40 replies to this topic

[Rorvik]

So I'm trying to play the WHM as it was mean to be played, with PPCs, but I cannot for the life of me get the hang of these ******* godawful garbage *** weapons. Everything, and I mean EVERY LITTLE ******* THING on the map will block it.

Just now, got off a match on Crimson Strait. My reticle was clearly in the open but close to one of the buildings and the ******* PPC shots were exploding on the building. I thought, "Oh, maybe it's a hitbox thing with the building", but, nope, medium lasers were able to fire there no problem. Same with the tunnel. Fired out the tunnel towards the top and it explodes about 2 feet below the tunnel ceiling.

This happens on a bunch of maps as well. If there's a ******* twig somewhere on the ground and I shoot within 10 feet of it, my shot dissipates.

Srsly, the **** is wrong with these weapons? I'm about to give up completely and go all out lasers...

[FupDup]

The vanilla PPC and ERPPC are indeed mediocre.

However, on mechs with significant quirks, they are actually viable. The Warhammer, with its 50% velocity buffs, qualifies for this criteria.

Maybe your issue is the low-mounted arms instead of the superquirked PPCs of the WHM?

[Coralld]

Most of the issues I find for the PPC is the hit or miss hit detection on them. Firing them in singles I find to be much more reliable vs fired in groups.

[Chuck Jager]

Do you have a mech with Ac5s or Ultra 5s, and can you position the PPC near it. I have found this to be the best combo, because the speed is close enough to be useful and the PPC can be used as the opener and the closer. I also always aim about 1/3 of the mech forward for about every 300m on moving mechs.

The heat of the ppc and cooldown are what make the misses noticeable. I had 4 out of 6 lasers get stopped by a twig on a tree, but something did hit. I also know that only about 50% of my AC ammo hits because I like suppressive fire, and I shoot every chance I get. I will admit that my BJ with PPC quirks almost doubled in damage with LPLas because ppc paired with lasers is too much of an either or versus a weapon system that allows the full alpha at all times.

The weapon seems to best only on quirked mechs that are to light to carry any big tonnage or heavy enough to have a secondary system and some extra heat. Beaware that the hit reg for PPCs is only 1 pixel not the big ball-o-flame that you see, and moving mechs on your screen are not always in the same spot on PGIs servers.

So yes the PPC can be used in some rare situations which may also include nostalgia, but be forewarned.

[SQW]

You do realise you are comparing MLs shooting from your chest to PPCs shooting from about your waist? The problem is your positioning and your situation awareness rather than the PPC; PPCs has its problems but not the ones you describe. Even if you switched to LL in your arms, you'd still have your arm shots blocked by the building.

Perhaps you are too used to chest hardpoint heavy chassis? Maybe go 3rd person if you are so frustrated?

[CanadianCyrus]

I put any Key weapon in the torso with my WHM (PPC, Gauss, AC's). Mounts them much higher and then I put smaller support weapons in the arms.

[Masterbagger]

I mainly play clan mechs. Take your absurd velocity quirks and be thankful.

[SQW]

Funzo, on 20 January 2016 - 09:22 PM, said:

I put any Key weapon in the torso with my WHM (PPC, Gauss, AC's). Mounts them much higher and then I put smaller support weapons in the arms.

Start sharpening the pitchfork...

Seriously tho, there are enough benefits to arm mounted main weapons that I think it's better to stick with the canon build and just pay more attention to your surrounding terrain.

Heck, if I can switch my AC20 from the chest of my Atlas to the arm, I'd do it in a second.

[Cyborne Elemental]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3c3b9f976b3cb28

You'll just have to do this.

[SQW]

Mister D, on 20 January 2016 - 09:47 PM, said:

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...3c3b9f976b3cb28

You'll just have to do this.

My Raven has 50% more back armour than this...=P

It's just for those who grew up with Battletech and that iconic warhammer logo, having puny ML shooting out of those massive arm cannons while doing a Katie Perry with nipple PPCs just seems wrong.

[stun]

PPC's are bad.

Thinking about a PPC Warhammer or Warhawk? Screw it... just load a battlemaster or something full of large pulse its superior in every way.

[Rorvik]

So, for the Black Widow, I ended up swapping the ER PPCs and MPL positions, and all of a sudden, I was hitting properly again. However, the MPLs in the arm were NOT having problems hitting stuff like when the PPCs were there, so, again, I'm not sure what's going on here. Maybe it's a problem with the game engine and we just don't notice it on other weapons because, as others said, it's less apparent when you boat lasers and ACs.

Actually, that's not quite true, as I've noticed an "issue" with the MGs convergence. When I look down and fire them, they cross paths. This happens even when I'm only firing 20 meters or so away, so this can't be a range issue. Anyone else notice this with the MGs on the WHMs?

[MoonUnitBeta]

Coralld, on 20 January 2016 - 08:16 PM, said:

Most of the issues I find for the PPC is the hit or miss hit detection on them. Firing them in singles I find to be much more reliable vs fired in groups.

I just want to chime in to say that I think part of the hit detection issue with PPC's is the god-awful visuals it has for anything less than 80-150m. Sometimes it's invisible and all you see is a little brief electrical effect hit the ground. How can you even know where it traveled when you're aiming at a moving target? It's nigh impossible (read: incredibly frustrating).

Visual feedback for PPC's needs a complete overhaul IMO. All we need is 3 people to tweet this to Russ and I'm sure it'll be done by the of the week...


Here's a couple examples... of how terrible it is. (and no, it's not clipping through anything, the visual effect literally just STOPS in mid-air..)
s

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 20 January 2016 - 11:46 PM.

[El Bandito]

My Timberwolf/EBJ run 2 CERPPCs with back up weapons and those do just fine. IS ERPPC though, is pure junk unless the mech is quirked for it.

Edited by El Bandito, 20 January 2016 - 11:05 PM.

[Cyborne Elemental]

SQW, on 20 January 2016 - 10:29 PM, said:

My Raven has 50% more back armour than this...=P

It's just for those who grew up with Battletech and that iconic warhammer logo, having puny ML shooting out of those massive arm cannons while doing a Katie Perry with nipple PPCs just seems wrong.

Seems wasteful, since Raven's back is like 5% of the total surface area of the CT, and same for Torso's, you must spend alot of time running away instead of shooting at things?

[Valdherre Tor]

The problem is the projectile size of the bolt is huge and will get snagged on terrain features when it appears you have line of sight. Lasers don't have this problem because the beams are thin and can fire through tight windows.

[MoonUnitBeta]

GODWINS LAW, on 20 January 2016 - 11:25 PM, said:

The problem is the projectile size of the bolt is huge and will get snagged on terrain features when it appears you have line of sight. Lasers don't have this problem because the beams are thin and can fire through tight windows.

You literally don't even see anything hit the target, the lightning, more often then not stops short on any target less than 120m. And the only hit-feedback is a ginormous, over sized blast radius that is so huge you just assume you hit your target.

I added pictures above.
If you get close enough to a mech, (less than 45m) you may never even see a bolt of any kind, just a spray of colour and you're about as sure of hitting something as you were before you even fired the weapon.
*has to take a glance at the paperdoll because everything that was just shown was completely useless*

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 20 January 2016 - 11:51 PM.

[Aiden Skye]

Suck it up. IS has so many mechs quirked for PPCs there really should be no complaints. Massive velocity and energy quirks, that make them shoot further, hit and recycle faster. I use clan er PPCs all the time on my un-quirked shadow cats. Best on the clan side is a 15% velocity boost. Range is capped at 891m. IS mechs can greatly exceed this thanks to massive energy range quirks. Only the adder gets a decent heat quirk as it melted itself to ore after 1 and a half alphas.

[Rorvik]

W A R K H A N, on 21 January 2016 - 12:35 AM, said:

Suck it up. IS has so many mechs quirked for PPCs there really should be no complaints. Massive velocity and energy quirks, that make them shoot further, hit and recycle faster. I use clan er PPCs all the time on my un-quirked shadow cats. Best on the clan side is a 15% velocity boost. Range is capped at 891m. IS mechs can greatly exceed this thanks to massive energy range quirks. Only the adder gets a decent heat quirk as it melted itself to ore after 1 and a half alphas.

As long as your Clan LPL's range and damage is greater than the standard IS PPC's, I'm not sure you're going to be in any position to cry...

Besides which, the OP had nothing to do with Clan vs IS weapons, so I'm not even sure why you're bringing it up...

[Aiden Skye]

Rorvik, on 21 January 2016 - 12:57 AM, said:

As long as your Clan LPL's range and damage is greater than the standard IS PPC's, I'm not sure you're going to be in any position to cry...

Besides which, the OP had nothing to do with Clan vs IS weapons, so I'm not even sure why you're bringing it up...

OP said erppcs are trash. I'm saying - they aren't that bad with all the quirks IS gets that benefit them, such as the velocity quirks on the Warhammer. Aka suck it up!

I use ppcs all the time. Laser vomit on every thing gets boring. A lot of the time the convergence is off. You are leading a target at infinity. The weapons don't converge for your target that's not at infinity. It's even more apparent on slower clan ppcs or any mech that does not have a decent velocity boost. It's really easy to shoot under arms, through legs. Also going back to convergence and slower projectile speeds. From experience this is way less of an issue with such a huge velocity boost.

Edited by W A R K H A N, 21 January 2016 - 01:13 AM.