337 replies to this topic

[Drunk Canuck]

There has to be a faster way to patch the client without downloading the entire thing again.

[Tarl Cabot]

Gas Guzzler, on 18 August 2016 - 02:25 PM, said:

They are hitscan DoT weapons. They have always required more damage to compete with PPFLD alphas. 30 PPFLD >>> 30 lasers to put it simply.

Initial impression for me is tear the whole thing down.

I want to play MechWarrior not watch the bar until it reaches zero and fire again.

But.. I'll try it.

This is where having a valid heat scale with 2-3 thresholds where mechs slow down and become sluggish should have been in play. It would have becomes a feel it/see scenario slowing down/speeding picking back up.

Will say that the larger weapons cooldowns are not long enough, with Clans having a slight advantage over IS. Some will say that will promote peek and shoot, it would also assist those closing in to have more time while not being fired on as often by the same mech, a mech that if riding the heatscale would have its reverse speed knocked down a few notches, allowing it to take incoming fire.

Edit. That they have not done anything with isXL engines durability w/greater penalties is still sad...

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 18 August 2016 - 02:58 PM.

[Glaive-]

InnerSphereNews, on 18 August 2016 - 01:20 PM, said:

• Weapon Cooldown duration has been increased by 15%.

FINALLY

[AssaultPig]

will the range of weapons factor into their energy draw at all? Seems like it should (e.g. a 10 damage LPL should draw less energy than a 10 damage PPC)

[Luscious Dan]

Not a huge fan of some of the changes on paper, but I'll give it an honest shot. I'd still rather see a totally different balancing system in place, which I've detailed before, but I'll see what elements of this design could be worked into my ideas before I bother to revise them

It is a shame about the global cooldown changes though, things will feel radically different just because of that. It'll be hard to isolate what's different because of the global cooldown and what is changing because of the actual energy draw mechanic.

Anyway... resisting urge to speculate further until I've dropped a few times.

[Signal27]

AssaultPig, on 18 August 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

will the range of weapons factor into their energy draw at all? Seems like it should (e.g. a 10 damage LPL should draw less energy than a 10 damage PPC)

Nope.

But it's something to suggest that the devs tweak.

[JonDoeIowa]

I look forward to testing this one.

As you at PGI stated in a previous Town Hall, the issue is getting enough people to test it.

One issue may be that the players are not earning anything while playing the test server.

What I propose is to create an EVENT like you have been with personal challenges on the test server. Offer C-bill payments for each match played, and say every 10 patches a MC or Premium time reward. This can be done just like the personal events. As you complete more and more the items are simply injected to your main server account.

Just a thought but it may help.

[Bilbo]

AssaultPig, on 18 August 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

will the range of weapons factor into their energy draw at all? Seems like it should (e.g. a 10 damage LPL should draw less energy than a 10 damage PPC)

Not initially. Might change. Might not.

[Tarl Cabot]

AssaultPig, on 18 August 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

will the range of weapons factor into their energy draw at all? Seems like it should (e.g. a 10 damage LPL should draw less energy than a 10 damage PPC)

Not at the onset but I am sure they could factor that in, as they said the changes can be done per weapon... I wonder if PGI will add quirks to add/remove from it.

[invernomuto]

Padre Balistique, on 18 August 2016 - 02:28 PM, said:

No point in mounting ballistics now since, for some absurd reason, they draw the same amount of power as energy weapon alternatives because that's how guns work, for magnitudes more weight, and the risk of ammo explosions.

Dual AC/20 with the new system generate a heat penality of 5.
With the old system, it was almost 12 pts.
So, the new system will change the meta but it's not a nerf on ballistic...

[Wintersdark]

Alexander Garden, on 18 August 2016 - 01:39 PM, said:

Typo, fixed. Clan ERPPC are at a flat 13.5 Energy (not per point of DMG).

but under many situations, ERPPC's only do 12.5 damage; they'll still cost 13.5 energy?

AssaultPig, on 18 August 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

will the range of weapons factor into their energy draw at all? Seems like it should (e.g. a 10 damage LPL should draw less energy than a 10 damage PPC)

well, you don't want to go far on the fluff side; this system is in place to accomplish a specific goal, changing things because "seems like it should" is not a good way to balance.

[Padre Balistique]

invernomuto, on 18 August 2016 - 03:02 PM, said:

Dual AC/20 with the new system generate a heat penality of 5.
With the old system, it was almost 12 pts.
So, the new system will change the meta but it's not a nerf on ballistic...

Except it'd also drain 40 points from your energy, which would be an overdraw, and increase heat penalties for everything.

Edited by Padre Balistique, 18 August 2016 - 03:06 PM.

[Wintersdark]

invernomuto, on 18 August 2016 - 03:02 PM, said:

Dual AC/20 with the new system generate a heat penality of 5.
With the old system, it was almost 12 pts.
So, the new system will change the meta but it's not a nerf on ballistic...

Heh so this system actually makes dual ac20 better. Without heat penalty, firing one gets you to 20, 0.5 seconds takes you down to 10 where the second puts you to 30.

As such, used conservatively, dual ac20 is identical, and if you alpha it's actually more forgiving.

[Stella Starslayer]

I am hoping they are building this as a quirkable mechanic, because some of the stock builds can't fire all of their weapons, even in the style of dps, with this system. The Warhawk prime would need a quirk, due to its 56 energy draw without it even firing it's lrm launcher. Also the stock king crab would be better off literally just stripping one of the ac20s and dropping 13 tons light, simply due to the energy demand, again, even in a dps style. If this isn't quirkable, then a whole lot of the fun of finding off builds to do fun things that are still good is gone.

[Wintersdark]

Padre Balistique, on 18 August 2016 - 03:06 PM, said:

Except it'd also drain 40 points from your energy, which would increase heat penalties for everything.

firing two right now generate so much heat you couldn't fire anything else anyways.

With the new system, you could actually alpha more, if you just had the two 20's.

[Wintersdark]

Espoir, on 18 August 2016 - 03:06 PM, said:

I am hoping they are building this as a quirkable mechanic, because some of the stock builds can't fire all of their weapons, even in the style of dps, with this system. The Warhawk prime would need a quirk, due to its 56 energy draw without it even firing it's lrm launcher. Also the stock king crab would be better off literally just stripping one of the ac20s and dropping 13 tons light, simply due to the energy demand, again, even in a dps style. If this isn't quirkable, then a whole lot of the fun of finding off builds to do fun things that are still good is gone.

Why? Lots of stock builds couldn't alpha without generating so much heat they'd have severe penalties.

Keeping in mind a tabletop "alpha strike" is firing over 10 seconds, too. That's 200 energy.

[Fobhopper]

Wintersdark, on 18 August 2016 - 03:07 PM, said:

firing two right now generate so much heat you couldn't fire anything else anyways.

With the new system, you could actually alpha more, if you just had the two 20's.

Yeah, it actually almost puts ballistics on par with lasers. Because you only generate heat when you 'overdraw' your power, instead of only generating heat when the weapon is fired as it is now. And with the reload times as they are, you would easily be able to be back at full power ready for your next AC20 alpha, even if you did fire other weapons.

I think this is what was needed to take lasers off the mountain of being the best weapons in the game. AC and missile weapons aren't going to be as garbage as everyone makes them out to be. I for one welcome our new AC overlords.

[Team Chevy86]

This looks really good, not going to lie. Much more intuitive than Ghost Heat

4v4 and no MM on the PTS will help, but I'm still finding it hard to imagine people will go through the trouble to download and install the PTS. You guys need to put in some incentive to play it... Eg; All c-bill 'earned' give a %50 boost on the PTS and will be injected into Live accounts at the end of the test

Edited by Team Chevy86, 18 August 2016 - 03:18 PM.

[Wintersdark]

Maybe not do a pts weekend at the same time as a grindy event too... *Sigh*

Edited by Wintersdark, 18 August 2016 - 03:21 PM.

[Cy Mitchell]

There is a lot more stuff in it than I expected which is going to make it difficult to evaluate versus the present system unless you just look at it as a whole. Also the smaller drop sizes are going to make any differences in TTK difficult to judge.

I will reserve any perceptions about how good or bad it will be until my download finsihes and I actually get to try it.