183 replies to this topic

[1453 R]

Ye know what? Totally okay with that, and I never hated the thing in the first place. It's just good to see the issues relating to the 3L's infamous Demonic Powers being dealt with one by one until the 'Mech winds up being just another choice of light 'Mechs. Hell, six months from now people will barely even remember why the 3L used to be so hated/feared, and frankly that's the way it should be. This is how you fix a problem machine.

[Tolkien]

DTheSleepless, on 21 March 2013 - 01:05 PM, said:

Each patch, PGI has quietly nerfed the Raven by fixing the problems around it. Remember that it wasn't good because it was actually a good mech, it was good because it exploited more holes in the game than any other mech. But over the past couple of months:

State-based rewinding has killed the lagshield.
This last patch tweaked the Raven's hitboxes and made it easier to hit.

They've said they're going to nerf ECM soon, and splash damage is being removed on the 2nd (although sometime today we're getting the damage fixed).

I've been happily watching Ravens get splattered, so the actual menace of the 3L is quietly disappearing even though its legacy still looms. What ticked me off the most was always the players that felt like they were such good pilots because they were rolling a mech that was straight up broken. I stopped running my COM-2D anywhere near as frequently for just that reason: I didn't want to conflate having an overpowered build with having skill.

Yep, the Craven 3L was broken on multiple levels>
1) Hardpoints - Stacking medium lasers on a fast platform is a no brainer, as are streaks for hunting lights.
2) Top speed - with lag shields this made them impossible to hit, without lag shields they are just 'tricky to hit'.
3) Profile - The craven 3L has high side mounted weapons which makes it ideal for shooting over obstacles and also shooting just around corners.
4) ECM - I still think this needs a working over with the nerf stick.
5) Splash damage - an outright bug but hey this chassis took advantage of it!
6) Hitbox - the post in the recent patch notes that the raven hitboxes have been 'simplified' tells me there was actually a terrible bug with the raven hitboxes as many had suspected that they just found and fixed. Testing indicates that they are indeed much easier to land hits on now.
7) Artemis - I've reported this in the feedback thread more than a month ago but on a craven you can equip artemis which will reduce the lock time of your streaks but *does not* use up tonnage or critical slots... People have told me that the devs have been aware for months and have even said it is working as intended.... (note, just to be sure I *HAVE* posted this in feedback a month ago, but still no comment or fix, so maybe it is indeed working as intended...) I believe streak cats can also benefit from free artemis in this way, but it is just risky for them since they don't have an ECM.

I was actually quite ok with the idea of harvesting Cbills while the sun shone, and indeed that is what I did. Before they finally fixed the hitboxes on the thing even after the host state rewind patch my kill death peaked out over 5.6. I am not nearly that good, but I didn't feel guilty about it since I had made this thread so everyone who was inclined could join in the fun (and hopefully get dev attention focused on the ECM and other issues illuminated by this chassis, even though 2 of the big ones turned out to be outright bugs).

1453 R, on 22 March 2013 - 12:27 PM, said:

Ye know what? Totally okay with that, and I never hated the thing in the first place. It's just good to see the issues relating to the 3L's infamous Demonic Powers being dealt with one by one until the 'Mech winds up being just another choice of light 'Mechs. Hell, six months from now people will barely even remember why the 3L used to be so hated/feared, and frankly that's the way it should be. This is how you fix a problem machine.

Good point. The craven has been mostly dethroned by having its hitboxes fixed, but I am still quite convinced that the job isn't done yet. ECM is still too much of a swiss army shotgun and has a benefit to the user/penalty to the victim all out of proportion to being the same size/weight as an AMS while not having any exploding ammo required.

It was a lot of fun piloting this thing, but now it's time to pilot a more chivalrous mech, like the splatcat.... just kidding.

Edited by Tolkien, 07 April 2013 - 10:57 PM.

[Inveramsay]

It is still a very competent and dangerous mech, possibly even more so than at its peak because there is so many fewer ECM mechs in pub play meaning it will still **** and pillage. What I do notice is that when playing it (I round robin my 14 mechs atm) is that I will get kills and do lots of damage but also usually die whilst doing it, something which is a noticeable difference compared to the glory days.

[Shaky Shot]

too bad they have stuffed it buy taking away one modle slot........