38 replies to this topic

[Vtack]

Go online and spend 8 bucks and grab a used copy of the 3050 technical readouts. Here's a handy link http://www.amazon.co...4/dp/1555603114

This will give you bit more background on how the mechs operate what a hardpoint is and some rough comparisons on the Innersphere and Clan weapons. Supplement this with a healthy dose of www.Sarna.net and you'll start to get into the technical aspects of things

[PANZERBUNNY]

Resource:

http://www.lski.org/pictures/TableTopGaming/BattleTech%20-%20MechWarrior%20-%20Giga%20-%20Play%20%28Rev.%20050108%29/

[Kazzamo]

Gendou, on 05 June 2012 - 03:14 PM, said:

"Well, son, when an Assault 'Mech and a Heavy 'Mech love each other very much..."

"And that's where Urbanmechs come from."

[KBone]

Kazzamo, on 05 June 2012 - 03:22 PM, said:

"And that's where Urbanmechs come from."

ROFL, you beat me to it!

[UncleKulikov]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starsiege

This was my entry into the series. It's basically Mechwarrior plus Terminator, so that sparked my mech interest back in the early 90s. From there, it was easy to transition into the lighter fair of Battletech.

Edited by UncleKulikov, 05 June 2012 - 03:29 PM.

[Noob Weapons]

Waladil, on 05 June 2012 - 02:46 PM, said:

To answer your specific questions:

...

It's pretty much a 'Mechlab, but it's not exactly what MW:O will have, so don't be surprised if things are different when you get game access. For one thing, that link has no hardpoint stuff.

Wow! Thats a lot of info but it clears up some things I had questions about. Also, it made me like the game even more (I love how Mechwarrior allows for high customization of the 'mech, but incorporates balances so that one cannot stack only lasers, or only cannons).

As for all else, I checked some of these videos, and they have been helpful. Unfortunately those books that were mentioned seem to be collectables now, and that makes it very unlikely that I will be able to get my hands on one.

[UncleKulikov]

Scribd has at least one of the technical readouts on their site.

Edited by UncleKulikov, 05 June 2012 - 03:38 PM.

[Elwood]

Quote

[color=#959595]Wow! Thats a lot of info but it clears up some things I had questions about. Also, it made me like the game even more (I love how Mechwarrior allows for high customization of the 'mech, but incorporates balances so that one cannot stack only lasers, or only cannons). [/color]

That's not entirely accurate. You can indeed stack on type of weapon on a mech, but it does tend to make you a one trick pony, or a suicide bomber.

[Gendou]

Elwood, on 05 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

That's not entirely accurate. You can indeed stack on type of weapon on a mech, but it does tend to make you a one trick pony, or a suicide bomber.

Or a low-down, dirty MPLas Boater.

[Deathz Jester]

Noob Weapons, on 05 June 2012 - 02:29 PM, said:

Awesome replies here! I did not know about Mechwarrior 4 being free, so I'll probably check that out so I'm not so lost during release. I am an avid reader, and would like to read the books, so I'll probably try to pick some of those up so I can better understand the factions.

As for the wiki, that was where I got lost the last time, but I'll read through it again after I've played some of the previous game and maybe I will understand its contents a little better.

Thanks to everyone who replied, and if there is more info I'm still happy to hear it.

Check out the Mektek mech pack expansion it adds quite a few mechs 20+ (I can remember how many)

examples: Archer, Warhammer, Battlemaster, Crab, Turkina, Centurion

unless someone already mentioned it lol

[Kazzamo]

Elwood, on 05 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

That's not entirely accurate. You can indeed stack on type of weapon on a mech, but it does tend to make you a one trick pony, or a suicide bomber.

Yeah, you can but the hard point system makes it not nearly as easy as past Mechwarrior games. Unless you're something that was designed to be a "boat" in lore like the HBK-4P with 8 medium lasers on one medium mech.

[Gozer]

Honestly a bit surprised this hasn't been mentioned directly, but for those with short attention spans and just want to see pew pew lasers why not look at the animated series?



Oh yes, for many many reasons it's HORRIBLE, but it does "set-up the world" in an entertaining and simple way. It was a Saturday Morning Cartoon show after all.

Plus you'll get to see the clan invasion "sort of."

[Ashla Mason]

Noob Weapons, on 05 June 2012 - 03:36 PM, said:

Wow! Thats a lot of info but it clears up some things I had questions about. Also, it made me like the game even more (I love how Mechwarrior allows for high customization of the 'mech, but incorporates balances so that one cannot stack only lasers, or only cannons).

Mech's like are reffered to as "Boats" and excell in their given field, but can and do run up against problems when their focus starts to work against them.

Take the Awesome for example. It packs 3 PPC's, giving it horrific direct damage output. The catch, is that it gets ridiculous ammounts of heat when it fires, and if it can be suckered into fighting inside of a city then the incredible range on it's weapons ceases to be relevent and it can and will get beat to bloody hell.

[PANZERBUNNY]

Elwood, on 05 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

That's not entirely accurate. You can indeed stack on type of weapon on a mech, but it does tend to make you a one trick pony, or a suicide bomber.

Scout/Light mech loaded with Rockets. !!BOOM!!

[Gendou]

And for those truly hardcore, there's always the rec.games.mecha archives on Google Groups: Anyone remember Bryan and Camille's Trial of Grievance over the animated series?

[DireWolf307]

Gozer, on 05 June 2012 - 04:09 PM, said:

Honestly a bit surprised this hasn't been mentioned directly, but for those with short attention spans and just want to see pew pew lasers why not look at the animated series?



Oh yes, for many many reasons it's HORRIBLE, but it does "set-up the world" in an entertaining and simple way. It was a Saturday Morning Cartoon show after all.

Plus you'll get to see the clan invasion "sort of."

The animated series was bad, but it's better than MechAssault

UncleKulikov, on 05 June 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starsiege

This was my entry into the series. It's basically Mechwarrior plus Terminator, so that sparked my mech interest back in the early 90s. From there, it was easy to transition into the lighter fair of Battletech.

Even though FASA was involved, the Earthsiege/Starsiege universe has nothing to do with Battletech, and considering Battletech is older, and given all the background on EVERYTHING in the Battletech universe, I would hardly call Battletech "lighter fare" compared to Earthsiege/Starsiege. If anything, they were "me too" games from when Battletech started getting popular in the late-'80s early-'90s, like Heavy Gear.

[metalwolf2900]

amazon can be your best friend for finding the books that your looking for ( wolves on the boarder ect ect) pretty good prices on the used books anyway.. read away my friend, and enjoy the wonderful universe of battletech/mechwarrior

[Ashla Mason]

Found another neat video. Not exactly informative but it might handle some of the immersion you are looking for:

[Red October911]

The Story's not tht complex

It's basically Man learned to space travel, Man created colonies, colonies seperated into 5 factions (found in game). 5 factions were eventually brought together under a Star League (every1=friends) until one bas*erd decides to do a coup d'etat. The Star League Defense Force rebel and decide to take bas*erd out. SLDF success=every faction can't stay friends cuz they can't choose new leader. SLDF goes lik: "KK i'm out!" and moves outside of the I.S. (planets controled by 5 factions). War for VERRRRRYYYYYY long time between 5 factions. Until SLDF comes back intent on recapping Earth and recreating Star League (they are now named clans). I.S. factions are like : "Ummm Fu*k you sh*t clans!" and they fight them back and create their own Star League in the process of destroying the Clans.

That's as simple as it gets (I'm leaving a lot of details but this is like a TL;DR type of post)

The factions themseleves aren't complecated either:
Davion: Good guys, protecter of universe, G.I. Joes...(whole load of bullc*ap to me)
Steiner: Loads of $=They own very big mechs (hense why ppl joke around tht a Steiner scout lance is composed of atlas's, since they could afford to have so much
Liao: Underdog and mostly viewed as bad guys do to SOME bad leaders. They are the:"i'm gonna strike when you least expect it cuz I, in the most part, don't have large mechs" type of guys. Furthermore it's all about the state, they are ppl, united as one, against the great powers of the I.S. They manage time and time again to beat back the opressive Davions and all those who dare oppose them, to keep their glorious Confederation alive! URAAAAA! *Subtile fan boy moment *
Marik: Mostly a faction in turmoil, in a way reminds me of present day middle east, though to be honest i don't know much about them (I just recently myself got into the story, i've played the games but just now got interested in story)
Rashinga..Rahsingal...The swedish XD: Yeah basically some ppl with Swedish, Norwegian and northern europeen ethnicities like on old Terra who were all like: "We're tired of being under control of Kurita so we're going to seperate into our own republic Yah?". Running gag about them being heavy drinkers. (once again haven't read up much about them)
Kurita: Kinda like old style Japan, with samurai's, codes of honor and what not, except now they pilot huge robotic death dealing machines instead of katanas and samurai armor

I'm sure ppl have told you about hard points so I wont bother (hell they prob gave you all this info already, I just feel nice when I try to help out a newbie, it sorta feels lik charity, but with information ...Idk...).
But one thing's for sure, if, at the age of six, I managed to figure out how to customize a mech with it's hard points(they weren't very good but the point is i knew there was a modify option to the MechWarrior games), seeing from your beautiful and flawless grammer (better than mine ) you seem to be quite old enough to figure out how to customize your mech. Anyways at the start of the game, we'll all have to expirement on our mechs to create the best killing machine, so in a way...we are all newbies

Edited by Red October911, 07 June 2012 - 02:03 PM.