112 replies to this topic

[Void Angel]

Vxheous, on 20 November 2023 - 09:41 PM, said:

You have it backwards. Armour quirks is always better than structure, since you can't get your equipment critted out when you still have armour. Back when PGI increased survival by adding structure quirks and not armour, you could often "live" longer, but literally have no weapons to use to actually fight with (which makes the whole living part pretty useless). Having more armour quirks now means you live longer and have the weapons to fight longer.

I really want to exchange my Thunderbolts' structure quirks for armor. =]

[Void Angel]

PS: They're not nerfing heat sinks, buddy. They're nerfing Clan heat sinks, DHS in particular. You know, the ones powering all the insane laser vomit? Those heat quirks are largely an attempt to let Inner Sphere chassis keep up - nerfing the source of the issue and then rebalancing from there will probably be a better solution.

[An6ryMan69]

Void Angel, on 21 November 2023 - 04:30 PM, said:

PS: They're not nerfing heat sinks, buddy. They're nerfing Clan heat sinks, DHS in particular. You know, the ones powering all the insane laser vomit? Those heat quirks are largely an attempt to let Inner Sphere chassis keep up - nerfing the source of the issue and then rebalancing from there will probably be a better solution.

Literally never heard of a clan build without DHS...

I do wonder sometimes if the solution to quirks and perks is to just stop.

Literally, unless something is completely broke-azz and obviously needs a hotfix, just stop for like a year at a time.

Let players just play the game in stead of re-learning it every month.

Edited by An6ryMan69, 21 November 2023 - 05:11 PM.

[Void Angel]

An6ryMan69, on 21 November 2023 - 05:11 PM, said:

Literally never heard of a clan build without DHS...

I do wonder sometimes if the solution to quirks and perks is to just stop.

Literally, unless something is completely broke-azz and obviously needs a hotfix, just stop for like a year at a time.

Let players just play the game in stead of re-learning it every month.

There Are Exceptions, but in general DHS are difficult to beat in any tech base.

Balance isn't going to get better by leaving it alone, though - and the problem of excessively short time to kill isn't one that really can wait.

[Voice of Kerensky]

I remember the times when the Cool Shot worked instantly. Then he was nerfed and he started working for three seconds. Based on the old original Cool Shot durations, how much worse is Cool Dropper now? Seven times? I give you a standing ovation, Cauldron.
I remembered the old days because back then, with the instant effect of Cool Shot, weapon/heat balance, faction balance and TTK were all much better than what we have now. And even more so it was better than it will be after the nerf of the DHS. But then the IS did not have light engines, ER-Lasers, light ferro-fiber and stealth armor, then it was possible to shoot PPC and Gauss without Ghost Heat. Then the Clans were dragged by technology and distance, and the IS by armor, cooldown and melee weapons.
But then, a PGI employee created a nerftornado and began to destroy the balance. His work alienated a lot of players. And when the MWO reached its lowest number of players, this anti-record was achieved, among other things, thanks to the results of its work.
When PGI announced cooperation with Cauldron, people began to hope for an improvement in the game. The Cauldron promised to improve the game. And he really did a lot of good for the game.
But the first alarm bell, telling us that there is a very influential group of Nerf Hammer fans in the Cauldron, was the murder of Streaks. You have completely removed the weapon system of the two factions from the game. And, apparently, this does not bother you at all.
Yesterday you nerfed Cool Shot. Soon you will nerf DHS.
Some time ago you turned onto a vicious path and are going further along it. Before it's too late, come to your senses. Remember that PGI employee I mentioned. Remember what he did and don't repeat his mistakes.
If you mess up DHS, people will criticize you for it. Everyone will scold you: brawlers, mid-range fans and fans of the sniper game (but these are smaller because they at least have the opportunity to go behind cover and cool down).
If you give extra armor to people, then everyone will thank you.
And you should not forget that the current TTK is a product of not only weapons systems. The current TTK is also a consequence of maps that encourage long distances with their topography. As well as the presence of groups in a solo QP.

[Flying Fox 333]

Given the cauldron was involved with providing better fidelity badges in-game, I am hoping this is not too much an off-topic request.

It was regarding the Solaris related achievements that are no longer obtainable. I was wondering if there is still some plans to remove the irrelevant ones from in-game and Steam or perhaps revamp it? It wouldn't be technically too time consuming to remove. I did submit this feedback a few times via official channels and contacted Daeron just before the rebranding of MWO from Solaris to Legends and was told this was being looked at.

Regarding balance changes. I do agree time to kill is not in a good place right now. I think your on the right track to look at and tweak HSL a bit further though.

[Odwalla]

In terms of balance I think you all have been doing a great job with Cauldron in balancing mechs and weapons. Everything feels viable and fun to play. Probably the most balanced this game has ever been and that's amazing considering how many more mechs and weapons we have now. Awesome work!

For feedback, my main two would be:

1. Help improve the solo player experience.
2. Improve visibility on maps.

For #1:The solo experience between quick play and some of the event queue matches has been pretty revealing to me. I think the EQs that either disable groups, or make them smaller (2 max for example) and smaller teams (8v8, 6v6, 4v4) tend to create a better experience because the games tend to be less stompy. Also matches tend to be shorter so if there is a stomp it's not as big of a deal because the match is over quickly and you can just jump in the next one. That's also why I've found the solo experience with drop deck events to not be very good since it drags stomps out to be unbearably long waiting for the winning side to farm everyones mechs.

For #2: Less dark maps, less fog, less smoke. Canyon Network and Alpine Peaks are two of the best examples for high visibility maps that I'd love to see more of. Having to switch to thermals on a majority of maps just to see enemy mechs and shoot at white blobs is not the best. Part of the issue too with dark maps is also compounded by the way ECM works but I read somewhere ECM is being adjusted in the future so we'll see how that plays out.

Anyway, that's all I've got. Thank you!

[Grey Hook]

I appreciate this invitation for feedback, and the comments submitted by the players- even those who admit they don't play, yet still share their opinions.

I suspect that no matter what changes get made, there will always be some folks saying you went too far and others that you didn't go far enough, etc. For what it's worth, I still find the game to be fun and varied. As a high tier 4/low tier 3 player, I don't see any individual chassis or weapons as overly dominant. Keep up the good work.

I have a few ideas for potential legendary mech designs, but I do not know if these would be welcome (ie, if all the legendary mech designs are already locked down) and I don't know the best way to submit them. Would discord be the place? The discord link in the original post seems to have expired.

[Void Angel]

the check engine light, on 22 November 2023 - 07:08 AM, said:

Yeah the things I am hearing about HAGs do not make me inclined to bother logging in and dropping. TTK was concerningly low before the new weapons, I have to question the wisdom of their release and the subsequent passes thus far. Let's see what the heat rebalance does. I suspect it won't be enough here.

HAGs should be in a decent spot right now. With the increased heat, it's harder to use their high alphas, and an agile 'mech with Gauss Rifles or ERPPCs will win in a trade war against a Hag.

[D V Devnull]

Void Angel, on 22 November 2023 - 04:17 PM, said:

HAGs should be in a decent spot right now. With the increased heat, it's harder to use their high alphas, and an agile 'mech with Gauss Rifles or ERPPCs will win in a trade war against a Hag.

Actually, the lesser HAG20 seems to be in a really bad spot to me, and is now way too weak. I think that I possibly got too used to Spread being present in their design, because I'm now missing far too many shots without it. Recent changes simply do not leave the HAGs feeling right anymore, or at least that's what I'm experiencing. Lack of any Spread also interferes with the purpose of Clan Standard Gauss Rifles in normal gameplay, which needs to be fixed. As for the Heat amount, it's high enough. Unfortunately, the high & overly-long Cooldown for reload causes it to be equally negated. This results with the HAG20 in particular simply waiting too long to be used again, and not really pushing the Heat Capacity of a person's Mech in any manner. So I would say revert HAG Cooldown & Spread back the other way. Basically, without changing the Heat except for consistency on one item because the others should be fine, make them like what follows below...

• HAG20 — Cooldown dropped to 4.0 sec, Spread up to 0.11
  
• HAG30 — Cooldown dropped to 5.0 sec, Spread up to 0.18, Heat down to 12.75
  
• HAG40 — Cooldown dropped to 6.0 sec, Spread up to 0.25

...as these values should give proper added Spread for the additional bullets fired. Further, since there are complaints about the Range seemingly interfering with the purpose of Clan Standard Gauss Rifles in normal gameplay, we should make alterations for that too...

• HAG 20, 30, & 40 — Optimal Range reduced to 785, but 1730 Maximum for Damage Falloff offset

...because this whole series of HAGs simply give me the impression they should not be dented with significant Nerfs out in such an extended zone, but would be best with having a long falloff for trade of having Spread added back in. Thankfully, it happens this whole stack of changes I'm suggesting can certainly restore purpose for Clan Standard Gauss Rifles in normal gameplay, all while giving HAGs their own role in battles as well. Heck, it might even result in a hybrid of AutoCannons & HAG or other such differing combos appearing at some future point. We have not managed to even touch the topic of Silver Bullet Gauss (an LB-X type of Gauss) for the I.S. as of yet, but that would round out the lineups too!

~D. V. "thinking Clan HAG Spread Removal & Cooldown Increase is a serious mistake... let's revert it" Devnull

[Void Angel]

D V Devnull, on 23 November 2023 - 05:43 AM, said:

Lack of any Spread also interferes with the purpose of Clan Standard Gauss Rifles in normal gameplay, which needs to be fixed.

Standard Gauss are frontloaded pinpoint damage; HAGs essentially burn like a laser. That's enough to give them each their own niche: if you're trying to win sniper trades, a standard Gauss Rifle will smash a HAG in a lot of matchups. It's only when you're fighting slower, less maneuverable enemies that HAGs start to outperform Gauss (or ERPPCs) at long range - if you're fighting someone like a Shadow Cat behind cover, you're likely just going to get pwned in the trade war.

The changes to HAGs have been designed to slow down the frequency where a 'mech can throw out devastating alphas with them. Increasing heat and cooldown makes it harder to just blast people repeatedly with 100-point alphas at 800m, while leaving the per-shot damage intact.

[MechB Kotare]

Hi! I stand by what I said plenty of times before in lots of different topics. In all 10 years of MWO's history, the overall balance of in game weapons and mechs has never been better.

Gratitude to all cauldron members for what they have done in these past 2 years!

Please, consider nerfing skill tree (or at least heat skill nodes) before tampering with cDHS. Many of overperforming builds, that most people complain about are result of skill tree implementation.

Nerfing cDHS will only make those skill nodes even more essential, making them a must pick for most clan builds.

Edited by MechB Kotare, 23 November 2023 - 02:56 PM.

[simon1812]

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

Increasing the kill time it's a matter of player's skill, the longer it takes you to bring down a target the more likely it is that it will kill you and /or the next enemy that comes along will kill you. This game is at its best if one plays smart, organize or at least communicate with team mates.

[Reno Blade]

Would it be possible to get the game visuals and view-modes to interact better?
e.g. sensors being impacted by bad weather.

heat vision being a thing in 80% of maps to help identify mechs against the background, turning the game into greyscale most times... (was predator vision before).
-> Could one option be that heat vision is only active for 2 seconds (like a radar sweep) ? with a 10sec cooldown or so.
(using a secondary monitor is probably out of the picture, as it's the 2x render thing we had with the AdvZoom.)
- Would that still be fun, while making normal-vision the standard?
- Or would people just opt to reduce graphic down like in Quake times?


I like that heat vision on hot maps is not perfect, but you can still see black mech outlines in the distance on caustic. shouldn't warm/hot mechs be white also in the distance?
why are they black in the distance?

[Roodkapje]

Odwalla, on 22 November 2023 - 01:00 PM, said:

2. Improve visibility on maps.

For #2: Less dark maps, less fog, less smoke. Canyon Network and Alpine Peaks are two of the best examples for high visibility maps that I'd love to see more of. Having to switch to thermals on a majority of maps just to see enemy mechs and shoot at white blobs is not the best.

Reno Blade, on 23 November 2023 - 10:52 PM, said:

heat vision being a thing in 80% of maps to help identify mechs against the background, turning the game into greyscale most times... (was predator vision before).

You two have poorly calibrated monitors and should seriously look into that!

I can understand you don't like the new "Purple Map" or that "Dark Scrapyard" but if you experience that on almost all maps then your monitor needs calibrating A.S.A.P. to fix that issue !!

TIP : Contact your local camerashop and ask them if they can help you by explaining what you should do with the rented calibration tools

Quote

- Or would people just opt to reduce graphic down like in Quake times?

Sadly there are even manufacturers of monitors promoting their models because of certain modes that help you to see more in the dark shadows instead of experiencing them as the game developer had in mind...

MechB Kotare, on 23 November 2023 - 02:41 PM, said:

Hi! I stand by what I said plenty of times before in lots of different topics.

In all 10 years of MWO's history, the overall balance of in game weapons and mechs has never been better.

Gratitude to all cauldron members for what they have done in these past 2 years!

Funny how two people can have totally different view points :

IMHO the game has become one big ER LL and ER PPC camperfest

And now they release another LRM biased mech... OUCH !!!



As for my own DREAM :

I ONLY have ONE BIG WISH for 2024 and it's having Events that teach people how to play instead of just farm Match Score like a bunch of NPC's all the time!

How many times have I seen :
- Team splits up and gets steamrolled easily by the other team.
- Players not Spotting.
- Players not using their UAV or do not do it correctly if they even have one equipped at all...
- Players not Scanning their Target.
- SCANNING LEFT and SHOOTING RIGHT or worse...
- Players not even knowing how to use that R button!
- They do SCAN but do not see which COMPONENT they should SHOOT and get the ADVANTAGE !!!
- Light Mech players not running A.S.A.P. to the Domination Circle.
- Light/Fast Medium Mech players not escorting their slow Assault/Heavy buddies to the battlefield when needed !!
- The same players not protecting those buddies against annoying little mechs picking on them!

And a lot more stuff that I can't think of at the moment but have made the game less and less fun to play in general and makes me wish I could install some MOD for MWO so I can shoot NPC's with all the mech's I have gathered over the years!

[martian]

Reno Blade, on 23 November 2023 - 10:52 PM, said:

- Or would people just opt to reduce graphic down like in Quake times?

You do not have to talk about some ancient Quake.

In MWO you have got the User.cfg file at your disposal.

So the answer to your question is "Yes".

[DAEDALOS513]

Ralph Edwards, on 20 November 2023 - 02:03 PM, said:

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?

They don't believe in nerfing..

[Void Angel]

Except that they just did that very thing on two separate weapon systems...

[DAEDALOS513]

Void Angel, on 24 November 2023 - 12:43 PM, said:

Except that they just did that very thing on two separate weapon systems...

Wonders never cease. Likely something insignificant..

[Void Angel]

If you don't know how the game works, or pay any attention to the patch notes (which is the same thing,) you really can't expect to people to find your opinions about the game credible, you know.

This is not the first time they've nerfed stuff, either.