MustrumRidcully, on 08 January 2014 - 11:15 PM, said:
I found it a bit weird that the Clanners got superior pilots and superior tech. That was really stacking the deck, wasn't it?
Yes. In terms of the game mechanics the balancing mechanism is numerical. The IS forces have way more units to throw into the breech, and since they are not nearly as picky about how elite their pilots are, they got lots more of them to drive all those extra BattleMechs around. The BV (battle value) system does a fair job at setting up matches that can be well fought, but like seeming any games system devised it can also be abused. Overall IIRC the BV systems of Battletech do a fair job of bridging the diffrences between the 3025, 2750 (Star League) and 3050 clan tech bases, all of which could be found on a single planets battlefields during the Invasion.
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But you have the right idea with the timeline - I am realy not familiar with the events and tech beyond the initial Clan Invasion. It probably gets very messy there since both sides get new tech and what not.
It does because the games creators had a huge problem. The Clans as designed were to small long term to survive against the Great Houses industrial edge (the Fed Coms alone really should have been able to kick the Jade Falcons, Steel Vipers and Wolves completely out of the Inner Sphere. The FedComs had between 235 to 260 front line RCT's in January 3052. The 3 mentioned Clans has between 25 to 30 galaxies of total force in their toumans (and I mean total, it would also include clan homeworld garrisons and supply line garrisons. 3 3025 tech base Federated Commonwealth RCT's will kill a Clan Galaxy. Once those units upgrade to Star League specs 2 will do it. Assuming the FedComs only move and use 2/3 of their military might, the Fed Coms can counter offensive wave the occupation zones at a 5 to 1 advantage.
Now you know why a "truce line" was used to end the invasion.
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An idea for balancing DHS - I considered making some DHS "explosive". (Fluff reasoning: DHS use a special type of coolant that is highly combustive when exposed to oxygen.) If I am just trying to balance IS vs Clan DHS, the damage might be relatively low (3-5 points).
Well the thing I would work out is, which tech base is the IS using, either the 3025, or the 2750.
If its 3025 they don't get DHS as its lostech.
If your going ahead and using Star League spec equipment for the IS, keep the DHS unaltered imho. Only real difference is SL DHS is 3 slots to the Clans 2 slot. If you want to give the IS forces a differing flavor, try allowing them to mount more in the engine for free (both to clear internal space but also weight) say those Wiley Star League engineers figured out how to fit lucky 13 DHS in a fusion engine, and thankfully none of those engineers left with that ol' coot Kerensky...(if you try this for every DHS added to the engine add a energy weapon to the effected mech - medium laser or 2 smalls work real well - to round out the weight)
Another way is splitting up how heat is generated. It would be needlessly complex and time consuming (PGI developers grab a pencil and note paper you'll love this idea) run with 3 heat systems. Heat 1 is off of movement, terrain (how hot is the lava river again?) and ambient temperature. Heat 2 is generated by energy weapons. Heat 3 is generated by ballistic and missile weapons. Then just separate out how/who you want the differing scales to effect, and how their HS technology dissipates that heat.
Personally when I built a clan invasion campaign I built it separately for the years involved. In my setup Comstar was more than happy to watch Hanse Davion smash and bleed his massive armies against the ferrocrete wall of the clans.
3049: IS forces use 3025 legal machines and always enjoy a 3 to 1 tonnage advantage, clan players are forces to adhere to a super strict version of zellbrigen. (and I spelled out a very restrictive zellbrign and bidding procedure for the clan players to follow, with a reward system if they held to it correctly)
3050: IS forces may use no more than 50% 2750 tech as refit upgrades to their 3025 units and get a 2.5 to 1 tonnage advantage, clan players continue to use the zellbrigen & bidding house rules, however the penalties for violating them were greatly reduced.
3051: as per lore conflicts were extremely limited, however IS players could use 2750 teched units exclusively at a 2 to 1 advantage, and clan players only must use the bidding procedures, as zellbrigen no longer applies to IS foes.
3052: IS forces can now equip up to 25% of their units with clan grade weapons and heat sinks (thank you Jamie Wolf) but only get a 1.8 tonnage advantage, clan units no longer hindered by bidding procedures or zellbrigen
3053: IS may equip upto 50% clan weapons and heat sinks, and may use full clan tech base on up to 10% of units (thank you again Jamie Wolf), IS gets a 1.5 to 1 tonnage advantage.
3054: IS may equip up to 75% clan weapons and heatsinks and use full clan tech base on upto 25% of units, IS gets a 1.4 to 1 tonnage advantage.
3055: IS may equip up to 100% clan weapons and heatsinks and use full clan tech base on upto 50% of units, IS gets a 1.3 to 1 tonnage advantage.
3056: IS may equip up to 100% clan weapons and heatsinks and use full clan tech base on upto 75% of units, IS gets a 1.2 to 1 tonnage advantage
3057: both sides use clan tech base exclusively.
(really no reason other than writers block why the Combine and FedComs/Lyrans didn't build clan tech exclusively after then invasion truce started. Jamie Wolf handed the IS the keys to the clan machine shop, and its not like the clans were using anything totally alien to the Battletech universe - they were not beaming there Omni's to planets surfaces after all - so really there was no reason that by 3057 the 3 IS powers involved didn't both understand the technology, building the equipment but also have clan teched militaries)