3 replies to this topic

[Erebus Alpha]

I 3D modeled this recently, for use in a non-BT setting - a nightmarish walking gun platform known as the Xutera:



It is loosely inspired by mechs such as the Nightstar, Catapult, King Crab, Ebon Jaguar, and Jagermech, though it is more aggressively jagged and geometric than mechs typically found in BattleTech.

I used Blender to calculate the volume of the Xutera, then calculated its mass. It stands 7 meters high & 6 meters wide, and weighs 97 metric tons (106 short tons) - which makes it comparable in mass to an Atlas. On average, the frame is approximately as dense as if it were composed of solid aluminum.

Of course, us MWO players will immediately notice that the weapons are mounted very high! Even the torso-mounted plasma guns can rotate 90 degrees straight up. The declination of the torso guns is limited, but the arm-mounted guns do not have that issue at all.

The firepower-to-everything-else ratio is exactly as insane as it looks. Xuteras are designed to achieve rapid kills against very hard targets. Their four rapid-fire plasma cannons are marginally capable of warship-grade firepower, shredding hardened buildings and bunkers with sustained barrages - although in this configuration, a Xutera could expend its reactor fuel in under an hour.

Xuteras move mostly with rechargable plasma rockets, and can achieve maneuverability on par with aerospace interceptors - for a few seconds. The 'legs' are highly robust landing gear moreso than a propulsion system - though Xuteras are technically capable of walking under their own power.

Edited by Falconer Sword, 15 February 2021 - 11:01 PM.

[VonBruinwald]

A 100 tonner with 4 plasma rifles and jump jets, surprisingly serviceable, can fire all day from a stationary position and absolutely brutal in an urban pacification role:

[Erebus Alpha]

Neat! Now I kind of want to see a Xutera in MWO - a hardpoint-starved 100-tonner that has to use very few & very large weapons.

Switch the four plasma rifles with ERLL's or ERPPC's and you would have quite a sniper. Variants might also exist, armed with MRMs. And perched just at the very edge of 100T IS practicality: Quad light gauss, a loadout currently limited only to Fafnirs and Annihilators.

I'm also curious about the quantity of jump jets. Some lights & mediums can equip six or seven jump jets. If the Xutera's engine is downgraded to free up additional weight, and some of the ammo moved to the arms...how would an assault mech perform with six, eight, or even ten jump jets? Alternatively, jump jet quirks don't see a lot of use in the game. Given the Xutera's weapon-centric design & awesome hardpoint elevation, neither weapon quirks nor survival quirks would be appropriate.

It would be weird to see a mech as slow as an Annihilator, but with vertical thrust sufficient to leap over a UAV. With that jump height and acceleration, torso-mounted weapons might not be super-effective against a Xutera in a brawl.

Of course, a Xutera without charged jump jets would have the same downside as all other mechs with prominent & protruding torsos (including basically all clan mechs) - literally no one has missed their CT ever.

Edited by Falconer Sword, 16 February 2021 - 04:40 PM.

[TheArisen]

Nice model man