State of the game?

Long time, no post! I remember I quit MWO a while back because I didn't like some of the changes they were making. Then I decided to update the game, and as soon as I was done reading patch notes I let the update finish, and then uninstalled.

I was wondering how the game is now. When I quit, I quit for a few reasons:
1) The best Mech variants seemed to be the Hero Mechs (not the case at first, but gradually more and more)
2) High alpha burst damage was king, further narrowing the list of top-notch variants
2A) The solution to high alpha seemed overly complex and still didn't really solve the problem (at the time)
3) Hit registry was absolutely terrible (bouncing AC/20s)

I'm wondering how the game works now. Are more than 5 variants even worth your time (aside from personal reasons)? Does the game let you differentiate between playstyles, or is one style king (i.e. high alphas)? Are the mechanics simple and up front, or is there a lot going on behind the scenes (like hidden heat penalties) that you have to bear in mind?

 

Well...

simplest answer: you may want to wait until the quirk pass happens and see if you like what's coming. It's going to be a massive change to most IS chassis to boost their performance, but will encourage similar builds on a variant.

More complex answer: the game is better in a lot of ways. To your points (pending quirk pass):
1) Many heroes are actually considered sub-par, though many others still do very well. Of the many mechs introduced, many are indeed worth the time. PGI is trying to take steps to bring more parity as well (whether they succeed remains to be seen). However, Clan content is still currently dominant despite heavy nerfbat *cough* balancing.

2) Alpha is no longer truly king, and DPS matters. That said, pinpoint is still king by a cushy margin.
2a) The solution to alpha is still...lacking, but functional for what it does. PGI has gotten better about nearly all other game elements, though, from Jump Jet behavior to screen shake.

3) Hit registry is ZOMG better. It's an entirely different game, man. All ACs and Missiles do their thing pretty well, though stray interactions involving lag still happen. They've also clamped down on porting and disconnects/desyncs.

Many variants are worth your time, and the game does let you differentiate between playstyles even though LRMs and pinpoint are still prime cheese. The mechanics are simple with two exceptions: Gauss charge and the charge limit, and the hidden heat penalties. Again, these limit boating behavior and DO do a good job of limiting extreme alpha/pinpoint, but are not as transparent as they should be. Smurfy has a heat table, but the general thing to keep in mind is that if firing # of the same weapon class together triggers the penalty, waiting ~.5s between shots generates no hidden heat even if you're the infamous Nova firing 6 medium lasers (the limit before the penalty triggers for that weapon) and then firing the OTHER six you're carrying.


Hope that helps!

 

Hey Skribs! Long time no see!

Some heroes are really good still but most are regular variants and CBill available. The last few of the first clanpack still remain to be released (Timber which is arguably the best heavy for example) is one inbalance waiting to be corrected.

High Alpha is still good but not a absolute, SRM brawlers, laserboats etc have really become prevalent aswell. I love the fact that SRM mediums are so viable, that's the primary threat against the primary Alpha Damage killer, the Dire Wolf IMHO. So loadouts are more variable, a lot more. NARCs are hell now since everyone loads a LRM or two it seems.

It didn't, still not quite but they prevented more then two Gauss at least and somewhat curtailed weapon loadouts, still tweaking it now and again. It's better but not perfect.

It's MUCH improved, much. Last night I killed a Jenner running full tilt with a Atlas AC20 round, a few months back I wouldn't even bother firing the AC and just rely on lasers.

More then five variants? Sure, there are some mechs that appear in every game but the number has increased a lot and more mechs are viable. Wait until after the quirk pass on IS mechs, that will change things a lot! In short (there are longer threads here on MechSpecs with details) all IS mechs have been sorted in tiers based on how useable they are competetively. The lowest ranked are truly rarely seen, one of the first iterations of this was the Awesome that recieved increased armor and increased energy weapons cooling efficiency. You remember how they used to suck? Well, now they are actually fun to play and while I wouldn't bring one in a clan match, I certainly can make it perform in a public game!

The mechanics are not up front and not easy, the new player experience is worse then ever and there are many layers of knowledge buried in dev blogs and posts. PGI has vastly improved over the last three months since they dumped IGP however and more open then ever about development and plans, I have to admit I have swung from sceptic critic to cautious believer again. The improvements are coming and progress is visible, there is a lot to fix though so I am not holding my breath.

 

PGI had made one mistake, listening to forum whiners (regarding the new match maker which was a very good idea but they changed it back to the old system). Basically they are racing towards innovation now and when they introduced the new reward system people were getting less money overall but PGI patched that almost immediately and everyone is happy again. Just an example of how much better the community / PGi - communication is nowadays.

This doesn't mean that you will enjoy the game again, i'm sure you'll find the silly OP Timberwolves and Stormcrows annoying as hell, like I do. I'm having a blast every time I take my Anansi out for a ride and the new hit registration is just awesome as well. Screw the meta, my lights will survive.

Overall I love this game.. in January 2014 I was fed up with the insane Clan package prices and the overall state of MWo but I returned just about 5 weeks ago and I'm hooked again.

The maps still suck though. They really really suck. But PGI is aware of this problem

PS

Compared to January 2014:

- less poptarting (JJ scale differently now)
- more brutal gameplay with emphasis on focus fire and pinpoint
- More dynamic gameplay. Campers lose.
- Sniping, brawling, skirmishing, harassing - it all pays off (cbills and fun)
- Actually conquest is now much faster (insane fast cap times) and you get much more money out of it.

 

I left for the same reasons and came back a few weeks ago..

I'm having a blast Not thoroughly enjoying the new rewards (give me my proper assist xp) but I figure it's new and they'll get the kinks worked out.

A lot more mechs than when I left and I personally don't give a ..... what people think about a mech... I won't min/max because people think you should.. I play whatever I feel good in and set it up to my play style.

The only real way to know is to fire it up and go at it... give it a bunch of matches try out the new variants.

 

I wouldn't say the Heroes were ever the best mechs for each chassis. The only one I can think of that is better than the rest of the Cbill versions currently is the Ember, which outstrips all of the other Firestarters, and is probably the best Light in the game. The Ilya is still considered pretty good, but Autocannons no longer rule the battlefield, and it was always pretty much on par with the CTF-3D.

What Heroes would you say are better than their Cbill counterparts?

 

To give an idea of how long it has been: I quit before the phoenix mechs (or whatever they were called) came out. The ones from that big preorder.

How are the clan mechs balanced? Because I remember a lot of fear regarding clan tech being overpowered.

Have they done anything besides heat penalty to nerf the pinpoint alpha? Are some weapons (i.e. light ballistic weapons and small lasers) still obsolete?

I'll have to do some research on the quirks mentioned as well.

Basic, the problem is that many varients were utter crap. There would be another mech that could literally do everything better (i.e. go faster and hold more weapons + armor). There were a lot of others that what they did "better" went against the philosophy of pinpoint alpha and thus was worse.

 

I know what you mean.. But honestly no matter what I'm in someone always has something better, lol Quirks are really changing mechs and their uses though and is sort of leveling the playing field on less used or "elderly" mechs... I can't wait for the hunchie quirk pass that's coming on the 4th.... my babies can run free once again...(I Hope.. ) If every mech were the same this game would be boring as hell...

I'm not to proud to drive something crappy and get my butt shot off.. sometimes you just gotta say "hold my beer, I got this" and just play

In the end it's a game. It's not going to alter my life if I lose my virtual mech in a battle. I actually love trying things that shouldn't work build wise, but due to the fact I'm not right in the head , sometimes they just work out for me.

Just play, don't worry about what happens.. I mostly left because of the drama in the forums though with the overbearing mod gods.. but even that seems better.

Oh and on a side note when the Yen Lo Wang came out it was totally OP, lol... but there weren't so many mech types back then.

 

Which Heroes were better?

I can't remember all off the top of my head, but:
FLAME had the same # of each hardpoint as the other dragons, but a better arrangement with all energy on the arms.
The Centurion with the ability to put AC/20 on the arm.

I think there were a few that came out toward the end of my playing that were better.

 

Balanced doesn't need to be "the same". Take an FPS game where you have a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a machine gun. They're all different and have a good balance of playstyles.

However, if the machine gun has enough damage and low enough recoil it can eclipse the other guns.

My philosophy is that a game is well balanced if everything is the best at what it does, and what it does is relevant. Maybe the differences are small, but it still has to be there. And maybe it's the best compromise of various capabilities, but the important thing is to be balanced nothing can be better in every category than something else.

 

Oh okay. I think I can get into this game again, but it will take some time to catch up on all the new mechanics.

How can't clan mechs do pinpoint?

 

I know quite a few who would include the Misery in that list as well...and seeing the way some people play it (watch Jay Z's streams sometimes), I can see why. It can be a nasty piece of mech, and I do tend to have more trouble with STK-M than the cbill variants. But yes, most of the rest are just alternate loadout versions, ala mechs like the Oxide. Not better, just different (and not a bad thing, necessarily). Aside from the Ember, I don't know if I consider any hero mech a "must own."

 

Is that Clan AC20 like a shotgun or MG?

(I'm at work so I can't see for myself atm).

 

The Firebrand and the Ilya. Compared to the "Standards" they do well. As well as the Misery with it's ballistic slot.
Don't forget the Ember as well.... or the Oxide... there are lots of Heroes which perform quite well.

 

Well, there are a few different degrees of "perform well". Some are "as good" as a cbill variant, which is fine.

But others offer capability not offered by the cbill variant, either through better hardpoint synergy or better hardpoint allocation.

When I started, I don't think anything else could do 3x UAC5 like the Ilya (and even when I quit, it did it best) and nothing could do AC20 in tje arm like YLW (and when I quit, it was the lightest mech that could do it effectively).

I may have to download this when I get home. When I start back up, who is gonna play with me?

 

U can add "midnite" as well. European as well.... if you like to play in teams, you are welcome to visit our teamspeak as well...