160 replies to this topic

[FalconerGray]

I'm gonna go against the trend and say that I really, really don't like the concept art at all. I somehow see it as an ugly mashup of Nova, Stormcrow, Phoenix Hawk and Raven and whilst it could be the angle, the arms don't appear to be asymmetrical enough. It seems like the right arm weapon mounts are too low. Going by earlier artwork, the arm mounting should be in line with the base of the shoulder joint, not hanging below, with the laser mounts in line with the base of the hand. Too much stepping down for my eyes.

However, I'm still genuinely looking forward to the Viper. I place a high value on mobility, so the speed is something I'm looking forward to, but the jumping ability is also a big appeal. I will be buying.

[TELEFORCE]

I can't tell from the concept art how asymmetrical the arms are going to be. The looks of the arms should be similar to the Kit Fox. We'll have to wait for the isometric drawings.

But those hands Maybe I'll just have to deal with it. That's the only thing I hope the 3D modelers change from concept to model.

Another thing to note is that this is the first time the Viper has appeared in an official MechWarrior game.

[Hit the Deck]

Those cute tiny tickly hands are perfect! to tickle Mechs

Also:



Based on a concept art by our dear Alex. You can buy the resin model.

[Navid A1]

I'm going to bet that the Viper pricing will turn out to be 30$ for the basic and 60$ for the collectors...

Mark my words.

[Agent1190]

Navid A1, on 03 April 2016 - 05:04 AM, said:

I'm going to bet that the Viper pricing will turn out to be 30$ for the basic and 60$ for the collectors...

Mark my words.

Then no one would buy it, especially after the Kodiak (100 tons) started at $20.

[TELEFORCE]

I think they'll stick to their $20 price for the basic package. I doubt they will make it $30 just because it's an omnimech, even though that's how they justified the price increase in the past 4-packs.

[Pariah Devalis]

I suppose with some creative stripping, you can manage about 10 tons of pod space, but that involves removing around 8 points from each leg, a lot from the head, and stripping both arms. With that, you limit yourself to the 4-5 torso mounts, meaning you can choose 2B 1M or 2E side torso options (with a maximum of one missile or ballistic torso), plus the CT E hardpoint. Still, about the best I can think of with that is 4 MPlas and 2 additional DHS.

I mean, it's something? The mech is not unsalvageable, but it certainly isn't my style of Clan mech.

[Metus regem]

Nore mine Pariah, too much tied up in it... Then again I'm not into laser vomit, and this is yet another Mech forced into laser vomit role.

[Summon3r]

FupDup, on 01 April 2016 - 07:38 PM, said:

Copy-pasted Raven CT is obvious.

Expect it to be equal to Nova size because of Nova legs and shoulders.

sad

yay for another mech with locked equipment and a massive engine.....

[Pariah Devalis]

Metus regem, on 03 April 2016 - 07:49 AM, said:

Nore mine Pariah, too much tied up in it... Then again I'm not into laser vomit, and this is yet another Mech forced into laser vomit role.

To be fair, all our 40 ton mechs will be somewhat forced into it. As long as a single UAC5 isn't worth taking, that is. Would have been nice if it had more missile hardpoints, though. The chassis looks solid for a striker role, but without the low weight, low heat SRM option, beyond two launchers, it's underwhelming for that task.

I said it before, but, again, my standpoint on Clan mechs is that they fall into their own when they swing one weight class above themselves, even if it comes at the expense of a little speed.

So a pocket medium? I actually like the Adder, and play them like supportive medium mechs. Certainly armed like a medium mech, and I've solo'd enemy medium IS mechs with Adders before, with favorable health left over.

A pocket heavy? It's why I want the Huntsman, and the Stormcrow fills that roll too, as does the Hunchback IIC. Hell, even the Nova can play like a pocket heavy, due the the amount of medium lasers it can opt to take. My only current hangup with the Nova is scale related, as I find no real issue with the weapon placement, to be quite frank. Might be in part that the MPLas arms put all the lasers along the TOP of the hand, as opposed to below the hand on the gigalaser arms....

Pocket assault? We almost have that with the EBJ, but I want the Night Gyr and the Nova Cat specifically for that. They are slower than the average Clan heavy with a normal heavy mech's armor protection, but pack the firepower of an assault mech.

Just due to how slow pocket-x mechs end up for their tonnage, pocket-superheavy-assaults are just bad ideas. However, Clan assaults, for the most part, are a bit underwhelming. In their case, a healthy blend of mobility and firepower is preferential to going balls to the wall firepower. Unfortunately the mechs we currently have for Clan assaults are either too slow or too fast, with only the Warhawk really being in the sweet spot - but it's limited by all those hardwired DHS. Same can be said for the EXE, as it is fast enough but stuck with a lot of tonnage sucking hardwired equipment which eats into its potential firepower. Fortunately, at least the Kodiak will directly address this problem soon enough - at least in the 100 ton segment.

Edited by Pariah Devalis, 03 April 2016 - 08:10 AM.

[Metus regem]

Pariah Devalis, on 03 April 2016 - 08:08 AM, said:

To be fair, all our 40 ton mechs will be somewhat forced into it. As long as a single UAC5 isn't worth taking, that is. Would have been nice if it had more missile hardpoints, though. The chassis looks solid for a striker role, but without the low weight, low heat SRM option, beyond two launchers, it's underwhelming for that task.

I said it before, but, again, my standpoint on Clan mechs is that they fall into their own when they swing one weight class above themselves, even if it comes at the expense of a little speed.

So a pocket medium? I actually like the Adder, and play them like supportive medium mechs. Certainly armed like a medium mech, and I've solo'd enemy medium IS mechs with Adders before, with favorable health left over.

A pocket heavy? It's why I want the Huntsman, and the Stormcrow fills that roll too, as does the Hunchback IIC. Hell, even the Nova can play like a pocket heavy, due the the amount of medium lasers it can opt to take. My only current hangup with the Nova is scale related, as I find no real issue with the weapon placement, to be quite frank. Might be in part that the MPLas arms put all the lasers along the TOP of the hand, as opposed to below the hand on the gigalaser arms....

Pocket assault? We almost have that with the EBJ, but I want the Night Gyr and the Nova Cat specifically for that. They are slower than the average Clan heavy with a normal heavy mech's armor protection, but pack the firepower of an assault mech.

Just due to how slow pocket-x mechs end up for their tonnage, pocket-superheavy-assaults are just bad ideas. However, Clan assaults, for the most part, are a bit underwhelming. In their case, a healthy blend of mobility and firepower is preferential to going balls to the wall firepower. Unfortunately the mechs we currently have for Clan assaults are either too slow or too fast, with only the Warhawk really being in the sweet spot - but it's limited by all those hardwired DHS. Same can be said for the EXE, as it is fast enough but stuck with a lot of tonnage sucking hardwired equipment which eats into its potential firepower. Fortunately, at least the Kodiak will directly address this problem soon enough - at least in the 100 ton segment.

Like you my preferred Clan light is the Adder, I currently run my prime as a faux Cougar Prime (2xLPL, 2xLRM5), she does decently enough, just keep her in support of the bigger units.

As for being pocket-x, I find that works best for the upper weight of the weight class, like the Timber is a pocket-assualt Mech.

Though it does leave me wondering how my medium of choice would work out, by using the 2E-3M fast Striker with 13.5t of pod space for weapons... (Coyotl A CT+A RT, Prime all others, giving me 3JJ)

[Pariah Devalis]

Metus regem, on 03 April 2016 - 08:19 AM, said:

Like you my preferred Clan light is the Adder, I currently run my prime as a faux Cougar Prime (2xLPL, 2xLRM5), she does decently enough, just keep her in support of the bigger units.

As for being pocket-x, I find that works best for the upper weight of the weight class, like the Timber is a pocket-assualt Mech.

Though it does leave me wondering how my medium of choice would work out, by using the 2E-3M fast Striker with 13.5t of pod space for weapons... (Coyotl A CT+A RT, Prime all others, giving me 3JJ)

It would work well, I think. I run a 2E 3M IFR, to devastating effect. However, it's also a faster, more durable platform, and it is run both in hit and fade attacks as well as rapid redeployment and support. 2 ERMLas, 2 SRM4, and an SRM6 knocking on your aft armor causes some enemy brown factor. A couple extra tons for heat sinks would have been much appreciated in my IFR, though.

Edited by Pariah Devalis, 03 April 2016 - 08:23 AM.

[Trashhead]

Considering how fracking ugly that thing used to look like:

(Common, the look like the come out of an old issue of Popular Mechanics!)

... I really like what Alex did:

If this translates into "I will buy one" depends on what kind of deal PGI will offer us, tho... .

[Brizna]

At about 9 tons of podspace and apparently with a limited number of energy hard points => DOA.

DOA = Dead on Announcement

Edited by Brizna, 03 April 2016 - 09:02 AM.

[Lightfoot]

Looks very nice, great design art.

Lately the Clan mechs have all been given oversized lower center torsos, I assume as a nerf, so we'll see how the 3d model looks.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Pariah Devalis, on 03 April 2016 - 07:28 AM, said:

Still, about the best I can think of with that is 4 MPlas and 2 additional DHS.

Clan MPLs aren't in a great place currently, compared to other laser options the Clans have and considering you have enough energy hardpoints.

[ScarecrowES]

I will tell you this... about the ONLY reason I'd have avoided ever buying a Viper is it's ugly as sin in the source. And even if you could have come up with a tolerable torso design, I cannot stand asymmetrical arms - unless they're the same but one has a shield or something.

The Viper could have turned out godly and I straight up wouldn't have bought it for asymmetrical arms alone.

But Alex's Death Duck? Those arms look amazingly symmetrical to me. So count me in.

With the new volumetric rescaling, the Viper has to end up smaller than a Raven - just as fast, way more jumpy, and better spread of hardpoints. I am officially geeked.

[ScarecrowES]

Brizna, on 03 April 2016 - 09:01 AM, said:

At about 9 tons of podspace and apparently with a limited number of energy hard points => DOA.

DOA = Dead on Announcement

9 total energy hardpoints with swapped pods on the C variant, 8 possible on every other variant. Hardly limited. And more than enough pod space to make the mech work with the hardpoints it has.

[Seal Farmer]

Trashhead, on 03 April 2016 - 08:39 AM, said:

Considering how fracking ugly that thing used to look like:

(Common, the look like the come out of an old issue of Popular Mechanics!)

So Clans was so advanced that this is the mechs they built ?

Edited by Seal Farmer, 03 April 2016 - 01:43 PM.

[Viper 14]

Finally, a good clan mech I can call my OWN!!!
Daddy be proud

Edited by Viper 14, 03 April 2016 - 03:01 PM.