41 replies to this topic

[Rekkon]

Sarna does not give an exact year, but Nightstars re-enter production in both halves of the Federated Commonwealth, potentially giving the player access to new production, either directly or via salvage. And because the Star League was apparently run by amnesiac squirrels, there is always the staple "lost Star League cache."

[Wild Pegasus]

Rekkon, on 18 February 2019 - 09:11 AM, said:

Sarna does not give an exact year, but Nightstars re-enter production in both halves of the Federated Commonwealth, potentially giving the player access to new production, either directly or via salvage. And because the Star League was apparently run by amnesiac squirrels, there is always the staple "lost Star League cache."

If the game follows the "sandbox with breadcrumb story missions" formula, hunting for Star League caches would be a perfect way to introduce mechs that would otherwise not be seen in any real capacity. And as huge and sprawling as Battletech lore is, it's not too hard to believe that one of the hundreds of merc companies besides the Grey Death Legion got lucky and found some choice SLDF hardware.

[Rekkon]

Latest screenshot is a Centurion.

[Koniving]

Rekkon, on 18 February 2019 - 09:11 AM, said:

Sarna does not give an exact year, but Nightstars re-enter production in both halves of the Federated Commonwealth, potentially giving the player access to new production, either directly or via salvage. And because the Star League was apparently run by amnesiac squirrels, there is always the staple "lost Star League cache."

Master Unit List gives a rough idea.
As I said before, until the Clan Invasion Era, the only common availability is Comstar. Prior to that Terran Hegemony and the Star League Royals. Given that Terra (Earth) effectively becomes Comstar, that leaves the Royals of the Star League, most of whom went with Kerensky.

Thus leaving us with either discovering a Star League Supply Cache, an old mech that needs repairs that some years later will show up in the form of the Renaissance (helm memory core), or stealing it from Comstar or someone else that somehow found one.

Sarna actually does give the year "approximately." 2786, factories are gone. "About 250 years later." 3036, production begins again. MUL only lists common availability. Since mechs are produced about as fast as they are obliterated completely, which is something less than 200 a year (in the entire Inner Sphere) in 3025... it stands to reason it would still be exceptionally rare. But, this does tell us if you wanna get one, be in Davion space in 3036... This puts MUL's listing of the mech being common in Clan Invasion era to be pretty accurate as by then an additional 9 denominations of groups would have a sizeable number of them....apparently including the Clans as both general Homeworld Clans and IS Clans. Am surprised that Wolf's Dragoons didn't have a few built before then.

Wild Pegasus, on 18 February 2019 - 09:55 AM, said:

If the game follows the "sandbox with breadcrumb story missions" formula, hunting for Star League caches would be a perfect way to introduce mechs that would otherwise not be seen in any real capacity. And as huge and sprawling as Battletech lore is, it's not too hard to believe that one of the hundreds of merc companies besides the Grey Death Legion got lucky and found some choice SLDF hardware.

True. Though from what I've seen, it seems to be implied that Wolf's Dragoons had somehow orchestrated or had some sort of hand in GDL getting the cache. Either way that jackpot was distributed to everyone through merchants selling off pieces of the info/tech.

Major Steiner's team in the BT cartoon stumble upon an old Star League base with mech-scale hologram tech. In Solaris 7 Steiner stadium uses an energy/ballistic/missile defeating field to protect the audience that's also Star League (though Solaris 7 points out that there's a strong suspicion that they got the tech from Wolf's Dragoons).

There's a number of little examples of stumbling upon very small amounts of the tech. So its easy enough to imagine.

I just hope it isn't in the same places on every playthrough, as that would get exploited really quick...

[Wild Pegasus]

Koniving, on 23 February 2019 - 12:52 AM, said:

There's a number of little examples of stumbling upon very small amounts of the tech. So its easy enough to imagine.

I just hope it isn't in the same places on every playthrough, as that would get exploited really quick...

I would imagine it would randomly pick a couple planets to place them, and even then you would probably need to actually get information of where it is from a side mission or something before you could go and grab it. The actual contents of the caches could be generated from loot tables at the start as well, so you're not guaranteed to get the same stuff every time and can't just keep reloading a save to "reroll" what's there.

Granted I don't actually expect a system like this to be in place, although someone could probably mod it in at some point.

[Koniving]

Wild Pegasus, on 23 February 2019 - 11:36 AM, said:

I would imagine it would randomly pick a couple planets to place them, and even then you would probably need to actually get information of where it is from a side mission or something before you could go and grab it. The actual contents of the caches could be generated from loot tables at the start as well, so you're not guaranteed to get the same stuff every time and can't just keep reloading a save to "reroll" what's there.

Granted I don't actually expect a system like this to be in place, although someone could probably mod it in at some point.

If they genuinely go by what they said about taking MW1 for inspiration...




(Side note: MW1 Japanese Remake...1993)

You could go to a bar, buy a drink to hear some rumors, and follow up on them.

Otherwise you're gonna go to a planet and just find it in the shop or just find it on a map....among dozens of enemies that somehow never knew it existed.
Well even if you follow the rumors that's still a strong possibility.

Also...
Doubt it, but would anyone want to encounter this?

I would. >.>

I mean I doubt we will, but PGI is at least aware of them, there's been Megasaur skulls in the bolt-ons.

Edited by Koniving, 23 February 2019 - 11:48 AM.

[admiralbenbow123]

MeiSooHaityu, on 13 February 2019 - 08:52 AM, said:

I've looked through the trailers so far (2/13/19) to see what has been shown so far. This is what I have seen so far (in no particular order)...

• Shadow Hawk
  
• Raven
  
• Jagermech
  
• Catapult
  
• Atlas
  
• Locust
  
• Hunchback
  
• Spider
  
• Victor
  
• King Crab
  
• Marauder
  
• Cicada
  
• Firestarter
  
• Griffin
  
• Thunderbolt
  
• Dragon
  
• Stalker
  
• Banshee
  
• Commando
  
• Blackjack
  
• Warhammer (MechCon 2018 Trailer @ 0:45).

These are what I recognized. The only one I am uncertain of is the Warhammer. I don't see the launcher on the shoulder, but the shoulders themselves, cockpit, and CT look really close to one.

That is what I had spotted just looking back through the released videos.

I believe the warhammer is actually the black widow.

[Koniving]

Anyway I seen a video trailer where the player and someone else leaves the dropship ON FOOT in a port and nearby (like insanely nearby....) was a bar. So its possible, unless that's some scripted story event.

[Steel Raven]

Possible mech line up:

I would just crack open TRO: 3039 or the newer TRO: Succession Wars, see how many of those mechs are already in MWO and bet good money that they will be in MW5: Mercs.

Story line guesses: I've been playing with a Merc Campaign getting tangled up with the Jolly Roger Affair, similar story would explain how Pirates got a King Crab
http://www.sarna.net...ly_Roger_Affair

admiralbenbow123, on 23 February 2019 - 11:48 AM, said:

I believe the warhammer is actually the black widow.

It would be awesome if there is one story point where you fight with the Wolves Dragoons. It would also be a good opportunity to snatch a Marauder II (apparently the Dragoons handed them out to their BFFs) http://www.sarna.net...7s_Marauder_IIs

[Koniving]

Looking at the production year, I was gonna say the Marauder II's story was very suspect (during that time, Comstar is assassinating anyone getting close to building entirely new designs, the hatchetman just barely got through because its creator [Dr. B. Banzai] had evaded multiple assassination attempts). But with Wolf's Dragoons involved we've got the knowledge... and it isn't a new design. It's just a modification with advanced knowledge shared with the Blackwell company to get it done. Take existing Marauder, convert into Marauder II.

Edited by Koniving, 23 February 2019 - 01:40 PM.

[JediPanther]

Seen a lot of the mechs I'd want to use already. Just waiting for the few weeks after the game releases to see if any of the video reviews shows the game play being fun or not. Eventually I plan to get the game. Haven't seen Jenner yet.

[Koniving]

Has anyone seen footage with unlocked arms, or know if someone asked in the AMA about it?

[MeiSooHaityu]

Koniving, on 23 February 2019 - 01:37 PM, said:

Looking at the production year, I was gonna say the Marauder II's story was very suspect (during that time, Comstar is assassinating anyone getting close to building entirely new designs, the hatchetman just barely got through because its creator [Dr. B. Banzai] had evaded multiple assassination attempts). But with Wolf's Dragoons involved we've got the knowledge... and it isn't a new design. It's just a modification with advanced knowledge shared with the Blackwell company to get it done. Take existing Marauder, convert into Marauder II.

I would love to see the Hatchetman make it into MW5:Mercs, and specifically the HBS design. I think it would be cool for HBS to contribute back to PGI. The design does a good job of nailing the MWO aesthetic IMO while still being a bit different.

The only thing is, the Hatchetman is so reliant on it's hatchet, and melee isn't going to be in MW5 to the best of anyone's knowledge. Melee in a MechWarrior game would be hard to pull off anyway without it being terribly awkward IMO.

P.S. Also, although not canon, that HBS hatchet deployment animation is just sweet!

Edited by MeiSooHaityu, 24 February 2019 - 10:52 AM.

[Koniving]

MeiSooHaityu, on 24 February 2019 - 10:50 AM, said:

The only thing is, the Hatchetman is so reliant on it's hatchet, and melee isn't going to be in MW5 to the best of anyone's knowledge. Melee in a MechWarrior game would be hard to pull off anyway without it being terribly awkward IMO.

Am frustrated that all I already wrote went poof.

Anyway.

HBS and MWO had a model sharing agreement, as such... its likely that most of the tanks in MW5 were made by HBS. And I haven't seen any sign that PGI went the extra mile to make even more. Though PGI did include rotorcraft.

The Techmanual covered how to handle melee in real time sims/games by describing exactly how it works.

To paraphrase, the pilot aims his reticle at the intended destination of a melee strike. The pilot then flips the appropriate rocker switch (or was it switch first then aim then pull trigger). For an MW style game, flipping the switch after makes more sense as the pilot animation can play the switch movement with the left hand and the mech can subsequently execute the manuever. In something like MWO, the pilot having to reach over to flip the switch gives the game time to sync the animation and result as well as show the anticipation of the attack to the receiving player as well as give time to react.

Back to Mw5... The Techmanual also explains that so long as there is intent, a mech will try to evade any incoming fire and obstacles during movement even if not commanded to do so, so long as the pilot isn't intending to take the damage / actively trying to aim / etc. (For example a mech will try to avoid punching through a wall to shoot when too close to the building unless the pilot is deliberately intending to put the mech's hand through the wall to shoot. That's an example Techmanual specifically mentions). (This is one of the reasons the Mech Rifle is obsolete, single large projectile weapons, lacking the speed of a PPC bolt or a Gauss Rifle, is very easily "avoided" or blocked. This is why ACs spam 2 to 100 shells per "round" of ammo.) Anyway, the same is true for incoming melee attacks.

Of course, the Techmanual acknowledges that not every threat can be avoided, and whenever an evasion cannot be done, the mech will try to deflect the brunt of any incoming threat with its arms if possible. (This is why damage is so prone to hitting arms in tabletop when it generally doesn't make any sense in gameplay, the mech is actively raising its arms to soak damage when it isn't in the middle of firing back with those arms, it is also why damage spreads all over the place, the mech is blocking your attacks over the span of 10 seconds just as the attacks of all the weapons queued are occurring at different times in the 10 seconds.)

As such, the defending unit in terms of good counter play, should have a "defense" button that could be hit (to reflect the pilot's intent) which will raise arms up to try and soak up incoming fire or in the case of the hatchet man, try to deflect the hatchet.

Far as animations, we'd see one of two things. One, an animation pair where the animation looks great but is highly controlled. Two, individual animations (which would require just one per mech) which won't look as good, but would be more realistic as mechs aren't really programmed with a proper response to melee attacks, so it'd look like some sort of attempt to keep damage away from a key area by either blocking or twisting when the button is hit, possibly in combination with the player's actual movements to make it more effective. Of course, this makes it entirely up to the player's reaction time and the subsequent time it takes for the mech to respond and perform the defensive block.

Makes for some wild gameplay. Certainly something I'd love to try, but all I could probably muster is the animations and perhaps where the button might be on the keyboard. Someone else would have to code it.


For the counter play mention.

[Rekkon]

Urbanmech screenshot this week.

[Bowelhacker]

Rekkon, on 18 February 2019 - 09:11 AM, said:

Sarna does not give an exact year, but Nightstars re-enter production in both halves of the Federated Commonwealth, potentially giving the player access to new production, either directly or via salvage. And because the Star League was apparently run by amnesiac squirrels, there is always the staple "lost Star League cache."

Just think how many terabyte sized hard drives there are out there in the world now then extrapolate that to hundred of planets. Bound to be plenty here and there that get forgotten. Or Iraq and Syria, where they'll be finding forgotten piles of guns and rocket launchers for centuries...

[Koniving]

As a good but simple example of how technology can be forgotten... Look at all the advancements of the bronze age.

....then look at the age that followed. Big cities of highly organized stuff with aquaducts and all sorts of fun stuff...becomes small towns run by lords. Compare ancient Greece to what followed.. And for the simplest one of all.

Who remembers how to make develop a film roll? Or how to work a Polaroid camera?
Give 50 to 70 years and that'll be lost tech.

What about non-sata drives? Bit of a pain to find hookups for them anymore.

[Stonefalcon]

Russ confirmed the Annihilator to me at Mech_Con, this was further confirmed by Matt Newman during an AMA

[Karl Streiger]

Stonefalcon, on 27 February 2019 - 03:18 AM, said:

Russ confirmed the Annihilator to me at Mech_Con, this was further confirmed by Matt Newman during an AMA

lore wise this imply that somehow the Wolf Dragoons will be part of the campaign (if the Annihilator appears in Campaign)

for quick game missions however they could port all Mechs available in MWO

[MeiSooHaityu]

Karl Streiger, on 27 February 2019 - 04:17 AM, said:

lore wise this imply that somehow the Wolf Dragoons will be part of the campaign (if the Annihilator appears in Campaign)

for quick game missions however they could port all Mechs available in MWO

I think it depends on how closely PGI follows lore when it comes to this. They may just be looking at introduction and in use time when it comes to mechs and not necessarily how or by whom when it comes to their introduction.

After all, they show a Nightstar in the MechBay, and that thing isn't exactly a dime a dozen out there. It's hard to say how they plan on implementing it. Maybe asking PGI their plan on mech rollout would be a good AMA question.