87 replies to this topic

[Khobai]

Quote

I don't think its far to say 'they can't be saved' while refusing to even consider changes that could save them.

if might not be fair. but its easier

[FupDup]

Literally anything can be saved if you touch the XML files hard enough. Don't believe me? Give ER Micro Lasers 300m optimal range and 4.0 damage. Boom, instantly OP with no effort whatsoever.

[Troa Barton]

My favorite mech back in the day was a 4 PPC stalker back when everyone else was running 6 PPCs.
Then they did the first heat balance pass and 4 PPCs was acceptable. Then the nerf hammer came down and running 4 PPCs ever since is completely unreasonable. Lasers went from being the alternative to being the defacto energy weapon.
It doesn't make sense to me that an assault with as many heat sinks as you can fit in the thing can't reliably use a loadout with an alpha of 40, an alpha fairly modest in today's meta. ER Peeps you can forget about it way, waaaay too hot. 6 ER Larges on a battlemaster is completely fine for some reason.

It was never a "good" build but it was fun and usable back in the day.. I miss my PPC stalker...

[FupDup]

Troa Barton, on 28 December 2017 - 08:11 PM, said:

My favorite mech back in the day was a 4 PPC stalker back when everyone else was running 6 PPCs.
Then they did the first heat balance pass and 4 PPCs was acceptable. Then the nerf hammer came down and running 4 PPCs ever since is completely unreasonable. Lasers went from being the alternative to being the defacto energy weapon.
It doesn't make sense to me that an assault with as many heat sinks as you can fit in the thing can't reliably use a loadout with an alpha of 40, an alpha fairly modest in today's meta. ER Peeps you can forget about it way, waaaay too hot. 6 ER Larges on a battlemaster is completely fine for some reason.

It was never a "good" build but it was fun and usable back in the day.. I miss my PPC stalker...

Quad PPC was always the truly meta version. The hexa-PPC was basically the pre-Clan version of the Direstar.

Also note that lasers didn't become de-facto for a while (in fact Ghost Heat was extremely harsh to the LL at first because it had the same cap as PPCs). PPCs used in pairs with ACs or Gauss was still king. Only builds with more than 2 PPCs died out at that time.

[Troa Barton]

FupDup, on 28 December 2017 - 08:14 PM, said:

Quad PPC was always the truly meta version. The hexa-PPC was basically the pre-Clan version of the Direstar.

Also note that lasers didn't become de-facto for a while (in fact Ghost Heat was extremely harsh to the LL at first because it had the same cap as PPCs). PPCs used in pairs with ACs or Gauss was still king. Only builds with more than 2 PPCs died out at that time.

Those were dark times, I took my first hiatus when they did that.. I wasn't around long enough to remember the meta shifting and lasers being re-tuned. I still hold some resentment for that... Didn't come back until the civil war update.

I remember the fear a Hexa-PPC stalker caused on the battlefield, it was today's version of a double heavy gauss ML mech. Id honestly prefer to see those back instead of a heavy large+ERmed Hellbringer. With all of the other changes the game has gone through since then a Hexa-PPC stalker isn't a big deal anymore let alone a 4 PPC stalker.

With Laser Vomit Hellbringers, MAD IIC's, MKIIs, ANHs, quirked AS7s, MRM 80 ARCs, MRM 120 assaults ect a 4PPC stalker should be usable.

Maybe they can give the Stalker the AWS' PPC quirks...

[Weeny Machine]

El Bandito, on 28 December 2017 - 07:45 AM, said:

30 meters is nothing.

For a light mech 0 is nothing.

[Deathlike]

Levi Porphyrogenitus, on 28 December 2017 - 10:30 AM, said:

I've been advocating for that for about a year now but you may be the first other person I have seen who supports this plan.

While I'm not adverse to that idea, imagining the cries that occur at "my PPC killed my mech" would be a new Tier 5 brown sea discussion that will have some amusing stories.

I'd think reflecting the heat instead of damage would actually make more sense - as the attempt to use PPCs at min range should be a last ditch attempt before suiciding.

Edited by Deathlike, 30 December 2017 - 04:37 PM.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Deathlike, on 30 December 2017 - 04:36 PM, said:

While I'm not adverse to that idea, imagining the cries that occur at "my PPC killed my mech" would be a new Tier 5 brown sea discussion that will have some amusing stories.

I'd think reflecting the heat instead of damage would actually make more sense - as the attempt to use PPCs at min range should be a last ditch attempt before suiciding.

I could see it working something like this:

@ 45m your target only takes 5 damage (half) and your heat spikes by 5 (half the damage but applied as heat instead of actual damage). The proportions would scale based on distance to target. It could also still do full damage to the target all the way in, but with the base heat of the weapon having a multiplier based on how close the impact was (so at 45m it would be 150% of normal heat).

I think damage feedback is more true to the lore, but heat would be more forgiving.

I could also see two ways to do the damage feedback. The first would be to have damage split proportionally with distance to the target (closer more hits you and less hits the target), and the second would be to have the target always take full damage but you take damage as well proportional to the distance to the target (so always 10 to the target, but at 45m you also take 5 to the spot where your PPC is mounted).