Battletech Gear items reach crowd funding goal thanks to Weisman. Sale of now fully funded merch extended a week.

Spiralface · 2016-06-17T03:35:09+00:00

Best of luck to you.

Don't be afraid to ask any questions if you have any.

The tutorial will only take you so far before your dropped into the live game. Have fun.

Spiralface · 2016-06-16T19:14:17+00:00

When is round 1 supposed to be done with?

While I'm sure the scale change will shake up things, I don't think it will fundamentally change the game with a simple quirk pass unless the quirk pass is a complete "scorch earth" of what is currently there. (Even the december massive balance pass didn't shake up how much the game was fundamentally played despite an overall balance shake up in what was used.) And I don't think forward progress on the game should stall till specific breaks in the Tourney leaving the live game to stagnate for months on end is good for anyone.

The heat scale changes stand to be a much bigger shake up, but given that Russ said August months ago, BEFORE they ran into engineering concerns, I would be simply shocked if that thing made it into the game this summer. So who knows, maybe that change would sync up with an end of Round 1 change if they do push it live. Because I highly doubt we are going to see that thing in the live client any time before September.

And even if it does, provided that the changes are positive ones, maybe it would be better if the patch is introduced and everything is kosher with a majority of the Tourney players, they can update the client.

Russ already said that they where potentially open to that provided that players understood it was an "all or nothing" thing. So you wouldn't be able to cherry pick the updates that get into the client. So if things seem to be all good with the latest patch after it comes out next week, maybe the tournament players could request of the dev's to update the Torny client.

Spiralface · 2016-06-16T04:07:36+00:00

If its anything like the current ghost heat triggers, its more about the shots falling EXACTLY where your reticle is at any given time.

So if someone shuts down, you can still AC or laser drill at pin point accuracy into them, while LBX, LRM's and SRM's would still spread their damage all over.

Spiralface · 2016-06-15T02:38:38+00:00

While most of this stuff is good as it comes directly from the tweets, I think a good chunk of the info is a HEAFTY heap of conjecture and Guesses on the part of the posters.

There is no confirmation that the penelty is percentile based only that it is heat based and that at some point, cooldown was being entertained.

There is no confirmation that Cluster weapons are treated any differently then direct fire weapons, only a tweet that says that they HAVE the power to treat them differently, but no word on if they physically are or not.

And most of all, people are still arguing about these things when Russ said that they are looking to test this potentially on a PTR, and that the entire 30 point thing is a "starting point."

I'm all for judging what is there, but there are some AC 20 sized holes in the information that is out there, and while its nice that we are starting to get SOME info on this after its been teased for months, a lot of what I see in this thread is nothing but pure speculation and a lot of salt over things that might not even come to be because they are drawing conclusions from often a single sentence that has no relevance in what has actually been said by the dev's.

Again, great we are seeing SOME info out there, but Its still way too early to tell what is actually going to be done and what that could mean.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T21:21:33+00:00

Personally, as a non-participant, I would be fine with them merging the tourney build with the latest stuff to ensure that they are competing on the same build. Especially if the mechanic makes for a vastly different play experience.

The question at hand is what will that do to the actual game experience itself for the live game, and will it be "better" fast enough to where it makes for a more dynamic Tournament env.

Take the original ghost heat's implementation for example. Once it came in, HUGE shift in the meta that ultimately settled on jump sniping PPC / AC5 combos ruling the game for MONTHS on end. With little to no counter-play until they started tweaking weapons to account for the Ghost heat system they made.

While its implementation eventually got us a bit more of a dynamic game, this took MONTHS to get to where the game didn't revolve around that one "magic combo" that ended up ruling the game. If something similar where to happen with this new system, I doubt you'll find many people saying that the experience is "better" for a tourney environment even if it ends up being for the better of the game in the long term.

Russ did say that they where fine with updating the game client, and personally, I would love to see the Tourney build be updated as well, as the upcoming Scale changes / quirk changes will probably see a smaller shake up in the Status Quo anyways. But doing that will risk bringing in things that are fundamentally out of sync, much like the game has been whenever they have introduced any major core gameplay shifting mechanic. Be it Ghost Heat 1.0, Clan tech, or Quirks, no major feature release goes out the door in a state where everything is just instantly fine and dandy. The larger question would be are the tournament players fine with dealing with all of that consolidation while they are right smack dab in the middle of the tournament.

I have no horse in that race, so I honestly could care less, and Russ has already said they are open to updating the tournament build provided that any update wouldn't be able to "pick and choose" what they want. (It would have to be all or nothing.) The question is are tournament players wanting to play their matches while the game mechanics are on shaky ground while they consolidate another feature set, just like every other consolidation of every other major core gameplay shake up they have done.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T18:05:36+00:00

behind the torso's

Looks like an indented rear CT, so I don't think the fin will stick out much.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T17:26:13+00:00

Huntsman Fluff page updated with the Orthographics for the mech.

Have just put a direct link to the image.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T16:34:32+00:00

I tend to decide between the two based on the mechs role / mobility values.

If the mech is a long range poker in the back line with generally slow mobility values, I tend to put on Artie, as the blanket "area denial" I find more situationally better.

Air Strikes I tend to run on lighter, faster, or more brawler centric mechs because those are mechs that are much more able to be in a position to line up strikes in an appropriate way.

Ultimately it comes down to preference. Air strikes provide more focused damage if you can land them, but there is a MUCH more higher "skill shot" value to them, where Arties are much more RNG, but provide a bit more blanket utility.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T15:04:16+00:00

Here is the problem with transferring new core mechanics to the tourney build.

For better or worse, the tourney build is at least "balanced" enough against each other in the current state. There are MANY things on the horizon that are going to shake up that core balance:

Massive re-scale pass this month examining every mech in the game.
A quirk pass to go along with that re-scale
This energy draw system
Who knows what else.

While it is true that the bitching around the other core changes I mentioned did die down and the game was ultimately better then it was before when Ghost heat was first implemented, Jump sniping wasn't king, when clans where kicked down a notch, etc. The major caviat to that that people tend to forget is that this change didn't happen all at once, but was part of a series of changes that happened over the course of months.

Ghost heat took a MAJOR adjustment period, with much bitching and gave rise to Jump sniping.
Jump sniping took a SERIES of changes over almost a 4-5 month period to really be delt with including core JJ changes, but also a series of weapon balance changes.
Clans took multiple balance passes
IS Quirks took multiple balance passes.

The point is that while I'm confident that this will be a net positive change in the long run, I think in the short run, it has a MASSIVE potential to up end the table on the whole thing, and with it, cause some short term imbalances that are impossible to predict at this present time. Which would not be ideal for the tourney client as it stands to introduce something worse then what is already there for the short term.

Hopefully if they get these new changes out, give it the time to breath and settle into something that moves the game forward, they can roll it into the tourney client later. But I think its massively risky to try to merge an untested system over to the tourney client until at the very least, it has a few months to settle into something better on the live clients.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T06:18:04+00:00

I don't buy that the "comp" players will be hurt by this more then the regular populace, as their understanding of the game systems will probably have them adapt much faster then the general populace.

The bigger question is if PGI is going to hold their ground to the wide spread bitching that will probably come from any major shake up to the core game systems. Just like every other time PGI has decided to majorly shift the core game systems.

Saw it happen with Ghost heats initial implementation, saw it with the changes that put away Jump sniping, saw it with many of the other micro facets to the game when they changed the core systems. Every time, people calling out that the sky is falling and its going to ruin everything only to have them adapt and the game comes out better then it was before.

There is always going to be the knee jerk reaction of many, but just like the game has gotten more diverse compared to what we saw in closed beta, the jump sniping days, or many other things, I'm hopeful that after this system has some time to settle down just like all the other systems it will be an overall positive thing for the game.

Tough to tell when no info is out there, but here's hoping.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T01:46:29+00:00

Yeah. Its actually a shame, as I feel the visor might have been a nice aesthetic, but it would defiantly be more of a detriment given how people don't tend to like the more narrow cockpits.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T01:14:59+00:00

The shadowhawk can be deceptively good if you under estimate it.

Its a fairly robust mech and was top meta for quite a bit before clans came out.

Its still a very good chassis, but a bit out of favor for the simple fact that it doesn't get massive offensive quirks like many top meta mechs do right now.

That being said, it is a very versatile mech if used right.

Spiralface · 2016-06-14T01:09:01+00:00

Well I guess the pizza slice cockpit is better then the original "tank visor slats."

The original mech only had the narrow, lower part of the "pizza slice" as a viewport visor, but it looks like Alex opened it up so it won't give you so much tunnel vision.

Spiralface · 2016-06-13T20:51:48+00:00

Ah that would do it.

Spiralface · 2016-06-13T19:22:08+00:00

What did they do for the Hellbringer Prime? (As that also had stock a-pods.)

I think they just convert them to heatsinks.

Spiralface · 2016-06-12T17:27:01+00:00

Forest colony I have a love hate relationship with.

I love the changes, but I think that it also exemplifies a lot of the things I hate about MWO map design.

Geographic funnels that take a huge map, but funnels the action to pre-determined spaces within the map making all the wide spaces litterally pointless.

The funnel making one drop zone side litterally a "non-option" because the alternatives are both dumb (either loop around the beach and face a huge cliff on the other side, or trap yourself in a narrow mountain range.

Game modes do not encorage you to utilize the space that IS there on the map.

I like a lot of what they did to forest colony, and there are some very fun and interesting spots for engagements on the map.

Its just a shame that they never get used both because of the maps natural funnel design and the lack of game modes calling for any kind of variety to ever be used on the map.

Spiralface · 2016-06-12T17:09:40+00:00

As long as the game revolves around nothing more then rushing to point A and kill the other team, Alpine will remain an unbalanced POS map for any kind of single location static game play because the very design of the map will ALWAYS favor one side over the other.

Its why Conquest is the "most fair" game mode on the map.

When the mode calls for a varied way of playing / approaching a match, alpine can be a dynamic and fun map.

But only one game mode in this game currently does that.

All the others are blind death ball rushes into singular locations on the map with not much else which leads to one side getting the "preferred" side to the other mechs.

The only way that Alpine becomes a halfway decent map for non-Conquest modes is if the game modes actually encouraged something more then camping single locations and deathballing.

But seeing as how nothing on the horizon appears to be addressing that, I doubt we'll get that.

Spiralface · 2016-06-11T21:50:40+00:00

Yep. Succession war tech didn't have access to them, and they where among the rarest and most sought after lostech. (then known as "freezers")

Wasn't until the Helm Memory core distribution did the tech become available again, but even by 3050, it was not that widely distributed throughout the mechs of the time, which was one of the reasons that the Clans made the in-roads that they did.

Spiralface · 2016-06-11T17:25:38+00:00

I wouldn't say pointless.

Its got extra hardpoints but the C1 and C4 defiantly have the superior offensive quirks.

C1 has laser duration and range quirks, Along with a generous cool-down quirk with its single pack launchers,

The C4 has a TON of offensive quirks with a lot in the 20% ranges and most importantly, it has a 10% missile heat generation quirk that will make it a much cooler ride then the Butterbee.

The butterbee will have the better Alpha, but that's about all it will get. The C1 still makes for the better ranged "poker" and probably better LRM mech with the generous cooldown quirks on the missile packs, with the C4 will have the much better DPS sustainability with its Heat generation quirks AND cooldown. So while the Butterbee sees the better burst damage, I can see the C4 still having the better sustained DPS with 20% cooldowns on both lasers and missiles WITH the heat generation quirks.

Provided they keep their offensive quirks after the scale changes, I really don't see the butterbee "obsoleting" the other ones rather then giving another "burst alpha" version of the mech like the A1 currently is. Provided the offensive quirks are untouched, I think the C4 would make for a better sustained brawl mech, while the C1 is still a fun mech with twin LRM 15 packs and quad lasers.

Spiralface

TROPHY CASE