136 replies to this topic

[Deathz Jester]

This is Battletech, not I'm afraid to get shot and have shields tech.

[KageRyuu]

Regenerating armor and energy shields... no, just no. MWO isn't for the consumer masses it's for MechWarriors and to pander to FPS kiddies who can't play a game without regenerating health/armor/shields would be to wrong the long term MechWarrior fans who have been looking forward to a restart of this wonderful franchise for over 10 some odd years.

Now, the closest thing to an energy shield has already been brought up, the Blue Shield Particle Field Damper, which won't be out for another 2 years and even then is still only ever a prototype and is only useful against PPCs.

Edited by KageRyuu, 08 June 2012 - 05:01 PM.

[Kartr]

GHQCommander, on 08 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

Fact is people. No shields makes no sense whatsoever if you think realistically and thats what many people do especially smart people who know real life technology. Technology in any world, fantasy or in real life would never get as far as it is in MechWarrior without an energy shielding strong enough to repel a bit of everything. That is a fact.

You still haven't pointed out where the research is that will get us real shields within "30 years." They don't need energy shield strong enough to repel "a bit of everything." There's radiation in space, well we can use lead and possible EM fields to stop or deflect the radiation away from us. There's radiation in your reactor, shield it with lead/EM fields, no need for some magic tech shields.

Thing is "energy shields" as displayed in science fiction are never defined and usually impossible. Star Trek shields, Star Wars shields, Halo Master Chief shields, Mass Effect 3 "kinetic barriers" etc., none of them are based on science and none of them would really work. Nor are shields necessary for a science fiction setting unless you create situations where they're necessary. You only need shields for faster than light travel, if your faster than light travel requires shields.

BattleTech is a low tech universe where it takes weeks to travel from one planet to the jump point above the sun. At those speeds you don't need to worry about micro-particles the way you do in Star Trek when you make that trip in minutes top. Especially true when you consider how heavily armored everything in BattleTech is. Unlike Star Trek which requires "navigational deflectors" when traveling at warp speed, BattleTech doesn't need any protection to travel through their artificial wormholes during JumpShip operations. The list goes on, but basically there is nothing in BattleTech that would really require any sort of energy shielding.

Basically you're completely wrong and shields aren't "necessary" for future/sci-fi civilizations, they're just common. This is partly because it allows authors to "repair" the ship without actually having find the crew materials to repair it with. BattleTech is unique in that it doesn't have the classic sci-fi energy shields or any thing that requires them.

GHQCommander, on 08 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

Now sure, someone a long time ago somehow decided that Mechs would not have shields. It does not mean a member of the community cannot suggest some type of shielding is added too the game and they should not get such immature responses for doing so.

Sure we can be "immature," there's no law saying we have to be nice, nor are their Nice Police to come pounding on peoples doors and writing them up for not being nice. Someone who comes along and suggests something that is such a radical departure from the BattleTech theme should expect to receive a lot of flak from people who like BattleTech because of its design aesthetic.

GHQCommander, on 08 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

Do you all honestly think the state of MechWarrior canon is going to stay the way it is for all time? This MMO will fill in blanks and take advantage of those blanks in order to make more money.

Um yeah actually because BattleTech has another hundred years already written after the point in time MW:O takes place. It has a clear progression of technology all the way through that time and it has no real place for energy shields. BattleTech is already a universe with rich lore and technological advances and trade offs. MW:O already has more than enough material from the established universe to fill out this game for years to come, they don't need to add things that don't exist in BattleTech.

If you want energy shields and regenerating armor and other silly stuff that doesn't exist in BattleTech, then you are obviously not interested in playing a BattleTech based game. Therefore I encourage you to go find another giant stompy robot game that does have energy shields and regenerative armor and play that. Otherwise stop asking for things that have no place in the BattleTech aesthetic and learn to enjoy the universe for the rich lore and diverse spread of technology it already has to offer.

[Graymage]

I am surprised they didn't try a type of energized plating to reduce the effectiveness of particle based weapons.

and in essence a energy shield is no different than the magnetic field used to contain the fusion reaction of a fusion engine. Besides the fact such a field would extremely energy intensive and generate a massive amount of heat.

still fitting one to a ship is one thing in the vacuum of space compared to a mech on a planet with an atmosphere.

Edited by Graymage, 08 June 2012 - 04:33 PM.

[Grendel408]

wow... this thread is still kicking? LOL! I think we all made our points after the first 2 or 3 pages

[Hyperius]

Buddahcjcc, on 08 June 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

ok... again...


http://mwomercs.com/...5-mech-warfare/

Bolded and underlined. Where did they say theyre taking that out?

also, again...






http://mwomercs.com/...devs-5-answers/

Like I said, if theyve changed that, show me where so I can update my info. And if they have THEY need to update their Q&A
And honestly... a MW or BT based game where they make body parts indestructable because people cry?

Ill pass
Next it will be the head
Then the back
Then the arms

Like I said, a battlemech will be destroyed when you destroy BOTH legs. That already means that your survivability against legging is up from previous iterations. If you think this game will be too difficult for you because somebody uses a viable tactic like this to defeat you then you shouldn't play this game. That's the bottom line. Now can we all stop ******** about how "unfair" legging is? It's getting ridiculous.

[Tyra]

Lasershark, on 03 November 2011 - 09:03 PM, said:

*threadjack*I just got a crystal clear image of Tom Cruise ending WW1 with a vulcan cannon and a handful of cluster bombs.*/threadjack*

Look up a movie called the Final Countdown. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/

[Lycan]

GHQCommander, on 08 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

Do you all honestly think the state of MechWarrior canon is going to stay the way it is for all time? This MMO will fill in blanks and take advantage of those blanks in order to make more money.

Well considering that Battletech (the game all the Mechwarrior PC games are based on) has been around for 25+ years and there are those that still play some iteration of MW4 some 10+ish years after its release, I'd say the odds are pretty good that MWO will do just fine without reactive, regenerating armor and energy shields.

[Garemie]

Ahhhh good ol' Earth Siege 2.

[BlackMoore]

HEY! I got it! Lets borrow from RIFTS as well... Give Mechs the "glitter boy" reflective plating so lasers don't do damage.

/sarcasm

[Freyar]

Isn't.. MWO set within the current tech timeline anyway? If it were "future" Battletech... maybe, but as it is the technology has already been standardized, right? [inb4urwrong]

[Tyra]

Freyar, on 09 June 2012 - 12:22 AM, said:

Isn't.. MWO set within the current tech timeline anyway? If it were "future" Battletech... maybe, but as it is the technology has already been standardized, right? [inb4urwrong]

Exactly.

They CANNOT add new technology before it appears in their timeline. This is why we don't have certain mechs, and certain tech. (MRMs won't appear for another 7 or 8 years, for example).

They cannot have energy shields because energy shields don't exist in this point in time.

End of story.

MWO cannot 'fill in the gaps' as someone put it, because it's set during a pre-existing timeline.

It would be as bad as making an MMO set in Star Trek TOS and then throwing the Borg in everywhere. It doesn't belong.

Edited by Tyra, 09 June 2012 - 12:47 AM.

[Freyar]

Tyra, on 09 June 2012 - 12:43 AM, said:

It would be as bad as making an MMO set in Star Trek TOS and then throwing the Borg in everywhere. It doesn't belong.

You could pull the Multiverse card.. seems more common every year.

[Mchawkeye]

GHQCommander, on 08 June 2012 - 03:53 PM, said:

Fact is people. No shields makes no sense whatsoever if you think realistically and thats what many people do especially smart people who know real life technology. Technology in any world, fantasy or in real life would never get as far as it is in MechWarrior without an energy shielding strong enough to repel a bit of everything. That is a fact.

I would love to see you evidence for this assertion, what makes it "fact"?

[Freyar]

With Battletech so focused on hard armor, and the fact that it worked, would shield really be necessary anyway? Don't get me wrong, I liked Cyberstorm (different universe entirely) too, but with technology already in place for this part of the timeline and the design around armor points and "positioning" of the armor itself, not only does Shielding not belong, it would fundamentally change the thought process of prepping a Mech. It's not so much "afraid of change", just that there's no room to change.

Edited by Freyar, 09 June 2012 - 12:51 AM.

[Tyra]

Freyar, on 09 June 2012 - 12:44 AM, said:

You could pull the Multiverse card.. seems more common every year.

While I like what they did with the reboot for Trek, I'd rather see them stick to the default timeline for MWO. They seem to be doing a good job from what little information we have though.

But seriously. Energy shields. Do Not Want.

Freyar, on 09 June 2012 - 12:50 AM, said:

With Battletech so focused on hard armor, and the fact that it worked, would shield really be necessary anyway? Don't get me wrong, I liked Cyberstorm (different universe entirely) too, but with technology already in place for this part of the timeline and the design around armor points and "positioning" of the armor itself, not only does Shielding not belong, it would fundamentally change the thought process of prepping a Mech. It's not so much "afraid of change", just that there's no room to change.

Emphasis!

Edited by Tyra, 09 June 2012 - 12:52 AM.

[martius]

It was mentioned in one of Ben Rome's blogposts about WoR that one of the alternative armour types for Protomechs was a able to repair itself a bit- the Society based it on Clan Copper IIRC. The idea was dropped as not being battletech-y enough however and only the Electric discharge Armour made it into WoR.

The Marian Hegemony uses a special type of enviroment suit ( HB: MPN ), constructed out of some living algea based polymer. This suit is able to repair itself over time and patches of the stuff can also be used to repair other type of enviroment suits.

But really useful armour regenerative abilities are unheard of in the BT universe.