71 replies to this topic

[Minatorc]

I'm just hoping for a laser armed Centurion variant to play with.
Mentioned in the Technical Readout 3025 this unnamed yet supposedly common variant swaps the AC10 for 1 large and 1 small laser, 4 more heat sinks and 4 tons of armour. Apparently the Lyrans "use this model quite often as a guerrilla fighter".

[Soviet Alex]

It's called the Centurion-9AL, & it's in the various incarnations of 3025 & 3039 record sheet books. I too hope to see it in the game, because it has a different flavoured hardpoint in the arm. I doubt I'll ever use it myself.

[Jack Gallows]

William Petersen, on 10 April 2012 - 11:56 PM, said:

I notice that the rest of the chassis location is filled with endo steel (Endo Steel? O,o In 3049? This "McMech" must be pretty advanced)

Most of the 'mechs are probably going to have their 3049/3050 variants (if they have them,) which are going to include some of the newer lostech that Btech has been retconning into the series.

A good example is the recent ISN news flash, detailing the deployment of the new Centurion CN9-D, http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Centurion which uses Endo-Steel quite a few tech upgrades. Probably to give the IS a good footing against each other but mostly to give us a good base to end up facing the Clans with.

These variants might be a bit rare (hence your comment,) and probably expensive, but I'd not think it'd be too rare to see endo steel on the 'mechs being used for Mechwarrior Online.

Minatorc, on 11 April 2012 - 01:08 AM, said:

I'm just hoping for a laser armed Centurion variant to play with.
Mentioned in the Technical Readout 3025 this unnamed yet supposedly common variant swaps the AC10 for 1 large and 1 small laser, 4 more heat sinks and 4 tons of armour. Apparently the Lyrans "use this model quite often as a guerrilla fighter".

CN9-AL, wouldn't be bad if they put it in and let us change hardpoints PER variant rather then per chassis. Wonder how they'll handle that.

[Alizabeth Aijou]

Quote

(Endo Steel? O,o In 3049? This "McMech" must be pretty advanced).

Seeing as it was recovered in 3035?
I don't think its too unlikely.
After all, by 3049 we got the following 'Mechs with endo-steel:
FLE-17 Flea - 3049
FFL-4C Firefly - 3048
HER-3S Hermes - 3047 (HER-3S1 and HER-3S2 in 3049)
FS9-S Firestarter - 3049 (FS9-S1 as well)
CN9-D Centurion - 3049
TBT-7M Trebuchet - 3048
DV-7D Dervish - 3047
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk - 3048
ARC-4M Archer - 3049
GLT-5M Guillotine - 3049
HTM-27T Hatamoto-Chi - 3042
HTM-27U Hatamoto-HI - 3047
HTM-27V Hatamoto-Kaze - 3048
HTM-28W Hatamoto-Ku - 3048
VTR-9K Victor - 3049

That's 18 'Mechs/Variants, mostly split between the Draconis Combine and the Free Worlds League.
Also, the DCMS fielded a HTM-27T prototype in 3039 using a prototype Endo-Steel.

Add another 6 'Mechs/Variants for 3050.

Quote

PPC has 30 meters extra range, but the AC 10 doesn't have the point blank problem.

Which mostly makes targeting harder, in TT.
Although if we're going by fluff, then PPCs have particle field inhibitors which disabled the ability to fire the weapon within 90m, although they can be disabled at the risk of particle blowback damaging your own 'Mech as well as the enemy's.

Quote

You start adding on XL Engines, Fero Fiberious armor, Endo Steel, and stuff like that, you /really/ start running out of crit spaces faster than you think... then throw Double Heat Sinks on top of that? You might not be able to mount a AC 20 even if you wanted to and the ammo will be in the leg.

Going by the article, XL engines and FF can be added, ES can not.

[Fetladral]

What if there are variants of the hardpoints though? Say two versions of the Centurion one has the normal hardpoints and a variant where all the most of the hardpoints are the same but instead of a ballistic hard point on the right arm its an energy hardpoint. So when buying the chassis you also buy a hard point version. To do the Kurita version of the Catapult that has ppcs youd need different hard points on no missle pods but energy weapons.

[Major Tom]

William Petersen, on 10 April 2012 - 09:35 PM, said:

Behind the spoilers you will find colour-coded critical charts for each respective chassis/variant.

Red - Energy Weapon
Green - Missile Weapon
Yellow - Ballistic Weapon

Maybe this will help folks start thinking about what they want to do. It's not comprehensive, since we don't know which all variants will be available, but it was kinda fun to make these, so here you go.

Great idea. although I belive Heat Sinks and Ammo will not have hardpoints, and Jump Jets are semi-hardpointed, in that you cannot add them if you didn't start with them.

Here is another option and a reprint of the Jenner.

Commando COM-2D Sniper Mod

Spoiler

The Commando Sniper is designed to keep the vulnerable scout further from harms way when the fight starts. The long range weaponry combined with the Commando's high speed will also allow it to "kite" slower mechs and perform guerilla attacks from relative safety.
The SRM4 and ammo is replaced with an LRM5 and ammo, while the SRM6 and ammo is replaced with 2 LRM5's and one ton of ammo. Due to weight considerations the Md Laser is also dropped.

Jenner JR7-D Brutus Mod

Spoiler

The Jenner Brutus sacrifices much of the Jenner's vaunted speed and Jump capabilites in favor heavier weaponry and more armor. The Brutus downgrades the 245 rated engine for 175 rated engine and a savings of 5 tons. It also sheds 2.5 tons worth of jump jets, and abandons all existing weapon systems (7 tons). It then mounts a Lg Laser on each arm, and adds 2 tons of heat sinks, and 2.5 tons of armor (6.5 tons total) NOTE: 5 critical locations were filled by heat sinks due to the engine reduction
[EDIT] and an additional ton was recovered from Gyro reduction.... I wonder how Gyro costs will be handled/allowed. I would think the Gyro would need to be designed specifically to the mech to account for center of gravity, so it isn't like you can go to the hardware store and buy a 3 ton Gryro.

Edited by Major Tom, 11 April 2012 - 03:21 PM.

[Soviet Alex]

@Fetladral: The Catapult-C1 (missile boat) & -K2 (PPC boat) are probably different variants, not conversions you could cook up in the Mech-Lab. One would have missile hardpoints in the arms, the other would have energy hardpoints. Same with the Centurion-9A/D (ballistic right arm hardpoint) & -9AL (energy right arm hardpoint).

[eZZip]

Jack Gallows, on 11 April 2012 - 05:05 AM, said:

CN9-AL, wouldn't be bad if they put it in and let us change hardpoints PER variant rather then per chassis. Wonder how they'll handle that.

This has been confirmed here: http://mwomercs.com/...-blog-6-mechlab

Developer Blog said:

Each location on a BattleMech, such as the Right Arm or Center Torso, may include a number of hard points. The number of hard points in a given location is determined on a per variant basis,

[Fameth Sathronaveth]

Fetladral, on 11 April 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

What if there are variants of the hardpoints though? Say two versions of the Centurion one has the normal hardpoints and a variant where all the most of the hardpoints are the same but instead of a ballistic hard point on the right arm its an energy hardpoint. So when buying the chassis you also buy a hard point version. To do the Kurita version of the Catapult that has ppcs youd need different hard points on no missle pods but energy weapons.

This is the way I see them doing it - especially if they want to make omnimechs really "omni" [which has not been done in the MW series yet]. If a variant packs a different weapon type [notice "type"] in a given location than most other variants of that mech... then that should be irreversible - the chasis itself has been rebuilt. That is something that a player should not be allowed to mess with, otherwise all battlemechs can become omnis.

[William Petersen]

Fameth Sathronaveth, on 11 April 2012 - 03:17 PM, said:

This is the way I see them doing it - especially if they want to make omnimechs really "omni" [which has not been done in the MW series yet]. If a variant packs a different weapon type [notice "type"] in a given location than most other variants of that mech... then that should be irreversible - the chasis itself has been rebuilt. That is something that a player should not be allowed to mess with, otherwise all battlemechs can become omnis.

The way I understand CBT (read: 'canon') omni-build rules*:

The armour distribution, type, and critical allocation are locked.
The internals type and critical allocation is locked.
The Engine type and size cannot be altered.
There is a specific minimum number of heat sinks whose type, and critical allocation (if any), are also locked. (EX: Dire Wolf has 15 heat sinks, 12 in the engine and 1 in each side toso, 1 in the left leg, you can make a Dire Wolf with more HS, but never less than 15).
There may be a specific minimum number of jump jets whose type, and critical allocation (if any), are also locked. (EX: Mist Lynx has 6 JJs, you can add a 7th, but you can never remove any).

Everything else is fair game.



*-I openly admit I am no expert in this field, so I could easily have misinterpreted something, or could lack some knowledge and understanding

Edited by William Petersen, 11 April 2012 - 03:32 PM.

[Soviet Alex]

No, that sounds about right. Ferro-Fibrous, Endo-Steel, XL-Engine, fixed heat sinks & jump jets covers the Clan omnis. Some Inner Sphere omnimechs have more fixed equipment, such as the hardwired medium lasers in the Avatar, or all the electronics in the Owens.

EDIT: Forgot that MASC & Triple-Strength Myomer criticals would also be fixed in an omni-chassis. I can't think of any TSM-omnis, but some popular ones have MASC.

Edited by Soviet Alex, 12 April 2012 - 12:52 AM.

[William Petersen]

Soviet Alex, on 11 April 2012 - 03:45 PM, said:

No, that sounds about right. Ferro-Fibrous, Endo-Steel, XL-Engine, fixed heat sinks & jump jets covers the Clan omnis. Some Inner Sphere omnimechs have more fixed equipment, such as the hardwired medium lasers in the Avatar, or all the electronics in the Owens.

Ooooh, didn't know/realize that. Yay learning.

[Soviet Alex]

I can picture a tech who didn't know spending hours trying to get the centreline lasers out of an Avatar before calling tech-support.

[Fetladral]

Soviet Alex, on 11 April 2012 - 03:13 PM, said:

@Fetladral: The Catapult-C1 (missile boat) & -K2 (PPC boat) are probably different variants, not conversions you could cook up in the Mech-Lab. One would have missile hardpoints in the arms, the other would have energy hardpoints. Same with the Centurion-9A/D (ballistic right arm hardpoint) & -9AL (energy right arm hardpoint).

You basically just reworded what I said. That the chassis has hardpoint variants where some hard points on one variant of the chassis are different from the hardpoints on another variant of the same chassis. hard points can't be changed so the only way you could get different weapons loadout on a chassis is buy a whole new chassis with different hard points. You can't change the existing chassis (it probably could in lore but that would probably take a long time, at least 6 months just for the weapons + changing any software stuff essentially rebuilding the mech)

Edited by Fetladral, 11 April 2012 - 05:12 PM.

[Christopher Dayson]

They have said that it would be hardpoints on a per variant basis. The /easiest/ way to compare them is likely going to be the stock hunchback and the swayback. You can rip the AC20 out of a hunchback but you're probably not going to be able to throw a bunch of medium lasers there because in the stock hunchback it's a ballistics hard point. By the same virtue you can't rip the medium lasers out of a swayback and put an AC10 or 20 in there, energy hard points.

Since they did specify variant, it makes variant chassis actually useful and worth something both in game and in the store.

[William Petersen]

Christopher Dayson, on 11 April 2012 - 07:07 PM, said:

They have said that it would be hardpoints on a per variant basis. The /easiest/ way to compare them is likely going to be the stock hunchback and the swayback. You can rip the AC20 out of a hunchback but you're probably not going to be able to throw a bunch of medium lasers there because in the stock hunchback it's a ballistics hard point. By the same virtue you can't rip the medium lasers out of a swayback and put an AC10 or 20 in there, energy hard points.

Since they did specify variant, it makes variant chassis actually useful and worth something both in game and in the store.

I'm *very* interested to see what they do with the JR7--D, and -F, since, as we understand it now, you can actually make the -F variants with the -D.

D->F: Take out SRM 4 (2 ton), SRM 4 ammo (1 ton), add three tons armour. Done.

I'm very interested to see what, if any, un-used hard points they give the F.

[Stone Profit]

I hope I can have an Atlas with this loadout

Walking Speed: 32.4 km/h
Maximum Speed: 54.0 km/h

Armament:
2 PPCs
1 Autocannon/20
1 SRM 6
2 Medium Lasers

Fetladral, on 11 April 2012 - 02:22 PM, said:

What if there are variants of the hardpoints though? Say two versions of the Centurion one has the normal hardpoints and a variant where all the most of the hardpoints are the same but instead of a ballistic hard point on the right arm its an energy hardpoint. So when buying the chassis you also buy a hard point version. To do the Kurita version of the Catapult that has ppcs youd need different hard points on no missle pods but energy weapons.

• CN9-AL - The AL variant is an attempt to reduce the ammunition dependency of the 'Mech. It achieves this is by replacing the Autocannon/10 with a Large Laser and a Small Laser. Additionally, six heat sinks were added to the design as were two and a half additional tons of armor. BV (1.0) = 887^[10], BV (2.0) = 1,057^[11]

I guarantee that they will have this config available.
And I will use it to make a PPC armed Centurion.

Edited by Stone Profit, 11 April 2012 - 09:12 PM.

[EDMW CSN]

Stone Profit, on 11 April 2012 - 09:08 PM, said:

I hope I can have an Atlas with this loadout

Walking Speed: 32.4 km/h
Maximum Speed: 54.0 km/h

Armament:
2 PPCs
1 Autocannon/20
1 SRM 6
2 Medium Lasers

You most prolly get this instead to work on.
Because iirc the largest energy weapon the Atlas ever mounted on it's arms are large lasers.

AS7-RS - A Succession Wars era take on the Atlas II's weapon loadout, the AS7-RS replaces the stock AS7-D's larger autocannon and missile launchers with an Autocannon/10, LRM-15 and SRM-4, and trades the four medium lasers for a Large Laser mounted in each arm. The swap leaves the armor levels, heat sinks and ammunition bays unchanged. BV (2.0) = 1,849

Edited by [EDMW]CSN, 11 April 2012 - 10:34 PM.

[Scar]

My vision of the medium, long-range, mobile fire-support platform based on Centurion chassis. Pretty solid modification, i believe - designed to provide the rapid-reaction long-range fire-support by all its weapons at ranges of 19-21 hexes. Max. speed - 86.4 km/h. Equipped with the 'Artemis IV' FCS and 'Guardian' ECM Suite.

Spoiler

Edited by Scar, 12 April 2012 - 12:36 AM.

[Soviet Alex]

@Stone Profit: Your Atlas looks an awful lot like a Banshee-3S.