Why the UAC outcry?

So it seems that everyone is expecting a big nerf to the UAC. Is this coming from an actual source saying its going to happen or has it gotten so bad that anytime we have a popular weapon being played we just automatically assume its going to get nerfed to shit?

If its the latter, then wtf? If the game is getting to the point where any usable weapon just gets nerfed all to hell then we need to finally stand up on the issue and say "fucking stop PGI, we need weapons that we can rely on."

This whole trend in gaming in right now to not balance anything, just nerf the good stuff until it cant even remember what it used to be and hope it gets put in some hopeful build that will never see the light of day again has to stop.

Its not like all the people bitching about everything cant equip what we are using. They have every opportunity we do. Its not balancing or fixing anything to destroy weapons. It just ruins the integrity of the game. Tell me one shooting game that doesnt have weapons that are stronger than others. THAT is balance because its the way of life. Its the way things are. The only true way to be completely balanced is if everyone is using the exact same shit, and that is boring and in general, just sucks ass. Certain weapons, PPCs and gauss, are intended to be a super fucking strong weapon because they ARE SUPER FUCKING STRONG. ITS THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF CARRYING THAT WEAPON whether its in mwo or tabletop or clix or any MW universe. My personal carrying pistol is a strong ass caliber for a reason. Would people use sniper rifles in shooters if their damage was that of a .22 and took 3-4 shots? fuck no. Certain weapons need to be strong.

If PGI claims to actually listen to their fans, and there is evidence that they do, then we need to get them to stop fucking nerfing everything and actually just balance the weapons.

Fuck guys, look at us. Most of us are taking breaks, raging, not supporting the game anymore financially or emotionally, and most of us are spending our time playing other games until they "might" fix it....one day, maybe. And the game isnt even out yet. This is not acceptable. Most all of us here at this site are more than just a mech pilot in MWO. The MW universe has been involved in our lives for many years now and we may not be the elite in the game itself, but we ARE the elite when it comes to overall fandom. And we are just letting them ruin the one fucking game line we've been playing through the generations. A lot of us dont like or get along with each other, but we come together and put it aside on this website. IDK what other groups are doing across the MWO fan board and i dont really care. But we have GOT to fucking stand up and say something as an entire community if we care about this game as much we claim to. Currently we are just sitting by watching what could be incredible dwindle into nothing. And whats worse, most of us have a decent amount of money into it, and more importantly, its the game line we've been playing for-fucking-ever.

Anyways, i guess im done with my rant. Its just such bullshit that every damn time we finally adjust to a forced different playstyle...its all taken away from us again and again. Just super fucking frustrating. In no other industry does this happen except for gaming and the people who do all the complaining are the idiots and the children. Are these really the people that should be forcing the industry along?

 

I hear you.

 

I can see your point and I can also see the counter to it; remember, this ISN'T the actual inner sphere. House Lords are not spending money to equip us with technology that is fast fading into obscurity.

In the Battletech Universe weapons like the UAC5 or the Gauss Rifle etc. were rare in the beginning and then slowly their numbers grew more or less depending on salvage, technological advances, production volumes, who owned what factory etc. In THIS universe everyone can have any weapon they want and mount it on any mech they want.

So if you have the "latest greatest" and EVERYONE can take it then it essentially becomes a FoTM weapon and for that month everyone is going to use it. Kinda makes the game a little less diverse and from a developers standpoint they want diversity.

 

Well, Leonhart, that post just earned the first "like" I ever gave on this forum. You spelled it all out, there's nothing more to be said.

Just a little story on the side: Before Star Trek Online came out, I was participating in the beta - I had pre-ordered, that got me in.
They had 2 kinds of combat: Space, with space ships, and some fast-paced ground combat. Both were completely different, each was fun in their own way.
I especially liked the ground combat. There were several classes, with several equipment options, Klingons of couse got their own - and BAT'LATHs!
It was fast, it was rewarding, it was fun. Enter the whiners!

Bath'lets were soo overpowered, and how could it be that you could be killed so fast that's no fun, sniper rifles are way too powerful, same as disrupters and plasma ...
So Cryptic "improved the game" by nerfing it to the ground. They "toned down the damage" to make the fights "last longer and be more rewarding". The latter was obviously only a figure of speech, because the rewards from the pvp matches were curbed down dramatically as well. Until then, you were able to make a pretty penny on the side to buy that next module for your starship, or outfit your crew. NOW, you would have been off a LOT better by just grinding on in PVE. I was so disappointed when they did that, and were adament about their brilliant fix that they would NOT take back that I cancelled my preorder and never played the game.

Until it became F2P ... if Cryptic hadn't switched from subscription to F2P, then Star Trek Online would have been gone the way so many franchised computer games have gone: down the drain.

So it became F2P, and after a few weeks I swallowed my old anger and thought "oh wth it's mostly free, let's take a look ...".
And guess what ? Ground combat PVP ... was still dead as a stone. No queues - only space combat actually happened.
Guess that's what you get when you nerf the last bit of fun out of a game.

Now there is one difference between STO and MWO: STO had space combat to fall back to. MWO ? If they nerf ground combat to hell, well ...

 

That's a good and reasonable position BUT the problem is that the developers don't give us any reason at all for diversity. I am tossed into a random map, could be a superheated zone or a frozen one, one with open plains or lot's of cover.
Since there is no way for me to anticipate, I need a build that performs equally well everywhere.
Even worse, since there is no game lobby for players to meet up and group before the drop - why should I bring any particular mech ? To fill a particular role ? I might be the light scout mech - in a lance of light scout mechs.

Even if they restrict players to stock loadouts that will not change that players will always try to pick a "good" mech. Since this game is lacking so many aspects from the TT game, a lot of mechs don't actually have a role in the game. What about anti-infantry mechs ? There is no infantry. What about air defense mechs ? Apart from the occasional low flying Spider or Jenner, the skies are mostly friendly.
Right now it's just mechs against mechs - obviously this will make players look for optimal builds for that particular role.

If they want to fix it, they have to fix the underlying problem and not punish players for creating good builds.

 

Well, if we can expact what map we will be dropping into maybe we will equip our mechs differently. But we DON'T.
So I am going to bring the deadliest mech I can have in all situations rather than tailor it for the battlefield.

I may want a sniper mech for a larger map and a up close brawler for a rivercity type, but since I cannot know for sure I will just bring in the biggest guns I can have.

I will NEVER use a weaker build because it is "favorful" (for fun maybe though). This is not a TT game with friends so we can chill out, rp a bit and drink beer, I am only interested in trashing whoever it is on the other side, and I don't care if he is crying like a limp little girl after getting steamrolled by my giant metal beast of death. I am sure most players do it not for the rp either.

If you want weapons diversity, then GIVE US A REASON TO USE THEM. Don't expact us to not use the best thing that is available. Make maps so different weapons can play to their strengths.

Right now the nerf/buff cycle tactic is just simply asking us to shift our builds from one set to another, nothing more. Say, you nerf UAC5 and buff something else, then we will make use of the NEW BEST WEAPON instead.

MIN/MAX FOREVER.

 

Now, that is exactly the point of the upcoming UAC5 nerf. They made it so good that EVERYBODY is using it, and that is boring and sucks ass. You can look at the maths for the UAC5 and clearly see that it is out of line with the other weapons of its class. So, right now, the meta is using a ton of them and that's fine. When the nerf comes, it will probably be something slight like a tweaking of its jam percentage which will make it more in-line with the other weapons and return some diversity to the MWO environment.

 

Yes but WHY is everybody using them now that they are so good? Because they crapped on most other weapons now and removed all alternatives. What's keeping this game going is the alternatives that still allow you to create a reasonable build - but once every weapon in the game has been nerfed, then what ?

 

Then...
IT'S CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Seriously guys?

Balancing this game is always going to be a p.i.t.a. Once everyone jumped on the uac bandwagon it was going to get tweaked. They are going to keep on doing this over and over getting ever closer to the mystical 'balanced' point. Its not just nerfing, things also get minor buffs.....

Maybe you dont have faith that theyre doing their jobs properly, I'll reserve judgement.

 

I'm sceptical because I don't see how this nerfing is changing anything. There is always a FOTM build, always a "best build", in MWO, in other games, you name it.
So what does this achieve ? Nothing, really. In fact, if they would "balance" it so neatly that it really doesn't matter what mech or build you use - does THAT sound appealing ? To me this what you find in the dictionary under the word "monotonous".

 

To any FOTW weapon, there is always a counter. LRM Apoc? ECM, everyone running AMS. Sniper Meta? Fast, powerful sniper hunters. UAC? Well, after last night's MechSpec's group runs, we have witnessed that not much counters this other than snipers and a great spotter/LRM team. Our 12-man got demolished a couple times to a UAC team. However, there are always counters. Hell, to counter a UAC team, BRING A FEW UACS! The better pilots will come out on top.

While I am all for a balanced game, the only TRUE balance will be only allowing MLas. One weapon/weight class/speed/ect will always bring certain powers. With good pilots, the balance can be shifted. I think the true "balance" will be seen with weight restrictions for a team. Once 12 players running UACs cannot drop together, the class roles will be the actual balance I feel we need. I don't care if there's 2 Atlas with 2x UACs a piece and three Chainsaws, a balanced team with LRMs, Snipers, Spotters, Support and Spotters can counter that any day. Even in the current game settings.

I agree, the UAC is a DEADLY weapon now. I wouldn't mind seeing it jam a little more. However, to say that it's "breaking the game" or a "cheese" or "cheap" build only shows a dead pilot's attitude and weakness.

I would rather see weight balance than the nitpicking of weapon balance.

HOWEVER, the 12-man light matches last night were a BLAST! Even losing, it was some of the most fun I have ever had playing any online game.

 

No, monotonous is every friggin mech running the same stuff because its clearly op compared to all the other options.

Get used to it, they will always be tweaking weapons and pretty much every feature.

 

Hell, to counter the "OP Weapon" argument, our 12-man dropped last night with 12 mediums all armed with 2x PPCs. We were DESTROYED! There were some great pilots there, we had the speed advantage, but, the power of 12 fast 20-point peek-and-smack weapon platforms didn't mean CRAP. There was no balance to the weapon so many see as "OP." I don't think heat was much of a problem for any of us. It was the weakness of a strong, balanced weapon. TIME. 4 second cooldowns allow for a lot of damage to be dealt between firing.

I will not deny that coordination was an issue with our 12-man group of fun, but, to say that PPCs are an OP weapon for their pinpoint 10 damage shots is to deny the weaknesses.

Same with UACs. They are an incredible weapon right now. I don't mind a slight tweak to jamming, weight or firing rate. However, it seems the current method of "balance" is to kill the effectiveness of any weapon that is powerful. See; ERPPC w/ 15 heat.

 

I agree with Cpt Chattahah. I too am awaiting team weight limit restrictions. That will help a lot, in my opinion. I'm not going to say UAC5's are cheap or cheese either, I use 2 on my Atlas as well... and they are quite nasty. I think they did an awesome job with buffing the LB's though, I enjoy that weapon now too. Maybe additional heat penalties could help prevent people from using more than 2 UAC5's?

If you guys had to predict when/if they add the weight restrictions, when would you think it would drop?

-BearJOO

 

October.

 

I say limit the loadouts to canon and keep weapons within canon limits - not exactly, just enough to make a video interesting.

Is there a canon Jeager with more than 2xAC5/2xUAC5? And how about when the RACs come in.

Whoo boy!

 

LOL

Well, technically, a JM6-S or JM6-DD can do 4x UAC5 an minor ammo and low armor... About 175 rounds I believe... Not much ammo and zero backup, but, it's possible for a HUGE DPS machine with great cooling...

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=67&l=3a7abf0c272084d8ac449fc0fbb47116261f6426