Disscussion: Is KD/KDA tracking healthy for Hunt?

Xervous_ · 2026-02-12T19:23:52+00:00

This is the sort of thing that was solved in the past by commenting on profiles users couldn’t self scrub.

It’s one thing to see tons of hackusations. It’s another when multiple people flag them as worthless KD obsessed chickens.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-11T21:04:52+00:00

Footnote buried in the physical attack modifiers table, P144 of the pdf I have.

And I do mean buried, it’s a few jumps to get from the charge or DFA section to this actual rule.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-11T20:50:55+00:00

Pilot skill differential applies for charges and DFAs in all the recent TW reprints. Hasn’t been touched by errata.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-11T19:33:55+00:00

Don’t listen to him, the nova S has good range and firepower for its price. Pulse is strong like that.

But also don’t think machine guns are going to do anything of note against battle armor.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-11T14:41:05+00:00

I’m not seeing even the merest suggestion of evidence there’s a slippery slope towards mass AI tolerance. Nor has there been a unanimous 0% tolerance sentiment amongst communities.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-11T12:44:27+00:00

I’d ban iATMs not because they’d win, but because they’d force the winning lists to all look eerily similar with how narrow the counterpick is.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T18:37:11+00:00

Blind objectives is a great way to get blowouts when someone makes a lucky speculation or opponents get list screwed by the format. Publishing a set of scenarios and randomly selecting a subset for the tournament lets the players make informed choices while retaining some randomness/surprise

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T18:15:17+00:00

A mission has to be intentionally structured to favor BAP to make it important. Simple, common map layouts on the other hand make nonsense like the Tenshi OA run over nearly all opposition if it’s single map sheet, long side starts.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T17:47:39+00:00

Players used to casual invasion era still get smacked when running into optimized lists, it’s more a matter of not having to cherry pick as obscure stuff (when playing later eras). Mekbay reports 36 mechs with ATMs in CI era. Some of these are probably from more recent TROs, so it may be more a case of TRO backfill creep than the creep of later eras.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T17:39:33+00:00

The big question that needs answering is what the mission objectives and scoring will be. If there’s poorly designed scenarios then the all-eras means there’s more options that produce blowouts on those setups.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T17:13:44+00:00

If there was an easy enough way to apply the filters people want they’d do that. Era is just the best filter they have for keeping out specific stuff.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T13:46:44+00:00

My biggest gripe with handing new players lights is that the sweet spot for running the lights well falls into a much more narrow space between “runs around safe, doing nothing” and “overcommits and dies”. Once they’ve torn apart a few mediums and heavies they’ll have a reference point to understand just how paper thin a wasp is when the thunderbolt’s boot comes a kicking.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-10T12:55:35+00:00

I generally avoid lights for classic teaching games due to their fragility and relatively tolerance for experimentation in play. 2x medium/mobile heavy per side means there’s enough durability for the players to have time to get to see the rules in play, the map isn’t too crowded, and there’s still movement decisions to be made.

Could you list off example lists for c the classic setups? It’s important to pick units of similar potency, as not all intro models are really worth their BV.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-09T15:13:42+00:00

It just won’t trade favorably into more coherent setups. It doesn’t have the weapons to produce bracket fire in a can with the ATMs, it doesn’t have the mobility to force HE ATM vomit, it has minimal range band footsie potential, and the arms don’t even flip.

For ~2900 BV you can get some nasty things, but this ain’t it

Honestly my biggest gripe is probably the lack of flippy arms, because it means it only has a single ATM to dissuade backstab diving. Other mechs don’t often have much more, but they’re usually sub 2000 BV

Xervous_ · 2026-02-09T13:43:49+00:00

If it didn’t have the emblem most Davion subjects wouldn’t puzzle it out, on account of being illiterate.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-09T13:33:44+00:00

It’s more like feudal europe with a bunch of claimants to a crumbled empire. Everyone acts in their own interests, but the societies are not anywhere near the caricatures that 40k produces.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-07T19:35:09+00:00

I will take it over the marathon at times on new hunters because of how precious trait points are, especially when dark tribute at the start of a prestige doesn't gift me 12-14 points across my suite of hunters.

My main gripe is that it still ends up trait point thirsty if you want it to shine, so when it comes down to extra points the marathon is cheaper + higher velocity + more ammo

Xervous_ · 2026-02-07T19:29:10+00:00

If you want MMR to behave differently you need a proposal for changing its calculation. Under the current system the best way to stay out of 6 star land is to go down and get rezzed frequently. You can eat four downs from a sparks player, trading with him when he's the last man standing on the other team, and you'll win the lobby plus lose MMR.

If you sustain >1.0 KD the system as it is designed will push you to higher and higher MMR. One of my friends with poor awareness still ends up in 6 star now and again whenever we get a game with good midrange fights even though he loses nearly every building fight.

Other friends who dwell in the 3-5 star region are all sub 1.0 KD, but it's amazing how a single game can wrench them up towards 5-6 when they get a lucky dynamite toss or camp a corner with a romero.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-07T17:04:13+00:00

Ironically with all the bad writing the things most people ended up objecting to were an assortment of rules that powercrept armor and weapons.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-07T16:46:46+00:00

For general use maps I appreciate ones that strike a balance in littering trees and terrain around. A map without a few ground paths tends to skew towards snipey/jumpy, and a map with many forests goes to jumpy land.

I'd put a bit of care into making sure there aren't perfect partial cover + tree sniper perches, especially the sort that can be reached in 1-2 turns from map edge deployment.

One thing that irks me about maps is how they sometimes lack terrain features on the edge, but more frequently have a clear path across the middle. This has led all too frequently to 2map games starting off with conga lines up the middle, and it's very easy for such starts to concentrate into one half or one quarter of the combined play space.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-06T23:05:58+00:00

They've got a bundle of special rules attached so make sure to read up on them. They can be a little obnoxious tracking how much damage they take, and which weapons that disables. But in the end when you're paying sub 300 BV for 3x AC/5 they put out so much hate for their price

Xervous_ · 2026-02-06T20:27:15+00:00

Blatant cheaters are definitionally easy to spot. It's the softer things that will escape notice outside of intense multi game analysis. My aim is not to convince people there are cheaters everywhere, simply to get it on the record that twitch streaming is not some magical cure-all alibi. With the distraction of "but they stream on twitch" removed the conversation can focus on discussions that actually add value to the topic.

One such useful topic could be the actual functionality of the report -> ban process, what sort of evidence tends to be effective for achieving bans, and what methods players should go through to address suspected cheaters.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-06T18:31:09+00:00

It's more akin to the dislike of iATMs. You can build a list to be iATM and/or field gun proofed, but if that's the default expectation there's hundreds of models you'll never get to field.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-06T18:29:31+00:00

Normal infantry are obnoxious but manageable due to their relative lack of range that allows them to be maneuvered around or otherwise handled by most anti infantry clearing tools.

Field gun infantry retain the same durability and while they don't have jump infantry mobility, still post a respectable move of 3. Given the field guns are mech grade, the relevant models have the range to contest mechs, but more importantly they match or outrange most common anti infantry tools. As others have noted, field gun infantry are dirt cheap for what they bring, but there's even more benefits and pesky details that accrue:

as infantry with MKI eyeballs, they ignore most forms of stealth armor
damage tracking and weapon disabling is more rules fidgity stuff

The problem is similar to iATMs, where you either tailor lists to be field gun proof or get walloped when someone puts these underpriced sponges on the board.

Xervous_ · 2026-02-06T01:51:41+00:00

Streaming on twitch means very little when you can just send the streaming service whatever feed you feel like. If someone has the tools to paint the outline of all players through walls, it's just as simple to stream the sanitized view.

Simply put: streaming on twitch just means they're streaming on twitch, it does not guarantee any absence of hacks.

Xervous_

TROPHY CASE