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Mind you: The sole purpose of this dictionary is to inform about terms native to the Mechwarrior games (i. e. terms that originated in the Mechwarrior community to describe in-game phenomena). For everything generally Battletech related, please go to Sarna for further infos on the BT universe.
This dictionary is in no way as complete as the title suggests. It is a rather open project and I'd really like to get input from all of you MW veterans, be it other terms I overlooked or clarifications on the descriptions I provided. I tried to keep all descriptions as neutral and concise as possible.
I'll add every constructive feedback to this post to keep it up to date. (maybe we could even get this sticky?)
Disclaimer: This is a collection of terms that originated and were used throughout the history of Mechwarrior games. Some of the info presented may not (yet) allude directly to Mechwarrior: Online. Every entry that doesn't refer to Mechwarrior in general but to previous iterations of the game will say so in its description. Since we don't yet know a lot about MWO those entries are there with the sole purpose of informing new players of the "slang" used by veterans, not to picture actual game mechanics of MWO.
The Dictionary
- 1st/3rd-person view: Optional views one could use in previous Mechwarrior games. Mainly in MW4 this led to problems within the community since 3rd-person view allowed for some advantages over 1st-person (or cockpit-) view, especially while jump sniping or hill humping (see below).
- Alpha striking: Firing all your mech's weapons at once. Depending on the mech's load-out a risky decision, since there most likely will be a massive heat spike that could lead to your mech shutting down.
- Boating: Equipping a mech with weapons of mostly one type, e.g. laser weapons (Laser boats), missile weapons (Missile boats) etc.
- Brawling: Close combat mech fighting. Mostly fought with mechs equipped with short range weapons (AC/20, SRM etc.)
- C0 – C7: Code used in earlier iterations of MW to set a specific load-out that would be used by all players in a match:
C0 = Stock (Original game mech configurations only)
C1 = Energy Only
C2 = Energy and Ballistics
C3 = Ballistics and Missles
C4 = Energy and Missles
C5 = Ballistics Only
C6 = All Weapons
C7 = Missles Only - Canon: Everything Battletech related that stems from an official source (source- and rulebooks, most novels etc.) and therefore is “legalized” by the game’s developers.
- Chain firing: Firing your mech's weapons in no (or only small) groups one after another, thus achieving a long "chain" of fire that will provide constant damage to the target and in the best case knock its aim off continuously.
- Circle strafing/Circling: A tactic that is preferred in close-combat mech duels. The goal is to circle around an enemy mech and keep your torso centered on the enemy while doing so. This way the enemy has a harder time following your mech (especially if his turn-speed is slower than your running speed) while you still can keep all torso and arm mounted weapons centered on him.
- Coring: Specifically destroying a single hit location on a mech, in most cases the center torso to rapidly kill the mech without "wasting" shots on other locations.
- Cross tech(ing): Using both Inner Sphere and Clan (i. e. "the best of both worlds") equipment in a single chassis, as opposed to Pure tech.
- CT (Center Torso): The main part of a mech's torso. If your CT is destroyed, you die.
- DFA/Death from Above: The act of using your jump jets to maneuver above an enemy mech and subsequently dropping on its head. In the best case the enemy gets decapitated or falls down. This move poses a great risk to the own mech and is often used as a last resort to kill the enemy.
- DZ (Drop Zone): The point on the map where a team is inserted (a.k.a. "dropped") onto the map.
- FFP (Forced first person view): Server setting in Mechwarrior 4 that only allowed 1st person view. Used to make the game more simulation-like and to prevent advantages from using 3rd-person view. See also 1st/3rd-person view.
- Hill humping: A tactic mostly used by pilots of sniper-mechs. I.e. standing behind a hill, only moving forward to shoot over its crest, then moving backwards into cover.
- HO/LA (Heat On/Limited Ammo): The “normal” variant of game play in previous iterations of Mechwarrior. Heat is activated and ammo limited. As opposed to NH/UA.
- Hot drop: A match that starts as soon as it is launched, opposed to matches that are dropped “cold”, i. e. the players join the game and wait for a “go”-signal before the fighting starts.
- HTAL: Acronym used when referring to the standard bar-diagram for your mech's remaining armour. Stands for "Head, Torso, Arms, Legs", i.e. the different hit zones of a mech, which are each represented by a vertical bar that changes colour when the corresponding zone is damaged.
- Jump sniping: A tactic mostly used by pilots of sniper-mechs. A mech stands behind cover and uses its jump jets for a vertical thrust to shoot over the obstacle, then drops back behind cover.
- Legging: Deliberately aiming at a mech’s legs. Previous iterations of Mechwarrior allowed for relatively easy kills by destroying one leg of a mech. Since it was much easier to destroy a single (relatively light armored) leg instead of the heavily armored torso, some (if not most) players considered legging as “dishonorable”.
- Lore: The (fictional) history of the Battletech universe.
- LT (Left Torso): The left part of your mech's torso.
- Mix tech (see Cross tech)
- NH/UA (No Heat/Unlimited Ammo): A variant of game play in previous iterations of Mechwarrior, in which your mech generates no heat and your weapons don’t need ammo, providing a more arcade-like feeling.
- NR (No Respawn): Game-mode in which every player only has one “life” as opposed to UR games that allowed for joining again in a fresh mech after being killed.
- Pop tarting (see Jump sniping)
- Pure tech: Only using Inner Sphere weapons/equipment on Inner Sphere mechs and only Clan weapons/equipment on Clan mechs. As opposed to Mix tech.
- RT (Right Torso): The right part of your mech's torso.
- Splashing: In Mechwarrior 4, a mech always exploded after death, dealing damage to surrounding mechs. It therefore became an often used tactic to go near enemy mechs ("hugging" them) when the own mech had only a little armour left. So when the enemy delivered the killing blow, he too would get damaged by the resulting explosion.
- Stackpoling: A term named after the science-fiction author Michael A. Stackpole, who wrote many of the canonized Battletech novels. It refers to a fusion reactor (as used in Battlemechs) going critical and exploding with a large blast radius. This is mostly a product of artistic license, since reactors in Battletech are quite safe and only really seldom explode when damaged (see Fusion Engine for more info). In fact in the tabletop game, the rule for exploding engines is a Level 3 rule that is not meant for standard play. The first appearance of an exploding engine is found in one of Stackpole's novels, hence the name. Trivia: This phenomenom even made it to tvtropes.org (under "Literature" tab).
- UR (Unlimited Respawn): Game-mode in previous iterations of Mechwarrior in which every player has unlimited “lives” as opposed to NR games which ended for a player if he lost his mech.
- X-Tech (See Cross tech)
Edited by RedDragon, 07 July 2012 - 04:58 AM.
