6 replies to this topic

[Max Fury]

Right now I have a mech that is 5 tones underweight because I cannot afford the large engine I have a 210XL (97.2 kph) but I am 5 tons short and out of space so my speed should be more like 115 kph for the given weight.

I would not limit underweight mechs but to all mechs that lose weight (ammo, arm) the speeds should be readjusted increasing how fast they can move.

[Elder Thorn]

Max Fury, on 29 January 2013 - 03:06 PM, said:

Right now I have a mech that is 5 tones underweight because I cannot afford the large engine I have a 210XL (97.2 kph) but I am 5 tons short and out of space so my speed should be more like 115 kph for the given weight.

I would not limit underweight mechs but to all mechs that lose weight (ammo, arm) the speeds should be readjusted increasing how fast they can move.

i see where you are coming from and also kind of like your idea actually, but i don't think that this will be a good idea to support the balancing of mechs.

[Eddrick]

I have seen how this works in Armored Core. It's nice to have. But, also has the potential to throw some balance way out of control.

[Max Fury]

At this time I don’t think it would be that big of a deal. The current engines balance out fairly well for any give weight class. Really the worst case I can think of would be an Atlas Missile boat with 3xLRM-15 and nothing but ammo. The Atlas with the best engine is rated 58.3 kph/64.2 kph you drop 25 tons of ammo and the speed becomes 78.5 kph/86.4 kph that is a lot of weight to shed in battle to pick up an extra 20kph. As a rule of thumb; (assuming its an missile or ballistic boat worst case scenario) mechs cold shed enough weight to drop into the lower weight class.

We are not going to see an Atlas running at 150kph the current engine rules would not allow it. You might see a medium mech moving like a light mech if it loses 15 tons of ammo. But realistically such a mech would be lightly armed and armored to begin with.

Thanks for the feedback.

[blinkin]

http://mwomercs.com/...fected-by-mass/

this is a post from one of the staff that is related to what you are suggesting.

i generally agree. as long as tonnage doesn't affect it to the point that you will run the same speed with a lighter engine just because you lost a couple tons.

[Kahoumono]

I was thinking about this the other day. If you want to underweight your mech it should be ok. You may be faster but you are still running in a bigger frame than if you were in a smaller weight class.

Edited by Kahoumono, 30 January 2013 - 01:38 AM.

[Red3]

If you mean better acceleration/brakeing due to less weight, then sure. But weight should not affect top speed. Top speed is only effected by the transmission/axle of the vehicle. In the case of a Mech, it has leg actuators instead of a transmission/axle.

To give an example, Use a Drag car, you can strip the extra weight out of a car by removing the extra seats,spare tire,and only using enough gas to get through the 1/4 mile. but all you change is the time it takes that car to reach top speed. if you want to go faster you have to change the Transmission/Axle. Sure you can get a little extra speed out of a car off the showroom floor by increasing the horsepower of the engine, but that's because the engine was tuned for gas mileage efficiency, the transmission and axle were already made to go faster than the stock engine could push it. A 300 horsepower engine and a 400 horsepower engine have the same top speed if they are using the same transmission/axle. The 400 hp one will get you there faster through greater acceleration. But if the 300hp engine has a better transmission/axle it can outrun the 400 Hp engine.

Considering that Mechs don't use Gasoline (or other consumable fuel) I would think that a Mech is already optimized to go as fast as it can go.I would also make the assumption that if you upgrade the engine size, you would have to change the actuators to match,(you cant put a V-8 engine on a transmission built for a straight-6)

Now it might be cool if you could customize the leg actuators in your Mech based on weight class,(use that extra weight to upgrade to a better actuator) but i think too much customization can be a bad thing, if it becomes too complicated.

I'm all for increasing the engine response to lighter weight,(due to being underweight,or missing arm/torso) but only as far as acceleration/brakeing are concerned, not top speed.

Edited by Red3, 30 January 2013 - 07:38 AM.