439 replies to this topic

[Aidan]

Will there be Goose-O-Tron 4B mechs?

Edited by Aidan, 04 April 2012 - 10:34 AM.

[Garth Erlam]

Listless Nomad, on 04 April 2012 - 10:29 AM, said:

Not necessarily but it does come with a dozen eggs. If you did an alpha strike you would definitely haha. However, with the right groupings, and slow deliberate fire - you could have a sustained laser barrage. Again I'm not advocating boating - just pointing out that if there is a will there is a way.

Reminds me of my sweet, sweet Nova.

[Dihm]

maxoconnor, on 04 April 2012 - 10:33 AM, said:

I like it so far. My biggest concern is that they will make certain cannon mechs in such a way that you cannot recreate the actual weapons layouts. ie, a Marauder sporting Ballistic weapons in the arms. They did this in the MekPacks and when I would go to mock up a classic mech, I would find I couldn't make it because they blocked the mech off from having the room to place the actual weapons in the locations they should. The Warhammer was a good example. You couldn't actually lay the weapons out as they should be and you had to leave off the small lasers because there was not enough energy slots available. I do like having some of the restrictions like if your mech does not come with jump jets, then you can't just slap them on. If you want to jump you will have to choose a different mech. I also hope engine upgrades will also be difficult to modify. It will make you choose your mech carefully and you can't just modify any chassis you like to jump and run as fast as you want and throw whatever weapons you like willy nilly on it. Marauders should be Marauders, not try to be an Archer or Hatchetman.

I think they are going to cover your fears fully here Max, with the variant system. They will have multiple variants of all of the mech chassis, so you don't need to try to recreate the variants yourself. Further, you can then tweak the individual variants within the MechLab.

[SquareSphere]

12thVR logo located, this mechlab can now do no wrong IMO :3

[Fresh Meat]

I think this is great, a hard-point system such as this will do well representing omni tech in the future.

I didn't see anything about ammo, I wonder if it must be enclosed within the same hard point or if one may distribute it elsewhere?

[IceSerpent]

Garth Erlam, on 04 April 2012 - 10:27 AM, said:

If you like overheating yourself to death

Garth, that brings up another question - how will heat sinks work in MWO? In CBT 2xML generate 6 heat (3 each) and LL generates 8 heat, so swapping 1 LL -> 2 ML actually improves heat efficiency. So, is there something about heat sinks in MWO that prevents alpha striking with 11 ML or did you tweak heat values?

[Listless Nomad]

Garth Erlam, on 04 April 2012 - 10:35 AM, said:

Reminds me of my sweet, sweet Nova.

I'm so sorry for your loss haha. It's a viable tactic, but at least your nova had laser ports for all those lasers

[John Clavell]

Seems really robust. I'm super excited that they have looked close at the Tabletop system but at the same time made it so people can't put whatever they want on any part of the Mech.

[Hayden]

Alright, pretty good looking, I think I can deal with this kind of hard point system. This is all sounding about as good as I could expect it to.

Also, pleases me to no end that my New Samarkand Militia and (possibly) Vegan Rangers insignia made it in to the presentation.

[PropagandaWar]

This is sweet. Makes perfect sense for this game. Me and My Gnom Mech are going to be cammy pink just for "Paul".

[Max OConnor]

Dihm, on 04 April 2012 - 10:35 AM, said:

I think they are going to cover your fears fully here Max, with the variant system. They will have multiple variants of all of the mech chassis, so you don't need to try to recreate the variants yourself. Further, you can then tweak the individual variants within the MechLab.

I hope so, I don't care about people modding their mechs in many ways. There are all kinds of variants out there that are cannon. Just look at the Hunchback. I'll bet there are over 10 variants that all remove the AC20 for totally different weapons. One of my favorites is to remove the AC20 and replace it with 2 LRM 10's and extra Medium lasers. I agree that what was discussed earlier about having the visual reflect the weapons should be in place. A Hunchback without the AC20 should look visually different so you know you are not dealing with a standard Hunchback. I would love for the different weapons to actually change the look of the mech.

[Kudzu]

Garth Erlam, on 04 April 2012 - 10:27 AM, said:

If you like overheating yourself to death

The Flashman-8K starts with 15 DHS, so even if you fired all 11 med lasers you'd only overheat by 3... and there are 9 spare tons after the LL>ML conversion that can be used for more more heatsinks.

[Dihm]

maxoconnor, on 04 April 2012 - 10:43 AM, said:

I hope so, I don't care about people modding their mechs in many ways. There are all kinds of variants out there that are cannon. Just look at the Hunchback. I'll bet there are over 10 variants that all remove the AC20 for totally different weapons. One of my favorites is to remove the AC20 and replace it with 2 LRM 10's and extra Medium lasers. I agree that what was discussed earlier about having the visual reflect the weapons should be in place. A Hunchback without the AC20 should look visually different so you know you are not dealing with a standard Hunchback. I would love for the different weapons to actually change the look of the mech.

I imagine for the HBK, they'll have the standard (which you could then swap the AC20 for a Gauss), the Swayback (which would let you switch out for large lasers/ppc), and the LRM carrier (which, since missiles is missiles, may let you swap the LRMs out to SRMs). Covers all your weapon "types" neatly.

The real rub is whether they change the model to reflect the weapon adjustments.

Edited by Dihm, 04 April 2012 - 10:46 AM.

[Roh]

My name is Roh and I approve this Mechlab design.

Keep up the good work!

[Garth Erlam]

IceSerpent, on 04 April 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

Garth, that brings up another question - how will heat sinks work in MWO? In CBT 2xML generate 6 heat (3 each) and LL generates 8 heat, so swapping 1 LL -> 2 ML actually improves heat efficiency. So, is there something about heat sinks in MWO that prevents alpha striking with 11 ML or did you tweak heat values?

I can't say much to it - what I meant is that people tend to fire like-weapons in groups. I was joking that firing all 11 at once would turn you into a microwave dinner.

[Gigaton]

Garth Erlam, on 04 April 2012 - 10:35 AM, said:

Reminds me of my sweet, sweet Nova.

I like the IS version of medium laser boat better. It's 4 years in the future though.

(Edit) Btw, small nitpick for the blog. The term 'prime' is used for primary configuration of Clan omni-mechs (like Nova with 12 ER meds). It's not used for IS 'mechs.

Edited by Gigaton, 04 April 2012 - 10:55 AM.

[Hartsblade]

Hayden, on 04 April 2012 - 10:40 AM, said:

Alright, pretty good looking, I think I can deal with this kind of hard point system. This is all sounding about as good as I could expect it to.

Also, pleases me to no end that my New Samarkand Militia and (possibly) Vegan Rangers insignia made it in to the presentation.

That does look like your Ranger's insig...damn I was hoping they would use mine**

**edit: the "straight" remake not the mwll ranger version

Edited by Hartsblade, 04 April 2012 - 11:00 AM.

[SilentWolff]

I'm a fan of what I've seen so far. While not a huge fan of the hard point system, I understand why it needs be done. Combine that with the internal structure that mimics the board game and we have a winning formula. Also, it sounds like the rest of the swapping of armor, ammo engines and equipment will give us the option to make sure not every mech you will meet on the battlefield will be the same cookie cutter design. This adds a bit of intrigue.

I also like the decals and camo aspects, but I really hope custom decals are allowed for those of us in non canon units.

Overall I'm very impressed and this just makes me more excited for the game to come out (if thats even possible )

[MaddMaxx]

If Engine size can only increase (uses up tonnage/weight) on any Chassis and HS's are a required component (2x ML -> 1x LL = add 2 extra HS) to offset/balance the added heat output, then we may have a wiener here.

If you want an XL, JJ's or DHS's (etc etc) just hope they offer a proper Variant.

P.S. Loved the graphics. Keep them for the Component install/swap part of the Lab and then go "real" when we hit the paint shop.

[Solis Obscuri]

Hayashi, on 04 April 2012 - 09:39 AM, said:

Basically it takes the critical system from MW2 Mercs and the hardpoint type system from MW4, and adds in a RPG-like Module system. No complaints.

That was essentially my impression. I was hoping for something a touch more restrictive, but it's not bad.

Sprouticus, on 04 April 2012 - 09:12 AM, said:

Looks good. Not particularly happy about the engine upgrade process, but you cant have everything.

They didn't give any specifics on the engine upgrade process.

Strum Wealh, on 04 April 2012 - 09:57 AM, said:

Perhaps that meant only a change of engine rating?
That is, one could change from, say, a Nissan 200 to a Vlar 300 or from a Nissan 200XL to a Vlar 300XL, but not from a Vlar 300 to a Vlar 300XL?

I would like it if that were true. It'd be nice if engine size was somewhat stable for a given mech variant.

Garth Erlam, on 04 April 2012 - 10:52 AM, said:

I can't say much to it - what I meant is that people tend to fire like-weapons in groups. I was joking that firing all 11 at once would turn you into a microwave dinner.

I'm glad you guys are taking heat tracking seriously. I really think it will act as an effective limiter (along with convergence) on the "boating" concerns.