On a non-griping note, MW5 is slated to have co-op and to be moddable. Hopefully that means we can make an Oosik Edition.
Probably because they plan on going the Bethesda route of releasing a steaming pile of shit, and hoping the community fixes it.
If it's a good enough foundation/the tools are strong enough that the community can fix it, I'd be fine with that. And given Bethesda's record, so would most gamers. That's the beauty of mod-support for a game, it's a fantastic way to hedge your bets as a developer.
And people wonder how companies like EA have been allowed to get to where they are today.
Man, people are going to buy and play games that they enjoy, and if the only hurdle to enjoying a game is installing some community mods, that's a pretty minor speedbump. I don't really see why they shouldn't. Quite frankly the alternative (holding out to make a point) feels a bit like screaming into the void.
I think it's a good thing when games have robust support for mods.
The comp players are the best at winning competitions. Your typical pug match isn't a competition match. They are also probably less than 1% of your customers, likely whales at that, so they might account for the majority of PGI's profits, in which case it totally makes sense to pander to them. They also pilot 90% Clan mechs. I mean, the outcome is obvious. I just disagree that it is "the best."
Energy Draw was a more consistent form of Ghost Heat that you can understand without a two page long table (http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/equipment#weapon_heatscale) It had better in game UI feedback, and more universal rules. I think it would have been a net benefit to the game.
Comp players are best at winning competitions because they see the underlying imbalances in the game and exploit them ruthlessly. They bring what they they see is the best. They're not Clan loyalists by any means. Heck, there were several Wolfhounds during the world championship tournament and a handful of Battlemasters. The champion team brought a triple UAC2 Dragon every match and kicked ass with it. If someday PGI buffs IS tech to be on par with the Clans, you'll see more IS mechs in competitive drops.
I don't see how balancing at the competitive level makes the game worse for everyone else. What's the alternative to balancing by top level play? Balancing by pugs? You do that and LRMs would be even more garbage than they already are.
And I'm not opposed to the basic concept of energy draw on principle, but what they need to present something better than ghost heat 2.0
They aren’t balancing by top level play, they arent really balancing at all.
If they were, they would be correcting the underlying imbalances that the top level players have been exploiting ruthlessly.
But that would shake up the META and upset those same top level players who have gotten comfortable.
Much how PGI has let Faction Play turn into CBill farming mode for organized groups at the cost of it being a vibrant mode of play. All to try and pretend its a “competitive”mode, even though there is a seperate mode for that already.
They are certainly balancing, and not even just at the top level. The December patch will see spread increases for all Clan MGs, crit multiplier reductions for C-LMG and C-MG, and heat and cooldown nerfs for C-ERLLs. C-ERLLs and Clan MGs got a fair bit of use during the championship games. They're also buffing the Panther, Cicada, Uziel, IS Orion, Zeus and both HMGs (IS to a greater extent), so they're balancing tech on the middle and low ends as well.
While these changes are not nearly enough to balance the two sides, I can't really fault them for making more incremental changes over the wilder swings we've seen in the past.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
So in this video (can't stop won't stop), I try to nail down just how the cooling system works in BATTLETECH.
I get pretty close to figuring it out. I've got another video in the can that nails this down, but for spoiler's sake: External (crit-mounted) heat sinks have a dissipation rate of 3 (viewable in the game files), while the ten engine-mounted heat sinks have a dissipation rate of approximately 1. Which explains why many of the 'Mechs will show any heat at all, after the disparate scaling up of the heat values.
External (crit-mounted) heat sinks have a dissipation rate of 3 (viewable in the game files), while the ten engine-mounted heat sinks have a dissipation rate of approximately 1. Which explains why many of the 'Mechs will show any heat at all, after the disparate scaling up of the heat values.
They are nerfing the Clan Machine Guns because the Piranha is almost here and is going to absolutely destroy balance again. Its not enough though, the Clan LMG needs half the Crit Mult to make any difference, its got 70% the damage, same crit mult, and TWICE the range as a normal MG. Its still miles better, even with the spread.
The HMG is still a huge trap. Its still got less Crit Bonuses than the "new" Clan Light Machine Gun, and that is where the DPS is. It just barely reaches 1 damage on a perfect crit, 0.26 damage less than 2 LMGs or 0.8 less than 2 MGs. You are better off with a Small Pulse Laser (or 2 MG) 100% of the time. Either it needs the same crit bonuses as the other machine guns, or it needs real DPS and less crit. If there were more IS mechs with 6 ballistic hardpoints (like maybe the BLG 1D, pretty plz PGI?) maybe it would have a role? The range on the LMG is really what lets it get work done so you aren't face tanking SRM boats at 0m with a pea shooter. At least you can torso twist between SPL shots.
I'm not complaining, honest, this is just my theorycraft on it.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
External (crit-mounted) heat sinks have a dissipation rate of 3 (viewable in the game files), while the ten engine-mounted heat sinks have a dissipation rate of approximately 1. Which explains why many of the 'Mechs will show any heat at all, after the disparate scaling up of the heat values.
This ... favors mechs with smaller engines.
In this game, as the Beta stands, actually it doesn't. All 'Mechs, regardless of engine size, have an assumed 10 engine heat sinks...all operating at 1.0 dissipation per. This means that small 'Mechs with small engines that per TT would have them externally mounted (in crit slots) just don't; the heat sinks aren't crit-mounted. I haven't done a complete survey to see if HBS redesigned any of the 'Mechs really nailed by this weird imbalance, but so far off the top of my head the only 'Mech where I spotted a weirdness was on the Battlemaster. Then when you consider that the heat values of weapons are 2.5x the TT values, things get weird.
The whole thing gets weirder when you start to look at heavier designs with lots of crit-mounted heat sinks, since their dissipation is 3.0 (3x TT value) but the weapons are generating only 2.5x TT value heat. The whole landscape of weapon loadouts vs. heat profiles is slightly different in this game than in TT. Not enough to be obviously different, but enough if you're paying attention.
I think that it's good that the numbers are different. In my opinion one of the absolute worst balance decisions in MWO was to import the stats of the tabletop weapons as a starting baseline. That laid the foundation for some of the most egregious balance problems like the inherent superiority of clan equipment or the power boost that pinpoint front loaded damage received in a shooter game where we get to call all of our shots. From that initial decision to be true to TT numbers, we've just had a series of ineffectual bandaid solutions sprinkled on top like quirks and ghost heat to try and rectify that initial mistake.
While the harebrained game is more analogous to TT than mwo, imo the best approach is to restrict the stat similarity to tonnage and crit slot restrictions to maintain compatibility with canon configurations. The rest of the stats like damage, range, and heat should be balanced entirely towards what works within the context of your game and shouldn't be bound by the TT stats at all.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Speaking of the TT I am still of the mind they could do with a nice clean slate. No supplemental rules, no tweaks, no updates just a fresh start from square one.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I think Weisman said he'd totally start over from scratch if given the opportunity to revise tabletop, and the first thing to go would have been engine heatsinks and the free DHS you receive that way. I'm not surprised to see that change carry over to BTG.
Ah ok. So if we @ you there might still be a response. Plus you HAVE to be back when BT goes live.
Oh, for sure. And my OCD won't let me stay away from the boards, even if I'm not too active. You @ me, there's a goodly chance I'll have already seen it.
So you dropping off the face of the virtual world forever or just for a while?
If forever, can I have your stuff?
Just a while. In all likelihood, I'll still be poking in occasionally to trade barbs with you fine gents here, but the majority of my online presence is probably going to be pretty mute for a while.
everything okay man?
You arent going for months are you?
Everything's great, actually! There's just a lot going on, and then there's the holidays on top of that.
I mean, I'm still unpacking and decorating the rooms of the new house. This is really the only one that's close to done.
You done fucked up now! Do you know how hard this game is to play holding an infant? I do....
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Speaking of numbers and nerfs, here's the MWO patch notes.
Interesting that CERLL got tapped with the nerf bat.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
So it goes to figure that of course when I try to do some math, my assumptions are wrong. And of course, someone's already figured this sh** out, like months ago.
Regarding heat in the BATTLETECH Beta, and why it makes no sense; This is from a community post from a few months back, but digging deeper into the game files, I've confirmed it:
Heat works the same way as tabletop. Each weapon generates a certain amount of heat and your heat sinks twice a set amount each round. What you see in the heat gauge is the net amount.
Some of the confusion probably comes from the global heat modifier found in the Combat Constants JSON file. This increases the heat generated by everything by the same factor and malts it easier to adjust the heat balance, but makes the actual heat from weapons a little harder to tell. You can't just look at the weapon file and see the total heat. A PPC has a heat of 25 before the heat mod, but after including the current 1.65 modifier, it is actually generating 41 heat.
Compared to tabletop, heat has been multiplied by 3. One single heat sink dissipates 3 heat instead of 1. A lot of the heat values for weapons have been tweaked as well, even before adding the global heat mod.
If you set the PPC to 35 heat without adjusting the global mod, it would actually be producing 57.75 heat.
...
The global heat modifier is expected to go away in the final release. Once the devs have decided where they want heat to be, they will probably switch the amounts in the individual weapons.
So...all heat sinks are actually at 3.0 dissipation, but there's a global modifier that makes everything hotter than the values listed in each individual weapon file. I dug into the Combat Constants JSON, and confirmed there is a modifier; for Beta Phase 2, it's currently set at 1.5.
So to do some more math, coming from my last video: Hunchback 4P
23 Heat Sinks * 3 Dissipation = -69 Heat
8 Medium Lasers * 8 Heat * 1.5 Global Modifier = +96 Heat
Total: +27 Heat
Firing only six medium lasers:
23 Heat Sinks = -69 Heat
6 ML * 8 Heat * 1.5 = 72 Heat
Total: +3 Heat
This bears out, at least eyeballing it, on the heat bar. Just confirmed in-match, at six lasers, you only generate a small sliver of additional heat.
I learned some other things (I think) while poking around in the files:
Each 'Mech has a total heat scale of 100, above which is Shutdown.
The redline (where you cross from Okay to Overheat) is by default set at 50 total heat (actually 50% of the OverheatLevel, which turns out is 100 * 0.5 = 50),
which is increased by 5 heat points per point of Guts, resulting in a Guts of 10 putting the redline right at the threshhold to shutdown.
Walking generates no heat.
Sprinting generates 5 heat.
Jumping generates 5 heat per hex of movement, with a minimum of 5. (Weird).
'Mechs restarting from Shutdown apparently only sink heat at 75% efficiency?
Here's all the heat constants in the JSON that I'm referencing. A couple of them I still don't fully understand, but at this point I'm not going to bother.
So in our theoretical LL-Awesome, using 2 of the 6 tons freed up by swapping PPCs for LLs makes you heat neutral. So add half a ton of armor, another SL, and then that's 3 tons to do whatever you want with! Which means 3x ML.
A Hunchie -4P, swap the arm mounted MLs for SLs, swap the head-mounted SL for a HS, add a half ton of armor. You're basically heat neutral and little more punchie.
e: sorry I just effin love heat neutral builds. BRB gonna go build a heat neutral Catapult.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
That'd work on an 8Q. Knowing now what I do about the heat scale, I kind of like the idea of 3xLL (with 30 HS for heat neutrality) and then some number of backup guns to add punch and use up spare heat scale when you need add a bit to your salvos. Since with a heat-neutral build you're starting with a minimum of 50 free Heat on the scale to use, increased by guts, I'd love to fit in a weapon set that could get two salvos off in that 50 heat. The problem right now is that we don't know what hardpoints we're working with; I'd like to think we'll see a few extra Energy or AP hardpoints on an 8Q, but who knows.
This all assumes a heat-neutral to cold environment. If I knew I was going to see a number of hot environments, I'd throw on extra heat sinks to try and offset that. Maybe. Again, that's situational, and we won't know the situations until we get the launch game.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
So here we go, a correct understanding of Heat in practice.
Wow... I just had the single most derpiest match I've ever been in.
Scene: Rubellite Oasis
Mode: Domination
At about 7:30 left in the match, my team only had a Quickdraw-IV4 (loadout: 2xMRM30) versus an Osiris (TAG and a pile of Streak 2s) and a Catapult (the Catapult was 6xLRM5). The IV4 managed to blow off the legs of the Osiris and managed to hold onto 330 missiles for the Catapult. Zagging towards the satellite dish to cover his approach, the IV4 closed to under minimum distance on the LRMs...at which point, the Catapult tried to circle around and get some distance while behind cover (this left the capture point to us). By the time the Catapult showed itself again, the capture timer was 0:41 - 0:48 (in our favor)...but the Quickdraw was faster and was able to leg-hump the Catapult to prevent LRM damage. For the next 6 minutes, all we could do was watch the Quickdraw carefully ram the Catapult in a vain attempt to cripple it (the right leg of the IV4 was deep red and about to get armor stripped). Eventually, the match clock ran out and we won by default.
The best part, though? The IV4's arms were blown off earlier. So even if there was in-game melee attacks, nothing would've changed since the Catapult doesn't have arms by default, and the IV4 was a double-amputee.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Sorry that I couldn't raise the Oosik flag last night. Traffic and the holidays made it impossible for me to log in till way after the "normal" time for me.
Traffic is the reason that I hate this time of year. Halloween marks the start of people going crazy on the roads. Thanksgiving marks a billion people coming our of the woodwork and driving like it's Grand Theft Auto. The madness does not end until Christmas and then those crazies dissappear for another ten to eleven months.
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NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited December 2017
FYI, the typical 7-day Premium code for MWO is out there now.
I'm trying to think up a totally unfair abuse machine to take out all the Piranha's that are going to show up in a month. It has to be a light or medium so I can actually chase them down, and it gotta be IS so I can troll them in Scouting.
The Javalin is fast enough, but I'm not sure it would actually win in a duel, or survive long enough to get to one: JVN-10P
This Assassin build is a little slow, but gets bonus points for jump jets: ASN-23
This Cent is pretty fast, brings BAP, but doesn't really have the damage: CN9-D
The 55 tonners need a max engine just to break 100kph, and I guess that's ok with the higher alpha you can get with 4 Streak6's, but can't really get BAP on there without sacrificing something. Pretty disappointing. I guess you could do a Stormcrow speed Griffin that's still pretty light on ammo like: GRF-3M
The hero mechs they're offering seem...kinda crap?
New Roughneck Hero
HARDPOINTS
Head
Left Arm 2 Energy (Actuators: Upper, Lower)
Left Torso 2 Missile, 1 AMS
Center Torso 1 Missile
Right Torso 1 Ballistic
Right Arm 2 Ballistic (Actuators: Upper, Lower)
Sun Spider New Hero
OMNIPOD HARDPOINTS
Head
Left Arm 1 Missile (Available Actuators: Upper)
Left Torso 1 Energy, 1 Ballistic
Center Torso
Right Torso 1 Ballistic
Right Arm 2 Missile (Available Actuators: Upper)
Is it just me or are those rather unimpressive? Like, I guess the Sun Spider's not bad? But the Roughneck seems pretty weak sauce, aside from maybe having the extra missile points (lolrms)
The hero mechs they're offering seem...kinda crap?
New Roughneck Hero
HARDPOINTS
Head
Left Arm 2 Energy (Actuators: Upper, Lower)
Left Torso 2 Missile, 1 AMS
Center Torso 1 Missile
Right Torso 1 Ballistic
Right Arm 2 Ballistic (Actuators: Upper, Lower)
Sun Spider New Hero
OMNIPOD HARDPOINTS
Head
Left Arm 1 Missile (Available Actuators: Upper)
Left Torso 1 Energy, 1 Ballistic
Center Torso
Right Torso 1 Ballistic
Right Arm 2 Missile (Available Actuators: Upper)
Is it just me or are those rather unimpressive? Like, I guess the Sun Spider's not bad? But the Roughneck seems pretty weak sauce, aside from maybe having the extra missile points (lolrms)
Can't hurt to even run them as bad builds just to be funny. There is always room for bad build mechs in the game.
@Nips are you doing any amount of 'mech customization for the OILER Duos?
...asking for...well, myself :P
Nope! At least not right now. To be completely transparent: I've knocked out a number of OILER videos that are scheduled to go up twice a week until after the new year. After that we may not (probably not) have access to the Beta anymore. I cranked through these using the existing files I had, and ran with it so that I'd have videos for the next few weeks. And to record them in the time I had, I had to keep things simple.
Baby Nips is due like, any day now, and Mama Nips is home full time, so my video recording days are done for a while. On the plus side, even though I'm out of the game for the moment, you'll still get silly videos like these for a few weeks:
Nips are you doing any amount of 'mech customization for the OILER Duos?
...asking for...well, myself :P
Nope! At least not right now. To be completely transparent: I've knocked out a number of OILER videos that are scheduled to go up twice a week until after the new year. After that we may not (probably not) have access to the Beta anymore. I cranked through these using the existing files I had, and ran with it so that I'd have videos for the next few weeks. And to record them in the time I had, I had to keep things simple.
Baby Nips is due like, any day now, and Mama Nips is home full time, so my video recording days are done for a while. On the plus side, even though I'm out of the game for the moment, you'll still get silly videos like these for a few weeks:
First babies are always fun. By the third both parents are literally like 'meh, the baby is climbing onto the counter tops. they probably won't kill themselves'
First babies are always fun. By the third both parents are literally like 'meh, the baby is climbing onto the counter tops. they probably won't kill themselves'
If my 3rd kid was my first I wouldnt have any more. That kid is a terror. I'm gonna cry when she's a teenager.
I have an 18 year old, a 10 year old, and a 6 year old. Might take longer to get them out of the house but at least I only had one kid in diapers or potty training at once.
So I played two matches a few hours ago to get the rewards, along with a buddy of mine who also played back when MWO was new. First match I took out my Hunchback with two SRM-6s and like four MLs? Something like that. Buddy brought out his pink Jenner with unicorns on it (Sarah's Jenner I think?). Our team was good, we were not. Though the enemy did spend a lot of time trying to gun down the crazy Jenner running amok in the center of their formation while the rest of our team pounded on them, so whatever. Second match we both drove trial mechs, I was in a Hunchback IIC with a couple UAC-10s and ER ML, he was in a Warhammer of some sort. We personally did better in that match, but it ended up being a loss partly because I am bad at situational awareness at times, and I ended up the last one alive in a beat up mech against two enemies. I even scored enough points to get a stocking stuffer reward thing.
I'm not sure how much more I'll play in the coming days, but some of those IS mechs have some interesting quirks to them. Unfortunately not any of the ones I have, which seem to have a lot of +Structure when I'd much rather +Armor. I still have two empty mech bays and close to 30 million c-bills, and no idea what I want to do with any of that (if anything). Maybe I should get something with a lot of pulse lasers, because they sound great.
So I played two matches a few hours ago to get the rewards, along with a buddy of mine who also played back when MWO was new. First match I took out my Hunchback with two SRM-6s and like four MLs? Something like that. Buddy brought out his pink Jenner with unicorns on it (Sarah's Jenner I think?). Our team was good, we were not. Though the enemy did spend a lot of time trying to gun down the crazy Jenner running amok in the center of their formation while the rest of our team pounded on them, so whatever. Second match we both drove trial mechs, I was in a Hunchback IIC with a couple UAC-10s and ER ML, he was in a Warhammer of some sort. We personally did better in that match, but it ended up being a loss partly because I am bad at situational awareness at times, and I ended up the last one alive in a beat up mech against two enemies. I even scored enough points to get a stocking stuffer reward thing.
I'm not sure how much more I'll play in the coming days, but some of those IS mechs have some interesting quirks to them. Unfortunately not any of the ones I have, which seem to have a lot of +Structure when I'd much rather +Armor. I still have two empty mech bays and close to 30 million c-bills, and no idea what I want to do with any of that (if anything). Maybe I should get something with a lot of pulse lasers, because they sound great.
Here's my favorite pulse laser boat at the moment, the PXH-2 with ECM and 6 MPLs. Its the closest thing the IS has to the Arctic Cheetah. Oh wait, I LIED!
THIS PXH-1K is my favorite. Its definitely the hard mode Pheonix Hawk, but moves like Doomguy and will tear a hole in anything that doesn't respect you.
Remember to enable Throttle Decay for maximum agility and max out the armor Survival Skills so you have swole arms the envy of all but assault mechs.
So I played two matches a few hours ago to get the rewards, along with a buddy of mine who also played back when MWO was new. First match I took out my Hunchback with two SRM-6s and like four MLs? Something like that. Buddy brought out his pink Jenner with unicorns on it (Sarah's Jenner I think?). Our team was good, we were not. Though the enemy did spend a lot of time trying to gun down the crazy Jenner running amok in the center of their formation while the rest of our team pounded on them, so whatever. Second match we both drove trial mechs, I was in a Hunchback IIC with a couple UAC-10s and ER ML, he was in a Warhammer of some sort. We personally did better in that match, but it ended up being a loss partly because I am bad at situational awareness at times, and I ended up the last one alive in a beat up mech against two enemies. I even scored enough points to get a stocking stuffer reward thing.
I'm not sure how much more I'll play in the coming days, but some of those IS mechs have some interesting quirks to them. Unfortunately not any of the ones I have, which seem to have a lot of +Structure when I'd much rather +Armor. I still have two empty mech bays and close to 30 million c-bills, and no idea what I want to do with any of that (if anything). Maybe I should get something with a lot of pulse lasers, because they sound great.
What mechs do you already have? There are some here who can suggest some builds for them.
Also I do have to say that the Catapult with 2 RAC5s and 2 (either ML or ERML) in the arms is a joy to run these days. Mainly because the Catapult was shrunk down to nearly the size of a Jenner so it doesn't get hit as much these days. Oh and put in a Light Engine where you can actually lose a torso and still shoot back is always fun since Clanners get all confused when they don't see the mech blow up.
Also, it sucks, but group play tends to match you up with tryhards unfortunately. But if you play in the morning hours during the day it tends to not be as bad since the super tryhards are sleeping. Or run with other PAers and just make it fun instead of trying seriously.
Let's see, I have a Hunchback 4SP (I like SRMs quite a lot, though I have no idea if they are as strong as they were when I played), an Atlas D-DC and a Raven 3L. For reference, when I stopped playing the Stalker was the most recently released mech.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Classic GRF-2N, quad SRM6s and a couple SL as insurance. 580 damage, 58% life remaining at the end, but no parts lost (the power of rotation).
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Man, people are going to buy and play games that they enjoy, and if the only hurdle to enjoying a game is installing some community mods, that's a pretty minor speedbump. I don't really see why they shouldn't. Quite frankly the alternative (holding out to make a point) feels a bit like screaming into the void.
I think it's a good thing when games have robust support for mods.
They are certainly balancing, and not even just at the top level. The December patch will see spread increases for all Clan MGs, crit multiplier reductions for C-LMG and C-MG, and heat and cooldown nerfs for C-ERLLs. C-ERLLs and Clan MGs got a fair bit of use during the championship games. They're also buffing the Panther, Cicada, Uziel, IS Orion, Zeus and both HMGs (IS to a greater extent), so they're balancing tech on the middle and low ends as well.
While these changes are not nearly enough to balance the two sides, I can't really fault them for making more incremental changes over the wilder swings we've seen in the past.
I get pretty close to figuring it out. I've got another video in the can that nails this down, but for spoiler's sake: External (crit-mounted) heat sinks have a dissipation rate of 3 (viewable in the game files), while the ten engine-mounted heat sinks have a dissipation rate of approximately 1. Which explains why many of the 'Mechs will show any heat at all, after the disparate scaling up of the heat values.
This ... favors mechs with smaller engines.
The HMG is still a huge trap. Its still got less Crit Bonuses than the "new" Clan Light Machine Gun, and that is where the DPS is. It just barely reaches 1 damage on a perfect crit, 0.26 damage less than 2 LMGs or 0.8 less than 2 MGs. You are better off with a Small Pulse Laser (or 2 MG) 100% of the time. Either it needs the same crit bonuses as the other machine guns, or it needs real DPS and less crit. If there were more IS mechs with 6 ballistic hardpoints (like maybe the BLG 1D, pretty plz PGI?) maybe it would have a role? The range on the LMG is really what lets it get work done so you aren't face tanking SRM boats at 0m with a pea shooter. At least you can torso twist between SPL shots.
I'm not complaining, honest, this is just my theorycraft on it.
In this game, as the Beta stands, actually it doesn't. All 'Mechs, regardless of engine size, have an assumed 10 engine heat sinks...all operating at 1.0 dissipation per. This means that small 'Mechs with small engines that per TT would have them externally mounted (in crit slots) just don't; the heat sinks aren't crit-mounted. I haven't done a complete survey to see if HBS redesigned any of the 'Mechs really nailed by this weird imbalance, but so far off the top of my head the only 'Mech where I spotted a weirdness was on the Battlemaster. Then when you consider that the heat values of weapons are 2.5x the TT values, things get weird.
The whole thing gets weirder when you start to look at heavier designs with lots of crit-mounted heat sinks, since their dissipation is 3.0 (3x TT value) but the weapons are generating only 2.5x TT value heat. The whole landscape of weapon loadouts vs. heat profiles is slightly different in this game than in TT. Not enough to be obviously different, but enough if you're paying attention.
While the harebrained game is more analogous to TT than mwo, imo the best approach is to restrict the stat similarity to tonnage and crit slot restrictions to maintain compatibility with canon configurations. The rest of the stats like damage, range, and heat should be balanced entirely towards what works within the context of your game and shouldn't be bound by the TT stats at all.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
You done fucked up now! Do you know how hard this game is to play holding an infant? I do....
http://mwomercs.com/news/2017/12/1969-patch-notes-14143-12dec2017
Interesting that CERLL got tapped with the nerf bat.
Regarding heat in the BATTLETECH Beta, and why it makes no sense; This is from a community post from a few months back, but digging deeper into the game files, I've confirmed it:
So...all heat sinks are actually at 3.0 dissipation, but there's a global modifier that makes everything hotter than the values listed in each individual weapon file. I dug into the Combat Constants JSON, and confirmed there is a modifier; for Beta Phase 2, it's currently set at 1.5.
So to do some more math, coming from my last video:
Hunchback 4P
23 Heat Sinks * 3 Dissipation = -69 Heat
8 Medium Lasers * 8 Heat * 1.5 Global Modifier = +96 Heat
Total: +27 Heat
Firing only six medium lasers:
23 Heat Sinks = -69 Heat
6 ML * 8 Heat * 1.5 = 72 Heat
Total: +3 Heat
This bears out, at least eyeballing it, on the heat bar. Just confirmed in-match, at six lasers, you only generate a small sliver of additional heat.
I learned some other things (I think) while poking around in the files:
Each 'Mech has a total heat scale of 100, above which is Shutdown.
The redline (where you cross from Okay to Overheat) is by default set at 50 total heat (actually 50% of the OverheatLevel, which turns out is 100 * 0.5 = 50),
which is increased by 5 heat points per point of Guts, resulting in a Guts of 10 putting the redline right at the threshhold to shutdown.
Walking generates no heat.
Sprinting generates 5 heat.
Jumping generates 5 heat per hex of movement, with a minimum of 5. (Weird).
'Mechs restarting from Shutdown apparently only sink heat at 75% efficiency?
Here's all the heat constants in the JSON that I'm referencing. A couple of them I still don't fully understand, but at this point I'm not going to bother.
A Hunchie -4P, swap the arm mounted MLs for SLs, swap the head-mounted SL for a HS, add a half ton of armor. You're basically heat neutral and little more punchie.
e: sorry I just effin love heat neutral builds. BRB gonna go build a heat neutral Catapult.
This all assumes a heat-neutral to cold environment. If I knew I was going to see a number of hot environments, I'd throw on extra heat sinks to try and offset that. Maybe. Again, that's situational, and we won't know the situations until we get the launch game.
Scene: Rubellite Oasis
Mode: Domination
At about 7:30 left in the match, my team only had a Quickdraw-IV4 (loadout: 2xMRM30) versus an Osiris (TAG and a pile of Streak 2s) and a Catapult (the Catapult was 6xLRM5). The IV4 managed to blow off the legs of the Osiris and managed to hold onto 330 missiles for the Catapult. Zagging towards the satellite dish to cover his approach, the IV4 closed to under minimum distance on the LRMs...at which point, the Catapult tried to circle around and get some distance while behind cover (this left the capture point to us). By the time the Catapult showed itself again, the capture timer was 0:41 - 0:48 (in our favor)...but the Quickdraw was faster and was able to leg-hump the Catapult to prevent LRM damage. For the next 6 minutes, all we could do was watch the Quickdraw carefully ram the Catapult in a vain attempt to cripple it (the right leg of the IV4 was deep red and about to get armor stripped). Eventually, the match clock ran out and we won by default.
The best part, though? The IV4's arms were blown off earlier. So even if there was in-game melee attacks, nothing would've changed since the Catapult doesn't have arms by default, and the IV4 was a double-amputee.
Steam: betsuni7
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
http://mailchi.mp/piranhagames/7-days-premium-time-happy-holidays?e=cfdd80b0e6
This may get me to play a bit over the holidays. Vacation time coming up.
I'm going to save mine for my vacation. Then play the heck out of my new Urbanmech with 2 Rocket Launcher 20s.
Steam: betsuni7
The Javalin is fast enough, but I'm not sure it would actually win in a duel, or survive long enough to get to one: JVN-10P
This Assassin build is a little slow, but gets bonus points for jump jets: ASN-23
This Cent is pretty fast, brings BAP, but doesn't really have the damage: CN9-D
The 55 tonners need a max engine just to break 100kph, and I guess that's ok with the higher alpha you can get with 4 Streak6's, but can't really get BAP on there without sacrificing something. Pretty disappointing. I guess you could do a Stormcrow speed Griffin that's still pretty light on ammo like: GRF-3M
Also @Nips can you put something about this in the title?
https://mwomercs.com/news/2017/12/1971-holiday-bonus-loadout-info
The "Log in on December 27th, play one game" deal.
25 Stocking Stuffer pulls
3 Days of Premium Time
3 Million C-Bills
1250 MC
1 Hero Roughneck
1 Hero Sun Spider
Both Heros delivered in March.
Also Mech Sale in game.
http://mwomercs.com/news/2017/12/1982-mwo-holiday-sales
Steam: betsuni7
The hero mechs they're offering seem...kinda crap?
Is it just me or are those rather unimpressive? Like, I guess the Sun Spider's not bad? But the Roughneck seems pretty weak sauce, aside from maybe having the extra missile points (lolrms)
Sun Cobra? Who knows, but it is ClanTech.
Either way, free mechs!
@Betsuni I'll update that shortly!
Can't hurt to even run them as bad builds just to be funny. There is always room for bad build mechs in the game.
Steam: betsuni7
...asking for...well, myself :P
Nope! At least not right now. To be completely transparent: I've knocked out a number of OILER videos that are scheduled to go up twice a week until after the new year. After that we may not (probably not) have access to the Beta anymore. I cranked through these using the existing files I had, and ran with it so that I'd have videos for the next few weeks. And to record them in the time I had, I had to keep things simple.
Baby Nips is due like, any day now, and Mama Nips is home full time, so my video recording days are done for a while. On the plus side, even though I'm out of the game for the moment, you'll still get silly videos like these for a few weeks:
Well, god speed Papa Nips. Take care of the home front, we'll keep an eye on the periphery, and the breweries located therein.
Pics or it didn't happen.
Steam: betsuni7
If my 3rd kid was my first I wouldnt have any more. That kid is a terror. I'm gonna cry when she's a teenager.
I'm not sure how much more I'll play in the coming days, but some of those IS mechs have some interesting quirks to them. Unfortunately not any of the ones I have, which seem to have a lot of +Structure when I'd much rather +Armor. I still have two empty mech bays and close to 30 million c-bills, and no idea what I want to do with any of that (if anything). Maybe I should get something with a lot of pulse lasers, because they sound great.
Here's my favorite pulse laser boat at the moment, the PXH-2 with ECM and 6 MPLs. Its the closest thing the IS has to the Arctic Cheetah. Oh wait, I LIED!
THIS PXH-1K is my favorite. Its definitely the hard mode Pheonix Hawk, but moves like Doomguy and will tear a hole in anything that doesn't respect you.
Remember to enable Throttle Decay for maximum agility and max out the armor Survival Skills so you have swole arms the envy of all but assault mechs.
Got 800 damage and got the hero mechs on the first and only match.
What mechs do you already have? There are some here who can suggest some builds for them.
Also I do have to say that the Catapult with 2 RAC5s and 2 (either ML or ERML) in the arms is a joy to run these days. Mainly because the Catapult was shrunk down to nearly the size of a Jenner so it doesn't get hit as much these days. Oh and put in a Light Engine where you can actually lose a torso and still shoot back is always fun since Clanners get all confused when they don't see the mech blow up.
Also, it sucks, but group play tends to match you up with tryhards unfortunately. But if you play in the morning hours during the day it tends to not be as bad since the super tryhards are sleeping. Or run with other PAers and just make it fun instead of trying seriously.
Steam: betsuni7
Still got it.