IS Quirk Pass Update: The Hunchening

Language aside, yes, there are a bunch of lore die-hards that don't understand game design in the slightest and need to understand that if they want stock battles then they need to play private matches. And forcing false choice is the problem (saying "well, you could CHOOSE to play an incredibly poor build" = false choice). But turning the already meta build into the only viable build, while encouraging chassis diversity, turns the false choice dial up to 11. If the build is already meta, then encouraging that build even harder is NOT the right choice. The first step is to bring parity to the meta builds, yes, fine, but the next step needs to be encouraging a different load-out, stock or not, to bring it up to parity with the meta is the right choice, because there would now be more than one viable build on the chassis. If false choice is the problem, then increasing the punishment/reward for that false choice is not the answer. Get the meta builds on par with each other as much as possible needs to happen, but encouraging build diversity within chassis needs to happen as well.

 

MWUAHAHAHAH! FEAR MY WRATH!

 

Kintaro -18 Tier 3 Support

LRM/5 Cooldown +15%
LRM/5 Heat Gen -15%
Laser Duration -8%

THIS.
I like.
Would be better for SRM4, but I guess that is already powerful enough.

 

Remember: PGI is first and foremost about making money. They may have decided to make a mech game because of the love of all things battletech, but they still need to keep the lights on and get reimbursed for their work. So, these quirks make 100% sense in that regard. There are lots of unused mechs out there that you'd be crazy to pilot and therefore you don't need mech bays or MC to buy them. Now, they're adding diversity amongst the same mechs so if you want an AC20 HBK you will get the -4G, but if you want a faster "skirmisher" loadout you'll get the -4H. Voila you know own two of their mechs instead of just the "better" -4H version. It's a very smart plan on their part and I'll accept it.

The problem, of course, is now they are funneling us towards the quirked builds out there and will limit build diversity for a specific chassis. Sure. That's a problem, especially amongst this community. But, it seems like we have enough diversity of mechs that if I want to run a hunchback with an LB10X, I can now go and buy a Centurion instead. Woah. Now I own another mech!

Plus, as a dedicated IS pilot I will say that IS mechs needed something. It's just been really not fun running IS mechs in the era of clan dominance and my play time has drastically decreased because of this. So, if PGI are concerned about overpowered generic quirks and want to go the targeted route I will be the first standing on top of the table singing their praise. Now my IS mechs might be competitive again AND I may want to buy more mechs? Happy day!

 

Also, as an aside, I think in an interesting way, this change might actually lead to significant more diversity on the battlefield. Sure, if you see a HBK-4G it will almost always have the AC20 + MLas on it, but there will be a Fang right next to it with Large Pulse Lasers trying to close in on an Awesome peppering it with Large Lasers and PPCs. Wait... you just took an SRM16 in the back from that Oxide? Ouch! Wait, what just happened here? The democrats have been right all this time - diversity FTW.

 

I've been reading this fast, then something bothered me: when they're saying "Cooldown +n%", does it actually mean the cooldown time is longer? That's what the + sign means.
But the "logic" behind all this should be giving a bonus to tier 5 pieces of junk, not a malus, so I guess that when they're giving the DRG-1N a "AC/5 Cooldown +50%" it actually means "-50%".

 

At the very least the quirk pass will mean we can expect to see many mechs become popular and or powerful for a while. Others might see their viability wane, but it will freshen up the metagame for at least a short time.