4 replies to this topic

[Evan OMellin]

Greetings!
New weapons patch is amazingly awkward in many aspects. In one hand we are pleased to finaly gain such useful things like mugshots/ap-gauss or modified clan AC to fit on light mechs to dramaticly increase their firepower, and in on another we have clan beams and plasma cannon - poorly made or may be thought out weapon systems with a colossal and though untapped potential. I'd like to briefly discuss the beams because they are way too broken imo.

Lets start with their pros:

• prolonged exposition deals tons of damage and forces the enemy to flee
  
• super cool temperature when used properly
  
• long range is really a good decision

Beam cons and the reasons why it should be reworked:

• Clan mechs can house 5+ beams due to omnipods and this state could be easily managed by the ghost heat but...
  
• ghost heat means nothing in a short term. Firing 5+ beams deal a deadly damage even to assaults CT and nothing is punishing the pilot. Yes, it's hot and simultaniosly firing 2+ of them causes permanent heat penalty, but it's easily controled especially by assaults with 15+ heatsinks.
  
• weights too much despite the dealing low damage when used properly without ghost heat

How it could be reworked:

• The conception of c-beam seems to me an equivalent to inner sphere RACs - constant fire that distracs and deal damage per sec. May be the problem lies in misunderstanding the game mechanics? Beam can be reworked to the additional weapon system that distracs enemy: disables weapons/shake cockpit/blur vizor or deal heat damage like plasma cannon.
  
• Nerf beam by making sensible ghost heat - the ideal and in my opinion the only possible option, but it will constantly make this weapon as an unwanted to buy. It is possible to bring some new options that will make beam interesting stuff. For example every second of firing it will result the damage increase by 1 - like it was in void rays in starcraft 2. Or dealing a tiny amount of damage through the armour to structure or components with a small chance.
  
• Increase the limit to 3 alpha seems optimal.

In conclusion I would like to say that new weapon systems didnt bring new vision of the battlefield or dramaticly change conception of the game. Everything stood the same but with another textures. Beams are like long range machinegun with a beam texture - lame, boring. This is only my opinion, hope someone agree with me. Game mechanics must be changed to make MWO better. Thanks.

Edited by Evan OMellin, 21 March 2024 - 11:37 AM.

[Bushmaster0]

Is it just me or....


So, testing the beam lasers in the testing grounds....it seems to me that the heat for the beam lasers starts off rising relatively slowly for the first 10 to 15% of the heat bar, then seems to accelerate exponentially after that.

Anyone else experiencing this in testing grounds or in a live game (I haven't taken one into a live game yet)?

[LordNothing]

if you want to rework something rework the ghost heat mechanics. check for and apply penalties every game tick rather than only when weapons are initially fired. i was watching a player with 6 beams bringing them up 2 at a time at half second intervals. ive seen this before, its that loophole in the gh mechanic that lets you bring up a lot of condensed laser firepower without tripping penalties.

gh was mostly designed with ppcs and other ppfld weapons in mind, since it was a reaction to ppc boats at the time. with burst fire ballistics it applies with each shell. but weapons with duration only seem to check for penalties when they are fired and not while they are burning. but since the duration was finite, i think they thought it was acceptable and the extra half second delay was long enough relative to the duration of the beams, and so the goal of spreading damage out over time was achieved.

long duration beams tend to highlight the deficiencies in the mechanic the most. you can dump more damage per tick than the penalties seem to allow, provided you initiated the burn correctly. i think its kludgy and inconsistent with how its applied to other weapons, and contrary to the spirit of the mechanic.and no dont do power draw, that was an even sillier mechanic than gh. just apply penalties to each tick (and rejigger penalties as needed).

Edited by LordNothing, 22 March 2024 - 03:07 PM.

[Meep Meep]

Cycling the beams to fire one set after another you can get six beams all firing at once with no ghost heat. If you do it right you can dish out 120 damage in 4 seconds and still have plenty of heat bar to go to switch targets. But just like with racs its a staring weapon and you can take a crap ton of return fire in that 4 seconds so its going to be situational. But if you have a distracted mech fighting someone else....

[w0qj]

Let's introduce a jamming mechanic for Beam Lasers (similar to RAC's)...
(Just kidding! )

But seriously, I really appreciate MWO's efforts to introduce additional new weapons!