103 replies to this topic

[Doomstrider]

Thanks again everyone for keeping the discussion going!

At the moment, I'm trying to decide on what Founder's mech to get, and right now, I'm leaning toward the Hunchback or Catapult. Any suggestions, anyone? I realize they both have different roles; I'm just wondering which one would be most versatile. I feel that the Hunchback would be at a severe disadvantage on wide-open maps (due to its reliance on shorter-range weapons), but then again, the Catapult probably wouldn't be great in cramped quarters or city-type maps. Hmmm....

[Joseph Mallan]

Hunchback is a brawler so It needs to be close and personal. Catapult is mobile thanks to jump jets and it packs 4 Med lasers (Unless its the K variant) So it is a strong close combat platform. The Jenners' speed is a disadvantage in a city as skidding (if applicable) can ruin a fast Mech. BUT The long jumping ability of it can get you places that assault Mechs fear, very quickly.

Again every one has pluses and minuses it comes down to what's your fighting style?

[White Bear 84]

Thornix, on 02 August 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

Diferent mechs will have diferent roles. Fear not, the develepers are doing their best to not let this game turn into a mech "food chain".


BTW, I think a lance of "support" mechs (like catapults and madcats, things with long range missles that arn't super slow) can kill a lance of assualt mechs(like atlases, atli, or whatever the plural is) because the support mechs can move faster that assualt mechs and they will be shooting long range missles while walking backwards. I think.

EDIT: I want a Madcat, but I'd choose a Catapult if I had to get a founder mech.

If the dev's follow the battletech universe timeline then you will have to wait around a year to get your madcat

[White Bear 84]

Joseph Mallan, on 02 August 2012 - 07:15 PM, said:

Hunchback is a brawler so It needs to be close and personal. Catapult is mobile thanks to jump jets and it packs 4 Med lasers (Unless its the K variant) So it is a strong close combat platform. The Jenners' speed is a disadvantage in a city as skidding (if applicable) can ruin a fast Mech. BUT The long jumping ability of it can get you places that assault Mechs fear, very quickly.

Again every one has pluses and minuses it comes down to what's your fighting style?

What it will come down to is the role you pick for your particular variant, do you chuck on an AC/20 for your hunchback or make it into a laser boat? For the catapult, will you use jump jets? You may want to make the sacrafice for more armour and heavier weapons, or maybe an XL engine?

I think that the designs will be somewhat flexible, but you have to decide based on your play style and how you will use the mechs, look at the battletech variants and see what canon loadouts there are. I went with all four because i see the value in this pacakge and believe it wil be a great plus to have 4 mechs to start with.

My prefered mech though would be the catapult they look so cool!!

[Hegewizard]

Think i'msticking with a med. Missile boat.

[Joseph Mallan]

Especially in the MMO White Bear! I've been a fair weather fan of the Catapult, as I was struck by the Archer first. Gotta hand it to the developers they got a great art team and have made every Mech look sweet so far!

[White Bear 84]

Joseph Mallan, on 02 August 2012 - 08:04 PM, said:

Especially in the MMO White Bear! I've been a fair weather fan of the Catapult, as I was struck by the Archer first. Gotta hand it to the developers they got a great art team and have made every Mech look sweet so far!

Yep and we have had only four so far, another 10+ to come??? Looking out for the Jager, thats gonna be pretty sweet; did someone say 4 autocannons? Oh hell yeah!!!

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/JagerMech

Edited by White Bear 84, 02 August 2012 - 08:12 PM.

[Joseph Mallan]

http://mwomercs.com/...germech-concept

This Jager? In all my years playing BattleTech I have NEVER WANTED to play a JagerMech... TIll Now!

[Elsydeon]

Also, you can turn it down a notch and go with a heavy Mech, but yeah, I would expect the fact that it is a big, slow, very targetable, hulk to be the downside.

[White Bear 84]

Joseph Mallan, on 02 August 2012 - 08:14 PM, said:

http://mwomercs.com/...germech-concept

This Jager? In all my years playing BattleTech I have NEVER WANTED to play a JagerMech... TIll Now!

Yup, she's a beauty!!!

[Joseph Mallan]

I never thought Beauty and Jager would ever be in a sentence together. But yes. Yes it is!

[Denno]

To the Op: I bet there will always be a fair number of guys who have to be the fastest (most annoying ) thing on the battlefield.
Similarly, there also seems to be plenty of folks who like the blend of maneuverability and firepower of mediums as well.

[Python46]

how about getting the rifleman in game? quad cannon also, or quad lasers, or quad anything you want. though if they follow canon with the ammo feed issues, the rifleman can become a very large, indefensible target, if you go all ballistics.

[Deceptor]

Elsydeon, on 02 August 2012 - 08:15 PM, said:

Also, you can turn it down a notch and go with a heavy Mech, but yeah, I would expect the fact that it is a big, slow, very targetable, hulk to be the downside.

though if you're slick, you can still get one of these moving at a decent speed, which arguably only gives an advantage against assaults, but again, it's that playstyle thing, and also a factor of "hmmm, wasn't expecting that," which goes farther than a lot of people think it will.

[Draemos]

Players in BT:Solaris used a variety of mech types and there was even more incentive to use only Assaults in that game. I doubt it will be a huge problem, although you will inevitably end up on or against teams made up primarily Assaults from time to time.

[vnlk65n]

A lot of wishful thinking in this thread... those "massive flaws" of the Atlas simply do not manifest themselves when you're playing a good player. The Atlas is an exceptionally well-balanced design, with no real weak 'engagement envelope'. As someone said... light mechs are fast, but pulse lasers are faster. Just because a Jenner can killsteal an Atlas at 40% hp that the rest of their team has been wearing down on the whole match does not mean Light mechs are some sort of counter to Assaults in any sort of combat sense. Assault mechs kill everything. That is their job and that is how it should be.

I do expect Assaults to be consistently more played than other weight classes. Not because they are "better", but because a brute force strat is vastly easier to do with a pug team. Losing 1 game in 10 to a ninja cap is better than losing 1 game in 5 to getting beaten in pure damage. I've seen games with large numbers of mediums and heavies actually do really well, but I think these dynamic playstyles require a lot more co-ordination and teamwork to pull off.

This is all speculation at this point though, once we see the full mech lineup available we'll have a better idea of how the game will play. There is a large Cataphract-shaped void in my brawler heart.

Edited by vnlk65n, 03 August 2012 - 12:59 AM.

[Blackfire1]

Doomstrider, on 02 August 2012 - 02:29 PM, said:

Hello everyone!

Although this is my first post on the forums, I've been lurking about since this game was announced. I've also played every Mechwarrior game since the original (anyone remember the Battlemasters? ), and I'm thinking of buying one of the Founder's Packages for MWO.

However, as the title suggests, I'm a bit concerned that this game may devolve into an Assault-only brawl. In all previous Mechwarrior games, you had to work your way up from a Light mech--building up your c-bills/honor along the way--until you were finally able to buy/obtain that coveted Heavy or Assault mech.

In this game, however, it appears that players are allowed to pick one "free" mech when they create their account--and from my understanding, that mech can be within any weight class. So, that begs the question: if new players are able to choose whatever mech they want, what's to keep/discourage them from just choosing the Atlas or some other Assault mech (especially if they are unfamilar with the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe)?

Don't get me wrong: I think this game has a ton of potential, and it looks great from everything I've seen/read/heard (kudos to the development team!). I just don't want it to get sideswiped by a legion of roaming Atlases.

Jenners

[Kargush]

I have heard tell of the Atlas being slow to turn and with a very slow torso twist. Slow enough to fall prey to a single Jenner.

I'm not too worried about this becoming Steiner Online.

[One Medic Army]

When NARC beacons get put in I am so running around in a Jenner.

As to the atlas being super slow, stick an XL 350-400 engine in it and proceed to turn quick enough to laser-kill Jenners all day.

Edited by One Medic Army, 03 August 2012 - 01:45 AM.

[Draemos]

kargush, on 03 August 2012 - 01:32 AM, said:

I have heard tell of the Atlas being slow to turn and with a very slow torso twist. Slow enough to fall prey to a single Jenner.

That's not really how it works. First off, Atlas' usually make up the backbone of your vanguard, so you're unlikely to find one all by its lonesome unless he's just being stupid (or his teammates leave him high and dry, in which case they are being stupid). Second, a good Assault pilot will just back its *** up to the nearest rock or cliff, and the Jenner really doesn't have many options other than to disengage at that point. Third, it's going to take a long time for a Jenner to wear down a fully armored Atlas.