1 reply to this topic

[JumpingHunter]

Flamers are in a very uncomfortable spot right now, if jundging by their previous iterations. They don't heat enemies to a 100% heat, which is understandable, but hurts flamers' combat effectiveness significantly. Only up to 4 flamers are usable in current balance, which does hurt some builds even more, but it's not that horrible. Most importantly are two things: they have horribly short range and they for whatever ungodly reason produce heat while they are not overheated (yellow heat gauge color). While short range and limited heat damage is understandable, the last part of flamers' mechanics is downright rediculus.

It is logical that flamers have to produce heat at some point, but in BT lore they are described as a weapon that draws plasma directly from the fusion engine. That is represented by their ammoless nature, which is nice, but they are not supposed to produce much heat in first few seconds of firing. In fact, of all things, it would be logical to imagine them being used as some sort of emergency ventilation tool, since they could shoot the proficient plasma from engine, thus reducing it's temperature. And if we are looking at flamers from the gameplay and balance side of things, well, the fact that they even produce heat at all, therefore basically disable heat dissipation for flamers' user as well as for his target, is just stupid. While they are still withing their yellow heat gauge firing time they still generate overall almost more heat than similar number of medium lasers, because while lasers do generate heat quickier, they also don't block heat dissipation, so they have time to cool down. Flamers, on the other hand, just don't have that, and they also prevent heat generated by other weapons from dissipating too. At all.

So, my point is that the flamers should recieve a buff in a form of either just simply removed heat generation while their heat gauge is yellow (for these 5-6 seconds it would really be logical to not have the flamers overheat mech), or to make them generate negative heat in this yellow heat gauge firing time. So mech can either just not hinder his own fighting ability by firing his weapons or even be able to vent off some heat with flamers in these first seconds of them firing, making them a really interesting alternative to a similarily heavy but much more hot medium laser.

While second alternative might be overpowered, making flamers just NOT produce any heat while their heat gauge is still yellow is a very logical thing to do. They are just not worth using because of that, any mech with any weapons mixed with flamers is going to overheat himself quickier than his enemy, and this is a massive balance flaw. Flamers need this buff, and they need it desperately.

Edited by JumpingHunter, 12 July 2023 - 02:23 PM.

[SockSlayer]

I am glad someone else recognizes other then me how underpowered they are right now. They were nerfed more then any other weapon all based on one overpowered piranha, and every other mech got unfairly punished.
Nerfs:
1) Lost their 0.7 damage for only 0.1
2) They added exponential overheat, which quickly makes them useless against MG mechs.
3) HSL limit is only 4, where all other small weapons are 6 or more.
4) Heat Cap is only 90%, so it never will overheat them.

Buff:
1) 4.5 Heat Damage...this only buff is completely useless against the now new warthog and mg mechs of which there are now lots of.

Yet Another Suggestion:
Either:
1) Allow flamers to get a buff in range from targeting computers, as this would bring them a little closer to 150 m, which was lore anyway, smaller mechs won't be able to use lvl 8 targeting computers without sacrificing heat sinks, and that would help assaults and heavies to be able to use them too.
2) Do A Chassis HSL
Lights = 0 Flamer HSL
Medium = +1 Flamer HSL
Heavy = +2 Flamer HSL
Assaults = +3 Flamer HSL
3) Put damage back to at least 0.3 so they can score better, can even drop heat damage to 4 from 4.5.