6 replies to this topic

[Cy Mitchell]

The first thing I have done for testing is to take most of my Mechs into testing grounds with zero skill points invested. The Mechs tested so far are:

Kit Fox
Nova
Stormcrow
Hellbringer

The thing that made the biggest impression on me is the feel of the Mechs due to the engine decoupling. I actually like the feel for the most part. The Mechs actually feel like armored war machines instead of zippy little battle armor. The one thing that I did not like was the amount of time it takes to stop a Mech and back into cover. I feel that the deceleration value needs to be brought up to match the acceleration value. I can see no reason why it should quicker to speed up than it is to slow down.

I know that there are going to be complaints from the FPS types and the people who do not like change in general about the slower movements but IMO it improves the feel of the game.

More comments to come as I start adding SPs tomorrow.

Edited by Rampage, 02 March 2017 - 07:20 AM.

[Cy Mitchell]

Ok, I have spent several hours leveling up Mechs, taking them to Terra Therma Test Grounds and comparing them to the same builds on the LIVE server in the same venue. I have leveled up:

KIt Fox-PR
Nova- Prime(I)
Stormcrow-LC
Hellbringer-F(L)
Hellbringer-Prime

For the most part, I am really enjoying the new Skill Tree. I almost feel dirty about some of the skills that I can put on the Mech that I did not have before like Radar Derp+Seismic Sensor+Target Decay+Increased Sensor Range+Target Info Gathering all while still quirking my weapons, armor and agility. I talked about the good things this skill tree offers here: https://mwomercs.com...the-skill-tree/

Honestly, the Tree and number of SP may be too generous.

The only thing that I dislike on the PTS is deceleration on the Mechs. For me, the acceleration is fine, turn rate is OK, but the rate of deceleration needs to be increased. I do not expect a 30-65 ton Mech to stop on a dime but the feeling of slowly coasting down to a stop is frustrating.

I was just playing my Hellbringer. I have Hard Brake maxed. I did a non-scientific comparison between the exact same Mech on Live and PTS on the same piece of ground. From 87.1 it takes the LIVE Hellbringer 3 steps to stop from full speed when releasing W. On PTS it takes the Hellbringer a bit over 4 steps to stop from full speed when releasing W. So even with hard brake supposedly reducing stopping time by 25%, it is still taking 133% longer to stop on PTS than it is on LIVE.

I am probably done for this evening. Tomorrow I will play around with my only Assaults which are Kodiaks. I do not care much for them (Assaults in general) so some have basic skill done and others have no skills done. I want to check the deceleration of the unskilled Kodiaks on LIVE and PTS like I did the Hellbringers.

[Cy Mitchell]

I had a couple minutes so I went ahead and tested the Kokiak KDK-1 with zero skills on LIVE and PTS to see how they compared on deceleration. On the same piece of ground on both LIVE and PTS testing ground the Live KDK-1 stopped in 5 steps every time the KDK on PTS took 6 every time. So the decoupled KDK-1 took 116.5% longer to stop. I thought I would share that information for whatever it is worth.

More testing tomorrow.

[Cy Mitchell]

Thoughts on cost.

It is better than what was offered on the first version of the Skill Tree. The C-Bill cost is still a bit high so I will have to dip into my 32 Mil C-Bills that I have saved and might have to sell a couple Mechs to get the Mechs that I want to level up done. Dropping the cost to 50K C-Bill per SP would be welcomed. The XP cost is much more reasonable and I may be able to spend the 91 SP on almost all the Mechs that I currently have fully Mastered.

Due to the combining of the Firepower Tree I am less concerned about respecing cost because many of the nodes can be left as is because they affect all weapons and other nodes provide benefits to all weapons of a type so you can change out different sizes of many weapons without having to respec.

I can now live with the cost if need be and do not foresee a huge increase in the grind over what we currently have on the live server.

Edited by Rampage, 03 March 2017 - 05:44 AM.

[Cy Mitchell]

PTS ver 3

I did some testing on the latest changes to the Skill Tree and engine decoupling.

Once again, I took all the Mechs that I have leveled up into Terra Therma Testing Grounds and ran each one of them through all the target Mechs plus tested stopping and acceleration distances. I also leveled up a Viper to join the test fleet.

The tested Mechs are:
Kit Fox-PR
Viper-C
Nova-Prime(I)
Stormcrow-LC
Hellbringer-F(L) and Prime
I did not test the Kodiak this time around.

I was pleased and relieved by the deceleration changes in the new Patch. Most of the tested Mechs can now stop almost as quickly as they do on the LIVE server. They also feel similar in acceleration and turning. The lone outlying Mech was the Stormcrow. If felt much more sluggish on the PTS than it does on LIVE and it had the longest stopping distance of any of the Mechs tested.

As a whole, I feel that the new settings are a great improvement and I can adapt my play to them if they went LIVE as thet currently stand.

I did not manage to get into any drops to test the impact of the decreases in the Survival Tree. I liked the increased TTK offered by the previous values. Under the new Survival Tree, I will still choose to take those nodes for some of the squishier Mechs like the Viper and the MadDog *need to level one of these up) but I would probably invest the points elsewhere for Mechs like the Stormcrow where I would put a lot of points into Agility to try to improve its current movement profile.

I would like to see the percentages of armor and structure increase for the lower weight class raised while maintaining the percentage where it is for the heavier weight classes. Lights and Mediums need a bit more toughness while Assaults and heavier Heavies are in a good place IMO.

I hope to get into some drops tonight if I get all my RL work taken care of today.

Edited by Rampage, 04 March 2017 - 08:29 AM.

[Cy Mitchell]

I had a minute or two to test the Kodiak KDK-1. Both the one on the LIVE Server and the one on PTS are complete virgins with no skills. The one on LIVE seemed to accelerate about a step and a half less to get to full speed than the one on the PTS. However, they both decelerated to a stop from full speed in the same distance or near enough that I could not measure the variance.I used the KDK-1 because it is the only one that I can match apples to apple between the LIVE and PTS. My other Kodiaks just have basic skills on LIVE so it would be difficult to compare them to something on PTS accurately.

The engine decoupling seems to have made the Kodiak a little less quick but I doubt that it is going to be enough of an impact to keep it from staying the best Mech in the game.

[Vahgus]

My first impression of the current pts skill tree is that it is too cumbersome. In order for me to get to all of the range skill nodes I had to unlock ones that serve no purpose to my mech's config. I also am not fond of the limit of 91 skill nodes and I think that should be higher.

I thought that intermixing the various weapon type nodes was pointless. If my mech plays a long range support role or a sniper role I want access to all of the range I can get without having to unlock nodes for weapon types that my mech can't use anyway. As it stands at least the firepower section could benefit from a more flowchart or icicle light like pattern with the lower value nodes at the top.

On another note I have no idea why the lrm range had to be adjusted they are "Long Range Missiles". The reason I read earlier seemed irrelevant to me since the lrm 10 is where the effectiveness is at. Also the range boost could be larger. I can accept a 1200m limit, because I came from MW4 to this game, but not being able to boost to 1100m seems like you want to hold back those that use lrm's.

As far as the idea of adding extra structure and toughening armor goes hell yeah I like that, but the survivability tree is also all over the place.

I also noticed that the value calculation of the number of skill points allotted is displayed, but it doesn't actually reflect the amount of xp gained. With the amount of xp on my battlemaster that I first tested the tree with I should've been able to unlock everything according to that calculation or have come fairly close.

This tree would definitely be easier to chew on if the actual skill node limitation was based off of the hard points on the mech, the range and capacity nodes were separate from everything else and the weapon types were not intermixed. That would also make it easier for players to keep track of what quirks they have setup on their mechs when they go to tweak them.

I don't mind having to unlock range 1 to get to range 2, but I don't want to have to unlock machine gun ammo capacity in between. Especially if my mech doesn't use machine guns.