266 replies to this topic

[Kodan Black]

Once more I shall request that in a future update we be able to set override to on/off via user preference setting so that I do not need to hit "o" at the start of every single match.

[pattonesque]

Roodkapje, on 23 August 2021 - 06:22 AM, said:

Please explain the joke...

Back in the day, before it got left behind by other mechs and higher alphas and the like, the Centurion was considered an extremely tanky brawler. You'd bring out the -A with 3SRM6A and two MLs and if you were good at twisting players would have to chew through the entire right-hand side of your mech before they could actually degrade your ability to fight.

Survivability buffs will hopefully bring it back to somewhere near that level

[C337Skymaster]

Navid A1, on 23 August 2021 - 05:48 AM, said:

Comparisons are made between moving the big dish from one place to another, not comparing it with 20 smaller ones (Your view of efficiency is also debatable... it's not just data transfer volume, it's power requirement and signal to noise)... so yeah, you gotta accept that you gonna move around that giant mass around.

Also it's funny that you think the walls are defensive.... you know in a low gravity environment against battlemechs that have jump jets. It's not a medieval castle. That massive dish overlooking the base is in no bigger danger than before. If destroying the hub was an objective you would not send mechs, you nuke it from orbit. And capturing the hub is through its control center, not mechs humping the antenna.

Interestingly, most antennas of these type are often placed in the middle of nowhere to minimize interference... so... even being on the outside like that is no ideal... it has to be a kilometer or so away from the base. But we have to accept compromises for the sake of visuals.

Overall... it's all in your head... You think too much about power conduits and less about playing the game.

Walls like that are defensive, or they don't exist. Whether they're tall enough, or not: walls are never tall enough. That's a universality about walls. If those were just going to be office buildings, they would have been a much more uniform height, uniformly distributed around the installation. If they need to maintain a safety radius from the dish, then they start there and spread outwards, but still maintain a lower height over a wider area. You don't build a ring-wall unless its purpose is to keep things out.

As for "low gravity environment", I wish. It'd make more sense if it was, but PGI seems to know less than Activision of 1995, and all of their maps are 1g.

And you think too much about your next competitive match and too little about whether a map looks appropriate or makes sense given what it supposedly represents. If all we care about, now, is that there are ramps everywhere and the map is evenly balanced, and we don't give a **** about what it actually looks like, then we might as well go back to the rainbow colored test-maps and stop kidding ourselves that we're trying to create interesting visuals, because the reworked maps look like dog crap compared to what they're supposed to be and what they used to look like, due to the artificiality of the ramps, and the fact that there are ramps EVERYWHERE. Canyon Network looks Bulldozed and Graded for crying out loud. There's nothing natural about that. I'd rather have a photo-realistic copy of the North Dakota Badlands, or even shallower parts of the Grand Canyon, than a recreation of the local playground sandbox.

As for one big antenna vs 20 smaller ones: I'm taking that straight from NASA: they literally build arrays of 20, 30, even 40 smaller antennas so they can get better resolution of deep space signals, rather than building a single giant antenna that can do the same job, because the physical stresses are exponentially less, and the overall maintenance cost is significantly less as a result.

[C337Skymaster]

Kodan Black, on 23 August 2021 - 06:54 AM, said:

Once more I shall request that in a future update we be able to set override to on/off via user preference setting so that I do not need to hit "o" at the start of every single match.

Honestly, "override" is supposed to be hit each and every time you go over 100%, and not be this universal setting that you select at the start of a match. You're supposed to get hit with an auto-shutdown, then override THAT shutdown. If you get another auto-shutdown, you override THAT shutdown. At some point, if you go high enough overheat, you can't override, and your computer forces a reactor shutdown.

The best way to implement this is to decrease the override interval depending on how far overheat you are. If you go only a couple percent over, you get 5 seconds or so to override before you actually shut down (none of this 100.001% and you're offline). As you go higher, the time interval decreases until you hit whatever the cap is (in the original rules it was 30 points of heat over what your heat sinks could dissipate in 10 seconds, but that would probably be adjusted for balance), at which point you auto-shutdown without a chance to override.

In the interim, you also lose mobility and weapon accuracy, and start running the risk of cooking off your ammunition, if you have any. That's how heat works in Battletech, and is one of the major missing balancing factors in this game that is contributing to making laser boats too powerful.

[Kodan Black]

Yeah, I played tabletop starting in the mid-80s so I'm aware of the historical background... but your suggestion is more significant and thus seems less likely to be something they have the resources to handle. I'm going with the "if we have few resources this basically gets the job done" suggestion. If a heat management overhaul is within scope that would be awesome, but lacking that since we've already tossed lore aside I'd love to have us implement this slight tweak to make it a more pleasant user experience.

[MechNexus]

C337Skymaster, on 23 August 2021 - 07:29 AM, said:

And you think too much about your next competitive match and too little about whether a map looks appropriate or makes sense given what it supposedly represents. If all we care about, now, is that there are ramps everywhere and the map is evenly balanced, and we don't give a **** about what it actually looks like, then we might as well go back to the rainbow colored test-maps and stop kidding ourselves that we're trying to create interesting visuals, because the reworked maps look like dog crap compared to what they're supposed to be and what they used to look like, due to the artificiality of the ramps, and the fact that there are ramps EVERYWHERE. Canyon Network looks Bulldozed and Graded for crying out loud. There's nothing natural about that. I'd rather have a photo-realistic copy of the North Dakota Badlands, or even shallower parts of the Grand Canyon, than a recreation of the local playground sandbox.

As for one big antenna vs 20 smaller ones: I'm taking that straight from NASA: they literally build arrays of 20, 30, even 40 smaller antennas so they can get better resolution of deep space signals, rather than building a single giant antenna that can do the same job, because the physical stresses are exponentially less, and the overall maintenance cost is significantly less as a result.

Hokaie, so:
Firstly, making sure the map is actually fun to fight on takes priority over looks. This is one reason why maps like blood run, campgrounds, deck17, dust2, and blood gulch are so enduring - they focused on being a fun place to fight, and any flavour came afterwards. Tunnelvisioning on lore when making a map leads to a bad map.

Also, it's a hpg, not a conventional radar dish. I'm not sure if stuff applying to radar dishes is appropriate, considering they need to open a micro wormhole to send signals through. Conventional wisdom may not apply.

Edited by MechNexus, 23 August 2021 - 08:02 AM.

[TercieI]

Y'all feel free to start the sale early so we can get a jump on building stuff.

[Saved By The Bell]

Give us old maps, people will take they want...

[Daeron Katz]

TercieI, on 23 August 2021 - 11:14 AM, said:

Y'all feel free to start the sale early so we can get a jump on building stuff.

Matt is working on this as we speak!

[TercieI]

Daeron Katz, on 23 August 2021 - 11:24 AM, said:

Matt is working on this as we speak!

[YiffyInAJiffy]

I JUST SAW THE MISSLE DOOR CHANGE THAT IS SO DAMN COOL THANKYOU FOR INCLUDING IT!

as a man who owns an uncomfortable amount of catapults I am PSYCHED

[justcallme A S H]

C337Skymaster, on 23 August 2021 - 07:29 AM, said:

Spoiler

Walls like that are defensive, or they don't exist. Whether they're tall enough, or not: walls are never tall enough. That's a universality about walls. If those were just going to be office buildings, they would have been a much more uniform height, uniformly distributed around the installation. If they need to maintain a safety radius from the dish, then they start there and spread outwards, but still maintain a lower height over a wider area. You don't build a ring-wall unless its purpose is to keep things out.

As for "low gravity environment", I wish. It'd make more sense if it was, but PGI seems to know less than Activision of 1995, and all of their maps are 1g.

And you think too much about your next competitive match and too little about whether a map looks appropriate or makes sense given what it supposedly represents. If all we care about, now, is that there are ramps everywhere and the map is evenly balanced, and we don't give a **** about what it actually looks like, then we might as well go back to the rainbow colored test-maps and stop kidding ourselves that we're trying to create interesting visuals, because the reworked maps look like dog crap compared to what they're supposed to be and what they used to look like, due to the artificiality of the ramps, and the fact that there are ramps EVERYWHERE. Canyon Network looks Bulldozed and Graded for crying out loud. There's nothing natural about that. I'd rather have a photo-realistic copy of the North Dakota Badlands, or even shallower parts of the Grand Canyon, than a recreation of the local playground sandbox.

As for one big antenna vs 20 smaller ones: I'm taking that straight from NASA: they literally build arrays of 20, 30, even 40 smaller antennas so they can get better resolution of deep space signals, rather than building a single giant antenna that can do the same job, because the physical stresses are exponentially less, and the overall maintenance cost is significantly less as a result.

MechWarrior and Battletech is set it a fictional universe with fictional mechs and fictional everything else 1000 years from now etc etc etc. Let's just put it down to Alienz and move on. Otherwise all this just seems like arguing for arguments sake.




Anyway great to see the updated patch notes in the OP, although a little confusing as this thread 7 pages already.

Conquest for Faction more tickets.
Missile bay door delay.
ECM fix for newer players.


All huge wins!

[TercieI]

justcallme A S H, on 23 August 2021 - 01:41 PM, said:

Conquest for Faction more tickets.
Missile bay door delay.
ECM fix for newer players.


All huge wins!

Holy cow, yeah, those are all great.

Also, just saw the unlocking of CAP on MLX. Every bit of tonnage available on a tonnage starved mech is welcome.

[-Ramrod-]

Gotta say I like most everything on this patch. A few mechs that I like using that very few people do got some much needed love. I'm looking forward to the new HPG. Though I'd love it if the old HPG was kept in rotation for just a little more variety in maps. No reason to junk it.

[MechNexus]

-Ramrod-, on 23 August 2021 - 03:37 PM, said:

Though I'd love it if the old HPG was kept in rotation for just a little more variety in maps. No reason to junk it.

This defeats the purpose of a rework.

[-Ramrod-]

MechNexus, on 23 August 2021 - 03:42 PM, said:

This defeats the purpose of a rework.

Normally I'd say yes but it would satisfy those whom may not like the new HPG. And desire the old HPG to play as well. Seems like more of a middle ground. Doesn't make the new HPG worthless at all. Maps like Terra Therma is an example of a reworked map in which many people desire the old map to be in rotation as well. Perhaps do not keep the old HPG in the rotation for a while.

Edited by -Ramrod-, 23 August 2021 - 03:54 PM.

[MechNexus]

-Ramrod-, on 23 August 2021 - 03:54 PM, said:

Normally I'd say yes but it would satisfy those whom may not like the new HPG. And desire the old HPG to play as well. Seems like more of a middle ground. Doesn't make the new HPG worthless at all. Maps like Terra Therma is an example of a reworked map in which many people desire the old map to be in rotation as well. Perhaps do not keep the old HPG in the rotation for a while.

I dont know how else to tell you that fixing a map's flaws then leaving the previous, flawed version ingame is a horrible idea.

[HammerMaster]

ECM
Currently, one of the shortcomings of ECM is its minimal effect (in terms of enemy radar detection range) versus its tonnage cost. To compensate for such a small effect, Mechs often need to spend a large number of skill nodes in order to bring their ECM to a baseline functionality. Considering the fact that mechs with ECM often get fewer performance enhancing quirks, this is particularly punishing to new players who choose their first ECM mech with no skill nodes unlocked. To improve upon this issue, this patch is shifting a portion of the ECM performance from the skill tree to the base stats of the ECM module.

ECM (Clan and IS):

• Enemy radar range reduction increased to 50% (from 30%)

Skill Tree: Enhanced ECM Nodes

• Enemy radar range reduction decreased to 12.5% (from 22.5%)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


OR MAYBE STOP MAKING IT PERFORM OUT OF IT'S ORIGINAL SCOPE AND do what it does in the BOOKS!
Nothing to do with radar and everything to do with shutting down ARTEMIS NOT MAKING LITTLE LIGHTS INVISIBLE. That's for stealth.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/ECM_Suite
https://www.sarna.ne...i/Stealth_Armor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Missile Hardpoint Doors
Missile doors in MechWarrior Online are one of the unique features only available on a limited number of mechs. Missile doors, when closed, offer extra durability in their associated components by providing a received damage reduction effect (currently 20%). While this is an interesting and useful feature, it’s implementation leaves quite a bit to be desired. Currently, closed missile doors introduce a long firing delay between every trigger press. This often creates confusion (mostly for new players) and has a detrimental effect on gameplay especially when used with short and medium ranged missiles, or cases when losing missile locks can be imminent. A workaround to eliminate this delay is currently opening the doors manually which turns off the damage reduction effect, and in some cases can give away your mech’s position through extended geometry.

In order to make this feature better suited to its purpose, this patch is eliminating the firing delay for missile doors. The missiles will fire immediately after trigger press and doors will open right away, and stay open for a second, before going back to a closed state. This will maintain the doors protective properties while eliminating the detrimental effect from gameplay. It is noted that during the limited time the doors are open when missiles are being fired, protective effects will be off, before doors are closed again.

The following mechs are affected by this change:
Stalker - Archer - Catapult - Dervish - Hellspawn - Kintaro

Changes:

• Missile door firing delay changed to 0.0 (from 0.5)
  
• Missile doors now stay open for 1.25 seconds after firing (from currently ~4 seconds on different mechs)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Great.

BUT.
Archer needs to have the doors changed to sideways opening. NOT top opening. It's too large and anyone with half a brain cell wouldn't have implemented it that way. And this is coming from someone carrying a torch for lore.
</p>

I give no craps about HPG. It can't be worse.

Edited by HammerMaster, 23 August 2021 - 04:38 PM.

[MavadoG]

Question! Not related to this patch, but will we ever be able to work in the mechlab while we're waiting for matchmaking? Sure would be nice to customize mechs (even if the currently selected mech is locked) and do stuff instead of just watching the 'Searching' circle spin round and round. (especially when playing in a pair/group which can take forever to match)

[-Ramrod-]

MechNexus, on 23 August 2021 - 04:12 PM, said:

I dont know how else to tell you that fixing a map's flaws then leaving the previous, flawed version ingame is a horrible idea.

Yes I understand your viewpoint and you're probably right. But I'm seeing alot of hate for it just in this thread alone. Let alone the people who don't follow the forums. And I realize that you cannot make everyone happy. But when there is a sizeable percentage of people decrying something...their voices should be heard too. People that put in time and money into this game. So I think a middle ground needs to be found because of it. And yes I know that you can't always find a middle ground...but I think sometimes there needs to be one. And my suggestion I feel is that middle ground.

Edited by -Ramrod-, 23 August 2021 - 04:34 PM.