105 replies to this topic

[JSmith7784]

I have been a mechwarrior fan since the games in the early 90's. I have most of the books and technical manuals.

I just don't understand why we are allowed to keep ammo in the legs. I know this isn't a perfect simulation, but there can be no physical way to move tons of ammo from the lower leg to the arms or upper torso. It seems like abusing the system to me.

I can understand mounting heat sinks and electronics in the legs, but ammo? How could missle or large ballistic rounds possibly be stored then moved from the legs, which are moving themselves, without constand loading jams etc?

[Mick Mars]

So you don't think that by the year 3000 someone will have figured out how to move ammo through a mech without jamming?

[Kiryn]

Shoot Legs, watch ammo cook and blow up mech, profit!

Seriously tho, it's just a design of the game, and a gamble, you put the ammo in the legs hoping people will be shooting at your torso most of the time so the ammo has a better chance of surviving. But I've done it and I have died because of it. It also seems people are catching on to the trick and going for legs first, mainly because there is a tendency to lower the armor in the legs to save weight and still store ammo there, which is a very bad idea IMO. Doing one or the other isn't a bad decision, both is pretty dumb.

[Iacov]

i think it is possible, because they space would be otherwise totally useless, because everybody does upgrade to DHS...and not a single DHS fits into a leg...
and BAP is useless
so there is almost nothing a non-ecm mech would be able to "store" in the legs

[Kylere]

Why do you care?

[Darius Deadeye]

JSmith7784, on 04 April 2013 - 05:31 AM, said:

I have been a mechwarrior fan since the games in the early 90's. I have most of the books and technical manuals.

I just don't understand why we are allowed to keep ammo in the legs. I know this isn't a perfect simulation, but there can be no physical way to move tons of ammo from the lower leg to the arms or upper torso. It seems like abusing the system to me.

I can understand mounting heat sinks and electronics in the legs, but ammo? How could missle or large ballistic rounds possibly be stored then moved from the legs, which are moving themselves, without constand loading jams etc?

Like with weapons etc, PGI (and BT Tabletop), have decided not to adhere to any form of realism and rather focus on freedom through customization options, in which most people go for the 'best variant' with 'most cheesy build available' solution anyway.

[jay35]

Kylere, on 04 April 2013 - 05:36 AM, said:

Why do you care?

Because today is apparently "Find something to complain about that would make the game less fun or less diverse if implemented" day.

[Signal27]

JSmith7784, on 04 April 2013 - 05:31 AM, said:

I just don't understand why we are allowed to keep ammo in the legs. I know this isn't a perfect simulation, but there can be no physical way to move tons of ammo from the lower leg to the arms or upper torso. It seems like abusing the system to me.

And yet, you're able to understand the validity of a gigantic multi-ton bipedal robot as a viable war machine?

My friend, the answer is space magic. Always space magic in the Battletech universe.

[Darius Deadeye]

Mick Mars, on 04 April 2013 - 05:35 AM, said:

So you don't think that by the year 3000 someone will have figured out how to move ammo through a mech without jamming?

Well, by the year 3000 anyone can surely argue that the quality of weapons have severely deterioated from what we have now to what they have by then

[Chavette]

If you've played every mw game, you'd know you could do this every mw game(from 3 anyways).

[Viper69]

If the space is open and the item can fit then by default its support structures fit as well. It is no different than having an AC 20 on your left arm and all the ammo in your right if you chose to do that for some reason, or in your head. Your dealing with a mythological stomping robot shooting laser beams and giant hyper velocity watermelon slugs.

[Vassago Rain]

It's a series of tubes.

[Abivard]

PGI will soon fix that for you;
Only heat sinks will be able to be placed in legs from now on will be in next Patch notes.
Also AIM-BOT will be available as a subscription just like Premium Time, and CW time, but with PGI's version they will be able to shoot through the buildings with the proper module equipped, don't worry, you can also buy it with GXP for the low rate of JUST 500,000 GXP.

[HammerForge]

Really the choke point would most likely be in the arms, with the shoulder mount and shoulder actuator and then the elbow and arms being smaller so that they aren't giant targets with your weapons in them. The legs and hips of these things tend to be larger in most mechs, so there is more room and less of an issue to move them from the legs to the torso. So if you are OK with ammo for the arms in the torsos, I don't see why you would have such an issue with them being in the legs.

[Viper69]

HammerForge, on 04 April 2013 - 05:52 AM, said:

I don't see why you would have such an issue with them being in the legs.

I think when people think legs they look at the crit chart and see the open slots low and think that denotes their location is in the feet somewhere.

[Grayseven]

Why was ammo stored in the wings of WW2 fighter planes? Because that's where the space was.

Flexible feed systems allow the Apache helicopter to have an autocannon with a large field of traverse that allows the ammo to still feed flawlessly into the weapon, so why couldn't flex feeds get ammo from legs up to torso, head or arms?

In most real world designs, ammo is stored wherever there is room and weight for feed systems. It isn't stored with the weapon but nearby with feeds from storage to the weapon. If I were building an actual mech, the legs would be the prime storage location due to the fact that they are farthest from the cockpit (making it safer for the pilot) and because any available space is mostly wasted.

You'd be better off asking why endo steel structures and FF armor don't take their internal spaces equally from all areas of the mech...

[Loxx]

the OP is right actually if you go by TT rules.

Ammo had a restriction of being stored in the same location as the weapon or an adjacent location like the left torso to the left arm to allow for ammo transfer. It couldn't be stored in the legs because there was no hollow, armored points to get it past the hip actuators/torso rotators.

With that said: It's possible in MWO because it makes it more fun.

[N0ni]

Because two crit spaces per leg.

[Duncan Jr Fischer]

I'm agianst the possibility to store ammo in legs or further than in the location right next to the one containing a weapon.

[Darius Deadeye]

Duncan Jr Fischer, on 04 April 2013 - 06:04 AM, said:

I'm agianst the possibility to store ammo in legs or further than in the location right next to the one containing a weapon.

Thats the thing though - even with just 18 responses it's obvious the community is torn between freedom and realism.

edit: *realism within the world of giant walking robots, that is.

Edited by Darius Deadeye, 04 April 2013 - 06:08 AM.