9 replies to this topic

[Eradicator]

Hi everyone i am relatively new with the entire BT universe. I've played mw2 and 3 long ago and I started to get back into mw2. Going through the mechlab I noticed actuators can be equipped for arms and legs. I have no clue how it affects the game but I have heard that its for ramming (DFAs etc.). I know its a critical and can be damaged/destroyed. If I can get a clarification on the actual purpose in mw2/mwo and battletech in terms of gameplay and whether or not they can be added/removed.

[William Petersen]

I can't answer for MW2 or MWO, but in TT it goes something like this:


Any leg actuator crit reduces your movement points by 1 and causes a Piloting Skill Roll (and a cumulative +1 penalty to this and all future PSRs) to keep from falling down.

Any arm actuator crit increases the to-hit number with any weapon on that arm by a cumulative +1. This includes melee punch attacks with the damaged arm.



Now that said, there wasn't too much reason to have a lower arm actuator and no hand, that I could ever tell. Even hands only had a couple uses, and those were high-level special rules. Wheras *not* having those two actuators (you *always* have to have the shoulder and upper arm actuators) allowed you to flip your arms, which either made your arm mounted weapons fire in the rear arc, or changed the directionality of the arm weapons' front arc (there was like a two hex difference in angle of area covered between those two arcs or something).

All 4 leg actuators were required equipment on each leg.

[Volthorne]

William Petersen, on 08 May 2012 - 11:53 PM, said:

I can't answer for MW2 or MWO, but in TT it goes something like this:


Any leg actuator crit reduces your movement points by 1 and causes a Piloting Skill Roll (and a cumulative +1 penalty to this and all future PSRs) to keep from falling down.

Any arm actuator crit increases the to-hit number with any weapon on that arm by a cumulative +1. This includes melee punch attacks with the damaged arm.



Now that said, there wasn't too much reason to have a lower arm actuator and no hand, that I could ever tell. Even hands only had a couple uses, and those were high-level special rules. Wheras *not* having those two actuators (you *always* have to have the shoulder and upper arm actuators) allowed you to flip your arms, which either made your arm mounted weapons fire in the rear arc, or changed the directionality of the arm weapons' front arc (there was like a two hex difference in angle of area covered between those two arcs or something).

All 4 leg actuators were required equipment on each leg.

TL;DR

Basically you need those to keep moving, or do anything.

[Eradicator]

Thanks a ton! that summary was very helpful

[Orzorn]

Actuators have no use in Mechwarrior 2, except for important ones like hip actuators or leg actuators. Hand actuators, for instance, are completely useless. I've read something in the past about MW2 having planned to give mechs with hands a use like picking up mission critical objects, but they had to cut it due to time constraints.

[Kasiagora]

As stated, actuators are just joints like shoulders, elbows, wrists, and the entirety of hands. Take a look at the artwork for an Awesome for instance, the arm with the big gun I don't believe has a lower arm or hand actuator. Its left arm, however, has said actuators even though it doesn't have a "hand" in the traditional sense, but is more like a grabber claw in a toy machine or some piece of construction equipment. This is useful in tabletop if someone blows off one of your arms and you want to pick it up and club them with it. I do this all the time.

Even so, these joints need "muscles" to move them and in Battletech/Mechwarrior that's called Myomer. It's supposedly a kind of metallic material that expands and constricts when electrical currents move through their fibrous bundles. This usually won't come up in a Mechwarrior game unless the game implements MASC (Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry (which has been in previous MW games)), or Triple Strength Myomers. These are usually used to make your mech go faster, but TSM can make you hit harder in close combat as well.

I know that it's more than you asked for, but it's still a pretty cool and in depth universe and one that I'm still constantly learning more and more about. Sarna is my homepage at the moment and you can look there and type in anything you might want to learn about. Right now I've been reading up on the Periphery, and primitive weapons; and the various mech variants you'll see in the game videos to see what we're getting available to us at release time.

Edited by Kasiagora, 09 May 2012 - 12:51 AM.

[William Petersen]

Volthorne, on 08 May 2012 - 11:55 PM, said:

TL;DR

Basically you need those to keep moving, or do anything.

Comes to forum. Expects to not read. /boggle

[Tincan Nightmare]

Heres a definition for you, though short.

'Two different systems are used to drive BattleMechs and control their movements. Small, electrically driven actuators move a ‘Mech’s light weapons and sensor arrays. Bundles of polyacetylene fibers called myomers control a ‘Mech’s limbs and main weapons. Myomers contract when exposed to electrical current, much like human muscles.'

Though I never did understand why actuator critical hits seemed to hamper a 'Mechs movement so much if the myomers did all the heavy lifting.

[William Petersen]

Tincan Nightmare, on 09 May 2012 - 01:19 AM, said:

Though I never did understand why actuator critical hits seemed to hamper a 'Mechs movement so much if the myomers did all the heavy lifting.

Really, they should both be significant impediments to mobility and functionality. You dislocate your shoulder, you're not going to make much use of that arm. Of course, if you rip your bicep you're *also* not going to make much use of that arm. I guess the Internal Structure represents not only the endoskeleton of the BattleMech, but also the myomer structure as well, and the point at which the section is 'destroyed' is the point of sufficient damage where both the skeleton and the myomer fails.

/shrugs

[Gigaton]

Just as bit of clarification, there are 3 different settings for the arm actuators. The first is the full arm with hand as can be seen on Commando and Hunchback (both arms). The second is the one that doesn't use hand typically replacing it with weapon barrel, such as the PPC arm on Awesome or the Autocannon arms on Centurion and Dragon. The last is the one that doesn't have the lower arm actuator either and reduces the arm into a weapons pod, like on Jenner or Catapult.

In some cases the MWO artwork also differs from TT artwork on this. Dragon has no hand in TT but has gotten one on the left arm in FD's artwork (and it can be seen in the recent ingame screenies as well).

Edited by Gigaton, 09 May 2012 - 02:23 AM.