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I keep getting the satellite sweep icon in my first consumable slot, so all my consumables are shifted down, with the bottom one not showing up (keybindings are unaffected).
Second, and I doubt I'm alone in saying this, nerfing quirks favours the clans.
Assuming the game was reasonably balanced before implementing the skill tree, then adding the skill tree on top of that shouldn't shift the balance too much. Massively nerfing quirks, which IS has way more of, will nerf IS.
Lets compare two mechs, which should be equally valuable.
The BJ-1 loses:
10% to ac/2 cooldown
5% ballistic cooldown
20% ac/2 heatgen
20% ballistic velocity
and 30% torso yaw rate and 17 yaw angle (though these are part of the engine overhaul, so that's fine and we'll ignore this)
The SHC-Prime loses:
5% accel, decel, and torso yaw rate (again part of the engine overhaul, so we'll ignore this too).
The blackjack is still left over with way more quirks, but remember, the shadowcat has a clanXL, so has extra survivability, lighter/higher damage/longer ranged weapons, omnipods, etc - the quirks are to account for this and add balance.
Now, PGI knows this, so in the skill tree, the clans are nerfed -
IS cooldown is 9.9%, whereas clan cooldown is 7.7% (a 2.2% bonus for IS)
IS laser duration is 15%, versus clan laser duration of 10% (a 5% bonus for IS)
.....aaaaaand that's it.
So, effectively, the shadowcat has gained 91 skill points of quirks, and so has the blackjack.
The shadowcat has lost the equivalent of 2.3 skill points in cooldown when compared to the blackjack using the IS numbers, and 3.3 skill points in laser duration. Round that up to 6 points, making the shadowcat 85 IS nodes more powerful than baseline.
Now, let's tally up the blackjack=
10% to ac/2 cooldown = 11 nodes*
5% ballistic cooldown = 5.5 nodes
20% ac/2 heatgen = 20 nodes*
20% ballistic velocity = 10 nodes
The blackjack also had an extra mech module slot in it,
Now, the ac/2 specific nodes aren't directly comparable since they are specific to that weapon, so I'll calculate it twice.
A blackjack-1 that does not run ac/2 has lost
A blackjack-1 that DOES (pretty much every BJ-1), has lost the equivalent of
Let me reiterate; the shadowcat-prime gets 85 nodes over the baseline of what was considered balanced. The blackjack-1 gets
There is no way you can manipulate these numbers and tell me that cutting back IS quirks this hard is equivalent to those tiny nerfs to the clan nodes.
Now, the 3060 tech might swing things back to IS favour, and then maybe you could dial back the quirks, but that's going to have to wait until this summer.
Until then, my suggestions are;
1) Leave the quirks where they are and implement the new tree with equal clan and IS numbers. Or nerf the clan numbers a tiny bit as you have - 2.2% cooldown and 5% duration won't make that much of a difference.
2) Nerf IS quirks and HEAVILY nerf the clan tree. Cut their nodes in half to 2/3, cut back the number of nodes, or give clan mechs negative quirks (don't do that last one, everyone will hate you PGI).
3) Adjust the number of nodes a mech gets based on how many quirks the mech needed. Hellbringer has 0 quirks across the board, it gets less nodes than Jagermech. Or the same number but the node values are scaled back.
4) Wait to roll out the skill tree with the 3060 tech. To be honest, I'm surprised you haven't gone with this one. Where do RACs fit into the tree- with the ultras? How about rockets? Will there be nodes for stealth armour? If I fully invest in my MAD-3R with 2 UAC/5 and a few energy, and I want to switch out to RAC/5s later, how many nodes will I need to respec? This all becomes a lot simpler if you wait and roll it out with the civil war patch, and those new weapons will help tip the balance back towards IS.
Edited by Hotrob, 26 April 2017 - 04:24 PM.
