Tarogato, on 29 June 2019 - 11:35 PM, said:
For the record, I fought against that suggestion. Not that I was successful...
Well, I like it.
Tarogato, on 29 June 2019 - 11:35 PM, said:
That doesn't buff the weapon. It buffs mechbuilding, opening the doors for potentially undesirable balance complications where the best use-case of the weapon is at its ghost heat limit and anything less than that is sub-par. This is especially true for LPPC.
HPPC seems to be doing fine at it. Besides, I already handled it by simply decreasing the heat-penalty. The PPCs are still better off with two as far as heat sustainability is concerned. But honestly, I just don't think that a 14-ton investment is something we should expect to be that effective in the first place -- as in I don't expect PPCs to be competitive to a 2x HPPC at all. And that's the problem, it's going to be competing with the HPPC in it's niche in the first place, that is why I was pushing for LPPCs at the DPS route.
Tarogato, on 29 June 2019 - 11:35 PM, said:
Changing it to a limit of 4 deprives a lot of build options from light mechs (and some assorted heavier mechs as well as a secondary weapon) that would really like to run LPPC with actual worthwhile damage output, and cannot fit all 4LPPC or 2PPC. Because if you allow the limit at 4LPPC, then the strongest builds will be 4LPPC, and you must balance the weapon as a whole around that.
Under the current game stats? 4LPPC + 2DHS is identical to 2PPC but runs slightly cooler for more slots. The trade off currently between tonnage, and damage and heat output makes them basically identical weapons. The LPPC *needs* to be differentiated from the PPC, not just made to be a superior replica. By allowing 4LPPC, you are making LPPC have the same role in mech building as PPC, and that's just a wholly redundant and pointless endeavour.
Well, obviously not current-game stats.
That depends on how the LPPC is handled, such as you don't have to increase the Ghost-Heat limit, but just reduce the heat-penalty. The 4 LPPC would still work, but not as optimal. The problem is that the of simply increasing GH is precisely having a linear pattern,
the Heat-Penalty approach makes it so that it's a diminishing-return.
The suggested PPC is at 8.5 Heat/shot at 4.0s CD, with 2x PPC 17 heat/shot. The 4x LPPC, which would have hit Ghost-Heat, and would generate 22.05 heat instead. Assuming 4.0s CD, at 2.2 Dissipation, the 2x PPC would have a net of 8.2 heat, while the 4x LPPC + 2 Extra DHS at 2.6 Dissipation, would have a net of 11.65 Heat. and that is assuming you only fire at 4.0s between shots. Remember that the LPPC could fire every 2.5s, so realistically it runs even hotter -- at net heat of 15.55 between shots.
So yeah, "superior replica". Let me guess: "if that's the case, then 4x LPPC is just hot garbage", and yes, precisely. So I don't know where the hell is your ire to the approach coming from. You got the more useful 3x LPPC, one which is doing it's own thing.
Again, here's the problem,
the PPCs would always compete with the per-volley damage, always, and because of that the LPPCs ALWAYS loses out to the other ppcs, just as the standard PPC will ALWAYS lose out to the HPPC.
LPPCs needs to be doing it's own thing.
HPPC would always win over standard PPC,
unfortunately we can't just make a 20 ton investment be as competitive as a 14-ton one, so the approach is to just allow PPC to do 30 damage for 21 tons, and instead of doing GH, same case we'll introduce the Heat-Penalty-Reduction to keep the 2x PPC setup relevant by means of diminishing returns.
The ER-PPC is just not good, even with 11 to 12 heat, it's still far inferior in many cases, that's why it's imperative to allow it to do 30 damage and compete with HPPC. It would still be hot as hell, but at least you also have the punch at a long range as well.
Tarogato, on 29 June 2019 - 11:35 PM, said:
To reiterate, by buffing LPPC to a limit of four, you're not adding new options to play. You're just duplicating 2PPC. The limit needs to be 3LPPC, but with buffed stats so the weapon can stand aside having an independent use-case, or in fact creating actual new unique legitimate use-cases (well, rather making the ones that already exist, actually viable instead of useless trash).
Of course it's going to "duplicate" the 2PPC, because the LPPC in your mind is geared to be just basically a weaker PPC. You want to talk "duplicate", yet you're just pushing the LPPC on the very same niche it's doomed to lose out on other PPCs.
And to reiterate:
> I didn't increased the LPPC GH, I decreased it's Heat Penalty, which as a result, offers a diminishing return while keeping the 3x LPPC somewhat okay, and the 4x LPPC possible but not optimal. It is in a sense a simple stat buff.
> LPPC will always lose out to other PPCs because it's all about per-shot damage -- even if you buff it, you still lose out to the other PPCs regardless, that's why it needs to be doing it's own thing, such as DPS.
> The PPCs aside from the HPPCs is realistically going to compete with one another, but you just can't expect a 20 ton investment to be as competitive as a 12-14 one, that's why the only real option is to have it balanced at a higher tonnage and higher-alpha -- but to compensate is the diminishing-return of having to suffer the Ghost-Heat, but the heat-penalty is just enough to keep it an option, if not the best one.
Edited by The6thMessenger, 30 June 2019 - 02:18 AM.