Habokku, on 12 December 2011 - 03:09 AM, said:
Salutations and greetings to all my fellow Battletech & Mechwarrior enthusiasts!
<S> Let me start by saying thank you for taking the time to click on this little article and (hopefully) read over this with an open mind, and an eye on what is trying to be accomplished by writing it: Specifically, sharing a thought process on how to (again, hopefully) balance out clan tech in a logical and efficient way so that it retains the distinct 'clan' feel and elegance, while at the same time not being so vastly superior as to be sorcery by comparrison to the Inner Sphere weaponry.
Having said that, I will freely admit I an an Inner Sphere pilot, and have been since my earliest days in Battletech and Mechwarrior. I just prefer the I.S. designs, specifically the Star League era 'mechs. My preferred ride is the Highlander, and it always will be. Now that I've gotten that little introduction out of the way, allow me to expound on my theory.
(Please also know this is purely an idea based on a logical train of thought. I am not decrying the Clans or saying they should not be a part of the Universe. I personally love the concept of them and have had many many fun engagements with Clans in the past through the Mechwarrior games and leagues such as BTU and NBT.)
Now, let me start by saying: I have no problem with Omnimechs. I personally don't want to drive an Omnimech (as I said, my ride of choice is and always will be the Highlander) but that said I know people have their favorites and I want them to be able to pilot said favorite if it is availiable.
Secondly, Tech. The real issue with the clans, in my eyes, is the tech and more precisely the weaponry.
In almost every way, the clan's weaponry is better than any I.S. Tech(Weapons) by orders of magnitude.
......
Diablo48, on 12 December 2011 - 04:24 AM, said:
No. The whole point of the Clans is that they are what happened when the SLDF went off on its own for 300 years without loosing Star League tech. Everything they have is supposed to be centuries ahead of anything in the IS, and that is to be expected after having centuries to improve on the pinnacle of Star League R&D.
Balance can be achieved much more easily by making it possible for IS pilots to buy Clan tech for a premium. This works very well with my other idea of forcing all players to start in the IS and make them take the time and effort to get taken as bondsmen where they will have to work to join the ranks of their new Clan. This will mean that players will have to either invest more effort into joining a Clan to get easy access to the better tech or invest effort into saving up money to buy Clan salvage.
This is a reply I made in a different thread, but I think some of the issues brought up here also stem from this. However without knowing more info on the game mechanics, it would be hard to say what would be best when compairing Clan Omni tech to IS Tech. I would like to remind that any Clan Tech in the Battletech game would also take Clan Omni's and give them the advantage of being able to repair quickly (in a matter of Hours) compaired to the IS Mech (that repair in a matter of Days). This is one of the advantages that really cant be compaired in a MMO. Look at it in a MMO perspective, as who would want to wait Days for an IS mech (or Hours simulated MMO time) to Hours for a Clan Omni (or minutes simulated in a MMO) to be repaired.
The argument about Clan Tech being vastly overpowered also needs to be kept in perspective. Remembr for every Clan weapon, the only advantage they have is Range and Damage, you are not takeing the Heat into account. If you are compairing Rage and damage with heat these weapons also have Huge Heat disadvantatges to give them those range and damage bonuses. The amount of Heat sinks needed to run with these weapons need to be included with the loadout. This adds alot of Crit and Weight to any Clan Mech. That alone can be quit a disadvantage as well. And as previously mentioned in the article this came out of, once you get inside a range where both sides can fire, the range and damage bonuses you are giveing them goes to the IS as they can fire without generateing as much heat.
Also, remember when you make a IS mech, the best mech designs are based on the normal Heat sinks the Engines have, thats 10 (or 20 for double heat sinks) heat disipation for normal mechs. Clans when using lasers in any quantity, have to add Heat Sinks to reduce the excessive heat all of their wepons generate even with double heat sinks. Even with the normal Double Heat sinks giveing a 20 disipation, anyone who knows Clan Mechs will still have a time fireing any long range weapons for long, as the heat will soon limit out. The extra heat sinks needed to reduce the heat generated takes up not only Weight but Crit spaces as previously mentioned. Thats alot, and there is really no difference in Armor protection for clan mechs vs IS, with the exception of fewer Crits used with Special Chasis internals or Advanced types of Armor, but the weight is still the same for the armor. Those extra Crits saved for Clan Mechs are for Heat Sink placement.
So with all this said, I still think it is really premature to think of makeing Clans the same as IS, as all of these mechanics will need to be seen either ingame, or released info, before you really can make a decision on Mech tech limits, and until we know for sure what is being introduced, its hard to say it should be anything else.