220 replies to this topic

[w0qj]

1) They should change its name & call it:
Greater Dragon 1G

2) Reserve the "Great" for 7K !!
Great Dragon 7K

Will9761, on 20 February 2021 - 01:20 PM, said:

Thank you Daeron. I ask this because I know there are many people (including myself) who may not like the Grand Dragon 1G, so having the 7K variant as a Loyality Mech would be a nice incentive to buy the Stryker Pack or any other future mech pack of 2021.

Edited by w0qj, 20 February 2021 - 01:24 PM.

[FupDup]

Will9761, on 20 February 2021 - 01:20 PM, said:

Thank you Daeron. I ask this because I know there are many people (including myself) who may not like the Grand Dragon 1G, so having the 7K variant as a Loyality Mech would be a nice incentive to buy the Stryker Pack or any other future mech pack of 2021.

The moral of the story is that while there may be other swag on the side like a fancy .png image you can use on the forum, the meat and potatoes of packs like these will always be the mechs themselves. Good mechs are the key to driving sales.

w0qj, on 20 February 2021 - 01:23 PM, said:

1) They should change its name & call it:
Greater Dragon 1G

2) Reserve the "Great" for 7K !!
Great Dragon 7K

So what will the Greatest Dragon be?

[w0qj]

Pre-order placed for the Stryker Booster Pack!

1. It's the first change in the Store Premium Package page in 18+ months; a BIG thank you!!
http://mwomercs.com/store

2. Actually allowing players to "pre-order" for a full month after the introduction of Stryker Booster Pack is a sign of good will; much appreciated!

3) We do hope that the Dragon-1G would be buffed slightly, perhaps with one additional energy hard point.
Reduce the CT torso missile hard point down to one if you need to.
(ie: Propose 5x Energy + 1x Missile hard points).
This would go a long way in alleviating the Dragon-1G DPS deficit as compared to other Dragon ballistic builds!

Edited by w0qj, 21 February 2021 - 01:33 AM.

[FupDup]

w0qj, on 20 February 2021 - 01:31 PM, said:

3) We do hope that the Dragon-1G would be buffed slightly, perhaps with one additional energy hard point.
Reduce the CT torso missile hard point down to one if you need to.
(ie: Propose 5x Energy + 1x Missile hard points).
This would go a long way in alleviating the Dragon-1G DPS deficit as compared to other Dragon ballistic builds!

If we really wanted to get crazy, it's technically already possible to use existing geometry plus the DRG-1G to get 7 energy hardpoints.

Right arm: Flame (2E)
Right torso: Grand Dragon (1E)
Left torso: DRG-1C (2E)
Left arm: Almost any variant (2E)

It would hardly be overpowered compared to other mechs, or even compared to other Dragons (the other Dragons got dakka DPS). But I guess 6 would be a more conservative number. 5 is the bare minimum.

[3RoyalStar1]

Well I’m certainly looking forward for the stuff to be injected into my account I haven’t preordered it yet but really looking forward!!
And is the grand dragon just gonna be another variant of the dragon or will it be a new chassis?

Edited by 3RoyalStar1, 20 February 2021 - 01:54 PM.

[FupDup]

3RoyalStar1, on 20 February 2021 - 01:53 PM, said:

Well I’m certainly looking forward for the stuff to be injected into my account I haven’t preordered it yet but really looking forward!!
And is the grand dragon just gonna be another variant of the dragon or will it be a new chassis?

It's just a new variant.

[T54ever]

Preorder placed

[My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ]

Looking into this more the new Tbolt will be made by it's stock mobility, if it has mobility like other Tbolts it'll be bad (the CTF-3L offers almost identical mobility stats if you want to see how bad it'd be). Is it worth losing the high RT mounts for ECM and a useless MASC? Hard to say, MASC buffs and it's mobility/quirks on release will make or break the variant.

The Grand Dragon is just bad. Either give it some more energy or move those missiles from CT to STs, I know it doesn't follow the design but it'll make it a pretty interesting mech to run.

[MisterSomaru]

One thing I would suggest for the Grand dragon is that we go with 6 energy hardpoints. It'll be less reliant on quirks, and the places they can be added already exist from other variants.

[Wraith 1]

So, the grand dragon has the same hardpoints as the QKD-4G, but in worse locations. The QKD-4G has:

• Comparable speed and agility to the Dragon
  
• Better hitboxes than the Dragon
  
• Jumpjets
  
• Structure quirks
  
• Massive cooldown quirks

And despite all that, the QKD-4G is still not a great mech—and the Grand Dragon, as is, will be worse.


Give it 8 energy in the right arm. No joke. Clans have several mechs that can run 12+ lasers for small/micro laser brawling builds, but there is nothing on the IS side with more than 9 energy, and IS SL, ERSL, and SPL are very rarely seen. This would fit well with the Dragon's identity in MWO: having good firepower for its speed and weight, but with most of that firepower being concentrated in the vulnerable right arm. This vulnerability, combined with the low weight of the Dragon limiting the possible number of heatsinks, would keep this hypothetical 11 energy Grand Dragon from outperfoming other IS mechs in mid-long range laservomit builds.

An IS small laser brawler would be actually exciting, if only because it's something new and fun. It likely wouldn't even beat a normal AC20/missile brawler, it's just weird that IS mechs seem to be banned from having more than 9 energy hardpoints.

[FupDup]

Wraith 1, on 20 February 2021 - 03:23 PM, said:

So, the grand dragon has the same hardpoints as the QKD-4G, but in worse locations. The QKD-4G has:

• Comparable speed and agility to the Dragon
  
• Better hitboxes than the Dragon
  
• Jumpjets
  
• Structure quirks
  
• Massive cooldown quirks

And despite all that, the QKD-4G is still not a great mech—and the Grand Dragon, as is, will be worse.

The Dragon at least has far better durability quirks and its hitboxes are somewhat XL-viable (Quickdraw cannot XL safely at all). The C-Bill Quickdraws have so little structure quirks that they may as well not have any at all.

As for cooldown quirks, all Dragon variants tend to have that too and more. Dragons have so many more weapon quirks than C-Bill Quickdraws.

The big fatal flaw of the Grand Dragon is the lack of hardpoints and the placement of them. The one thing that makes the Quickdraw 4G semi-playable is the ability to use a big MRM launcher. Otherwise the Quickdraw as a whole is a worse chassis than the Dragon (excluding the IV4 which was useless until the introduction of MRMs).

Edited by FupDup, 20 February 2021 - 03:43 PM.

[Navid A1]

You can get that dragon already in the game.

Look at Dragon-1C and Dragon-Flame.
Both FAR superior to this new grand dragon.

The Grand dragon needs to have 2 energy hardpoints in either both torsos or both arms.

[Alternate Aubergine]

FupDup, on 19 February 2021 - 06:46 PM, said:

IS Omnis next pl0x.

Q2 release will probably be the Stone Rhino

Navid A1, on 20 February 2021 - 03:53 PM, said:

You can get that dragon already in the game.

Look at Dragon-1C and Dragon-Flame.
Both FAR superior to this new grand dragon.

The Grand dragon needs to have 2 energy hardpoints in either both torsos or both arms.

quirks. Maybe, I dunno

Edited by Alternate Aubergine, 20 February 2021 - 04:12 PM.

[Foot Stomp]

Copy and paste mech with hard points moved around. Glad we waited years for this.

[FupDup]

Alternate Aubergine, on 20 February 2021 - 04:12 PM, said:

Q2 release will probably be the Stone Rhino

I hope not. The Clans already have plenty of assault Battlemechs and the Stoned Rhino is just gonna be a huge LRM-magnet.

Urbie IIC or bust.

[A21B]

im into dragons but im getting it for the thud, i cant wait to have one of those drop days when everyone is playing with there new toys. ecm and mask t-bolt, nice....

[VonBruinwald]

FupDup, on 20 February 2021 - 04:26 PM, said:

I hope not. The Clans already have plenty of assault Battlemechs and the Stoned Rhino is just gonna be a huge LRM-magnet.

Have you read the Gulag? They're nerfing LRM's as part of the release.

And people called me crazy.

[FupDup]

VonBruinwald, on 20 February 2021 - 04:46 PM, said:

Have you read the Gulag? They're nerfing LRM's as part of the release.

And people called me crazy.

[crazytimes]

VonBruinwald, on 20 February 2021 - 04:46 PM, said:

And people called me crazy.

Yeah, I get that a lot too.

[FLG 01]

Daeron Katz, on 20 February 2021 - 12:34 PM, said:

For the 400 GSP.

But in addition to that you get:

• 1 (S)pecial Thunderbolt 10SE variant with a 30% C-Bill boost
  
• 1 (S)pecial Grand Dragon 1G variant with a 30% C-Bill boost
  
• 1 Thunderbolt 10SE regular variant
  
• 1 Grand Dragon 1G regular variant
  
• 4 'Mech Bays
  
• 8 million C-Bills
  
• 2 Standing Cockpit Items
  
• 2 Warhorns
  
• 2 Hanging Cockpit Items w/ stackable 5% C-Bill boost
  
• Exclusive Bolt-ons for the (S)pecial variant 'Mechs
  
• and Themed Decal, Title, Badge, Bolt-on Flag

So C-Bills, GSP, MechBays, essentially two variants, and a bunch of deadwood that might or might not be attractive.

Veterans only need the new variants, and I doubt that would be the best Mechs for new players. That means vets get an overpriced package, and newbs get two variants with questionable performance plus a lot stuff to level them. Might be interesting for the latter, but not for me.
I don't need C-Bills, GSP, or MechBays, and the infantile cockpit items PGIs seems to prefer have rarely met my taste - especially since PGI tries hard to avoid anything that has any ties to the lore of the universe.

I would buy a slim and trim pack with the two new variants and Mechsbays for a lower price, but as it stands there is no way I will spend 20$ on stuff I largely do not need and do not care for.

Your list has been very illustrative in that regard, indeed.