45 replies to this topic

[Metus regem]

CMDR Sunset Shimmer, on 06 May 2016 - 02:35 AM, said:

As much as I love Battletech, there are some hugely stupid things...

Like the Magistracy of Conopus allying with Liao after the Fedcom Civil War... why the hell would the most humanitarian perphery nation, ally with Space North Korea?!

Don't worry, I'm in the middle of putting together a document for CGL to look over for a re-boot that would make way more sense....

[HerrRed]

oldradagast, on 06 May 2016 - 11:34 AM, said:

To post somewhat more on topic, I think some of what you see actually fits better with reality than Lore.

I never was happy with Clans having "uber tech" - it felt off, somehow, that a warrior-obsessed culture with limited resources would develop better technology than the IS which had more resources even if they were less organized. While having "uber warriors" makes for winning fights, it does not lead to great weapon design. You need engineers and scientists for that. I don't recall any evidence that the Clan valued such classes too heavily, and the IS tended to kill people who knew too much as each faction wanted to maintain an edge over the others.

I think the end result here in MWO, at least regarding Clan and IS mech performance, is somewhat closer to what you'd actually see and doesn't require an alternate universe explanation. Both sides are comparable and their common origin is often evident. Clan mechs tend to be more standardized and easily modified in the field, which makes sense for weapons of war produced by a smaller number of more closely linked nation-states that have limited resources, but that's about it.

Long story short, I actually like the in-game implementation of Clans and IS not only for balance reasons but for roleplaying reasons. Maybe that's just me, and that's fine, but whatever.

You are not the only one. I said it before and I say it again. Clan tech is slightly better than IS lostech in this game with some tradeoffs. Heatsinks dissipate way more heat but have lower heat cap, weapons deal more damage at longer ranges but with more heat and beam duration. And that is a good thing! They evolved sl tech with some clearly superior tech (omnimechs) but that is it.

Now, I also said that if you faced a stock IS mech with a stock clan mech, the IS mech would get its clock wiped 9/10 times. This makes for much better mechanics than TT. Heck, tune the IS mech just restricting access to all lostech (dbl heatsinks, endo, FF, pulses, ER LL, Artemis, lbx...) and the clan mech would still win 9/10 times.

Again, this makes the clans' biggest advantages being, general equipment quality (as in thry would be facing a mix of sldf mechs and normal mechs some upgraded with lostech others not), ease of maintenance (since omnipods would allow for much better rates of battlefield repairs and number of mechs available) and tactics since they are genetically bred for combat. But, an AC20 to the face will still hurt any mech.

Edited by HerrRed, 07 May 2016 - 01:22 AM.

[Gyrok]

oldradagast, on 06 May 2016 - 06:16 PM, said:

I know they save the genetic material of their great warriors in the hopes of creating more in the future - do they do the same with their most successful scientists and engineers?

Absolutely, in fact, most scientist and engineering castes have their own blood names that are relevant in the same way the warrior blood names are for their castes.

Literally, everything clans do that involved eugenics is pushed to create the best and brightest possible. Not just warriors. If you read much of the clan books, you would realize there is significantly more than high tech barbarism going on in clan society.

[oldradagast]

Gyrok, on 07 May 2016 - 07:05 AM, said:

Absolutely, in fact, most scientist and engineering castes have their own blood names that are relevant in the same way the warrior blood names are for their castes.

Literally, everything clans do that involved eugenics is pushed to create the best and brightest possible. Not just warriors. If you read much of the clan books, you would realize there is significantly more than high tech barbarism going on in clan society.

Cool - I didn't know that. Most of what I hear about Clan tends to be second-hand from old-school tabletop players where it is all about "being super warriors with codes of honor killing pathetic IS scum." While I've read a few of the books, they clearly weren't ones that talked much about the other aspects of Clan society.

So the whole thing is a form of meritocracy, then, with successful people in important fields having titles with effort being made to preserve their lineage and ability in the future. That makes more sense and better explains what we see in game.

Fair enough - I learned something new today. In all seriousness, thanks - good to know.

Edited by oldradagast, 07 May 2016 - 07:22 AM.

[Gyrok]

oldradagast, on 07 May 2016 - 07:20 AM, said:

Cool - I didn't know that. Most of what I hear about Clan tends to be second-hand from old-school tabletop players where it is all about "being super warriors with codes of honor killing pathetic IS scum." While I've read a few of the books, they clearly weren't ones that talked much about the other aspects of Clan society.

So the whole thing is a form of meritocracy, then, with successful people in important fields having titles with effort being made to preserve their lineage and ability in the future. That makes more sense and better explains what we see in game.

Fair enough - I learned something new today. In all seriousness, thanks - good to know.

Yeah...and in some Clans, *cough*DiamondShark*cough*, the merchant caste is on equal (if not better) footing with the warrior caste...

[Johnny Z]

MechWarrior Online is closer to its origins than maybe any other game like the Star Wars games or the Star Trek games. I actually think this game will improve the entire industry with its accuracy and future Star Wars games and Star Trek game will offer at least some more accurate products. There are 5 studios working on Star Wars games at this very moment and maybe one of them will be as accurate as MechWarrior Online if they are competent.

So it turns out that MechWarrior Online is more loyal to its universe than any of the others and still gets trolled about it. Comedy or desperation to find something to complain about? I got complaints to but it doesn't involve entering into an alternate reality like some of the complaints I see in this forum.

Edited by Johnny Z, 07 May 2016 - 09:31 AM.