Game balance after Clan Invasion [Poll+Feedback]

Tell us your opinion please.

Thank you!

Blagg

 

Too early to vote, will delay my vote until weekend but it will be interesting.

 

To be perfectly honest I've given up on "balance" in a mechwarrior game. The system was fucked long before PGI ever got their hands on it. And I'm not convinced there is a way to make it balanced without throwing the whole franchise into the garbage.

Fortunately for PGI I don't play MechWarrior games for a balanced PVP experience. I play them because big robotic death machines are cool. Now... give me my chainsaw penis please.

 

Too early for a vote, but yeah, I fear it will break the balance.
Afterall, that's the whole purpose of the clans, isn't it? I mean, reviving the franchise by injecting new overpowered content made for unsecured teenage boys (and nostalgic ex-unsecured teenage boys) in need for their will to power to be flattered? I wished PGI didn't fall in that trap.

The worst being, as I noticed when I tried to theory-craft some builds, PGI's way to counterbalance how powerful the weapon's are is to drastically restrict building possibilities. It sure won't prevent cheese and it might also make building less interesting, lose-lose situation.

 

Waaay back before we knew anything concrete I was hoping PGI would do a proper "reboot" to the franchise. Keeping to the spirit of the universe but completely rewriting events, mechanics, etc. Obviously doing this would have resulted in a lot more butthurt fanbois from the beginning... but I still think it would have been the better choice for the long term.

If I could turn back time...

 

Wow way to insult 99% of the player base incl. everyone here...

 

Yeah I have learned to not even respond to it, as it seems like it is just there for provocation and nothing else.

 

I don't have a background in Battletech, and honestly MWO is my first stompy robot game (besides Gundam games in early 2000). I've been expanding my understanding of the current "balance" recently and find it to be lacking. I'm not particularly annoyed with the ability of poptarting at a distance. This seems to be an intelligent use of resources at that range. What did bother me with it is that the weapons are just as good in brawl range (unless I face hug you for the 90m drop off). SRMs needed a fix to make them more dangerous than long range pinpoint, within the 270 zone. We received that for IS mechs, and now we move on to Clan Mechs.

I see Clan mechs providing a good alternative play style to pop tart meta or LRM boating (I know clans can do both, but they are just as boring as they were with IS mechs). They are tough enough to survive the poptart phase currently and open up the brawl. Once that starts, Clan and IS mechs are pretty close in performance. IS can disengage and use a tad more range, as well as having good ballistic options for peek a boo brawling. Clans are forced to stay on target to balance their damage and do a great job of forcing player skill with the extended duration weapons. Overall I'm happy with the new "balance" as opposed to the old "balance". I hope it will continue to improve on IS side so that IS mechs arent stomped by poptarts as often, so that we can have at least a 2 pronged meta with viable options for each weight class on both.

 

Well arguably the pop tart king will still be the Victor as it has a tonnage advantage with all that implies while the same JJ weight. It also doesn't lose its lower arm actuators if you put ballistics there.

Hopefully a lot more close range fighting though.

Of course ER LL 3L/3M/5D now have a problem as they're outranged again.

 

I am really pessimistic on balance after this patch. At the moment, Clan weapon have better stat, less weight and critical slots. Clan mechs does not seems to really reduce the build possibility, some build for clan mechs are already identified as too powerful (6-UAC5 daishi?) and people are not even used to use this new mechs...
I really don't see what can reverse their overall domination.

 

Let's play a 12 man Group with Clans VS IS. Now THAT would be fun..

 

do we get to play dragons, blagg?!?! Only way I'll be playing IS mechs for the foreseeable future.

 

Now I understand that clan mechs will get better as people min/max, unlock skills, and get used to them. But during the public testing I thought they seemed surprisingly balanced outside of a few exceptions which I'm sure will get tweaked as they go along. I am actually hopeful and excited for the state of the game for the first time in a while. At the very least the dearth of meta poptarts and OP'ed IS lights should calm down as people are playing around with Clan builds for a while.

 

The clan launch is the most exciting update the game has had. On the test server the matches were fun and I was surprised by how well PGI was able to make the clan mechs feel different without being simply OP. I'm happy with their decision to try and balance clan tech rather than make it strictly OP as in canon.

 

Can't tell if baiting, or just stupid.

You are aware that epikt's comment was about BattleTech rolling out the Clan invasion in the early 90s in order to capitalize on a marketing bubble?

They wanted to capture some of the volatile teenage gaming demographic at the time that video games were exploding, tradable card games were starting up, and other various 'indoor' hobby activities were jostling for that coveted group's attention...

This is the entire reason why the Clan stuff is so controversial, because it was designed for two reasons - storyline progression in order to provide a dynamic product, and to get more kids playing so they make more money.

[quote author=TheDevilsIncarnate link=topic=6928.msg45445#msg45445 date=1403015509]
Yeah I have learned to not even respond to it, as it seems like it is just there for provocation and nothing else.
[/quote]

I love the people who actually don't know much about BT/MW; keep showing it.

epikt was simply talking about how the Clantech is, in his eyes, a cash grab that ruined the balance of original BT/MW and how ever since each iteration of the game has tried (most unsuccessfully) to walk the fine of balance with that heavy Clan weight on its shoulders.

Where this gets really muddy is that this schism has resulted in some people who prefer pre-Clan BT/MW, and those who are heavily in favor of it... The best thing that MWO can do is to try and give people incentive to play the side that they prefer by channeling that anger on the enemy/other faction, which would do wonders for community and fluff-driven immersion for the game in CW. I think it would be great for the future of MWO if the people who were playing IS were doing it for a reason, and Clanners vice versa. PGI should try to capitalize on this still-simmering schism in the BT/MW fanbase in a positive way.

Anyways, you people carry on with your Clan balance discussion, but if I see another ignorant person I'm gonna drop another bomb.

 

From what I saw, except for a few select builds clan tech seemed quite balanced and refreshingly different. Kitfox and Adder seem underpowered (Light mechs with 100kph speed? Seriously...). The timberwolf seems to be too agile and powerful for its weight class - I mean it has SHD speed, JJ, great agility with better armor, armaments, and the capability to lose a side torso. And SHD was already overperforming compared to other medium mechs. Other than that obviously the 6xAC Direwolf builds.

TBH I was very skeptical about clan tech since the first info was announced. I'm quite surprised to find that I'm liking the new content. Too bad i don't have the 150$+ to drop on a computer game to get the stuff i really want.

 

Thank you very much Soy for clarifying my post way better than I could have done myself.

I of course did not intend to insult anyone here.
Also I don't hate everything about the clans (everybody know I at least love the Nova ), but I hoped PGI would adopt a more judicious manner of implementing them, getting rid of the canonical constraints (which are just bad design) so we could have so cool new mechs without major balance breaking issues.

 

Soy just hit the Nail on the Head. Seriously.

 

The only good clanner is a dead clanner. But I'll take their toys. Nothing more fun than killing clanners with their tech and completely disregarding their so-called "honor" in favor of wanton destruction.

 

Whatever turns you on, Jeremiah...