20 replies to this topic

[EzraUkensan]

This has likely already been discussed. But, someone humor me and explain why the new generation of mechs have hands? Mauler, Vulture, Madcat, never had hands. Hell, even the old school Atlas had guns in the fingers...
Dragon, Hunchback, Commando, all a bunch of useless hands. EXPLAIN!
And when do I get my own Madcat!!!?

Loving the game though. Coming along very nicely.

[Pater Mors]

[FrostCollar]

Make obscene gestures at the enemy Melee's a good reason. As I recall from the novels, hands could be handy for utility purposes as well. That Mauler might look pretty nice, but you're not going to be clearing any rubble with those ERLL barrels anytime soon.

[DaZur]

Mech'sturbation...

[EzraUkensan]

I do remember the main character (Adam Steiner) in the Battletech series riding an Axman (AXM-2N) mech. which as the name would suggest has a HUGE AXE. Might be handy for swatting those annoying lil Jenners.

[Shiro Matsumoto]

Tabletopwise: a Mech with hands can melee without negaive modifiers, and as a punch uses its own hit table you had a 1 in 6 chance to hit the head, a punch wasnt the worst of options.

Lorewise: Some Mechs had extra "glove"-controls to do quite amazing "fine manipulation", esp. in lifting & carrying things, from helping in constructing fieldworks, to crarryind crates to rearming themseld or anoter mech...also it looks cool.

Battletech stil has its roots in manga-style giant robot shows /See "Unseen Mechs".. and those have hands.

Edited by John McFianna, 14 May 2013 - 10:43 PM.

[Kiiyor]

Mechs with hands had an advantage against elementals too. Also, how awesome would it be to crush a cockpit?

[Hans Von Lohman]

This comes from the board game first, which has been around since the early 1980's.

The hands have three uses. The first is they make punching easier (more accurate). The second use is to pick up trees, mech limbs, or building girders and using them as clubs (later they would build mechs with built in weapons like the axe and sword). The third use of hands is to pick up loot, because in the original setting there was a lot of raiding enemy planets for spare parts.

None of those are useful in this video game. They don't even have punching, but if they did the only mechs that could punch would be the ones with a hand actuator.

[Kaylos Thex]

Boardgame wise, hands also meant that the mech could carry salvage and loot home after a raid.

Back in the 3rd succession war, is was easier to steal war material from your neighbor than make your own.

[Keifomofutu]

So they can stand around and facepalm at their epic lack of punching right now.

[audi man]

I can't remember which book it was (it must be 15 years ago I read it), but I do remember one where during a running battle in a forest, an Awesome pilot pulled a large Oak tree out of the ground to use it as a club.

Now that is awesome.

Also, theres a book with a light mech pilot (forget what mech it was... darned memory is fragged!) who's 25T mech carries a "pistol" large laser in one of his hands.

Edited by gldgti, 15 May 2013 - 12:39 AM.

[Lightfoot]

As far as MWO is concerned, if a Mech has a Hand actuator it should grant extra armor in that hand, above what the modifiable armor value is. Reason is that it consumes a critical slot for no return value now.

[DarkDevilDancer]

They do intend to add melee so the hands will have a use then.

As for claners they consider melee barbaric and backwards which is why most omnimechs don't have hands, close combat was one of the few advantages the spheroids had during the invasion.

[SgtMagor]

they put hands on mechs, because in an experiment with an Atlas the pilot faced palm his own mech and killed himself. most of the scientist thought that was actually a good thing doh!

[Carrioncrows]

In Battletech any blown off limbs (legs or arms) a mech with hands could pick it up and use it as a improvised club.

It was devastating, 100 ton mech does that it was a 20 dmg wack. Like get melee'd by and AC20 shell.

[Zaptruder]

It'd be cool if mechs with hands could activate things that other mechs couldn't.

e.g. a big mech sized button or lever for turret/gate power.

Or maybe like a rescue mission - mechs without hands would have to wait for people to climb onto the mech and perch - where as mechs with hands could bend down and pick them up much faster.


... but it's not a big deal. Perhaps the most effect we might see from them in this game is that they might be able to add to the quirks of the mech design - as in mechs with hand actuators have slightly faster convergence or arm tracking speed, or larger elbow turn. Something to compensate for the slight disadvantage of losing 1 critical slot, but nothing big.

[Alistair Winter]

The reason hands take up a critical slot is that hardcore tabletop fans would storm PGI headquarters, strap the devs to their chairs and beat them with bags of D4 dice if it were otherwise. If things in this game don't match the TT rules, all hope is lost.

[Scalien]

Taken from the origional battletech tabletop rule book:

"Whenever a 'Mech has one of its legs or arms blown off, the limb is left lying in the hex where the 'Mech that occupies that hex at a later time can pick up the arm or leg and use it as a giant club."

That boys and girls is why many mechs have hands.

[Sephlock]

[Blood Rose]

It would be cool to be able to melee with hands.