No replies to this topic

[Túatha Dé Danann]

Hello dear PGI, have some feedback for energy balance:

IS-ER-Lasers:

They look quite okay, but watch the balance between the ER-Medium Laser and the Standard Large laser. Energy boats with a lot of hardpoints can now save a lot of raw tonnage for similar range. I think the ER-Medium is okay for its heat trade-off, but you might want to reduce the heat of the standard large laser to make it still worthwhile. The extra tonnage inside the LL could be translated as "hidden heatsinks" to make the trade-off a little bit better.

The LL also competes with the Clan-ER-Medium laser in terms of range and to a certain degree with damage, so another tweak could also be a slight reduction in duration for the LL.

IS-PPCs:

The light PPC needs a grouping of 4 before Ghost Heat. They have half the damage, thus you can have 4 of them for 20 damage like regular PPCs. Wit that, those weapons have a direct trade off for slots and tonnage, which is fine.

Snub-Nose PPCs:
They have one slot less and one ton less compared to the regular ones. Thats not a lot. The range reduction on the other hand is massive. These weapons are effectively used in the short-ish brawling range which severely limits their usage as they still produce a high amount of heat and thus fail to be effective at those ranges. Even if they are PP-weapons, this trade-off isn't worth it. My suggestion: Reduce their heat to 7.

Heavy-PPC:
For 10 tons and 4 slots, this weapon is underwhelming and will be rarely used, similar to the ER-PPC that is rarely used. My suggestion: Step away from lore, make this weapon 20 damage, reduce its optimal range, give it 15 heat and give it Ghost heat, if fired more than one.

Make it a weapon that is an effective PPC in the hand of a skilled user, but he has to "chain fire it" due to GH concerns. That gives it a special spot in the game with some flavor.

ER-Micro lasers:
I find it hard to see a mech that has enough hardpoints to make use of this weapon. Nice to have as an option, but slots are limited. Maybe create some sort of small-laser battery (like 2 or 4 of them) to fit in one slot? Then we may see some usage for it.

ER-Micro-Pulse:
Similar problem with them compared to the Micro-ER lasers. Make a battery of 2 in one slot, and I can see it being used on some mechs.

Heavy-Lasers:

Oh boy... okay, lets stick with the idea of having a long duration. The skill of the player is now to hold that duration on target. Now we take this, reduce the range, add another slot and balance it out.

The heat to damage ratio is bad - very bad. Again, slots are important and having 2 slots on the medium with reduced range AND longer duration practically leads heat as the only viable counter-balance left. Leave the damage as it is and give the weapons the heat of half their damage - flat. NOW they are interesting and fill a certain niche.