2 replies to this topic

[Protection]

Anyone who has seen me on the forums knows that weapon balance is one of my primary concerns, as I am a competitive PVP player and really push for Devs to empower players with choices and options. Given the current state of weapon balance, I'd like to offer some suggestions.

ENERGY

Pulse Lasers

My chief complaint is that they don't really feel all that different from regular lasers, and really dont put out much more damage given the extra tonnage. Large Pulse's are still considered one of the weakest weapons, and Smalls are not really anything special either, Would it be out of the question to go for more Mechwarrior 4 style Pulse Lasers -- shorten the burst, lower the recycle time, and adjust down the damage and heat to compensate for a faster firing rate.

ER Weapons

The real criminals here are the maps, as almost none of them are large enough for an 'extended range' weapon to make use of it's extended range (with the punishment of very high heat). I'm sure more maps will be coming, but it still seems like a hard sell to me. Can we add maybe a few hundred meters to the range of these weapons?

PPCs

PPCs (also ERPPCs) are large for energy weapons, very high heat for relatively middling damage, with a lot of severe drawbacks (minimum range). Things like the high heat are part of the characteristics of PPCs, but in tabletop and lore they were threatening hole-puncher weapons. Here they aren't quite that useful. Would it be out of the question to suggest PPCs become a splash damage weapon? Rather than simply ten damage to one location, the PPC would put ten damage to the hit location and 5 damage to each adjacent location (excluding the head). This way even 'close' shots can still be worthwhile, the overall damage is greatly increased without outright replacing the Gauss as the premier sniper weapon, the hard-to-aim and high heat are justified, and maybe even roll back the recycle time since the low 3 second recycle is not helping much anyhow.

Flamers

It's really, really tough to make them worthwhile without seeing them abused. A 9-Flamer Hunchback perma-overheating an enemy is a recipe for frustration and abuse. Hard to saw what to do with these.


BALLISTIC

Autocannons

Autocannons are really close to being well balanced, and things like the AC/2 and AC/5 have never been more viable in a Mechwarrior game than here. And even the recent AC/20 heat buff, coupled with the better engine double heatsinks, might make this weapon more commonplace. If anything, maybe one more buff to ammo packs (more ammo per ton), and maybe lower the AC/10 recycle time - that weapons needs some love.

LB-10X

It's the spread. Spreading ten damage all around is almost always worse than having it focused. If you want this weapon to be the shotgun, it needs to hurt at point blank range. Up the damage by 25-50%.

Ultra Autocannons


Anyone (smart) who uses them already has an unjam macro set up - so ujamming is basically a one button push-to-fix. Can we just have an unjam button - maybe one that takes 5-10 second to unjam the gun, rather than requiring 'Perfect Keyboard' to press the arrow keys for us. Other than that, they are quite good.

Machine Guns

Same idea as flamers - if they are too good, they will be abused. But right now they are comically weak. Can we double the damage?


MISSILE

Streaks

Actually pretty well balanced right now.

SRMs

They are pretty good, although they probably deserve a slightly tighter spread with the Artemis IV system, but not too good - as it could make SRMs a little too powerful again.

LRMs

It was the trajectory change that broke them, not the damage. I don't think both needed to be nerfed. Keep the current low trajectory, but give them back their damage. Right now they feel too weak for the tonnage. Especially when ECM goes active.

NARC

Change how it works completely. Right now, Artemis IV, TAG, and NARC all do the exact same thing - tighten the missile spread. Three items all filling the exact same role is boring. Narc is the heaviest, most expensive, and largest commitment of the 3 (requiring a precious missile hardpoint) - make it useful.

Instead, this is how Narc should work: Rather than lasting 12-15 seconds and falling off (usually before missiles even close in), Narc lasts 30 seconds to any mech that it sticks to. It no longer helps missiles converge. Instead, it allows you to keep a target locked, even with no line of sight. This way, when an enemy is Narced, the scout can pull back/retreat, but missiles can keep coming, and you can even track his movement for the next little while - all without having to keep a line of site. Since NARC ammo is so few shots per ton, and NARC is a big commitment, this will give it a meaningful and different role on the battlefield.

[Dibster]

I agree with absolutely everything. Well done, sir.

[Protection]

Ahem...