7 replies to this topic

[Driftadude]

I just bought a cicada, and since I've had this mech, my pilot ranking is steadily worsening. Even if I do a bang up job of distracting the enemy assaults, I spot, I harrass, my weapons loadout just does not get me many kills (erppc and 4mgs).

So basically, my point is this... One of the jobs of lights and fast mediums is harrass assaults and heavies so that they can't organise and the rest of your team can rip them a new one... Why is there no reward for that? I honestly think I contribute to the team effort just as much as the king crab with his 4uac5s.... but since I don't stack the damage, I don't get the reward...

Just a thought...

Edited by Driftadude, 28 February 2016 - 05:25 AM.

[Driftadude]

Matchscore should be normalised on tonnage or something...

[Strength Damage Cliff Racer]

Well, you picked up wrong variant of wrong medium mech, then use this as an example that lights/mediums are bad.
First thing first, it doesn't matter that you CAN mount high range weapon on these, you really shouldn't. Their bread and butter is array of pulse lasers and short range missiles, simply because they can get close very fast.
Best way to approach that Cicada of yours would be something like http://mwo.smurfy-ne...9c037d49718db18
Yes, you lose your ERPPC quirks, but 1 energy hardpoint already lost it. So, biggest pulse laser you can ram, coupled with hands down best ballistic weapon aside of Gauss shenanigans.

[Strength Damage Cliff Racer]

By the way, speaking of gauss shenanigans
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...9160b1bfc3f4838
WIthout backup
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...99d1f57a5ecd0ed

[happy mech]

yes, there is no reward for fulfilling such role, thing of a mechanism to measure that and maybe pgi can implement it, should not be that hard and will provide more incentive to play lights as their tonnage implies, not expecting to be the damage dealers

btw, you can do some serious work with the cicada http://mwo.smurfy-ne...e2b8ff3736187d8, stay at range and use mgs to help team

Edited by happy mech, 28 February 2016 - 06:24 AM.

[DivineEvil]

Cicada are excellent mechs in the right hands, and even moreso with recently revived mobility quirks.

I do not care for damage that much, because expected damage/round escalates greatly with heavier mechs. What matter is victory. There's also Hit and Run, Spotting and assist rewards, so I don't actually understand, what the hell else do you want.

[Bud Crue]

OP,
Mediums have no complaint imo. First the "harass" reward that you are looking for already exists in the current "flanking" bonus. Second, most mediums have the weight and hard points to mount decent enough weapons to do enough damage to hold their own against most opponents. Now admittedly, many Cicada builds can't do this, but then flanking is the reward you get for, well, flanking and that brings us back to my first point.

Play to the strengths of your build and do whatever you can to win the match. Don't worry about "rewards".
Every progressive aspect of the game: PSR, XP, C-Bills, all of it; is next to nothing in a loss. But if you win though the numbers for all* of these values are great, regardless of individual reward.

*Notable exception being scouting and UAV use wherein you don't also do appreciable damage. Here, you might be a wonder for your team in terms of spotting, targeting, etc. and yet in a victory where you will be rewarded with a couple thousand xp and a nice c-bill award your PSR will be the dreaded yellow equal sign unless you do some decent damage as well. Even here though, appreciable increases in two out of three aint bad.

[Dan Nashe]

The problem is its tough to measure. I'd like to see some kind of variable reward but it's finnicky. Lights do more damage than mediums fairly often - and heavies are better at getting high damage scores than assaults. (A heavy has a much easier time getting damage on the last 5 enemies, much like a light. Mediums aren't usually mobile enough.

Cicada just bad at dps too. Jenner or Blackjack will probably average higher damage.

The problem with a lot of bonuses like flanking is that's a great way to be out of position. Mediums are not fast enough to flank after the firefight starts....

I don't know of a good fix. Like I would like to see "taking damage while the mech shooting at you is shot by teammates" reward a lot, but I'm not sure codable. (This is important to reward tanking, but not stupid peeking). Scaled to mech size. But LIGHTS tank in part by being missed... off course less so at high levels of play...

I don't think there will be a perfect system, but I think mediums need love.

I will say I don't get all the complaints that lights need most love.

When I look at percentages I always see:
Heavies 40%
Assaults 19%
Mediums 16%
Lights 25%
(50% more lights than mediums).

Lights are actually second most popular.
Of course cicada is really a light in medium clothing... but with crappt hardpoints. :-p. (Fun to play though), so do you reward it as a light or medium?

Agree system is weighted too heavily to damage and kills BUT everything is easy to game
There's a post on general where a guy sears best way to make money is to charge headfirst into enemy on a light to get scouting bonuses and then die.

Irks me when I see people saying "I always get high damage and kills and my teams all suck". Hint: best way to get high scores and kills is to hang back while the fight is decided, taking opportunity shots, then clean up injured enemies. Usually enemy spreads out more if they have a big kill lead :-). Best way to win and get a terrible score? Soak 500 damage on an atlas by Torso twisting while your team gets 3 kills on the enemy. Match score awarded: 0.