6 replies to this topic

[Hobbles v]

TLDR is clan heavies gained an total agility edge in FW.

One of the stated goals of the engine decoupling section of the patch notes was to negate the advantage the clans gain by typically having higher rated engines, at the same time they killed pretty much all of the agility quirks. This has actually thrown the balance to FAVOR those high engine mechs even further.

Take the clan workhorse heavies for FW, the Hellbringer and Ebon Jaguar versus their primary IS competition is the Warhammer.


On the live client, HBR's and EBJ's are faster than Warhammers but the latter is actually more agile than the clanners thanks to their quirks.

On the PTS the clan mechs now have the edge or equal in every mobility category this is a significant swing into clan favour.

IS 65 tonners like Catapults and some variants of TDR and JM6 that also lost mobility quirks are now also nerfed to equal agility with the clan 65 tonners (losing thier only real edge) while still staying slower, shorter ranged and more frail due to IS XLs.

Keep engine decoupling mechanic as it does benefit low engine cap mechs. But for the love of god leave all agility quirks in place as well.

Edited by Hobbles v, 26 April 2017 - 03:51 PM.

[Hobbles v]

Also another thing to note is the massive performance drop for both mechs, just look at the bar graphs.

Running around on the testing grounds, the mechs are sluggish and unresponsive.

[FireStoat]

I filled out a couple of mechs on the PTS yesterday and today. I wanted full radar deprivation, seismic sensor, cool running and heat containment, and ALL of the mobility tree. This left me with like 13 points total remaining for weapons or anything else, but it was an experiment. I was able to use the remaining points on generic range / velocity / cooldown choices.

With full mobility, the Timberwolf (Warrant) with 8/8 omnipod set bonus intact with 10% turn speed had a slower accel / decel over current live by a very small (but noticeable) percent. Everything else handled faster than current live. It turned, torso twisted, etc, faster. What might be going on is the 8/8 pod bonus for turn might be applied last after all other bonuses which is giving it an amazing feel of handling. I'm not sure.

My other test subject was a MAD IIC base energy variant with a 375 XL. I went with the above skill tree choices, with Mobility tree maxed out with all choices yet again. Its overall agility and handling was slightly lower than current live, but it naturally retained its full top speed. Apart from a slower accel / decel and turning ability (again, very small loss over current live) the upper torso tracking for pivot and arm movement is faster than current live.

My personal conclusion is that I can very much live with the changes, at least for my Clan mechs that I play most. On the current live version of the game, my Timberwolf is a Heavy that handles like a medium (with the 8/8 pod bonus) and my MAD IIC handles like a Heavy. On the PTS, it's pretty close to the same excluding that I have to pay for it with removed weapon bonuses, so I more or less have to make a choice. I LIKE this as this game should have a place for Light and Medium mechs and quite frankly, Assaults moving like they could (at least for a big engine MAD IIC) seemed out of whack.

As a side note, I just now finished a test with my Pakhet with the 8/8 pod bonus. With a moderate investment in the Mobility tree I can gain the same handling / agility that it enjoys on the current live version of the game. It doesn't look like I'll need to do a full investment, so Medium mechs and under will have some leeway with choices when this launches.

Edit - No, I really haven't done much testing with a range of mechs that don't have retained inherent quirk bonuses for turning or such, aside from the MAD IIC. I'm fully ready to believe the lower performance with Inner Sphere mechs that were originally quirked for better performance that had those quirks stripped. I don't have any insight as to how much this will impact those mechs, aside that with 91 points to play with, a lot of value might be recovered (but yes, not all. torso twist range is the really big one).

Edited by FireStoat, 26 April 2017 - 05:26 PM.

[Y E O N N E]

FireStoat, on 26 April 2017 - 05:22 PM, said:

My personal conclusion is that I can very much live with the changes, at least for my Clan mechs that I play most. On the current live version of the game, my Timberwolf is a Heavy that handles like a medium (with the 8/8 pod bonus) and my MAD IIC handles like a Heavy. On the PTS, it's pretty close to the same excluding that I have to pay for it with removed weapon bonuses, so I more or less have to make a choice.

Bolded for emphasis. Do you really have to make that choice? It seems to me that you get roughly the same 'Mech performance and roughly the same weapon performance, considering you didn't have anything but the modules and original skill system before. Seems like it's no choice at all, to me.

[Ruar]

Are the live stats with the skills maxed and double bonus? Are the PTS stats reflecting having the same bonus that exists on live?

[FireStoat]

Yeonne Greene, on 26 April 2017 - 05:26 PM, said:

Bolded for emphasis. Do you really have to make that choice? It seems to me that you get roughly the same 'Mech performance and roughly the same weapon performance, considering you didn't have anything but the modules and original skill system before. Seems like it's no choice at all, to me.

Yeah, there is a choice. We're having 17% of weapon cooldown taken away, flat-out with the current Elite / Master / Module system being eliminated. We can only recover a portion of that weapon cooldown as well as other bonuses offered by the old system, and if I am motivated to invest heavily in the Mobility tree to recover my mech's handling, that shoots me in the foot with what I can invest elsewhere.

I COULD just live with a Mad IIC with a 375 XL having its high top end speed but now gain the handling of like, a current game Warhawk and invest my points with other choices. That's valid - a lot of players probably will. I was just reporting my findings with what the greater Mobility Tree gave me for returns, which cost me skill picks for weapons.

[G4LV4TR0N]

Could you provide comparison for any of those - Mist Lynx, Kit Fox, Adder, Mad Dog, Linebacker, Summoner, Gargoyle, Highlander IIC, Executioner?

https://static.mwome...Final%20PTS.pdf