1 reply to this topic

[simon1812]

Does anybody actually uses this? I find myself using about any of the others PPCs siblings, the Light PPC is one of my favorites, so is the Snub-nosed PPC and the Heavy PPC, even the regular PPC will find a place (rarely though) in my loadouts, but the ERPPC? (Clan/IS) No...never, any other of the PPCs sibling offers a better alternative for different loadouts, I can easily imagine how each of them would play out in a strategy or play style...but not the ERPPC which always seems to fall short, or be more like a liability.

Whats does it need? A little boost in damage at the cost of fire rate? More heat maybe? Faster travel time at the cost of a noticeable recoil when firing? After all, In lore PPCs are described as having a recoil when firing.

In lore the Clan ERPPC is supposed to be as powerful as the IS' Heavy PPC developed by the houses. I can see how it could be a big step if MWO's followed the lore in this case...or would it be game breaking?, but as it stands now the weapon is only some what viable if the mech in question has the quirks that will make the best of it...and still ...eh. Not sure what's the cauldron thoughts on the ERPPC, but Im curious about what you guys think.

[JumpingHunter]

simon1812, on 04 January 2024 - 10:49 AM, said:

Does anybody actually uses this? I find myself using about any of the others PPCs siblings, the Light PPC is one of my favorites, so is the Snub-nosed PPC and the Heavy PPC, even the regular PPC will find a place (rarely though) in my loadouts, but the ERPPC? (Clan/IS) No...never, any other of the PPCs sibling offers a better alternative for different loadouts, I can easily imagine how each of them would play out in a strategy or play style...but not the ERPPC which always seems to fall short, or be more like a liability.

Whats does it need? A little boost in damage at the cost of fire rate? More heat maybe? Faster travel time at the cost of a noticeable recoil when firing? After all, In lore PPCs are described as having a recoil when firing.

In lore the Clan ERPPC is supposed to be as powerful as the IS' Heavy PPC developed by the houses. I can see how it could be a big step if MWO's followed the lore in this case...or would it be game breaking?, but as it stands now the weapon is only some what viable if the mech in question has the quirks that will make the best of it...and still ...eh. Not sure what's the cauldron thoughts on the ERPPC, but Im curious about what you guys think.

While i also think that making Clan ERPPC be as powerful as IS Heavy PPC, i would say that ERPPCs, both IS and Clan ones, are very useful. ERPPCs are your baseline sniper rifle for MWO: you have almost highest range of all weapons, you have a pinpoint damage (no spread), you have high velocity (IS one is highest velocity weapon in game IIRC), so if you are planning to abuse weapon range as much as you can then ERPPCs are your friend.

They are rather hot, but IS can negate the heat of ERPPC easily, and Clan ERPPC has long cooldown so you'll have to wait for your heat to go away, want it or not. Clan ERPPC also does deal splash damage, 2.5 damage in components near the one that you hit. It's not enough to make up for the lack of 15 damage from TT, but it is still useful sometimes, when your opponent with open CT is twisting away like crazy.

A lot of mechs actually make good use of ERPPCs. For example, a good lore variant of ERPPC carrying mech is Awesome 9M, with 3 of them, higher engine cap and some spare missile slots. Or a Clan mech Nova Cat Prime does take advantage of ERPPCs being sniper weapons, in combination with 3 ER Large Lasers it is a very poserful machine. Or Warhawk Prime, which is the classic PPC carrier that can deal crazy damage if piloted properly. There's a lot of mechs that can take advantage of ERPPCs.

Plus, if you want to be able to just pelt enemies from far away while you are closing the distance, or be able to snipe UAVs from the sky, it's worth it to pick ERPPC instead of the Standard one. Sure it's hotter, but not by THAT much, and in exchange you get the same weapon with more comfortable range brackets. My Vindicator 1X pairs it with LB5-X AC for even better long range combat, backed up by MRM10. I can see how some Marauders can use ERPPCs as a main engaging tool, suitable for when they are not quite in their optimal range for Alpha Striking, backing it up by AC5 or 10 and some medium lasers for closer range combat. One of the lore Banshee variants that was considered actually good in it's role had XL Engine, two ERPPCs and a Gauss Rifle - classic sniping combo. And of course if you want to stay away and shoot from afar, it's probably the best choice you could get.

I don't think ERPPCs need anything, really, aside from maybe Clan ERPPCs getting WAY hotter but in exchange for their damage being 15 and not 10, at least as a quirk on mechs that have C-ERPPC in stock loadouts. I'd say that it's more and more rarily seen on battlefields because of overbuffed laservomits and MG boating, which is the worst nightmare of low alpha ERPPC sniper, but ERPPCs themselves are quite fine as a weapon system.

BUT, what i would REALLY love to get for PPCs is a better EMP effect on impact. Currently it's only disabling ECM for 4-5 seconds, which is nice but way too small of an effect for de-facto a lightning gun. I think what it should do is:
-Scramble HUD (cover it in white noise, kind of how it was in Mechwarrior 4) for about 2-3 seconds;
-Disable ALL electronic equipment for 5 seconds (and not ECM only);
-Disable advanced zoom and seismic sensor for 5 seconds (as if they were electronic equipment);
-Give "low signal" effect that ECM provides to hostile mechs (when you are unable to targed the enemy and gain it's info) for about 5 seconds;
-Instantly reset missile lock from target (if target is using LRM it has to re-lock on it's selected target again);
-If PPC hits component with no armor then it should have about 40% chance of it being disabled for 5 seconds (basically all weapons/equipment inside this component renders as destroyed for these 5 seconds)
-And finally if you shoot your teammate it removes NARC from him.

So basically everything that could count as "Electronic equipment" should suffer great temporary damage if it recieves a PPC shot. I don't think it should be ERPPC-only featuer, i think all PPCs should have that, maybe light PPC should have all these effects halved in time. That'll be very cool addition, and ERPPC with it's increased range will be useful for countering the wall snipers and LRM boats from far away - just shoot them continuoself and they can't safely sit and snipe anymore.