http://www.qqmercs.c...ence-and-clans/
This was written in 2013 and is just a relevant now as it was then. Most of his predictions have come true (Gauss dominating). I honestly think this, or a similar system is the best way to solve alpha strikes, TTK, and PPFLD
Quote
Introduction
This is an ambitious and comprehensive balance proposal that is meant to be read in full; that said, this is a serious read and there is a TL;DR for those of you lacking the willpower. The thread that developed into this article has garnered nearly 150 likes and a considerable amount of positive feedback in the MechWarrior: Online forums, and I encourage you to spam the developers with this proposal if you support it. I strongly believe that this is the best (and perhaps only) solution to most of our long-standing and forthcoming balance issues, and that’s why I’ve put such an inordinate amount of time and effort into this. I would like to personally thank Tombstoner for helping solve the biggest player communication issue (weapon group reticle colors) and Phaesphoros for the terrific HUD mock-ups.
The Problem
MechWarrior: Online is my kind of ‘mech combat – it’s gritty, it’s brutal, and face-offs between skilled pilots can take minutes. Unfortunately, the introduction of host state rewind for ballistic weapons had an unintended side effect: extreme, pinpoint damage now reigns as the undisputed king. Even before the latest PPC and AC/40 craze, the Splatcat was all about putting a ridiculous alpha in a relatively small location by face-hugging. It’s a problem that has persisted all the way through Open Beta and will become exponentially worse with the introduction of the Clans.
I will be the first to acknowledge that many aspects of the game’s balance need fixing: SRM damage, LRM coring/damage, SSRM coring, pulse lasers, hit detection, etc. I also won’t deny that hardpoint restrictions, penalties for overheating, tonnage limitations, and encouraging players to run lighter ‘mechs would cut back a lot of the cheese, but none of them are sufficient to solve the largest and most systemic balance problem that MechWarrior:Online (and all of its realtime predecessors) suffers from.
The crux of the MechWarrior: Online’s major balance problems is being able to deal more than 20 or 30 points of damage to a single location in a single click. Separately, neither massive alpha strikes nor convergence is a bad thing. Together, however, they create a nasty scenario where a couple of clicks is enough to vaporize an opponent. It’s bad, both in terms of gameplay and from a Battletech lore standpoint. There’s absolutely no incentive to fire two shots at 20 damage when you could fire one for 40 damage.
The Coming Storm
Most of the solutions I see being thrown around are solutions to the current symptoms of our problem: PPCs. Heat and PPCs are being debated ad nauseum simply because they are the flavor of the month. PPC boats are a serious problem, but to ignore large ballistics is a dangerous mistake. I fear that the Tunnel Vision about the current metagame will result in PGI ignoring the impending problems that will be introduced by new ‘mechs and the arrival of the Clans.
Not many people think ballistics are a huge problem right now, but I’d argue that’s only because we don’t have a particularly scary ballistics platform in the game. The AC/40 Catapult has to sacrifice speed, and the AC/40 Jagermech is really squishy because of its profile and XL. They’re still cheesy and too good for their weight, but they have exploitable weaknesses. If, however, PGI decided to drop a Mauler, Devastator, or Thunderhawk on us, there would be untold amounts of whine.
That exact thing could be said for PPCs: if we didn’t have any assaults that could boat 4+ PPCs, they wouldn’t be nearly as reviled. Heavies have to make serious sacrifices to boat them and don’t have the armor to take serious punishment, just like the current scenario with ballistics. When an assault starts boating something unbalanced, it becomes immediately apparent.
The minute PGI releases a ‘mech that can mount 4xUAC/5s plus change and has the ability tank a good amount of damage, the community will be ******** its collective pants. Even if they add ridiculous heat penalties to the autocannons, the Gauss rifle will continue to dominate. 2xPPC + 2xGauss and 3xGauss builds are impossible to solve with heat.
Even more dangerous than new ballistic ‘mechs are the Clan ballistic weapons. The Clan UAC/20 is a mere 12 tons and 8 critical slots. The double-tap will be able to put 40 damage on a single spot. Now imagine a ‘mech with jumpjets that mounts two of them. You’re imagining a stock Hunchback IIC, and it’s absolutely terrifying. Something drastic must be done to prevent Clan assault ‘mechs from being able to kill an Atlas with a single alpha.
My suspicion is that PGI’s plan is to avoid any assault ‘mech that can boat large ballistics simply because they have no good way to balance them – which is a really ****** solution. There’s no reason that balance issues should prevent awesome ‘mechs like the Mauler from showing up.
And if ballistics weren’t bad enough, Clan missiles will bring a host of problems: half-tonnage, no-minimum-range LRMs will make previous LRMageddons look tame, and lightweight SSRM6 packs will make the Splatcats of yesterday a laughing matter. Though the arrival of the Clans is not an immediately pressing issue, it’s better to have a system in place now than to ignore the horrible balance problems for later.
The Solution
Disclaimers: PGI has my complete permission to use this system as-is or with any modifications they see fit. I would be happy to sign anything needed to prevent intellectual property from being an issue. Also, none of this has anything to do with the “Targeting Computer” piece of equipment.
My solution is to implement a scale that represents the load on the targeting computer (TCL). Each weapon would, similar to heat, have an associated targeting computer stress value (TCS). When a weapon (or group) is fired, the stress value of all about-to-fire weapons are added to the load on the targeting computer. The targeting computer load automatically dissipates at a constant rate of 100 per second.
When the load is between 0 and 100 (inclusive), there are no ill effects. When it goes over 100, all missile locks and Artemis functionality are lost, convergence stops working, and you begin to take an accuracy penalty (cone of fire) to any shots fired. Locking capability, Artemis, and convergence are not restored until the load on the targeting computer reaches 100 or below.
From 101 to 200, the accuracy penalty gets progressively worse (the cone of fire expands). Each weapon fires at its own accuracy offset so that weapons mounted in the same component fire in different directions. The pilot can continue to drive the targeting computer load up to a maximum of 500 by continuing to fire, but the effects of a targeting computer overload reach their worst at 200.
To clarify, you can’t get away with one free alpha strike; TCL values are added and penalties are applied before the shots are fired. My proposed TCS values for all weapons can be found in The Numbers section.
Edited by Troutmonkey, 17 December 2015 - 04:26 PM.
6
El Bandito, on 17 December 2015 - 10:30 AM, said:
It doesn't have to. Even if that has to be the case, Std engine can just get power draw quirks.
