116 replies to this topic

[Joseph Mallan]

So here we are again, discussing starting weights. Sure starting in a light Mech is fine in when you play by yourself, but in an online environment where we will be facing the Clans in short order, do you wanna face Clan Smoke Jaguar with a Cicada as your heaviest Mech?

Everybody has different perspectives on what the game should have, Me I would L.M.A.O. if I saw the Davion Assault Guard coming at me with a mix of Valkyries, Commandos, and Hunchbacks!

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 21 November 2011 - 04:30 AM.

[Amarus Cameron]

If I have to start with IS junk, and assuming the information about us being able to start in whatever we like I would like to roll out in an Orion...it was General Kerensky's mech before the Atlas...and I do not like to pound around in assaults.

[Helo Calister]

For mercs why not let them have access to the mechs of the house holding their contract? Like what we saw in MC 2. And for everyone else i say we should get a med mech of our house because back then meds were the norm with the occasional heavy and rare assault.

[Odin]

Pht, on 20 November 2011 - 04:25 PM, said:

The lore has it's genesis (by two years) and anchor in the pen and paper game end.

Absolut.
While the P&P desribes the mechanics and turns them into numbers, IMO the fiction gets meat to them bones
So, haven't had a chance to play the P&P game yet, the lore 's getting it alive for me.

S!

Edited by Odin, 21 November 2011 - 05:27 AM.

[Threat Doc]

Helo Calister, on 21 November 2011 - 04:53 AM, said:

For mercs why not let them have access to the mechs of the house holding their contract?

Because Mercs can generally pull from a hodge-podge of 'Mechs, whether on Galatea, Outreach, or Anywhere, and then there's always the Black Market and, then, straight factory purchases, if the unit can afford to do that. Of course, the 'Mechs mercs get from any place other than the factory are going to be in average-poor condition, while House and Clan 'Mechs will, in all likelihood, be in near pristine condition.

One of the things that actually attracted me to become a mercenary was the idea that mercs are the underdogs, have to deal with all manner of things on their smaller level that larger, more 'legitimate' elements don't have to deal with at all. On the same day I picked up my BattleTech box-set (what most people now call 2nd edition BattleDroids), I also picked up The Fox's Teeth: McKinnon's Raiders, and read through that even before I read through the rules in the box, and just fell in love from there with the idea of being a merc.

Captain Ian McKinnon ~ BattleMech Report
The Marauder's autocannon reload mechanism is mechanically unreliable. It will jam on a roll of 9+, and it cannot be repaired while the Marauder is in combat. This roll is made before the to-hit roll.

MechWarrior Iskoru Chipende ~ BattleMech Report
Chipende's Phoenix Hawk took a crippling hit from an enemy Warhammer during a skirmish on New Ivaarsen. It suffered severe structural damage and cannot carry more than ten points of armor on its left leg.

Lieutenant Kate Nomura ~ BattleMech Report
The Griffin's LRM fire control system functions erratically. On any roll of 9+, the missiles will fire 60 degrees off-target. (Roll one die: on a roll of 1-3, the Griffin's missiles will fire straight down a hex row to the right; on a 4-6, they will fire to the left.) This malfunction roll is made before any to-hit roll. If there is any target in the misfired missiles' line of travel, normal to-hit procedures are followed. In addition, Nomura's 'Mech took a PPC hit in the Drango's Farm ambush. The PPC strike destroyed two of the 'Mechs heat sinks and knocked out a Jump Jet, so Nomura's Griffin now jumps up to five hexes, not six.

Man, I love this stuff.

[Alizabeth Aijou]

Quote

Oh, my bad. So a four-story fall instead of a five-story fall. Yeah, that'll be so much more survivable.

People have survived such falls...
Kiyomizu-dera: 234 recorded jumps in the Edo period with a survival rate of 85.4%.
The drop is 13m (40ft or so).

Quote

and gunners have been doing it without actively thinking about it probably since shortly after gunpowder was invented

Before, even, with bows&crossbows.

Edited by Alizabeth Aijou, 21 November 2011 - 09:37 AM.

[Corsair114]

Small to moderate selection of any 'mech tonnage with one freebie. That seems far and away the most likely course the devs will go, especially if they intend for the optimal lance to require one 'mech of each tonnage, and have the game balanced in a way that does require it.

[Oppi]

J Echo, on 20 November 2011 - 02:31 PM, said:

All of the Mechwarrior games that I played (Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Mechwarrior 3, Mechwarrior 4 and Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries) omitted the absurd designs.

You mean like the Fafnir (MW4:Mercs) which basically consists of two giant holes in it's front torso, right next to the cockpit ?
I would like to know, what "absurd designs" you mean. If we can forget the fact that giant bipedal robots are a much worse warmachine than simple tanks (just look at the possibility of falling, the stability issues and so on), we should be able to forget some other conflicts with reality when it comes to the specific design of the robots

Same thing for physics. If we accept Jumpships (are they called that in the english version ? It's the "word-by-word" translation from the german books I know), we can accept a Pilot to survive his Battlemech falling over. They control a lot of the Mech via Neurohelmet and their own reflexes, so one could imagine arms and legs used to support a falling mech, preventing the pilot from suffering the full possible damage. It's the same thing you would do if you fell over, no matter in what direction. Yes, giant objects do suffer more damage from the same fall, but Battlemechs are supposed to be much tougher than your average family van ...
By the way : There was no "true to real life physics" falling in any MW game I know anyway ("I" never died from falling after being hit by an LB-X) nor any ballistic drop, so that is not really important for the point I asked you to explain. In what way was MW physics superior to TT or novel physics ?

Edited by Oppi, 21 November 2011 - 01:26 PM.

[feor]

Quote

Same thing for physics. If we accept Jumpships (are they called that in the english version ? It's the "word-by-word" translation from the german books I know), we can accept a Pilot to survive his Battlemech falling over.

Jumpships are the ones that make the hyperspace jumps from star to star, carrying dropships. So if those are teh ones you're referring to, then yes, that's what they're called in English.

[Strayed]

**Vote summary**

Quite interesting discussing taking place here. So far I can tell that most people would prefer starter mechs be medium or light, although a good percentage state they want freedom of choice. Most people would prefer their choices to be related to faction although again there's a sizeable percentage say roletype. Overall its clear they want some specific choice in their starter mech. Seems like most people would rather we have only one starter mech at this moment.

**End of quick summary**

Seen a view ideas chucked about here that could merit their own topic, for example dealing with mech loss could be a concern and uniquely handled.

[Jack Gallows]

Kay Wolf, on 21 November 2011 - 08:41 AM, said:

Man, I love this stuff.

Yea, a lot of the fluff with the different mechs and pilots was great, hope some of that makes it into the game a bit.

Not really a game changing fluff entry that I liked about one of the vehicles, not related to a pilot...

Alacorn Tank

The Alacorn's popularity also received an unexpected boost when its crews discovered that the unique truncated pyramid can of the popular Federated Suns Pharaoh beer was the perfect track tension gauge. As only a freshly opened can has the exact measurement required, Alacorn crews are renowned for making frequent and extremely thorough track maintenance checks.

[SMDMadCow]

Will we be able to select "Mercenary" for our pilots? From what it looks like to me, we will get a house pilot and then we can have that pilot join a Merc Corp - akin to a guild in other games, but not an acutal mercenary command - they would stay a house pilot.

[Psydotek]

I'm going with a Jenner because that's what you started with in Mechwarrior 1. For nostalgia's sake...

[Oppi]

SMDMadCow, on 21 November 2011 - 09:24 PM, said:

From what it looks like to me, we will get a house pilot and then we can have that pilot join a Merc Corp - akin to a guild in other games, but not an acutal mercenary command - they would stay a house pilot.

I think we'll all be mercenaries who declare loyalty to a certain house (or can choose to do so) or who get most of their jobs from that house, just like the Grey Death Legion usually worked for Steiner / in Steiner space.

[Hohiro Kurita]

feor, on 19 November 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

I think we should be able to pick whatever size mech we want, be it a big bad assault mech,or light fast bandit. Especially given that the Devs have said over and over and over that they are specifically making it so that bigger mech =/= better mech. Your assault might have a lot of guns, but you might find yourself alone in a fight against a lance of lights who can outmaneuver you like no one's business.

In terms of which mechs we should be able to choose, I went with "house specific" because it's closest to what I think should be available. I think you should have something like, just pulling numbers out of the air, if you had 3 mechs available to pick from 1 of them should be ones available to any house (probably from the unseen), 1 common to your house and it's most common rivals (so likely to have been salvaged), and 1 exclusive to your faction.

So say you're starting as a Lyran in an assault mech, your general option might be Battlemaster you "salvaged" option might be a Mauler, and your faction specific one might be a Zeus. (if you wanted to go with the Scout option )

But I do think we should start with 1 mech. Pre-clan, especially pre-clan mercs, most mechs were inherited from your parents, or salvaged from the battlefield after you had lost your inherited mech.

Good luck with that unseen thing. I absolutely agree but it won't happen, because apparently it will never go away. Macross, Robotech, Voltron, they all suck - copyright aside its been FOREVER since that, it shouldn't be an issue anymore.

[TheRulesLawyer]

Starting mech should be based on the battle value. If your mech is less than the max BV, you get some starter cbills to go buy upgrades and stuff with.

[Threat Doc]

Do you mean they should place Battle Value ranges, upper limits, by role, then? I actually like that idea a great deal. Then, yeah, translate points below maximums for goodies you can get.

Here's the problem, though... what if I want my Command 'Mech, but the 'Mech I've designed as a 55-tonner has a 1572 BV, able to take on most Heavy and Assault 'Mechs and win... what happens if the highest BV I can have for my Command 'Mech is 1250 BV?

Hmmm, I'm thinking this now might not be such a good idea, and perhaps specific 'Mechs should go to specific Roles, regardless of BV. Hmmm, this would make problems in other parts of this forum, too... going with tons rather than BV.

[Traejun DiSanctis]

The only system that makes any sense is to have unlimited amounts of your starter mech. As such, you can lose that much as many times as you want, you'll just keep getting it - and the stock weapons loadout - replaced every time you get blow'd up. I think the started should be based upon whatever weight class you choose to start out.

Purchased Mechs and upgraded equipment should have a durability (total deaths) or time-based license (days or matches played).

[DocBach]

You guys know that the big Wednesday surprise is that the Urbanmech is being revealed as the starter 'Mech, right?

[Jeremy Hunter]

Personally, I'd say start with a light 'mech off the bat, and only the one, but a complete choice. While not everyone likes the Lighter 'Mechs, using one for awhile, and upgrading as you go, allows you to get a feel for how that mech class fights, and allows you to counter them a bit better.

But that's just me.