188 replies to this topic

[Lightfoot]

I was just in a match and after losing my mech I was spectating a MAD IIc with a Gauss Rifle and 2 ERPPCs. The ERPPCs were overheating badly on Frozen City, but they would not fire the Gauss Rifle even at really fat assaults. I typed in the chat, "when you overheat switch to the Gauss Rifle."


You know what happened of course, they never fired the Gauss Rifle once the entire match even with us giving instructions on how to fire it. They died with a full ammo bin when they could have won if they had fired it a few times.

So I have to say again figure out some other way to balance the Gauss Rifle for MWO. Recharge time? Charge once and it holds the charge for a full turn (pnp 10 seconds)? Do something. The charge-up is not even Canon. BattleTech specifically states how the Gauss is fired and there is no charge-up ....except in MWO.

Okay, tell me how much you love the charge-up. How it's an elite skill, etc.

[PhoenixFire55]

Its just a dumb crutch. This game is built upon them.

[process]

I used to like mixing gauss with other weapons for a nice heat-free punch, but because of the charge you basically have to construct your build around it, e.g. gauss + lasers or gauss + PPC.

I can't say I know the best non-band aid solution, but I would be curious to see how either of the following options would work in practice:

1. Click once to charge gauss --> x seconds --> charge is held indefinitely --> fire, cooldown/recharge, repeat. An uncharged gauss won't explode on crit, but has a 100% chance to explode if charged.

2. No special mechanic, but a hard fire limit of 1 gauss discharge per x seconds. Half second minimum I would say.

On the other hand, firing-on-release actually seems to improve accuracy, since a mouse click will ever-so-slightly screw with your stability.

Edited by process, 07 June 2017 - 03:05 PM.

[FupDup]

Stop playing the game with a steering wheel and you'll be fine.

[SeventhSL]

New players struggle with gauss. It is defiantly a skill that requires a bit of practice. That said I've seen new players struggle with lrm and complain that their ssrm is bugged because they don't have lock to fire. Really there is no cure for inexperience, bad connection, young children and just plain stupid.

There is also no substitute for practice.

Edited by SeventhSL, 07 June 2017 - 03:16 PM.

[Jiang Wei]

You cant alpha strike with it. Its a really dumb mechanic they added for no good reason. I want it back the way it was also, the way it should be. I do not use the gauss rifle on any of my mechs anymore because its just not an efficient weapon to me. I want my weapons to fire when I want them to fire and to fire instantly and accurately in the heat of battle. They made the guass rifle useless. To me. The charge up nerf doesnt fit any play style whatsoever. Its just a dumb nerf that needs to be reverted.

They did it so people couldnt use it to brawl at close range. Well guess what. People brawl with LRM's even. And ppcs. And ac2s. And other long range weapons. Its only useful to snipe with if you catch someone standing still for 3 seconds. No one does that. Stand still I mean, unless they are afk. Sure you can still "USE" them, but they are the least efficient weapon for any situation. They might as well just remove them form the game.

I am not a new player. The gauss rifle already had a built balancing factor. Its call a reload. If they were so overpowered(which they were not) they should have just made it reload slower. Or made it heavier. Or have it take up more slots. Or reduced the damage. The charge up nerf is literally the stupidest thing imaginable they could have done. When they add heavy guass someday, are they going to screw it over the same way?

Edited by Jiang Wei, 07 June 2017 - 03:28 PM.

[MadRover]

Jiang Wei, on 07 June 2017 - 03:13 PM, said:

You cant alpha strike with it. Its a really dumb mechanic they added for no good reason. I want it back the way it was also, the way it should be. I do not use the gauss rifle on any of my mechs anymore because its just not an efficient weapon to me. I want my weapons to fire when I want them to fire and to fire instantly and accurately in the heat of battle. They made the guass rifle useless. To me. The charge up nerf doesnt fit any play style whatsoever. Its just a dumb nerf that needs to be reverted.

I am not a new player. The gauss rifle already had a built balancing factor. Its call a reload. If they were so over[powered they should have just made it reload slower. The charge up nerf is the stupidest thing imaginable.

You can alpha with them but you have to fire the PPCs first.

[SeventhSL]

Actually you can alph strike with it. I have builds that count on that fact. For example a hellbringer with gauss and er-mediums. Just hold all the fire buttons down and release when the lasers end their burn. Alternatively start charging the gauss as your moving to alpha strike and release it when you start to fire the lasers.

Practice in combination with lasers to help timing. With enough practice it becomes second nature and you not need the lasers for timing anymore.

[Jiang Wei]

SeventhSL, on 07 June 2017 - 03:26 PM, said:

Actually you can alph strike with it. I have builds that count on that fact. For example a hellbringer with gauss and er-mediums. Just hold all the fire buttons down and release when the lasers end their burn. Alternatively start charging the gauss as your moving to alpha strike and release it when you start to fire the lasers.

Practice in combination with lasers to help timing. With enough practice it becomes second nature and you not need the lasers for timing anymore.

Oh really? You can hit the alpha strike key and they fire instantly like all your other weapons? Even LRMS will fire in an alpha strike even without an lock. Im sorry but this charge up is stupid. It always will be stupid. And guass rifles will never be worth taking ever again so long as the charge up exists. Well you can still take them, and still shoot them, they just suck.

This topic doesnt keep poping up because there are noobs who dont understand how they fire. It keeps coming up because its a garbage weapon with the charge up and people are fed up with it.

Edited by Jiang Wei, 07 June 2017 - 03:36 PM.

[El Bandito]

Charge is mostly there to prevent poptart spamming. IMO, JJs need to be changed so that it will still retain the shake, albeit slightly reduced, on the way down. I'm sure it will help in someways to curb PPFLD poptarting.

[Pjwned]

After the skill tree, there's even less excuse to complain about the gauss charge now because of the 2 gauss charge nodes that are now available, meaning you can now hold a charged shot for up to 2.5 seconds.

Really shouldn't need to invest skill points to have that available because it should just be baseline, but it's still there to use and it does actually help.

As usual the gauss charge is a good idea and whiners can get over it.

[Champion of Khorne Lord of Blood]

How's someone so bad that they can't even manage to handle a simple hold and release mechanic? How'd they turn the game on?

[Valdarion Silarius]

I still can't believe that people have the gull to defend gauss rifle charge up times. All that PGI needs to do to make them balanced is delay the shots after discharging the gauss rifle to stop people abusing them or to potentially make them not overpowered. I wish that they went through with removing it, since this is the only game in the mech warrior franchise that has such a ridiculous feature.

May I remind anyone that defends it by saying "Just adept or stfu" isn't a valid argument. I had no problems countering anyone that used gauss rifles when the feature wasn't in the game in the past.

[JediPanther]

Gauss charge is a pain. At least they haven't made it just like the other acs like it once was. No one was using acs until the charge became a thing.

[Pjwned]

Arnold The Governator, on 07 June 2017 - 03:56 PM, said:

I still can't believe that people have the gull to defend gauss rifle charge up times. All that PGI needs to do to make them balanced is delay the shots after discharging the gauss rifle to stop people abusing them or to potentially make them not overpowered. I wish that they went through with removing it, since this is the only game in the mech warrior franchise that has such a ridiculous feature.

May I remind anyone that defends it by saying "Just adept or stfu" isn't a valid argument. I had no problems countering anyone that used gauss rifles when the feature wasn't in the game in the past.

A delayed shot would be 100x more annoying than a charged shot and would accomplish nothing that charged shots don't already.

I don't think it's even possible to suggest a worse idea.

[PurplePuke]

Wow, haven't seen this thread for a couple months.

[Tarogato]

I actually really enjoy the gauss charge up. And it seems I'm not the only one.


It's a really boring same-y weapon without it. Uber satisfying to hold that button down like drawing a string and let it fly like an arrow and *thunk* on the other end.

[Jiang Wei]

Promessa, on 07 June 2017 - 04:14 PM, said:

Yeah, that sounds like something Reno Blade suggested we do with PPC's

noo

Gauss Rifles are fine, Potatoes gonna potate. A help box when you drop in a guass equipped mech for the first time would also fix this. When I see people try to use srms at 500 meters with advanced zoom, I don't see people suggesting we make srm range infinite.

Only people using gauss rifles anymore ARE the potatoes. Its no longer a competitive weapon.

Pjwned, on 07 June 2017 - 03:45 PM, said:

After the skill tree, there's even less excuse to complain about the gauss charge now because of the 2 gauss charge nodes that are now available, meaning you can now hold a charged shot for up to 2.5 seconds.

Really shouldn't need to invest skill points to have that available because it should just be baseline, but it's still there to use and it does actually help.

As usual the gauss charge is a good idea and whiners can get over it.

They ought to add a skill node that REMOVES the charge up timer.

Tarogato, on 07 June 2017 - 04:11 PM, said:

I actually really enjoy the gauss charge up. And it seems I'm not the only one.


It's a really boring same-y weapon without it. Uber satisfying to hold that button down like drawing a string and let it fly like an arrow and *thunk* on the other end.

Great, so the charge up makes guass rifle into a stone age weapon. You are not helping your argument...

Edited by Jiang Wei, 07 June 2017 - 04:34 PM.

[SeventhSL]

The charge mechanic is so much better than a simple delayed shot because you can keep holding to prevent firing if required. If the target dies or moves out of sight you don't waste the limited ammo gauss gets. If someone walks in front of you at the last second you can avoid the team damage.

Sure I'd love to remove the charge time but I played when that was around and everyone was complaining on the forums about OP no skill required gauss. It's 15 points of pin point damage at range, will huge velocity and virtually no heat. It's a big part of the meta as is. How are you going to nerf it if you take the charge away? Bring it down to PPC velocities?

[Jiang Wei]

SeventhSL, on 07 June 2017 - 04:33 PM, said:

The charge mechanic is so much better than a simple delayed shot because you can keep holding to prevent firing if required. If the target dies or moves out of sight you don't waste the limited ammo gauss gets. If someone walks in front of you at the last second you can avoid the team damage.

Sure I'd love to remove the charge time but I played when that was around and everyone was complaining on the forums about OP no skill required gauss. It's 15 points of pin point damage at range, will huge velocity and virtually no heat. It's a big part of the meta as is. How are you going to nerf it if you take the charge away? Bring it down to PPC velocities?

I already mentioned how. Slower reload. Make it heavier. Make it take up more slots so it cant be boated easily. Reduce the damage from 15 to 12. Reduce the max effective range. Any of those would be a better option. The chargup is literally the worst idea possible. But thats PGI for you...

I mean how OP is it really? People can boat 6 PPCs and do more alpha damage than 2 guass rifles and doesnt require ammo and they dont explode when hit. People can boat other ballistics that are just as powerful. Ac2 boat anyone? Those are more op than any guass sniper. 7 cerml nova? Way more than 30 damage. 4 clrm20's boated... way more deadly than a pair of gauss. 8SRM6 boated. Waaay more deadly than a pair of gauss. 4erppc on warhawk. 6 large lasers boated on several mechs... Also... more powerful than a pair of gauss.

There is literally no reason for the guass to be nerfed now. Remove the charge up.

Edited by Jiang Wei, 07 June 2017 - 04:48 PM.