You are about 90% wrong. You can't just add faster legs or whatever you called them. Speed is dictated by engine, the more engine you put the more room it takes thereby removing space for weapons, armor, etc. Light mechs move upwards of 4 times faster than assault mechs. Also you were doing Death from Above wrong. You take incredible damage to your mech's legs if you do a DFA attack. That's why it's considered a last ditch move. Your description makes me think you guys had no idea what you were doing. In a city fight, which we will have in this game a medium mech with jumpjets will tear most heavy and assault mechs apart. Your ideas only hold true if you have two morons just staring straight at each other not moving.

I knew you were a chatbot!

Hah! Yeah, just fixed it.

Woah, settle down there. I just mean if you show me one and ask me what it is and I probably won't be able to answer. If I'm lucky I'll recognize the round head of the Atlas but there's no chance I'd be able to name the Awesome.

About death from above - every single time I've seen someone do it in the board game they usually get shot to pieces, miss, and fall on their ass.

I wasn't upset, though bean's shenanigans rankled.

Fuck it!!! This thread is Urbanmechs!

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/a/a..._UrbanMech.jpg

The Urbies are attacking!

Been years since I played this Ghostbear, so sorry if a few of my details insulted your fandom, but I appreciate the information (sans the snark).

I was min-maxing, but it was done right according to multiple nerds who looked at the rules and my "Dragoon" with no faults found in the rules (of course we were 8th and 10th graders who played this for about a week, so we could have been wrong). Just put a ton of armor on the legs and realized I could only do it 3-5 times (with the later ones being less thrust up and thus less damage). It made for really fast rounds and quick wins - thus it's ban. I'm not sure why this anecdote about a mechanic for an old pen-and-paper game has you reaching for your gun mate.

I'm thinking about videogames I've played as the pen-and-paper game was something I played with my brother for like a week before we got bored with it.

Clearly, your fandom is making you a bit comic-book-guy-ish when you think your opinions are being challenged, and I'm not interested in a nerd-fight. The reason I asked questions is because my knowledge on this has atrophied a bit. I feel like a bit like I asked an IT guy a question because you had to start by telling me how retarded I am before providing some useful information. ;)

My experience with the mechwarrior videogames is that a lighter mech is just always easier to kill in every situation. Maybe the AI just isn't smart enough to know how to circle behind for an easy kill or the special set of circumstances you imagine that would allow a smaller mech to best a larger one didn't exist in those games. While the large mechs did seem slower, they never felt sufficiently slower that something could strafe behind me faster than my turn radius, so back-pedaling while unloading on them worked fine, and in a city-scape, it was easy to place your back to a wall and strafe along it. They built those games weird though because you always had a sort of super-mech compared to the challengers. . . and you had to because it was you vs. a shit-ton of bad guys. . . well, unless it was a game that gave you a Lance. Those were really fun, but I hated having people in my Lance in light mechs because they would buy it so easily.

Can you tell me how I was playing the light mechs wrong? I LOVE playing characters that excel by being very fast and precise, so if this is viable, I'd actually like to do it.

Light mechs are scouts and harrassers, they are not intended to go to war with mechs 3 times their size. Mechwarrior Online will be different because you will be rewarded for performing these roles, not just destroying your opponents. Tactically light mechs are ALWAYS viable, they just can't tangle with assaults. You ID the enemy, maybe take a shot and run. Or you circle around behind while a heavy is engaging it.

Oh. . . well, that's what I thought unfortunately.

I like being lethal by being quick and precise - not being the guy that paints a target for the Catapult to shoot at from a mile away.

If you can be just as lethal being quick and precise, why even build a bigger mech?

The question I'm trying to answer is "Why ever build a lighter mech?" if it is innately less able to do the job of taking out enemy mechs.

Assuming they made light mechs that are played with skill and precision potentially as lethal as huge mechs, the reason you'd build larger mechs is that you want to sacrifice precision play for armor and firepower. Basically, you are always sharing the same goal in class systems, so the difference in mech types is HOW you get the job done.

Having said that, there may be game types that would make light mechs ideal. For example, you might need to capture a flag and return it to your base. Thus, they'd be kind of hit in deathmatch (like TF2 scouts before they added Bonk!) but good for missions that value maneuvers more than kill count.

Also, they could add game mechanic to make light mechs less shit in a firefight. For example, by giving you special +crit skills that only work on one gun or something, so that a light mech could maneuver and line up devastating particle cannon shots then continue maneuvering and harassing during the cooldown. Larger mechs would have this too, but the fact that the skills work for only one shot instead of an array of lasers would be somewhat an equalizer.

Interrupting for a bit of nostalgia. This was my first introduction to Mechwarrior way back in the day. It was my favorite thing in the world, and even my mom was oddly into it. In fact, she was the only one in the family who beat the story portion.


Jump to around 1:30 for in-cockpit gameplay.

Really puts the new gameplay video in perspective, I think. I find it impressive how far things have come in the past 20-some-odd years.

I should put the old DOS Mechwarrior games on my Android DosBox.

Have you ever played the MW RPGs for DOS? They're pretty good.

Heh, I had The Crescent Hawk's Inception but like a lot of PC games I had at the time, it was a pirated copy from my cousin. I wandered around a lot and got into fights but couldn't ever figure out where I was supposed to go in the storyline... it took me forever to realize I was playing my cousin's savegame with basically the entire game completed. Vicious head-slapping ensued.

Oh man, watching that Mechwarrior video, the part where you talk to the bartender? The music in that scene just came flooooooding back on a nostalgia wave.

Well, I mentioned before that this seemed a lot like World of Tanks, and in that game everyone starts out in old tiny little tanks and works their way up the ladder in both size and technology. The matches are balanced so that both sides have approximately the same battle power, so there are only so many really powerful tanks per side, a bunch of stuff in the middle, and a few smaller ones that act as scouts/flag cappers/artillery killers.

In this game I imagine there will be something like that. It could possibly go by the value of the mechs on both sides. There will be a couple super expensive heavy mechs, then a bunch of more average cost ones, then a couple lowbies. In world of tanks the matches keep similar level players together, so even though there is a variety of tanks in any given battle, you never see people in starter tanks fighting against top-tier stuff. The system works pretty well on average, with only the occasional match where you jump in and one side is completely overpowered.

The game will not be tiered like WoT. I don't know what they are doing instead of that.
So it wont be light>medium>heavy>assault

they want all mech types to be viable and useful at any stage.

Maybe they'll just balance battle sides by tonnage or points?

It or did, have Battle Value so I guess they could use the later and endless fuck with it like every other game.

Battletech is war, not sport. It doesn't make much sense to think of 'why you'd pick a light or a heavy' from a balance perspective. They built light mechs because they can build a whole lot more of them for the same cost, and they have combat support roles that are not always winning duels with other mechs. Bottom line is, you should never expect a light mech to win a brawl with a heavier mech, and I doubt they're going to go that way.

So while you're on to something about the role of a light mech in non-deathmatch, I think the light mech has a role in lance-on-lance deathmatch, too. Additional speed allows you to better get behind mechs that are tied up by fire from your heavies and fire at the wear rear armor, for example. You don't need to give it crits in a way that doesn't make much sense (why wouldn't the heavies also have that ability?)

Crescent Hawk's Inception was wonderful and still holds up well. I first played it in school but started it back up and played all the way through it only a couple years back. It still holds up rather well.

See the problem is, they broke the game over time. Light mechs have become fundamentally useless. With XXL engines, MASC, endo steel, etc... You can now make medium and heavy mechs that go faster than 100kmph, then much faster with MASC.

In the original rules, a fast mech was either a light mech, or completely gimped in the name of speed like the charger. Now many of the heavy mechs are faster than the original light mechs.

So if they make the game economy based, the reason you'd use light mechs is because if you kill one assault mech even after dying 5 times in light mechs, the other guy loses more money so that it is like a mining corporation employing zerg tactics in Eve (though that was always problematic if they got podded and you need a certain amount of expensive ships just to tackle others).

That's not quite right, all of those technologies come with penalties. MASC means you have to maintain a certain heat level, thereby making you far less accurate. XXL engines take up double the crit slots, so not only do they mean less weapons mounted, they also make your engine exceptionally vulnerable to critical hits. Endo steel also has the critical slot problem. So no, you cant really "You can now make medium and heavy mechs that go faster than 100kmph, then much faster with MASC. " Not without serious penalties. I play this game twice a month, and trust me when I say almost no one uses the tech you describe and if they do, it's generally only one of them. So they did not break the game over time nor are light mechs useless because of that technology.

This is my mech of choice:

http://i.imgur.com/c6PKZ.jpg

Yeah, no, you are wrong

There are plenty of heavy mechs capable of 100kmph and once they added melee weapons that utilize heat, heat became a non penalty.

The only advantage to being light was speed and that's a non factor.

Oh you! Without theory crafting what will these threadies do besides endlessly wool gathering?

You said heat was a safe bet, when I think you meant heat is a gamble. Because there are no weapons or environmental factors that would push you from the sweet spot and out into trouble. :p

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g3...ap/Capture.png

No, I am not. Look at that, there is not a spot on that mech that isn't vulnerable to a critical hit, which happen every time you hit internal structure. Since this thing isn't exactly heavy on the armor, that is going to happen. I see what they are going for on the mech, speed with a sacrifice in firepower and extreme vulnerability. This is an exceptionally vulnerable heavy.

Bangarang Ghostbear!

Also I never seem to play against people who use mechs with those kinds of rules in real life.

The mechs are legit, but I fail to see how they make light mechs obsolete. There are serious trade offs for using those specialized pieces of gear.

Liar!!! It's full of endo steel!!! :p

Also light mechs are nice. They are likely to do their job and come back.

personally i enjoy playing a fast maneuverable light mech, i get in do my job really quick and get the fuck out so a heavy or something else can finish the job, then i repeat

Heh, even without the endo steel you can see the point I was making. All that endo steel is why it carries little in the way of armament (for a mech of its size).

Even still,that armament and level of armor will spank a light mech, while still having a comparable speed, that was exactly my point.

Which makes it, what, a light mech hunter at the expense of being worse against those of its own weight class? Seems fair. There's a reason people balance by tonage.

Well the xfactor is cost. Light mechs are cheaper, but is cost going to be a factor?

Cost? WHat are you talking about? Tonnage?

c-bills .

Makes me want to play Chromehounds again. Kind of lame that From does so much Armored Core shit instead of more Chromehounds.

Just imagine how much fun we'll have beating Ghostbear at this game? "Man, isn't your nick from this franchise? Shouldn't you be better at it? Why is your mech on fire?"

It will be the MOST fun.

@Random51 - so funny. "Why is your mech on fire?"

lol


Flamer Bukkake?

Bring it skippy.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Bring it? I brought it, set it on the table, and opened it!

You could say, HOTAS? ;)

How about HOTCATASS?

http://i.imgur.com/JqRyz.jpg

The hair-band 80's rock made was making me go "meh" the first time I watched this, but when I turned off the sound, it looked pretty good. It's funny how an awful music bed can make something seem so terrible.

Also, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but nothing about the footage so far says that it is an online game. It looks like a single player game that might have multiplayer co-op - which would be fine with me.