3 replies to this topic

[MechanicalWraith]

PPCs (and Gauss) are currently underwhelming weapons in their own rights, this has been known for some time, but they're still being balanced as a package... Because used in conjunction they can place massive (MWO-relative) damage in one component.

Recently, they were grouped together for ghost-heat purposes in an attempt to address this problem, but this doesn't work. At all. PPC-Gauss builds are still firing together... The only difference being that PPCs are fired a split-second before the Gauss is released, thus ghost-heating only the Gauss Rifle(s) and effectively negating the change altogether; also most players in my experience fired the PPCs ahead of the Gauss already, due to the projectile speed discrepancy.

But fear not, there is an easy fix - and it fits on one line:

Give PPCs a charging period too!... And link it to Gauss charging.

This is a solid change that will completely prevent Gauss-PPC syncing. And emphasize the powerful nature of the PPC weapon system (or atleast the power it should have). With that done, PPCs and Gauss Rifles can begin to reclaim their deserved glory as individually impressive tools of war, rather than a niche combo exploit.

Lore-wise, for those who care, PPCs and Gauss are both high-energy weapons that tax a battlemech's power systems while reloading, So a charge-up mechanic fits them thematically.

[Alreech]

Gauss and PPC do pin point damage, they putting all their damage at the same location.
2 PPCs do 20 points of damge, 3 do 30, 6 do 60,...

MWO want's to be a tactic shooter... so teamplay and the teams tactic should be the key to victory.
Obviously it's a problem for a tactic shooter if a player can kill almost any other unit with one shoot by simply mounting a lot of pin point weapons.
So how does the charging system nerfs the problem of too much pinpoint damage ?

Better ways:
Limit the size of weapons for specific hardpoints. No Gaus Rifles in Machine Gun hardpoints, no PPCs as replacement for Small Lasers.
Add effects of movement and heat to the weapons precision.

Limit the number of high pinpoint weapons per Mech.
No Assault Mechs in the lore with more than 4 ER-PPCs ? Make al limit of 4 PPCs for Assault Mechs.
No Heavy Mechs with more than 2 PPCs in the lore ? Make the limit 2 for Heavy Mechs...

[Nightbird]

Alreech, on 30 July 2017 - 07:51 AM, said:

So how does the charging system nerfs the problem of too much pinpoint damage ?

Guess you don't know that the current mechanic is that up to 2 weapons can be charged at once. Think that's what the OP meant.

[MechanicalWraith]

NlGHTBlRD, on 30 July 2017 - 02:32 PM, said:

Guess you don't know that the current mechanic is that up to 2 weapons can be charged at once. Think that's what the OP meant.

Exactly, the reason Gauss and PPC (more so PPCs) are so weak individually is that they're considered OP when synchronized. Gauss boating was eliminated by limiting simultaneous charging to 2 weapons, which caused people to migrate to pairing PPCs and Gauss to achieve that uber-alpha everyone hates so much.

Giving PPC's a charging period before firing(limited like, and with, Gauss) guarantees the elimination of sync-firing, while increasing their difficulty to use effectively, and justifying a power boost to make them, finally, a fearsome weapon in their own right.