Just some thoughts from reading this thread. They are in no particular order.
Weeny Machine, on 10 November 2023 - 10:11 AM, said:
The problem is that a lot of people don't like lighs and this is therefore a cherry on the cake. Especially for one certain vocal Cauldron member...
If you're referring to Data, he left the cauldron in September.
The purpose of the clan double heatsinks nerf proposal was to curb clan high alpha. Clan mechs being able to have extreme alpha strikes, sit back and cooldown, then poke and melt someone again. As of right now, clan midrange vomit is the strongest archetype in the game and we need to pull it back a bit. We're looking at other options as well, maybe a heat nerf on specific weapons rather than slapping clan double heatsinks.
There's no cauldron bias on inner sphere vs clan. I hate to say it, but anyone who thinks there is just doesn't really understand balance in MWO. Each tech base does have its strengths, mind you, but we're not sitting down going "okay we can't let X tech base be stronger than Y." If I was to say which tech base I thought was stronger for QP I'd say clans on average but there's also a lot of representation of both sides in S-Tier mechs.
We're nerfing coolshots in November patch to help curb high alphas. They'll give the same amount of cooling, but it'll be spread over 7 seconds instead of 4 seconds. It's actually pretty noticeable and a pretty big hit.
As for ECM, there have been technical blockers of hardcoded ECM stats that have been blocking Cauldron from truly being able to nerf them for years. I've recently identified core ECM stats that I'll be able to change for Cauldron a few weeks ago after digging through some of the code and variables(I'm an artist first so while I can change a few variables after making sure they're "safe" to edit, a full rework of ECM to make it less problematic is very much beyond me). So now it's just deliberating to find out what the best approach is, but I can assure you that an ECM nerf is coming. Probably more than one.
I wrote a Command Console rework for November patch that Cauldron approved. It rebrands the item to the Advanced Sensor Package, which is a modified targeting computer that gives boosts to sensors and a massive boost to how far a mech can zoom. Actually turns your mech into a telescope. I'm looking forward to it. Here's a writeup I wrote about it on discord.
One final thing: Lore is not an end all be all design guide. For single player or pve games, you can be fully true to the lore and have no real consequences. Especially when you have loot progression. For a single life pvp game like MWO, lore is actually an unbalanced mess. If you look back at the pvp sections of every other mechwarrior game, balance was unobtainable and TTK could be measured in milliseconds in some scenarios. As flawed as it is in some parts, in both current execution and in some cases even original mechanic design, MWO really is the closest mechwarrior pvp has ever been to balanced. So while the original lore and tabletop stats will always guide the vision and should be accepted in the broadest strokes, we cannot adapt it 1:1 and we'll always have to deviate pretty far in the name of an enjoyable and balanced game. As an avid tabletop player(more of other games than battletech though), tabletop balance never really converts to a realtime pvp in a sustainable manner.