Ask the Devs #44 - August 12th 2013

[Falconeer]

As usual, I tried to pick out the most interesting things. But you can read the whole thing here if you want.

Question From Maxx Blue: What does PGI consider to be the top three problems with the game right now? We all have our own opinions, but I am curious what PGI considers to be the biggest problems the game has currently.

Answer From Paul:

- Hit Detection – It is imperative that this improves for launch. Not only does it affect how the game plays right now but it also creates issues with weapon balancing.
- New User Experience – An upcoming tutorial is about to hit our testing builds and we will be pushing this out as soon as possible.
- Game Balance – There are still a number of Mechs and weapons that need to be looked at prior to launch.



Question from BP Raven: Right now the Awesome is arguably the worst assault mech chassis in the game (...) Are we likely to see any love for the Awesome to make it a more viable choice, and if so, what type of love might we expect?

Answer from David: The Awesome is a Mech that we need to take a look at. Recently, we’ve started a new pass looking at improving the balance between the Mechs. (Look for improvements to Medium Mechs coming in the August 20th patch.) As we do this, we’ll be sure to take a look at the Awesome. This will involve, first of all, making sure that there’s nothing weird or buggy about the hit boxes, and then seeing what we can do to improve the Mech. Exactly what form those improvements come in will remain to be seen.



Question from Solis Obscuri: Why do you consider the 2xPPC+Gauss high-alpha build which nearly everyone has been using for the last three months a lesser balance problem than firing three Large Lasers or four SRM-4s at the same time?

Answer from Paul: The assumption that we think the 2PPC+Gauss is a lesser problem than any of the other high alpha builds, is incorrect. We have looked at what we can do with the build in question and have come up with a plan to de-sync the firing times of PPC and Gauss and keeping the Gauss as a primary long-range weapon. More information on this will be made available as soon as we get the feature ready to test.



Bonus Question from PoLaR: What current maps Is the team working on? Are the "Cave" and "Moon Base" levels still in the works?

Answer from Paul: The next two maps involve an Island City and a Moon Base.

So basically, 2PPC+Gauss will be nerfed. Great news. Can we finally just love the game and quit raging at PGI, after that?

[Typhon]

It's not you PGI-baby, it's me.  ...  I realized that I deserve better.

[Falconeer]

If only there were another game like this, or even slightly similar...

[satael]

It might actually be interesting if they changed it so different (types of) weapons didn't fire simultaneously but there was a small (1 second) delay though I don't know how it would affect the overall gameplay (it might be the worst idea ever)

[Falconeer]

My proposition has been for a while to have PPC deal splash damage. Like 6 damage directly where it hits, and 2 damages to two other adjacent components. Or to slow own the projectile as it was some time ago before HSR. Or again, raise the cooldown to 6 seconds if not more. The desync you and them seem to point to worries me. While the Heat Scale Penalty is really counter-intuitive, it doesn't change the feel of the weapons. But forcing a delay makes some weapon not fun to use and beats the purpose of "alpha strike". But seriously, it just feels so bad when you hit a button and your weapon doesn't fire right away (also knows as "The Missile Door Syndrome"), so the idea they hint at feels quite shitty to me. We'll see.

[Merusk]

Size matters. It seems to me that saying, "A PPC is THIS BIG but that mech is THIS BIG so they don't fit," would be the easiest solution.   I guess  they don't want to explore that game space because it's too far away from the original tabletop Mechwarrior rules? (I never played)

They're trying too hard to recreate a game that was imbalanced, it seems.  It's just that when you were playing with your friends house rules and polite "don't do that shit" work.  When the only arbiter is what you code, everything else is free-game and you need to break your slavish dedication to a broken ruleset.

[Typhon]

If only there were another game like this, or even slightly similar...

Totally agree.  I haven't given up hope, because hope costs nothing.  I have cut them off from cash, and my interest in playing is paused until/unless they start posting updates that sound like they have a clue.

[Shannow]

The tabletop rules simply don't work with a realtime twitch based system...the whole idea of battlemechs doesnt work in that system. It's simply to easy to hit shit with big guns, while in Btech even if you lined up a damn good shot, say bth 5 or 6 (on 2d6) that still a 20-30% chance of missing. Plus then your hit location was randomised.

[Samprimary]

The tabletop rules simply don't work with a realtime twitch based system...the whole idea of battlemechs doesnt work in that system. It's simply to easy to hit shit with big guns, while in Btech even if you lined up a damn good shot, say bth 5 or 6 (on 2d6) that still a 20-30% chance of missing. Plus then your hit location was randomised.

Perhaps they should fix this with a ghost heat system which requires sitting down and solving a long and complicated series of blackboard lessons for english.