LRM15 spread reduced to 5.2m (down from 5.7m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.25s to 4.75s.
• IS LRM10 spread reduced to 4.2m (down from 4.3m). Cooldown of the weapon from 3.75s to 4.0s.
• Clan LRM20 spread reduced to 6.2m (down from 7.0m). Cooldown of the weapon from 5.0s to 6.5s.
• Clan LRM15 spread reduced to 5.2m (down from 5.7m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.5s to 5.5s.
• Clan LRM10 spread reduced to 4.2m (down from 4.3m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.0s to 4.5s.
• All IS/Clan SRMs have had their base speed increased from 300 to 400m/s.
• All IS Streak SRMs have had their base speed increased from 200 to 250m/s.
• All Clan Streak SRMs have had their base speed increased from 180 to 230m/s.
• IS SRM/2 spread reduced from 4.8 to 2.5m.
• IS SRM/2 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 4 to 6. *Note: Maxfiring is the number of launchers you can fire simultaneously free of heat scale.
• IS SRM/4 spread reduced from 5.2 to 3.5m.
• IS SRM/4 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.
• IS SRM/6 spread reduced from 5.7 to 4.5m.
• IS SRM/6 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.
• Clan SRM/2 spread reduced from 5.0 to 3.0m.
• Clan SRM/2 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 4 to 6.
• Clan SRM/4 spread reduced from 5.4 to 4.0m.
• Clan SRM/4 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.
• Clan SRM/6 spread reduced from 5.9 to 5.0m.
• Clan SRM/6 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.

Lasers
• Clan ERSmallLaser MaxRange reduced to 360 (400)
• Clan ERMediumLaser MaxRange reduced to 688 (810)
• Clan SmallPulseLaser MaxRange reduced to 297
• Clan MediumPulseLaser MaxRange reduced to 561
• Heat Scale has been properly added to the Inner Sphere Medium Pulse Lasers. The values have been set to the same as a normal IS Medium Laser. You can fire 6 at once with no heat penalty. Multiplier is set to 1.0.

Equipment
• ECM protective range will be reduced from 180m to 90m
• IS Single Heat Sinks is having its cooling rate increased from 0.10 to 0.12.
• IS Single Heat Sinks that are inside the engine will have their cooling increased from 0.1 to 0.11.
• IS Single Heat Sinks will have their heat capacity will be increased from -1.0 to -1.2. This is increasing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.
• IS Double Heat Sink has its heat capacity increased from -1.4 to -1.5. This is increasing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.
• Clan Double Heat Sink cooling rate increased from 0.14 to 0.15.
• Clan Double Heat Sink capacity will be reduced from -1.4 to -1.1. This is reducing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.

'Mech Efficiencies
• Kinetic Burst: 22.5% -> 7.5%
• Twist X: 10% -> 2.5%
• Hard Brake: 25% -> 7.5%
• Twist Speed: 20% -> 2.5%
• Arm Reflex: 15% -> 2.5%
• Anchor Turn: 10% -> 2.5%
• Speed Tweak: 10% -> 7.5%

Clan Mech XL Engines

• When a Clan 'Mech loses a Side Torso, its Engine power is reduced by 20% for the rest of the match. This reduction applies to all factors affected by the Engine, such as turn rate, torso twist, and top speed.

Inner Sphere Quirks and 'Mech Adjustments

A vital component of this PTS and the December 1st patch release involves adjustments to Inner Sphere Quirks across all IS chassis.

The complete rundown on all of these Quirk changes, showing both the original Live values and the PTS4 values, along with indicators for the nature of their change, can be found in the links below:

XML Document

PDF Document

IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING THE ABOVE DOCUMENTS

All Armor Strength percentage Quirks have been replaced with Additional Armor L/R value Quirks.

• Example: "Armor Strength (LA) +50%" becomes "Additional Armor (LA) +6"

In many cases, distinct Quirks for the same weapon type have been merged into a single Quirk.

• Example: "Medium Laser Range +25%" and "Energy Range +25%" simply becomes "Energy Range +50%"

Document Color Legend

Live Values column

Red text denotes a Quirk that has been either removed or reduced in the PTS.
Green text denotes a Quirk that has been increased in the PTS.
Blue text denotes a Quirk that has not been changed, or denotes Quirks that been merged with another Quirk in the PTS.

PTS Values column

Red text denotes that the value of this Quirk has been reduced from its original. Red text does not indicate that the Quirk is a negative Quirk!
Green text denotes an existing Quirk that has either been increased in value, or denotes the addition of a new Quirk.
Blue text denotes either a Quirk that has not changed, or denotes a Quirk that has been merged with another.

Clan Quirks and 'Mech Adjustments

Clan Quirks have not been changed as drastically. The XML and PDF files have been updated with all Clan Quirk changes.

With all of the above changes, from IS and Clan Quirk adjustments to Weapon and Equipment changes, we will be able to further tune the experience of MWO in a way that reduces the friction points between the 'Mechs that are commonly fielded on the battlefield today.

We look forward to the new discussions regarding PTS4 when we activate the servers early next week.

[Deathlike]

May Quirk RNGesus help us all.

Edited by Deathlike, 13 November 2015 - 08:10 PM.

[FupDup]

Dat SRM2 spread reduction...

[MoonUnitBeta]

Huh. I thought that the huge quirks were going to be reduced. Interesting to see. The Grid Iron suffered some gauss cooldown nerf, which is kinda nice, but gauss cooldowns were increased anyways so I don't know. I like seeing the turn quirks on the hunchies though. aww yissssssss

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 13 November 2015 - 08:29 PM.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

I hope the lack of ECM changing to delayed lock-on rather than magic hiding is a part of not including information warfare stuff rather than a sign that PGI is abandoning the mechanic.

Edit: SRM velocity, spread, and Ghost Heat tweaks are great, but why not 120 ammo/ton? It's a good change for a lot of reasons. Also, LB-AC damage/pellet still needs to be bumped up.

Edited by Levi Porphyrogenitus, 13 November 2015 - 08:35 PM.

[Matthew Ace]

We're not keeping the rest of the ECM adjustments besides the range?

[Mcgral18]

InnerSphereNews, on 13 November 2015 - 08:05 PM, said:

What You Will See in PTS4

AutoCannons
• IS LB10-X AutoCannon ammunition count increased to 20 (up from 15) to match the AutoCannon10 ammo count.
• All Gauss Rifles have had their cooldowns increased from 4.0s to 5.5s.
• IS and Clan Autocannon/2s and Clan Ultra AutoCannon/2s have had their base heat reduced to 0.8 (down from 1.0).
• IS and Clan Autocannon/2s and Clan Ultra AutoCannon/2s now have the ability to crit internals at the same rate of chance as machine guns with a 1.0 damage multiplier. This means when an AC/2 does crit, it will do 2 additional damage per crit.

Quote

1.0 damage multiplier. This means when an AC/2 does crit, it will do 2 additional damage per crit.

You know...I've told you multiple times, and even reported it in the PTS feedback...but you didn't listen:
http://mwomercs.com/...-the-ac2-thing/

You set the "critDamMult" to 1....exactly what it comes with STOCK.
Every weapon has a hidden default 1.0 "critDamMult"
That goes without saying; that's the default setting. A Gauss crits for 15 damage, the same a "critDamMult"=1 would give it...not that it needs anything else, it's already the best Crit weapon in the game.

Also, that's not 2 additional Damage, that's 2 additional CRIT DAMAGE...which doesn't get translated into actual damage. Only 15% of Crit Damage transfers into the Internal Structure, so that's 0.3 extra damage, or double that (what you failed to do) at 0.6 extra damage.
For 2 REAL extra damage, you'd need a ~13 "critDamMult"

You need to set "critDamMult" to "2.0" if you want it do deal 4 Crit damage; 2 "additional" crit damage, because it deals 2 by default.
Please listen...and for the love of Mecha Cthulu, understand your code.

Did the MG retain the stealth 4% Crit Chance buff? And not anything that isn't completely worthless, like 1 DPS and a CoF reduction? 3M is fairly ridiculous for such a weak weapon.

Quote

• Clan SRM/6 spread reduced from 5.9 to 5.0m.
• Clan SRM/6 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.

On the bright side, no more 12M CoFs, only 9 and 10M. An improvement, I can fully support (but I'd prefer 8M without Art for cSRM6). Artemis reduces this by 34%, so 5.96M and 6.6M CoF ('spread' is a radius).

Edited by Mcgral18, 14 November 2015 - 04:59 PM.

[SIN Deacon]

So now that infotech was a total loss PGI have resorted to quirking IS mechs again and leaving clan mechs alone. The problem has never been the damn mechs, try fixing the weapons first then worry about the chassis's later, or fix the heat scale thats all fucd up. You guys spent a whole month trying to develop a big bandaid and failed. Now are coming up on a month out and weve gone back right to where we are now, imbahell. Mechs just carry the weapons and not all mechs are the same, get use to it and stop holding everyones hand. If the weapons/heat were balanced, each mech would have its role based on design (which most of these mechs are well designed), and would do well in some situations while not so hot in some. Life isnt fair and sometimes video games arent. You have losers and you have winners. You have some mechs that suck at brawling, but can accel at range.

first rant in well over a year but i honestly cant take much more BS from the current meta, and nothing has changed in the last 3-4 months since i started playing again. I quit right after release to return to hear CW was making ground and doing well. Months later, barely 100 people populate the game mode during NA Prime Time, no one likes voting because it takes the randomness out of mechwarrior, and we are a single month away from letting new people to experience it when at least a good 1/2 people arent happy with the current state of the game. People can say "go play something else" but ill tell you this, it isnt about the money, or time invested. Its about all the other people that play this game that are here for the same reason, they love mechwarrior and will never give up without a fighting chance (after all that is a mechwarrior). Im 26 now and i started playing mechwarrior when i was 6 years old and i have played every single one that has followed. We all want PGI and MWO to do well, but this is really starting to look rough.

Stick to your guns and do what you guys think is right with feedback from the community or just stop dangling the carrot infront of us and let someone else take the mechwarrior reins.

Edited by SIN Deacon, 13 November 2015 - 08:44 PM.

[Mcgral18]

Matthew Ace, on 13 November 2015 - 08:35 PM, said:

We're not keeping the rest of the ECM adjustments besides the range?

They never announced the "targetingfactor" line being set to 1.0, which live is 0.25.

That's the "Magic Jesus Field" that cuts your sensor range by the multiplier. 0.25 being 800*.25 on live, but mechs will now have dynamic sensor ranges, so if they keep the Magic Jesus Field, certain mechs with 300M base sensors couldn't even TARGET for paperdoll info a Jesus Box equipped mech until 75M....LOL


Let's hope they removed the Magic Jesus Field, and either increased or just set the "targetingfactor" to 1.
I also hate how they didn't use Camel Case for that variable.

[Dustdog]

oO thats a brutal cut on Mech Efficiencies

[Davers]

Awesome 8Q (the posterboy for quirks) was left off the list.

[Chuanhao]

Seems like the grand adventure has turned out a bit muffled and we are more or less where we were before PTS began.

But

Appreciate that weapon quirk changes are more generic than specific.

More quirks to not so popular mechs like Orion would that there are at least a little more viable.

So we are more or less stuck with this for the great launch. I could live with it.

Best thing to do is now MOVE on and look at other mechanics like game modes, Solaris, FINALLY.

[Davers]

So in the end, the 'big quirks' got reduced to 30% instead of 50%, and lots of extra structure thrown around. But there is really nothing meta-shaking about any of this. Infowar remains solely based around guided missile weapons (and thus safely ignored by competitive players), big alphas of lasers still the best weapon.

PGI had originally claimed the Rebalance would change they way we played the game. Oh well.

[Y E O N N E]

So things that use missiles look like they'll be a little bit better. Lightweight 'Mechs using ballistics got d*cked over (why remove the +20% MG on the LCT-3V? Why remove ballistics in general from the Arrow). PPCs have velocity quirks that hover around +40% for the most part, dipping to 25% in some cases and reaching as high as 50% on the Vindicator 1AA.

We haven't balanced anything relative to anything else, all we've done is move the bar.

P.S. we have so many generic quirks now that you should seriously consider applying the nominal value to the weapons themselves and leaving the difference for the specific 'Mechs.

P.P.S. Those losses to turning and twisting in efficiencies...are pretty much counteracted by the generous quirks given across the board in that department. Also, why are some variants of a particular chassis (i.e. BLR-3M) still restricted in twist? That's silly and needs to stop.

Edited by Yeonne Greene, 13 November 2015 - 09:19 PM.

[Davers]

DoctorDetroit, on 13 November 2015 - 08:58 PM, said:

This actually looks pretty good. I am getting excited for the new balance pass now!

What is getting you excited? To me it just looks like they moved a few minor percentages around, added some structure, and lowered ECM range. Certainly they could have made these adjustments from data gleaned from live without resorting to a test server.

[SovietArmada]

Can anyone clue me in, I was under the impression they were getting rid of most of the quirks in general? Did this change at some point or was I simply misinformed.

(this is a question not gripe)

[Gorgo7]

All LRM's have all had their reload time extended.
The grouping should be better for the 20's and 15's though.
With the reduction in ECM will this suffice? Pity about the Info warfare.
Blast! It doesn't seem enough for the missiles.

[SpiralFace]

Chuanhao, on 13 November 2015 - 08:51 PM, said:

Best thing to do is now MOVE on and look at other mechanics like game modes, Solaris, FINALLY.

Please no....

If the PTS has showcased anything, its that MWO's system is strained at multiple levels. Cut out all the weapon quirks in the world, timberwolf still goes faster, packs more weapons, and is 20% more maneuverable then the Orion just through the core game mechanics.

Any ANY form of role warfare they attempted to implament was rendered moot squarely because of how the current content in the game (Everything from the core mechanics to the raw game mode.) Prevent everything from moving in any other direction then the busted, offensive alpha chasing coarse we are already on.

PLEASE lets not add even more ***** on the pile. PTS showed that this game needs a re-look at the CORE MECHANIC and GAME MODES already in the game in order to add any tangible kind of diversity that people are looking for.

This PTS seems like a compromise to get things out the door. Which is fine, but I REALLY hope they don't simply rush this out and move on to yet MORE feature creep pushed out in a "meah" state. Need to see more refinement to what is already there to REALLY make an impact for the better here.

[Blood Skar]

Those Mech Efficiency nerfs are crazy.

Kinetic Burst: 22.5% >7.5%
Twist X: 10% > 2.5%
Hard Brake: 25% > 7.5% (serious? thats 17.5% reduction!)
Twist Speed: 20% > 2.5% (are you freeking kidding me!? 17.5% again)
Arm Reflex: 15% > 2.5% (another huge reduction!)
Anchor turn: 10%>2.5%
Speed Tweak: 10%>7.5% (you know we will notice this one the most and hence the low reduction...sneaky).

Is this for the Steam release? So the newbies that join (who wont have any efficiencies) wont be fighting peeps that have full mastery??

If not i cant see why we need such HUUUUGE reductions.

That twist speed reduction alone is going to have a big effect.

Its already hard to stop my Artic Cheetah at the moment(hard to do small movements i mean) and im falling off cliffs etc by accident and now your reducing hard brake by 17.5%.

That seems way over the top and random. In fact all these nerfs are.....why pick such big numbers all the time? why not start with just 2.5%, then 5% and then 7.5%....why is it always such huge number% nerfs and changes you guys go with?

What do other peeps think of these?

Edited by Blood Skar, 13 November 2015 - 09:24 PM.

[Gorgo7]

Blood Skar, on 13 November 2015 - 09:22 PM, said:

Those Mech Efficiency nerfs are crazy.

Kinetic Burst: 22.5% >7.5%
Twist X: 10% > 2.5%
Hard Brake: 25% > 7.5% (serious? thats 17.5% reduction!)
Twist Speed: 20% > 2.5% (are you freeking kidding me!? 17.5% again)
Arm Reflex: 15% > 2.5% (another huge reduction!)
Anchor turn: 10%>2.5%
Speed Tweak: 10%>7.5% (you know we will notice this one the most and hence the low reduction...sneaky).

Is this for the Steam release? So the newbies that join (who wont have any efficiencies) wont be fighting peeps that have full mastery??

If not i cant see why we need such HUUUUGE reductions.

That twist speed reduction alone is going to have a big effect.

Its already hard to stop my Artic Cheetah at the moment and im falling off cliffs etc by accident and now your reducing hard brake by 17.5%.

That seems way over the top and random. In fact all these nerfs are.....why pick such big numbers all the time? why not start with just 2.5%, then 5% and then 7.5%....why is it always such huge number% nerfs and changes you guys go with?

What do other peeps think of these?

I think the models will determine more who is maneuverable and who is not as opposed to all having the same performance after mastery. I'm in favor of a slightly tankier game with exceptions by mech model and type..