440 replies to this topic

[DamnCatte]

It's the Jagermech's little energy-based brother. And I can see it suffering from similar issues of the Cataphract, though; a big, stocky, torso target that is too easy to hit for it's weight class.

[Spheroid]

I can already tell, that XL would be a deathtrap on this mech. Definitely going to get the 1X and the PPC version. Can't wait to get my mini-Jager.

[Sennin]

Wolf Ender, on 14 May 2013 - 09:58 AM, said:

they made its little love handles so pronounced...the thing looks more pregnant.than the annihilator

I am concerned those love handles are more than likely easy to hit side torso locations so mounting an XL engine will probably not be a sound option. However, if it turns out to be some weird bridge to the center torso location then you won't have to worry about an XL because you will have probably been cored pretty quick. Either way, the devs have gotten a bit quicker to fix hit boxes for newly released 'Mechs so we will see how it plays out. I am still looking forward to owning one and I already have 15 million saved up to trick out the first one I buy.

[Spheroid]

The fat waist is true to the original artwork. I'm okay with easy to hit side torsos, I just don't want an easy to kill head.

[G_zero]

Man, look at those LOVE HANDLES...

[Shumabot]

xZaOx, on 14 May 2013 - 10:38 AM, said:

Why is it the final rendition is always so much uglier. Keep the same proportions. Same thing happened with the Cent.

FDs 4ups are probably not the same as the 3 quarter shots that get posted as concepts. His concept pics probably often contain little issues that translate poorly into an actual model. That's not any fault of FDs, that's just the reality of the process and is common to all games.

PGI is also bad at screen shooting glamour shots of in game models.

Edited by Shumabot, 14 May 2013 - 11:22 AM.

[Soeth]

I can already see the day of patch:

[FupDup]

Soeth, on 14 May 2013 - 11:22 AM, said:

I can already see the day of patch:

There's not much they can do against Highlanders and Stalkers...

[Dirus Nigh]

Mahws, on 13 May 2013 - 10:45 PM, said:

Screenshots from Bryan Ekman's Twitter:



Full size:
https://pbs.twimg.co...Ek2Pt.jpg:large
https://pbs.twimg.co...A7rUH.jpg:large

The black jack is way to broad for a 45 ton mech. It looks bigger than the HBK and the same size as the cent. What the hell ever happened to tall and thin?! Both the pelvis and waist are huge.

Edited by Dirus Nigh, 14 May 2013 - 11:49 AM.

[Khanahar]

Ghetto Hunchback IIC, here I come!

3/5
50% armor
3 tons ammo
2 AC/20

Woohoo!

(realistically, you could go down to 2 or 1 tons ammo... you're gonna die before then anyway.)

[Shumabot]

FupDup, on 14 May 2013 - 11:30 AM, said:

There's not much they can do against Highlanders and Stalkers...

Not much anything that isn't an assault could do. The metagame isn't going to get broken up without matchmaking revisions and changes to how rewards are scaled and objectives are handled.

[FupDup]

Shumabot, on 14 May 2013 - 11:56 AM, said:

Not much anything that isn't an assault could do.

To be fair, Jagerbombs and poptart Cataphracts seem fairly capable of decent damage (namely the 'Phract).

Shumabot, on 14 May 2013 - 11:56 AM, said:

The metagame isn't going to get broken up without matchmaking revisions and changes to how rewards are scaled and objectives are handled.

Matchmaking revisions probably wouldn't change the poptartiness of the current meta, just make it so people have to do it against people of similar skill (which is a massive improvement for sure but not a full revolution). Rewards/objectives changes would be a nice way to get people playing fast lights and mediums but that also doesn't address short-range combat being undesirable.

Edited by FupDup, 14 May 2013 - 12:07 PM.

[Butane9000]

Seth, on 02 May 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

On the NGNG podcast #68, Bryan Ekman let us know that the order of release for new 'Mechs will be a medium in May, a heavy in June, an assault in July, and a light in August. He didn't specify which 'Mechs those are, but being that there is only one already announced medium, the Blackjack, I think it's a safe bet that it will be the one we see this month. The Orion should be after that. Then we have a yet to be announced Assault 'Mech in July, and the Flea in August.

I refer you here where they have confirmed the blackjack. Given the Orion and Flea are announced that tells us what the Heavy and Light will be. The only question is which assault will it be? Hopefully we find out next Wednesday the 22nd if my source is right.

[Shumabot]

FupDup, on 14 May 2013 - 12:03 PM, said:

To be fair, Jagerbombs and poptart Cataphracts seem fairly capable of decent damage (namely the 'Phract).



Matchmaking revisions probably wouldn't change the poptartiness of the current meta, just make it so people have to do it against people of similar skill (which is a massive improvement for sure but not a full revolution). Rewards/objectives changes would be a nice way to get people playing fast lights and mediums but that also doesn't address short-range combat being undesirable.

Matchmaking revisions meaning things like asymmetrical weight based matchmaking so one team gets two 50 tonners for every atlas, and so on. I agree that the ranged meta is too strong, but that doesn't actually make mediums worse alone, they're worse than assaults at short range too. The problem here is that there is no reason to ever not take the heaviest thing, and since the heaviest thing is always the most vulnerable to sniper fire there's no reason not to put the most sniper weapons on your heaviest thing. The reward structure prioritizes damage, damage is best done by assaults, assaults also give up the most damage before dying, etc. Pinpoint sniper weapons are concretely better than they should be in the game (among many other balance faults), but the power imbalance is only one part of the puzzle of why the game is just one big counterstrike AWPmap.

[Koniving]

I see 4 flamers, 4 lasers...

That's 8 energy. Does this mean this BlackJack will be able to compete with the HBK 4P as a laser boat? It'd be nice to have another multi Small Pulse rig.

Flamers in general can be fun.

Edited by Koniving, 14 May 2013 - 12:16 PM.

[FupDup]

Shumabot, on 14 May 2013 - 12:12 PM, said:

Matchmaking revisions meaning things like asymmetrical weight based matchmaking so one team gets two 50 tonners for every atlas, and so on. I agree that the ranged meta is too strong, but that doesn't actually make mediums worse alone, they're worse than assaults at short range too. The problem here is that there is no reason to ever not take the heaviest thing, and since the heaviest thing is always the most vulnerable to sniper fire there's no reason not to put the most sniper weapons on your heaviest thing. The reward structure prioritizes damage, damage is best done by assaults, assaults also give up the most damage before dying, etc. Pinpoint sniper weapons are concretely better than they should be in the game (among many other balance faults), but the power imbalance is only one part of the puzzle of why the game is just one big counterstrike AWPmap.

Ah, you were referring to tonnage matching--agreed on that note. It would also help underachieving mechs like the Awesome, Dragon, and eventually the Flea...

As for rewards, also agreed on too much emphasis on killing. However, savior kills seem to be the best way to get huge payouts and literally only require you to sneeze on a closeby enemy mech that then gets killed by an allied unit while another ally (or you) has an exposed CT nearby (or getting the kill yourself works too).

Koniving, on 14 May 2013 - 12:16 PM, said:

It'd be nice to have another multi Small Pulse rig.

That's a funny way to say Medium Laser.

Edited by FupDup, 14 May 2013 - 12:23 PM.

[Shumabot]

FupDup, on 14 May 2013 - 12:19 PM, said:

Ah, you were referring to tonnage matching--agreed on that note. It would also help underachieving mechs like the Awesome, Dragon, and eventually the Flea...

As for rewards, also agreed on too much emphasis on killing. However, savior kills seem to be the best way to get huge payouts and literally only require you to sneeze on a closeby enemy mech that then gets killed by an allied unit while another ally (or you) has an exposed CT nearby (or getting the kill yourself works too).

They also directly reward going for the messiest and least efficient kills via component destruction and damage numbers. They dis-incentivise the games objectives by providing nothing for a capture and making the spread between a victory and a defeat very low for payout. They make things like scouting pointless with their map design and provide virtually no compensation for horizontal playstyles like fast tagging/narcing. Every structure in the game is seemingly based on rewarding players for taking their heaviest mechs and ignoring the games objectives. There are major incentive issues at every level in the game.

The fact that assaults always get more xp and money because they do more damage should be a giant red flag. Who cares if they did more in the match, all rewarding such numbers does is ensure that no one does anything but take assaults.

Edited by Shumabot, 14 May 2013 - 12:32 PM.

[Koniving]

FupDup, on 14 May 2013 - 12:22 PM, said:

That's a funny way to say Medium Laser.

>.>; They're MACHINE GUNS that shoot red beams of light!

[FupDup]

Koniving, on 14 May 2013 - 12:27 PM, said:

>.>; They're MACHINE GUNS that shoot red beams of light!

That's when Macro'd, which turns just about anything carried in large numbers into machine guns. Individual SPL aren't any more machinegunny than Small Lasers. O_o


PS: Earlier, I was trying to imply that ML are usually an overall better choice due to much longer range and some more damage for the same weight and a wee bit more heat.

Edited by FupDup, 14 May 2013 - 12:37 PM.

[Henchman 24]

SquareSphere, on 07 November 2012 - 11:21 AM, said:

... THIS IS SO WRONG! This is Omni mech version, the battlemech NEVER had UAC5s as default weapons! This mech breaks the time line. The omni Blackjack wasn't available until 3057, that's post Tukkayyid!

if they were going to start announcing "future" mech they should have started with Clan invasion mechs

I'm calling out who ever decided to include this mech at this phase!

Actually, even the Omni's only carried UAC10s stock and it was a later variant at that...but who's nitpicking right?