527 commentsPublic Test Session - Alpha Balance Series
Friday July 13th 10:30AM (PDT) - Monday July 16th 12:00 (noon) PDT
Or Direct Download: http://patcher.mwomercs.com/patch/PublicTest/frontend/FrontendPatch_173.zip
Greetings Mechwarriors,
Welcome to the Public Test Session for the Alpha Balance Series. As laid out in Paul's outline post, we will be looking to address the current gulf in effective alpha levels on Clan 'Mechs in comparison to Inner Sphere 'Mechs. Based around the community responses to the earlier post outlying our current options. We want to stress moving into this test that this overall direction is not set in stone at this point. Nor the individual changes themselves . Both the overall direction and the individual changes are set explicitly as testing values for us to monitor and collect data should we consider them for release. We will be closely monitoring the data gathered as well as feedback provided by active testers within the PTS forum. (PTS Forum Link needed.)
To reiterate what Paul said in his "Future Balance Discussions and Planning" thread, the overall solution that we are looking to implement is one that directly addresses the damage discrepancy between the effective alpha damage cap of 94 damage on the Clan side compared to the 60-65 damage that the Inner Sphere typically caps out at. With the intent of narrowing this discrepancy down into a state that is not so lopsided towards one faction. This does not mean that the goal is to see this cap be equal on both sides, but that the gulf that currently exists between the average Clan Alpha centric build and Inner Sphere Alpha centric build should not be as vast as it is currently in-game.
For the opening PTS, we will be testing the options previously presented to the players that garnered the most amount of direct support in the feedback thread based on the approach that the majority of players who commented on preferred:
- Providing a Clan Gauss Rifle Recoil effect.
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Reducing the damage on Clan lasers to have closer parity to the IS lasers.
Again, this does not mean that these changes are set in stone. We are taking the feedback that we have received to heart, and will be conducting internal tests on other options found internally and includes numbers from the community balance document that still addresses our primary goal of bringing the alpha capabilities between the factions closer together. We anticipate that we will be running a second PTS at an undetermined date to go over more options and alternative solutions that may or may not involve any of the changes listed in the previous "options" post. This first PTS will be targeted at testing the options that we have readily available at the moment. With possible future PTS reserved for alternative options that we are currently investigating internally.
As usual, this Public Test contains a cloned version of the main player account database. This clone was created on June 27th AM UTC. As a result, upon logging into Public Test your account will appear as it did at that time.
• If your account was created after that time you will be unable to access the Skill Tree Public Test.
• If your login credentials were changed after that time you will need to login to this PTS using your original credentials.
• If your account was temporarily suspended at that time please contact moderation@mwomercs.com to resolve the suspension on PTS.
• This PTS build contains much of the content from our June 19th patch, including all of its balance and Quirk adjustments. You can find a rundown on all those changes in our June 19th Patch Notes. However, this PTS build does not contain the Competitive Play mode.
• All Quick Play matches will be 4v4
• Skirmish, Conquest, and Assault are the only two Game Modes in rotation.
• Solo and Group Queue matches will be supported. However, you will need to Group up in groups of 2 or 4 to find a match.
• The matchmaker will not be in effect (no PSR or Weight Class matching).
• Private Matches will be accessible.
• Faction Play will be accessible, but to help ensure you get matches we recommend you drop QP.
• All PTS accounts will be boosted with MC and C-Bill currency and Premium Time to aid with testing.
• Please do not contact Support regarding any PTS questions or feedback. Please direct all PTS-related content to the dedicated Discussion Forum.
Clan Weapon Changes:
Clan Gauss Rifle
Weapon Recoil added to the weapon.
Clan Lasers
- Clan ER-Small Laser
- Damage reduced to 4.4 (from 5)
- Heat reduced to 3.2 ( from 3.5)
- Cooldown reduced to 3.2 (from 3.5)
- Clan ER-Medium Laser
- Damage reduced to 5.25 (from 7)
- Heat reduced to 5.7 (from 6.3)
- Cooldown reduced to 4 (from 4.5)
- Clan ER- Large Laser
- Damage reduced to 10 (from 11)
- Heat Scale Trigger Increased to 4 (from 3)
- This means that you will receive the first heat scale penalty when firing 4 Clan ER-Large Lasers.
- Clan Medium Pulse laser
- Damage reduced to 6.25 (from 7)
- Heat reduced to 4.5 (from 4.75)
- Clan Large Pulse laser
- Damage reduced to 11 (from 12)
- Heat Scale Trigger Increased to 4 (from 3)
- This means that you will receive the first heat scale penalty when firing 4 Clan Large Pulse lasers.
- Heavy Medium Laser
- Damage reduced to 8 (from 10)
- Heat reduced to 7 (from 8)
- Duration reduced to 1.37 (from 1.45)
- Heavy Large Laser
- Damage reduced to 16 (from 18)
We would like to thank all of those that have provided feedback on this matter. Feel free to continue to provide feedback both in those threads, and within the newly opened PTS forum.
