Hazeclaw, on 08 January 2018 - 12:47 PM, said:
The only way to balance things at this point is to have all tech available for all mechs. That is the only way to achieve true balance. And even then it won't really be balance the meta will just shift and new combinations of mechs/weapons will rise above others. If you guys really think you can achieve balance with hundreds of different mechs and weapon types with 2 distinct factions that are also supposed to somehow feel and play differently while piloted by players with skill disparity greater than the grand canyon I dont think you have realistic expectations
There are many complex faction based game with good balance, Dominions 4, Starcraft, Warhammer total war and so on. There are also many character/class based shooters with good balance. The idea that you can't balance different tech bases/factions is therefore evidently false.
There is nothing magical about the factions in battletech that makes it different or impossible to balance except the sheer unwillingness to do so.
In many ways it's actually much easier to balance assymmetrical tech, because symmetrical tech must be exactly similar to be balanced which is almost impossible, whereas assymmetrical tech can be balanced by exaggerating the differences, as for example range vs duration advantage on lasers and so on.
The IS large pulse was pretty well balanced vs the clan large pulse before they nerfed it for example.
I think PGI is simply afraid of making IS tech as good as Clan tech, they fear the backlash from loudmouthed loreheads/clanbois in the fanbase and perhaps have some of their own personal resistances to it.
Edited by Sjorpha, 08 January 2018 - 01:11 PM.