3 replies to this topic

[Felix von Buelow]

I just took the chance of the Medium Mech Madness event to assess the medium mech family. Assuming, that PGI's scoring formula is any good, of course. I took the scores of the first three leading pilots of each chassis and ranked the mechs by average of these three due to some discrepancy between 1st and 2nd place, e.g. Hunchback IIC.

Some observations:
- 3 Clan mechs in the Top 5
- Nova is the strongest medium
- Wolverine strongest IS medium
- Weakest mechs being Phoenix Hawk, Kintaro and Vindicator
- Weakest Clan mech, Ice Ferret, is rank 11 of 18

See the table below (data from 11:00 am UTC+1, 19/07/2016):



I was actually surprised to see the WVR being the strongest IS mech as I was expecting the GRF or BJ to be honest.
With the Nova being nerfed and the PXH and KTO being buffed in the next patch I am happy to see some tweaking there. It also proves the point that PGI is taking that scoring formula for assessing the performance of mechs without looking into actual gameplay.

I hope that aids some people in choosing their next medium chassis in the final hours of the sale.

Edited by GhostNemesys, 19 July 2016 - 01:39 AM.

[jss78]

To me the take-home here is that if you take away the Nova on top, and Phoenix Hawk, Kintaro, and Vindicator on the bottom, the differences are actually small.

Nova is getting nerfed and Phoenix Hawk and Kintaro buffed, seven hours from now, so overall it's looking pretty good. This'll of course leave the Vindicator back where it started, at the rock bottom But hey, someone has to be at the bottom.

[Aidan Kerensky]

My assessment is a little different. The Hunchback IIc and Nova are clearly the best (with the Nova being the obvious favorite of the two since the Hunchback IIc is being a little inflated by a good pilot) while the Kintaro, Vindicator and Phoenix Hawk are the worst. That much is accurate.

But the Wolverine as #1 is deceptive based on the pilots. Look at the falloff from 1st to 5th place... nearly 400 points as I'm typing this and a full 1700 points from 1st to 75th. Compare that to the Cicada. Basically the same at the top end but only drops 1250 points to 75th. My conclusion is that the Wolverine is highly skill dependent (more so than almost any other mech except maybe the Ice Ferret).

Also, remember this metric is a kill based metric. It isn't necessarily reflective of which mech is "best" (though it's obviously close). This metric is even less useful when you consider that it's in the context of everyone knowing its being done. Had they secretly created it (and therefore not warped player behavior with the event) it might be a more useful metric. In general, the clan mechs are better at killing things because, in general, their weapons... on a weapon-by-weapon basis do more damage. That right there is enough to skew this metric in their favor.

Lastly, I wouldn't say that any of this proves that PGI is balancing to this metric without looking at gameplay. That's simply looking at things and casting a narrative based on your (apparently negatively biased?) predetermined opinion.

[Felix von Buelow]

Aidan Kerensky, on 19 July 2016 - 06:20 AM, said:

My assessment is a little different. The Hunchback IIc and Nova are clearly the best (with the Nova being the obvious favorite of the two since the Hunchback IIc is being a little inflated by a good pilot) while the Kintaro, Vindicator and Phoenix Hawk are the worst. That much is accurate.

But the Wolverine as #1 is deceptive based on the pilots. Look at the falloff from 1st to 5th place... nearly 400 points as I'm typing this and a full 1700 points from 1st to 75th. Compare that to the Cicada. Basically the same at the top end but only drops 1250 points to 75th. My conclusion is that the Wolverine is highly skill dependent (more so than almost any other mech except maybe the Ice Ferret).

I get that point. But what if the same skilled pilot will pilot let's say a Kintaro, will he be able to achieve the same score? I don't think so. When this pilot will pilot a WVR to its full potential, why not others like the KTO, etc? Maybe he will, but then the mech is indeed weaker than the former.

Aidan Kerensky, on 19 July 2016 - 06:20 AM, said:

Also, remember this metric is a kill based metric. It isn't necessarily reflective of which mech is "best" (though it's obviously close). This metric is even less useful when you consider that it's in the context of everyone knowing its being done. Had they secretly created it (and therefore not warped player behavior with the event) it might be a more useful metric. In general, the clan mechs are better at killing things because, in general, their weapons... on a weapon-by-weapon basis do more damage. That right there is enough to skew this metric in their favor.

That's what I said in my second sentence. The formula and therefore this ranking has to be taken with a grain of salt. Please also consider, that this formula also takes wins, kill assists and survived into account. I don't know what else you can measure except for spotting.

Aidan Kerensky, on 19 July 2016 - 06:20 AM, said:

Lastly, I wouldn't say that any of this proves that PGI is balancing to this metric without looking at gameplay. That's simply looking at things and casting a narrative based on your (apparently negatively biased?) predetermined opinion.

I have to agree. Wrong wording there, I apologize. I simply wanted to state that this might be a hint for other players, which support this view on PGI's quirk policy. Plus, I wanted to keep this thread without any opinion.

Edited by GhostNemesys, 19 July 2016 - 07:54 AM.