pbiggz, on 01 December 2023 - 11:38 AM, said:
Just a corollary thought; if you were to build a mech game from the ground up, like MWO (Where the objective is to kill the other mechs) you wouldn't bother to include anything smaller than a phoenix hawk. Below that size, diminishing returns from the lack of weight and durability start to be intolerable, and the roles those mechs are meant to carry out (recon mostly) don't exist in this game. I think thats probably why I get a kick out of the light mediums (40-45 tonners) far more than I ever got out of 30-35 tonners.
Regarding the cauldron approach: I dont think there's a deliberate intent to kill lights off. On the contrary, I think there hasn't been an attempt to do anything to them at all and that's the problem: neglect. As they've shaped the meta, they've left light mechs behind, and they were already by all measures, the worst weight class in the game.
I'm a relatively new player and only recently made tier 4, so maybe my words stop being true at tier 1. I accept this possibility. That said, at my end of the ladder lights are strong. Assault mechs are usually are top damage dealers, but right under them are light mechs. I started with lights (cheaper to get and faster queue times), moved to urbanmechs because I thought it would be funny, and with practice I find them to be very powerful. I tend to favor light mechs now because I know all the tricks, and I haven't figured out how to consistently pilot larger mechs. Clearly the skill set doesn't translate, suggesting light mechs offer unique advantages, and I am relying on these advantages in game.
At mid range, Light mechs are small enough they can peak, shoot, and get back into cover before players can aim, fire, and have the projectile travel to hit you, even if they know you are there. If it's a laser, the time it spends clipping my mech amounts to insignificant damage. Lights are small enough they can shift and peak from all kinds of places so that an opponent can't reasonably pre-aim you either. Even strong players cannot endure these peek shots for very long because it means they will get shot apart too quickly when they do have to fight something scary, so they shift to seek a new position, so you can shape the battlefield if you pick and harass your targets well, and this shaping the battlefield is the real strength to this ability. Lights can also do this kind of thing better than others because they are small enough they can find cover behind slopes and other features other mechs won't be able to hide behind as they move.
On some maps, terrain also gives another benefit, where lights can act as a sort of 'brawl booster'. The trenches maps are full of this kind of cover. On some approaches there is enough short cover that lights can push alongside brawler mechs while being protected by this cover and without getting in the way, where mediums and larger moving across the same terrain both couldn't use the small cover effectively because the cover is too small and they act as less of an increase because they block each other's line of fire. On some maps there are slopes where a light can peek alongside another mech without getting in each others' way. This very significant in my experience.
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