121 replies to this topic

[TheCharlatan]

SnagaDance, on 12 May 2015 - 04:10 AM, said:

In BattleTech lore IS mechs are often centuries old, and many of them are privately owned, even those in the official state military!!! (basically Bring Your Own Tank) It's only with the recovery of LosTech after the Clan invasion and the resurgence in mech production that this starts to change.

Meanwhile Clan mechs are the property of the Clan military and never the property of the pilot. A pilot is assigned a mech based on operational needs, their aptitude and availability. Sure this may mean that a clan mechwarrior may pilot the same mech for years, constantly switching up a unit's assets is not very good for unit cohesion after all. But if the higher ups decide the unit is going to pilot some new mechs that's the end of the discussion. No "I will have none of that new fangled Patton Star Colonel, I'll keep using my Sherman thank you very much!" either.

I know it's not how it went, but i imagine the infamous Steiner Scout Lance to have started that way.

"Ok, guys, comand is sending us to scout enemy territories."

"No way i'm not bringing my atlas, sarge. You other guys should do the same, or i will shoot your legs out."

[bad arcade kitty]

>The beauty of Inner Sphere mechs are there are so many and not so much heavy inbalance.

are you serious

from all those many, 3 times more than clans have, how many do they play in cw? thunderbolts, stalkers and wolverines?

when scr is basically the only decent clan medium, no wonder you see it a lot, when shadow kitten is out there will be significantly less crows

[Skarlock]

Johnny Z, on 12 May 2015 - 02:52 AM, said:

When Omni mechs are fairly balanced then their pilots can have some pride piloting them and with that comes soul.

At the moment many Clan players pilot their easy mode mechs in shame. "Yes I am piloting a streak crow and those 4 IS lights I just shot down easily without even aiming had it coming, after I take a shower Im going to the corner to hide my shame"

So yes as it is now a few Clan mechs have no soul.

By the way Omni mech cockpits are great. They may make a pass of all cockpits some time as a graphics update but they are frst rate as of now.

People need to be specific. Are you seriously going to say the guy running around and actually doing well in a mist lynx should feel "dirty" he is using a staggering 4 er medium laser setup? Or the pop-tarting summoner with a single gauss and single clan ERPPC? Let's take a full list of the clan mechs in total, shall we?

Lights:

Mist Lynx - Terrible, under gunned, extremely fragile, easy to blow off arms and deprive it of any weapons. But hey, at least you can jump really high! Wheeeee!
Kit Fox - Terrible. Too slow but can at least take a pretty big loadout of firepower for a light.
Adder - Terrible. Slow, fragile, easy to hit, but can also take solid firepower for a light.

Mediums:

Ice Ferret - A joke. It's a 45 ton mech in an oversized light mech body.
Nova - Mid tier. An OK mech that has way too big of a center torso, but has decent offensive potential if you can survive long enough in it.
Storm Crow - Absolute top tier medium mech. King of the hill probably.

Heavies:

Mad Dog : Barely a heavy, but OK tier if missiles of any flavor are your thing.
Hellbringer : Top tier heavy.
Summoner : LOL. You have a lot of jump jets and not much else.
Timber Wolf : Top tier heavy mech, probably best in game.

Assaults:

Gargoyle : LOL. Racing assault. Mangoyle is kinda viable but mid tier assault at best.
Warhawk : Decidedly meh. Mid tier assault. Not terrible but not great either.
Dire Wolf : Top tier assault.

So when you look at clan mechs in general, I think most people would agree that you have 5 terrible mechs, 4 mid tier mechs, and 4 top tier mechs. That's right, most clan mechs are either pretty bad or mediocre! If you wanna call people out for driving the fearsome foursome, that's fine, but do not continue to perpetuate the idea that all clan mechs are OP. And don't even pretend there aren't plenty of OP mechs on the IS side to counter balance things for CW.

[Dolph Hoskins]

Skarlock, on 12 May 2015 - 04:26 AM, said:

Mediums:

Ice Ferret - A joke. It's a 45 ton mech in an oversized light mech body.

Negative.

The Ice Ferret is currently the fastest clan mech. It is no joke if that trait is utilized for it's strengths.

Just don't expect it to carry a team or face tank something with more weapons.

Edited by The Ripper13, 12 May 2015 - 04:33 AM.

[bad arcade kitty]

>The Ice Ferret is currently the fastest clan mech.

which is only important for cw because in pugs any is light would do better

[Johnny Z]

Skarlock, on 12 May 2015 - 04:26 AM, said:

People need to be specific. Are you seriously going to say the guy running around and actually doing well in a mist lynx should feel "dirty" he is using a staggering 4 er medium laser setup? Or the pop-tarting summoner with a single gauss and single clan ERPPC? Let's take a full list of the clan mechs in total, shall we?

Lights:

Mist Lynx - Terrible, under gunned, extremely fragile, easy to blow off arms and deprive it of any weapons. But hey, at least you can jump really high! Wheeeee!
Kit Fox - Terrible. Too slow but can at least take a pretty big loadout of firepower for a light.
Adder - Terrible. Slow, fragile, easy to hit, but can also take solid firepower for a light.

Mediums:

Ice Ferret - A joke. It's a 45 ton mech in an oversized light mech body.
Nova - Mid tier. An OK mech that has way too big of a center torso, but has decent offensive potential if you can survive long enough in it.
Storm Crow - Absolute top tier medium mech. King of the hill probably.

Heavies:

Mad Dog : Barely a heavy, but OK tier if missiles of any flavor are your thing.
Hellbringer : Top tier heavy.
Summoner : LOL. You have a lot of jump jets and not much else.
Timber Wolf : Top tier heavy mech, probably best in game.

Assaults:

Gargoyle : LOL. Racing assault. Mangoyle is kinda viable but mid tier assault at best.
Warhawk : Decidedly meh. Mid tier assault. Not terrible but not great either.
Dire Wolf : Top tier assault.

So when you look at clan mechs in general, I think most people would agree that you have 5 terrible mechs, 4 mid tier mechs, and 4 top tier mechs. That's right, most clan mechs are either pretty bad or mediocre! If you wanna call people out for driving the fearsome foursome, that's fine, but do not continue to perpetuate the idea that all clan mechs are OP. And don't even pretend there aren't plenty of OP mechs on the IS side to counter balance things for CW.

This is incorrect. As an example, the Gargoyle is exactly like the Cicada. The Cicada may be the least armoured and armed Inner Sphere medium mech. Maybe the least in the game come to think of it.

The proper use of speed allows me to have excellent matches in it. I am certain the same is possible with the Gargoyle. I have seen exactly one decent Gargoyle pilot ever as a matter of fact and he didnt stand still but ran accross a canyon firing into it on my team to great effect. We strafed it as it ran back and forth but he was getting the better of the deal until more of my team showed up and then he panicked got stuck in the corner and shot to pieces which is why I said decent and not great. (Changed this because I forgot how his mech went down until now.)

Clan mechs are not badly balanced as a whole a few need nerfs. And most need better pilots. Blame easy mode.

Edited by Johnny Z, 12 May 2015 - 05:22 AM.

[Mercules]

Johnny Z, on 12 May 2015 - 03:32 AM, said:

Any Inner Sphere mech with a IS XL is fodder for a Streak Crow. One hit through armor on RT or CT or LT or RL or LL and its over.

Bull... I run multiple Commandos. I have NO clue what you are doing knife fighting with a Streak Crow when the Commando is the fastest mech in the game and the Stormcrow goes 106.9 kph. Even the slowest Commando should be doing 149.7 kph with the faster ones going 171.1 kph.

You should never be close enough to a Streak Crow for them to get a lock. If you find yourself in that situation you should always be close enough to ready cover to break the lock and agile enough to get there before missiles destroy you. Now I often come away from encounters with them with missing armor, but I do have a chance against them... mostly because I have 9 other mechs better suited to dealing with them while I out maneuver them.


The cool down time on S-SRM 6s is ridiculously high. If you do take one salvo you have 6 seconds to react and get distance and/or cover from them.

[Lightfoot]

No I think they are fine. I think the damage models are a bit over fast to deface the mechs, but the damage occurs so fast anyway this is probably just the way it is.

My Mad Cat feels like the real thing.

Although all of MWO's mechs are too easy to damage, but that's just how I feel. 20-100 ton robots should have more tanking ability than a Quake character. In fact most MMO Classes can tank more than an MWO Battlemech. That just seems wrong. The weapon recharges have thrown the TTK on the mechs off even with the double armor and the arm-stumps having more damage resistance than the CT is from the Oort Zone (as far out as you can get).

[Johnny Z]

Mercules, on 12 May 2015 - 04:38 AM, said:

Bull... I run multiple Commandos. I have NO clue what you are doing knife fighting with a Streak Crow when the Commando is the fastest mech in the game and the Stormcrow goes 106.9 kph. Even the slowest Commando should be doing 149.7 kph with the faster ones going 171.1 kph.

You should never be close enough to a Streak Crow for them to get a lock. If you find yourself in that situation you should always be close enough to ready cover to break the lock and agile enough to get there before missiles destroy you. Now I often come away from encounters with them with missing armor, but I do have a chance against them... mostly because I have 9 other mechs better suited to dealing with them while I out maneuver them.


The cool down time on S-SRM 6s is ridiculously high. If you do take one salvo you have 6 seconds to react and get distance and/or cover from them.

Well I am glad we agree light mechs have no chance against the Streak Crow. I was commenting on the chances of escaping an engagement with a Streak Crow from medium range in a fast light. Assuming they are facing each other etc. The Streak Crow does 110 kph. Count the time for the light to make the turn in the open and everything else.

You call bull and then name the fastest load out possible like it has a chance against a Streak Crow? Really?

Ya the fastest load out of the fastest mech in the game has a chance of escaping in ideal conditions. Clan idea of gameplay balance 101.

"If they live longer than 6 seconds its fair" balance system. LOL

Edited by Johnny Z, 12 May 2015 - 05:01 AM.

[TheCharlatan]

Streakcrows are overrated.

They are powerful, but have lots of downsides.

It just feels that you have been cheated when they kill you ("you easy mode ****!") but truth is that you would have been killed anyway if they were using lazors.

Every time i die at the hands of a streakcrow, i remember the times i found myself in a medium or heavier mech with full armor before one, and completely destroyed it while laughing at it's useless weapons that were spreading damage everywhere.

When i'm in a light mech, i just run towards my team. If the streakcrow is foolish enough to give chase (they often are) they just die. And if i die to it, i can only blame myself for not being smart enough.

Except when i'm in a urbie. Urbies don't stand a chance against a streakcrow. But they don't stand a chance against almost anything, so whatever

[Mercules]

Johnny Z, on 12 May 2015 - 04:47 AM, said:

Well I am glad we agree light mechs have no chance against the Streak Crow. I was commenting on the chances of escaping an engagement with a Streak Crow from medium range in a fast light. Assuming they are facing each other etc. The Streak Crow does 110 kph. Count the time for the light to make the turn in the open and everything else.

You call bull and then name the fastest load out possible like it has a chance against a Streak Crow? Really?

Ya the fastest load out of the fastest mech in the game has a chance of escaping in ideal conditions. Clan idea of gameplay balance 101.

You specifically mentioned your Commandos. Thus why I called bull.

Johnny Z, on 12 May 2015 - 03:32 AM, said:

My Commando is also luck to survive 2 salvos and so on.

1. Why is your light mech "In the open?"
2. Why is it at medium range for a Stormcrow?

I've killed them in Panthers because they couldn't get close enough to me and I maneuvered vertically over things. Panther is a "slow" light.

Edited by Mercules, 12 May 2015 - 04:55 AM.

[Vandul]

OP, you said "Clan Mechs" but I read "Clan Pilots". Natural association there.

[Mar-X-maN]

I realized any mech is soulless until you put fancy stuff in your cockpit.

[sycocys]

Just starting on these clan mechs and I have to say that to some extent I agree. There's a few that I just don't like the cockpit look at all so I don't even want to run them (same for the IS, also some that I like the cockpit look but the mech hardpoints suck).

All being said being able to more or less choose my hardpoints is a huge selling factor to me to keep playing clan mechs over IS. Would be pretty slick if we could have some MC options for cockpit variations though.

[mogs01gt]

Love clan mechs,,,,just wish that more of them were viable.

[Juodas Varnas]

Clan mechs are as soulless as gingers.

[TheCharlatan]

Juodas Varnas, on 12 May 2015 - 05:40 AM, said:

Clan mechs are as soulless as gingers.

Sexy gingers or awkward gingers?

[N a p e s]

Echoing something that has kind of already been pointed out but isn't that kind of the point with Omnimechs?

Looking at it from a build philosophy standpoint, the Omnimech is supposed to be modular enough to fulfill any role needed during a mission and in my mind that removes some of the character. In game, I have quasi-duplicates of the same build on multiple clan mechs but on the IS side my builds tend to be more unique for each mech.

It makes for a bit more redundancy on the Clan side, but I think it actually makes sense and kind of fits with how Omnis would operate in the Mechwarrior universe. That being said visually the Omnis differentiate themselves enough from the IS Battlemechs and from each other and a lot of the character comes from that.

[Catra Lanis]

The OP has a point, I'm not overly fond of clan mechs. I'm leveling some now just to have a drop deck in case there's a repeat of Tuk.

I hate the Crow, something is off with it but I can't put my finger on what exactly. It's powerful, it's THE medium but it's boring as hell. Once I'd mastered them I put them away. The Warhawk and Timberwolf are okay but still "sterile"

Yes the IS cockpit especially the Raven looks like a Jet fighter. The clan cockpits with their analog instruments and dials look like a WW2 bomber.

[MechWarrior5152251]

Do some of the IS mechs have "souls"? If so how do we kill these demons before they exterminate all life?