2 replies to this topic

[Xaul]

I know that the game is set in 3059 or so, so I'm not sure that any of my weapon suggestions are viable for canon purposes. The mechs however, should be fine in that regard.

Mechs:

Annihilator
I loved this mech in MW3. I've never played the table top game but Gausszilla would make an awesome hero variant. I'm hoping that at least one variant will have quirks oriented towards ballistic weapons in general (ballistic range, ballistic velocity, ballistic cooldown etc. as opposed to AC range, AC velocity, LB AC X spread, machine gun range etc.), and/or a variant with gauss specific quirks.

Avatar
Cool looking mech. Didn't use it much in MW3, despite its fairly impressive tonnage. Wouldn't make a bad anything, lest of all missile boat.

Champion
One of my favorite mechs from MW3, this one exudes an aura of cool . . . in an odd way. It looks like it was meant for an air port tarmac rather than a ground battle. Reminds me of a jet air craft. That said, I found that it easily lives up to its name.

Firefly
Another MW3 design that looked cool. Might not be much for firepower, but load up the jumpjets and lasers for some hit & run fun.

Hellhound
I recall this one from MW4 Mercenaries. Cool looking and fairly adaptable. Quick too. Looked it up on the battletech wiki and it actually is canonically viable. Like how it looked in MW4 M better though.

Marauder & Marauder 2
Look cool, especially in mod for MW4 M (MechTek), though the Marauder 2 from that mod looked like it should tip over into a face-plant (front looked a little heavy compared to the back, given where the legs are). From what the wiki says, I'm guessing that this cool duo isn't likely to make an appearance ("unseen" due to copyright issues - most disappointing ). Still, I thought I might try to suggest it any way.

Nova cat
Canonically, boarder line (non)viable. Apparently 3059 is when production began so . . . ? I loved this one in MW4 and Mech Assault 2. The digitigrade design is pure, top-shelf awesome too rarely seen in MechWarrior/BattleTech for my liking. PPCs, Lasers, autocannons (had omni slots on one of the arms as I recall), whatever your (generally, non-missile) weapon of choice is, this cool cat will tote it in smooth sleek style. As it stands right now though, the clans have enough stuff on the shelf, and with their range advantage (and many of my favorite mechs) I sometimes wish I had joined Smoke Jaguar instead of Kurita. Another demi-god of war made mech into their arsenal isn't necessary or necessarily advised.

Stone Rhino
Another clan (monster) mech designed by Smoke Jaguar based on an epic failure from the end of the Star League era. This would be cool, if over powered. Definite position and hold (mostly just hold) design.

Sunder
A little odd looking, with the slanted forehead and missile launcher in it, this one wasn't bad in MW3 and made for a decent heavy hitter with the right load out. Though I can't remember what load I liked best, I recall a lot of lasers and an AC (or two). Certainly interesting, and powerful.

Tarantula
A quadruped design - BattleTech could stand to see a few more of those I think, though the wiki says they're disfavored due initial design flaws and subsequent bad rep. - this mech was supposedly in MW2 (if I remember correctly, it required cheat codes to aquire). I have MW2 but never played it - couldn't get it working due some compatibility issue, I might try again some time though - so I don't actually know if was in the game or not. Still, I would like to see it, and pilot it.

Weapons:

Light Gauss Rifle
Canonically, this is probably the only viable one among my suggestions (sort of) since it began production 3056. I would like to have it for its range and better ammo capacity (tonnage to). An Annihilator with 5 or 6 of these and plenty of ammo would make a great sniper. (btw, am I the only one who feels that head shots are way too difficult to actually make use of?)

Rotary Cannon (or a range extension for the machine gun)
The range that I like to fight at is generally long (even at its shortest) but the MG's range is just too short for my liking, especially given the low damage and ammo limitation (though ammo is hardly a concern for it, unlike MW4 where you got 600 rounds/ton). Production of rotary cannons didn't start untill after 3060 tough.

Long Tom
It took some getting used to in MW4, but in shooters I generally am good with grenade launchers. The Long Tom would make a great indirect fire support weapon in the ballistics category (LRMs are fine and all but not really my style). Implementing it might be difficult due to the way such a weapon works but I figure that there must be some way to facilitate easier learning with it.

Thundebolt missile
I didn't use this much in MW4, but I did like it. One powerful mech wrecker shot and even the toughest mechs are looking a little weak. Needs careful aim, especially since it has such limited ammo and high heat.

Medium Range Missiles (MRMs)
I love the damage output/missile of these things. The aiming issues are something of a concern but mostly because of the weight of the launcher and ammo, since spread could be reduced with the Artemis FCS. In MW4 M the salvo sizes got to be ridiculous though (MRM 40 ?!) especially given the dumb-fire (deadfire) nature of the missiles (lack of guidance system).

Bombast Laser
I swear by my Madcat's (timberwolf) bombast lasers, these are my all-time favorite energy weapon!!!!!!!!!!!!! At full charge, they did as much damage as a PPC, weighed the same, had better heat management (cooled while charging) and had a variable fire rate. The only drawbacks were their really short (500m) range (given the damage they did, they should have had longer range), the invariable (and irritating) cooldown between firing and being able to charge again, and that the game almost never gave you any. Get rid of the recycle time, extend its range and maybe increase the max charging time and I might never use any other laser again. The variable fire rate makes it good for slow but heavy hitting long distance and fast furious short distance engagements alike. Accentuate that adaptability and I might never use any other weapon again. Seriously, I want my (new and improved) bombast lasers.

As a final note, I think the lock-on time of S-SRMs is a bit too long. At short range, it can be difficult to get and hold a lock on a fast moving opponent. It is also a a little pointless when an opponent is behind cover or too far away to even hit. I liked the way S-SRMs worked n MW4 better (I still missed a lot though). Would it be possible to shorten the lock time of SRMs - as a kind of compromise - and maybe make it easier (or rather possible) to get them around or over (partial) cover to some limited extent? Thanks.

[Durant Carlyle]

As you state, we won't ever see the Marauder. PGI has already stated that we have already seen our last "Unseen" 'Mech.

We won't ever see quads in the game, so the Tarantula is a no-go. PGI has stated this already as well.

You may see the Bombast Laser in the game some day, but you'll never see one on a Clan 'Mech. It's a Spheroid only weapon. And the drawbacks of the BL were designed specifically so it wouldn't be OP. It would still have to have a recycle time, a long charge time, and short range.

If you want a lock-time reduction for Streaks, then mount Artemis. As long as you don't have any standard SRM or LRM launchers mounted, it doesn't cost any tonnage (just C-Bills) ... and it gives Streaks a lock-time reduction even though it's not supposed to. As far as the "making the missiles smarter" issue ... Streaks have always made a bee-line for their target, even in previous games. They aren't going to get any smarter in this game.

Edited by Durant Carlyle, 28 March 2015 - 10:49 PM.

[Xaul]

What about the Marauder 2? Same boat?

Didn't know Artemis also worked on S-SRMs. I knew they helped SRMs with their spread but I thought I read some were that the S-SRMs didn't get any thing out of artemis (except maybe the spread reduction). Thanks.

As for bombast lasers, maybe I gave the wrong impression earlier. Allow me to clarify. I have no problems with a long charge time (actually I think it could stand to be longer than it was in MW4, 3 seconds seemed rather short but so was its range so a longer charge time wouldn't have made sense), nor do I want it to be over powered - I'd actually be rather disgusted if it were. What I want is to see its adaptability emphasized. A single weapon that fills both long range heavy hitting and short range rapid fire roles so you don't ever need to carry separate weapons for those purposes is what I'm after. To me, 500m is brawling range and dangerously close to the lower limit of where I'll willingly stay and fight. I'm much more comfortable at a mid range to long range of 700 or 800 m out to 1km or more. Given how potent the bombast laser was, it just didn't feel right at 500m either, too powerful for its range (compare to the PPC, gauss rifle or even large lasers ER or not and you'll see what I mean). If they leave the (maximum) damage right were its at, thats totally fine and what I'd expect (more wouldn't likely be reasonable in the first place, though neither would less). Given how much damage it does at full charge, it should be longer ranged and could stand to be slower (longer charge time). I also recall, however, that it had a minimum charge time which (although short) makes the recycle time uselessly redundant and rather annoying. Either one of those put more than sufficient delay between shots (especially once you consider heat build - I never had a bombast laser alone over heat a mech, even with few/no heat sinks), but both was just too long (as I recall, small lasers were much faster). By combining a longer charge time with a lack of recycle time (minimum charge time being retained and still short), the weapon would be able to excel at rapid fire up close while still being able to excel at heavy hitting at long range. MWO has damage fall off at the end of weapon's ranges so I'm sure that variable range wouldn't be out of place with the variable fire rate and could provide an extra point of control for balance.

The whole purpose of an interruptable charge time is variable fire rate, the variable damage is itself a trade off. Lengthening the maximum charge time would reduce the rate at which the damage builds up and further emphasize the distinction between how its to be used at long and short range, as well as emphasizing the adaptability of the weapon (its whole purpose in the first place). Increasing the maximum potential fire rate would better emphasize its utility at short range much more than longer (maximum) charge time would (at any range), though this is because of how slow the weapon's fire rate was in MW4 (which made it much less useful up close - disproportionately so since the reduced damage already balances this).

I don't want OP, I want adaptable. That's what I liked about the bombast laser in MW4, though it didn't live up to its full potential because there wasn't sufficient distinction for it between its use up close and far away. The very nature of such a weapon demands a large difference between its operation at the extreme ends of its niche(s) and in MW4 I found both were just lacking. I want the bombast laser because it allows a mech to bring one weapon with it that lends itself to a wide range of situations. I don't see balancing it to be problematic - especially since the heat build up of the weapon was rather mediocre for its power and fire rate (as I said, with few or no heat sinks I was never able to over heat a mech with bombast lasers alone) due to cooling during its recycle and charge up times and the scaling of heat with damage as it charged. That resulted in almost always dissipating all of its heat before it could fire again, and I don't recall ever finding a mech that could boat enough of them overcome this (even without heat sinks).