The thing is...actually, there are a lot of things that people have been saying. The
actual thing is that PGI has been listening to...very few of them.
40% heat penalty. Okay, it dials back the TBR/Ebon Jag some. The Meta-dakka Kodiak already has a good heat curve and if you lose a side torso you also lose half the guns so it isn't going to feel a thing. Meanwhile, mechs that are already marginal (or at least I haven't seen anyone recently extolling the virtues of the Mist Lynx or seen many Vipers in play) will be pointlessly hampered. I suppose some of those underperformers could be the mechs getting quirk adjustments, but then why not say so? All this does is needlessly antagonize players, and imply that 78% (actually more, counting variants) of one side's mechs are problematical (also that the KDK is
not a problem because it can run a standard engine and thus not be affected), rather than the handful or so that may need to be dialed back some.
On the other hand, what does it
not do? Well...it doesn't make IS XL engines more survivable, with some nasty implications for when IS Omnis hit the deck. It also doesn't make the standard engine more practical (which is, frankly, unfortunate as hell given PGI's moderately successful effort to give every weapon/piece of equipment a place on the battlefield).
There is also the effect on the playerbase. Nerfs are generally taken negatively (especially by those most affected), resulting in decreased enjoyment of the game, which in turn results in less tiem spent playing the game and an increased reluctance to spend money on the game. Buffs, on the other hand, generally
increase enjoyment, time spent playing, and revenue.
So...one of the things PGI could be trying to address is populations. But if that's the case, I question why they pitch it as "we're going to pressure you to stop playing clans" instead of "here's a shiny new reason to play IS".
The bigger issue is one of trust. There was the whole fiasco over 3pv. And then what CW was billed as (compared to what we got, and how long it took to come). I remember how stupidly powerful the wave I omnimechs were. And there were more than a handful of insane quirk combos when they were put in to give the Inner Sphere 'balance' against the Clans. The revamped assault was announced in late 2015 and it's still coming 'soon' but...honestly, I felt good enough about this game following MechCon to put money in for the first time in over a year. But I have...very little confidence that NewTech will happen with anything close to being reasonably balanced.
Edited by Kael Posavatz, 16 January 2017 - 09:46 AM.