68 replies to this topic

[Jun Watarase]

JackalBeast, on 01 November 2017 - 11:50 PM, said:

13 tons? what are you stripping 1.5 tons of armor or did I miss something?

That was a quick look at the tabletop stats, which probably didnt have max armor.

[Paigan]

Nightbird, on 01 November 2017 - 07:22 PM, said:

It's a larger viper or cheeta, in the sense it'll have 30-50% more armor and structure but will be 100-200% larger and 2.5 more tons of pod space.

Hm... if you put it that way ... .
Well. At least it's not ugly for a change.

Edited by Paigan, 02 November 2017 - 03:01 AM.

[davoodoo]

Jun Watarase, on 02 November 2017 - 02:51 AM, said:

That was a quick look at the tabletop stats, which probably didnt have max armor.

Stock equipment weighs 13 tons

[FupDup]

JackalBeast, on 01 November 2017 - 11:50 PM, said:

13 tons? what are you stripping 1.5 tons of armor or did I miss something?

With almost max armor it's 11.5 tons of pod space. Some modest head/arm stripping can bring it up to 12. I wouldn't try to go much higher than that.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Tarogato, on 01 November 2017 - 07:54 PM, said:

The Çrow also doesn't go up to 122 kph, or 150 in bursts. The firepower of the Blanner is just about what I'd expect from a mech going these speeds. Think of it more like a light mech with 70% more armour. Compared to other mechs going similar speeds, this thing has quite a sting.

The Stormcrow is more of an awkward hybrid mech. It neither fits the fast light-like role, nor does it fit the typical meat-and-potatoes medium mech role. The Black Lanner fits rather nicely into an actual specialist role, and I think it will perform really well in that niche.

Not really. It is going to be too big to use speed as armor and not have enough firepower or cooling capacity to be competitive against other 55 ton mechs and gives up too much firepower to even light mechs like the new Arctic Wolf. My Blood Kit for example runs 4 x MPL, 2 x MGs and an SRM6A and runs at 121 kph w/JJs at 40 tons. That means I can keep pace with the BL for the most part aside from a few burst of MASC while having as much or more firepower.

[Kin3ticX]

A chance to be a solid MASC mech but the SHC will probably still be better.

Would have to see it in action but it should perform at least as well as an ice ferret (if that is saying much).

[Tarogato]

JackalBeast, on 01 November 2017 - 11:50 PM, said:

13 tons? what are you stripping 1.5 tons of armor or did I miss something?

FupDup, on 02 November 2017 - 10:57 AM, said:

With almost max armor it's 11.5 tons of pod space. Some modest head/arm stripping can bring it up to 12. I wouldn't try to go much higher than that.

Here is the stripping I used to get 13 tons for some builds: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...1cd0af35a3e6291

Obviously only works for one-armed builds, and preferably not brawlers (which will desire a couple extra points in the legs)

[Troa Barton]

Did you hear about the new mech called the Black Lanner?
Is it IS? No It's a Clanner.
It's a better Shadowcat with It's ECM mounting.
Who gives a crap if we cant use it for scouting?

[FupDup]

Troa Barton, on 02 November 2017 - 12:15 PM, said:

Did you hear about the new mech called the Black Lanner?
Is it IS? No It's a Clanner.
It's a better Shadowcat with It's ECM mounting.
Who gives a crap if we cant use it for scouting?

Eh, Shadow Cat still has considerably greater pod space and it might also have better hitboxes (Blanner legs look really long in the concept art).

[Gas Guzzler]

Viktor Drake, on 02 November 2017 - 11:07 AM, said:

It is going to be too big to use speed as armor

Nothing is too big to use speed as armor. Especially not a 55 tonner.

[Lightfoot]

FupDup, on 02 November 2017 - 12:48 PM, said:

Eh, Shadow Cat still has considerably greater pod space and it might also have better hitboxes (Blanner legs look really long in the concept art).

How so? The Shadow Cat and Black Lanner have the same equipment except the Lanner doesn't have 6 jump-jets. Lanner looks like it will have 13.5 tons for weapons while the Shadow Cat has 16, I am basing this on a Storm Crow plus MASC II plus an 8 ton heavier engine so I might be off a bit. Shadow Cat has huge hitboxes stretched horizontally across the arms. Shadow Cat is starved for hardpoints so it gets stuck with 4-6 ton weapons minimum. Lanner has an array of one ton weapon slots. It's hard to predict how it will perform, but it looks ok with that speed.

[FupDup]

Lightfoot, on 02 November 2017 - 02:12 PM, said:

How so? The Shadow Cat and Black Lanner have the same equipment except the Lanner doesn't have 6 jump-jets. Lanner looks like it will have 13.5 tons for weapons while the Shadow Cat has 16, I am basing this on a Storm Crow plus MASC II plus an 8 ton heavier engine so I might be off a bit. Shadow Cat has huge hitboxes stretched horizontally across the arms. Shadow Cat is starved for hardpoints so it gets stuck with 4-6 ton weapons minimum. Lanner has an array of one ton weapon slots. It's hard to predict how it will perform, but it looks ok with that speed.

Max out the Blanner's armor and you've got 11.5 tons to play with.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Gas Guzzler, on 02 November 2017 - 01:44 PM, said:

Nothing is too big to use speed as armor. Especially not a 55 tonner.

Disagree. There is a point where the mech is big enough that speed doesn't offer any significant reduction in an enemies ability to hit that target even at high speeds. Case in point, most of the IS 35 tonners. They run just as fast or faster than the BL is going to run but even the modest rescale that increased their size by about 10% or so, dramatically changed their ability to avoid enemy fire. For example, that small change was all it took for the Firestarter to go from being one of the best IS lights in the game to almost never being seeing on the battlefield.

Now scale that up to the size of a 55 ton mech. I mean hell, take the Ice Ferret for example, it is only 45 tons and runs just as fast. It isn't exactly hard to hit.

So no, its speed isn't really going to provide much in the way of armor. Now I am not saying it won't be an advantage either but I don't think it will be enough on an advantage to offset its lack of firepower and cooling compared to something like a Stormcrow, Griffin, Bushwacker, etc.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 02 November 2017 - 07:33 PM.

[DaManBearPig]

Jun Watarase, on 01 November 2017 - 11:41 PM, said:

>55 tonner with 13 tons pod space
>bad hitboxes
>huge arms with most of the weaponry

Oh boy another inferior clan mech that my superior IS mechs will **** all over.

Its like a 55 ton viper...no pod space, oversized engine, MASC instead of JJs to eat up more pod space, easy to shoot off arms.

Would you like to buy a mechpack?

Oh God, this was painfully too true and hard to read. As a black lanner fanboy I want it to be good but I know it'll flop on day 1 unless it gets showered in quirks.

[DaManBearPig]

Heavy Lasers, ECM, generous quirks (PRAY TO GOD), decent to beefy levels of armor, and bursts of 150 kph in a package that is held together by hit and run tactics (for cooling).... ???

Guys it might work. It just might.

Either way PGI is drunk if they think people will preorder this without looking at the perks first.

[davoodoo]

DaManBearPig, on 02 November 2017 - 09:27 PM, said:

Oh God, this was painfully too true and hard to read. As a black lanner fanboy I want it to be good but I know it'll flop on day 1 unless it gets showered in quirks.

You know, if it wasnt omni, i would instantly drop engine to 275, drop masc completely
Put 2 uac10 and 6 ermeds in it and fire away

[Angel of Annihilation]

DaManBearPig, on 02 November 2017 - 09:37 PM, said:

Heavy Lasers, ECM, generous quirks (PRAY TO GOD), decent to beefy levels of armor, and bursts of 150 kph in a package that is held together by hit and run tactics (for cooling).... ???

Guys it might work. It just might.

Either way PGI is drunk if they think people will preorder this without looking at the perks first.

Yeah it might work but only if quriked so that it has light mech Accel/Decel and turn rate. Having some heat quirks would be beneficial as well because there is just not enough space to really keep this bad boy cool with any decent level of firepower for a 55 ton mech. It also might fit a specific niche play style but I doubt it become more than an oddity on the battlefield. I just can't see it being mainstream though I have been wrong before (Linebacker).

[Jackal Noble]

3 micropulse, 2 light machine gun, 1/2 ton of ammo

PGI had said they are trying to move away from mechs being heavily dependent on quirks and then they announced the Black Lanner

[Gas Guzzler]

JackalBeast, on 03 November 2017 - 08:09 AM, said:

3 micropulse, 2 light machine gun, 1/2 ton of ammo

PGI had said they are trying to move away from mechs being heavily dependent on quirks and then they announced the Black Lanner

It'll be fine... above average medium for sure.

[Gas Guzzler]

Viktor Drake, on 02 November 2017 - 07:32 PM, said:

Disagree. There is a point where the mech is big enough that speed doesn't offer any significant reduction in an enemies ability to hit that target even at high speeds. Case in point, most of the IS 35 tonners. They run just as fast or faster than the BL is going to run but even the modest rescale that increased their size by about 10% or so, dramatically changed their ability to avoid enemy fire. For example, that small change was all it took for the Firestarter to go from being one of the best IS lights in the game to almost never being seeing on the battlefield.

Now scale that up to the size of a 55 ton mech. I mean hell, take the Ice Ferret for example, it is only 45 tons and runs just as fast. It isn't exactly hard to hit.

So no, its speed isn't really going to provide much in the way of armor. Now I am not saying it won't be an advantage either but I don't think it will be enough on an advantage to offset its lack of firepower and cooling compared to something like a Stormcrow, Griffin, Bushwacker, etc.

Speed will provide it durability in the way of positioning and staying out of harms way though. Its the same reason the old Kodiak was considered much more durable than the new age Slothbear.

It doesn't need to match their firepower because its way faster than they are.

Look at the Linebacker... its speed doesn't make it hard to hit but it does afford it the ability to get to places much faster than other heavies, which is why a group of them can be devastating.

Trust me, I think the Vapor Eagle would have been cool too (if a little overlappy in terms of roles with the Stormcrow), but this mech isn't going to be nearly as bad as people think.