61 replies to this topic

[MacClearly]

From time to time I hear players bringing up lore builds and there was obviously a movement to include a lore mode or stock mode in the game. For those that enjoy the challenge, this is great. As well I think anything that adds to player experience without taking anything away from anyone is a positive.

However it does seem from time to time that an attitude of disdain pops up against whatever the current flavour of meta might be. Pinpoint to laser vomit and poptarting immediately come to mind as things that have created a stir or controversy that I believe is unwarranted.

How so? Well if we pop on by to good ol' sarna.net and start reading up on our favourite battlemechs, we often come across custom variants!!! An example of what I mean;

http://www.sarna.net...Custom_Variants

Obviously PGI has also created some Hero mechs based on custom variants of notable pilots. So for those players into role playing I would imagine it be more fun to role play being somewhat a significant pilot in the game. I love Star Wars and as a kid imagined myself a Jedi on more than one occasion. Never a Stormtrooper however, but I can imagine some kids did.

My apologies also because I was trying to find the readout as an example which mentioned it being common for pilots to have the three rear facing medium lasers removed in favour of more heatsinks as a common modification. I stumbled across it on one of the forum posts by a user who posted a topic about IS battlemechs that are in the current timeline but can no longer find it.

Still however it seems that there is precedence that pilots had mechanics modify their war machines for their taste and I also believe salvage and rarity of some parts playing a role in the timeline we are currently in but I am far from knowledgeable in that regard.

So my Jester with it's XL325 and two large pulse in the ears with four medium pulse in the nose and each torso is a lore friendly build. Cause that is how the merc pilot of ill repute known in certain sections of the Inner Sphere as MacClearly wanted it.

Edited by MacClearly, 12 January 2017 - 08:46 AM.

[Snowbluff]

I don't understand why a concept of lore builds exist with omnimechs. The ones listed are just common configurations.

[Bombast]

...What in the hell are you rambling about? Is this just a PSA that mech customization happened in-universe?

[Bishop Steiner]

Snowbluff, on 12 January 2017 - 09:10 AM, said:

I don't understand why a concept of lore builds exist with omnimechs. The ones listed are just common configurations.

Yes and no.

On Omnis, your configuration was often assigned by your commander, on a per mission basis. You had to be a Ristar, Bloodnamed or High Ranking Officer to get to customize your loadouts. Even with omnis, if it was literally pure plug and play, the logistics would be a nightmare, so those represent essentially preloading variants to cover expected mission needs within the chassis role.

But Bob the unremarkable warrior didn't get to build his own omni configurations.

Bombast, on 12 January 2017 - 09:13 AM, said:

...What in the hell are you rambling about? Is this just a PSA that mech customization happened in-universe?

Yes. You know, I heard they repainted the Sistine Chapel once... you know that makes it totally lore correct that they actually rebuilt the entire thing from the ground up, apparently.

[MacClearly]

Bombast, on 12 January 2017 - 09:13 AM, said:

...What in the hell are you rambling about?  Is this just a PSA that mech customization happened in-universe?

I am saying meta is lore and being a snob against the meta is wrong.

[CK16]

Cause in lore a mechwarrior would totally think 10 small pulse lasers are far better than a UAC 20 and some ER meds?...right....even urban loadouts never ran something that stupid in lore

[Bombast]

MacClearly, on 12 January 2017 - 10:27 AM, said:

I am saying meta is lore and being a snob against the meta is wrong.

Oh.

Well, you did a pretty poor job of it. You're also not correct. If 'meta is lore' was an absolute fact, every single mech would have a custom variant that was nothing but medium lasers or PPCs (Or Gauss, always forget Tech 2 customization when I get dreamy eyed about TT), depending on mech weight and speed.

Edited by Bombast, 12 January 2017 - 10:36 AM.

[Metus regem]

MacClearly, on 12 January 2017 - 10:27 AM, said:

I am saying meta is lore and being a snob against the meta is wrong.

On some mechs and builds, yes they are meta right out of the box, but no Warhammer in the history of Warhammers in Battle Tech have ever mounted AC/'s in the ST's....

The closest they ever came to that was the WHM-8M that used a Light Gauss Rilfe.... Other than that, the Meta Warhammer is an aberration that should've been stillborn.

[Bishop Steiner]

Metus regem, on 12 January 2017 - 10:36 AM, said:

On some mechs and builds, yes they are meta right out of the box, but no Warhammer in the history of Warhammers in Battle Tech have ever mounted AC/'s in the ST's....

The closest they ever came to that was the WHM-8M that used a Light Gauss Rilfe.... Other than that, the Meta Warhammer is an aberration that should've been stillborn.

Well, my custom WHM had an LB-10X in the RT instead of SRMs for a bit.... but as tied to the franchise as I may be, pretty sure that doesn't count as canon.... (though it should! I deserve to be canonized, darn it! )

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 12 January 2017 - 11:03 AM, said:

Well, my custom WHM had an LB-10X in the RT instead of SRMs for a bit.... but as tied to the franchise as I may be, pretty sure that doesn't count as canon.... (though it should! I deserve to be canonized, darn it! )

As it's not a canonical build, it doesn't count... maybe as a one off unit like The Lich sure... maybe I'll include it, next time I run a BT campaign as a hero unit for the players to bump into.

[Roughneck45]

Bishop Steiner, on 12 January 2017 - 11:03 AM, said:

(though it should! I deserve to be canonized, darn it! )

I figured they would have named a mech after you before they did one for me!

Next PGI custom mech - The Bish, clan name, White Knight.

Edited by Roughneck45, 12 January 2017 - 11:18 AM.

[Bombast]

Roughneck45, on 12 January 2017 - 11:17 AM, said:

I figured they would have named a mech after you before they did one for me!

They named an entire faction after him, now you want to give him a battlemech?

This is insane.

[Bishop Steiner]

Roughneck45, on 12 January 2017 - 11:17 AM, said:

I figured they would have named a mech after you before they did one for me!

Next PGI custom mech - The Bish, clan name, White Knight.

INORITE??????
At least gimme my Hero Urbanmech, and we'll call it even!

[Metus regem]

Bishop Steiner, on 12 January 2017 - 11:28 AM, said:

INORITE??????
At least gimme my Hero Urbanmech, and we'll call it even!

My group did, we had a NPC pilot with us, that piloted a customized Urbanmech with twin PPC's in the last campaign.

[RestosIII]

[Bishop Steiner]

Metus regem, on 12 January 2017 - 11:31 AM, said:

My group did, we had a NPC pilot with us, that piloted a customized Urbanmech with twin PPC's in the last campaign.

Pocket Awesome is a whole pocketful of Awesome! But I was referring to the Deputy Dawg, still.

[MacClearly]

Bombast, on 12 January 2017 - 10:34 AM, said:

Oh.

Well, you did a pretty poor job of it.  You're also not correct.  If 'meta is lore' was an absolute fact, every single mech would have a custom variant that was nothing but medium lasers or PPCs (Or Gauss, always forget Tech 2 customization when I get dreamy eyed about TT), depending on mech weight and speed.

How so. Pilots could have their mechs customised for Solaris or otherwise. There should be infinite possibilities within the limits of the hardpoints. Unless you are specifically limiting yourself to builds by existing characters and precluding the idea that people playing this game àre their own unique character.

[Bishop Steiner]

MacClearly, on 12 January 2017 - 11:38 AM, said:

How so. Pilots could have their mechs customised for Solaris or otherwise. There should be infinite possibilities within the limits of the hardpoints. Unless you are specifically limiting yourself to builds by existing characters and precluding the idea that people playing this game àre their own unique character.

Actually, you are right. Feel free to make any Mods you want...just make sure to meticulously follow the canon Rules for Customization, NOT the Rules for Construction, and that your character has earned the requisite X million Cbills, etc. And be willing to pilot it with any negative modifiers that happen courtesy failed tech rolls, along the way.

Good luck with that.

[MacClearly]

Metus regem, on 12 January 2017 - 10:36 AM, said:

On some mechs and builds, yes they are meta right out of the box, but no Warhammer in the history of Warhammers in Battle Tech have ever mounted AC/'s in the ST's....

The closest they ever came to that was the WHM-8M that used a Light Gauss Rilfe.... Other than that, the Meta Warhammer is an aberration that should've been stillborn.

No existing character in the universe perhaps has done this? In the novels does it give the load out for every mech in the field? Besides this, if there is evidence that pilots configured their own mechs then anybody in the game is not only doing what was possible in other games as well, but playing a role of a pilot doing what they wanted to their mech.

[Bombast]

MacClearly, on 12 January 2017 - 11:38 AM, said:

How so.

Because Medium/PPC boating was, and arguably still is, the great meta cheese of Battletech, and many of the previous Mechwarrior games. If meta humping was lore, then everything would have some variant or custom load out that obeyed that principle.

Fact is, most lore custom variants were not made to be meta. They were made to be interesting, or as logical conclusions to the mechs in question. If any did stumble into the meta for the particular game rules of the time, it was entirely by accident, not design.

None of this, of course, is a knock against build mechs to meta in this game. Only against the bizarre argument you seem to be trying to construct.

Bishop Steiner, on 12 January 2017 - 11:44 AM, said:

Actually, you are right. Feel free to make any Mods you want...just make sure to meticulously follow the canon Rules for Customization, NOT the Rules for Construction, and that your character has earned the requisite X million Cbills, etc. And be willing to pilot it with any negative modifiers that happen courtesy failed tech rolls, along the way.

Good luck with that.

That to. I can't recall the advanced customization rules like I can the construction rules, but I seem to remember them being... hard. What are they in, Strategic Operations? Or am I remember home rules?

Edited by Bombast, 12 January 2017 - 11:50 AM.