It's time to talk about mechs.

[vcordie]

Mechs right now are in my opinion notgood. Firing their weapons is a bit of a pain in the ass as you have to be facing the right way and sometimes it wont want to fire unless you turn another direction and turn back and they're slow and loud. The last 2 is to be expected, as they are mechs. But the weapons. BY GOD, their weapons are bad. They are not in line considering how hard it is to build a mech and their guns and actually fire the guns and hit something. Let's break down EVERY SINGLE MECH WEAPON and talk about it real quick.

Energy Weapons
Mech energy weapons are surprisingly okay. I'd even go so far to call them balanced, and not really needing to be changed, unless of course you want a combat mech to be a real powerhouse that requires immediate attention. (Spoiler alert: I would be a huge fan of that change.)

CH-PS "Immolator" laser
Does 20 burn damage, drains 30 energy, shoots as fast all other mech weapons (slow as fuck.)
Good? no. But its exactly the same as laser guns, and I don't consider them to be very good.
My recommended changes: Bump it up to 30 burn. It should be a heavier version of the handheld ones available in the armory.

CH-LC "Solaris" laser cannon
Does 40 burn damage, drains 60 energy.
Good? Yes. its solid, it wrecks xenos.
My recommended changes: None. Bumping it up to 50 would make mechs a bit more terrifying however.

MKIV ion heavy cannon
Exactly the same as the ion rifle available in the armory.
Good? Not really, but ion weapons aren't good in general because there's nothing you NEED to use them on to take down. Hopefully a mech overhaul would change that.
My recommended changes: None. you can't fix ion weaponry.

eZ-13 MK2 heavy pulse rifle
Only available to death squads. otherwise, to my understanding, its quite good, but only as good as the pulse rifle to begin with so.

PBT "Pacifier" mounted taser
It's a taser. stuns are op. nuff said.
Good? Stuns are always good.
My recommended changes: None really, stuns are op as fuck. Though maybe it should be a shotgun taser since its a mech oh wait that already exists and we're about to talk about it


Ballistic and Explosive weapons
Oh jeeze, these...these are all terrible. Except for one, which is quite good, but one...one is laughably bad, a terrible joke..surely? Let's start with the one and only good goddamn ballistic weapon

LBX AC 10 "Scattershot"
4 pellets per shot with some spread, each pellet does 20 brute and 65 stamina. 40 available shots before a rearm
Good: Yes.
Recommended changes: NONE. DO NOT TOUCH THE SCATTERSHOT.

Now that we got the good one out of the way, lets start with the VERY BAD HORRIBLE NOT GOOD WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS WEAPON.
FNX-99 "Hades" Carbine
1 pellet per shot, lights targets on fire, but follow up shots don't add additional fire-stacks. EACH PELLET DOES 5 DAMAGE.
Good: No. FIVE. FIVE DAMAGE.
Recommended changes: this is probably a fuckup, it uses the dragonsbreath pellet, it should probably use the incindary slug which is 20 brute plus ignite.

The only slightly worse WHAT THE FUCK WEAPON.
SRM-8 missile rack
3x3 radius dealing 30 brute, 50% chance for knockout and 7% chance to sever a limb. each projectile explodes on the tile you click it on meaning it can't travel past your screen. The explosion is the same as an ied with less firestacks. this is an ied launcher, not a missile launcher. 8 rockets before a rearm is required.
Good? No. considering the missiles are slow, the small radius, the coinflip for knockout, the pitiful damage, and the fact that if they move to your side you now have to spend time rotating to face them makes this weapon too easy to dodge and beat, plus the chance to hurt yourself? No thank you.
Recommended changes: This is difficult. could bump to 0 1 2 but then its 70% chance to knockout, 120 damage split between burn and brute, and 25% chance to sever a limb rolled twice for a max of 2 limbs severed. Better solution would be to up its splash radius and make it a proper projectile that can travel past the screen and deals additional damage if it hits someone directly.

Ultra AC 2
fires 3 projectiles per burst with some spread, each projectile does 20 damage.
Good? No. decent, yes. Compared to the scattershot, you'd never use this since they require the same research requirements. You'd never use this. EVER.
recommended changes: make it a viable alternative to the scattershot somehow. I don't have all the answers.

SGL-6 grenade launcher
Launches primed flashbangs.
Good? yes and no. Like i said, stuns are always very good. aoe stuns are also very good. you can't cook the flashbangs though, which means they're easy to dodge. Furthermore, mechs don't proect you from the flashbangs.
Recommended changes: make mechs protect you against flashbangs for this to see some use. the mech should probably provide hearing protection, as eye protection is easy to come by.

SOB-3 grenade launcher
Launches primed clusterbangs. Requires illegal research
Good? See above
Recommended changes: See above.

[Super Aggro Crag]

Yes lets buff mecha so roboticists can make their own private death squad and slaughter everyone on the shuttle.

[Aloraydrel]

#Saveripley

[MollyKristoph]

Seems like a decent understanding of the issues.
Not entirely sold on an entire 10 extra damage for each weapon. 5? No problem.
For the AC2, I'd say limit its spread some, so that even at 7 tiles away, the most spread is multiple locations on the same target, or else only multiples on the same tile.
The BTech autocannons generally only targeted one location anyway AFAICR, which is what this appears to be based on. This in my opinion would make it a viable alternative, acting more like a machinegun than as a boomstick.
Additional desires; Practice weapons. I want an excuse to build a Solaris arena for mechs some time, but probably not until late night 3 hour rounds are a thing again.

[vcordie]

Yes lets buff mecha so roboticists can make their own private death squad and slaughter everyone on the shuttle.

It's almost as if tracking becaons are a thing for that exact reason and the rd should make sure their roboticists are putting tracking beacons in.

Seems like a decent understanding of the issues.
Not entirely sold on an entire 10 extra damage for each weapon. 5? No problem.
For the AC2, I'd say limit its spread some, so that even at 7 tiles away, the most spread is multiple locations on the same target, or else only multiples on the same tile.
The BTech autocannons generally only targeted one location anyway AFAICR, which is what this appears to be based on. This in my opinion would make it a viable alternative, acting more like a machinegun than as a boomstick.
Additional desires; Practice weapons. I want an excuse to build a Solaris arena for mechs some time, but probably not until late night 3 hour rounds are a thing again.

Its not 10 extra on each weapon, If I did it, I'd only adjust the immolator, though that would require giving the immolator its own projectile because right now it just fires the one that the laser gun fires. Like I said in my post, I wouldn't adjust the solaris damage at all, but making it a 2 hit crit would certainly make mechs something people would pay attention to.

[DemonFiren]

Tracking beacons do shit for damage last I checked.

On the subject of lasers, what if we make the immolator a gatling laser :^)

[vcordie]

The tracking beacon isnt for damage though you can just stack 20 of them on a mech and instaempkill it, its more so you can lockdown the mech and turn its weapons off if it goes rogue

[CPTANT]

Yes lets buff mecha so roboticists can make their own private death squad and slaughter everyone on the shuttle.

Like mechs ever do much damage currently. They are laughable because they are so easy to outmanoeuvre.

[kevinz000]

Someone's never played robot if they think ac2 is underpowered.

[vcordie]

3 bullets at 20 damage each versus 4 pellets that are still quite accurate even at screen edge that have 20 damage AND 65 stamina damage?

[cedarbridge]

Yes lets buff mecha so roboticists can make their own private death squad and slaughter everyone on the shuttle.

Ion gun dunks mechs.

AI mecha hijack ability is useless when robotics never bothers making mechs of any quality in the first place.