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If we're constrained to just the handful of variables on the table now, I'm strongly on board with at least trying a week or two of PTS (or even public server) where all the stats are set based on the community weapons rebalance project. I don't like everything they suggest, but at least it all makes some kind of coherent sense and steps away from balance as an exercise in applying band-aids to your band-aids that were applied over past band-aids. It's very "the old lady swallowed a cat to catch the mouse she swallowed to catch the spider she swallowed to catch the fly" thing.
It's exhausting.
A quick fix for excessive Clan laser alphas might be to reduce the effectiveness of Clan coolshots instead of debuffing the weapons globally or removing coolshots entirely.
If we could get whatever we wanted...
For matchmaking and factions:
- Get rid of un-themed 12 v 12 mixed tech base Quick Play by tweaking the MM to drop you into 4 v 4 (IS), 5 v 5 (Clan), 5 v 8 (Clan vs. IS), 8 v 8 (IS), 10 v 10 (Clan), 10 v 12 (Clan vs. IS), or 12 v 12 (IS) games based on current player queue population. Try to make the biggest IS vs. Clan match first, then the biggest IS and biggest Clan matches you can separately, then move on to smaller match sizes in a similar order. If the population is large enough, try to group by faction.
- Mercenaries are an IS only faction.
- Set the game to pick mission types based on the size of the match, so Incursion is reserved for 10x10 and up, Escort is 10x10 and below, etc. Once the MM assembles a match, it bans mission modes that are outside the match size.
- Let players set several camo options for each 'Mech, based on maps, a bit like the new feature to let you save Skill Tree configurations and re-use them. No decals, just "for drops on Polar, use W pattern with colors X, Y, Z."
- Find a way to wrap FP and QP together; the modified MM above would let you have matches that actually align with faction-vs-faction combat, and adding Scouting as a mission mode for small groups is fairly workable. The main challenge here would be how to handle drop decks, and how to manage the faction scoring overall. Suddenly all the players are either doing Solaris or participating in a conflict that makes more sense than the current mixed QP format.
- Add a "Grand Melee" game mode for Clan 5v5 drops that's effectively a Battle Royale. Because why not?
- Modify match rewards system to incentivize Clanners to try for Solo Kills and KMDD (because Zellbrigen) and IS for good cooperation. When Clan players end up with lower match rewards for concentrated fire, it might counteract their range/damage advantage a bit. Incentives can work, given good overall balance.
- Fix isXL engines by upping the number of Engine crits that kills you from 3 to 4. You can lose one side, but if the other side is open you might get critted out before the other side is actually destroyed. Still incentivizes LFEs, both for space and durability, but maybe not as much as now. Could drop their prices a bit to compensate? Another balance option would be to introduce a heat management spike with the 3rd crit, rather than it killing you, so you run hotter than with just 2 engine crits but don't actually die.
- A partial fix for convergence: Disable arm lock entirely. Aiming all your arm and torso weapons at one spot with precise convergence is not helping. Instead, let players toggle which reticle (arm or torso) follows the mouse and which one lags the mouse.
- Another fix for convergence: A modified energy draw system, where instead of ghost heat for firing lots of linked weapons, each weapon draws X power, and once your 'Mech has drawn all of the available power any remaining weapon lags a fraction of a second behind the previous one before it fires. (A group of 6 cERML might fire three together, and the other three fire one at a time partway through the burn duration of the first three.) Bigger energy weapons draw more power per weapon shot, so you could manage 2 PPCs, but the third lags. The point of this is not to limit alphas (heat does that) but to reduce the number of weapons you can fire at once and get precise convergence. Gauss Rifles that are charging use 100% of your power, so literally nothing else can fire while they're charging—they basically lock your power supply while they charge, and you get it all back when they finish (this is supported in lore, where a warrior firing a single Gauss Rifle found it pulled so much power that his Dire Wolf noticeably slowed down, the cockpit lights dimmed, and subsequent laser shots lagged just an instant before actually firing). Autocannons, MGs, and missile weapons don't draw energy at all.
- Prevent PPFLD autocannon mayhem by giving the AC/10 and AC/20 weapons recoil just enough to keep them from hitting the same spot even when fired simultaneously, and remove the recoil when chain-firing at the normal chain fire interval. Switching IS ACs to multiple shells like Clan ACs use for the 5, 10, and 20 guns would also help a bit.
- LRMs fired at a target you have a lock on fly straight. LRMs fired at a target an ally has locked will home in as long as the ally holds the lock, but you don't know the ally has a lock until the ally used the command wheel to invoke "target spotted." Your own lock breaks as soon as the target leaves line of sight, no delay. To compensate, boost LRM flight speed considerably when they're flying straight at a target you have locked. When you lock a target an ally has spotted for you and you don't have LOS, your lock is actually an "indirect firing solution" and not a normal weapon lock. LRMs treat it as a lock, all other weapons treat it like you have no lock on anyone. This means you can direct-fire LRMs effectively, or you can provide indirect fire if you have a cooperative spotter, but none of the current nonsense where you're chasing someone else's locks whether they want you to or not while you hide from the fight.
- Multiple AMS don't cleanly stack; the first one is 100% effective, the second is only 80% effective, the third is only 60% effective, the fourth only 40% effective. Multiple AMS aren't necessarily going to play nice, and they'll probably waste shots trying to take out the same missile with shots from 2+ AMS systems, so diminishing returns make sense and reduce the magic of triple AMS missile shields.
- Same for massed machine guns, diminishing returns will help.
- Quirk 'Mechs based on their roles, and modify their match rewards for those roles! By linking these to chassis instead of build, you provide an incentive for builds that suit the "personality" of the chassis, but still allow players to play the builds they want and do well enough.
- Scout 'Mechs should have longer sensor range by default, before skill tree, or should get those skill nodes for free. They get better match rewards for locking new targets, holding locks for allies, flanking, and so on.
- Skirmishers should get some agility bonuses and better rewards for flanking, kill assists.
- Fire support should get better rewards for kill assists but not for KMDD or solo kills, and buffs to long- and longer mid-range weapons like light ACs, large lasers, Gauss Rifles, and LRMs.
- Brawlers should get substantial agility and durability buffs, and bonus rewards for KMDD to de-incentivize them from hanging back and kill-stealing, and reward guts.
- ...and so on.
Edited by Nicodemus Rosse, 12 June 2018 - 09:42 PM.
