TOO MUCH STABILITY

[Tryptic]

Patch 1.1 has landed, and most of the changes are excellent, exactly what people asked for.

HOWEVER, what is with these new stability numbers!? Yes, we needed Assault mechs to be more stable, but double is too much. Something like 100 for lights, 120 for mediums, 140 for heavies, and 160 for assaults would have been a start, and even that would have had a massive impact on multiplayer skirmishes.

I am a member of InnerSphereWars, a meta game where we run a galaxy map, build and move mechs, and use Battletech games to resolve the battles. As a result, we have a much higher assault mech presence in our games than the normal, very low 25-mil cap. We also have many unbalanced matches, with heavy mechs on one team fighting assaults on the other. These new stability numbers will wreck our game balance because up until now, knocking down assault mechs has been the best way to counter them. It's just too extreme of a change, guys; you can't bring a sledgehammer to balance, you need a scalpel.

 

[mjbroekman]

Haven't played MP, but the stability numbers haven't made much of a difference in single-player from my perspective. I can still knock down assault mechs in a single round, even when they're entrenched. Then again, I don't run stock and I build with an eye towards stability damage.

Granted, prior to 1.1, my record was knocking down 3 mechs in a round thanks to multi-fire. I actually find stability damage to be the least effective way of dealing with assault mechs since they can't go lower in initiative as it currently stands (since most are already phase 1). Taking legs off of assaults is the best mechanism for assault knockdown (aside from melee) and then called shots to last leg.

Personally, the change to stability is less impactful in SP than the heat changes that suddenly make a 4 LL build something that's plausible to run without cooking every turn.

 

[Tryptic]

The biggest difference you will find between SP and Skirmishes is knockdown. I was amazed at how big it was when I first started playing MP.

In single player, you can get called shots whenever you want. You can use Vigilance to manipulate initiative as well. And when you do want to knock something down, your LRMs have double stability damage through the ++ bonuses.

In skirmish, aside from the fury shot which comes about every 6-10 turns, the only way to get a called shot or to get an initiative advantage is with knockdown. An Atlas has 1520 armor, but only requires about 500 damage to kill if you're able to knock it down and core the CT. LRM knockdown builds were prominent in the multiplayer meta, even with Stock mechs where no mech carries more than 30 LRMs, and it WAS overpowered. It just...needed a smaller, gentler change. And having played it more, I also think that the L Laser needed a smaller change, perhaps 20 or 24 heat instead of 18.

 

[mjbroekman]

Fair enough. I didn't consider the lack of +stab weapons in MP. I can totally see how having non-plus weapons would make the stability changes even more apparent.