Bombast, on 01 October 2017 - 12:36 PM, said:
The Cougar kind of fails the lore test too, though - It's an unimportant mech, known for pretty much nothing. Even it's TRO entry is boring as hell, its only notable feature being that it's an unabashed copy of another mech. It's even more redundant than the "And Now With No Aspartame!" IIC mechs.
The only reason to include the Cougar is to appease a nostalgia need, which apparently there was, as small as it may have been. Personally, I don't generally have a problem with that, but something else really was needed, and there were other options that would have been more interesting.
FLG 01, on 01 October 2017 - 07:36 PM, said:
I agree 100%. But then why did we get the Cougar and the Uziel?
As Bombast says, there is not much lore on the Cougar. Allow me to present all its appearences in BattleTech novels e.g.:
"He could see flames, whipped by the wind, coming from a blackened pile that had been a Falcon Cougar." [...] "Archer spotted a green-splotched Cougar rush along one flank of the fighting, seeking a target of opportunity. Twisting the Penetrator's torso, he brought his targeting reticle onto the smaller 'Mech. Anger guided his fingers as he fired his large lasers. One shot missed, but the other bore in on the Cougar's leg, which must have been already damaged. The Jade Falcon hopped two steps and fell. The 'Mech was not destroyed, but at least it was out of the fight for a few minutes." (Operation Audacity)
That's it. And you know the sad part? It's still more important than the Uziel. I don't see how lore can be used to defend those Mechs.
To be honest "lore" and "fluff" can be distilled from the actual IP, the novels that use it as a vehicle, the (albeit sometime skewed) nostalgia of previous MW iterations... Or quite frankly, the exaggerated fragments of one's imagination. The reality is, for many players, like myself, the IP and our memories of it regardless of its origin, is what keeps us here... I mean aside from mech on mech gratification.
N0ni, on 01 October 2017 - 01:29 PM, said:
If min/maxing the most efficient way to take a mech out of the game is defined as a "meta crutch", i'll be happy to use that any day of the week while others continue to give themselves an unnecessary challenge making use of terrible hardpoints. Nothing against anyone that does that for fun, but if you do it just to be "anti-meta" then you can't really complain when you get taken out by someone better equipped.
There is nothing wrong with "meta"... Meta is a given constant when the shallow end goal is to inflict the most damage and rack up the most kills. The issue with min/max and using "meta" synonymously is when players are brainwashed into believing it's the only ends to a means.
Believe it or not... There are more players like myself who seek challenge and revel when we can be relatively competitive while using marginal mechs that one might think. And yes... I quite often find myself losing to a player with superior equipment. That said, it's so flipping enjoyable when you best a player despite their superior equipment.
Makes one wonder about the inferred prowess of some of these elite players... Is it the man (woman) or the equipment they lean on?
Edited by DaZur, 02 October 2017 - 06:31 PM.