10 replies to this topic

[Duke Nedo]

NOTE: This is fiction and any resemblance with existing persons is purely coincidental.

Dear Mechwarriors,

A brief addendum to the announced changes in the roadmap.

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Clan Targeting Computer changes Put simply, the Clan Targeting Computers are getting a buff that we hope makes them a more viable option for the tonnage they require. The February Patch Notes will have the full details.

I forgot to mention that TC1 will be slightly nerfed, while TC2-TC7 will be significantly buffed to reflect their weight and space. IS command console will be roughly balanced vs a TC3.

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Quirk changes These will mostly cover changes to under-performing Clan ‘Mechs, but it’s also well worth stating that the remaining negative quirks on Clan ‘Mechs such as the Timber Wolf and Stormcrow have been removed.

Ofcourse that does not include pods like the TBR-A LT pod or the SCR-B RA, that would have been silly of me.

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On the Inner Sphere side we’re toning down some structure on several Blackjacks, but the main change you’ll notice on the IS side is an overall policy change to limit all Energy Range Quirks to 10% across all IS ‘Mechs that possess an Energy Range Quirk. This should ensure that no IS ‘Mechs with ERLL will out-range a Clan counterpart, and overall I think this will bring the IS and Clan combat to an even better place than it is currently. The Patch Notes will contain full details on all of the Quirk changes.

What I meant to say here is that some mechs were out of line, like the BJ-3 and QKD-5K. The reason for this was that these variants combined high mounted hard points with strong generic range quirks with reduced duration and increased heat efficiency. These specific perfect storms of synergetic energy quirks will be revised, while we take care not to break weaker variants that depend on quirked range to be viable or to have a niche. In a few cases we may have to reduce the generic range quirk but compensate with a weapon specific addition to a non-ERLL weapon.

Russ

I wish.

Edited by Duke Nedo, 01 February 2016 - 12:17 AM.

[Hawk_eye]

Makes sense

[Alistair Winter]

Duke Nedo, on 30 January 2016 - 09:19 AM, said:

Ofcourse that does not include pods like the TBR-A LT pod or the SCR-B RA, that would have been silly of me.

+1

[Duke Nedo]

Alistair Winter, on 30 January 2016 - 10:55 AM, said:

+1

That one is mind-boggling really. The TBR-A torso alone will buff Timberwolves with:
REVERSE SPEED: -10.00 %
ENERGY COOLDOWN: -8.00 %
LASER DURATION: 8.00 %
ACCELERATION RATE: -5.00 %
DECELERATION RATE: -5.00 %

And add to that whatever they decide to buff the clan target computers with...

Not to mention the collateral damage nerfing all IS range quirks above 10%. I think someone counted 70+ mechs being nerfed by that bar brawl nerf swing...

I hope PGI puts on their thinking hats before going live.

[MauttyKoray]

Duke Nedo, on 30 January 2016 - 01:49 PM, said:

That one is mind-boggling really. The TBR-A torso alone will buff Timberwolves with:
REVERSE SPEED: -10.00 %
ENERGY COOLDOWN: -8.00 %
LASER DURATION: 8.00 %
ACCELERATION RATE: -5.00 %
DECELERATION RATE: -5.00 %

And add to that whatever they decide to buff the clan target computers with...

Not to mention the collateral damage nerfing all IS range quirks above 10%. I think someone counted 70+ mechs being nerfed by that bar brawl nerf swing...

I hope PGI puts on their thinking hats before going live.

I'm sure they're going to compensate mechs that need it, but let's be fair, the laser quirks need to be split up and boost smalls and mediums while not also giving ridiculous boosts to larges. While 20% of 300 is 60 and not a lot, out of 600 its 120. That's a fairly huge boost to the longer range lasers and needs to be taken into account. The problem is the generic blanket boosts give a much larger boost to ER/LLs than anything, so to boost small and mediums effectively it give a dis-proportionally huge boost to the longer range stuff. Simple math...

[Duke Nedo]

MauttyKoray, on 30 January 2016 - 02:04 PM, said:

I'm sure they're going to compensate mechs that need it, but let's be fair, the laser quirks need to be split up and boost smalls and mediums while not also giving ridiculous boosts to larges. While 20% of 300 is 60 and not a lot, out of 600 its 120. That's a fairly huge boost to the longer range lasers and needs to be taken into account. The problem is the generic blanket boosts give a much larger boost to ER/LLs than anything, so to boost small and mediums effectively it give a dis-proportionally huge boost to the longer range stuff. Simple math...

Yeah, not sure what's best to be honest there. If you just add a bonus number in meters instead, say 60 meters, then that is huge for Small lasers instead, relatively speaking... under normal circumstances I'd say that buffing a percentage it the normal way to do it, but whatever... I don't mind in this case. I don't care much for extreme long range, find it rather boring. My concern is all the mechs losing extra range on MLs, MPLs and LPLs, there it really did work as intended as far as I know... and they are in the middle region so percentage or absolute number added would be about the same.

What sits wrong with me is just the approach PGI uses...

This one comes to mind:


"I think I got the QKD-5K mom!"

[Duke Nedo]

Heh, seems this one was mistaken for the real thing, sorry about that, just attentionhoing and fooling around, thought it was pretty obvious.

[kapusta11]

I, for one, don't understand why people worry about TBR-A LT so much. You can't fire more than 2 big energy weapons without GH, it's easy to lose that LT and both EBJ and HBK IIC are better at hill humping.

[Luminis]

Duke Nedo, on 30 January 2016 - 02:40 PM, said:

My concern is all the mechs losing extra range on MLs, MPLs and LPLs, there it really did work as intended as far as I know...

The way I understood it, those 'Mechs should be mostly fine, though. A chassis that gets +10% generic energy range and +10% medium laser range (think MAD-BH2) isn't going to get touched - again, just from the way I am understanding what was said.

There might be a more elegant solution, but for the time being, reducing a +25% generic energy quirks to +10% and adding +15% medium laser range and +20% small laser range (or something along those lines) seems like a perfectly sensible solution. Granted, it does add to the quirk list, but that's a small price to pay.

[Duke Nedo]

Luminis, on 01 February 2016 - 02:13 AM, said:

The way I understood it, those 'Mechs should be mostly fine, though. A chassis that gets +10% generic energy range and +10% medium laser range (think MAD-BH2) isn't going to get touched - again, just from the way I am understanding what was said.

There might be a more elegant solution, but for the time being, reducing a +25% generic energy quirks to +10% and adding +15% medium laser range and +20% small laser range (or something along those lines) seems like a perfectly sensible solution. Granted, it does add to the quirk list, but that's a small price to pay.

Yeah, if that is actually true then it's rather cool. It will still hurt LL- and LPL builds, not sure if that's intentional or not. But, I have neither seen Russ say that mechs will be compensated for losing range, nor that the range quirk reduction is purely for the general part of the total range quirk. I hope, and even if so I hope they don't go back to pigeonholing 15% of the range to MLs when I may want to prefer MPLs...

My main concern with this is that the OP IS ERLL on the QKD-5K and BJ-3 and a few select others is not even so much a product of extended range, it was just used as an argument to convince PGI. It was more about a few mechs having both laser duration (important!), cooldown and heat bonuses that stacks up synergetically... I actually don't think reducing range quirks to 10% ERLL range will change that, the QKD-5K will still be very good with ERLL. My concern/prediction is that PGI is again doing a wild swing and missing the point, and hurt many other IS mechs and IS builds that don't need the nerf in the process...

[Luminis]

I can't vouch for anything... But:

Duke Nedo, on 01 February 2016 - 02:34 AM, said:

Yeah, if that is actually true then it's rather cool. It will still hurt LL- and LPL builds, not sure if that's intentional or not. But, I have neither seen Russ say that mechs will be compensated for losing range, nor that the range quirk reduction is purely for the general part of the total range quirk. I hope, and even if so I hope they don't go back to pigeonholing 15% of the range to MLs when I may want to prefer MPLs...

From my understanding, what's prompting him to change the range quirks is primarily the IS's ability to achieve an advantage in terms of ultra-long range combat. The Clan lasers are, from what what I gathered, supposed be unmatched in terms of shear range.

The way quirks work at the moment, a quirk that's buffing Medium Lasers is buffing the entire Medium Laser family, including Pulses - and, once added, probably IS ER-Mediums as well. The build diversity should be no worse than it currently is - because right now, I'd say that most builds are pretty much centred around either LPLs or ERLLAS...

Duke Nedo, on 01 February 2016 - 02:34 AM, said:

I actually don't think reducing range quirks to 10% ERLL range will change that, the QKD-5K will still be very good with ERLL. My concern/prediction is that PGI is again doing a wild swing and missing the point, and hurt many other IS mechs and IS builds that don't need the nerf in the process...

I think it's intentional that the IS 'Mechs that are currently the cream of the crop are remaining strong post-nerf. I can totally see where your concerns are coming from, though. There's a whole bunch of 'Mechs that has more than +10% generic energy range and still aren't exactly great. Those definitely need something to compensate.