298 replies to this topic

[Baulven]

If they change it back to mid May numbers long Tom will be fine 300 damage total to a left standing on the smoke with declining damage out to 300m. It seriously forced people to keep moving but in two rounds with it I saw it get three kills total with that setup unlike the 2-6 it gets every two minutes now.

[xWiredx]

I think Long Tom should be nerfed. The novelty of it killing 5 enemies at once wears off pretty quickly. Here's what I would like to see:

1. Damage reduced by 25-33%
2. Long Tom targeting is done by random enemy player rather than largest ball of enemies

I'm basically just sick of Tom making enemies vacate the planet and stealing my kills.

Alternative suggestions would be:

1. Add more intel goals, so perhaps there is both a dumb-firing and smart-firing Long Tom
2. Replace Tom with a permanent satellite image of enemy positions (map-wide UAV that does not deactivate unless the share of intel is reduced by enemy scouts)
3. Keep Long Tom as-is and watch the invasion queues clear out on planets where it gets unlocked.

[nehebkau]

Tweeted Russ to change it to a persistent battle-field wide UAV. Doritos for everyone.

Why even have it -- having AI do damage is just plain stupid when you make your cbills/score/exp by damaging those mechs -- its like having the AI take cbills out of your wallet!

Edited by nehebkau, 05 July 2016 - 06:04 AM.

[DivBy0]

Reduce the damage by 25% to 1200 is nothing. Even 90% leave 165 Points of Damage every 2 minutes. To much. I am sure you are always on the side which have [Long Tom] and have forgotten how to play a real match.
And I wonder if the Claner fear that they will never win a fair match again without autoaim Nukes and Maphacks.
So many want have their private Skillcrowgame and their [Long Tom] much mor than have a fair match. But no one owe them a single kill. If you do not want to play FP with the IS then go scouting for your cheats.

xWiredx, on 05 July 2016 - 06:02 AM, said:

I think Long Tom should be nerfed. The novelty of it killing 5 enemies at once wears off pretty quickly. Here's what I would like to see:

1. Damage reduced by 25-33%
2. Long Tom targeting is done by random enemy player rather than largest ball of enemies

I'm basically just sick of Tom making enemies vacate the planet and stealing my kills.

Alternative suggestions would be:

1. Add more intel goals, so perhaps there is both a dumb-firing and smart-firing Long Tom
2. Replace Tom with a permanent satellite image of enemy positions (map-wide UAV that does not deactivate unless the share of intel is reduced by enemy scouts)
3. Keep Long Tom as-is and watch the invasion queues clear out on planets where it gets unlocked.

Edited by draiocht, 09 July 2016 - 09:56 AM.
edited out vulgarity

[SlightlyMobileTurret]

Wow..someone needs Snickers

[Duncan Aravain]

BLOOD WOLF, on 05 July 2016 - 03:35 AM, said:

are their still people like this??

Well, many of us early Beta players and Founders left after PGI ignored months after months and year after year of suggestions,ideas, and warnings about gameplay balance. You cannot blame the remaining Founders to be a bit sceptical about any promise by PGI to listen to our suggestions now. However, I'll try to keep a positive outlook...........

How about 90% gives a MFB where once or twice in a match; the team with the MFB can park next to the MFB for 15 seconds and replenish any consumables that were expended? This ability would have a 5-8 minute cooldown for each player, but not each team (hopefully reducing parking next to the MFB for spamming) Players would still have to spend MC for any consumables refilled (causing a monetary consideration on use). THe MFB would be located somewhat away from the objective (out of LOS) so that there would be time/travel distance to consider. A set up like this would allow PGI the ability to tweak several different variables like location, number of consumables refilled, and refill cooldown time until a good game balance was reached. It would also allow the players the chance to earn money from destroying the enemy using their skill and effort and not have money "removed from the table" by an AI with overwhelming firepower.

[nehebkau]

Again,
I say the result of scouting should be something that has to do with INTELLIGENCE! Not a frigging CBILL-Robbing AI!. Give a full-map to the people with 90%+ scouting. No enemy ECM, no radar derp. Just be able to see and lock onto the enemies wherever they are just like they were under a player fired UAV.

Might just make LRMs useful in FW ?

Edited by nehebkau, 05 July 2016 - 06:53 AM.

[MechPorn]

The problem with the Long Tom, is that it makes unbalanced games against already unbalanced teams (PUGs vs dedicated Faction Players).

I would vote to remove it. Even with it being nerfed it,it will still create an unbalanced mechanic. Time and time I have watched PUGs sit back and snipe all match as the clans, the Inner Sphere sit back to scared to push against them.

Adding the Long Tom to the mix and giving the Clan PUGs the superior advantage in Scouting Play, over their Inner Sphere PUGs, does not help.

I would rather see the Long Tom replaced with better and faster drop ships. The lasers do more damage and have longer range, when not in flight. It also decreases the spawn time when you die.

Edited by MechPorn, 05 July 2016 - 07:22 AM.

[xWiredx]

von Haudegen, on 05 July 2016 - 06:22 AM, said:

Reduce the damage by 25% to 1200 is nothing. Even 90% leave 165 Points of Damage every 2 minutes. To much. I am sure you are always on the side which have [Long Tom] and have forgotten how to play a real match.
And I wonder if the Claner fear that they will never win a fair match again without autoaim Nukes and Maphacks.
So many want have their private Skillcrowgame and their [Long Tom] much mor than have a fair match. But no one owe them a single kill. If you do not want to play FP with the IS then go scouting for your cheats.

Forgotten how to play a real match? Check yourself before you wreck yourself. I'm not the most amazing player ever, but I've found myself in the top 50 on several event leaderboards with some pretty rare company and I've had enough FP matches with a 2.0+ KD and 2000+ dmg to know where this is going.

Don't like the long tom? Scout harder. My guess is you're constantly getting melted by more skilled clanners in their Stormcrows even though you're in a meta Centurion or Griffin and you're mad about it. IS traditionally has the population advantage, so you don't have many excuses.

Keshav Murali, on 05 July 2016 - 06:33 AM, said:

Wow..someone needs Snickers

Take this guy's advice and eat a Snickers.

Edited by draiocht, 09 July 2016 - 09:57 AM.
Quote Clean-Up

[Lehmund]

It is idiotic to say that "many players won't come back to FP unless it is removed". That's a statement from someone that doesn't know the fan base or general player behavior.

If a good change is made, most people that quit FW will go in to "try it out". If it is proportional to the scouting effort (which right now it is not), people will be more engaged with FW.

People don't want to play FW not because of the Long Tom but because of other more basic reasons (map design and repetitiveness of gameplay). You can always find a match without Long Tom being active.

[MechPorn]

xWiredx, on 05 July 2016 - 07:19 AM, said:

Forgotten how to play a real match? Check yourself before you wreck yourself. I'm not the most amazing player ever, but I've found myself in the top 50 on several event leaderboards with some pretty rare company and I've had enough FP matches with a 2.0+ KD and 2000+ dmg to know where this is going.

That is easy to do when you slap PUG groups all day long...As for the leaderboards...who really cares it is nothing but a grind.

xWiredx, on 05 July 2016 - 07:19 AM, said:

Don't like the long tom? Scout harder. My guess is you're constantly getting melted by more skilled clanners in their Stormcrows even though you're in a meta Centurion or Griffin and you're mad about it. IS traditionally has the population advantage, so you don't have many excuses.

Again, groups against PUGs will always win, not to mention the inherent advantage of not having to aim...just point, lock, click and watch your soul slowly die away.

[Zolaz]

lol Asking PGI to do something is an exercise in futility. Can you name the times PGI has made something better than the system it replaced that didnt take the company 2 or 3 years to do? Whatever PGI does, you will probably be unhappy and unsatisfied with.

Dont get your hopes up. Manage your expectations.

[Helene de Montfort]

Remove the long tom... We already had artillery strikes, and it was working fine and more than enough.

[MechPorn]

Another alternative is to only have one Long Tom shot at a random time in the game.

[Big Tin Man]

Funny that everyone was silent on Long Tom for months until an event rolls into town, filling up the scouting queue with crunchy pugs.

Long Tom should hurt. It represents a complete and utter failure of your side's scouting. It represents 48 straight losses uncontested in scouting (assuming 10 points for the opfor/game, and only every other game counting). That is a complete and utter failure by any measure.

The problem is that clan vs. IS scouting is so horrifically imbalanced at the low levels. Noob Clanners in skilcrows vs. noob/unorganized IS pilots means a clan victory EVERY TIME. During events, the queues are packed with noobs, and predictably, scouting goes to the clanners very quickly. Getting the skillcrow out of scouting will solve MANY of these problems without touching the Tom. Cut scouting tonnage to 45 or 50 tons.

As for what to do with Long Tom:

1. 2 minutes to the first shot, 4 minute cooldown afterward
2. Does not come at random intervals, Drop Commander must target it on the full battlegrid. This means the clueless types may forget to use LT, or time it badly and not get all their potential shots.
3. Slight damage nerf, quicker dropoff with distance since it doesn't have magical targeting anymore..
4. LT cannot be targeted near omega/o-gens because they're the objective you're trying to take/defend and it makes no sense to hit them with heavy artillery.

Edited by Big Tin Man, 05 July 2016 - 08:04 AM.

[Deathlike]

Big Tin Man, on 05 July 2016 - 08:03 AM, said:

Funny that everyone was silent on Long Tom for months until an event rolls into town, filling up the scouting queue with crunchy pugs.

That is woefully inaccurate. The whines where there - PGI "supposedly" acted on it (there were actual posts stating that the Long Tom was nerfed), but we're still back in the same sinking ship.

[nehebkau]

There is an fairly "Old" business saying :
"You can make what the people want and stay in business or make what you want and go out of business."

[xWiredx]

MechPorn, on 05 July 2016 - 07:26 AM, said:

That is easy to do when you slap PUG groups all day long...As for the leaderboards...who really cares it is nothing but a grind.



Again, groups against PUGs will always win, not to mention the inherent advantage of not having to aim...just point, lock, click and watch your soul slowly die away.

It really doesn't have that much to do with pugs vs units. We've seen pugs play SMARTER against Long Tom than some units (HHOD, here's looking at you, kid). Maybe if the smoke were a little more visible and they added a couple more seconds before the thing actually dropped, I suppose that could mitigate some of the QQ.

The bottom line, though, is that it takes A LOT of scouting to get it. Should there not be such an equally excellent reward for such work? Nerf it, go ahead, I support nerfing it. What I don't support is something that will empty out the scout queue just because there's no good reward for putting in all that scouting work and no risk for factions that won't scout.

[Kin3ticX]

repeal and replace

[Murphy7]

I voted to remove it.

In it's place - I would suggest one of the following, not exhaustive options:

• Air superiority - denies opponent use of air strike / artillery strike consumables. Many people on the forums have suggested this; works as a toggle mid match if scouting turns out well/poorly.
  
• Satellite Saturation - rather than a sweep every two minutes, while this is active gives detection of all enemy units on the map continuously; works as a toggle, is very powerful without being instant destruction. (edit: nehebkau suggested similar above)
  
• Tactical Supplies - drops a structure/vehicle that allows for reloading of ammunition; works as a toggle (edit: Duncan Aravin suggested similar above)
  
• REINFORCEMENTS - Increased drop deck tonnage allowed for the side with the 90% intel advantage at the time of the drop - this would not work as toggle if the scouting perspective is changed mid match.

Edited by Murphy7, 05 July 2016 - 09:52 AM.