Finally got my hands on the precious patch notes.
I read through them and thought them over.

Here are my thoughts on the notes pre patch.I will also update the thread after a few weeks of play post patch to get more accurate feedback to the devs. As i have done with the previous significant patch.
 Scapes, on January 18 2013 - 11:39 AM, said:
Scapes, on January 18 2013 - 11:39 AM, said:
- NEW Mech: Reaper
 - Check out our Reaper preview!
- Mech specs and loadout reveal coming January 24! Sweet can't wait to try this bad boy out.
 
- Check out our Reaper preview!
- Sharpshooter
 - NEW Prestige Weapon: AM-SAR (Unlockable at Level 25)
 - A rapid fire single shot high accuracy rifle.  Successive shots decrease accuracy, but recovery is very quick.
- Specs Can we please get real values here. These hidden values make it hard for the players to make an educated decision, furthermore all the feedback you will get will be based purely on speculation and personal experience and will limit the depth of the suggestions provided by the community. Not to mention we will have to get it tested in game again.
 - Damage: 2/6
- Rate of Fire: 5/6
- Accuracy: 3/6
- Effective Range: 5/6
- Heat: 2/6
 
- Damage: 2/6
- Weapon Upgrades
 - First: Reduced heat generation.
- Second: Reduced weapon spread.
- Third: Increased effective range.
 
- First: Reduced heat generation.
 
- A rapid fire single shot high accuracy rifle.  Successive shots decrease accuracy, but recovery is very quick.
 
- NEW Prestige Weapon: AM-SAR (Unlockable at Level 25)
- NEW Ability: Power Shot This sounds very scary, a properly equiped and optimized SS can take out 50% of an a-class health. With this new power shot it will become rediculously powerfull in skilled hands. Furthermore i believe your mise-en-page is wrong, shouldnt powershot be related to the sharpshooter?
 - Greatly increases all damage dealt within two seconds of activating the ability.
- This ability adds a greater damage bonus than Ballistic Barrage, the Sharpshooter's previous ability.
 
- Greatly increases all damage dealt within two seconds of activating the ability.
- Small adjustments to some mech descriptions and lore.
- Mech leveling upgrade descriptions have been updated to clearly reflect what is affected.
- Explosive Weapons
 - Knockback effect significantly reduced for all explosive weapons. Hope this fixes stunlock. It will also help us see how balanced the HC actually is.
 
- Mini-Flak Cannon Buffing the Miniflak and nerfing the Flak seems counter productive. Making both weapons blend together and/or promoting one over the other. Miniflak seemed fine numbers wise sadly it was overshadowed by better sustained fire weapons like the vulcan/smc/ar. Wouldn't it be better to buff one stat at a time instead of buffing both stats. it would make it easier to determine what needs t be changed in order to achieve proper balance. relevant link: http://community.pla...being-balanced/
 - Slightly increased rate of fire.
- Slightly increased damage.
 
- Slightly increased rate of fire.
- Assault Rifle The time it takes for the AR to reach maximum spread is excessively long. this change is practically inconsequantial. Furthermore it just serves to make it more similar to the SMC and therefore reducing the diversity of the weapons in the game.
 - Increased maximum spread.
 
- EOC Repeater Can you guys please fix the mine detonation range? The gun will never be viable until you either overbuff the the projectile speed or fix the mine detonation range.
 - Decreased heat generation.
 
- Flak Cannon Flak seemed fine as it was. Decreased damage combined with random spread pattern will make this weapon overshadowed by the heat and possibly miniflak. I think it would be nice to consider limiting certain weapons to certain weight classes. Balancing the flaks effectiveness based on scouts is detrimental to the balance of the flak on the brawler. I wish there was an easy way for me to find asian's post on the topic sadly his topic content is limited to his last 4 posted  
 - Slightly decreased damage.
 
- REV-GL I guess this is a step in the right direction especially combined with the stunlock fix. However it does not fix the main issue with this weapon, Heat generation. The gun will still be able to effectively deny an area for up to 23 seconds, Yes 23 seconds.
 - Slightly decreased damage.
 
- SA-Hawkins
 - Increased damage.
- Slightly increased rate of spread.
 
- Increased damage.
- NEW Offensive Item: Detonator
 - A slow hovering explosive charge with a massive damage radius. Press the firing mechanism a second time to detonate in mid-air. Veteran pilots are known to use the Detonator in both offensive and defensive situations.
 
- EMP 
 - Effect duration reduced from 7 seconds to 5.5 seconds.
- Area of effect now matches the size of the visual effect.
 
- Effect duration reduced from 7 seconds to 5.5 seconds.
- Rocket Turret A simple solution would have been to change the missiles from weakened tows to buffed seekers. I look forward to LOLing at the still inneficient MT
 - Projectiles will no longer excessively lead enemy targets. Fewer near misses, more near hits.
 
- Radar Good move, Now how about renaming Prosk. Confused?
 - This item has been renamed Portable Scanner. Because it's portable. And a scanner.
 
- NEW Chassis: Spree (A Class)
 - The Spree is common among Reapers not only for its rogue-like style, but also for its surprising flexibility. Mobile, yet offering tremendous stability, it is ideal for assignments which require venturing alone outside of friendly territory. When challenged by the ever changing battlefield, Spree pilots are known to overcome, endure, and excel. Even when swathed in dirt and dust it is highly functional, so some pilots claim that cleaning their Spree would wipe away years of hard earned "natural camouflage". But we all know that's just an excuse. I would cream my pants if i had the ability to do this in game, Ratmechs are shmexy
 - "Clean? Whaddaya mean, this baby IS clean!" - Deadeye Bill Buser
 
 
- The Spree is common among Reapers not only for its rogue-like style, but also for its surprising flexibility. Mobile, yet offering tremendous stability, it is ideal for assignments which require venturing alone outside of friendly territory. When challenged by the ever changing battlefield, Spree pilots are known to overcome, endure, and excel. Even when swathed in dirt and dust it is highly functional, so some pilots claim that cleaning their Spree would wipe away years of hard earned "natural camouflage". But we all know that's just an excuse. I would cream my pants if i had the ability to do this in game, Ratmechs are shmexy
- NEW Repair Drone: RD-SHCK
 - Shocks your mech back to life with streaks of electricity.
 
- NEW Thrusters: JT-BluS
 - Fires a broad neon blue blast.
 
- NEW Camouflage: Boom-Red
 - A blood-red and black classic fatigue pattern.
 
- NEW Camouflage: Mos-Blu
 - A light blue and dark blue digitized fatigue pattern.
 
- NEW Camouflage: Crease-Sky
 - A faint blue and sky blue jungle pattern.
 
- An experimental Accurate Reticule option which improves reticule accuracy is now available. Got my puke bag ready. Hopefully we can get both an acurate reticule that doesnt make us sick in the near future.
 - This feature makes the crosshairs more accurate but may be dizzying to some players.
- It can be enabled in the Settings menu as it is off by default.
- Please provide your feedback on this new feature in the forums!
 
- This feature makes the crosshairs more accurate but may be dizzying to some players.
- Players will now receive bonus XP based on their time alive in a match. Fight smart! Doesnt this increase the gap between skill levels? Wouldn't this make it even harder for new commers to out EXP a veteran who can gain killingsprees and die considerably less often?
- The leveling curve has been evened out from level 12 to level 25. I can foresee fresh meat forum threads complaining about the grind. The current system is indeed flawed however it is easily to reach level 20 fairly fast and give a well deserved sense of accomplishment.
 - Mechs still require the same amount of XP to reach the level cap of 25.
- Please note that this change may cause your mech's Optimization Points to be reset.
- Equipment slots and alternate primary weapons now unlock sooner for all mechs.
 
- Mechs still require the same amount of XP to reach the level cap of 25.
- Death from falling is now considered a suicide and will count towards pilot statistics. Thanks for partially fixing the issue, but suiciding is still preferable to dieing to the enemy. Any word being done to adress this issue?
- Crushing Kills: Daring pilots will now be able to cause significant damage by landing on enemy mechs. These death-from-above maneuvers will grant bonus XP, and will be tracked in your pilot statistics. I look forward to testing this out and applying it to my gameplay, i have been bunny stomping on a regular basis making this a viable tactic in game will greatly add to my personal satisfaction.
- Items can no longer be deployed or consumed while your mech is repairing.
- Siege Mode This doesnt adress the main issue i have with siege mode, The spawncamping. I believe it serves its name right however it does not provide for a pleasant gameplay experience.
 - Battleships now become more difficult to kill as the match progresses, which should prevent excessively long matches. I wonder if this effects Anti-Air damage. But i can forsee many bugs coming from this change. Too bad i won't be testing them.
 
- Say hello to Laila! New users will receive a warm welcome from their Garage's resident mechanic.
 - While her main function is tutorial instructor, she aspires to take on new jobs in the future. Will i get sued for Mechsual harassment? Only time will tell, stay tuned.
 
- Notice a bug? Report it using the new Report Bug button in the upper right dropdown menu.
- The order of game modes in the Matchmaking tab is now Team DM, Missile Assault, Siege, and Deathmatch.
- Players can now mute other players' voice chat by pressing ESC during a match and clicking the speech icons next to their names. Huzzah!
- Players can now use the ESC button to close menus. Huzzah!
- Mechs previewed in the Garage and Staging panes now have additional animations.
- The Deploy button has been renamed Play.
- The Paint Shop tab has been renamed Style.
- The Restock button (Countermeasures) has been renamed Refill. Look forward to geting some dev feedback on repricing the CM or removing them. Please don't pull another "vulcan isnt meant to be on CR-T" on us.
- Player scores will now be included in the "Your Team Won/Lost!" screen.
- HAWKEN Credit Boosts and Meteor Credit Boosts now display decimal points to indicate partial days.
- Uptown
 - Improved collision on a ramp which was causing heavy mechs (C Class) to get stuck. Oh you guys saw my vid  
 
- Improved collision on a ramp which was causing heavy mechs (C Class) to get stuck. Oh you guys saw my vid 
- All maps have been adjusted for improved performance. Huzzah!
- New and improved ground vehicles now populate the maps. Hope they aren't invisible anymore. And i also hope they aren't a size relative to mechs/humans in the garage because that would make them even bigger and more obstructing.
- Edited and added names in the credits. Will i ever get a chance to have my name replaced with my callsign?
- Tweaked ambient sounds. We still need better hit recognition.
- Polished damage visuals and death ragdoll animation.
- The Switch Team button will no longer appear on the Scoreboard as the cursor cannot access it while the player's mech is alive during a match. Hope we can still acess it by pressing ESC otherwise it is kind of stoopid since it would force people to suicide to balance teams. and promotes stacked teams to remain stacked.
- Fixed an Energy Unit (EU) collection bug where more than three players collecting EU would cause the player with the most EU to stop collecting.
- Deployable items will no longer fail to deploy while standing directly in front of a wall.
- Fixed player being placed into an incorrect game mode if the game client fails to join the selected game mode.
- The field of view setting can no longer be accidentally adjusted while zoomed in with a weapon.
- Weapons will no longer lock on to invulnerable enemy base turrets.
- Fixed an issue where the Scoreboard would not close if the player had been killed while changing the Texture Detail setting.
- Fixed mech play time not being recorded for mechs still alive at the end of the match.
- Fixed an issue where the low health alarm would not always trigger.
- Fixed a bug where visibility inside the Shield was being obscured.
- Players can no longer accept game invites to games they are already in.
- The Double Kill message will no longer overlap XP messages.
- Voice Chat will no longer remain active after a match ends.
- Music near the end of a match will no longer cut out when a player dies and respawns.
- Players will no longer receive a "Server Unreachable" message when attempting to buy a trial mech from the Mech Shop while having a different mech selected in the Your Mechs tab.
- Fixed a bug that caused placeholder text to appear on the in-game map when a player marks an enemy player.
- Fixed localized mech names. The mech names are proper nouns and will not be translated.
- Fixed the "Chat to All" text truncating in the Chat window.
- Localized text will no longer randomly appear when a HAWKEN Credit Boost or XP Boost is purchased during a match.
- Countermeasure uses will now display correctly for numbers greater than 999.
- Items and internals will no longer appear to be equipped on incorrect slots.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Your Mechs tab to appear in the wrong language.
- Thrusters that have been previewed on a mech will no longer appear to remain equipped to that mech until the player enters Staging or selects a different mech from the Your Mechs tab.
Have you fixed DM max players yet?
I might be forgetting some stuff, therefore i might be editing this before the patch.
Feel free to discuss and/or ask for clarifications.
Edited by h0B0, February 08 2013 - 08:31 PM.

 

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