Greetings MechWarriors,

UPDATE 11/18

PTS has been updated with the following changes:

• QKD-4G [C]: Missile Cooldown changed from +1000% to +10% (the crazy shenanigans will be sorely missed).
• LCT-1V: Laser Range Quirk removed (Energy Range Quirk is still present).
• WVR-6K: Energy Heat Gen changed from +10% to -10%.

UPDATE 11/16:

The Quirk Change list XML and PDF have been updated with the following information:
• AWS-8Q entry has been added.
• BLR-1G Phoenix variant entry has been removed (Quirks are same as BLR-1G)
• LCT-PB entry has been added.
• Clan 'Mech entries have been added (only covering Clan 'Mechs which have received Quirk changes).

The PTS4 server was activated today at 5:00 PM PST (November 17th at 1:00 AM UTC)

The Public Test Server (PTS) will be activated next week for a new session of the 'Mech Re-Balance Public Test. The PTS is tentatively set for Monday, November 16th.
Subject to your feedback, the changes outlined in this PTS session are scheduled for release onto the Live servers on December 1st.

Before getting into the details, we'd first like to start by sending out a huge thank-you to all who participated on the PTS's so far and has provided feedback on the changes as they made their way in. It was this feedback, along with watching how players adapted and played the game with those changes in place, which helped us come to some solid decisions on where the re-balance was headed.

There were 3 major components involved with the re-balance:
• Weapon and Equipment Balance
• Information Warfare implementation
• Re-adjusting the Quirks applied to the various 'Mechs

To keep this post short and easy to digest, and address the most critical concerns people may have, the post is broken down into 4 basic parts:
• What worked
• What didn't work
• What still needs further investigation before implementation
• What you'll see in PTS4

Most of the Weapon and Equipment changes made on PTS3 worked as intended. General population response was positive. Overall, we feel these changes are going in the right direction. Most of these changes are present in PTS4 and are outlined later in this post.

One key feature that didn't test well both in metrics and player feedback was the loss of optimal laser range on non-locked targets. This feature was meant to really drive home the importance of getting targets by pressing "R" in order to further address Role and Information Warfare design pillars, but ended up falling very short of target, not only in player feedback, but in how it would change the game in general.
This feature has been pulled from further investigation and will not go into any future builds. It is a dead subject.

Information Warfare is something that we really want to see enhanced with additional features in the future to diversify 'Mech roles on the battlefield. Sensor range adjustments, sensor profiles based on physical size of a 'Mech, changes to information sharing between friendly 'Mechs, and the ability to target your enemies based on an aggregation of the mentioned changes.
While we feel that these changes were steps in the right direction, and while many of you in the community agreed, the systems simply need a lot more time to tune and get right. Instead of pushing this feature out and adjusting from there, we've decided to hold off on most of these changes until we feel we have a build of the game that reflects our combined wishes as to how Information and Role Warfare will pan out.
As a result, most of those Information Warfare features from previous PTS's are not included in PTS4.

AutoCannons
• IS LB10-X AutoCannon ammunition count increased to 20 (up from 15) to match the AutoCannon10 ammo count.
• All Gauss Rifles have had their cooldowns increased from 4.0s to 5.5s.
• IS and Clan Autocannon/2s and Clan Ultra AutoCannon/2s have had their base heat reduced to 0.8 (down from 1.0).
• IS and Clan Autocannon/2s and Clan Ultra AutoCannon/2s now have the ability to crit internals at the same rate of chance as machine guns with a 1.0 damage multiplier. This means when an AC/2 does crit, it will do 2 additional damage per crit.

Missiles
• IS LRM20 spread reduced to 6.2m (down from 7.0m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.75s to 5.5s.
• IS LRM15 spread reduced to 5.2m (down from 5.7m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.25s to 4.75s.
• IS LRM10 spread reduced to 4.2m (down from 4.3m). Cooldown of the weapon from 3.75s to 4.0s.
• Clan LRM20 spread reduced to 6.2m (down from 7.0m). Cooldown of the weapon from 5.0s to 6.5s.
• Clan LRM15 spread reduced to 5.2m (down from 5.7m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.5s to 5.5s.
• Clan LRM10 spread reduced to 4.2m (down from 4.3m). Cooldown of the weapon from 4.0s to 4.5s.
• All IS/Clan SRMs have had their base speed increased from 300 to 400m/s.
• All IS Streak SRMs have had their base speed increased from 200 to 250m/s.
• All Clan Streak SRMs have had their base speed increased from 180 to 230m/s.
• IS SRM/2 spread reduced from 4.8 to 2.5m.
• IS SRM/2 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 4 to 6. *Note: Maxfiring is the number of launchers you can fire simultaneously free of heat scale.
• IS SRM/4 spread reduced from 5.2 to 3.5m.
• IS SRM/4 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.
• IS SRM/6 spread reduced from 5.7 to 4.5m.
• IS SRM/6 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.
• Clan SRM/2 spread reduced from 5.0 to 3.0m.
• Clan SRM/2 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 4 to 6.
• Clan SRM/4 spread reduced from 5.4 to 4.0m.
• Clan SRM/4 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.
• Clan SRM/6 spread reduced from 5.9 to 5.0m.
• Clan SRM/6 heat scale maxfiring threshold increased from 3 to 4.

Lasers
• Clan ERSmallLaser MaxRange reduced to 360 (400)
• Clan ERMediumLaser MaxRange reduced to 688 (810)
• Clan SmallPulseLaser MaxRange reduced to 297
• Clan MediumPulseLaser MaxRange reduced to 561
• Heat Scale has been properly added to the Inner Sphere Medium Pulse Lasers. The values have been set to the same as a normal IS Medium Laser. You can fire 6 at once with no heat penalty. Multiplier is set to 1.0.

Equipment
• ECM protective range will be reduced from 180m to 90m
• IS Single Heat Sinks is having its cooling rate increased from 0.10 to 0.12.
• IS Single Heat Sinks that are inside the engine will have their cooling increased from 0.1 to 0.11.
• IS Single Heat Sinks will have their heat capacity will be increased from -1.0 to -1.2. This is increasing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.
• IS Double Heat Sink has its heat capacity increased from -1.4 to -1.5. This is increasing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.
• Clan Double Heat Sink cooling rate increased from 0.14 to 0.15.
• Clan Double Heat Sink capacity will be reduced from -1.4 to -1.1. This is reducing the maximum heat value for a 'Mech before it shuts down, not the speed at which it cools off.

'Mech Efficiencies
• Kinetic Burst: 22.5% -> 7.5%
• Twist X: 10% -> 2.5%
• Hard Brake: 25% -> 7.5%
• Twist Speed: 20% -> 2.5%
• Arm Reflex: 15% -> 2.5%
• Anchor Turn: 10% -> 2.5%
• Speed Tweak: 10% -> 7.5%

Clan Mech XL Engines

• When a Clan 'Mech loses a Side Torso, its Engine power is reduced by 20% for the rest of the match. This reduction applies to all factors affected by the Engine, such as turn rate, torso twist, and top speed.

Inner Sphere Quirks and 'Mech Adjustments

A vital component of this PTS and the December 1st patch release involves adjustments to Inner Sphere Quirks across all IS chassis.

The complete rundown on all of these Quirk changes, showing both the original Live values and the PTS4 values, along with indicators for the nature of their change, can be found in the links below:

IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING THE ABOVE DOCUMENTS

All Armor Strength percentage Quirks have been replaced with Additional Armor L/R value Quirks.

• Example: "Armor Strength (LA) +50%" becomes "Additional Armor (LA) +6"

In many cases, distinct Quirks for the same weapon type have been merged into a single Quirk.

• Example: "Medium Laser Range +25%" and "Energy Range +25%" simply becomes "Energy Range +50%"

Document Color Legend

Live Values column

Red text denotes a Quirk that has been either removed or reduced in the PTS.
Green text denotes a Quirk that has been increased in the PTS.
Blue text denotes a Quirk that has not been changed, or denotes Quirks that been merged with another Quirk in the PTS.

PTS Values column

Red text denotes that the value of this Quirk has been reduced from its original. Red text does not indicate that the Quirk is a negative Quirk!
Green text denotes an existing Quirk that has either been increased in value, or denotes the addition of a new Quirk.
Blue text denotes either a Quirk that has not changed, or denotes a Quirk that has been merged with another.

Clan Quirks and 'Mech Adjustments

Clan Quirks have not been changed as drastically. The XML and PDF files have been updated with all Clan Quirk changes.

With all of the above changes, from IS and Clan Quirk adjustments to Weapon and Equipment changes, we will be able to further tune the experience of MWO in a way that reduces the friction points between the 'Mechs that are commonly fielded on the battlefield today.

We look forward to the new discussions regarding PTS4 when we activate the servers early next week.