7 replies to this topic

[Migrayne]

I used to play an old mechwarrior game online. I think it might even have been through AOL or something like that. People could take a jenner and run around the bigger mechs and alpha strike them in the engine or the head area for a kill.

I am not up on all the other games and the rules now, but I'm wondering if this sort of thing will be possable by light mechs or are they just for scouting?

Can you take out certain parts of the mechs to disable them or kill them easier. Can the Jenner still kill heavier mechs by shooting weak spots?

[Kelly Redde]

Technically, any 'mech can take out any other 'mech. Weight classes are just there for balancing reasons.

In a Jenner, you can dance circles around an Atlas all day long if you wanted. Thing is, you have to be skilled enough to avoid the oncoming shots, and good enough to keep landing your own. Sure, the Atlas may have 19 tons of armor, and enough weapons to turn you into scrap metal with one salvo, but you park a pilot who has no idea what they're doing in the cockpit, and they're not gonna do very well. By the same token, stick a seasoned vet in a Jenner, and they can run about, take advantage of terrain to avoid being hit, slip in behind the Atlas to hit the rear torso, or even perform a quick Death-From-Above maneuver.

If you wanna know weak spots, though, that's the rear torso. Even on the biggest, baddest 'mechs, you can't put too much armor there. The head counts as a weakpoint, but it's so hard to hit you're better off just trying to overwhelm the rest of the armor.

[Scrape]

When I saw the post title, I thought of Inner Sphere Wars. One of the most involved games I've ever played.

Have you seen the videos, and the dev post regarding lights? There is a place for lights in MWO.

[KBone]

That has always been a viable tactic for light mech. The advantage to lights is that they are fast and hard to hit, giving a good pilot an advantage over bigger slower mechs, especially in large numbers. It has been proven numerous times that several light mech have a sig ificant advantage over a single heavy or assault mech. The suspicion with MWO id that now in addition to the law of large numbers, a light mech will be able to act as a true scout, spotting and targeting enemy mechs for its teammates, in addition to the traditional hit and run tactics of smaller mech.

[I Kill Pigeons]

You're talking about Multiplayer Battletech: Solaris. Was on AOL, before that GENIE? I think, but that was before my time. After AOL went "pay for play", it appeared on Gamestorm for a time until EA squashed it & it's sequel, MPBT: 3025.

RIP, both games.

Lights will be able to run around quickly making themselves a difficult target but you won't be able to "core" out a bodypart by alphastriking. I'm sure a skilled Jenner pilot could take out heavier mechs, but it's not going to be quite as simple as it was in MPBT to concentrate your damage on one section of an opponent.

[Migrayne]

yeah you got it right. That was a fun game. A lot of people played in Cats, and the jenners could jumpjet up and knock them out with a blast to the top just behind the head. Fun times.

Ive played so many games I forget all the names. Glad to see someone knew what I was talking about.

[Asakara]

MPBT:3025 was an awesome game in my book. I felt it really took skill to be good, especially as there was no customization. You got good at the mech you had with its static load-out or you got beat.

But hey.. I am sure Motor City Online ended up being a way better financial success for EA. Heh.. Yeah right.

[Jaq Savage]

MPBT: 3025 was on GEnie BEFORE MPBT: Solaris. Eventually they were going to expand Solaris to the 3025 game using the updated Solaris graphics and engine but it never happened. They had MPBT: Solaris running on AOL and a few other services like Compuserve before moving the whole thing to Gamestorm. It was a great game. I am part of the "I love the flying mech club" but lets call a spade a spade here. I was an undefeated champion of Solaris for months on end until I quit the game. My mech of choice when given was always the Catapult when I was fighting ranked fights to defend my championship. Great mech. Heavy mech, lots of mobility, well designed. I found that most people just couldn't hit me when I was in the air, which consecutively just happened to be when I launched my LRM salvo's to the enemy mechs legs haha. However, if I got into an assault mech, I always found I was able to effectively "Pee Shoot" Jenners and Catapults out of the air. It was rather humorous Sure, those mechs have their place in a team fight. But one on one, the only way a light mech will ever take out an assault mech against a skilled pilot is with pure and utter luck on their part and extremely bad luck on the part of the assault mechs pilot.

Edited by Jaq Savage, 30 May 2012 - 06:59 PM.