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The heat penalty isn't much of a penalty, though. When you lose an ST, it typically takes a large portion of your firepower with it. So your two or three lasers left-over fire a little hotter, big deal. That's not going to really hurt your output. And even if it does, we're getting to a point where being able to survive an ST loss is a useless feature. What then?
Hmm, I think I see some of the issues with how balance is viewed, due to where the player is coming from. Unit players, or those players who primarily play as a group/unit and competitive players vs the general population, those who make up the majority of the population.
In a highly competitive game, a Clan mech, or even a IS mech w/STD engine will not last long until the loss of a side torso is done at range, simply due to the "blood in the water" effect, the aggressiveness of play.
In the general population, that aggressiveness is rarely there, or when it shows itself is really momentary. In QP there is also the mix of tech but when you have that QP move to FP, but as a pug among pugs, it has a telling factor, with players taking STD (except for the LRM Atlases...
) smaller payload except for most "meta" IS mechs that can jump between STD and isXL with only the loss of speed and a few heatsinks, such as Battlemaster, T-bolts, Warhammers, Grasshoppers, Black Knights, and a few others. IS lights and most mediums are dependent on isXL, relying on speed as much as the Clan mechs but most can not pack the punch of Clan mechs and the loss of one side torso they are down.
That leaves a tons of IS mechs, due to their small but diverse weapon loads, do not have that luxury, but they run a STD cause isXL is suicide, even if gave them a better punch.
So take the league play. If the isXL survived the loss of a side torso but slightly higher movement/heat penalty, is there any IS mech that might be considered (besides that spider), even if the current set of quirks were kept the same or even reduced slightly (but no major reductions)? If not, why?
note. Dang I am all over the place, frak it..