101 replies to this topic

[Snazzy Dragon]

The Mad Cat Mk II would offer more diverse hardpoint options and layouts-- it'd have the nose of the Timber Wolf though so it would be easy to visually distinguish its "ears" versus CT on the fly and it probably wouldn't do as well rolling damage naturally as people might hope. The arms might be a little low slung but I'm sure Alex would give them the Marauder treatment, bringing the arms in just a little and raising them up so they are more neutral and don't smack terrain all the time. The MC MK II wouldn't have high mounted ballistics though and would probably be inferior to the Kodiak from a competitve meta game standpoint. The missile rack ears would be death to any LRM configuration, unfortunately. Still, it would be a very strong robot and at 90 tons it'd be a little easier to squeeze into a drop deck for FW over a Kodiak.

As for the Blood Asp-- it'd be more limited in build diversity but what it could do in MWO it'd do in brutal effectiveness. High mounts, JJs locked per omni pod rather than per mech, ECM, high mounted ballistics and torso energy hardpoints, CT hardpoints-- it'd be a brutal minmaxing machine. If they model it to character with the original art though and don't put more of its volume in the legs, its torsos will be pretty large-- pure energy loadouts wouldn't do well after a side torso loss and it'd be easy to take whichever torso section you please. Because of its meta potential I suspect it would release with restricted torso twist angles so it would rely on its arms to deal with circling threats-- but it would have a much harder time doing full shield twists to protect an open torso.

[RestosIII]

All of you know my stance already, but I might as well officially say it here. Obviously the Mad Cat MK II.

[WarHippy]

CK16, on 18 January 2017 - 07:36 AM, said:

So here we are, finally on to the next era for MWO. With many high hopes now with future tech and mechs there is plenty of speculation now on about X mech or Y mech, woth that debates over how OP or DoA these might end up being in game.

This is a series I want to make between contenders for the March announcement. Going after the most popular mechs of that era.

In the Assault class for clan we have two distinct mechs.....

In the red corner is the Blood Asp, 90 tons of dreadful Omnimech!

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Blood_Asp

In the blue corner is the Mad Cat Mk II, the bad a$s baby hulked brother to the Timberwolf, a battlemech coming in at 90 tons!

http://www.sarna.net...i/Mad_Cat_Mk_II

This I am sure will be a tough fight for either. So what do you guys think about these two (serious discussion no petty grudges)

Blood Asp would be the better addition out the gate. It makes better use of new tech that is being added to the game and would thus be a better platform to showcase the new tech. Visually I find it to be far more interesting as well. Both I think are good mechs, but personally I think the Blood Asp is the much better choice to go with first between the two.

[Hit the Deck]

Snazzy Dragon, on 18 January 2017 - 09:25 AM, said:

...
The arms might be a little low slung but I'm sure Alex would give them the Marauder treatment, bringing the arms in just a little and raising them up so they are more neutral and don't smack terrain all the time. The MC MK II wouldn't have high mounted ballistics though and would probably be inferior to the Kodiak from a competitve meta game standpoint.
....

MC Mk. II doesn't have Timby's arms.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

From a meta standpoint both will be at least inferior to the KDK-3.

The Blood Asp has the most potential despite not being able to run Gauss as safe simple because its hardpoints would be better clustered.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 18 January 2017 - 09:47 AM.

[WarHippy]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 09:47 AM, said:

From a meta standpoint both will be at least inferior to the KDK-3.

The Blood Asp has the most potential despite not being able to run Gauss as safe simple because its hardpoints would be better clustered.

I'm not so sure. I think the Asp might just edge out the KDK-3 at least depending on the circumstances.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

WarHippy, on 18 January 2017 - 09:52 AM, said:

I'm not so sure. I think the Asp might just edge out the KDK-3 at least depending on the circumstances.

There is no circumstance because the Blood Asp simply won't have the tonnage that the KDK-3 has. Both mechs will be worse for Gauss/PPC and Dakka for one reason or another.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 18 January 2017 - 09:56 AM.

[Hit the Deck]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 09:47 AM, said:

...
The Blood Asp has the most potential despite not being able to run Gauss as safe simple because its hardpoints would be better clustered.

Why didn't you take account the energy weapons on the arms?

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Hit the Deck, on 18 January 2017 - 09:58 AM, said:

Why didn't you take account the energy weapons on the arms?

I don't see them being used that much. Depending on where the cMPLs are located on the B config, PPC/Gauss builds may not even use the arms for PPCs, I need to double check all the hardpoint locations for the Blood Asp to see if it can run a Gauss in the opposite arm to that of the 4E side torso.

[El Bandito]

I seem to be the only one who doesn't care about both of these mechs...

[Hit the Deck]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 10:05 AM, said:

I don't see them being used that much. Depending on where the cMPLs are located on the B config, PPC/Gauss builds may not even use the arms for PPCs, I need to double check all the hardpoint locations for the Blood Asp to see if it can run a Gauss in the opposite arm to that of the 4E side torso.

There's no 1B1E ST pod on the Asp.

You can do 2ERPPC on the LT B-pod and 2Gauss on the RT D-pod thus making all of them high mounted but that necessitates using an STD engine.

[RestosIII]

Hit the Deck, on 18 January 2017 - 10:12 AM, said:

There's no 1B1E ST pod on the Asp.

You can do 2ERPPC on the LT B-pod and 2Gauss on the RT D-pod thus making all of them high mounted but that necessitates using an STD engine.

Which, y'know, isn't possible since it's an Omnimech.

[Hit the Deck]

RestosIII, on 18 January 2017 - 10:15 AM, said:

Which, y'know, isn't possible since it's an Omnimech.

oops, im dum

[Quicksilver Aberration]

Hit the Deck, on 18 January 2017 - 10:12 AM, said:

There's no 1B1E ST pod on the Asp.

You can do 2ERPPC on the LT B-pod and 2Gauss on the RT D-pod thus making all of them high mounted but that necessitates using an STD engine.

That's kinda what I meant, I'm not expecting both Gauss to be on the same location, but at least on the same side (Gauss in the torso and arm). If you can at least run the 2 ERPPCs high on one side and a Gauss high one the other that is still good. The Gauss in the arm would be similar to the Kodiak's arm mounted PPCs.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 18 January 2017 - 10:20 AM.

[CK16]

Still sounds like a symmetrical nightmare to me. Rather enjoy having all weapons close to one plane. I think the Mk II will be the go to Gauss sniper for basics. Yes ECM and all that stuff is something to consider. But it will be nice to see what they do with the Mk II. Hopefully some varriants are P varriants an give some flavor. A quad UAC5 build with them in the arms atleast sounds fun and would look cool.

[WarHippy]

Quicksilver Kalasa, on 18 January 2017 - 09:55 AM, said:

There is no circumstance because the Blood Asp simply won't have the tonnage that the KDK-3 has. Both mechs will be worse for Gauss/PPC and Dakka for one reason or another.

It weighs 10 tons less than the Kodiak while retaining the same movement speed as the Kodiak using a smaller engine. It has ECM available to it as well which can help on the sniping side of things, and at least for gauss sniping the mounts are even better placed. It might come down to seeing it in practice I just wouldn't write it off outright. 1453 R on the first page had a pretty good break down. I probably wouldn't go as far as he did in professing its power, but I can see ways that it might be able to edge out the KDK-3.

Edited by WarHippy, 18 January 2017 - 10:29 AM.

[Quicksilver Aberration]

WarHippy, on 18 January 2017 - 10:27 AM, said:

It weighs 10 tons less than the Kodiak while retaining the same movement speed as the Kodiak using a smaller engine. It has ECM available to it as well which can help on the sniping side of things, and at least for gauss sniping the mounts are even better placed.

They aren't better placed, I will keep saying this because people don't seem to understand, but higher mounts than the cockpit don't really matter. The best high mounts are placed right next to the cockpit, any higher and you are going to experience convergence issues or your mech just has an unfortunately low cockpit, either way higher up positions don't matter unless the cockpit is also that high. The Kodiak has all 4 ballistic mounts right next to the cockpit and they don't add any wonky stuff to the geometry as well. 10 tons lighter and standard armor also means 2 things, it will have less overall armor (by sake of being 90 tons and not 100) and less free tonnage (100 tons gives you more free tonnage to play with and the Kodiak mounts FF to free up more) to work with compared to the Kodiak meaning it will be less efficient at running them (though it does go like 4 kph faster than the typical Gauss/PPC Kodiak). ECM will be nice but assaults tend to stick out even with ECM so it isn't a big thing like it can be for lights.

Edited by Quicksilver Kalasa, 18 January 2017 - 10:33 AM.

[Gas Guzzler]

Guys, I am like 99% sure we will get both. Maybe not at the same time, though.

Edited by Gas Guzzler, 18 January 2017 - 10:40 AM.

[SoloidSnake]

Gas Guzzler, on 18 January 2017 - 10:40 AM, said:

Guys, I am like 99% sure we will get both. Maybe not at the same time, though.

PGI has to fund MW5, they know the Mk II will sell more than any other Mech to date. Disregarding the meta and the dynamics of both the Blood Asp and the Mk II, I think the choice is obvious.

I fully expect the two Clan Mechs announced in March to be the Mk II and the Nova Cat.

[VitriolicViolet]

theres only one mech i want, the Blood Kite. the Sarna art makes it look like a randomly assembled pile of industrial machinery its amazing. standard hardpoints being 3E and 6M, which is a little limiting but PGI has made random variants before.

Blood Kite!