Exactly. Because if they did that, it wouldn't end with the engine weights -- it would snowball from there into weapon weight and critical slot changes. Like I said, it becomes Generic Giant Stompy Robot Game #1099.
Yes, because clearly nobody who develops the game has any sense of limits and they will jump off the slippery slope the first chance they get. Also, thank you for enlightening me. For years upon years, I thought that the distinctive quality of BattleTech/Mechwarrior was the setting and the mechs themselves, while in truth it was all about numbers! How could I have been so blind? Mechwarrior is Mechwarrior because of the component weights! [REDACTED]
MechWarrior is firmly rooted in the tabletop BattleTech game and ruleset, and always has been. Microsoft did some interesting interpretation for their 'Mech customization, but even they didn't mess with too much. The devs of this game have already done some interesting interpretation with their version of ECM and BAP, the heat system, and modules. They have already stated that Clan weaponry won't be the superior technology we're all familiar with. That is more than enough changes to make this game a special snowflake that's different from any previous MechWarrior game. There is absolutely no need to change any weights or critical slots of any equipment. All sarcasm spouted by you aside, you are entitled to your opinion that if it's called a PPC then it's a PPC, whether or not it weighs 7 tons and takes up 3 critical slots. I will hold to my opinion that it's not a PPC if it doesn't weigh 7 tons and take up 3 critical slots. And if what they call a PPC isn't a PPC, then it's not MechWarrior.
That's because this game is a special snowflake from any previous MechWarrior game. In every other game, there was a lack of a persistent, after-action anything, and everyone had access to everything at any time. Because each game is 12 people versus 12 people, and C-bills, xp, and soon Loyalty points actually persist after the fights are over, different balances have to be considered than previous Mechwarriors. The Engine Ratings is a prime example of something that needed to be balanced and might be changing. Right now, the engines themselves operate under a very different equation than they did in Battletech, because it has to take the Cockpit and Gyro weights, along with Heatsinks greater than the engine sinks to reach 10, into consideration. Done this way, new players are able to better understand the weight system, rather than a Mech simply weighing extra for no discernible reason. Since those weights were taken into account, tweaking the weights of the Engines doesn't sound that out of the ordinary. Clan tech can't be immediately and directly superior to Inner Sphere tech, because then it absolutely destroys any sense of balance. Clan tech will be the ONLY way to go, and anyone who doesn't have that tech due to the sheer expense they have will be summarily destroyed. This is not a fun experience for anyone involved (except perhaps those who enjoy a stomp) and would not only drive away players, but also drive a sharp decline in revenue as no one will ever spend MC on an inferior Inner Sphere Chassis again. Then suddenly content you've been creating for the last two years just becomes obsolete. For the health and longevity of the game, it simply cannot happen that way. I'm sorry if very particular numbers (that were already modified in the first place) may have been tweaked to better suit certain chassis or weights bothers you. I'm sorry if the clans not being summarily better than the Inner Sphere bothers you. At it's very core, this game is Mechwarrior, whether you think some simple numbers are tweaked or not. You could easily make the argument that at it's core, this game is not BATTLETECH, and you'd be right in that; the combat systems themselves are entirely different, as randomized dice rolling is not conducive to an engaging and skill-based real time game. But to argue that this game is just a generic shooter because they're tweaking engine weights is, in my personal opinion, ridiculous.
MechWarrior 2 and 3 managed to take into consideration the cockpit and gyro weights, as well as the 10-minimum-heat-sink rule just fine without any kind of non-canon adjustments. And MechWarrior 3 you had to buy your stuff, just like we do here. I didn't play the PvP portion of those games, but the single-player customization used exact tabletop values for everything. The numbers have been modified to simplify things, but they still adhere strictly to the tabletop values. The moment they start fiddling with numbers that make canon designs not work any more, this becomes not-BattleTech and not-MechWarrior. As I said before in slightly different wording, we'll simply have to agree to disagree. We are both so entrenched as to be impossible to convince.
The game isn't exactly the same as Battletech! It's just some random space shooter with a Mechwarrior mask! PGI and IGP are pulling the wool over our eyes! Wake up, people!
Dude! 170kph? For truths? Deeeeyaaammmn! See you all Tuesday night. I'll be the tiny little blur driving you insane.
