Lightfoot, on 13 March 2018 - 08:01 PM, said:
It's mostly that in MWO you now need 5-6 LRM15 or you are wasting your time. That MWO bowed to the LRM-whiners rather than deliver a MechWarrior game that is on par with previous versions where 2xLRM15 were functional instead of useless. That's the Lore I am talking about. MWO players whined and whined that they shouldn't have to hide from LRMs when the purpose of LRMs is to control open spaces on the map. Well you can still do that, but now you can only do so with 5-6 Clan LRM15 (less with Inner Sphere versions). Anything else has no effect, the brawlers just run across any open space with near total impunity. MWO's LRMs are no more than place holders.
All total BS.
The purpose of LRMs in MWO, as it was in tabletop and every other Battletech game, is the same as every other weapon. To damage enemy mechs, usually directly. In tabletop LRMs had the option to do indirect fire with a dedicated spotter (who could take no other actions but move that round) and at all your regular negatives from movement and any other factors, plus any negative modifiers your spotter has from movement and cover, plus 1 extra. Which made IDF terribly inaccurate ( mid range is target 6, plus 1 for spotter just walking to get Los, +1 if target is a slow moving heavy, +1 for IDF gives you a target of 9 on 2d6 assuming you're stationary, the target is slow and in the wide open with no partial cover or even light woods) and usually a poor use of ammo.
Every weapon in the game with even mid range can control open spaces on the map and do it way, way, way better. Any serious direct fire loadout in the game can cripple or kill a mech inside of 1 sec of it leaving full cover.
LRMs have always been inferior for that. There is 1 and only 1 thing that LRMs are good for - shooting while hiding when your teammates are fighting and in Los of the target. Every single other thing LRMs can do other weapons do better.
The fix for LRMs is to do what all the terribads who want a locking IDF weapon to perform equal to a aiming required DF are unwilling to consider - buff LRMs for direct fire use to make them comparable for direct fire and make IDF require TAG/NARC.
However there will always be people terrified of their pretend robbit getting shot and who want to damage or destroy enemies without having to risk being shot in turn, which is pretty fundamental to any games balance. There will always be people who feel that aiming is like haxx and only people who cheat or 'have no life's can manage to sit at a desk at home in safety and comfort and put a mouse pointer pretty exactly where they want reasonably quickly and maybe even have adjusted the games default mouse settings to make that as efficient as possible.
So we can't have LRMs be good because then they would be OP AF in the hands of everyone who's willing to put at least two whole teaspoons of effort into it just so everyone else can feel like a winner without using to actually aim or expose themselves to getting shot.