8 replies to this topic

[Heat Skink]

Why do omnipods that have more weapons have less armor? this seems counterintuitive

Edited by Heat Skink, 15 July 2024 - 08:32 AM.

[martian]

Heat Skink, on 15 July 2024 - 08:32 AM, said:

Why do omnipods that have more weapons have less armor? this seems counterintuitive

To balance how useful those OmniPods with many hardpoints are.

Essentially, to motivate players into taking more armored OmniPods with less weapon hardpoints.

[Valdarion Silarius]

Heat Skink, on 15 July 2024 - 08:32 AM, said:

Why do omnipods that have more weapons have less armor? this seems counterintuitive

It's always been a lore thing especially with the clans. There's a trinity in battletech between mech speed, armor and firepower. If you want more weapons and armor, you sacrifice mech speed. If you want speed, you sacrifice armor and sometimes weapon capability and so on. There are some exceptions of this rule where certain mechs can balance out speed, armor and firepower somewhat the middle and some jack of all trade mechs can be exceptionally good. However no mech is perfect and you have to figure out what mech fits your play style the best.

Edited by Valdarion Silarius, 15 July 2024 - 09:29 AM.

[BlueDevilspawn]

Heat Skink, on 15 July 2024 - 08:32 AM, said:

Why do omnipods that have more weapons have less armor? this seems counterintuitive

It's a balance mechanism of making certain mechs glass cannons (arguably still more cannon than glass) and to give empty omnipods a reason to be taken like range, heat, velo, etc. quirks.

It is not counterintuitive at all, it's balance. Shadow Cats, Exes, Timbies, Linebackers... I could go on and on. This won't change.

[1453 R]

An omnipod with fewer hardpoints needs to bring something else to the table to not be a pointless write-off. it's not "pods with more guns get less armor", it's "pods with less guns get bonus armor". Or quirks. Or whatever else. If you want those bonuses? You get to deal with having fewer weapons.

[LordNothing]

its a tradeoff. it lets you choose between more armor or more firepower. omnimechs also do not give you a speed option so its important that the firepower vs armor tradeoff exist, even more so than with battlemechs.

[LordNothing]

Valdarion Silarius, on 15 July 2024 - 09:27 AM, said:

It's always been a lore thing especially with the clans. There's a trinity in battletech between mech speed, armor and firepower. If you want more weapons and armor, you sacrifice mech speed. If you want speed, you sacrifice armor and sometimes weapon capability and so on. There are some exceptions of this rule where certain mechs can balance out speed, armor and firepower somewhat the middle and some jack of all trade mechs can be exceptionally good. However no mech is perfect and you have to figure out what mech fits your play style the best.

for omnimechs the triad becomes a biad, since you cannot change the engine. so trading quirks for hardpoints gives you an extra dimension.

[kalashnikity]

Cheap, Fast, Good, but you can only pick two.

[VeeOt Dragon]

its the same in the real world. take a tank, you have to balance armor protection, firepower and speed/maneuverability all the while keeping the max loaded weight down to a manageable lvl. same goes for all military vehicles even warships. (take the Yamato, yeah she had massive amounts of armor and the biggest guns ever put to sea but she was an absolutely massive target and not all that fast either.)

there is always a trade-off hell people do it all the time with Battlemechs, you need that little bit of tonnage to fit that last ton of ammo or whatever so you strip a bit from the legs to make up the room. omnis just have fixed engines so it eliminates the one end of the triangle.