The good people at PGI who are trying to keep the lights on with the events and community events. The Cauldron who have been the recent brains behind the weapon changes and additions.
The super casual T5 player who despite not being in the "big leagues" still plays this game year after year for the sake of Mech action.
We all want this game to continue and while it might not "flourish" .... it is still one of the most fleshed out Mech PVP games out there. Despite its flaws and shortcomings....we keep coming back for more.
That being said...there is a cancer eating at this game. Everywhere you go there is someone talking about how strong the current long range meta is. Where someone can load up an assault mech and just stand in one position and just....farm damage. With practical impunity because they have the range, armor, and firepower to beat most trades. I want to say half the time without even being seen, but that wouldn't be exactly accurate.
Now I will say until you see where they are firing from you don't usually know where they are until at least one full salvo is let loose. Which in this high alpha state of the game is highly detrimental and a huge advantage for the sniper. Then its a matter of just looking for the weapons fire....even if you are 700m away from em...
Now before you say the line "well you will never get rid of sniping so shut up." No...you are right. It will never go away. It is the SMART play in that you shoot them before they can even shoot back. I will never dispute that. We can help alleviate the problem. A bit.
(Also before you point out that the Cauldron are talking about nerfing Clan Double Heatsinks in December because of the high alphas....I know. That's all weapons though. I am going to defer....for now...with the thought process behind the weapon changes and adjustments from the Cauldron. Purely because they are more knowledgeable and know more of what is going on.)
Note: I do NOT agree with how HAGS are currently being handled at all, but changes are being made so lets see....(I am still of the mind of nerfing their range to HGauss levels...it would fix a LOT of problems and debate behind them.)
However. We need to do something to open this game up and work on balancing things other than point and click gameplay. We CAN do other things to make things better and strive for an actual Mech combat game. Not this world of tanks point and click knockoff we have now.
We have ZERO information warfare or support roles in the game.
LRMS and ATMS are a nightmare to play because of the current state of ECM coupled with Radar Deprivation.
Streaks are practically useless right now in a world dominated by ECM.
AMS has no incentive to be taken other than "destroy the bad LRMS" and events.
Command Consoles (why even exist at this point.)
I know. ANY lockon weapon is a slippery slope. They have the stigma around them for a reason. Even I hate getting bombarded by a ton of LRM boats. I don't know anyone who does like it.
I understand that we have ZERO dev time right now and probably never will again. So we need to try and get creative with what we CAN do.
What I suggest is this. No weapon adjustments for anything lockon....keep things as they are on the lockon weapon systems.
Start hitting the skill tree.
I suggest the following and I see NOTHING wrong with doing these two changes.
Because ECM cannot be "actually fixed" because we don't have spaghetti code dev time....Nerf the two skill tree nodes for both IS and Clan ECM skill nodes down to 10% per node. It would open up actual sensors in gameplay. Whether that needs to be nerfed further would come later. It would be a start though.
(I would suggest nerfing the ECM "bubble" down to 90m from 120m, but I think that might screw with a few other things too much....which would require dev time....which again we don't have.)
Radar Deprivation needs to be nerfed in the skill tree nodes to where it adds up to 75% total with all nodes. Not 95% which its currently at. The 5% nerf was supposedly to address an unintentional bug. However we have mechs with quirks of +20% radar deprivation which will put that "bug" back into play. Yes that's an extremely "fringe" case, but if you are doing that to remove an unintentional effect...why are we keeping the effect even slightly possible?
Not only that....but its so strong that honestly....3 nodes out of 5 in Radar Deprivation is already plenty to get enough benefit out of it.
The ECM skill node nerf is to open up sensors on the battlefield and actually get intel going. To see that which is around and to alleviate some of the nightmare of even trying to use LRMS/ATMS. (face it...they DO exist in the game and could use some help.)
It would help give information warfare.....something. (Information warfare will still not be viable...doesn't give enough rewards for incentive, or real benefit to the "farm" thought process.)
However, you cant deny that information can and does help the battle...no matter how you try to slice it. I have seen matches swing in a different direction just because of a vital piece of info.
I need to test it more, but initial testing of Radar Deprivation against Target Decay has RD completely overriding TD. Almost like TD doesn't even exist if you have it skilled. (This is probably more of a coding issue...which wont get fixed...which is why I am targeting the skills.) (I need to test this more honestly.)
AMS NEEDS incentive to take other than a sort of armor. (I say that cause even one missile destroyed is potential armor saved.) Give 1 or 2 cbills per missile destroyed (would fall in line with 1k missiles destroyed = 2k cbills.) Dunno if hard coding would be needed on that (probably) but its been an idea that's been going around for some time. Please....
(Bonus idea)
Before you knock this idea...hear me out. For starters I think everyone agrees that on a light mech speed is life. You always want a fast engine in one. Faster the better. You see a light mech running 120kph and its like ....ehhh ok. You see one going 80 and you lol.
Currently. You leg a mech and it goes to 40kph (or half of top speed....whichever is faster.) We cant get dev time to change that probably so I suggest this since currently anymore than one point in Speed Retention is useless since you are only taking it for the 50kph speed cap increase.
Change speed retention nodes to a 80kph speed cap over the three nodes (if possible.) Then nerf the 10% per node to 5%. OR just remove the speed cap (HIGHLY unlikely to be possible) and nerf the nodes to 5%.
A super fast light (just spitballing 160kph baseline without MASC) is knocked down to 80kph at half speed once legged. The current 40kph baseline speed cap is an immediate death sentence. For all mechs really. Its why legs are so beneficial to shoot at on ALL mechs (usually...given shaved armor on assaults and heavies.)
I don't think it would break anything with this change to speed retention, but it would give the last two nodes actual weight in usage since currently one point gives full benefit.
These are all thoughts and ideas I am thinking of while trying to get more balance into the game. I think there is a lot of "echo chambering" going on in the powers that be where its among a lot of like minded individuals who see their vision at the exclusion of anything outside of it. Someone points out that such and such is overpowered and they are immediately met with ridicule and snide remarks.
"get gud" comes to mind with that and while yes...there are some skill aspects to ALL of this....catering to one group doesn't benefit the game. At all. I have seen too many casual players point out that NONE of the current meta is fun or engaging. It is either A) you sit back and point and click or B ) you run a moderately fast mech and try and keep up. With A being the biggest culprit.
(I will concede that I think the biggest fear here are players worried about what constitutes as skill in this game being dumbed down to such an extent that its no longer fun for them. Totally understandable fear.)
But then again...sitting back farming damage while not being seen in QP against ungrouped pugs isn't that skillful to begin with honestly.
(Since I said that....yes groups are the BIGGEST problem for QP...but due to population that wont be fixed soon. So we gotta look at other things.)
I think I am just trying to get this game OUT of this current stagnation and get some variance into it. Getting hit multiple times from across the map and not seeing where it is coming from is getting extremely old. I think almost everyone who plays this thing casually can agree with it.
Shake things up. Get better balance going. Get other styles of gameplay into the mix other than a point and click shooter. Hell if we can actually get a population increase because balance starts happening then it might start fixing the actual issue (soup que.)
I dunno. These changes make sense. They are logical. And it would help the game. Not saying these are end all be all changes....but it would help.
Edited by Moadebe, 07 November 2023 - 10:10 PM.