Developer Diaries #1: Mechwarrior Ability Revision

[mjbroekman]

I'm confused at the "Bulwark is mandatory" comment. My standard roster is 8 pilots, an A team and a B team, and I've only got it on 1 pilot from each team. I've always relied far more on tactical movement, evasion and passive cover than I ever have on facetanking. Instead of making Bulwark "different", if the objective is to make combat more mobile, why not just improve evasion? And I don't mean the skill, I mean the mechanic itself. Here's a thought: you only lose evasion chevrons if an enemy mech actually hits you, not just because they fired at you.

I wouldn't mind a change to the evasion mechanic but that's tangential to the discussion.

I never thought of Bulwark as mandatory and I don't think it is mandatory in the skills preview either. But it's a lot more attractive now than in the main branch.

These changes feel more like they're designed to address the Multiplayer crowd rather than any Singleplayer gripes. Multiple concurrent alpha strikes with no real penalty because your pilots are disposable anyway? Who's NOT going to take that in MP? I just don't see a use for it in SP with heal times vs repair times the way they are now.

With cockpit mods (as they currently stand), CV 'injuries' are absorbed by the cockpit mod. So, at the very least, you get a few "freebies" that way. I ended up with 5 straight rounds of near alphas (Alpha, Alpha - 1ML, Alpha, Alpha, Alpha - 1ML) in my most recent mission by using CV before the second full alpha. If cockpit mods are changed so that they don't soak the CV injuries, then I wouldn't take it anymore, but for now I'm happy with one pilot that has CV. They're the only pilot that will run the dual AC/20 KGC, but that's a different story.

 

[Camicon Dachass]

Not sure what you mean. Evasion still works the same and, as a result, is still worth it. Evasive Move never added enough 'extra' evasion to make it worthwhile for me.

I don't understand why people are saying this.

Evasive movement was the difference between a jumping 5/8 'Mech getting 5 evasion pips or 6, the difference between a jumping 4/6 'Mech getting 4 evasion pips or 5. This was very important damage mitigation for Medium 'Mechs, which mount far less armour when compared to late-game OpFor you face, and all have either 4/6 or 5/8 movement profiles. Removing Evasive movement is a passive nerf to the survivability of Medium 'Mechs.

 

[scJazz]

Having played... the majority of changes are not good. (quite aside from the bugs involved)
Listening to the players comments on minor tweaks would have been best.
Evasion +??? permanent pips.
Bulwark -stability and damage, plus use of cover
Juggernaut was useless but Coolant was just over the top.
Sensor buff was good.

[Mod Edit: Pdma]

Rather than spend a bunch of time creating a whole new screwed up system... listening to the players suggestions would have been a useful activity.'

The proposed system just sucks and by sucks I mean... well I can't actually write what I mean.

The Dev work should be deleted. After that the primary goal should be listening to clients.

 

[Viktor Heresy]

Upgraded my early Ironman campaign to 1.3 Beta Preview and played 4 missions and one Story mission: Liberate Smithon.


My thoughts:

- I love the removal of Bulwark as it totally changes how battles play out. Instead of creeping walls of doom, on regular missions my mechs are moving much more dynamically around the battlefield. Jump Jets are much more attractive now.
- Sensor Lock is a fairly useful tool now, but it took me a while to warm to it.
- Coolant Vent: I tried it once and regretted it. I will not be picking it again as I would rather Bulwark Guard and cool off normally.
- The new UI is very helpful. I now actively consider cover for both myself and the enemy.
- The enemy is far more aggressive, which is a good thing. Great job on the AI, as they keep surprising me. Which leads me to...


Story Mission Review:

So I played Liberate Smithon which turned out to be one of my gaming highlights of the year. It was incredibly tense, stressful and rewarding when my Lance clawed its way to narrow victory. (To recap: you are 'saving' crates while facing 8 Mechs, 4 Turrets, 2 Transports).

Previously, you could Bulwark and form a gunline, absorbing firepower. With the new skills I was forced to jink all over the battlefield in a deadly game of cat & mouse. The AI to it's credit was quite determined to focus on my wounded mechs, so much that one enemy Jenner nearly killed itself through Alpha Strike Overheating. The enemy Dragon was very wiley, retreating to nurse it's wounds 'post-crate', only to rip into my Centurion up-close next turn.

I went in with 4 medium mechs, blew up 5 crates and barely made it. Here is the aftermath:

It was a blast. Thanks Devs.

FUTURE REQUEST: Please add a campaign start option for random mechwarriors and random mechs. <3 (Sacking Glitch & Dekker felt bad.)

 

[Dakk Elleron]

Can someone please clarify the new Bulwark change? (I am on a business trip and won't return until the weekend )

Current active game build:
Bulwark = passive and -50% damage mitigation to front and sides if you do not move that turn. Does not stack with terrain but worked regardless of the type of terrain.

I'm reading the new Bulwark to be:
Bulwark = active and -50% damage but only when you select brace at the end of your turn (which means you can not shoot) but stacks with terrain which implies you can have up to -75% damage mitigation.

 

[mjbroekman]

In playing more with Sure Footing at low pilot skill, I noticed something that I may have missed in the previous 8 pages of comments on this thread:

The Sure Footing ability description says:

PASSIVE: 'Mechs pilots by this MechWarrior gain "Entrenched" (50% stability damage reduction) and one bonus Evasion pip after moving. Does not activate on sprinting, jumping, or charging to melee.

Fair enough. This is visible perfectly in the following combat round example:
- Spider (pilot has Sure Footing ability; Pilot Skill 5) : With a 1 dot move, the Spider gains 1 evasion pip and Entrenched.
- Locust (Pilot Skill 4) : With a 1 dot move, the Locust gains 0 evasion pips and is not Entrenched.

However, this breaks down at maximum normal movement range.

Both the Locust and Spider have the same movement range. At maximum walk range during combat:
- Spider: 4 evasion pips and Entrenched
- Locust: 4 evasion pips and is not Entrenched

From the Sure Footing description, the Spider should end up with 5 evasion pips as it gains a bonus Evasion after moving.

If there is an Evasion cap on the number of pips that can be generated, Sure Footing needs to increase that by 1 to accomodate the bonus pip that the ability gives.

RELATED BUG:
Outside of combat, a regular move or jump grants the Entrenched bonus. Sprinting does not. This happens regardless of whether or not the pilot has the Sure Footing ability.

 

[ThatGuyMontag]

In playing more with Sure Footing at low pilot skill, I noticed something that I may have missed in the previous 8 pages of comments on this thread:

The Sure Footing ability description says:


Fair enough. This is visible perfectly in the following combat round example:
- Spider (pilot has Sure Footing ability; Pilot Skill 5) : With a 1 dot move, the Spider gains 1 evasion pip and Entrenched.
- Locust (Pilot Skill 4) : With a 1 dot move, the Locust gains 0 evasion pips and is not Entrenched.

However, this breaks down at maximum normal movement range.

Both the Locust and Spider have the same movement range. At maximum walk range during combat:
- Spider: 4 evasion pips and Entrenched
- Locust: 4 evasion pips and is not Entrenched

From the Sure Footing description, the Spider should end up with 5 evasion pips as it gains a bonus Evasion after moving.

If there is an Evasion cap on the number of pips that can be generated, Sure Footing needs to increase that by 1 to accomodate the bonus pip that the ability gives.

RELATED BUG:
Outside of combat, a regular move or jump grants the Entrenched bonus. Sprinting does not. This happens regardless of whether or not the pilot has the Sure Footing ability.

You need Piloting 6 to unlock a fifth evasion pip.

 

[mjbroekman]

Can someone please clarify the new Bulwark change? (I am on a business trip and won't return until the weekend )

Current active game build:
Bulwark = passive and -50% damage mitigation to front and sides if you do not move that turn. Does not stack with terrain but worked regardless of the type of terrain.

I'm reading the new Bulwark to be:
Bulwark = active and -50% damage but only when you select brace at the end of your turn (which means you can not shoot) but stacks with terrain which implies you can have up to -75% damage mitigation.

Bulwark is still passive. It triggers on entering the Guarded state which can be accomplished by using Brace to end your turn... or by using Vigilance in combination with Move and Fire.

 

[Camicon Dachass]

Bulwark is still passive. It triggers on entering the Guarded state which can be accomplished by using Brace to end your turn... or by using Vigilance in combination with Move and Fire.

Bulwark is passive, in the sense that it upgrades your Guarded state.

It is not passive in that you have to either spend a turn to Brace, or spend some Resolve on Vigilance, in order to enter that Guarded state

 

[Manwue]

I just liberated Panzyr. Let me tell you, all those turrets dropping multiple sensor locks on the OpFor was glorious to witness. On the other hand I dread the day I will come against that many turrets in the OpFor sensor locking me.

I agree with the consesus of the ones that played a few missions or more, the game feels (but actually is not) much more mobile, cover matters a lot, tactical thinking is required much more. The game feels more enjoyable, every turn is a puzzle that asks you to weight attack and defence gains for each of your mechs. It is not some earth shattering difference (I was not favouring the old bulwark anyways) but the difference is there.
I still think a minor tweek or two might be beneficial (I am shamelessly plugging again the idea of swapping bulwark and sure feet's places) but even in their curent state the new changed skills are beneficial in my opinion to the overall enjoyment of the game.

 

[mjbroekman]

You need Piloting 6 to unlock a fifth evasion pip.

Hmm. That seems to counter the benefit of Sure Footing when you first get the ability then. But looking back at the Evasive Movement definition, it seems like the behavior is the same. Okay. Just an oversight on my part for not playing with Evasive Movement a lot.

Suggestion:
- Add "(up to its maximum)" to the Sure Footing description to clarify it if that is the intent.

Alternative Suggestion:
- Since Sure Footing only takes effect on walking and the jump/sprint evasion is thus getting a debuff (in the form of not getting the bonus evasion from Evasive Movement), have the Sure Footing ability increase maximum evasion by 1 as well. You won't get the bonus evasion pip when sprinting or jumping, but you will have the potential to generate an extra one.

Thus, you get +1 max evasion at Pilot 5 if you take Sure Footed and +1 max evasion at Pilot 6 as well.

When you walk, you get a bonus pip. When you jump or sprint, you would still be able to generate that extra pip by moving farther.

**shrug** Just my impression.

 

[Revan Katarn]

Well, even if it's only comparing one mission with each version of the game, to @HBS_Kiva (and other devs reading this), here are my thoughts and conclusions. Also, before that, something strange I've noticed with the beta: injured pilots (and out of action due to past events) are not injured anymore, although it says in the task list when they will be available again, you can upgrade the pilots (spend the XP) and deploy them... seems weird.

Short version:
- Sensor Lock: I found it useful before, and the addition of the same debuff than PPCs feels like a very good thing.

- Bulwark: I agree that before it was a bit OP, and the Fortify can be promising by avoiding or reducing the static weapon platforms. But I haven't got a good feeling with it, having to choose between attacking or bracing... Maybe something in between? Like more damage reduction if braced, less if attacking without moving.

- Coolant Vent/Juggernaut: I think there are many other ways to deal with heat levels, and heat management is a part of this game. Agreed that Juggernaut becomes quite useless by the end of the campaign, but this cooling ability, trading an injury? I won't use it, I don't think the gain is that good for the sacrifice (more in the long version).

- Sure Footing: at the beginning of the campaign (light and medium 'Mechs) Evasive is quite helpful, but with heavy and assault 'Mechs... true, sometimes doesn't even do anything. With Sure Footing, although you cannot get so many evasion chevrons by running or jumping (which, IMO, in many occasions is a good tactic), it feels a bit more strong than the Evasion ability, so seems like a good change. Maybe keeping extra chevrons when running and jumping, without gaining entrenched? Just a thought.

Long version (sorry for being too long):

Spoiler

First I will compare the same 5 skull mission, a Battle in a Lowlands biome, using same pilots (with "equivalent" builds) and same 'Mechs. Then expand on some abilities.

>Normal version:
- pilot 1 (AS7-D-HT): Bulwark, Multitarget and Breaching Shot.
- pilot 2 (HGN-732B): Evasion, Multitarget and Breaching Shot.
- pilot 3 (HGN-733): Evasion, Multitarget and Breaching Shot.
- pilot 4 (BLR-1G): Sensor Lock, Evasion and Master Tactician.
All pilots maxed (skills at 10/10/10/10), and most 'Mechs customised with more armour.

OpFor: two demolishers, VTR-9B and KingCrab.
Reinforcements: Zeus, two BNC-3E and AWS-8T. Arrived after 2-3 rounds of combat, flanking my lance from around my 4.

Result: no injuries nor structural damage taken. Used my Evasion pilots to move around flanking, Sensor lock to reveal enemies before having LoS. The Bulwark pilot providing extra fire from a visible position (trying to draw some enemy fire). Happy mission as usual.

>Beta version:
- pilot 1 (AS7-D-HT): Fortify, Multitarget and Breaching Shot.
- pilot 2 (HGN-732B): Sure Footing, Multitarget and Breaching Shot.
- pilot 3 (HGN-733): Sure Footing, Multitarget and Breaching Shot.
- pilot 4 (BLR-1G): Sensor Lock, Sure Footing and Master Tactician.
As before, all pilots maxed (skills at 10/10/10/10), and most 'Mechs customised with more armour.

OpFor: two demolishers, VTR-9B and HGN-733.
Reinforcements: HGN-733P, two BNC-3M and AWS-8T. Also arrived after 2-3 rounds of combat, from the same position, so I was prepared and no flanking happened.

Result: AS7-D-HT lost RA and RT, with the pilot taking 1 injury. HGN-733P structural damage at RL and LT. BLR-1G structural damage at RA. Obviously, the difference in the result is not only because of the pilot skills, there is RNG, slightly different OpFor and, mainly, I wasn't familiar with the new skills. Sensor lock works almost the same, but with Sure Footing I traded more stability (which barely ever is a problem) but less evasion (especially when jumping to flank or backstab the enemies). Fortify it's a complete new mechanic, so I didn't use it properly I'm afraid, hence the beating on the Atlas II.

So, my final thoughts on each reworked skill/ability:
- Sensor Lock: I disagree with the "one-trick pony", it was useful before, especially for dealing with several sniper turrets, soften incoming enemies before reaching LoS and make quick 'Mechs easier to hit. That's why I always had 1 or 2 pilots with Sensor Lock in my lance during the campaign. Now, with the impairing debuff, it's even better (but nothing overpowered), and I will keep using it.

- Bulwark/Fortify: I need more practice with this one, probably using the Vigilance synergy as others have mentioned. It's true that makes the combat more difficult, and it's not a must for tanking, but I'm not sure if it's makes the combat more dynamic, as it's an ability that only does something if your 'Mech does nothing, apart from moving. Although it definitely helps with balancing with other skills. After this change I will probably use it less often.

- Coolant Vent/Juggernaut: this one I haven't tried, but it's a skill that, as already mentioned, I won't be interested in using. Part of the charm of the battles is to manage your heat. Trading an injury for zero heat generated is not worth for me, and until you can have the MedBay fully upgraded, an injury is quite a lot of time without being able to use a pilot (and time is money). It's true that Juggernaut becomes quite useless by the end of the campaign, when almost every battle is with heavy and assault 'Mechs. I was only picking Juggernaut for the fun and interesting initiative warfare at the beginning/mid-campaign and for "role-playing" purposes (a character that solves the problems punching his way out of them), but I was always wary of how much it would help in the end.
* If I may make a suggestion (although I'm quite sure you already considered and I'm unaware of the reasons to discard it), if you're worried about Juggernaut being not as good idea and also about the knockdown meta, then why not making Juggernaut the same as before (moving one initiative down) and dealing twice (or even x3 times) more stability damage than normal melee attacks? ("Juggernauts are experienced pilots who knows how to take advantage of the weight of their 'Mechs, dealing staggering damage with its terrible force").

- Sure Footing: what I said in the short version, it has some good things and some that I don't like (I won't say bad things, simply not fitting my tactics).

Anyway, happy to see a Battletech DevDiary, I hope more will come!

 

[DarkSpade]

I never even thought to use an all bulwark lance, but I almost always brought one bulwark mech. It just fit my tactics to have one. In some cases it makes sense for a mech to plant it's feet and be anchor for your defense and/or hold position. With the new changes, you're forced to move if you want any kind of defensive help and still fire, but for slower mechs on anything but flat terrain, you're not going to be able to move far enough to even get that one point of evade anyway so you're just screwed. I also feel that this makes jump jets even more essential and the more essential something becomes, the less interesting the game becomes.

90% of my uses of brace is when the game is requiring me to use something to end my turn. I don't see this changing that.

 

[Jman5]

I’ve played around with the new skills and here are my thoughts.

• Sensor Lock: Agreed that the skill felt underwhelming. Glad to see its getting some use. Is +10% miss really that strong though? With + hit chance from skills, +hit from arm mount, +hit from lasers, +hit from ++ campaign gear, how much is 10% really going to make any difference? This is even more critical in the campaign where characters are level 10 and you’ve got all that lost tech gear boosting your hit chance.

1. Suggestion: Because I see the problem as a mid-late game issue, adding a passive booster to Sensor lock makes sense to me. Somewhere around level 9-10 for Tactics improve sensor lock by +5%. This helps keep it competitive later on when hit chances go through the roof without making early game opponents and multiplayer targets too hard to hit.

• Bulwark/Cover: Changes seems fine to me.

• Sure Footing: I feel like the two abilities are working cross-wise with one another. The first part about Sure footing is to be harder to knock down. The second part of Sure footing is to be harder to hit. Well if you’re not getting hit because you boosted your evasion, you’re not getting knocked down. If you're constantly taking hits that knock you down, your evasion isn't working. They don't synergize with each other.

In my time playing with the skill, my Sure-Footed mechs never had any knock down risk because they weren’t getting hit much. IMO, Entrench seems more at home with skills like Bulwark.

1. Suggestion: What I would really like to see with the Evasion Line is some defense against melee. For example, have Sure Footing provide +1 evasive pip and half your pips go toward melee evasion. I just think it’s really dopey how you basically have 100% hit rate with melee once you get mildly skilled up. Makes playing smaller mechs in the later part of the campaign a real pain.

PS: Melee not only completely ignores evasion, but it strips two evasive pips when you fire auxiliary weapons. I think you should change that.

PPS: If you are going to insist on giving everyone near 100% melee hit chance by mid game, can you please please please make it easily moddable in a json file? I can change it for auxiliary weapons, but not melee.​

 

[Some Old Grognard]

Alright, skills first, then a comment on the skill trees. Tested them on a mid/late game, deploy lance: 4xHighlander. Plot progression: whatever that mission is where you blow up the three generators while Spiders spot arty on your head.

Sure Footing: A strong improvement, which gives even more reasons to make custom loadouts without jump jets. More valid options is probably always a good thing. Unfortunately it drops off in utility profoundly after mid-game when you've got increased stability from the tree.

Fortify: Still feels strong, though obviously weaker than before. Would really recommend that Fortify give an additional small benefit, like, say, making up to two pips of evasion permanent while Guarded. That would increase the motive to move and shoot (or move and guard) without giving an overwhelming buff to the skill. I rarely used Bulwark on more than one pilot per lance before, and I will probably not use Fortify again after these testing games, because it was never terribly powerful and certainly isn't fun enough to justify the opportunity cost.

Coolant Vent: I like the synergy with Heat Banks. Knowing I can stack four PPCs and an AC10 on a 'Mech and actually go flat out for more than one turn in three without blowing the core makes for some interesting possibilities. It's still not good enough to use except for specialty builds and goofing around, though that's a perfectly valid reason to build to.

Sensor Lock: Already too useful, now frankly overpowered. "I can shoot you before you can shoot me" is a sufficiently unbalancing mechanic without adding "and when you do shoot, you're gonna miss".

Where does this leave the skill trees?

Gunnery is still the "when I have some points to spare" tree. Given that maneuver or stability will overcome damage reduction, Breaching Shot is slightly less desirable than before, since now a braced 'Mech out in the open is vulnerable to headcap without BS. Multishot has always been nice. TTS++ will cover what you don't have in actual point investment. There is no strong synergy to any other tree.

Piloting is still a good tree overall. Bonus sprint (and the evasion you get from it) is always nice, and extra stability is good stuff. You had the ability to develop a strong two-way synergy with Guts through T1 skills but the change to Fortify nixed that. "Shoot, then move" is entirely playstyle dependent and has good value still, if one chooses to play that way.

Guts is just as much a specialty tree now as it was before - going to 4 is mandatory, going past that is rarely worth the points. Though the tree bonuses synergize extremely well with CV so if you wanted to go deep, there's more reason now than ever.

Tactics is still the most OP tree and is still so good that there's very little cause to build a pilot any way but Master Tactician + whatever you like. Nothing is more useful than killing an enemy before they can shoot you, and between Called Shot Mastery (and since your new Resolve system rewards enemy kills less, that resource is more valuable and thus Precision Shot improvements end up weighting even more favorably) and going one phase earlier, nothing else compares. Add to that the now somewhat overwhelming Sensor Lock and you've got a winner. Unlike the other trees, Tactics has strong synergies to all three trees. Sensor Lock allows for long-range firing, making use of investment in Gunnery for beyond-LOS shots(edit: though I should have pointed out originally that this is a lance synerggy, not an individual one). Master Tactician improves both Fortify and Sure Footing by giving your pilot a greater chance to go before the enemy, and thus choose to benefit from those skills if it is desirable.

Overall, I think this feels like the kind of change an organization implements when new sets of eyes look at a system that has been carefully designed. I feel like you had a strong sense of direction while making the game and bringing it to release. I feel like that direction may be changing. The game is still quite fun, even though mechanically it's still trivially solved.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I played quite a few missions today with the new skills.

I think I am going to love the Coolant Vent system when combined with a Cockpit Mod. The mod does soak up the injury, so if I have one that absorbs two injuries, that is 2 flushes I can do without pilot injury. I still get the feeling that it is a bit too abusive to the mechanic though.

Because of this, I placed cockpit mods in my hottest mechs (especially the Stalker and the Jester). I also have one in the Zeus I am running.

I don't find myself giving much more thought to Sensor Lock, however I am still glad it can mess with aim.

Sure Footing is ok. The extra stab is nice on the Jester since it can get focused a bit out front, but so far I haven't felt like I really needed it. I think I am just used to always staying out of LoS or using vigilance anyway.

Bulwark I am still on the fence, I just think I'll need more time with it. I think it will be good when I need to brace and agro fire while other mechs move into position (especially with that 75% damage reduction in cover). Again, I feel I need to play around more with it before I know for sure.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

I was thinking about the Coolant Vent Skill, both from the pilot injury from scolding coolant, and the way the negative attribute of it can be bypassed a few times with a Cockpit Mod (seemingly making other cockpit mods less desirable and allowing for potential alpha strike spam in the short term).

What if instead of pilot injury, the negative attribute would be that firing the next turn after using it would generate more heat than usual for that mech. Think of it as a temporary shortage of coolant after a flush causes the mech to be more susceptible to heat.

As an example...So you flush the coolant, and it went to zero so you can fire, the next turn maybe the mech's weapons generate an additional 50% heat over it's baseline. It lasts only one turn after the flush (then goes back to normal).

It would allow a player to make a possible crucial alpha strike they might otherwise not be able to pull off, but next turn, they now have to fire less weapons or not fire to cool off. It would require a cooldown timer for the ability thought (at least a turn), which might be out of scope functionality wise.

It eliminates the Cockpit Mod work-around, and still has a negative impact on the mech the following turn (especially on hot maps). It may not impact cooler mechs as much, or the cooler maps, however maybe there is a sweet spot for heat gen that would work well.

Just an idea that popped in my head I thought I'd share.

 

[TostitoBandito]

Coolant Vent is waaaaay OP at the moment. You can make very hot massive alpha builds and with one vent into a cockpit mod you can alpha three or four turns in a row. Once you have ++ cockpit mods you can do this for basically the entire battle without consequence. All those tons of heatsinks you used to have on your 2x AC20 mech, yeah you can replace a bunch of those with more guns, ammo, armor, etc...

It should either bypass cockpit mods, or it should have a different sort of drawback. Or, make it a once per battle thing (with no injury) like it was in MWO.

 

[SectionZ]

It is rather telling that the majority of "Coolant is good!" claims have nothing to do with the SKILL.

It has to do with "Did I find a cockpit reinforcement mod?" or "Who cares about hospital time? I'll just use another pilot"

Because even with an endgame save, I can't imagine just saying "Oh it's cool, I'll just burn my pilots on purpose and use another pilot whatever".

Particularly as people have noted, that the AI seems more aggressive at times. So placing your bets on pilots staying healthy or never taking stray headshots would be an incredibly disingenuous reason for me to expect coolant to be "Great"

Early game I got spare shadowhawk clone builds that will repair themselves faster than pilots will heal.

Endgame I got spare assault mechs that will repair themselves from deliberate overheating faster.

Never any reason to use coolant for me, unless I just don't care about anything but thoughtless short term "...But I wanna shoot ALL my guns nooooooow" rather than turn off a handful of medium lasers or punch, and damn the consequences.

Hammering a button to make my pilots scream in agony still is not worth any so called "Trade offs" even as the enemy hurts me more now than before the patch on average.

Good thing it's a #8 skill so you can ignore it entirely, just like ignoring juggernaut.

It's even worse not that I've tried it than before I did, as "Theorycrafting" didn't account for how much more rough the AI is on average.

 

[Martin Kerensky]

When is that 1.3 gonna be pushed live?