85 replies to this topic

[Buck Rogers]

The Urbie is 45% weapons & ammo.

Now, if it were in game, I wonder what kind of custom loadouts you could make? From what I understand, the right arm would be a hardpoint for Ballistic weapons only, and the left arm would be a hardpoint for Energy weapons only. So it's unlikely I could roll out with 4 medium lasers, an LRM-10 & 1 ton of ammo, 14 heat sinks, and 104 points of armor, haha. Although that would be pretty cool.

Even so, there are several options. I for one would drop the useless 11th heat sink and either,

(1). Add another ton of AC-10 ammo for a total of 20 shots, for 3 minutes 20 seconds of sustained firing, or,
(2). Swap the small laser for a Medium laser and add 1/2 more ton of armor, for an armor factor of 104.

It's always been a mystery to me why that 11th heat sink is even there. The regular variant would only get a max heat of 7. My Medium Laser variant would only get a max heat of 9. Ten heat sinks for a heat dissipation of 10 is more than adequate.

[Beazle]

buck rogers, on 02 July 2012 - 12:39 AM, said:

The Urbie is 45% weapons & ammo.

Now, if it were in game, I wonder what kind of custom loadouts you could make? From what I understand, the right arm would be a hardpoint for Ballistic weapons only, and the left arm would be a hardpoint for Energy weapons only. So it's unlikely I could roll out with 4 medium lasers, an LRM-10 & 1 ton of ammo, 14 heat sinks, and 104 points of armor, haha. Although that would be pretty cool.

Even so, there are several options. I for one would drop the useless 11th heat sink and either,

(1). Add another ton of AC-10 ammo for a total of 20 shots, for 3 minutes 20 seconds of sustained firing, or,
(2). Swap the small laser for a Medium laser and add 1/2 more ton of armor, for an armor factor of 104.

It's always been a mystery to me why that 11th heat sink is even there. The regular variant would only get a max heat of 7. My Medium Laser variant would only get a max heat of 9. Ten heat sinks for a heat dissipation of 10 is more than adequate.

The 11'th sink is a holdover from an experimental design that had double sinks and dual PPCs (no small laser) which gave it exactly the amount of sinks it needed to jump and fire both PPCs.

Sadly, however, this design was put on hold, in order to rush a cheap product into production to help the companies floundering bottom line. By the time designers were able to return to their original plans, the innerspere was in turmoil and the supply of double heat sinks was too limited to spend on a new, untested design.

All of that is a total fabrication on my part, but it sounds good, and dual PPC Urbies make me all kinds of happy.

There is no reason for the 11th sink other than the original game devs not putting much thought into the design. If you really sit down and look, there are a LOT of things in the original 3025 TRO that make no sense.

[Buck Rogers]

I tried searching but I couldn't figure it out... Will we be able to add/remove heat sinks?

Removing that 11th heat sink suddenly turns the Urbie from being able to dish out a theoretical 280 points of damage in 10 minutes, to 380 (with the extra AC ammo) or 480 (with the Medium Laser swap). That's a pretty huge difference.

The Urbanmech UM-R69 from 3063 specifically drops the extra heat sink. Being as it's the same engine, I see no reason why you couldn't do that in 3049.

[Bombast]

buck rogers, on 02 July 2012 - 12:39 AM, said:

It's always been a mystery to me why that 11th heat sink is even there. The regular variant would only get a max heat of 7. My Medium Laser variant would only get a max heat of 9. Ten heat sinks for a heat dissipation of 10 is more than adequate.

The vast majority of FASA's original mechs were flawed by design, mostly for balance and fun. It allowed them to churn out more mechs without getting redundant. Its also made Battletech (Pen and Paper Mechwarrior) far more interesting - You not only had to out play your foe, but out play your own mechs obvious flaws.

That's part of the Urbanmech's appeal. Its a horrendous piece of junk that's 99% fail worthy. But if you could play just right, and get your opponent in just the right spot, the Urbanmech would be worth it's weight in gold. And it gave you one hell of a feeling.

[Fire for Effect]

Bombast, on 02 July 2012 - 01:22 AM, said:

The vast majority of FASA's original mechs were flawed by design, mostly for balance and fun. It allowed them to churn out more mechs without getting redundant. Its also made Battletech (Pen and Paper Mechwarrior) far more interesting - You not only had to out play your foe, but out play your own mechs obvious flaws.

That's part of the Urbanmech's appeal. Its a horrendous piece of junk that's 99% fail worthy. But if you could play just right, and get your opponent in just the right spot, the Urbanmech would be worth it's weight in gold. And it gave you one hell of a feeling.

The problem is you wont get it to the right spot since it is very unlikely that you start at the right spot so you need to get there which is kind of a problem considering a snails speed. Chances are you will be spotted before you are at a useful place, and then a flight of LRMs would likely end your existence. A smart player can also just ignore your snail and go around it or if you are annoying enough just end you with artillery, indirect fire or long range weaponry.

[Squeak]

ummm the name urban mech should make it clear that is wasnt designed for open area combat its supposed to be used in urban areas where movement is restrixcted and lock ons are nigh impossable

so it alot of ways it makes sence that it would have a advantage aginst some of the larger mechs in areas like this

[Striker1980]

Protection, on 30 June 2012 - 02:07 PM, said:

LOL Love it.

[Ghost Rider LSOV]

The Catapult in the comic with the monocle and the hat must be delivered to the meme thread for the "like a sir" Mech memeface.

[wanderer]

Damion Sparhawk, on 30 June 2012 - 09:26 PM, said:

I believe you're confusing urbanmech with Lagann from Gurren Lagann.

Would it disturb you if I told you someone DID Gurren Lagann Urbanmech?

[Bongo TauKat]

Argue back and forth all you want. You will never diminish my love for a waddling trash can with a monster gun welded to its cute little self.

[Odweaver]

Ah, found it!

[Sylow]

Hate the Urbie all you want. Or play a double-blind tabletop once a while on a typical double-blind map, which means: urban combat.

There the urbie gives you a lot of performance for the low price. The jump capacity is designed for BT urban maps (where buildings are always 1 field wide, so 2 fields jump distance gets you completely out of sight, it carries enough armour to handle the limited ammount of fire it will take despite moving properly and has plenty of punch for its weight. Even the one ton of ammo is not that big an issue, you have to move the mech carefully, so you won't fire every round and the one ton most likely lasts through the match.

It sure doesn't win the war all by itself but when operating in team, it's cost efficiency allows you to bring the deciding little bit of more firepower to the field which pushes odds in your favour.

It might be quite some revelation that an urbanmech in an urban environment can do quite well. Of course, if you take the Urbie to the open field, it'll be shattered by long range weapons before being able to do anything, but pick up your 3025 and read the Urbanmech flavour text... it's all been covered already.

Edited by Sylow, 02 July 2012 - 07:42 AM.

[Odweaver]

Sylow, on 02 July 2012 - 07:42 AM, said:

It might be quite some revelation that an urbanmech in an urban environment can do quite well. Of course, if you take the Urbie to the open field, it'll be shattered by long range weapons before being able to do anything, but pick up your 3025 and read the Urbanmech flavour text... it's all been covered already.

For open fields it equips it's battle armor.

[wanderer]

Places like the new Frozen City map seem...well, Urbie country. Lots of small buildings to leap over, and they're small enough to hide behind/on them too.

Wonder if we'll be able to blow up the buildings?

[Bloodweaver]

Odweaver, on 02 July 2012 - 07:56 AM, said:

For open fields it equips it's battle armor.

hahahahahhaha....

wanderer, on 02 July 2012 - 08:02 AM, said:

Wonder if we'll be able to blow up the buildings?

From what I've read so far, there is NO environmental destruction at all - whether it be buildings, trees, unoccupied vehicles, telephone poles, or birds... Which is a real shame. It takes a LOT of the immersion of being in a Mech out of the game if you don't really see the consequences of your destructive ability. I hope that decision changes, fast.

[CaveMan]

Swap small laser for large laser. Replace autocannon with 3 machine guns. Boost speed to 4/6/4, max out the armor, add 1 more heat sink.

Tadaaa, Über-Urbie.

(alternately, remove the extra heat sinks and use a PPC instead of that large laser, and accept some minor heat issues in exchange for particle death beams)

[Odweaver]

CaveMan, on 02 July 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

Swap small laser for large laser. Replace autocannon with 3 machine guns. Boost speed to 4/6/4, max out the armor, add 1 more heat sink.

Tadaaa, Über-Urbie.

(alternately, remove the extra heat sinks and use a PPC instead of that large laser, and accept some minor heat issues in exchange for particle death beams)

Reminds me of the K variant catapult using 6x small pulse lasers and 2x LBX 10

[NWHHarrier]

Odweaver, on 02 July 2012 - 07:56 AM, said:

For open fields it equips it's battle armor.

lol that's funny earlier today I said jagermech looks like someone dumped teenage mutant ninja turtle ooze onto an urbie. like super shredder, super urbie.

[Damion Sparhawk]

wanderer, on 02 July 2012 - 05:08 AM, said:

Would it disturb you if I told you someone DID Gurren Lagann Urbanmech?

no, it -might- disturb me to find urbanmech (apparently the thing the internet is for is censored), but only maybe...

Edited by Damion Sparhawk, 02 July 2012 - 05:06 PM.

[VonFranz]

Yo Protection. When can we expect the continuing adventures of super-urbie? MOAR SUPER URBIE!