7
Mechwarrior is kind of neat in all the axes you have to balance along:
Damage Duration, Damage Amount, Range, Cooldown, Heat, Weight, Critical Slots, Cost (/BV)
I like the concept that the standard medium laser is the 'sweet spot' for optimization of the laser family and that no other laser should be as good as it on a damage per time/weight/crits/heat basis.
Pulse is currently -range, -duration, +damage, +weight, +heat (small is not +dmg)
I would rather see them -range, -duration, +damage, +criticals, +heat (a sliding scale where Large lasers get the least heat addition and smalls the most)
ER is currently are +range, +heat (only ER LL available)
I would rather see them +range, +weight, -duration, +heat (a sliding scale where large lasers get the least heat addition and smalls get the most)
Both pulse and ER would be upgrades to a standard laser in terms of DPS (due to -duration and no change to cooldown) at tradeoff of either weight (long range ER) or criticals (short range pulse) and some additional heat.
PPC's should be balanced against the large laser and carry tradeoffs. -duration and -cooldown is a big win, balanced out by +heat. You also get +range at the cost of +weight/+crit slot - but I think there should be a damage tweak as well - PPC should be 11, erppc 12 or something similar.
Anyhoo. I have to get back to real work, but I'd love the devs to rebalance the laser system thinking along the above lines.
My general principles are:
1) Normal lasers are competitive and work
2) Pulse lasers are better for brawling, at the cost of crit slots (and a little more damage for more heat)
3) ER lasers are better for ranged poke, at the cost of weight (and a little more damage for more heat)
4) PPC's are a tradeoff with large lasers - more crits, more weight, more range, more damage, more heat
Edited by Gaeb, 12 December 2012 - 06:53 AM.
