41 replies to this topic

[Spheroid]

The Capellans are sitting very well with the Raven, Catapault and Cataphract. They really only need the Vindicator to complete their flavor.

House Kuritia has the Dragon/Grand Dragon, Jenner and the Catapault K. They need Panther and possibly the Spider. The Mauler is pretty bad so I am guessing we will eventually see an Hatamoto-Chi.

Marik is pretty generalist. Their signature mechs are poorly stated mediums which I doubt will be included anytime soon. They do manufacture the Hunchback, Cicada and Awesome however. The Orion is a signature Marik mech and will the expected choice of a 75 ton mech.

House Steiner has next to nothing. They have the Commando. I understand why the Banshee was not released as it is very close in weight and speed(3S model) to the Atlas. You could argue that the Atlas itself is fairly Lyran as only Hesperus II and Al'Nair produce the Big Al. Perhaps the eventual Atlas-K model will go to the Combine with more Banshee 3S and 5S models in the assualt ranks for House Steiner. The Zeus is iconic but brings little firepower compared to the Atlas, Awesome or Stalker.

The Federated Suns are missing numerous signature mechs. They definately need the Blackjack, Dervish, Enforcer, Victor and Jagermech.


Assuming there are four additional mechs how would you balance them according to faction?

[Smoke Banshee]

Spheroid, on 08 June 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

House Kuritia has the Dragon/Grand Dragon, Jenner and the Catapault K. They need Panther and possibly the Spider. The Mauler is pretty bad so I am guessing we will eventually see an Hatamoto-Chi.

Atlas,and the Stalker are very common Kurita assaults.
However the most common of all the medium mechs for Kurita is the Hunchback, which as we see is already in

[Tremor]

I don't think 'Big Al' is a nickname for the Atlas battlemech, but rather a notable pilot from the Eridani Light Horse lance in MechWarrior three who piloted an Atlas in the trailer.

[Onager Kell]

Would love to see the Enforcer and the JagerMech, Blackjack is cool too though I've never seen it in an actual video game.

Steiner is kinda of "meh" to me, I agree though that the Zeus would be a serious disappointment. Maybe a t-Bolt variant?

[Redburn]

Where does it say that PGI will be balancing mechs based on the houses? Clearly, they have a plan, but there's been no mention of it publicly, beyond Paul stating they had a "spreadsheet" they were working from.

[GrimJim]

While it has been confirmed that all 'Mechs will be available to all parties, they didn't say anything about variants did they?

It would be really sweet & make the houses more diverse if they made faction only variants. So yeah, everyone gets access to all 'Mechs for the same price but Kuritans would only get access to the CPLT-K2 Catapult, the Capellans grab the CDA-2B and 3C Cicada, while Davions get the RVN-3X Raven, etc.....

....or at least give variation on prices per house per variant.

[DireWolf307]

Why does everyone hate on the Zeus? Not everyone needs a slow, lumbering 100t Assault to get the job done. Light Assaults like the Zeus work just fine with the right pilot.

[Alizabeth Aijou]

Smoke Banshee, on 08 June 2012 - 09:24 AM, said:

Atlas,and the Stalker are very common Kurita assaults.
However the most common of all the medium mechs for Kurita is the Hunchback, which as we see is already in

Draconis Combine and medium 'mechs?
Why do you think that the Panther is 35-tons and the Dragon 60-tons?
The DCMS hates mediums.

[Roland]

Spheroid, on 08 June 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

House Steiner has next to nothing.

What are you talking about? They have all of their mechs.

[templar]

I had hoped the Panther would have made the cut. I loved playing that in MW2 Mercs (?).

[Promptus]

That's it. Everyone's getting urbanmechs. Situation resolved.

[Spheroid]

Promptus, on 08 June 2012 - 10:19 AM, said:

That's it. Everyone's getting urbanmechs. Situation resolved.

I know it was a joke, but inclusion of the Urbanmech would further buff the mech selection of the Capellans which they do not need.

[Tadakuma]

From were I stand the houses are fairly balanced in terms of mechs that will be associated with them. It's fairly obvious that the mechs are being chosen less for "iconic house status" and more for general game balance reasons.


If we breakdown which mechs could reasonable be associated with each house it's actually pretty even.

Marik - Cicada, Hunchback, Awesome and Stalker
Kurita - Jenner, Dragon, and Atlas
Liao - Raven, Catapult, and Cataphract
Davion - Raven, Centurion, Cataphract
Rasalllhague - Commando, Jenner and Dragon
Steiner - Commando, Stalker and Atlas

The Jenner isn't in the game because it's an iconic Draconis mech, it's there because it's one of the best hit and run mechs in the game. The Hunchback has the most variants of any medium mech chassis (it may even be any mech chassis but .I would need to check that). While the Centurion is an example of a versatile generalist mech.

Even that Cataphract was chosen because it's one of the few non-unseen or TRO 2750 (Royal SLDF) designs that is a good generalist heavy battlemech.

I suspect that each house will have 4 mechs that get a house discounts at the end of the day and that what role the mech will play on the battlefield is more important to the devs then insuring that each house has it's iconic mechs.

[GHQCommander]

Redburn, on 08 June 2012 - 09:43 AM, said:

Where does it say that PGI will be balancing mechs based on the houses? Clearly, they have a plan, but there's been no mention of it publicly, beyond Paul stating they had a "spreadsheet" they were working from.

This is my way of thinking. The stated mechs are for all and this discussion about each house having what it needs or wants or usually fights in is not really applicable in this game. My opinion. I just think an MMO, the whole "Roles" thing and Information Warfare requires players to play in the chasis that suits their prices needs.

Whatever the house.

But then as someone said, there is a plan and maybe a bunch of variations or mods specific to a house plus to a chasis will come. I too can see them creating some way for a house to get the most out of specific mechs in ways other houses can't. Maybe a houses perks will be that very approach.

It's going to be fun finding out for sure and there are beta testers doing just that. But not even they know what will come before the end of 2012.

[Arikiel]

Just a thought here..... If there's going to be faction discounts how about 6 Mechs per weight category? (ie. 1 per faction per class). That would come to 24 Mechs of course. I dunno.

[Spheroid]

They need more Davion mechs regardless.

No jumping assault, no AC-2 mechs, no SRM2 mechs. More Davion mechs could fill all these weapon holes.

The Panther or Vindicator are needed for lighter PPC platforms.

Edited by Spheroid, 08 June 2012 - 10:31 AM.

[aglarang]

DireWolf307, on 08 June 2012 - 09:47 AM, said:

Why does everyone hate on the Zeus? Not everyone needs a slow, lumbering 100t Assault to get the job done. Light Assaults like the Zeus work just fine with the right pilot.

That so smacks of Steiner mindset, I couldn't help but laugh. "We need more Zeus' for our light lances!!" You sure you have the right faction picked??

[DireWolf307]

aglarang, on 08 June 2012 - 10:32 AM, said:

That so smacks of Steiner mindset, I couldn't help but laugh. "We need more Zeus' for our light lances!!" You sure you have the right faction picked??

The Zeus is a Stiener fast attack 'mech, basically their version of a Jenner

It is the lightest of the Assault class, after all!

[Ian]

Quote

The Zeus is a Stiener

scout 'mech,

Quote

basically their version of a Jenner

Fixed that for you.

[zorak ramone]

The Banshee 5S is the Steiner fast scout, with a super light weight of 95 tons and a blistering 64kph top speed.

What I'm trying to say is why haven't the devs added the BNC-5S yet.

Seriously.