9 replies to this topic

[shayne77]

why is the I.S. being buffed so much these days? in the Battletech universe clans were cited as the better mechs when it came down the weapons range, damage, and cooling. they were also able to improve armor, and structure to the point that the I.S. had to steal the tech to match them.

am I out of line when i say that myself a quite a few clanners are not happy with these buffs that PGI is implementing, while at the same time they are nerfing the clan mechs to the point that it is no longer a balanced game.

when will you give the clanners their due PGI?

[Tarl Cabot]

Have you not read any of the other threads, and WHAT BUFFS??

PGI simply changed internal structure quirks to armor quirks for a few mechs that have them, and it was done on LOWER TIERED, UNDERPERFORMING, and UNDERUTILIZED mechs. That change would mean components in said section would not be available to be crit as quickly nor over a longer period of time before the section is gone. Never mind those changes happen to underutilized and lower tiered mechs. Some had an increase while changing from internal to armor for the same sort of mechs. A few mechs even had their IS quirks reduced like the warhammer because PGI felt that they were OUTPERFORMING the other IS heavies.. not Clan heavies..

And in those other threads, you would have also read that a number of players are not happy about PGI move to double the cXL heat penalty to 40% instead of bringing the isXL to parity with cXL with similar but different % penalties. The cXL may have needed a penalty increase but they are too gun-hole on utilizing an engine penalty without taking into consideration all the facets of how those TT engine crits are generated.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 26 January 2017 - 07:28 PM.

[Willard Phule]

Dude, the most recent round of Clan nerfs wasn't made to balance the equipment, it was designed to balance the population. When the majority of experienced players are in one faction, PGI nerfs it to death to drive players to the opposite side.

You have to give it time to where the IS is completely stomping Clans again for a round of IS Nerfs/Clan Buffs. Are you new here or something? They do this every 3-4 months.

[Weepy Wanebow]

The real issues is that you can't have one side be completely inferior to the other regardless of what Lore says. Lore was also all hand written stories with creative licensing and creative privilege to the author. Story lines were planned with the over all goal being the advancement and victory of the Inner Sphere over a superior foe. As a writer, I can just make that happen. In Table Top when the clans were introduced they stomped everything the IS had and people hated it. They hated it so much that in the currently active Classic Battletech Table Top community there is a healthy population that only play 3025 era. This part of the community are only half aware of events that took place after the start of the Clan Invasion or at best, are aware because they followed the lore but don't care because they still aren't going to move beyond 3025 era in table top.

In table top which is the foundation for all things battletech and mechwarrior, they realized the power advantage before release and attempted to address it with Zellbrigen and binary (10) vs Company (12). Guess what? It sill didn't work so they were forced to update the IS tech and give them similar toys and allow mix tech and hand them clan toys to play with and allow more unique toys as time went on to level the playing field, because people are going to play how people want to play. The hardest thing for a game designer to do is anticipate how people will play and what they will do with in the rules of the game. That's why there are editions and errata and so on and so forth in nearly every game. Battletech also addresses the imbalance by advancing he timeline. It wasn't until 3067 that things started being even(ish). 17 in lore years for things to level out.

What you are suggesting is basically reset everything to no quirks and just let can mechs stomp the crap out of IS mechs? because that is going to be fun for people who play IS mechs? because no biggie, people will just buy clan mechs an then everyone will play clan mechs and it will all be even anyways? It isn't like people wouldn't get pissed and just leave the game over that and never return? because lore and table top said other wise which someone justifies filling an entire faction with inferior everything?

That logic is part of the reason that PGI is advancing the timeline and introducing new tech in the fist place. Balance is hard but you need things to be at least damn close or people will not want to play. It may be fun to be clan and roll IS but IS players won't keep playing if they can't ever win. Even if you keep quirks but "jut enough quirks for IS to be challenge" then what you are saying is that it is ok for IS to still be inferior d lose because at least they aren't getting totally stomped.....just kind of stomped. It still has the end result of some player switching to clan so they stand a chance ad other leaving for good because the imbalance is stupid and anti-player choice.

Since PGI refuses to have Faction play be 10 clan vs 12 IS or allowing mixed tech drops then the only solution is to attempt to balance out what is offered. It is impossible to balance the existing tech or at least it is beyond PGIs current capabilities/mindset. There have been a lot of suggestions that I think sound valid but with the upcoming tech jump, I think that some of the issues are going to be minimized or made obsolete. One of the major contributing factors to not being able to really achieve balance is that the Match Maker is broken. If the game was really good at matching players of similar skill level in a game and distributing them on roughly even teams then you would see balance an easier thing to achieve. Lets not even talk about faction play and the total lack of balanced matches over there. Balancing a top player in any mech against an average player in a meta mech is still gonna result in the average player getting smashed 9 out or 10 times. In defense of the quick play match maker though.....I have played a lot of games that are insanely popular with match makers that are less proficient at matching skill level then MWO's broken system. It just stands out more in MWO because of inherent imbalance in the available equipment.


TL;DR: Because Clans super stomped when they were fist introduced. As much as I love lore and table top, it can't be used for more then a general guide line when it comes to a twitch FPS arena PvP game. If clan was made superior like before it is more likely that people would stop playing then switch completely over to clan mechs. Broken Match Maker and other reasons make the game hard to balance but if a middle of the road balance isn't achieved then the game will definitely die and then you can take your 'but clan mechs" attitude and rub yourself in the corner with it because there wont be a online MechWarrior game to play.

[Gas Guzzler]

shayne77, on 26 January 2017 - 06:29 PM, said:

why is the I.S. being buffed so much these days? in the Battletech universe clans were cited as the better mechs when it came down the weapons range, damage, and cooling. they were also able to improve armor, and structure to the point that the I.S. had to steal the tech to match them.

am I out of line when i say that myself a quite a few clanners are not happy with these buffs that PGI is implementing, while at the same time they are nerfing the clan mechs to the point that it is no longer a balanced game.

when will you give the clanners their due PGI?

It doesn't matter that they weren't balanced in Battletech or the Lore. PGI's goal has always been balanced, but different. I'm sorry you are upset that you can't have EZ god mode with your Clan mechs while the IS has to make do with garbage held together with duct tape.

And for the record, the strongest mechs right now are Clan mechs, with only a couple IS mechs having niche uses. The top performing IS mechs have actually been nerfed, so I don't know what you are talking about, aside from the real poor performers that got some durability improvements this patch.

[Serpentbane]

It is possible to have better clan mechs and weapons, while maintaining a balanced game. But you can't do that with 12v12 single drop matches.

Check my signature link and read up on my suggestion on asymetric drops. This is one way to do it. If PGI tries my way we'll see real powerfull assault and not to mention clan mechs, but they would be fewer in numbers. Just as in Battletech. PPL would need to think trough when each mech class and type should be dropped.

Naturally, K/D as a key consept need to be removed, and focus on goals to win the game should be the main goal allways. But this is also how it should be in battletech.

Edited by Serpentbane, 04 February 2017 - 06:29 AM.

[Tarl Cabot]

You know, PGI should nerf IS.. Make isXL negatively perform like the cXL then remove 99% of the quirks.. or may be change the dropdesk weight... or when cannot PGI do both....

[VonBruinwald]

Tarl Cabot, on 04 February 2017 - 08:56 AM, said:

You know, PGI should nerf IS.. Make isXL negatively perform like the cXL then remove 99% of the quirks..

You mean make it reduce the 'mechs speed and heat dissipation upon side torso destruction instead of resulting in total destruction. Bring on the nerf bat...

[Fake News]

at this point the heat is intolerable and playing clan mechs sucks a fat one. give the is scrubs an xl that does what they want and rollback the clan nerfs.

[McHoshi]

Better buff some clan skill