103 replies to this topic

[Ttly]

CwStrife, on 16 January 2026 - 10:36 PM, said:

Interesting that the LBX which is supposed to represent a shotgun has such a long effective range. Try shooting a rhino with some buckshot at 750 meters and I bet you the thing comes to kick your ***.

So whats the point of an AC/5 or AC/10 or any of that which create heat when you can cheat the game and just use LBX for a heatless variant that is more powerful and blinds the living crap out of you? Not for nothing but if you want to make it better, treat it like a shotgun and make it a brawl weapon. There is 0 reason people should be sniping with a shotgun. If so people would also do it in real life. Even the patch reduction won't help whats going on.

You know what? Here's an idea:
Introduce *negative* quirks to those specific chassis/omnipods (that's negated on non-offending So8s) that boats the darn things.
Maybe stuff like +60% spread (this is similar to Scattershot by the way) or +AC5/2 cooldown/heat for 6AC/LB5 stuff like the Mauler or DWF-B ST+UV arm pods, or even DWF-C's CTpod.
Maybe even -HSL quirks for other stuff as well such as -1 Large Laser/PPC HSL on Incubus.
Or stuff like +missile cooldown on SMN-G ST pods with their 3 missile points.

So instead of nerfing AC/LB 2/5 for everything including some heavies, lights, or medium that only mounts 1 to 3 of them, it only affects those boating offending chassises instead.
Would also fit your thought on making them fit only for brawling with +spread so you don't have 6LB5 snipers doing their thing with little downsides/does it with a lot less effectiveness.

Meanwhile that 2LB2/5 medium/heavy/assault can do it just fine since they're not boating.
Or it's a RiflemanIIC which are as slow as an assault and with nowhere the durability.

Edited by Ttly, 18 January 2026 - 10:46 AM.

[StalowyZolw]

BlueDevilspawn, on 17 January 2026 - 01:13 PM, said:

Clan can be boated more than IS can. As always balance is on ongoing thing monthly patch by monthly patch.

If Clan can be boated more, dont You think its them that shoud be nerfed (if any) not IS?
That nerf and previous were absolutely unwarranted, AC5 were in good spot.

[nCmixam]

I'm genuinely interested about those crab changes. Like, what gives? Just tossing stuff at the wall, and seeing what sticks?

[w0qj]

Looking forward to giving the MCII-B(P) a spin, with that amazing jam quirk!

Rhaelcan, on 16 January 2026 - 06:54 PM, said:

HSL 2 for missiles.

Thank you for your heads up!

Edited by w0qj, 17 January 2026 - 09:59 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

BlueDevilspawn, on 16 January 2026 - 07:15 PM, said:

Every single mech has eventually been released for MC and cbills. I think the timeframe has usually been 5-8 months depending on the type of in game currency and calendar timing. No reason to think this is any different.
As for “locked behind a paywall”, some of you who’ve been playing a while, tell me a few things -
1. How much were clan invasion packs when clan mechs launched?
2. Were clans op on launch?
3. Could existing IS only players or players who didn’t buy invasion packs use clan weapons?
So…exactly what “change in the game” are we looking at?

Surely you're not going to validate past mistakes to make up for the present ones.

[Dirt Devil1]

1. First clan pack cost $250.00 add a gold mech cost $250.00 until all sold

2. Yes, better range, less slots drawback longer burn time

3. no not in Faction play even if you bought pack could only use clan mechs in QP

[BlueDevilspawn]

Dirt Devil1, on 18 January 2026 - 08:52 AM, said:

1. First clan pack cost $250.00 add a gold mech cost $250.00 until all sold

2. Yes, better range, less slots drawback longer burn time

3. no not in Faction play even if you bought pack could only use clan mechs in QP

Thank you.

[BlueDevilspawn]

FRAGTAST1C, on 18 January 2026 - 01:34 AM, said:

Surely you're not going to validate past mistakes to make up for the present ones.

I am specifically contesting the point that there was a “recent change in the game” which there hasn’t been. We don’t advise on commercial approach.
What we do know is that balancing for something like the railgun or Arrow IV that push the edges is much easier when they’re fixed on one variant rather than open pool with 900+ variants. That’s not to say all new weapons are not open pool considering the last 2 weapons passes were that way.

[Sonsofabastages]

FRAGTAST1C, on 18 January 2026 - 01:34 AM, said:

Surely you're not going to validate past mistakes to make up for the present ones.

Oh good, gamers complaining. Our favorite pastime. Here's my list of grievances:

1. Small mechs are too small. Square-cube law. A Commando should be no kidding half the size of the Atlas. Some heavy mechs are WAY too big, and 20 tonners especially are WAY too small.

2. Big caliber ballistics have greater range than small caliber ones. Use rate of fire, heat, and weight to balance - but AC2s should be for short range DPS and if you want a sniper round you need an AC10 or AC20. That's just how guns work.

3. PPCs need to be completely reworked to look anything like real world plasma weapons (look up project marauder, it's super cool). Handwave the in-atmosphere range issues they ran into during testing and what you should end up with is a very short range weapon with an insane muzzle velocity that does and even split of physical, heat, and ECM effects.

3. LAMs are cool actually. The Naga and Gargoyle are things, so the idea of a really big mech that trades mobility for armor and firepower is already in the game. Instead of always rocking a 400 rated engine, give them something more modest in the engine department but then there's the flight mode so you can play ace combat - or cruise around in an AC-130 simulator if you're flying a big boy.

4. Quad mech and the tripods are cool. Tripods are just regular mechs, you can loose a leg and it's less of a big deal than losing one leg on a bipod, but if you lose two you are practically immobile but still alive. Done.

5. Quads are more interesting though. The whole humans, the animals that literally crawl on all fours as infants before we learn to walk, just can't process walking on four legs is the stupidest bit of techno-babble I think I've ever heard. And they are bad only because of how the critical slots are laid out - fix that and you're fine. Cockpit goes in the CT, torso weapons are in-line with the legs (unless there are little side turrets and they can act like arms), and the "head" is the main turret with enough critical slots for two LB20x's or a Rail gun. There. Now they don't suck. Let them be a lot better at climbing hills but they are not as nimble generally. You need to take out all four legs to kill the mech, but taking out any leg impacts mobility and they are just a turret when they are down to one.


So. Once PGI addresses all of those problems then we can get around to the fact that they are releasing something that they will literally shove down your throat for free in a few months, but as a company running a slowly dying game they would like to farm the whales a bit right now. The balance issues aren't bad enough to stress me out - I used to play league, this is nothing. Honestly, the last few paywalled releases have been a bit undertuned (Sigma... Noble...) - OK fine, the Bullsharks were nuts for a while.

Honestly, I just want to see what else will get access to Arrow IV and the Rail gun. I'm so ready for my nuclear Urbie.

[JL_Gotrocks]

Great... more stand in the back OP missiles....

[Tesunie]

Ttly, on 16 January 2026 - 11:47 PM, said:

Oh and the CRB-20 having ERSL/ERML the range of STD Large Laser is just why? 5ERML fast builds or XL on it aren't that good with the lack of cooldown/duration and better on the 27B with 6ERML and its cooldown quirk too with its buff.
So I'd assume it's for slower builds to be paired with large lasers, but the loss of duration and cooldown quirks just nerfed that too.
And again, the structure buff just turns it into a diet-heavy rather than having it be a glass cannon-slow medium.

A lot of my Crabs have landed on some form of LL and ERML compliment. One has 3 LL and 3 ERMLs. If that was the one where the ranges went from "near" to "identical", that would have been amazing.

But I am a little confused on some of these changes. Last I knew:

• 27SL: This was the jumpy boy with base pulse lasers, and can do PPCs as well as a pop tart unit. Instead of playing into either of those roles, it now has -50% Std and ER laser duration, making all lasers feel more like pulses. I guess it is good for jumpy shots, as the shorter beam plays well into that, but it feels odd considering it's default loadout and more typical builds I know of. (I might be out of the loop on the newest builds...) My current build with this mech is 2 LLs and 3 ERMLs... so I guess it's helpful to me.
  
• 20: This was always speed crab. Highest engine cap out of them all. Less weight means smaller weapons (because larger engine). So it's requirkening actually makes a lot of sense. My 5 MPL build will like the boost to it's range I guess.
  
• 27: I never saw as a PPC boat, so losing those quirks doesn't hurt me much. This one uses double AMS for me, 2 LLs and 3 ERMLs with x2 AMS. Maybe with the new quirks, I could try some PPCs on it, but I likely wont fix what isn't broken...
  
• 27B: This one is king crab (but not the 100 ton version) for the Crab line in my opinion. Has my 3 LL and 3 ERMLs. Hit well and has good rounded performance. Laser Cooldown combined with the loss of max heat, energy heat, ER laser heat... likely is going to just roast was what otherwise a perfectly fine build. Going to be far more likely to overheat, and no extra coolshot to attempt to even combat that extra heat these new quirks are doing.
  
• FL: This one has always been a hard one to build for. Just not enough tonnage to really do what I want (Dakka Crab or LRM Crab). An increase in cooldown and Velocity might help an LRM Crab, but I don't feel it's overly going to be helping this odd mech. I had to settle on 2 MPLs and 50 MRMs to make it work for me. So... I'll have to test this one out to see if it still works with the new quirks. I might be surprised.

Overall, the removal of armor quirks is going to hurt the FL. The extra structure will help with survival, unless hit by a crit improved weapon. However, I don't feel any of these shifts are all going to help the Crab, but also not really sink them either. My best build is likely to feel weaker now though from the extra heat, but others will likely perform a little better. Good thing it's been a long while since I last played, means I will be relearning my heat, rather than having my instincts of what my heat should be kicking in and killing me.

[Ttly]

Tesunie, on 18 January 2026 - 01:46 PM, said:

-snip-

I uhh made a list of my opinion on the Crab changes here and to summarize, it's really not that good as it's just removing the medium identity just to have it be a mediocre heavy on most of them, instead of leaning on the former more.
Which while a "buff" is a seriously lame one.

Edited by Ttly, 18 January 2026 - 02:14 PM.

[Ilostmycactus]

BlueDevilspawn, on 18 January 2026 - 11:50 AM, said:

I am specifically contesting the point that there was a “recent change in the game” which there hasn’t been. We don’t advise on commercial approach.
What we do know is that balancing for something like the railgun or Arrow IV that push the edges is much easier when they’re fixed on one variant rather than open pool with 900+ variants. That’s not to say all new weapons are not open pool considering the last 2 weapons passes were that way.

Respecfully, I don't think that's true. The weapons have been released previously, for free, for everyone. You did not have to wait 6 months to use them. This has been the standard ever since they started releasing new weapons again for the game again, to my knowledge. Clan mechs were released in 2014. 11 ish years ago.
The balancing argument is irrelevant in my opinion.
My issue isn't that they are tied to variants in order to be balanced, my issue is that the railgun came out 5 months ago. Now those variants are announced in a booster pack that costs money and, if things follow legends trends, I have to wait 6 more months for those variants to be available for cbills. That's 11 months for the railgun to be in the cbills pool. At best I will get to use MC to get the heroes in a month. Maybe the variants will be out sooner, but the devs have not said so.

Am I biased because I want to use them without paying real money for them? Yes. But that doesn't change that they are a departure from how the Plasma Cannon, Small, Medium, Large X-pulse laser, Beam laser, Maghsot, Ap gauss, and Thunderbolts were handled.

I'm just disappointed.

Edited by Ilostmycactus, 18 January 2026 - 05:26 PM.

[Ilostmycactus]

Tesunie, on 18 January 2026 - 01:46 PM, said:

Overall, the removal of armor quirks is going to hurt the FL. The extra structure will help with survival, unless hit by a crit improved weapon. However, I don't feel any of these shifts are all going to help the Crab, but also not really sink them either. My best build is likely to feel weaker now though from the extra heat, but others will likely perform a little better. Good thing it's been a long while since I last played, means I will be relearning my heat, rather than having my instincts of what my heat should be kicking in and killing me.

I would like the Florentine to lose an actuator in the arms to free up a slot for an ac20. Two may be nice for a lbx20, but idk.

[Ttly]

Ilostmycactus, on 18 January 2026 - 05:21 PM, said:

I would like the Florentine to lose an actuator in the arms to free up a slot for an ac20. Two may be nice for a lbx20, but idk.

You already have the HBK-4G/4H or the Yen-Lo-Wang/CN9-AH for an U/AC20 medium, oh and NVA-D for LB20.
Also some people (like me) actually do play with arm lock off.

Edited by Ttly, 18 January 2026 - 05:32 PM.

[Ilostmycactus]

Ttly, on 18 January 2026 - 05:27 PM, said:

You already have the HBK-4G/4H or the Yen-Lo-Wang for an U/AC20 medium.
Also some people (like me) actually do play with arm lock off.

Sure, but then you aren't playing a crab

[Ttly]

Ilostmycactus, on 18 January 2026 - 05:31 PM, said:

Sure, but then you aren't playing a crab

Meh, the Nova is close enough with the low arm mounts, main difference is probably the forward profile and less hitpoints other than the JJs.
Though then also the JJs and its shape makes it able to soak up decent amount of hits using the legs that usually people don't intentionally shoot at, which makes it rather durable.

Well that's for LB20 NVA-D anyway, C-AC20 being burstfire isn't really a good substitute for AC20 I'd admit.
But again, that's what the HBK-4G/4H and the CN-9AH/YLW are for.

Edited by Ttly, 18 January 2026 - 05:40 PM.

[BlueDevilspawn]

You’re missing my point. My point was that unless you shelled out $200 for a clan mech pack you did not have access to clan weapons when they were released and the entire lineup of clan weapons was superior. So yes the weapons were in the general pool BUT only if you paid for the mech packs.

And yes you’re agreeing with my point that most new weapons that have been released in the most recent weapons patches were general pool. Given this, I see no issue with locking Railgun and Arrow IV, which are weapons on the edge, to specific variants. As for access to these weapons for space bucks, this game gives MC out like candy, moreso than in the past. We just had like 2 loot bags events in fairly close proximity. When the rail sharks come out you can get them that way.

Ilostmycactus, on 18 January 2026 - 05:18 PM, said:

Respecfully, I don't think that's true. The weapons have been released previously, for free, for everyone. You did not have to wait 6 months to use them. This has been the standard ever since they started releasing new weapons again for the game again, to my knowledge. Clan mechs were released in 2014. 11 ish years ago.
The balancing argument is irrelevant in my opinion.
My issue isn't that they are tied to variants in order to be balanced, my issue is that the railgun came out 5 months ago. Now those variants are announced in a booster pack that costs money and, if things follow legends trends, I have to wait 6 more months for those variants to be available for cbills. That's 11 months for the railgun to be in the cbills pool. At best I will get to use MC to get the heroes in a month. Maybe the variants will be out sooner, but the devs have not said so.

Am I biased because I want to use them without paying real money for them? Yes. But that doesn't change that they are a departure from how the Plasma Cannon, Small, Medium, Large X-pulse laser, Beam laser, Maghsot, Ap gauss, and Thunderbolts were handled.

I'm just disappointed.

[simon1812]

Rocket launchers are fine as they are, just an opinion though.

[simon1812]

finally some love for the wolfhound