19 replies to this topic

[Andi Nagasia]

This Topic is for those that Think and Feel that Long Toms need to be Changed,
Please Post your Thoughts and Ideas for Long Tom Changes or Replacements,


I for one Think Perhaps Long Toms Need to be Replaced,
-
=Planetary Air Coverage=
Double the Time it Takes for Drop Ships to Drop Reinforcements,
(Drop Commanders Voice)
Due to the Enemy Having Planetary Air Coverage, your LZ is compromised,
we will only be-able to Drop reinforcements every 60Seconds now(up from 30),


Post your ideas and ill Add them to the OP and Poll,
Please Come Back Every once in a Wail, New Ideas may Be posted,
if you like the New ideas, you can Always Re-vote,

Thoughts, Comments, Concerns?
Thanks

Edited by Andi Nagasia, 15 July 2016 - 05:56 PM.

[Leone]

I dislike the idea of slowing the game down, and making it harder to queue up for waves.

~Leone.

[Nomex 99]

Remove Long Tom, it keeps players away from FP.

[Baulven]

It's easy. Change it to a large area artillery strike. It still helps out the people who bothered to scout but it won't instant kill large groups of people. Also frequency needs to go to 4 minutes.

[Remover of Obstacles]

How about two super UAVs that leave the allied drop zone and then fly out toward the gates, gens, omega?

I am thinking that they would be destructible, 2 to 3 times larger than normal UAVs and 5 to 10 times more robust than normal UAVs. Have then get launched every 3 to 5 minutes.

AnTi90d, on 04 July 2016 - 12:51 PM, said:

Russ is finally going to take action:

Changing an instant kill mechanic that does 1,650 damage to an instant kill mechanic that does 1,320 damage is not taking action.

Changes to Long Tom Artillery
• Maximum amount of Damage that can be dealt to a single 'Mech is now 1320 DMG (120 DMG per Component).
• That is a reduction from the previous 1650 DMG (150 DMG per Component).
• Total Blast Radius is now 200 m (reduced from 300 m).
• Epicenter Damage Radius is now 30 m (reduced from 50 m).
• Epicenter Damage Radius is the Radius in which 'Mechs take maximum damage.


So against my better judgement I joined up with a FP group last night when asked very nicely by some fellow loyalists.
Same old, same old.

Got Long Tom during a match. Match was about as much fun as watching old, quadriplegic people try to get romantic.
Poor ******** never had a chance.

Never got another match. Just ready up and wait for the log jam of teams to work their way through ghost drops and ten minute reward penalty.


There is no victory here.

[Ruccus]

I think drawing out a game by slowing down drops would be annoying and I don't feel an 'unspecified' rage or damage decrease gives me enough information to vote in this poll, so I won't. Instead I'll jut tell a story of my first ever Faction Play invasion.

I dropped in a Shadowhawk and I people were mentioning to spread out because Long Tom was active. I'm thinking 'Okay, Long Tom does 30 points in Battletech, so I guess if it hits it'll be like an Arty Strike'. Everybody spreads out, the Long Tom comes, and I'm looking at my smoldering mech. My first FP invasion and I haven't even fired a shot, yet I'm down to three mechs (and I was the only one hit with Long Tom). I think 'Seriously? Someone thought an instant kill on a mech isn't game breaking?'

So I drop in my second mech, and Long Tom comes around again. Five teammates pop up as being killed by LT. Now I'm thinking 'What the hell?!? LT isn't just a single target instakiller?' Third time LT comes around and four more teammates bite the dust. Three LT hits have just taken out ten of our 48 drops. People get annoyed in quick play when one guy disconnects giving a 12 v 11 advantage, and this LT game function is giving one side a 48 to 38 advantage. This is not fun, and it's not fair. I have no problem getting my butt kicked in a fair 48 v 48 match, but when one of the top killers in the match is a game mechanic then the game is broken.

[Baulven]

Making the drops for reinforcement would actually be supremely detrimental and increase spawn camping. If you know they won't have reinforcements for a certain period you can kill them in groups to spread em thin and then pick off the new mechs. Not a good plan.

[Khalcruth]

The Long Tom should be removed. What should replace it? NOTHING. If you use them right, Combat ID and Satellite Sweep are already more than enough of an advantage. There does not need to be anything past that.

[Peter2k]

Couldn't you make the long Tom be used like an arty?
By drop commander, just like in the promo video (Atlas Pilot)?

at least you wouldn't get nuked right from the start, out of a drop ship n so on
While keeping it worth to get in 4vs4

Not saying it would be without its own issues
But it'll be fairer than an out aiming system that can kill you while dropping out of you're dropship

[MischiefSC]

This isn't a bad idea at all.

Another would be dropship flyover every 5 minutes. The 3 dropships just make a pass over the map. Players can get into cover or eat a few concentrated erll burns. It's significant - especially in a close match it would be telling but it's not the deciding factor in every match.

It also uses existing assets and existing triggers and behaviors, just a new route.

[Pat Kell]

I vote for something like I super seismic type of thing. Could represent scouts running around and dropping seismic sensors all of the place and that way you could always tell where the enemy was. It would be very powerful because lets face it, knowing if there are 2 or 12 mechs around that corner is useful information but it's not game breaking in my mind as it wouldn't out right determine a match.

Remove long tom all together as it is just no fun to have a game mechanic do damage to your mech that you can't really do anything about if you are the selected target. Can't shoot it like you can a turret, can't stay away from it like a dropship. All you can do is run in a straight line as fast as you can to try to get away from it and if you aren't in a light, there is not really any chance to get away from it. It is a bad idea that we have tested extensively and the result is that there are fewer and fewer people willing to play CW.

Time for real action to be taken though. All these posts and information gathering threads are doing is buying PGI more time to leave this broke mechanic in the game. Do something about it PGI or CW will soon become wasted space on your servers and you will have to decide if you scrap it or not.

Edited by Pat Kell, 16 July 2016 - 08:52 PM.

[Brain Cancer]

Change 90%+ to "Satellite Overwatch".

Enemies are always visible, as per a UAV.
ECM does not conceal enemy units.
There is no timer for passes, the team with SO has a perpetual "eye in the sky".

The ability to rain nuclear hellfire on your opponent shouldn't come from intel alone, but knowing everything your opponent's doing, having perpetual lock capacity, etc. should be a big advantage that doesn't curbstomp the enemy.

While you're at it, make enough success at scouting open other 4v4 options for heavier units. Raiding for medium-heavies, taking enemy firebases with heavy-assaults.

[Carl Vickers]

Brain Cancer, on 16 July 2016 - 09:35 PM, said:

Change 90%+ to "Satellite Overwatch".

Enemies are always visible, as per a UAV.
ECM does not conceal enemy units.
There is no timer for passes, the team with SO has a perpetual "eye in the sky".

The ability to rain nuclear hellfire on your opponent shouldn't come from intel alone, but knowing everything your opponent's doing, having perpetual lock capacity, etc. should be a big advantage that doesn't curbstomp the enemy.

While you're at it, make enough success at scouting open other 4v4 options for heavier units. Raiding for medium-heavies, taking enemy firebases with heavy-assaults.

So we get nuclear rain of lurms instead, nope, Pats idea is better. Knowing that 'something'is around the corner is fine, knowing not what is around the corner leaves some mystery and still give the team who doesnt have 90% intel a chance to win. LT and full time UAV gives too much of an advantage.

The matches still need to be fun without a clown shoes wearing advantage, otherwise peeps wont play.

[Brain Cancer]

Carl Vickers, on 16 July 2016 - 09:50 PM, said:

So we get nuclear rain of lurms instead, nope, Pats idea is better. Knowing that 'something'is around the corner is fine, knowing not what is around the corner leaves some mystery and still give the team who doesnt have 90% intel a chance to win. LT and full time UAV gives too much of an advantage.

The matches still need to be fun without a clown shoes wearing advantage, otherwise peeps wont play.

Nuclear LRM rain? Why, I thought LRMs were sucktacular in CW!

You can at least get cover vs. those, they cost ammo, AMS use, etc. etc. If you have two brain cells, you can bait launches all day.

Meanwhile, the Long Tom will instantly reduce you to a flaming pile of debris. In your dropship, even.

Perfect scouting means your opponent has won the info war. It isn't an instant-kill advantage, but it's supposed to be a massive advantage.

[Pat Kell]

Brain Cancer, on 16 July 2016 - 11:08 PM, said:

Nuclear LRM rain? Why, I thought LRMs were sucktacular in CW!

You can at least get cover vs. those, they cost ammo, AMS use, etc. etc. If you have two brain cells, you can bait launches all day.

Meanwhile, the Long Tom will instantly reduce you to a flaming pile of debris. In your dropship, even.

Perfect scouting means your opponent has won the info war. It isn't an instant-kill advantage, but it's supposed to be a massive advantage.

It's one thing to hide from 2-3 LRM boats which is the typical issue. It's another to defeat an entire team of them that has universal UAV that doesn't go away. Pugs and teams alike would bring 4 mechs each of nothing but LRM's and it would be the only time I could see LRM's not sucking in CW. I think a universal seismic would be better and give enough benefit to warrant scouting for it without making it extremely difficult to win.

[Randy Poffo]

Nomex 09, on 16 July 2016 - 12:11 AM, said:

Remove Long Tom, it keeps players away from FP.

Staying away from FP is for their own good. Long Tom is doing a public service.

[Danjo San]

How about granting advantages rather than striking every two minutes. They could be different depending on the game mode.
So for

Invasion - Attack advantage would be a one time early drop (~60 seconds maybe) enough to reach the gates and maybe even open them before the Defenders Drop in.

Invasion - Defend, the Advantage could mean extra turrets, more HP on Gens, or upgrades on the existing turrets (extra DMG, quicker cooldown, less burn time)

Invasion - Counter Attack, early Drop

Invasion - Hold Territory, the advantage could be that gates are repaired, turrets are rebuilt, however the Mobile Field base is still active, and the win conditions remain the same.

[Remover of Obstacles]

Baulven, on 16 July 2016 - 03:48 AM, said:

It's easy. Change it to a large area artillery strike. It still helps out the people who bothered to scout but it won't instant kill large groups of people. Also frequency needs to go to 4 minutes.

We have a winner.

4 to six sounds like the right range. Read that again PGI, does not instant kill people, ie most fresh mechs.

[Chagatay]

Orbital deep strikes controlled via mini map for deployment with some scatter on the targeted grid (one drop pod per lance controlled by lance commanders). On death or deployment screen player can select normal deploy or orbital drop pod deployment if available. Each drop pod is armed with a few laser turrets. Drop pods that land on enemy mechs instantly destroy them. There would be some smoke and the kill box would be relatively small (3-4 mechs would fit in a pretty small circle). Drop pods that land in unsuitable spots (extremely uneven terrain like mountains or out of bounds) instantly explode killing all mechs that happen to be aboard.

[Stormbringer13]

honestly, planets defended by Long Tom eliminate the need to build mechs. Just build Long Toms and air defenses.