19 replies to this topic

[Jon Noton]

Quick question. What are the stereotypes about the great house 'Mech design philosophies? The only one I know for sure is House Steiner, mount the biggest gun you have on the biggest 'Mech possible. What are the others? Are there others?

[Adridos]

House Davion:



Yeah, AC fetish.

[Jon Noton]

That sounds about right . Anyone else have one?

[Adridos]

Well, the other houses don't have such distinct features on their mechs (at least not comical ones).

If you want to know some distinctions, then all Capellan mechs use stealth armor.

[Arctic Fox]

Much as Davion likes their ACs, House Kurita is quite fond of their PPCs.

EDIT: Also, while not quite as famous as the Lyran Assault 'Mechs, there's also Kurita's and Davion's tendency towards Light and Medium 'Mechs, respectively.

Edited by Arctic Fox, 17 May 2012 - 06:18 AM.

[RangerRob]

Yeah, the House mech sterotypes don't really kick in until the 3060's...

Kurita: C3, MRM
Liao: Stealth Armor, TSM
Steiner: Light Fusion Engine, Heavy Gauss
Davion: Targeting Computers, Rotary AC's
Marik: Light Gauss....and something I'm forgetting,

[Sychodemus]

Marik loves their Large Lasers.
Liao loves their LRMs.
Davion loves their ACs.
Kurita loves their PPCs.
Steiner loves one of everything.

[Gun Bear]

All capellen 'mechs look like Chinese Artwork. All Kuritan 'mechs look like a samurai.

[Adridos]

Gun Bear, on 17 May 2012 - 08:05 PM, said:

All capellen 'mechs look like Chinese Artwork.

OR




Doesn't look very Chinese to me...

[JHare]

Design philosophies of the houses. Correct me if I'm wrong

Kurita - The mainstay designs of Kurita are the Jenner, panther, and the dragon, As far as i can tell, Kurita lijes either expendible designs (panthers) or mobile designs (jenner, dragon)

Steiner - Steiner seems to be the opposite of Kurita. They tend towards heavies/assaults and go for raw firepower and heavy armor over mobility. Even their light mechs trade mobility for firepower. The commando and wolfhound both lack jump jets (sacrilage for a light mech), but have pretty heavy firepower for a light. See Commando, Wolfhound, Griffin, Archer, Zeus, Atlas.

Davion - autocannons and madium mechs, some heavies. mobility is nice but not critical. See the Centurion, Enforcer, Dervish, Rifleman, Jagermech for iconic davion designs.

Liao - tends towards lights and mediums, usually the front runner in electronic warfare and messing with the enemy. Though it seems that they go for inexpensive designs when not EW mechs. See the Raven, Urbanmech, Vindicator, Cataphract

Marik - I'm not aware of any distinct design philosphy except that FWL loves missiles. I'm sure they have other iconic designs but I never get past the Orion.


I'm sure i missed a few things but these are the patterns i have seen. Also, correct me if i got anything wrong

[Adridos]

JHare, on 18 May 2012 - 03:30 AM, said:

Liao - tends towards lights and mediums, usually the front runner in electronic warfare and messing with the enemy. Though it seems that they go for inexpensive designs when not EW mechs. See the Raven, Urbanmech, Vindicator, Cataphract

Urbanmech isn't our design.

[Sychodemus]

Adridos, on 18 May 2012 - 02:51 AM, said:

OR




Doesn't look very Chinese to me...

http://asianhistory....r-Character.htm

http://asianhistory....a-Performer.htm

[Adridos]

Adridos, on 18 May 2012 - 02:51 AM, said:

Response to that Chinese opera comparison:

http://desmond.image...png&res=landing

[Sychodemus]

Adridos, on 18 May 2012 - 10:00 AM, said:

Response to that Chinese opera comparison:

http://desmond.image...png&res=landing

And the answer to war bonnets (NAI, CAI, SAI, Chinese or wherever) is: "What is stuff I would never wear?"

[Gun Bear]

Adridos, on 18 May 2012 - 02:51 AM, said:

OR




Doesn't look very Chinese to me...

It IS a stereotype though.... and the second one is Taurian.

[Adridos]

Gun Bear, on 18 May 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

....and the second one is Taurian.

No, it isn't (unless Sarna's wrong once again). It's a mech designed and built by us.

[Toothman]

2nd one is the Huron Warrior. Capellan designed mech designed to resemble an American indian warrior. TRO 3055 pp 42-43

[Gun Bear]

Toothman, on 18 May 2012 - 12:23 PM, said:

2nd one is the Huron Warrior. Capellan designed mech designed to resemble an American indian warrior. TRO 3055 pp 42-43

My bad, I always associated it with the Taurian Concordat - they use it more than the Cappies.

[Owl Cutter]

It is not unusual for a 'mech to be associated closely with multiple nations. There's the Trinity Alliance between the CapCon, Taurian Concordat, and Magistracy of Canopus which IIRC led to at least a handful of shared designs. The Concord of Kapteyn (a truce and defense agreement between the CapCon, Draconis Combine, and Free Worlds League) might have also produced shared designs, but I doubt there were many. Rasalhague was carved out of Drac and Lyran space, so they share a lot with those parent realms.

Then there's the ambiguity regarding what that association even means in the first place; Steiner probably fields more Atlas than any other house, but Kurita seems to use them more than most other assault 'mechs. IOW, an Atlas is most likely to be Lyran, but a Combine Assault 'mech is particularly likely to be an Atlas- and the Combine seems to have a thing for assault 'mechs too, not just light ones. The weight class stereotype that is most accurate might be that Kurita likes the outer weight classes because they lean toward specialised designs rather than middling troopers... Also, we should also avoid confusing having a lot of designs of a particular type with fielding a lot of them.

Edited by Owl Cutter, 19 May 2012 - 01:05 AM.

[Cobweb]

Lyran: old rich dudes that have no business piloting a combat mech, talking 5/6 pilots or worse.