66 replies to this topic

[FerretGR]

Child3k, on 04 December 2012 - 09:18 AM, said:

Right now the 9M is my favorite AWS-chassis.

Indeed. I love the Awesome, grinding my way through them now... saved the 9M for last because it's so much fun to run

[Cebi]

I decided to try it out last week. Dropped in a match of 8v4 advantage my team. Ran up to enemy to try and get some damage on them before we won, fired PPCs, overheated instantly, got blow up by amused enemy team. It was hilarious, but perhaps not great for a newbie trial mech.

Oh and we lost, my team was hilariously bad.

[Thirdrail]

Now, be fair. The 9M is only horribly, horribly, broken IF you use it in any of the ways it was intended to be used.

If you turn it into an over-sized hunchback with three large lasers and a massive XL engine, it's almost as functional as the Hunchback SP, and it's only more expensive than the kitted out SP by something like 10 million c-biscuits.

The 9M really is the epitome of everything that's wrong with the Battletech-heat-to-real-time-heat conversion ratios, and PPCs. And, of course, the game's completely abstract and nonsensical mech prices - you can buy three jenners for the price of one 9M. In no reality we currently have access to is a 9M even a match for one of those jenners, much less three of them.

Ideas for resolving these issues:

1) Dial back the rate of fire on everything a little. Leave the heat dissipation rates the same. (I'm not even getting involved in the DHS civil war. My cats depend on my sanity.)

2) Cut the heat on PPCs. Increase their velocity. Right now, the most heat crippled weapon in the game is also the most difficult to aim. Note that I didn't say impossible, simply most difficult. I also think you could solve some of the PPC issues by giving them a heat discount in groups. You can run one PPC just fine, but the minute you have two or three of them on a mech, it gets weird fast.

3) Retool mech prices to reflect the actual functionality of these mechs, instead of the vestigial economy of canon. PGI keeps saying they like the rock-paper-scissors type balancing. That's fine, but rock, paper, and scissors all require an equal amount of resources to produce - one hand. MWO charges twice as much for paper and three times as much for scissors. It makes no sense to have a balanced design outlook for the game, and then use what now amounts to an arbitrary system for pricing it.

[Buzz Litebeer]

FerretGR, on 04 December 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

But while you're firing 1/3 of your armament, waiting, firing 1/3, waiting, etc, I'm constantly alpha striking weapons with the same or shorter cooldowns. My 9M has 5ML, 1 LL, and one SRM6, and I can alpha that a few times before overheating. I can fire all the MLs constantly, which is more DPS than your biggest (2PPC) strike. Yes, the stock 9M can be used, but it's not nearly as effective as its faster, more heat efficient brothers.

And I play far less than you do But I don't try to put myself in situations where I am up front fighting people, you learn quickly that the AWS-9M is not... awesome in that respect.

But on mid range to long range it hasn't been as terrible as the previous Atlas mech. If these are the mechs you have to choose from, then it is what you use.

[Lightfoot]

Yep, this is old news. Because PGI never added DHS the AWS-9M is a shutdown 'mech. Shutsdown for 30 seconds between firings, rotating through the ERPPCs does little to help because the heat is always maxxed-out.

[LaserAngel]

Large Lasers ARE the PPC. I do not have a single mech that runs with a PPC.

[Sifright]

I heard the 9M is being fielded a lot in premades right now....