101 replies to this topic

[Banshee Bullet]

I already have shields, they're called arms. Don't put anything in an arm and, presto-chango, that arm is now a shield.

[Skylarr]

The problem with Mech Shields is you need to lower your shield to fire your torso mounted weapons.

[Phelan P Kell]

RangerRob, on 30 May 2012 - 11:14 AM, said:

No...just no.

Keep shields on Solaris VII.

You want a shield for your mech...? It's called the left side of your Hunchback...or Cataphract...or any other mech that is weapon heavy on one side vs. the other.

^^^^^^^^

This. When you ride a heavy equiped for alpha striking you torso twist after you let loose. In this way you can control damage spread across your mech's armor. That is why small light mechs are so dangerous to heavy mechs. They get in close and either target the legs which can be hard to hit at range, or they are able to focus fire and stop a heavy or assault pilot from spreading damage across all his armor.

[Rodney28021]

external armor shields were developed for solaris mechs or experimental after the 3050. It is the same as the external hand held guns. Too complex at this time and too much skill to use. You would not be able to use any torso mounted or shield hand weapons either.

[Squigles]

cinco, on 30 May 2012 - 02:16 PM, said:

dumb idea. that's what armor is for. and while we're changing lore around, lets change the cockpit to be more sensible. it should simply be a sensor suite with the pilot embedded deep inside the armor instead of behind a piece of glass.

NeoDac, on 30 May 2012 - 03:27 PM, said:

sorry sir but you just quoted lore here.. some mechs do have a "ferroglass" or "armorplas" viewport but many mechs also cannonically do just what you suggested. the outside of the head has sensors and the pilot has screens inside that give the illusion of direct vision but no mech uses anything as simple as "glass" these materials are nearly as tough as the true mech armor the main screen which is a mechwarriors primary view of the world (supposedly even in cockpits with see through canopies) gives a 360 degree view of the battlefield in 180 degrees visual (keeping everything within range of the peripheral vision when looking straight ahead) there is also a smaller backup screen though the direct view is considered a good backup.. as lets face it it can't break down.. get smudged cracked broken ect yes but its not going to short out if say.. a mech taser (also real tech not good tech but real tech) pumps a few million volts through it.

As an addendum to burying cockpits in the armor, there are even rules for relocating the cockpit along with some sensor equipment directly into the CT, and the life support to the side torso's, leaving the head a mostly empty (crit wise) location. (Tacops Pg 300-301).

In short, this kind of craziness exists, including shields (most recent reference Tacops Pg 291), live with it, deal with it, pray it never enters MWO.

[Mister Dubis]

shields in battletech! nonesense! wait.. they are in there... well i'll be a mothers hampster. still the idea of shields should stay away.

[Anubis132]

Actually, I've always wondered why 'mechs with fully articulated arms, such as an Atlas, couldn't use them as a shield to cover their torso. Obviously, this would prevent the Atlas from being able to fire back, but it could be useful to cover a weak spot while the enemy is shooting.

This tactic has actually always been in MechWarrior games, except that the pilot had to turn his torso sideways, forcing the enemy to shoot his arm and side torso, while leaving the center torso and other side protected. It was a good way to prevent yourself from getting cored too quickly.

[BeforeLife]

IIRC you can use bridgelayers sorta like armor for the torso lol, and modular armor, but that is experimental and like 20 years off I think.

[Kanatta Jing]

Hmm, Only for pure humanoid Mechs and it only really protects the front.

Candidates would be Commando, Hunchback, Centurion, Dragon, Awesome and Atlas.

Effectively you're just taking weight away from weapons to add more armor. It's a tactic alright.

[wanderer]

Anubis132, on 30 May 2012 - 07:24 PM, said:

Actually, I've always wondered why 'mechs with fully articulated arms, such as an Atlas, couldn't use them as a shield to cover their torso. Obviously, this would prevent the Atlas from being able to fire back, but it could be useful to cover a weak spot while the enemy is shooting.

This tactic has actually always been in MechWarrior games, except that the pilot had to turn his torso sideways, forcing the enemy to shoot his arm and side torso, while leaving the center torso and other side protected. It was a good way to prevent yourself from getting cored too quickly.

There are actually optional rules for doing this sorta thing already, especially in parrying physical attacks.

(Tactical Operations is a helluva read for strange things to do with Battlemechs)

[tynaiden]

Whatever was added after Protomechs were introduced, I do not know for sure. Things looked to be getting ridiculous so I turned from the silly and kept with classics. I do know for sure however there were handheld weapons covered in MaximumTech. That system also demanded additional limits and like advanced carrying / cargo rules, imposed penalties.

Any sensible need for additional protection to a mainline unit would more likely get a revision or new design to minimize the drawbacks and penalties. As pointed out up-topic, it was from Solaris sources. Makes sense in way for Solaris VII but not on a battlefield. At the very least they are not out of Tech 2 rules and unlikely to be in this iteration in the foreseeable future.

Should there be some form of Solaris style matches then I would welcome them and all the melee weapon variations.

[Blackfire1]

Yes, it already exists.
No, its not plausable because 1. Its limited use. 2. Its heavy as hell.
No, they wont be adding them. Battlemechs already have 8-20+ tons of armor. A "Blast sheild" would only slow them down more.

[Arbhall Sommers]

i am not super hard about shields, my brother and I used shields with home made rules. we made them so you could only do it, if you crippled the hand actuator, didnt have any weapons in that arm or the adjacent torso location, was within the wieght limit of the mechs lifting capability. it took an additional critical slot for each ton of armor in the shield. So even a light mech could carry one, and be somewhat useful.
It really balanced out on heavies, as it dug deeply into their weight, critical slots and locations. So a heavy that used one at max weight (10 tons) could take a lot of damage to the shield, but kept weapons out of the arm and torso as well as stealing 10 tons away from weapons and other gear. We didnt use them often, and then mostly only on medium mechs. We scored the shield hits as arm hits and the adjacent torso hits, so even though there was tons more armor on the mech, it got hit more often.
It wasnt perfect, but it did work. It was somewhat fun too.

[Remorce]

Black Knight has a shield.

[RangerRob]

Remorce, on 01 June 2012 - 09:36 AM, said:

Black Knight has a shield.

Ummm... Which variant?

[Remorce]

All of them? Its on its right arm.
.

Edited by Remorce, 01 June 2012 - 09:49 AM.

[RangerRob]

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

Purely cosmetic for the PC game...No added tonnage or protection.

[Tremor]

Battlemechs with sheilds:
Black Knight
Centurion (I've seen a mod that carried a ballistic sheild in it's hand actuator)
Slagmaiden
Valiant

That said, I hope they keep this out of the game, unless the 'mech Canonically used it.

Edited by Tremor, 01 June 2012 - 09:59 AM.

[Wiley Coyote]

Would an Atlas carrying an Urbie in front of it count as a ballistic shield or just taking out the trash can?

(I have no hate for the Urbie, honest.)

Edited by Wiley Coyote, 01 June 2012 - 10:04 AM.

[Tremor]

I don't know about UrbanMech. Spider, maybe.