Posted 27 November 2012 - 11:47 PM
Since this is the merged thread, I suppose this might have a chance at being read, so I'm gonna spew on alot of things, though I think I'll leave this post to weapons and leave mechs alone for now.
My design philosophy is that all weapons need a role, and that each weapon should be balanced to that role with respect to its mounting/weight/heat/ammo costs.
For example, all LRMs have the same role, they have the same handling, the same range, the same ammo, the same arc, etc. They only vary in loading requirement and total missile spewage.
Weapons that are underperforming are:
Machine Guns. They need at least double their current damage. While they generate no heat, their pathetic dps, ammo dependency, travel time, and spread contribute to their being completely useless. They should compete with the small laser in role as they have the same range and similar loading requirements (ammo vs heatsink, one slot for 1/2 ton). It fills a sorely needed spot in the ballistics selection for a backup weapon, and some mechs like the ballistic heavy Cicada variant won't be worth their weight in pixels until this weapon competes with the small laser.
Flamers. They need smarter heat mechanics. Ones that keep the enemy hot, but don't auto-shut him down. They become too powerful when you can flamerboat and force people to shut down, they become useless when they heat you up more than your opposition. This is just the jist of what needs to be done, and I think its something the devs are already working on, so I'll leave the fine tuning up to them as I have not thought out exactly how this weapon would be best implimented.
Small Pulse Lasers. They have the exact same loading requirements as medium lasers, but are outclassed by them in every way. The only advantage to the splas is that it fires its damage over the course of 1/2 second instead of 1 full second. This is no useful advantage, only the lightest of mechs can even possible benefit from this during twitch fights with other lights, other mechs often benefit from the longer fire time because they can correct poor shots mid-beam.
Now, this weapon just lacks a role. With precisely the same loading requirements, it obviously has to be balanced against the mlas. The mlas must keep the advantage of range, while the splas keeps the benefit of a shorter duration. We are still left with burst dps and heat efficiency to consider. A large reason why this weapon is not used is because the mlas beats it in both burst dps and long term heat efficiency. In short, the mlas has better damage, range, and heat, and it has the latter two by a wide margin. I would recommend changing the splas to have a beam duration of 0.25 seconds, and reduce its heat generation to 2.5. The splas will then be 96% as heat efficient, and have 96% the dps of the mlas (up from 80% and 87%, respectively), but have a far more noticable handling difference as it will spew its damage out in a quarter second. This will make the splas a very useful weaopn for, and against, light mechs as well as for brawlers who plan on being at point blank and need to pinpoint their damage. It gives the weapon a role (pinpoint damage for point blank brawlers) without stepping on the small laser or the medium lasers role of ultra-heat efficiency and omni-laser-filler.
Narc. The wieght is not worth the bonus. Even if the bonus lasted for more than 10 seconds, it just would not cut it. This needs to broadcast the enemy location for at least those 10 seconds, probably 15 in order for lights to really consider taking it. It would be a huge advantage to a light to be able to do scouting without having to maintain LOS, and this has the potential to be the perfect tool to do that with, but while visual lock remains required, the wieght and ammo needs in conjunction with TAG having the same operational requirements for the same benefits but with 1/5 the loading requirements and no drawbacks just makes Narc obsolete.
ER LL. The low heat dissipation rate in this game makes high-heat weapons really hard to use. You have to build your entire mech around just a pair of high heat weapons, and then you don't have any spare heat to run the ubiquitous set of medium lasers for your backup array. The highest heat weapons of all have taken the harshest hit, especially given the fact that the prevalence of terrain cover and lack of long range radar makes it pretty darned easy for mechs that want to engage at below 500m able to do so. So the ER large weapons almost never get to use their range, and their heat is way to high a price for that one or two shots you might get to do a bit more damage with because you have the ER version instead of the regular (which would still likely damage your opponent at that range, just at 2/3 or 1/2 the amount). The heat on this weapon needs to be cut by at least another full point to 9. Going to 8.5 might even be better, but testing at 9 is probably safer before changing it too much.
ER PPC. Same problem as the erll. Heat doesn't justify the range. However, this weapon is importantly different in that it does not have the minimum range limit that keeps regular PPCs from seeing the light of day (getting to that too). Dropping its heat generation a full two points may be justified because 10 damage for 13 heat is just silly in a game where long-term heat control is so utterly critical. However, this leaves it two heat points away from the regular PPC and without its minimum range problem, meaning we won't see the regular PPC again unless...
PPC. ...we change the way the minimum range works. Right now PPCs actually do damage below 90m, but its pathetically small (maybe one?). Increase the damage inside the minimum range. The exact number is up for grabs, but I'd think 5 damage would make sense. You deal half damage inside your minimum. Its a strong incentive to keep your enemy out of that range, and a strong incentive for them to get in it, but it doesn't render you entirely useless as the current setup demands. Now PPCs get to perform against other weapons in their role, direct fire main energy weapons, especially the large laser, trading a little heat efficiency, some travel time, and half its damage inside 90m for being able to put all its damage in one hit location.
LBX10. Spread mechanics just are not going to work to balance this weapon. It doesn't matter what spread you give it, it will always be worse than regular ACs that can put all their damage on one location. If you buff its damage per pellet, then it becomes a humping-shotgun as people will ram into point blank to concentrate the damage and use the overall superior dps to face-wreck people.
This weapon needs an entirely different role. Options include: (1) Give its pellets a very tight spread and a super high muzzle velocity so they can hit light mechs and actually deal most of their damage to a target at their maximum range (spread should be less than Atlas sized at max range). (2) Make these weapons haeavy machine guns, instead of firing a cluster shot, then fire a stream of individual LBX rounds at a rate determined by the caliber of the weapon. They will all have better range and minimally better DPS than their AC counterparts, but suffer from needing to be held on target constantly.
Metagame Balance
Ammo based weapons are getting screwed hard by the reload mechanic being very poorly implimented. I understand wanting to charge us for ammo, it makes alot of fluff sense. But the actual cost we are being charged is absurd. My non-artemis SRM CPLT-C4 has to pay 41,000 c-bills to top off its ammo bins. Thats more than what it costs to put then entire mech back together after a totalhelldeath. I could instead laser up my C1 and cut my per-match expendatures down to 1/3 what they are with an ammo mech (or more, because I pay that ammo cost every match, even when I don't splode).
And our workaround is just as silly. We get the bottom 75% for free, so we end up stacking extra ammo in the mech so that we don't get charged the absurd reload fee. To avoid a metagame penalty, we are penalized on our mech builds. This should not happen at all, let alone to this magnitude.
Change ammo rearm costs so that we pay for every shot, but change the % cost to the same that it is for mechs (in the 1-2% range). Then balance the repair costs of lasers so that one laser repair is approximately as expensive as one missile launcher repair + ammo costs for two rounds (averaging one round of survival and one round of death).
And finally, a list of weapons that you should never consider buffing past their current performance levels because they may already be too good.
Gauss Rifle, SSRM2, SRM6, Small Laser, Medium Laser.
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