198 replies to this topic

[MechaBattler]

The mech itself is fine. It's as fragile as you would expect a 20 ton mech to be. It has no JJs. So it has limitations to it's maneuverability depending on the map. It's the boating of MGs that should perhaps be brought into question. No heat and 10 dps? Granted its short ranged. But a light has the agility to whisk in and use that short range. They should just address the boating. Perhaps just give it heat past firing 4 MGs? How hard is that? Instead of further nerfing individual MGs.

[thievingmagpi]

teammates don't really love doing anything for their teammates in qp.

[Nightbird]

thievingmagpi, on 19 September 2018 - 10:19 AM, said:

teammates don't really love doing anything for their teammates in qp.

lies, people love squirrels in QP, persistently chasing after them in very slow mechs

[thievingmagpi]

which hinders teammates more than helps. I love it when a whole lance chases me because they've just given up 1/4 of their effective force.

[Nightbird]

thievingmagpi, on 19 September 2018 - 10:38 AM, said:

which hinders teammates more than helps. I love it when a whole lance chases me because they've just given up 1/4 of their effective force.

Yes, but if you have a Piranha humping your leg and you're by your teammates, the piranha will die quickly and without doing much damage.

[QuePan]

there is a easy solution for the PIR MG SPAM , make MGs do no damage to ARMOR that would probably help the DPS of MGS is just outta wack when you get to that many on one Chassis

[Bloodwitch]

Nightbird, on 19 September 2018 - 10:47 AM, said:

Yes, but if you have a Piranha humping your leg and you're by your teammates, the piranha will die quickly and without doing much damage.

God no. I've had that so many times. 5% of the damage will land on the piranha, 20% will land in whateverland and 75% damage will land on me.

[thievingmagpi]

Nightbird, on 19 September 2018 - 10:47 AM, said:

Yes, but if you have a Piranha humping your leg and you're by your teammates, the piranha will die quickly and without doing much damage.

Are you telling this to me or to the umpteen pilots who don't know what teamwork is or what it's for?

[BumbaCLot]

Snowbluff, on 19 September 2018 - 09:37 AM, said:

Oooh, I would like to know more.

Hahahaha. The guy that told me to hush then tells you it's not a thing. Here's a hint, go read the patch notes and play around with 15 different laser combos until you find something that can kill the Atlas in the testing grounds in 2 shots with minimal structure damage. I'm quite sure the 1 can't do that as quickly, but I'll test to be sure.

[Nightbird]

thievingmagpi, on 19 September 2018 - 11:16 AM, said:

Are you telling this to me or to the umpteen pilots who don't know what teamwork is or what it's for?

If you have teammates that see an enemy in plain sight and won't shoot at it, then it's not the Piranha that's OP is it?

[thievingmagpi]

are you just picking and choosing parts of paragraphs to read and respond to?

[Ruccus]

Nightbird, on 19 September 2018 - 11:39 AM, said:

If you have teammates that see an enemy in plain sight and won't shoot at it, then it's not the Piranha that's OP is it?

That's how I got a Piranha kill just this morning - saw it sweeping around to try to get behind my assault teammate so I greeted it with MRMs, though because it was an unskilled Trebuchet it took me three volleys to finish it off (it started running after the first volley though, so no big deal). Didn't even have to aim on my first shot - I just targeted right behind my assault teammate and he graciously stepped into my reticule.

[thievingmagpi]

aiming is extremely OP, I agree

[Eirik Eriksson]

Wild guess! The effective combat time per match for a good light mech (and pilot) in game are so much longer than any assault mech pilot can ever dream about!

[Windscape]

Geez PGI listens to the potato’s too much (yes I know, monies). The PIR was nerfed wrong. The general light mech in MWO has agility at the cost of armor. So agility is your strength, and armor your weakness. The Piranha takes those principles to the extreme. If a nerf was going to take place, the PIR should have had an armor nerf, to further exaggerate its weakness.

But what should be happening is that other light mechs should be buffed to compete with the piranha. Mainly just mobility buffs around the whole class, with the exception of the wolfhound and urbie.

I guarantee if the weak lights were just a little bit better this game would be a whole lot more fun.

Edited by Windscape, 19 September 2018 - 12:48 PM.

[Battlemaster56]

BumbaCLot, on 19 September 2018 - 11:31 AM, said:

Hahahaha. The guy that told me to hush then tells you it's not a thing. Here's a hint, go read the patch notes and play around with 15 different laser combos until you find something that can kill the Atlas in the testing grounds in 2 shots with minimal structure damage. I'm quite sure the 1 can't do that as quickly, but I'll test to be sure.

I used 12 uPL on the 2 and 10 uPL on the 3 super short range but that thing can rip a assault's back around 3 volleys and still able to out duel any light afterwards.

[Eirik Eriksson]

Windscape, on 19 September 2018 - 12:46 PM, said:

Geez PGI listens to the potato’s too much (yes I know, monies). The PIR was nerfed wrong. The general light mech in MWO has agility at the cost of armor. So agility is your strength, and armor your weakness. The Piranha takes those principles to the extreme. If a nerf was going to take place, the PIR should have had an armor nerf, to further exaggerate its weakness.

But what should be happening is that other light mechs should be buffed to compete with the piranha. Mainly just mobility buffs around the whole class, with the exception of the wolfhound and urbie.

I guarantee if the weak lights were just a little bit better this game would be a whole lot more fun.

I agree, the best time I had in the game was when I still could run lights with a consitent result. Now I resorted through mediums to heavies to get consitant results. Just a matter of time until assaults are the deal....

[Jack Dawes]

Piranhas aren't the problem, IMO. And protestations of "Piranhas aren't OP. Skill is!" is very reminiscent of the same BS Clam pilots made about their OP mechs.

The problem is crit rate with boated rapid fire weapons. My solution is that crits should ONLY be able to happen on "tracer" rounds, with tracers being every 8th or 10th round fired. And each stream should not crit such that only one crit can occur within a given time period, such time period to be determined by actual in-game data which only PGI has access to.

PIR are effectively reduced in effectiveness without being rendered completely useless. Unless "completely useless" (as it is to so many who like driving OP crap) is "no longer ridiculously OP."

Argue however you would like - they are a problem. Not because of the chassis necessarily. But because their boated weapons crit too damned much.

[Kalleballe]

12 mg or hero is not a problem, now it is the 13 e one.

[Novakaine]

Appogee, on 19 September 2018 - 05:20 AM, said:

Here's what really happened with the Piranha...

PGI makes almost all of its revenue from the sale of Mech Packs. However, the game has been out for several years now, and long term customers have bought literally hundreds of Mechs. Among those Mechs can be found just about every combination of hardpoints, tonnages and configurations a player could ever reasonably want.

So it become harder and harder for PGI to sell Mech Packs. New Mechs that had no competitive advantage, or replicated existing hardpoint combinations and tonnages, were not selling well. Additionally, PGI's lack of work on attracting new players (no marketing), helping new players learn to play (almost no tutorials), and have positive gameplay experiences (dysfunctional matchmaker), also meant PGI wasn't getting enough revenue from new players buying existing Mech Packs.

To prop up its revenue, PGI resorted to power creep. It decided to create Mechs so attractive, so competitive, boating more hardpoints (or more armor, or more agility, or more ... something) than the hundreds of Mechs the installed base already owned.

The Piranha, able to boat MGs in quantities never before seen, is one such example. PGI knew its ability to crit Mechs would be so attractive that it would sell thousands of Piranha packs, even to those of us who already have hundreds of Mechs. (The Annihilator, which in effect boats durability like no other Mech, is another example of PGI deliberately power creeping Mechs.)

So, as with most decisions taken by the devs about this game, the Piranha was the latest in a long line of short-term efforts to boost sales.


Balance and fairness stopped being considerations for PGI more than a year ago. Since that time, balance decisions and selection of new Mech Packs have been principally driven by the goal of boosting sales ... through power creep, appeals to nostalgia, and buffing existing pay-real-money-to-purchase Hero Mechs relative to their peers.

(An alternative path would have been for PGI to make the game, the gameplay, the matchmaking and the end game of Faction Play so compelling that existing customers wanted to keep investing in it, and more and more new folks were attracted to try it out and stay. Unfortunately, that has never been PGI's business model.)