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Stop it. No laughing. I'm being serious here.
No. It's not an Uber Meta machine. It's not going to set the world on fire. If it did, it actually would NOT be a good example of the "standard" PGI should be shooting for.
So why is it the Gold Standard, IMO?
Let's take a moment to look at what it is supposed to be, in lore:
A very lightly armored (fragile) medium range support mech. Especially effective against aerial threats (not an issue for us). A true "Glass Cannon" with almost literally half it's mass devoted to weapons and ammo (29 of 60 tons).
In truth, in TT, it was a hot mess (literally) that was always far more effective in the novels than on the game board. Armor of a 40 ton mech, Spead of a 75 ton mech, and such a heat burden it couldn't actualyl use it's massive (for 3025) amount of firepower... and it's only cool running weapons ran dry after 10 shots. Which was OK, because usually you were dead by the 10th combat round, anyhow.
So again, why is it so good (IMO) as a standard to follow in MWO? Because in MWO it actually plays exactly like the Glass Cannon that it was painted so fiercely to be in the Warrior Trilogy.
It doesn't get (much) in the way of Structure Buffs, like most IS mechs do, so it really can't win out against stare downs. But this is a Mech that carries only 60% of it's theoretical armor. It' snot supposed to win stare downs. What does it have?
Really good mobility buffs, kept in check from being ridiculous because of modest Engine Cap (290 max, 255-280 being the "effective" range. 50-70% Accel/Decel buffs on all the non Hero versions, with 25-35%Torso Twist Buffs. Meaning it get in and out of firing positions really quickly, and twists to spread damage well. Which leads us the the next point:
Perfect Hitbox Distribution: (Thanks Taragato!)
Tarogato, on 17 June 2016 - 12:40 PM, said:
Riflemunz:
Observations: in general, really tight and logical hitboxes. Cockpit is larger than I expected. Antennae up top has super tight/accurate hitboxing - all counts as front CT except for the exactly rear-facing panels. The arms are a little blocky though - the mismatching between my drawn hitbox (yellow) and the actual arm of the model is intentional and reflects what I found. As usual, I haven't scrutinised the leg hitboxes below the waist. Rear side torsos, protruding as they are, are rather vulnerable. You could probably run zero rear CT armour on this mech and be fine. \o/
Observations: in general, really tight and logical hitboxes. Cockpit is larger than I expected. Antennae up top has super tight/accurate hitboxing - all counts as front CT except for the exactly rear-facing panels. The arms are a little blocky though - the mismatching between my drawn hitbox (yellow) and the actual arm of the model is intentional and reflects what I found. As usual, I haven't scrutinised the leg hitboxes below the waist. Rear side torsos, protruding as they are, are rather vulnerable. You could probably run zero rear CT armour on this mech and be fine. \o/
Really. Just look at them. The CT to Leg junction in the crotch is about as good as it gets. CT is tall but relatively thin, and the STs are logical, not too big, not too small, and largely protected by the arms, as is the protruding CT. Because of this, while it's not tanky in the sense that an Atlas is tanky, as long as you are remotely competent at twisting, it spreads damage like a champ. And it has just enough speed, and more importantly the burst, to break off and disengage when it's overextended.
Add in those lovely high Arm Hardpoints and the above the cockpit CT Mounts? It's easy to grab a firing position with cover, take a couple volleys then move to another sniper nest.
And the Quirks? I've have been very critical at times with PGI on quirks. Over-reliance on them, oddball choices, quirks that feed the meta, not the intended role of the chassis, quirking tertiary and quaternary weapon systems so we get absurd builds like the DakkaWidow.
But the Quirks on the RLFs are just about perfect. They suit the mech, it's Lore Role. They don't over buff it so it's some sort of offensive or defensive god.
RIFLEMAN Torso Yaw: 100 °
RFL-3N
Torso Yaw: 120 °
AC/5 COOLDOWN: 5.00 %
BALLISTIC COOLDOWN: 20.00 %
BALLISTIC VELOCITY: 40.00 %
ENERGY RANGE: 10.00 %
ACCELERATION RATE: 50.00 %
DECELERATION RATE: 50.00 %
TORSO TURN RATE (YAW): 45.00 %
TURN RATE: 35.00 %
RFL-3C
BALLISTIC COOLDOWN: 10.00 %
BALLISTIC RANGE: 20.00 %
BALLISTIC VELOCITY: 10.00 %
MEDIUM LASER HEAT GENERATION: -5.00 %
ENERGY HEAT GENERATION: -5.00 %
ACCELERATION RATE: 50.00 %
DECELERATION RATE: 50.00 %
TORSO TURN RATE (YAW): 25.00 %
ADDITIONAL STRUCTURE (LT): 7.00
ADDITIONAL STRUCTURE (RT): 7.00
ADDITIONAL STRUCTURE (LA): 10.00
ADDITIONAL STRUCTURE (RA): 10.00
RFL-5D
PPC HEAT GENERATION: -10.00 %
PPC VELOCITY: 50.00 %
ENERGY RANGE: 10.00 %
ACCELERATION RATE: 70.00 %
DECELERATION RATE: 70.00 %
TURN RATE: 35.00 %
ADDITIONAL STRUCTURE (LA): 10.00
ADDITIONAL STRUCTURE (RA): 10.00
Both the 3C and 5D are mildly up armored over the basic 3N, so it makes sense they get a little structure love. Ever hear anyone actually call the RFL over-quirked? Not by anyone sane. Yet they are well quirked, and it accents their roles as Medium to Long Range Support Mechs, perfectly. Not Short Range Laser Vomit Uber Brawlers. And the mech is too light to abuse these quirks like a Warhammer or Marauder might. Go a head and try making a dual Gauss Sniper out of that 3N. Seriously. 2400 m/s Gauss velocity.... but oh..wait.. you need ammo, armor or some modicum of speed?
The issue with MWO more often than not is that if it's not the Bleeding Edge Meta Mech, people want to dismiss it entirely. Yet this, is the type of total package we should be looking for. Balanced. A great blend of MWO mechanics and it's actual TT Fluff. A design that doesn't really encourage asymmetrical sword and board uber boats. If PGI studied how well they actually designed the RFL, and then used it as a baseline for trying to build the other mechs in MWO, we'd see a whole lot less powercreep and oddball meta swings.
So no. Rifleman ain't the best mech. It's a relatively fragile 60 tonner. It's technically got the pretty much everything going against it. It will never be the Meta. I doubt you will see them representing Comp Units in the tournament. And it's for all those reasons that it's the model PGI should try to emulate.
