24 replies to this topic

[PR1VATEER]

I was just remembering the good old days when we had those huge powerful spotlights for night fighting. How silly to have that huge target on at night! I guess those were before we knew about night vision? What other "old tech" was replaced with modern tech?

[Nik Reaper]

Drones replacing human fighters ?

[Hans Von Lohman]

Actually, this was more of an expanded rules explanation for why a handful of Japanese Anime origin mechs, like the Warhammer, had spotlights. And it was just a handful. The vast majority of mech art don't have obvious spotlights/headlights for the mech. Where is the spotlight on a Timberwolf/Mad-Cat?

The lore always have mechs with lights because they're useful in situations where you don't care about stealth. Remember that in war most of your time is spent just moving around, including night marches along roads until you get to the front line.

[Felicitatem Parco]

In terms of MechWarrior games improving the in-game tech to mirror modern technological developments?

Well, I don't know how you used to spot groups of enemies, but the UAV Consumable module of MW:O seems unique to me. It's a reflection of modern tech.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 06 January 2016 - 09:44 AM.

[Juodas Varnas]

Spotlights might not be that practical or useful in-game, but you gotta admit, they'd look f*cking cool.

If anyone doesn't know, this is for the recently kickstarted, upcoming turn-based Battletech game by Harebrained schemes.

Edited by Juodas Varnas, 06 January 2016 - 11:28 AM.

[AlphaToaster]

I miss the ability from MW3, to stick a flare to the cockpit of a mech to effectively blind it during night fights.

They added NARCS to MWO but left out the flares.

I would use flares on Forest Colony and River City.

[Khobai]

Quote

I was just remembering the good old days when we had those huge powerful spotlights for night fighting. How silly to have that huge target on at night! I guess those were before we knew about night vision? What other "old tech" was replaced with modern tech?

It not really that silly considering night vision wont work as well on moons like the one in pirates moon. no atmosphere exposes you to all sorts of IR interference.

plus it wont let you see craters or pits as easily on the moons surface that your mech can fall into. it can be hard to tell exactly how deep a hole goes with night vision.

it actually made sense to have spotlights in pirates moon. I doubt a spotlight is gonna give your position away before youre detected on seismic anyway.

Edited by Khobai, 06 January 2016 - 10:31 AM.

[MeiSooHaityu]

Pepridge Farms remembers.

[ReverseBurgler]

The lore really doesnt make a ton of sense on stuff like this. For the people in the 1980's when the universe was made, it kinda made sense...but now in 2016 it really doesn't add up.


How do the people of battletech have faster-then-light travel but stuff like missile guidance technology remain lostech?

[SgtMagor]

Spot lights were useful in Mw4, night missions, total black out maps etc, but they really shined when you run up to a target and shine the light into their cockpit, they cant see a thing

[Hotthedd]

ReverseBurgler, on 06 January 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

How do the people of battletech have faster-then-light travel but stuff like missile guidance technology remain lostech?

K-F drives (which make interstellar travel possible) are no longer being produced or researched. After the 1st succession war, Jump ships were agreed upon to be off limits, thus sparing their destruction and keeping them around in the 31st century.
Additionally, ComStar agents have continually and successfully assassinated top scientists throughout the I.S. that do not work for ComStar.

[Alistair Winter]

Adding flood lights to mechs in Mechwarrior games is the equivalent of adding car horns to Need for Speed games. It's not in any way useful in actual competition, it's just a cool feature.

And yes, the Need for Speed games have had car horns since the nineties, and still do. They don't strip their games of every feature that isn't strictly necessary for a minimally viable product.

[FupDup]

I only remember the searchlight being included in Mechwarrior 4. Even then, the light was practically useless, so it was always a superior option to just turn on your Light Amplification mode (aka night vision) instead.

It didn't light up enough stuff to make a difference, and it put a big glowy target on your chest in the dark.

[Whatzituyah]

Hotthedd, on 06 January 2016 - 11:30 AM, said:

K-F drives (which make interstellar travel possible) are no longer being produced or researched. After the 1st succession war, Jump ships were agreed upon to be off limits, thus sparing their destruction and keeping them around in the 31st century.
Additionally, ComStar agents have continually and successfully assassinated top scientists throughout the I.S. that do not work for ComStar.

How does ComStar successfully assassinate every I.S. scientist? Noones that good besides wouldn't they need to roll a die to see if they mess up or miss? Also why don't they go assassinate clan scientists?

[Hotthedd]

Whatzituyah, on 06 January 2016 - 12:06 PM, said:

How does ComStar successfully assassinate every I.S. scientist? Noones that good besides wouldn't they need to roll a die to see if they mess up or miss? Also why don't they go assassinate clan scientists?

Dude, I'm not the author of the history. Just the messenger in this case.

If You are REALLY interested, look it up. www.sarna.net is a good resource.

[Bishop Steiner]

SgtMagor, on 06 January 2016 - 11:29 AM, said:

Spot lights were useful in Mw4, night missions, total black out maps etc, but they really shined when you run up to a target and shine the light into their cockpit, they cant see a thing

the same darkening materials used on cockpits to keep lasers from blinding pilots (yes it's a thing in battletech lore) would just as effectively filter spotlights, TBH.

Whatzituyah, on 06 January 2016 - 12:06 PM, said:

How does ComStar successfully assassinate every I.S. scientist? Noones that good besides wouldn't they need to roll a die to see if they mess up or miss? Also why don't they go assassinate clan scientists?

well, one doesn't know how many times they missed or screwed up.

Plus they never killed them all, just have to target specific links to the chain to make the structure collapse.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

IR lights. I want IR lights in this game.

Make it so that NV becomes FAR more useful, but as a drawback anyone with their NV turned out can see your IS lights as if it were a spotlight (mostly, because it is. It's just in the IR spectrum, naked to the invisible eye but bright as the sun to NODs).

[Pika]

We've seen a tech change to accommodate more modern stuff in the game in the life span of this products, honestly.

Just look at the old thermal compared to the new stuff. We've gone from a 1980s style Predator looking thermal camera to a modern day FLIR style thermal in three years. Having a great big "SHOOT JUST BELOW THIS!" light on your shoulder wouldn't serve much purpose in game. D:

[Malleus011]

Would pay MC for Warhammer spotlight module.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

ReverseBurgler, on 06 January 2016 - 11:09 AM, said:

The lore really doesnt make a ton of sense on stuff like this. For the people in the 1980's when the universe was made, it kinda made sense...but now in 2016 it really doesn't add up.


How do the people of battletech have faster-then-light travel but stuff like missile guidance technology remain lostech?

The magic space armor on battlemechs requires stupidly powerful warheads so they stripped out a lot of the fuel and guidance stuff so they could actually break through the armor.

Hell the stuff is so strong modern tank cannons don't even scratch the paint.