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I would be open to adjusting various properties to de-polarise them from niche roles and reduce some cumulative effects that may be problematic even if so to a lesser degree.
However "nerfing" MG's in terms of sheer power when they are just getting to be useful is a misguided direction and requiest. LMG's just got to a point where they are actually interesting addition to the game and all kinds of chassis, no way should they be performing worse or lose overall power. However there is room to slightly adjust some dysfunctional properties, given more conventional practical properties and in turn get a more interesting combat dynamic with less frustrating elements in it for all participants it is certainly worthwhile. I am of course talking about to a notable extent losing crit properties and adjusting niche ranges.
MG's and HMG's both need love to bring them into the world of practical application and not remain in exclusive niche relegated use like they are currently. While as such so both could still stand to have some slight heat(yes I said it) added and also crit loss to compensate for practical moderate ranges with of course a slight raw DPS increase to also differentiate them from LMG's more. Such that the overlap for picking any of them isn't that huge while still offering similar overall performances from a practical standpoint based on weight and intended best use cases for them.
Crits as an RNG and devastating highly neutering element is a poor mechanic to utilise to such an extent as MG's have been capable of doing now, and as such I say it must go from all of them and instead replaced with linear solutions or simply move properties to more conventional areas of interest like range, efficiency etc., retain the power level while adding practicality as compensation for the removed or added dysfunctional/high value properties.
LMG
Vision:
Efficient structure tearing medium range machine gun, perfect as a supplemental weapon for already preferably heavy damage builds looking to destroy exposed structure quickly with a range of support weapons. A situational weapon not very suited to general purpose conventional use but very suited for ambush tactics, suprise attacks especially at closer range and active targeting of armour-less exposed enemies and components.
Problems:
The weapon is very polarised as to its critical properties, the damage it does overall is not a problem but how easily it crits out internals leaving enemies crippled and helpless leads to frustration, a sort of unfairness honestly and also causes very twitchy gameplay where the slightest exposure might instantly lose you your weapons even if you don't die.
It is also much more precise than the other machine guns with those extreme critical properties leading to further escalating the issues with it based on individual skill raising its performance capacity to unbelievable heights when enemies are less than able to instantly turn, while also remaining only moderately useful for less talented players in general.
While the overall weapon itself is not too powerful as such, and I repeat that, it is not too powerful for what it generally performs as. But just those use cases where it is put to perfect execution it is simply outright devastating. Although not very good in novice hands it does also provide devastating sweeping fire at any exposed mechs that could easily bust them up instantly without much aim needed which is also a problem. I do not subscribe to the notion that internals should be destroyed at the pace possible and RNG is not meaningful either so lets just cut that out as much as possible.
The weapon must be depolarised in favour of more conventional properties and more meaningful combat interaction.
Suggested statistics:
- 320m optimal range(260+60m), conventional range addition
- 0.7dps, no change
- Removed crit properties, replacing it with a linear solution.
- Added a flat 160% increased damage against structure, 1.82dps(from 1.88dps) against pure structure and unchanged 0.7dps(from 0.7dps) against armour.
- No heat
- CoF increased to 0.4 from 0.2 making it less precise
- Projectile velocity increased to 800m/s(visual only)
- Ammo capacity increased to 3000/t from 2500/t
- Highly ammo efficient
- "The" only heatless machine gun
- "The" structure eating machine gun
- Moderate range
- Less precise
- Limited conventional damage
- Better used at closer ranges for full effect
- Better used at armour stripped mechs and combined with other conventional weapons
- Situational
- No longer crit seeking, does not crit out internals specifically
MG
Vision:
Slightly structure tearing standard issue medium range machine gun, perfect as a low weight alternative for added flexible raw dps on low weight or weight limited chassis and builds, while only retaining some minor anti-structure properties. The average machine gun, effective and works for most things.
Problems:
MG is simply too niched into short range while offering little use cases for more mechs than the fastest few, also LMG simply outshines it regardless as a vulnerability seeking weapon leaving MG's in a weird spot of little desirable properties that always demand you expose yourself fully for prolonged periods while offering little of benefit in practical terms. The crit seeking element is also a problematic factor for these weapons and must be adjusted into more conventional properties, however since the LMG is already the structure eating weapon now, a more conventional sustained damage role is needed.
Suggested statistics:
- 360m optimal range(130+230m) conventional range increase
- 1.2 dps(1.0 + 0.2) slight conventional dps increase
- Removed crit properties, replacing it with a linear solution.
- Added a flat 20% increased damage to structure, 1.44dps(from 2.11dps) against pure structure and 1.2dps(from 1.0dps) against armour.
- 0.15 heat per second, slight heat addition to the weapon from no heat. 8x would generate 1.2hps from them alone
- CoF reduced to 0.5 from 0.6
- Projectile velocity increased to 1000m/s(visual only)
- Ammo effficiency increased to 2500/t from 2000/t
- "The" All purpose average machine gun
- Good general purpose use
- Moderate range
- Highly dps/weight efficient
- Moderately heat efficient
- Ammo efficient
- Not very precise.
- Marginal anti-structure properties
- No longer crit seeking, does not crit out internals specifically
HMG
Vision:
Purely general purpose medium range heavy machine gun, perfect as a supplementary dps weapon for any chassis that has the weight and ammo to carry it, but especially for mid-range to heavier chassis looking to boost sustained damage at medium ranges and get alternative more heat efficient performance.
Problems:
HMG is stuck in an extreme niche due to lacking range and quite powerful crit properties still, while offering little practical use regardless of them. Also the ease of use with combined heat heavy builds can sometimes allow silly levels of firepower especially against structure that isn't reasonable, while boating of HMG's should remain viable as it is a fun and meaningful choice and not very effective in itself without alpha weaponry.
Furthermore many heavier chassis cannot use the HMG's simply because they are so impractical range wise, as in they are not even remotely an option and the next ballistics weapon in line is the U/AC2 at 5-6t making any low weight ballistics additions of weapons at moderate ranges essentially LMG or bust.
Yet with ammo HMG still are non-trivially heavy to carry especially for the lighter mechs(esp IS) leaving the weapon quite dysfunctional overall in any case. Again due to the range even many mediums have difficulty to bring the HMG's on target even. HMG's are strictly not viable for anything slower than 90kph. An Arrow with HMG's is completely pointless right now and everyone picks LMG's as not only are they more devastating crit wise combined with other weapons but also half the weight and highly ammo efficient with decent projection.
HMG's need to be put on the map as interesting fun weapons for all kinds of chassis, even if it costs some heat and loss of crit elements to do so.
Suggested statistics:
- 380m optimal range(80+300m) conventional range increase
- 1.7dps(1.4+0.3) conventional dps increase
- Removed crit properties.
- No structure damage bonuses added, the weapon does 1.7dps(down from 2.47dps) to structure and 1.7 dps(up from 1.4dps) to armour.
- 0.25 heat per second, heat addition to the weapon noticeably higher than the other MG's from previously no heat. 8x would generate 2hps from them alone.
- CoF reduced to 0.8(from 1.1)
- Projectile velocity increased to 1400m/s(visual only)
- Ammo efficiency remains unaltered.
- "The" fluff damage support machine gun
- General purpose use
- Practical medium ranges
- Moderately dps/weight efficient weapon overall
- Practical for heavier chassis
- Very imprecise
- Somewhat ammo inefficient
- Somewhat heat prone
- No additional anti-structure properties
- No longer crit seeking, does not crit out internals specifically
Additional universal change:
- The skill tree must affect ROF and spread for all MG's in "Cooldown/ROF" and "Weapon Spread" nodes so we can spec into MG warfare, this is a compromise issue and costs other skill nodes in the skill tree. This also gives IS MG's a slight potential ROF increase beyond Clan which fits in nicely with the double increased weight cost.
Also people can boat MG's freely as before but carrying heat heavy other weapons expecting to double dip into MG's can become a hassle and compromises have to be made being aware of the heat on various MG's, but it still being low nevertheless.
Double dipping can be done but will most effectively still only be used with LMG's to the same effect due to still remaining fully heatless but now they do not crit and they are slightly less precise so to utilise them properly it is best to expose oneself to get closer or take more time to fire and hit the vulnerable components.
Summary
Reduce observed dysfunctional behaviour that is very much unnecessary and as I see it detrimental to the game, also add slight drawbacks and reduce the extremes of properties of the weapons to create much wiggle room for practical benefits being added making the weapons more meaningful as a whole.
Add new roles to the weapons and remove them from the extreme relegated niches where they do not need to exist or redundantly overlap as they do. Then to compensate we also add options to them in the skill tree as they no longer exist on the fringes where improvement of their most prominent properties is by their inherent polarisation impossible to excuse for PGI,
Essentially I'm trying to build a new combat dynamic for low weight ballistics that is more generic and general purpose for MG and HMG's, while notably still retaining the classic idea of the heatless vulnerability seeking machine gun for the LMG. They then all exist more as something interesting to use for all kinds of weight class mechs and builds as light weight ballistics options.
Reserved for all the human things. Figures are estimations and placeholders, adjustments are expected.
Edited by SOL Ranger, 26 August 2017 - 09:23 AM.
