The general balance dynamic is for Clan versions of things to have worse agility and durability, but more efficient weapon loadouts. Comparing the Marauder and Marauder IIC, things stack up pretty well (adjusting for the 10 ton difference, of course.) The IIC could do with a very slight buff, especially on some of the weaker variants. But we're talking like a couple 5%'s on some, and 10%'s on the weak or hardpoint limited versions at most. The vanilla Marauder IIC and the Scorch are in a good place.
The Marauder's distinctive traits are:
+ Hitboxes that are great when facing the shooter and spread damage with minimal twisting due to being small from the front.
- Massive side profile
+ High mounted torso weapons
- Low mounted arm weapons
+Arm actuators
- Limited arm space for weapons due to arm actuators
+ Lots of hardpoints
- Many hardpoints stacked in right torso, pushing you into more smaller weapons
These are an interesting mix of pro/cons that balance out well and make for a distinctive mech. The problem is that they just don't scale to the Marauder II properly.
1) The Marauder II is so large that the hitboxes are still easy to isolate, even from the front. It does better than the Atlas or Fafnir when facing the target, but doesn't have the other defensive advantages of those mechs, and still has the giant side torso.
2) The high mounted torso weapons are nice, but again the mech is SO large that having the top dorsal gun often just means you can't get cover.
3) The limited arm space means you cannot run 20 size ballistic weapons in the arms. The IIC can, and the regular Marauder is a heavy that isn't running such large weapons anyhow. This problem is partly due to IS slot size on some of these weapons, and also just an oversight of the marauder's pros/cons. Inherently, the idea of having mobile arms with slightly smaller guns is fine, but in practice it means that they can't carry as much firepower as other 100 tonners, which is also partially due to....
4) Weapon hardpoints are limited compared to other 100 tonners. The Annihilator and Fafnir can run 4x BS weapons, or 2x big BS weapons. The marauder can do neither. Most variants only have 2 BS hardpoints, and those are either in the arms or both in the right torso. The Hero has 4, but they are ALL in the arms. It can't even do 4x UAC5 due to the actuators.
5) Quirks are generally unimpressive compared to other 100 ton mechs like the Anni and Fafnir.
So we can see that just scaling the marauder recipe up to 100 tons doesn't work because of things like slot limits, that are generally outside the considered design space. In other words, things that weren't a problem at 75 tons become a severe limitation at 100tons that other 100ton mechs don't face.
How can this be fixed, while still keeping the Marauder II distinctive from other 100 tonners, and still feeling like a Marauder?
A) Make it a LOT smaller. A volumetric rescale of most mechs would be nice, but the Marauder II needs to get proportionally smaller compared to the others too.
Improve agility. To be consistent with the usual IS vs Clan dynamic, it could have agility similar to the IIC.
C) The hardpoints could be made more flexible by splitting them between the side torsos more evenly, or by making the arm actuators optional. But this interferes with the spirit of the Marauder. Instead, give it some powerful quirks. Give some big bonuses on the large BS weapons so that the variants that can run only a single one of these in the right torso can still get good mileage out of it.
D) Also give some nice quirks to encourage the use of the arm weapons. The marauder is paying a high price for those arms in their slot limitations, and their poor mount height. So whatever is going into them needs to be worth it. Give a reason to do something other than some medium lasers. At the moment, when you know an anni or fafnir is right around the corner, you think "Oh s***, that thing could round the corner any second and blast me away! Get ready to hit a side torso!" The Marauder II should also inspire some fear. Like the Madcat II, people should be learning to prioritize taking its arms off to reduce its firepower. Heck, you could probably do something like 15% coldown and -10% heat for arm mounted weapons. That would be some distinct flavor!
E) Since its running less big guns than other equivalent mechs, give them all quirks to help efficiency. 10% heat (like the fafnir) would fit. Perhaps more. Maybe some small quality of life stuff like 10-15% accel+decel.
F) Change Structure quirks to armor, and make them even stronger on the side torsos. Those things are so easy to hit, they should be seen as big shields. Make it so that the efficient move when fighting a marauder II is to kill its arms (like the Madcat II) or go straight for center torso where its not as tough (but is harder to hit.) This will make fighting it different from other 100 tonners.
Overall, the idea should be that the Marauder II's niche is sustained and efficient firepower, but without the alpha strike of other 100 ton mechs. Decent agility, and defense comparable to an Atlas if you twist and shield right, but weaker if you don't (or if the enemy has really good aim.) Versatile loadouts with the advantages against smaller mechs that arm actuators give, but doesn't have the raw brawling power of the Annihilator, Fafnir, or Atlas.
Edited by Heavy Money, 11 March 2021 - 02:42 PM.
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Son of the Flood, on 09 March 2021 - 04:24 PM, said:
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