98 replies to this topic

[Tallnob]

Who cares what it looks like, I'm neutral on that point. It's a solid mech with decent armour and great damage output. Get used to limping around a lot though.

It only suffers in comparison to the Timber Wolf IMO, for old Inner Sphere tech it's sweet.

[Frostiken]

It is not a beautiful mech, it's naught more than a throwback to Battletech's misguided Japanese mecha origins. It's weeaboo wankfuel and little more.

The art is utterly unlike anything else in BT, and looks alien in origin. The dorsal gun is one of the silliest parts of the design. The arms that hang down more than half the length of the mech's height, well below even the hips, not only looks incredibly stupid, but would be far, far beyond impractical. It's awful, awful, awful.

Edited by Frostiken, 04 June 2012 - 10:17 PM.

[Frostiken]

Damion Wolf, on 04 June 2012 - 08:29 PM, said:

For the reccord, **** Harmony Gold. That being said...



How is that not sexy?

See this is exactly what I mean. The gun pods on the arms alone are the size of the whole torso. The dorsal gun is bolted on to a mount that looks flimsier than the one holding my monitor up, and is completely superfluous in Battletech. It's a torso weapon so it fires straight ahead and little more - the dumb mount makes it look like they thought it was going to be the Predator's plasma cannon and aim in all directions or something absurd. It's also majorly oversized. The arms are hanging down half the length of the mech which makes it look useless and clumsy, not to mention the fact that they have 15 joints or something in each one, which is completely useless and makes it look like a Japanese mechanical tentacle rapist. The legs are 2/3rds of the height of the mech which just makes it look that much more awkward. And again, curved mech designs = fail. Curvature should be kept to a minimum, the Timberwolf and Catapult are about as much as I can tolerate in that regard.

Edited by Frostiken, 04 June 2012 - 10:25 PM.

[MagnusEffect]

Semyon Drakon, on 04 June 2012 - 05:54 PM, said:

To be fair a lot of the Marauders appeal comes from it's value in the 3025 iteration of Battletech. back then it was 'the' heavy brawler, well able to hold it's own. later models were also upgraded to keep up with newer designs.

In the fluff it always seemed to be the heavy mech that mechwarriors aimed to get, or were rewarded with once they reached a certain skill level. In the right hands it is deadly.

Semyon

I agree totally. Funny enough, I also thought the reseen version of it (as well as a few others) actually looked better. The hip joint area on the Macross marauder never sat right with me. The legs always looked too heavy to be sufficiently supported by the narrow waste.

[Adrienne Vorton]

Marauder, hell yea... in classic Battletech and even playing the RPG in the 3025 timeline, sure it was a goal to reach... i know how proud my character was to finally get one of the most dangerous killer machines of the inner sphere´s history...along with warhammer and battlemaster one of the images that you would never forget, as a veteran...

i strongly recommend to all those, who just start getting into this universe...BUY EVERYTHING YOU CAN GET YOUR FINGERS ON REGARDING BATTLETECH AND MECHWARRIOR read it all, live it and finally understand how things got to the point where we are now...

Edited by Adrienne Vorton, 04 June 2012 - 11:38 PM.

[Applejack]

I own 3 unseen Marauder minis

plus a Marauder IIC

Look the thing is just badass, k

[Lumpi]

Boydsan, on 04 June 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

Why are the Unseen 'Mechs so popular?

Most of the unseen 'Mechs, in my opinion, were the better built Battlemechs out there. Centurion had lasers in the rear? Really? Know how hard that was to use it in any shooter type game? Even on the table top... ... ... However, the Marauder, for instance, had a solid load out - short, medium, and long range firepower and decent armor. Then there is the original novels, and source books. Do you know what 'Mech that Jaime Wolf used? An Archer (an Unseen 'Mech)? Then when the blood feud with the Draconis Combine. The Coordinator, Takashi Kurita, supposedly had a pair of Archers (as I remember this) in the palace just in case Jaime Wolf came over to the Combine Palace and wanted to duel to the death. Maruader? Several peeps used this 'Mech in novels and stories...The famous Bounty Hunter (a chaacter in the BT Universe) pilots a Marauder which was originally Natasha Kerensky's. Further, Natasha's signature Warhammer (another Unseen 'Mech) is said to be the Bounty Hunter's original 'Mech.

This is off the top of my head.


So why are Unseen 'mechs so popular? It is a combination of good design and story situations. This is my humble opinion.


My opinion on this matter is this:

STOP TRYING TO USE THE UNSEEN 'MECHS! I love most of them; however, they are the main reason (well the one I blame the most) for the lack of Battletech/MechWarrior. the license for some of these Unseen 'Mechs can be very complicated and involve several companies and/or people ... which always mean trouble if there is a problem on any one specific area. Or worse, they secure the license and a year or so later... it expires or something comes up that changes the rules and Battletech/MechWarrior seem to get the worse of it.... so... to make it easy on ALL OF US... IMHO... GET RID OF THE UNSEEN 'MECHS.

I am even to play the UNSEEN 'MECHS if they were reborn with different names and different looks... i just want to play some sort of Battletech or MechWarrior.

Dont forget Grayson "Death" Carlyle... Well as far as I remeber the whoöe Gray Death Legion as well as the Black Widow Company drove all unseen back in '25

[Tincan Nightmare]

Honestly, while I like the unseen mechs, having loved robotech/macross it always seemed strange to see them in BT. The first time I saw them in the board game boxed set it was 'what the hell, those are valkyries/veritechs, destroids, and a zentraedi officer pod.' I do think the artwork on them are good though, but I actually like alot of the reseen designs. Considering what the staff on MWO have done so far, I would love to see their own unique take on those designs so we could get them in game without having to deal with the Harmony Gold gestapo.

And on that topic, while the Wasp, Stinger, Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Archer, Warhammer, Rifleman, Longbow, and Marauder were designs taken from Macross, how did the Locust, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, Scorpion, Goliath, and Battlemaster get on that list. None of that second group were in macross or the other two segments of Harmony Gold's Robotech, they were from a different anime entirely, so how did they get the axe in the HG gestapo legal ninjitsu?

[Adrienne Vorton]

xD couldnt hold it back haha... a guitar-shaped ppc i guess...well

Edited by Adrienne Vorton, 05 June 2012 - 12:54 AM.

[Tadakuma]

Tincan Nightmare, on 05 June 2012 - 12:19 AM, said:

Honestly, while I like the unseen mechs, having loved robotech/macross it always seemed strange to see them in BT. The first time I saw them in the board game boxed set it was 'what the hell, those are valkyries/veritechs, destroids, and a zentraedi officer pod.' I do think the artwork on them are good though, but I actually like alot of the reseen designs. Considering what the staff on MWO have done so far, I would love to see their own unique take on those designs so we could get them in game without having to deal with the Harmony Gold gestapo.

And on that topic, while the Wasp, Stinger, Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Archer, Warhammer, Rifleman, Longbow, and Marauder were designs taken from Macross, how did the Locust, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, Scorpion, Goliath, and Battlemaster get on that list. None of that second group were in macross or the other two segments of Harmony Gold's Robotech, they were from a different anime entirely, so how did they get the axe in the HG gestapo legal ninjitsu?

After the legal issues with Harmony Gold, FASA decided to remove all mech artwork from the game that was not done in house. That's why those mechs were removed.

Catalyst now has the rights to use the Locust, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, Scorpion, Wolverine, Thunderbolt, Goliath and Battlemaster again. I'm hoping that this means that we may see these mechs in MW:O.

If I could only have two unseen then the Shadow Hawk and Thunderbolt would be the two I would choose.

[Cruxshadow]

The Marauder is the begining of my love affair with the MadCat. When Fasa lost the rights to it was a black day in Battle Tech. When my friends and I first started playing Battle Tech we ordered through our local comic book shop the little model kits of the Macross mech in all three forms along with the Zentradi battle pods.

[Tarskin]

I have to agree that some of the redesigns are really good and fix the only gripe that i had with the original model (bulky/silly large arms).

Shimmering Sword's redesign (artist profile):



Artists own comments:

A Marauder heavy mech from battletech, firing a pair of PPCs and Medium Lasers.
Due to the original being a pull from macross, the canon design has gone through a lot of changes in it's life. With my painting I aimed to bring together the feel of the original, with some modernization of the re-seen version, some IIC details made it in too.

PS: I just want to stress that I did not draw this or are in any way related to the piece of art, just wanted to share what is in my opinion, the best redesign that I have seen.

Edited by Tarskin, 05 June 2012 - 02:40 AM.

[Voiddog]

It is often mentioned in the Michael Stackpole Books as the meanest Inner sphere Mech. Thats good enough for me

[Oppi]

Frostiken, on 04 June 2012 - 10:23 PM, said:

The arms are hanging down half the length of the mech which makes it look useless and clumsy,

Please stand before a mirror and let your arms hang down. You'll notice you are almost able each your knee, which is just similar to the Marauder. Seems perfectly right to me.

Quote

not to mention the fact that they have 15 joints or something in each one, which is completely useless and makes it look like a Japanese mechanical tentacle rapist.

I'm counting three joints. Please count the joints in your arm, I think you'll notice some resemblance (shoulder, elbow, wrist).

Quote

The legs are 2/3rds of the height of the mech which just makes it look that much more awkward. And again, curved mech designs = fail. Curvature should be kept to a minimum, the Timberwolf and Catapult are about as much as I can tolerate in that regard.

A matter of taste. I think the Marauder ist the single best looking Battlemech out there.
But if you have a problem with curved designs, look at what they made of the catapult. I don't think the Marauder would keep many round shapes if it got into MWO.

By the way, with double PPCs, double lasers and an AC5 I don't think it'd have to hide from any of the heavies that are released so far (or any other pre Clan heavy).

Edited by Oppi, 05 June 2012 - 02:51 AM.

[CJDodo]

Oric, on 04 June 2012 - 08:20 PM, said:

The best utilization of the marauder in my opinion was in the mech warrior 2 series. It was defenitely a good long range heavy hitter. With the ability to customize the weapon systems you could easily link 3 er ppc and a couple mediium lasers without significant heat build up. a few well placed shots and u could easily damage a madcat or warhammer in the legs reducing thier movement. Then with smaller faster mechs like the locusts(that correct?) they could easily circle the targeted mech with thier speed and be a real nuisance. Then u just keep hitting them afar, The stratege worked 99% of the time.

plus their cool looking.. lol.. probably what u expected what everyone would had said when u started this thread. i really want a marauder.

Yeah I guessed it'd be alot of defending the looks of the thing, as I said though I half get parts of it, it was mainly that I didn't see it being a great combat mech, but my doubts have faded after posts like yours.

Penpenn, on 04 June 2012 - 08:46 PM, said:

There's a lot of rather good looking redesigns and fan creations of Marauder that top the original IMO.



Source: http://shimmering-sw...deviantart.com/

My word those are sweet. A MWO redesign would probably negate any doubts of it's looks for me, I mean look what they did for the Cataphract, equally as awkward without the uniqueness of the Marauder originally, and now it's badass!

Tallnob, on 04 June 2012 - 09:56 PM, said:

Who cares what it looks like, I'm neutral on that point. It's a solid mech with decent armour and great damage output. Get used to limping around a lot though.

It only suffers in comparison to the Timber Wolf IMO, for old Inner Sphere tech it's sweet.

I regret mentioning Madcat/Timber Wolf in the first post now, I didn't mean to compare it to the Marauder as a mech, just in that it also has a large following. But on the limping around, that's what I first thought when I saw those legs, probably the biggest targets on the thing.

Edited by CJDodo, 05 June 2012 - 05:23 AM.

[The Crow2k]

Boydsan, on 04 June 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

Why are the Unseen 'Mechs so popular?

-SNIP-

For me its because they are the originals I remember from my first experiences with the tabletop game, you got intimately familiar with them so that you knew what they were capable of which was usefull even if you didnt use them yourself.

[Volume]

The easiest way I can explain it is something about how the Fender Stratocaster is still what most people think of when you say "Electric Guitar" - if you say "Battletech" to someone, it's impossible for them to not think of the Marauder. It's that iconic.

[Frostiken]

Volume, on 05 June 2012 - 05:50 AM, said:

The easiest way I can explain it is something about how the Fender Stratocaster is still what most people think of when you say "Electric Guitar" - if you say "Battletech" to someone, it's impossible for them to not think of the Marauder. It's that iconic.

Actually I'd say that's very possible. The Marauder has been utterly irrelevant for over two decades.

Please don't project your nostalgia for a malformed anime mech onto everyone else. If I wanted garbage like the Marauder I'd go ask for robots to fly in space and hit each other with swords.

Edited by Frostiken, 05 June 2012 - 06:29 AM.

[Alex Wolfe]

Nostalgia.

The design is extremely outlandish, very flimsy and pod/leg-heavy, and the cannon doesn't seem to fit it either... Still, people don't remember "Marauder" but rather their fond youth memories, starring it. I'm a fan of Mech franchise since MW2 and the Marauder does nothing for me, really. Looks silly and out of place, like... well, an 80's toy robot. Sure, a lot of mechs started that way, but MD never managed to quite molt into the looks mostly associated with mechs.

It would require a lot of redesigning and changing the scale of those ridiculous arm pods, adding and repositioning joints, rescaling the AC5 etc. to make it look like something remotely plausible to move at all. Seeing FD's take on mechs so far though, I'm sure he'd do it justice.

Edited by Alex Wolfe, 05 June 2012 - 06:39 AM.

[Biplane]

My first exposure to the Marauder was the Marauder IIC in Mechwarrior 2, and I have to say, from what I've seen of the Inner Sphere design, it's a LOT more appealing. The IIC was an ugly, spindly thing, and I was just never going to try it out when it weighed the same as a Warhawk. The Inner Sphere design looks (only slightly) more "real." Those redesigns are awesome, though, to be sure.