DAEDALOS513, on 19 October 2021 - 10:40 AM, said:
Yes I realize it was all planned out early on.. some of the buffs were good but most of them are overlapping and we are ending up over-buffing already strong mechs.. I really don't want to get into it again for the umpteenth time but it was my contention from the beginning that we could have achieved the same effect of weapon diversity without mega-buffing 90% of weapons but instead, nerfing a few of the outlier (over-performing) weapons and going from there.
What already strong mechs have received buffs? You may not want to get into it again, but you're making claims that don't match up with what has actually occurred.
DAEDALOS513, on 19 October 2021 - 10:40 AM, said:
Maybe putting more of a focus on applying mech-specific quirks (weapon/armor/etc) for mechs that underperform due to bad hitboxes and/or mounts... instead, we're buffing the weapons AND the mech. This not only buffs the weak mech, but ALSO the strong mechs that already had good mounts/hitboxes.. See how we're chasing our tails? We are in a never-ending cycle of buffing.
They are putting the focus on under performing mechs though?
Underperforming weapons were buffed to match the better performing weapons. I suppose that created some situations where mechs that were good were then able to run more builds. There's no reason to be bothered about that though. If they had buffed already high performing mechs, that would be an issue. But I'm not aware of that having actually happened.
DAEDALOS513, on 19 October 2021 - 10:40 AM, said:
Anther change that could have helped was adding some splash damage so things aren't so pin-point punishing. Remember, we still need more players to fill the player base.. player retention is an uphill battle when you die or get seriously rekt within the first 2 minutes of a match.
Like they did for snubs? They reduced pinpoint when it was too high and gave it splash instead.
New players getting rekt fast is primarily a matter of positioning, not a specific weapon or damage type.
There has also been lots of changes to allow spread weapons to perform better compared to pinpoint.
DAEDALOS513, on 19 October 2021 - 10:40 AM, said:
Still not sure why we nerfed streaks when they were rarely used and only on certain niche mechs.. don't think anyone really understood that one.
Because they were doing giant alphas that could cripple a light in one hit. Sure, they were over-nerfed and need more attention. But they were too polarized of a weapon before. All lockon weapons right now are a bit subpar because, due to the nature of lockons, they tend to be too strong or too weak and they've chosen too weak as the lesser evil. They can't be properly fixed until we have the new studio working on the code, because the real way to fix lockons of all types requires the ability to alter things like lock speed.
DAEDALOS513, on 19 October 2021 - 10:40 AM, said:
But anyway, the argument that nerfing weapons makes the game less fun doesn't make sense either because power is RELATIVE. ie. everyone has to use the same weapons so relatively speaking you're fire-power hasn't gone down.. the only difference is pilot skill becomes more important and TTK will should go up.
I actually agree with you here. I'm not convinced that buffing everything to match the highest performance weapons instead of nerfing just those was the correct way to go. But I do remember the community discussing this, and I certainly had the impression of a consensus that people didn't want any nerfs. So, maybe it was the wrong general policy. But, accepting that this policy has been chosen, the balance decisions made since then are all very internally consistent.
You are describing a phenomenon of powerful things getting more powerful and creating a power creep cycle, but I just don't think this is happening. Weaker things have been buffed, and that's about it. If you want to convince people of your main point, please provide examples of mechs/loadouts that were already very good getting significant buffs.
Edited by Heavy Money, 19 October 2021 - 02:48 PM.