5 replies to this topic

[Pardo Kerensky]

My personal list of gameplay/balance changes and other things MWO has needed for so long.
Feel free to agree, disagree, bash me. I just need to get this off my chest.

1) Get rid of ghost heat. Eradicate it completely. Its a cheap lame mechanic that just limits your freedom in building your robots and punishes you for trying to have fun. Also I dont need to mention about mechs that suffer from ghost heat on their stock lore loadouts (Awesome, King Crab, etc)

2) Remove charge time from gauss rifles, leave the 'exploding when destroyed' thing but increase the weapon health on the same level as other big caliber autocannons.

3) Make all (and yes I mean ALL) ballistic weapons hitscan. Yes it means no more projectile travel time, no more leading the target with an AC20 when firing at something less than a hundred meters away from you. Ballistics should hit INSTANTLY and EXACTLY WHERE YOU POINT. Ballistic weapons are heavy, occupy more slots, are easier to crit and disable and are further limited by ammunition. Well then, if you want the laservomit meta to end FOR GOOD you need to give ballistics an edge over lasers. Making them hitscan and pinpoint accurate is a good start.

4) Make PPC and ERPPC hitscan. It fires sub atomic particles that have little to no weight, the projectile (if that is how we wanna call it) should be even faster than a gauss slug. PPC are already bigger than normal energy weapons, generate more heat, have longer cooldowns. Leave the max ranges and optimal ranges as they are but make them hitscan like ballistics.
Also give them back the sound they had in closed beta. It was much better.

5) Buff machineguns and flamers.
About machineguns: increase the range to 270 meters (300 for clans if you really wanna make that difference), make them hitscan as well, increase dps to 0.2.

For the flamers: make them as they were in the Mechcommander games. Make them shoot a big eruption of fire toward the target and then give them a decent cooldown. Significantly buff the damage. Make them debuff targets by setting them on fire. While a mech is on fire generates a lot of extra heat if he tries to fire its weapons while debuffed. Also add a visual effect disrupting the pilot making it harder to acquire targets by sight. This would be an incredibly useful tactical weapon if used properly to temporarly sabotage key targets during a fight.

6) Sensors and targeting system: completely rework how the sensor system works. I dont honestly remember how it worked back in Mechwarrior 2 3 and 4 (its been a long time, give me a break) but I remember how it worked in the Mechcommander games. I propose to make a hybrid of the two. Split the sensor system into Active Mode and Passive Mode. When a mech has its sensors in Active Mode draw a circle of his maximum sensor range on the minimap and the expanded map, inside that circle it will detect all enemy mechs that are currently set in Active Mode as red dots (kinda like the seismic sensor works now), this would give players an idea of where the enemy team is and what it is doing however this would work both ways, it makes the target that is using Active Mode visible to all enemy mechs which are in Active Mode as well.
Passive mode instead disables the 'radar kind' circle and the active detection and goes back to how it is now, target has to be within a certain range and in line of sight to be acquired.
Now you ask me 'why would anyone run in Passive Mode? Because it hides you from the enemy Active Mode sensors so you can do your sneaky flank attacks.
I think this relatively simple system would make matches much more fun and tactical than the old 'peeakaboo sniping fests' where nobody wants to commit. Also let light mechs choose if they wanna do scouting, ambushing or both by choosing Active or Passive mode as need be.

7) ECM: following the change I proposed before ECM would counter enemy sensors in Active Mode, allowing mechs to stay hidden from enemy active sensors even when being in active mode themselves and also require visual line of sight (use of passive sensors) for missile carriers to acquire target for guided missiles (if they are outside the ECM range) or prevent missile lock on altogether if the mech with missiles is inside the ECM range.

8) Current quirk system: wipe it clean. I put this on the same level as ghost heat. Its 2016, quirks need to go away. Go and stay go.

9) Command console and targeting computer: I dont know about the command console, I have never played tabletop and I honestly dont recall it being in the classic Mechwarrior games. However I do know for a fact it was not in the Mechcommander games.
Perhaps you could make the command console like a system to give information about the battlefield to allied mechs, for example by allowing mechs equipped with the command console to 'spot' a target and mark it as primary, all allied mechs in range would be notified of its position and also increasing the tracking strangth of allied guided missiles that are firing toward that target. Also by pressing on the same key but when aiming at the terrain you could make a radial menu popup with different choices like 'HOLD POSITION' or 'DANGER' or 'FALL BACK'. All allied mechs would be notified visually and on their minimap about that location and what message has been sent to them.

About the clan targeting computer: instead of making it give a buff to projectiles, make the targeting computer actually AID IN TARGETING. For example, when a target is visible and inside passive sensor range and you select it, make the targeting computer add a visual effect to the target kinda like in games like World of Tanks and Armored Warfare when a target is spotted it draws the outlines of the target in red for you to see better (especially in conditions of fog/through smoke/weather effects that negate visibility) This is what I would expect a targeting computer to do in 3050 or so. Not magically make my projectiles faster (wtf?). Higher tier targeting computers would allow for better functions that come at the higher cost in weight, like letting the player see not only the outline of the entire enemy mech, but the outline of the structure sections within the target like the arms, center torso, side torsoes etc.

[Mcgral18]

MGs are already hitscan

PPCs have better DPS than Laser Lasers because of burn durations. They'd need a cooldown nerf if they became hitscan.

[Tyler Valentine]

Your weapon changes would certainly make the game easier but I can't say that I would be behind that proposal. I enjoy the skill involved with non-hitscan weapons, although, I wish it was rewarded, in the case of PPCs, with more than just a "heat level critical" warning

I do kind of like your sensor and ECM changes. I find the Active/Passive system to be more fun and engaging.

You want to wipe quirks clean but don't really offer an alternative. Do you think IS and Clan would be balanced without the quirks? What would you do about the imbalance if not?

[Meathook]

Twist: travel time for lasers.



*runs for cover*

[MechB Kotare]

Meathook, on 26 January 2016 - 05:26 PM, said:

Twist: travel time for lasers.



*runs for cover*

Yeahaw Mechcommander 1 style. I like the idea!

[Pardo Kerensky]

Mcgral18, on 26 January 2016 - 12:26 PM, said:

MGs are already hitscan

PPCs have better DPS than Laser Lasers because of burn durations. They'd need a cooldown nerf if they became hitscan.

Yet lasers are chosen over PPCs because they are hitscan. Im fine with having an increase in PPC cooldown but have them become hitscan. So I will shoot less frequently but when I do expose myself to take a shot I know that the shot will go where I am aiming and instantly instead of taking half an hour to get there and the target has already moved several meters or changed direction in the meantime.

Tyler Valentine, on 26 January 2016 - 02:00 PM, said:

Your weapon changes would certainly make the game easier

I dont think so. Lasers are already hitscan, weight less and make less heat then PPCs. If anything making PPCs and ballistics hitscan would counter balance their weaknesses (weight, size and ammo usage in the case of ballistics) and make them a more appealing alternative to lasers. No amount of laser nerfs would be enough to end the laservomit meta, lasers are fine as they are, what we need is buffs to other weapon systems to make them a decent alternative.