122 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

CAULDRON FEEDBACK AND INFO

Greetings MechWarriors!

We receive regular inquiries from players about how to get feedback to the Cauldron, the player-run group of members who have been working with Piranha to balance MechWarrior Online over the last few years, and who also provide input on new 'Mechs, maps, and weapons.

We at Piranha very much appreciate the hard work and consistent effort they have put towards improving a game that we all love so much. We know that you care about the game as much as the Cauldron does - as we receive your feedback daily through email, forums, and social media - and that many of you would like to be more involved, or get more insight into the process that leads to balance decisions.

The best place to communicate with Cauldron members, and provide feedback or just discuss the game with other engaged players, is via the Official Cauldron Feedback Discord server here: https://discord.gg/p8aYgdKC24

This will be a great place to go to provide feedback as previously mentioned, but it will also be a great place to get news on upcoming patches, and lots more. You don't even have to participate in the discussions if you just want to hang around and see what's happening with the ongoing balance and updates to MechWarrior Online.

[Ralph Edwards]

I know that as with any balancing or group that tweaks the functions of the game, there will always be decisions players question. On the dev side I also know you can not please everyone. The player base for battletech and Mechwarrior games are also very passionate, myself included.

I prefer lore accurate designs and builds. I know this is not for everyone. There will always be the players who min/max everything and want to install delete or gib or whatever another player. Since the cauldron has been assisting the balance of this game, I have been able to play a mostly lore accurate mech and perform well in it fairly consistently. Yes I change armor values and sometimes add heatsinks so I can play in a map but the weapons are at least accurate if not always in the right places.

I do appreciate what the cauldron and pgi is doing but it feels that a large chunk of this year has been dedicated to reducing time to kill. In tier 3 down , you can round a corner and bang you are dead. Is there any plan on increasing the time to kill?

[Navid A1]

We try to keep stock load outs in mind (or Stock+) in balance as much as we can.

Regarding Time to kill, yes. It's been an ongoing discussion for a few months, and you'll begin to see changes trickling in with some weapon and equipment changes that try to make high alphas more punishing.

[and zero]

Can less skilled & experienced players still participate in the discord discussions?

Navid A1, on 20 November 2023 - 02:28 PM, said:

We try to keep stock load outs in mind (or Stock+) in balance as much as we can.

Regarding Time to kill, yes. It's been an ongoing discussion for a few months, and you'll begin to see changes trickling in with some weapon and equipment changes that try to make high alphas more punishing.

I do feel like increased time to kill would make the game more fun and also more, well, mechwarrior. Massive war machines should feel a bit more durable.

Also please forgive me for a minor de-rail but I was literally just a second ago reading a comment you made back in May talking about buffing the Juggernaut. I hope that still happens eventually

Edited by and zero, 20 November 2023 - 03:00 PM.

[Chickenman919]

I want to be a cauldron man when I grow up

[Mechwarrior2342356]

I don't even know what feedback you WANT. You'll do what you do regardless of whichever one of us disagrees. I'm at least fully aware that this isn't some kind of democratic endeavor. Go ask the Blue Sea maybe.

Only feedback I'd care to give at this point is that I disagree with the TDR10SE change, and I know you don't give a damn and never will.

Edited by the check engine light, 20 November 2023 - 03:40 PM.

[Frost_Byte]

Starting in December we plan on slowing time to kill. The first is probably a clan double heatsink nerf. But most of cauldron is aware of time to kill quickening to the point of becoming a problem. We just wanted to avoid radical changes to the meta until Champion Series is over.

and zero, on 20 November 2023 - 02:59 PM, said:

Can less skilled & experienced players still participate in the discord discussions?



I do feel like increased time to kill would make the game more fun and also more, well, mechwarrior. Massive war machines should feel a bit more durable.

Also please forgive me for a minor de-rail but I was literally just a second ago reading a comment you made back in May talking about buffing the Juggernaut. I hope that still happens eventually

It did! We gave it RAC 2 HSL in the summer, it's actually pretty good with 4 RAC2 4 LMGs now.

[Frost_Byte]

the check engine light, on 20 November 2023 - 03:36 PM, said:

I don't even know what feedback you WANT. You'll do what you do regardless of whichever one of us disagrees. I'm at least fully aware that this isn't some kind of democratic endeavor. Go ask the Blue Sea maybe.

Only feedback I'd care to give at this point is that I disagree with the TDR10SE change, and I know you don't give a damn and never will.

We have taken feedback before from players and incorporated into the game. Scorch buffs were almost entirely player driven, and they were a pretty heavily asked for change. That Uziel Belial with 270% MRM velocity(or something like that) actually came from a member of the feedback server as well. I believe it was Sir Epic Pwner? Not sure.

As for the Thunderbolt 10SE, we buffed it? I actually played it recently, it farms a fair bit better with the general cooldown quirk. The loss of armor can be lamented, but it does have more effective health now.

[Grizzly_Mach]

the check engine light, on 20 November 2023 - 03:36 PM, said:

I don't even know what feedback you WANT. You'll do what you do regardless of whichever one of us disagrees. I'm at least fully aware that this isn't some kind of democratic endeavor. Go ask the Blue Sea maybe.

Only feedback I'd care to give at this point is that I disagree with the TDR10SE change, and I know you don't give a damn and never will.

please point on the doll where the cauldron men hurt you

[Navid A1]

the check engine light, on 20 November 2023 - 03:36 PM, said:

I don't even know what feedback you WANT. You'll do what you do regardless of whichever one of us disagrees. I'm at least fully aware that this isn't some kind of democratic endeavor. Go ask the Blue Sea maybe.

Only feedback I'd care to give at this point is that I disagree with the TDR10SE change, and I know you don't give a damn and never will.

Most of the posts I've seen from you is complaining about TDR-10SE and the things that was done to it.
What do you have a problem with?
Last I remember it was given more HP in the torsos, more heat dissipation, universal cooldown instead of just missile.
Am I missing something here or did it lose something in the process that was not supposed to?


Also regarding feedback. Do you think Cauldron is one person?
There hasn't been a change that hasn't had months of arguments behind it with people disagreeing and having 10 different opinions.
It's not some evil cabal. It's a small sample of the community. And the discord server that was linked has been a main source of many of the recent changes.

Edited by Navid A1, 20 November 2023 - 04:24 PM.

[and zero]

Frost_Byte, on 20 November 2023 - 04:08 PM, said:

Starting in December we plan on slowing time to kill. The first is probably a clan double heatsink nerf. But most of cauldron is aware of time to kill quickening to the point of becoming a problem. We just wanted to avoid radical changes to the meta until Champion Series is over.

It did! We gave it RAC 2 HSL in the summer, it's actually pretty good with 4 RAC2 4 LMGs now.

Oh dear 0.0 before buying it as my first Legendary I searched through every patch after reading the cauldron comment I mentioned and I guess I somehow missed it so I was expecting a Christmas buff. Well I still love the mech so it’s ok but I will continue hoping for further buffs xD An ammo quirk would help a ton (heh) with its space issues and more importantly, literally every death I have I lose both side torsos and then survive for a while or even until the end of the match.

It would feel much more like a juggernaut with a machine gun or two in the CT to keep firing a gun during that glorious last stand. Instead of just prancing around staring menacingly. Anyway that’s my jugg pitch. Thanks for your reply and for listening. I’ll try the build you mentioned next (is that with a light engine or smaller standard?) and also looking forward to increased time to kill for more drawn out, cinematic mech battles. Makes perfect sense to avoid major changes during tournaments.

Edited by and zero, 20 November 2023 - 04:52 PM.

[GetinmyBellah]

Discord? What is this evil lament you speak of? So, yeah. Good hunting <S>

[A21B]

back in the hey day there was such a thing as running out of ammo so you brought back up lasers i see with this patch your encouraging boating. lasers need heat sinks missiles need ammo as well as ballistics giving more ammo per ton imo is not the way to go. i like that pgi is constantly keeping the game fresh but when you guys buff something what is the drawback? in most cases its nothing. i feel strongly that if you make a weapon more powerful there should be a negative drawback, like more heat or longer cool down. also big guns should be close range. hags should be for brawling not sniping

[Voice of Kerensky]

I hope that someday PGI (first of all) and Cauldron will understand that increasing time to kill largely depends on the quality of team selection.
As long as you save groups in the solo QP, all your attempts to improve the quality of matches and increase time to kill will be in vain.

[Void Angel]

Frost_Byte, on 20 November 2023 - 04:08 PM, said:

Starting in December we plan on slowing time to kill. The first is probably a clan double heatsink nerf.

Holy salt mines, Batman! This'll be fun!

[The6thMessenger]

A21B, on 20 November 2023 - 05:18 PM, said:

back in the hey day there was such a thing as running out of ammo so you brought back up lasers i see with this patch your encouraging boating. lasers need heat sinks missiles need ammo as well as ballistics giving more ammo per ton imo is not the way to go. i like that pgi is constantly keeping the game fresh but when you guys buff something what is the drawback? in most cases its nothing. i feel strongly that if you make a weapon more powerful there should be a negative drawback, like more heat or longer cool down. also big guns should be close range. hags should be for brawling not sniping

As much as I agree with the scarcity of ammo, and using lasers as a backup, the reality is that it's a PvP game, and it's not fun to have a paper-weight of an equipment.

In here it honestly doesn't really have much purpose beyond just tax on top of an already heavy weapon system as counterpart to Heat-Sinks on Lasers, that makes tonnage-starved mechs less likely to use them -- why do you think they needed ammo quirks at all to make heavy-ballistic lights such as the Urbie tolerable?

I'd rather they have "ammo"-gauge as counterpart to heat-gauge, Ammo-Draw: a gauge that is consumed and prevents firing when empty, but replenishes overtime that makes ammo basically infinite; with weapons consuming at different-rates and ammo-bins reduce ammo-consumption.

But yeah, no engineering on MWO. So that's just a pipe-dream.

Edited by The6thMessenger, 20 November 2023 - 06:49 PM.

[Utsuho Reiuzi]

I'm mostly happy with the cauldron as stands, with my only real complaint being the over-abundance of armor instead of structure (making crits feel increasingly worse). Otherwise I feel like they at least try, even if sometimes the decisions don't fully hit the mark they do go back and redo things.

...Could the Scattershot also get like, just a small bit of love please? Just a bit. Not a huge amount, just someething.

[Mechwarrior2342356]

Navid A1, on 20 November 2023 - 04:21 PM, said:

Most of the posts I've seen from you is complaining about TDR-10SE and the things that was done to it.
What do you have a problem with?
Last I remember it was given more HP in the torsos, more heat dissipation, universal cooldown instead of just missile.
Am I missing something here or did it lose something in the process that was not supposed to?


Also regarding feedback. Do you think Cauldron is one person?
There hasn't been a change that hasn't had months of arguments behind it with people disagreeing and having 10 different opinions.
It's not some evil cabal. It's a small sample of the community. And the discord server that was linked has been a main source of many of the recent changes.

It lost a velocity quirk, which I rather liked and had grown accustomed to the presence of. The location of the 3 E hardpoints was pretty nice for PPCs, the missile rack was remarkably unobtrusive to the hitboxes (compare mounting an MRM40 in it to mounting one in a Battlemaster) and it lined up really well with those torso E hardpoints as well.

[Lionheart2012]

the check engine light, on 20 November 2023 - 06:55 PM, said:

It lost a velocity quirk, which I rather liked and had grown accustomed to the presence of. The location of the 3 E hardpoints was pretty nice for PPCs, the missile rack was remarkably unobtrusive to the hitboxes (compare mounting an MRM40 in it to mounting one in a Battlemaster) and it lined up really well with those torso E hardpoints as well.

So the geometry hasn't changed to the TDR-10SE, which means all of this vitriol is about a velocity quirk? Wow!!!

[Mechwarrior2342356]

Lionheart2012, on 20 November 2023 - 07:28 PM, said:

So the geometry hasn't changed to the TDR-10SE, which means all of this vitriol is about a velocity quirk? Wow!!!

The missile cooldown was 15 percent, it got taken out and replaced with a generic 10 percent. After skill nodes MRM30 and SNPPC cooldowns were pretty close to each other - not perfectly synced but closer than they would be now. The loss of the velocity quirk was noticeable with PPCs.

It's the quirking equivalent of someone slipping a small sharp pebble into your shoe. I didn't even realize they had requirked it in that patch until I dropped in it and realized it felt WRONG. Went back to mechlab and checked, then looked at patchnotes again. Sure enough.

Edited by the check engine light, 20 November 2023 - 07:56 PM.