25 replies to this topic

[Mezzabelle]

(This is, obviously, a dumb question, but hear me out anyway.)

The Mechwarrior/Battletech universe is fairly fleshed-out, and MWO takes plece at some nonspecific point within that universe, or at least one would assume so.

The game treats you / your character, in some cases, like a character within that universe - attaching titles of certain jobs / allowing you to join in-universe clans and all that.

So, if you're anything like me, you like to imagine your profile embodying a distinct character, as you might in an RPG. The "character" who owns all these mechs, who goes on all these missions, etc.

Due to the accumulation of experience, skills, etc, it's easy to assume that all of the games you play take place within a singular "canon" for your character. But at the same time, it's pretty obvious that anytime a mech is destroyed, the pilot probably dies as well. And EVERYONE loses a mech here and there, in mwo.

For those who also imagine mwo in an rpg-esque fashion, how do you rationalize this? Cloning? Alternate timelines? Convenient, stealthy ejector seats?

(Its worth noting that i'm well aware mwo ISN'T an rpg. This is all purely fanciful speculation.)

Edited by Mezzabelle, 03 February 2018 - 09:58 AM.

[FupDup]

Most of it is probably ejecting before the reactor goes off, but that doesn't explain head damage.

[kuma8877]

Saturday morning cartoon ejection seats? GI Joe style.

[Kaeb Odellas]

Same reason you don't lose your mech.

Video games.

[Bud Crue]

Mezzabelle, on 03 February 2018 - 09:57 AM, said:

For those who also imagine mwo in an rpg-esque fashion, how do you rationalize this? Cloning? Alternate timelines? Convenient, stealthy ejector seats?

(Its worth noting that i'm well aware mwo ISN'T an rpg. This is all purely fanciful speculation.)

I used to try to rationalize it in all sorts of fanciful ways. Then it occurred to me that we are not playing anything more than an FPS with giant stompy robots as defined by PGI. At that point I stopped bothering with the illusion of immersion, or as PGI puts it: the game being "set in the rich Battletech universe".

Just accept it: your "character" is whatever stompy robot you are in any given match. After all, it is the robot that has "skills" which we modify with the "skill tree", not you.

[KingCobra]

Mezzabelle, on 03 February 2018 - 09:57 AM, said:

(This is, obviously, a dumb question, but hear me out anyway.)

The Mechwarrior/Battletech universe is fairly fleshed-out, and MWO takes plece at some nonspecific point within that universe, or at least one would assume so.

The game treats you / your character, in some cases, like a character within that universe - attaching titles of certain jobs / allowing you to join in-universe clans and all that.

So, if you're anything like me, you like to imagine your profile embodying a distinct character, as you might in an RPG. The "character" who owns all these mechs, who goes on all these missions, etc.

Due to the accumulation of experience, skills, etc, it's easy to assume that all of the games you play take place within a singular "canon" for your character. But at the same time, it's pretty obvious that anytime a mech is destroyed, the pilot probably dies as well. And EVERYONE loses a mech here and there, in mwo.

For those who also imagine mwo in an rpg-esque fashion, how do you rationalize this? Cloning? Alternate timelines? Convenient, stealthy ejector seats?

(Its worth noting that i'm well aware mwo ISN'T an rpg. This is all purely fanciful speculation.)

Well Mezzabelle a lot of this IP/MWO is unrealistic but here I will try to explain what MWO should have put in as a story line for Mech Pilots immortality.

(
Cloning is the technology that makes MechWarrior Onlines Pilots (i.e. EVE players) immortal. It consists of two main technologies:

• Medical clones act as a new clean (no implants) clone, which are only activated when your current body is killed. This clone is always located at your set Home Station. This should not be confused with the current clone you are in, regardless if you have jump clones.
  
• Jump clones, which are additional bodies (often scattered all over the galaxy) into which you can jump your "consciousness" at will.

Contents

[hide] )

Just like EVE does it right.

Edited by KingCobra, 03 February 2018 - 10:19 AM.

[Kanil]

KingCobra, on 03 February 2018 - 10:17 AM, said:

Well Mezzabelle a lot of this IP/MWO is unrealistic but here I will try to explain what MWO should have put in as a story line for Mech Pilots immortality.

How about we just have "it's a video game"? It's similarly non-canon, but makes a lot more sense.

[FupDup]

Kanil, on 03 February 2018 - 10:25 AM, said:

How about we just have "it's a video game"? It's similarly non-canon, but makes a lot more sense.

Failing that we could take the easy way out and say that it's just a simulation instead of "real" combat.

[KingCobra]

Kanil, on 03 February 2018 - 10:25 AM, said:

How about we just have "it's a video game"? It's similarly non-canon, but makes a lot more sense.

Then why are you playing this game if not for a way to escape your own reality?
(Gamification designer Victor Manrique, proprietor of the Epic Win Blog, writes that the specific reason that people play games is that games allow them to experience emotions that are closely related to the main factors of happiness. Thus, we play games because they make us happy.)

[Silas7]

The way i see it, the pilot (myself) usually survives due to ejection mechanisms, being destroyed by legging and if i lost my CT I just imagine that the mech blowing up is just a large enough explosion to stop the mech and doesn't harm the pilot in their armored cockpit. If losing CT was as bad as I think it is in Battletech no one would repair the mech as it would cost too much time/c-bills if they could even find suitable replacement parts.

Edited by Silas7, 03 February 2018 - 10:33 AM.

[Andi Nagasia]

because we arnt physicly piloting our mech, we are on computers piloting our mechs from light years away,
and which is why our pilots dont see to have a head, and also how we can jump into a mech right after,
its BattleTech, MechDrone Combat, its actually Extremely Immersive

FupDup, on 03 February 2018 - 09:59 AM, said:

Most of it is probably ejecting before the reactor goes off, but that doesn't explain head damage.

or this, most likely this,

Edited by Andi Nagasia, 03 February 2018 - 10:35 AM.

[Gamuray]

Well, you see, there's these things in the Battletech Universe called combat simulators. Every match you play in MWO is part of a large mercenary academy pitting their pilots against one another in these simulators to hone their skills before being employed for actual mercenary work.

The mechlab is meant to simulate the necessity for them to manage their resources, albeit with unlimited mech storage to enable them to train in more mechs as their skills progress.

This simulator was outdated, and as such did not start with clan technology. It is slowly being updated with the newest technology.

[Piney II]

OP, along with pilot's lives, let's consider mechs........

In lore, mechs lasted a LONG time and were actually handed down. In MWO, a mech's life expectancy is measured in minutes - a prohibitively expensive venture if the pilot lives through his mech's destruction.

Deep pockets and lots of Space Bucks....

[InvictusLee]

KingCobra, on 03 February 2018 - 10:17 AM, said:

Well Mezzabelle a lot of this IP/MWO is unrealistic but here I will try to explain what MWO should have put in as a story line for Mech Pilots immortality.

(
Cloning is the technology that makes MechWarrior Onlines Pilots (i.e. EVE players) immortal. It consists of two main technologies:

• Medical clones act as a new clean (no implants) clone, which are only activated when your current body is killed. This clone is always located at your set Home Station. This should not be confused with the current clone you are in, regardless if you have jump clones.
  
• Jump clones, which are additional bodies (often scattered all over the galaxy) into which you can jump your "consciousness" at will.

Contents

[hide] )

Just like EVE does it right.

i read templar one cover to cover and that book changed how i see jump clones all together lol.

[Sjorpha]

Yeah it's dumb. Your account should be reset every time you die, **** this easymode nonsense.

[Escef]

Mezzabelle, on 03 February 2018 - 09:57 AM, said:

But at the same time, it's pretty obvious that anytime a mech is destroyed, the pilot probably dies as well.

...what?

[VonBruinwald]

Mezzabelle, on 03 February 2018 - 09:57 AM, said:

t's pretty obvious that anytime a mech is destroyed, the pilot probably dies as well. And EVERYONE loses a mech here and there, in mwo.

For those who also imagine mwo in an rpg-esque fashion, how do you rationalize this? Cloning? Alternate timelines? Convenient, stealthy ejector seats?

The pilot dies, the holo-vid survives as it's uploaded in realtime. Every match you play is used as teaching material by Captain Adams for his class of RoboJocks. Every match, a different RoboJock pilots, some are lucky, some are not.

Have you ever wondered why you can view fellow pilots after your death? That's Adam showing the class how the rest of the match played out so they can see if their classmates death was meaningful.


'Mezzabelle' is merely the name of the squad Adams is training.

[Escef]

Going back to table top Battletch, a Mechwarrior effectively has 6 hit points.

• A Mechwarrior takes 1 damage on a fall if a secondary Piloting Skill Roll is failed.
  
• A Mechwarrior takes 1 damage whenever the mech's head is hit.
  
• A Mechwarrior may take 1 to 2 points of damage from excessive heat if Life Support has been compromised.
  
• A Mechwarrior takes 2 damage from an ammo/Gauss detonation (avoidable if the auto-eject feature is enabled)
  
• A Mechwarrior takes 1 damage from landing after ejection if a secondary Pilot Skill Roll is failed.

A Mechwarrior is automatically killed if...

• The head or cockpit is destroyed.
  
• The mech's center torso is destroyed by an ammunition explosion (avoidable if the auto-eject feature is enabled).
  
• The mech's center torso is destroyed by artillery fire.
  
• The Mechwarrior is hit by weapon fire after ejecting.

In other words, the Mechwarrior dying when the mech is destroyed is the exception, not the rule. Granted, as many times as our mechs get destroyed, you'd figure we'd die one of these times. And mechanical differences between TT and MWO make certain things less frequent (damage from falling and ejection) and others more common (head hits).

Fusion engines malfunctioning to the point of injuring or killing the pilot has happened in canon, but it is so rare that it is not covered by game rules.

[Fleeb the Mad]

If you want the actual lore reason, it's simply because most mechs don't actually detonate when the reactor is damaged. It's not dramatic, but safe systems rarely are.

The reactor shuts down after critical damage, preventing a catastrophic failure.That's actually carried through the very first mechwarrior game, where having your CT destroyed left your mech immobile on the battlefield.

The better question is how various mechwarriors would survive many of the rather hostile environments they wind up fighting on.

[Bombast]

Why do you assume the mechwarrior dies? It's possible for mechwarriors to survive pretty much any attack, even 'head shots.' It happens in the lore, the TT, and the video games all the time. All you have to assume is that the player character has an automatic saving throw (Like most video game protagonist) and you're gold.