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For those unfamiliar with the Tech Levels and Clan Tech.
Spoiler
So in short, as the years progress, better tech became available, and it made old tech obsolete.
To handle all this, the Battletech table top game eventually introduced "Battle Value" - instead of trying to balance a match via mere tonnage, it assigned a "battle value" to certain gear and mechs so that if you only had old IS techs, you could still try to to build a reasonably "fair" match against Clan Mechs.
Now, the devs decided that IS Double Heat Sinks were too strong. We can all question their findings, but basically they seem to argue that it either made heat management irrelevant or allowed mechs that could put out too much damage and would worsen the gameplay experience.
That's one side. But - they also included all the higher level tech, and some of it only really works if you have all of it - you need DHS to utilize ER PPCs effectively, for example, otherwise you can't really hope to handle the heat load. but not all of it needs it - the Gauss Rifle is a great weapon on its own, beating the AC20 vastly in range and the AC/10 in range and damage, for less heat then either, and a decent level of ammo. It's an example of a tech that works fine without DHS, but not all of it will.
So for now, the answer to the question seems undecided. We have a mish-mash - Tech LEvle 2 tech that needs other Tech Level 2 Tech, which has been nerfed, and we hav Tech Level 2 Tech that works well on its own.
And in the not so far future, there may be Clan Tech, and we have again to decide - will Clan Tech be better than IS Tech?
There are 2 possible answers, and they will require different decisions.
1) We want the power increase.
It can be benefitial as it allows players to feel progress along the game. It's canon. And trying to balance all these upcoming tech so it is comparable to IS tech seems complicated and maybe even questionable.
If we do this, there will be some consequences. Inherent to Battletech is that the damage output of mechs increases vastly, but the defensive abilities of mechs don't as much. While many mechs can get faster, they don't get more armour - at best, they can make their armour lighter, but the maximum is still tightly limited. Ultimately this will lead to the pace of the game advancing more rapidly as we go along.
This will leave PGI with three options
a ) Accept it. High End Gaming is rapidly fast paced and different than Low End Gaming.
b ) Change more Advanced Tech so that armour can also become better to compensate the increased output.
c ) Balance the pace of the game at the high end. That may require something like using triple rather than double armour values,or cut all damage down by 1/2. Low level gaming is slower (which may be good for newbies even), and the pace rises as you grow in experience and acquire more powerful weapons.
2) Balance Everything on One Level
This is the, more or less, obvious alternative solution. This will require a few "nerfs". SSRMs as short range LRMs may need no real changes, but if we nerf Double Heat Sinks, we may need to alter ER PPCs in such a manner that they produce less heat (not needing "real" DHS), while still not overpowering the regular PPC (for example, they could deal less damage and have the same heat, but lose the range disadvantages.).
Edited by MustrumRidcully, 09 November 2012 - 12:29 AM.
