79 replies to this topic

[FACEman Peck]

At least Battletech is realistic to a point. Halo is crazy, and I cant really say anything about Mass Effect, I haven't ever played it.

[Jack Gammel]

FACEman Peck, on 12 January 2012 - 07:34 PM, said:

At least Battletech is realistic to a point. Halo is crazy, and I cant really say anything about Mass Effect, I haven't ever played it.

I agree that the semi-realism of BT is refreshing (even though its over 20 years old). At least they don't try to invent technology like artificial gravity.

ME is actually pretty good in this respect too. While they introduce element zero as the fuel for what amounts to "do anything" technology, they at least seem to stick pretty much to the realm of reason within that framework.

[Ilithi Dragon]

FACEman Peck, on 12 January 2012 - 07:34 PM, said:

and I cant really say anything about Mass Effect, I haven't ever played it.

You must buy it and play it now. You have less than two months to play through ME1 and ME2 and all the DLC before ME3 is released.
} : = 8 |


The tech in ME is pretty remarkably hard sci-fi with the caveat of Element Zero or Ez-0 "eezo" that allows for the release of dark energy and thereby the control of gravity, and even there they hover around present theories and hypotheses about dark energy. The codex fluff is awesome to read (and there is a LOT of it - some of which is actually read to you, with an epic documentary narrator voice, which is kinda cool).

[Jeremy Hunter]

Zakatak, on 24 December 2011 - 01:29 PM, said:

EDI is based on technology over a billion years old. Cortana and similar AI are sentient, intelligent, and can feel pain/emotion, and can break 128000 bit encryptions in nanoseconds. BTech doesn't even have AI, so why not give them a chance, right?

Also, for sake of fairness, no NOVA Bombs for Halo. I don't think they would need to use a planet-splitting bomb for this sort of engagement.

*shakes fist* Fine, no Novas.

xSidewinder, on 26 December 2011 - 02:29 PM, said:

I know nothing of Battletech fleet technology, so I can only offer my opinion on Halo vs Mass Effect.

As of 2553 the UNSC fleet has developed ships incorporating both Covenant and Forerunner technology. The UNSC Infinity is equipped with energy shielding, energy weapons, and pinpoint slip space jumps which can be used in system for instantaneous point to point maneuvering (like the Covenant did at Reach). That, and the standard three meter think honeycombed titanium armor and mass accelerator weapons. Considering how much firepower it takes to drop Covenant shields, and UNSC/Forerunner shields are much better, I'd have to say a UNSC fleet circa 2553 could take and dish substantially more punishment than it's Mass Effect counter parts.

Which makes me kind of sad, I like Mass Effect more than Halo

On a side note, did anyone take into account Mass Effect ships rate of overheating and buggering in and out of fights? I didn't read all of the posts.

Essentially, this.

Humanity has made great leaps when the Elites allied with them. That, as well as all the information they gleened from the Ark and 343 Guilty Spark before you blinded him with a laser pointer, all created essentially what was described above.

Now, BT vs ME: I can't say much about space here, having little knowledge regarding BT fleets.

ME vs Halo: Aha, here I know alot.

Now, with the circa 2553 UNSC ships that incorporate Covie/Forerunner tech, they stand a greater chance then pre-Halo 3.

The UNSC Frigate has shields, a way better reactor, and pinpoint jumps. Now, with the new energy weapons Cortana devised in First Strike while on Ascendant Justice, all the UNSC frigate would need is to make a pinpoint hyperspace jump right next to the ME ship and burn it with everlasting fire.

Without those weapons, the Frigate would not relly on it's main gun if fighting, say, a Normandy-class. Ifn fighting one of the most OP firgates ever, the Frigate would deploy all it's Longsword Multirole ships. These are about half the size of the Normandy, if the scale of Shepard is around the same as the Chief (I base this on the last mission of Halo 1, when you to the Longsword to escape). Now, the Normandy-class has the advantage of weapons, but a trio of longswords can effectively cover a single Pelican Dropship long enough for it to break into the atmosphere. Now, these are probably upgraded ten times since Reach fell at this point, so the Normandy would be facing around 5-10 Longswords. Nevermind Joker's piloting, any Pelican Pilot has been aLongsword pilot, and you know a Pelican only goes down when it is bone dry of ammo or has 048p12 banshees on it. The former is seen in Halo 1, the latter Halo 2-Reach.

Now,you have some pretty darn good pilots who, maybe not as good as joker, but are good, and there is a good bunch of them. Couple the two-three wings of Longswords with the autocannons of the Frigate, and your Normandy class is toast. It might cause greivous damage, but it has to take out a frigate spamming more explosive rounds then a Heavy in TF2 fires Sasha in a minute of continuous fire.

Also, in ME2 overheating was replaced with ammunition, "thermal clips", to better combat the Geth. So, it begs to reason that, ME2 era vessels, which are around 1.5 years older than thier ME1 counterparts, use a similar Thermal Clip system. So both the Alliance Normandy-class and the Frigate have ammunition, but if the Frigate is circa 2553, then it holds no ammunition limit, just a reactor limit. But, as I said earlier, slap on the turrets Cortana made, and all ships are SOL.

thats my reasoning.

[guardian wolf]

I still think that the Mandalorians would just come in and destroy everyone. But after Jeremy's post, I'd say I'd have to agree, also, doesn't a frigate have more weapons than said MAC cannon, as I can remember on reach, the Savanah had multiple guns returning fire against that Covie Corvette

[The unnamed one]

In the BT verse their jumps take at lease 6-9 days to recharge the drives if they do not have the battery packs on board or with a station. Anywho, I say it depends on the commanders of the ships and where they are fighting.

Edited by The unnamed one, 09 February 2012 - 02:34 PM.

[A11eycat]

In my limited knowledge of Halo and ME, UNSC tactics changed substantially after fighting in the Human/Covenant war, hit-and-runs, slip-spacing into CQB, and Extensive Long Sword bombing runs and Pelican boarding parties would come into play. Unfortunately, I don't know much about ME infantry or Naval security, what I do know is the average Pelican drops 6-8 troops and/or a Scorpion Heavy tank or AA WartHog, and a boarding "party" might consist of 3-5 pelicans in each wave. Although I doubt the UNSC ship would be equipped with ODSTs or Spartans, if the battle had been planned ahead or it was already on scouting/infiltrating duties it might carry said infantry. The EMP and sheer force emitted by the literally HUNDREDS of nukes launched would be a substantial factor even after being dampened by the void, as well as combination with radiation, the latter caused the death of thousands, especially on the gun crews and engineers on both vessels. Although, like I said, I don't have much knowledge behind the inner workings of ME, from what I've heard so far is that even though the ME ships have the superior range, they fail to use it (just my gleaning from what's been said, I don't really know how things work :/) and any UNSC naval commander would either disengage, or slip space right next to the ME ship if it did start firing at a drastically superior range that they have based on the given Data.

Edited by A11eycat, 10 September 2012 - 05:59 AM.

[Sesambrot]

Mass Effect, because Science!

[qki]

the spacekid pwns everyone, choose the colour of your doom.

[Coralld]

In a stand up and fight navel combat situation ME would sadly win as I want BT to come out on top. But when it comes down to LONG RANGE navigation BT ships have them all beat, being able to jump 30 light years in 5 sec gives them absurd logistic and striking capability. Halo ships takes them about a month and ME ships about little over a week. Even though it takes a BT ship about four or five days to recharge, they would be long gone before either side could catch them. So BT ships may not be able to go toe to toe with ME ships with out hot dropping in the center of their fleet, but being able to attack a lightly defended outpost or colony and quickly deploy ground forces and take it over would be very useful as they could repair and construct planetary defense which would be difficult, crippling, and even out right deadly for the Halo and ME forces to take back. Now, ground forces are BT's bread and butter, which we all know, and we can all agree that neither ME or Halo has the ground force capability of handling BT ground forces. (Assuming no NOVA bombs) Which means the BT ground forces would be damn near impossible to dislodge. Eventually Halo and ME ship forces will be forced to do one of two things, either spread their forces thin to try and protect as much of their assets as possible and risk BT ships simply jump in with overwhelming force and pick them apart. Or protect the most valuable systems and send out hunting parties and hope they run into and catch the BT ships before they jump away.

[Catamount]

Coralld, on 10 September 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

...and ME ships about little over a week.

I assume this is just the ships themselves, not Mass Relays, right? If it took a week for ME ships to do it via relays, then over 60 years would pass every time you crossed the galaxy, and players do that numerous times in Mass Effect.

[Coralld]

Catamount, on 10 September 2012 - 12:04 PM, said:

I assume this is just the ships themselves, not Mass Relays, right? If it took a week for ME ships to do it via relays, then over 60 years would pass every time you crossed the galaxy, and players do that numerous times in Mass Effect.

Yes, I was talking about the ships, not Mass Relays.

Regarding Mass Relays, we have to remember the civilizations in ME didn't build them, the Reapers did, or their creators did, or what ever. Also, Mass Relays don't connect to every system and only to another Relay. There are also a number of Relays that are locked down and are unusable for what ever reason regarding said Relay. Relays can be taken over and be unlocked or set to a lock-down mode to hinder any kind of traffic in and out of the system. Traveling via Relays still takes time, going from a few hours to several days if you are going across the Galaxy.

So if you want to add Mass Relays into the mix, remember that it works both ways, the ME as well as BT and Halo ships can both use them as they are static installations.

I just remembered. ME ships, when traveling between systems that don't have a Relay must use fuel to maintain FTL travel. BT ships do not and I think the same goes for Halo ships.

Edited by Coralld, 10 September 2012 - 12:50 PM.

[Zakatak]

Jeremy Hunter, on 16 January 2012 - 09:25 PM, said:

Now,you have some pretty darn good pilots who, maybe not as good as joker, but are good...

Lol, Joker is a terrible pilot. I think the Systems Alliance has the most incompetent fleet in science fiction from what I've seen. "I'm the best helmsmen in the entire Alliance Fleet!" Awesome, at least we know you won't try to evade giant particle beams by dodging into them on two occasions, haha! Pretty much every cruiser in the Navy insists on getting within 100m of Reapers at angles which put them right in the arc of as many laser beams as possible, despite being able to nail targets at 5000km (Reapers can't even reliably hit infantry in front of their faces!!)

The UNSC has a pretty badass Navy though. Who else would have led a huge enemy fleet into the orbit of an unstable gas giant, fired 100 nukes into the core of a planet, and blew up everyone while the planet mini-nova'd and turned into a brown dwarf? Also, Keyes Loop.

Edited by Zakatak, 10 September 2012 - 02:10 PM.

[Hexenhammer]

None. Space Battleship Tamato would win. But it'd loose its bottom turret

[Zakatak]

Hexenhammer, on 10 September 2012 - 02:18 PM, said:

None. Space Battleship Yamato would win. But it'd loose its bottom turret

Megas XLR would win because it has the Battleship Yamato in its chest cavity but is a smaller target. Oh, and the Macross SDF-1.

Edited by Zakatak, 10 September 2012 - 02:20 PM.

[Lord Trollingham]

People arguing about fictional weapon systems mounted on fictional space-ships in fictional universes all derived from games primarily made to cater to 14 year olds?

BT wins hands down, mainly because a TT game made for grown ups beats a casual shooter or action "RPG" any day.

Edited by Kaiser Prussotroll, 10 September 2012 - 02:34 PM.

[TheBigDog212]

I must say i dont know BT too much but from what i can tell BT would be the first out. Of course Mass Effect would beat the UNSC ships because they are a bit more weak. But when Halo 4 comes out well see what the new enemys have. but the UNSC Infanity could be a huge problem for the BT ships. ive been playing halo since i waas 6 yrs old so i know pretty well what im talking about. When it comes to ground combat though BT would win because ME has super lame ground capabillaties so ME vs halo on ground i think halo would win but BT would beat both of them. Just got into closed beta yay!

Edited by TheBigDog212, 10 September 2012 - 02:51 PM.

[Coralld]

TheBigDog212, on 10 September 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

I must say i dont know BT too much but from what i can tell BT would be the first out. Of course Mass Effect would beat the UNSC ships because they are a bit more weak. But when Halo 4 comes out well see what the new enemys have. but the UNSC Infanity could be a huge problem for the BT ships. ive been playing halo since i waas 6 yrs old so i know pretty well what im talking about. When it comes to ground combat though BT would win because ME has super lame ground capabillaties so ME vs halo on ground i think halo would win but BT would beat both of them. Just got into closed beta yay!

If UNSC boarding party tried to, well, board a BT ship, they would have to deal with Battle Armor. Elementals, Longinus, so on and so forth, would easily turn the UNSC boarding party right around, bend them over, and give then a swift kick in the rear right off their ship.

Congrats on your Beta invite.

[Justin Xang Allard]

Miles Tails Prower, on 24 December 2011 - 01:26 PM, said:

No cyber warfare? That's a pretty big theme in Halo and Mass Effect. Artificial Intelligence and AI rampancy is an ongoing theme in both of those franchises.

The sldf had a specialty ship called the bug eye that was an ew ship.

[Alexander Joe Eisenkreuz Steiner]

Coralld, on 10 September 2012 - 10:50 AM, said:

In a stand up and fight navel combat situation ME would sadly win as I want BT to come out on top. But when it comes down to LONG RANGE navigation BT ships have them all beat, being able to jump 30 light years in 5 sec gives them absurd logistic and striking capability. Halo ships takes them about a month and ME ships about little over a week. Even though it takes a BT ship about four or five days to recharge, they would be long gone before either side could catch them. So BT ships may not be able to go toe to toe with ME ships with out hot dropping in the center of their fleet, but being able to attack a lightly defended outpost or colony and quickly deploy ground forces and take it over would be very useful as they could repair and construct planetary defense which would be difficult, crippling, and even out right deadly for the Halo and ME forces to take back. Now, ground forces are BT's bread and butter, which we all know, and we can all agree that neither ME or Halo has the ground force capability of handling BT ground forces. (Assuming no NOVA bombs) Which means the BT ground forces would be damn near impossible to dislodge. Eventually Halo and ME ship forces will be forced to do one of two things, either spread their forces thin to try and protect as much of their assets as possible and risk BT ships simply jump in with overwhelming force and pick them apart. Or protect the most valuable systems and send out hunting parties and hope they run into and catch the BT ships before they jump away.

Sry, but ME Ships do around 15ly/day, Reapers even 30ly/day. And BT Ships can only Jump to Jumppoints, are incredibly slow if they don't jump, and their communication, electronic and information systems are a joke, which lead to poor long range reconnaissance. So in fact they have a rather poor logistics and striking capability.
Also spread forces thin? Are you aware how much more naval vessels HALO an ME fleets have compared to BT? Which btw means, they have actual tactics and strategies for fleet combat in space.

And ground forces: Most of the BT ground forces would be destroyed before even landing. Then they can still be shot from space. In ME every Trooper is not only armored but also shielded, and with a M-920 Cain it can take out every Mech. And a Cain is small stuff. And Halo grond forces are also nothing to scoff at. And that's only a few points.

In short I can see a discussion between ME and Halo, but BT is no contender. Because ME and Halo are much more advanced. Like compering two modern day armed forces to one from the 18th century.
Also BT is centered around mechs, which don't make sense it their role as ultimate weapons of war in the first place. Don't get me wrong, they are cool, I like them that's why I'm here. But I never took BT for a serious sci-fi setting because than it falls apart.

Edited by Alexander Joe Eisenkreuz Steiner, 14 September 2012 - 10:48 AM.