79 replies to this topic

[McSniffles]

Talynn DeRaa, on 02 June 2012 - 03:43 AM, said:

As it stands, there's only 3 Ballistics Hardpoints on the normal Hunchback's Right Torso. I think its safe to assume that the one for the Atlas is similarly hardpointed.

There are actually only 2 hardpoints for ballistics in the right torso of the hunchback, you can fit a max of 2 machineguns. 12 Critical Slots total availble on the right shoulder.

[wanderer]

Alex Iglesias, on 02 June 2012 - 09:31 AM, said:

just fyi MGs probably won't be firing at 2 damage per shot, that'd be ludicrous.

they slowly sandpaper their targets via high volume of plinking and let you keep pressure on your opponents while your mech cools down or weapons are recycling

Oh, agreed- it's effectively 2 damage over a ten-second "turn" of firing- so each individual "burst" is going to do less damage, depending on how many bursts are allowed per ten-second "round".

An amusing optional rule in Battletech DOES let you put an MG into higher rates of fire, at the cost of extra ammo AND the MG actually producing heat. You can, in theory fire an MG so fast in BT that it melts....the ammo bin!

[Blarbo]

In the past games the machine gun was almost worthless

[Aggammenonn]

Not true, in the original Mechwarrior sometimes I amused myself but using the battlemaster and using its mgs to kill stuff by headshot.... but yeah, I do get your point.

[UBCslayer]

My earliest memories of playing Mechwarrior were piloting a Locust against much heavier mechs, flanking them, and legging them with dual machine guns until victory. This was pretty much the go-to strategy early in the game actually... a locust could take down a battlemaster using this technique.

[LordDeathStrike]

wanderer, on 02 June 2012 - 10:26 AM, said:

You're used to Mechwarrior 4, which has Clan LPL's. Which are arguably one of the more busted weapons in the game.

Standard IS LPL's have half the range, barely better than a standard medium laser. Not to mention the heat load is obscene-a six-pack of LPL's is enough to push nearly anything into shutdown in a single salvo. Quad LPL's is about the max you're going to vent heat for reasonably.

In any case, MG's are point defense weapons. The big flaw is that even the smallest ammo bay for MG's packs in 100 shots, making it vulnerable to overheat explosions or critical hits...and the hardpoint system is going to make it interesting to pack large numbers of MG's into a 'Mech when you want to have the guns to match the high ammo load.

Note that in tabletop Battletech, I have seen a 'Mech in the Succession Wars era armed with 42 MG's and a single large laser. It actually made decent use of the 2 tons (400 rounds) of MG ammo it had equipped, obliterating a very, VERY surprised Catapult in close combat in a single round.

People into the "point defense" concept might want to pair some small lasers with their MG's- I actually think the -3M Cicada would make an excellent template, with high speed, three small energy hardpoints, and a roomy ballistic one where the Ultra/5 is mounted.

5 MG's, perhaps a few small or small pulse lasers, and some more armor on the highest ground-speed design in the game right now? One might deliver some owies.

42 machine guns? I DUB THEE "IRON CURTAIN STEEL WIND"

[VegetaL]

Alex Iglesias, on 02 June 2012 - 09:31 AM, said:

just fyi MGs probably won't be firing at 2 damage per shot, that'd be ludicrous.

they slowly sandpaper their targets via high volume of plinking and let you keep pressure on your opponents while your mech cools down or weapons are recycling

keep the fire on em till the big kickers are cycled

[Shivus]

First thing I'm doing:

Buy commando
Strip everything
Add machine guns everywhere

[Killalot]

MGs in the lore were mounted on mechs as anti infantry weaponry

[CapnTytePantz]

VegetaL, on 02 June 2012 - 10:23 PM, said:

keep the fire on em till the big kickers are cycled

I like this strategy, especially if any continuous fire (MG, laser, PPC, missiles or otherwise) would disrupt targeting and/or obscure your enemies' vision. This could be huge for lights and mediums! Throw in the Devs' mention of a "power down" function to take away your mech's power signature, and you've got some serious ninja ambushes in the making!!!

[Mordin Ashe]

Machine guns were my favorite Solaris trolling gun. I had issues with finding chassis that could mount reliable ammount of those though.

[LordDeathStrike]

im intrigued enough to see how many machine guns a larger mech can mount. potentially we have the dragons ballistic arm, or the atlas could have a gatling torso. we wont know till we can get solid mechlab data on the hardpoints.

a dragon with quad machine guns in its ballistic arm, med lasers, srms and a big engine, could hunter kill scouts like mad though. low heat fast design, used dhs upgrade to make the engine be 20 hs, without having to equip a single one plink down their armor with the lasers and machine gun spray, and whammo they go down!

i wonder what machine gun range will be in mwo. in TT its uselessly short, in mw 2 it was pretty long, respectable in mech 3. and in mwll its 1200m aa gun and ba killer, but doesnt dmg mech or tank armor enough to notice.

Edited by LordDeathStrike, 02 June 2012 - 11:04 PM.

[CapnTytePantz]

I'd also like to find out the specs for flamers. I have seen them mentioned in the forums and have seen them cameo-ed in gameplay vids AND the mechlab vid in media, but that is all! No specs! Zero, nada, none! In tabletop, these were troop killers and brush/cover clearers (sometimes "flash bangs" in close engagements), but what is their purpose now, in a PVP only scenario?!? ...Although, I'm not gonna lie, if you can torch forests in MWO, with flamers, that alone would be worth the spent hard point. So would the ability to cut down trees with lasers and/or MG fire!

[LordDeathStrike]

I bet a mauler would mount alot of mguns, we know it normally carries up to 4 autocannons in its chest, but say it has 8 gun points then we could have 8 machine gun clusters, add in some ppcs in the arms and missiles in the shoulders and you got a beast that can open up armor and crit the **** out of internals.

[oohawkoo]

=X dunno how it realy worked in the rules... but to me MG on a mech would be counted towards anti personel or anti missle =3... i honestly cant see how something as small as that (relativly) would make much diff against a mech lol... might as well use pea shooters =3... ud have to be way too close to some mechs to do much with em =3

[Kifferson von doober]

Time to mention a nasty little clan mech called the pirahna. If ya can get behind somebody the damage doesn't have to be that big.Thats why some of the more ponderous heavys had rear mounted lasers.

[Scrawny Cowboy]

In MW4 I would mount about three Clan MG's with three Clan Medium Pulse Lasers on a Nova Cat's left arm; gave it an extra steady, close range feed as the PPC's recharged. But, arguable, it could be better suited if I were to swap those clunky pea shooters for more heat sinks.

In MW:O though... I'd say they would only be most useful to Light/Medium mechs. MG's make great fillers to compilment another fast reload/recharge weapon. (Especally when working with the last couple tons of a loadout.)

[Daemoro]

I wonder if the MG's will be a DOT weapon like lasers. Maybe comparable to a small laser with the low range and low damage to go with the low heat.

You would have to keep the MG on a specific area of a mech for a couple of seconds to actually do any damage.

This would give the feel of a constant barrage of fire from a small harrassing weapon.

[LordDeathStrike]

oohawkoo, on 13 June 2012 - 01:52 AM, said:

=X dunno how it realy worked in the rules... but to me MG on a mech would be counted towards anti personel or anti missle =3... i honestly cant see how something as small as that (relativly) would make much diff against a mech lol... might as well use pea shooters =3... ud have to be way too close to some mechs to do much with em =3

we arent talking the puney .50 cal anti infantry guns of world war 2 here, we are talking gatling cannons with hyper muzzle velocities and large rounds just under that of ac 2s. are they used for killing infantry vehicles and air planes? you bet. spray and pray, moppem up. but if you mount enough of them with armor piercing ammo, theyll chew right threw mechs iron based armor (hence the ferro in ferro fibre) and god help you once your armor plate is blown off, cause a ton of bullets richocheting around in your mechs guts = ****** internals and crits galore on ammo reactor and anything else important in there.

[DevlinCognito]

The MG Loki in MW4 was a fun ride, ramped up speed, as many Machineguns as it could carry & enough ammo to fire till hell freezes & away you go. Fun if able to get close in towards the endgame.