Quirk Testing Impressions - Input Welcome!

One thing Smurfy could do is post the quirks, and post a disclaimer that calculations of heat values, cooldowns, etc. do not yet reflect said quirks.

 

With some of the quirks, like ballistic speed, i can see how that will mess people up to a degree.. Where people now need to learn two or three speeds. One mech has a +25% to velocity, another has +15% to velocity and one has standard velocity... you now need to know all those three speeds and how to lead with them, in order to hit a target.

 

Valid point.

I am worried too about build variety within a chassis, and also the lack of love for certain weapons (i.e. LB 10X gets like 2 variants).

 

Been out playing in the testing grounds and 4 LPL is surprisingly easy heat wise on the BNC-3M. Not sure I see a point to a cooldown module on the mech as you're pacing yourself with gaps between the pairs. 420m (no range mod just the chassis). A bit scary how silent and deadly the weaponry is.

 

Yeah but tbh some of the chassis give great bonuses to them just not named.... e.g. check out the JM6-S ballistic bonuses.

 

Yeah, but I mean the LBX doesnt get direct love.

 

Like I said, only 2 get it. By rough count, in order of most to least love by number of mechs:

ML: >25
LL: 13
AC20: 12
SRM4: 12
AC5: 11
PPC: 10
MPL: 9
LPL: 9
SRM6: 9
LRM15: 9
AC10: 7
ER PPC: 4
AC2: 4
UAC5: 3
LRM5: 3
LRM10: 3
SL: 2
SPL: 2
LBX10: 2
MG: 1
SSRM2: 1
LRM20: 1
FLAMER: 0
SRM2: 0

 

I know I'm going to hate myself, but this is making me want to dust off my YLW and see how it holds up now.

 

Thunderbolt 5SS with 7 MPL, 20 DHS and STD300 has been a beast for me with max range and cooldown modules.

Haven't really gotten too into it yet with other chassis, though I think I may give some of my Centurions a whirl tonight. Sadly, I sold my CN9-D a long time ago.

 

So, how do we measure impact on gameplay as accurate as possible? There is already plenty of people arguing based on their own impressions but with very little data to support it.

What do we know?

1. IS mechs have gotten some beneficial effects on toughness, cooling, heat gen and fire rate. Also some tweaks on movement and agility.
2. This has increased the mechs potential damage, kill ability and survivability.
3. By how much? Too little/enough/too much?

Subjectively, some mechs have indeed increased their potential but very few have gone insanely powerful, IMHO. It's a very relative question, by what standard would we measure against?

Do we compare laserboats, the quirked pulsemonster Thunderbolt 5SS with the laserboat Timber Wolf/Stormcrow for potential damage output? Or whatever laserboat we deem to be the max potential.

Worth thinking about.

 

I can definitely say that the Oxide is a beast now, it's not even funny. The Commands on the other hand feel improved, but anything near where they should be (at least en par with what was formerly known as Tier3) - for instance the Com3A would be nice with 2 SRM6 but this drops its speed down to 142kph or even 139 if you want enough ammo, and that's just a bit too slow.. and even then they're still outclassed by any other light mech. Their mobility (cornering) advantage falls short because pulse lasers are scary now.

And yes, the Awesome 8Q, the FANG, and the Thunderbolt 5SS are probably the new top tier right now

 

I don't think we can compare much yet. Problem is that running clan tech you're used to a significant advantage and its obvious that a lot of players have relied on it as a crutch. For example, people are discounting the Thunderbolt I suspect to kill higher priority targets and then just melting too late to do much. People need to literally relearn every IS mech. Its the main weakness imo of clan mechs that all you need to do is see the chassis to know with a good likelihood exactly what the strength/weakness capability of every chassis is and its likely armament, optimals and danger level. Yes sometimes the pilot throws you with a odd setup but say 8/10 times you're bang on. IS mechs are now totally unique so you need to know and instinctly identify ONE HUNDRED and FORTY THREE chassis in the midst of combat. Yes once you sucessfully pick out the mech you could well have a good chance of guessing the setup but thats a tall order when you come face to face with a mech around the corner.

Suddenly those modules etc to identify loadouts quickly are a LOT more useful.

 

Its an obvious point but I do feel that energy weapons on certain chassis got a huge boost because of their lack of ammo as the sacrifices to fit all the extra ammo are heavily changing ballistic/srm boats. Mechs are moving slower in many cases which makes them easier targets and those same mechs are usually shaving off armour as well to increase their vulnerability. Quid pro quo while they have ammo those same srm/ballistic boats are causing massive damage.

Non bonused energy weapons look really weak - desperation weapons at best.

How are LRM's as not looked at them at all?

 

Hopped in my Oxide, Jenner F, and Ember for a few matches...I've never been good at the Oxide for some reason, so I didn't do very well (and got some pretty awful teams to boot), but I've never felt like such a stepchild in my F and Ember. Made the mistake of engaging a Jenner K who was running 4 MPLs and got utterly shredded by his faster weaponry in one match (he 2 shot one of my legs somehow ), and a Firestarter H on TT had similar luck, using his better heat and cooldown to take down my Jenner too After having about a dozen awful, one-sided matches, I called it a night. Will try my luck again tomorrow, but for the first time, I actually felt weak in my two best mechs. Couldn't even break 300 damage before I was cut down.

 

I

Interestingly the Oxide is problematic for me as like you I have a very good record with it. I have steered clear of outfitting it until theres more feedback as the compromises to cram in more ammo worry me. I've run in the past 4 x SSRM2, 3 x ASRM4 and 4 x SRM4 but the only change I can think of which won't really weaken the mechs survivability is to drop to 3 non Artemis launchers and strip off arm armour. Not particularly happy with that option as even with a 15% cooldown bonus for the chassis and 12.5% for the weapon module at level 5 I'm still taking a damage hit on each volley, particularly due to the extended ranges. Doing less damage means I'm fighting longer and any damage I take is less likely to be soaked on less important area's as I've stripped off an arm.

In other words... I'm praying epikt or someone else finds a good solution while I enjoy wub wub.

 

Good points, I also agree it is early days but discussing how we could measure things may enable us to start gathering data, or be ahead of the curve and kill the whiner steamroll before it gets momentum about "ruined game". Anyways, let's melt it and think about it some more.

I tested the Catapults, C1 and C4. The fire rate has increased noticably and time to kill is definantly decreased, even with the damage decrease of 0,1. Luckily I had exactly the right LRM size already equipped so it was just ready to go.

 

Yeah one of my problems is that I found several mechs I was using as LRM boats (e.g. Stalkers) .... with almost no LRM quirks and with very interesting SRM/energy quirks I wanted to experiment with so stripped off a few. Its not like I had many in the first place as it is!

I suspect I'll generally be looking at chassis with a wide range of generic "Missile" quirks rather than specialised quirks like "LRM20" when I do. In fact I can see several chassis I might want say SRM and LRM variants of. In the same way I'm going to buy more JM6-S's to take advantage of the generic bonuses to just generally boost ballistic builds like dual gauss/AC20.

 

I haven't played a lot with the Oxide since the patch, too many other mechs to test
But I don't think it will change much on the build design: the best is still to go for the highest alpha (= minimize exposure), 4 SRM4s.
Though artemis might be interesting at "long" range (the max went up to 320ish iirc) I still think the mech's comfort zone is under 200m. Plus the tonnage is already so short I wouldn't sacrifice one ton per launcher for the upgrade, especially on SRM4s where the spread isn't a huge issue.

=> XL280, 4 SRM4s, 6 tons of ammo (though for players new to the chassis I'd recommend to start with 5 tons, and tweak the build when starting to run out)
142kph is still fast and mobile enough, you won't chase Locusts anyway, and the armor reduction does not affect survivability since the weakest part are still CT and legs, fully armored.
My primary concern is: what if I need even more ammo? I will need more field test to know if I really do, but if it's the case I'm afraid shaving more armor is a no go, I'd have to downgrade the engine to a 270 or 265 (and I'm worried the slower I get, the more the armor reduction becomes an issue).

 

Yeah I have an extremely similar setup worked out.... just happier to wait to see someoen else test it first as I don't want to buy another 280XL after hemoraghing c-bills over the last 2 days refitting something like 40 mechs.