9 replies to this topic

[East Indy]

I liked PTS 4. Wasn't sure what to make of PTS 5. It pleasantly surprised me, though I guess it shouldn't have.

With 35% higher dissipation, there is a huge difference between timing your megadamage shots — actually keeping an eye on the Energy Draw meter — and dumbly firing that single mousebind. Previously, you were kinda-sorta glad to avoid alpha penalties; but even staggering, when you were rolling in an assault, heat was still irreversibly climbing. Now, sustained fire feels like it goes on forever.

Basically, the "firing occasion" for large amounts of weapons has been increased from instantaneous to a handful of seconds, but now you can keep shooting and dealing damage as long as you stay on target.

This current setup encourages gigantic loadouts, but it really seems to kill the runaway exponent of boat-bind-alpha that's distorted the spirit of the game.

Really nice. I hope Phil or others can get some bigger groups to put this through its paces.

[Navid A1]

East Indy, on 16 September 2016 - 07:18 PM, said:

I liked PTS 4. Wasn't sure what to make of PTS 5. It pleasantly surprised me, though I guess it shouldn't have.

With 35% higher dissipation, there is a huge difference between timing your megadamage shots — actually keeping an eye on the Energy Draw meter — and dumbly firing that single mousebind. Previously, you were kinda-sorta glad to avoid alpha penalties; but even staggering, when you were rolling in an assault, heat was still irreversibly climbing. Now, sustained fire feels like it goes on forever.

Basically, the "firing occasion" for large amounts of weapons has been increased from instantaneous to a handful of seconds, but now you can keep shooting and dealing damage as long as you stay on target.

This current setup encourages gigantic loadouts, but it really seems to kill the runaway exponent of boat-bind-alpha that's distorted the spirit of the game.

Really nice. I hope Phil or others can get some bigger groups to put this through its paces.

Which is still less dissipation compared to PTS3 and Live client.
Completely against the original idea of Less heat cap with more dissipation!

Edited by Navid A1, 16 September 2016 - 11:51 PM.

[kapusta11]

Looks like **** in my book.

[davoodoo]

Higher dissipation what??
I cant say I have touched any matches since pts4 but everything I tested on testing grounds resulted in less alphas than live.

My best bet is that ppl reduced their output to the point where they filled slots with dhs
Or basically they got 1-2 mlas with 30 dhs so duh its heat neutral

[East Indy]

Navid, that was a reference to externals from live, because it's notably higher, and as a first I thought it was kind of cool. If that bugged you enough to argue semantics, my bad.

The only comparison I'm making in gameplay is between PTS 4, maybe PTS 2 if my memory is accurate. Thus clarified. I think this PTS is the most successful in penalizing 31+ alphas, but rewarding even 75-point total strikes dealt over 2-2.5 seconds - which is faster than most critical players think, and worth experiencing just to see.

Different rules on play may not be what certain players want, but many are talking about their preferences as if they're self-evidently good for everyone. Not the case. At any rate, PTS 5 is good proof of concept.

[Kuaron]

Higher dissipation than on live would be the way to go to entirely get rid of the current ED being a secondary heat source.
Which would be the better way IMO, but I already wrote about it.

For what PGI is trying now,... I'm not sure, honestly.
Just remove Gauss charging again, would be one step one can't do wrong. And find some systemic nerf for cold weapons s.t. you don't need such nonsense.
Do ballistics in the TT have the same DPS advantage?

[Davers]

Kuaron, on 17 September 2016 - 07:01 AM, said:

Do ballistics in the TT have the same DPS advantage?

No, the AC5 is a very heavy medium laser that uses ammo and has longer range. Pretty much everything under AC10 was considered pretty weak.

[Kuaron]

Alright.
So removing ED, halving heat cap bonus for HS, increasing heat reg to true HS, and removing the ballistics' (and partly missiles') cooldown advantage over lasers would balance everything, even if on an overall low damage level?

[davoodoo]

Davers, on 17 September 2016 - 09:11 AM, said:

No, the AC5 is a very heavy medium laser that uses ammo and has longer range. Pretty much everything under AC10 was considered pretty weak.

Until jihad inventions like rac or hag they were pretty much crit seeking weapons.
Especially with ap ammo and through armor crits.

Thats why you had hardened armor and not anti ballistic one.

Edited by davoodoo, 17 September 2016 - 10:41 AM.

[ScarecrowES]

Low-end AC/s were always special children in TT. That's the advantage that real-time cooldowns gives you in MWO... you can't fundementally change the DoT so long as you're still following the basic TT rulesets, but you CAN increase burst damage output by lowering cooldowns. On low heat weapons, this gives you a good boost in output without actually changing the limit the weapon receives from the heat system.

As I've said before, cooldowns, ultimately, are weapon balancing mechanics. I wish PGI would use these a little less haphazardly, as balance would be MUCH better if cooldowns were better tweaked.