Battletech Megathread: Giant robots are awesome

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Battletech Megathread: Giant robots are awesome

blackmongoose: Mar 31, 2011; DARK INFERNO ROOK!

Airspace posted:

I am a sick puppy that likes making Mechwarrior and ATOW characters.

I mean, by the time I'm done I have no motivation to actually play in the campaigns I roll them up for, but I do enjoy the process.

I liked making characters in Mechwarrior for the sole purpose of using them to create a merc force with FM:Mercs. I tended to roll so badly in the lifepaths that using a default commander would have been better, but it was still fun. Haven't seen the ATOW rules, but the Campaign Ops force creation rules don't really care about characters and I just generally dislike them a lot more than the FM: Mercs ones so I haven't done anything along those lines in a while.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 07:03

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 04:39

JonathonSpectre: Jul 23, 2003; I replaced the Shermatar and text with this because I don't wanna see racial slurs every time you post what the fuck; Soiled Meat

So I'm getting ready to run a Battletech RPG campaign for the first time in years this weekend. I'm extremely familiar with the rules of the wargame but I know almost nothing about the RPG system. Some years ago I played in a very long-running Mechwarrior 2E campaign that I remember as being pretty fun.

What's the general consensus about A Time of War? I see a lot of bitching about it. I have access to Mechwarrior 2nd Edition and would be fine using that, or any other generic system anyone wants to recommend, but is AToW worth the $50? I intend to run this campaign for at least a year, and there is going to be a significant amount of out-of-Mech action and roleplaying. I'm not worried about having to learn a new system, but if I can save $50 and still do a good job running I'd rather buy minis.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 14:29

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

I've not played it but I'm convinced that you could have fun with the right group and a not-insignificant amount of narrative handwaving. If you plan on slotting it into the actual tabletop Battletech rules, it's probably more convenient to use AToW than to do a Battletech-flavored FATE game. Just pick and choose which rules you actually plan on using.

As we've discussed over the last page though, character creation for AToW can seem really daunting at first but it's actually quite fun. Can't say anything about the quality of the actual game though since I've heard both good and bad.

People still play other lovely RPGs like Shadowrun (which is pretty similar to AToW as far as I know) and have fun with them, so your enjoyment of the system probably depends a bit on how committed the group is to the Battletech setting already.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 14:40

BattleMaster: Aug 14, 2000

I tried so hard to make A Time of War work but it essentially doesn't work. I liked the character creation but my players didn't, and that was the only part that even I liked.

You can obviously fix anything with house ruling but the combat was just so junk for anything I wanted to use it for. You have to roll initiative every turn for every character and because of the time scale characters can run like 30 meters at a time. Combat is also incredibly deadly even by the standards of harsh and deadly RPG combat systems like GURPS. It really felt like they were going more for a next-gen BattleTroops where you simulate individual soldiers that you don't really care about individually on a battlefield instead of mercs getting into barfights or sneaking around 'mech hangars.

If I ever run a campaign again I am either going to not even bother with RPG stuff or I'm just going to use GURPS or gently caress it, anything else.

Defiance Industries posted:

They are in fact SO overpowered that they don't even have a BV, as a way of saying "this weapon has no place in a balanced game."

I don't know if I like that tactic MORE than how they deliberately overpriced the Manei Domini augments in BV but it's at least as good.

They must have a BV because the Turkina Z with 4 iATM12s has a BV of 3935.

BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 15:14 on Jan 31, 2017

# ? Jan 31, 2017 15:07

Eldragon: Feb 22, 2003

BattleMaster posted:

I tried so hard to make A Time of War work but it essentially doesn't work. I liked the character creation but my players didn't, and that was the only part that even I liked.

You can obviously fix anything with house ruling but the combat was just so junk for anything I wanted to use it for. You have to roll initiative every turn for every character and because of the time scale characters can run like 30 meters at a time. Combat is also incredibly deadly even by the standards of harsh and deadly RPG combat systems like GURPS. It really felt like they were going more for a next-gen BattleTroops where you simulate individual soldiers that you don't really care about individually on a battlefield instead of mercs getting into barfights or sneaking around 'mech hangars.

If I ever run a campaign again I am either going to not even bother with RPG stuff or I'm just going to use GURPS or gently caress it, anything else.

They must have a BV because the Turkina Z with 4 iATM12s has a BV of 3935.

Same thing happened to me. I just run Traveller in a battletech setting instead. Works out fairly well. Only think I used ATOW for was some of the quirks and equipment lists.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 16:01

General Battuta: Feb 7, 2011; This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

If all the canonical designs went to a BV Olympics, with appropriate events for mechs and fighters and all sorts of weird crap like Blakist submarines, who would win the gold for most BV? And are those highest-BV units actually powerful, or victims of the BV system? Boy I have a lot of questions

# ? Jan 31, 2017 16:28

Arquinsiel: Jun 1, 2006; "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first."

God Bless Margaret Thatcher
God Bless England
RIP My Iron Lady

IIRC there's a mech that mounts a mobile HPG station in some scenario that's stupidly expensive in BV terms but it basically unarmed.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 16:43

BattleMaster: Aug 14, 2000

General Battuta posted:

If all the canonical designs went to a BV Olympics, with appropriate events for mechs and fighters and all sorts of weird crap like Blakist submarines, who would win the gold for most BV? And are those highest-BV units actually powerful, or victims of the BV system? Boy I have a lot of questions

Skinwalker C probably at 4387 BV, which inflates further if you stat up the pilot with realistic stats (elite level probably) with Enhanced Imaging and the Machina Domini system.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Skinwalker_(Ryoken_III)

# ? Jan 31, 2017 17:02

Xotl: May 28, 2001; Be seeing you.

The Ryoken III-XP C, from XTR RotS Vol. III (That's a wonderful collection of random characters there) wins the mech BV grand prize at 4,387. It's the only mech that beats the Turkina Z.

Of course, these pale in comparison to the glory of the 100,000 ton Castrum Pocket Warship (Standard) at 67,223 BV. In terms of aero you might actually be expected to fight, though, the Kirghiz E at 4,023 BV wins it.

Yes, BV can result in some overpriced units. The Ryoken is definitely overpriced, a victim of TSEMP's incredible cost. But the Turkina Z is a real terror and might just be worth that BV. Don't know enough about aero to say if the Kirghiz is about right or not, though its weapon loadout is pretty drat scary (double HAG 40, plus 2 clan large pulses).

# ? Jan 31, 2017 17:09

mediocre dad okay: Jan 9, 2007; The fascist don't like life then he break other's
BEAT BEAT THE FASCIST

Xotl posted:

Yes, BV can result in some overpriced units. The Ryoken is definitely overpriced, a victim of TSEMP's incredible cost. But the Turkina Z is a real terror and might just be worth that BV.

Surely no 'mech is worth that much...

Sarna posted:

Four iATM 12 systems provide heavy firepower... the Turkina Z's ten tons of ammunition...

# ? Jan 31, 2017 17:41

DrPop: Aug 22, 2004

I could've sworn iATM BV was listed somewhere (and obviously units with iATMs have BVs) but I can't find it in Wars of Reaving or the supplemental.

Also rereading the iATM entry in the main Wars of Reaving book made me remember that they can also fire indirect (without the "streak" capability though) lol

# ? Jan 31, 2017 18:17

Xotl: May 28, 2001; Be seeing you.

DrPop posted:

I could've sworn iATM BV was listed somewhere (and obviously units with iATMs have BVs) but I can't find it in Wars of Reaving or the supplemental.

WoR p. 208.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 20:37

DrPop: Aug 22, 2004

Xotl posted:

WoR p. 208.

Doof. No idea how I missed that. Thanks.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 21:13

General Battuta: Feb 7, 2011; This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

I assume the iATM's stunning power comes from the Streak feature? Are Streak LRMs any good or does the reduced payload per missile even it out a bit?

# ? Jan 31, 2017 21:28

Defiance Industries: Jul 22, 2010; A five-star manufacturer

General Battuta posted:

I assume the iATM's stunning power comes from the Streak feature? Are Streak LRMs any good or does the reduced payload per missile even it out a bit?

Well the streak functionality is a big part of it but so is all the different ammo types. Being able to guarantee that all your missiles hit can really disrupt a unit (if you're using infernos or EMPs), or REALLY gently caress it up if you're loaded with HE rounds (meaning a 12-rack does 36 damage, far more than the Streak LRM can put out).

One of the main limits on the utility of Streaks was that they didn't load specialty rounds, and iATMs tossed that out.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 22:05

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Streak LRMs are really cool and flavorful but they are basically categorically inferior to paired Clan LRM launchers of the same class, which takes up the same tonnage. THey suffer on heat and ammunition concerns, but they make up for it by having 'average' damages that are greater than half of the Streak's full damage.

I like Streak LRMs.

# ? Jan 31, 2017 22:51

Cease to Hope: Dec 12, 2011

Strobe posted:

Streak LRMs are really cool and flavorful but they are basically categorically inferior to paired Clan LRM launchers of the same class, which takes up the same tonnage.

Also they're vulnerable to Angel ECM, which is more common than SLRMs by the time SLRMs stop being experimental.

# ? Feb 1, 2017 00:58

JonathonSpectre: Jul 23, 2003; I replaced the Shermatar and text with this because I don't wanna see racial slurs every time you post what the fuck; Soiled Meat

Well then, I guess I have no choice in the matter AT ALL except to just download a PDF of Mechwarrior 2nd edition and use the $50 I save to buy even more tiny spaceships and tiny robots.

# ? Feb 1, 2017 01:31

Taerkar: Dec 7, 2002; kind of into it, really

Any opinions on the recent book by BLP on Clan Wolverine?

# ? Feb 8, 2017 03:25

mcjomar: Jun 11, 2012; Grimey Drawer

You mean the one that was originally a 4-part series on battlecorps?
If it's that one, then it basically takes the original mystery of the wolverines, and answers it with "The wolverines are actually tragic heroes, stabbed in the back by Nicky K".
YMMV if you consider that good or bad.

For my part, I found it sort of interesting, and in regards what little nicky gets up to, I could readily believe it as he always came across as being that much of a dick from the word go.
Him and the shitheel actions of the widowmakers are basically what increasingly makes me dislike the clans. I already wasn't wild about them, but if this is actually considered canon, then yeah, it's pretty easy to point and say "shitlord ahoy" and still be accurate.

So if you're interested in that sort of thing and a mirror of the 40k horus heresy, but by BLP then I'd say go for it. If you're intolerant of some pretty blatant and obvious plot points and tropes that we've all seen before in this sort of thing, then give it a miss. Although honestly, battletech has always been pretty schlocky, with only a few really stand-out novels.

Short answer - it's still better than pretty much everything after BoK (timeline-wise) that was written involving VSD and the super friends. Well, mostly.

# ? Feb 9, 2017 09:53

Skoll: Jul 26, 2013; Oh You'll Love My Toxic Love; Grimey Drawer

mcjomar posted:

Short answer - it's still better than pretty much everything after BoK (timeline-wise) that was written involving VSD and the super friends. Well, mostly.

I think everyone can agree that short of the Dark Age, the FedCom Civil War / any novel with VSD is just absolutely loving terrible. I've never hated fictional characters as much as I did the Steiner-Davions.

# ? Feb 9, 2017 17:32

Defiance Industries: Jul 22, 2010; A five-star manufacturer

Skoll posted:

I think everyone can agree that short of the Dark Age, the FedCom Civil War / any novel with VSD is just absolutely loving terrible. I've never hated fictional characters as much as I did the Steiner-Davions.

On the other hand, unlike the Warrior trilogy, the Victor novels at least succeed at the barest requirements of narrative. Victor may be a terrible character but at least it's possible he might lose when he goes to fight the Clans. The Warrior trilogy is just three books of a Federast fanboy jerking himself off.

# ? Feb 9, 2017 21:27

Skoll: Jul 26, 2013; Oh You'll Love My Toxic Love; Grimey Drawer

The Warrior trilogy doesn't make up all of Classic Battletech. I actually did like those books but the Mary Sue was strong with Justin Xiang. He was more likable than VSD though, by a long shot, and eventually got offed regardless. VSD got some ripe old age poo poo and KSD got to become a Clan warrior.

# ? Feb 9, 2017 21:30

Defiance Industries: Jul 22, 2010; A five-star manufacturer

Skoll posted:

The Warrior trilogy doesn't make up all of Classic Battletech. I actually did like those books but the Mary Sue was strong with Justin Xiang. He was more likable than VSD though, by a long shot, and eventually got offed regardless. VSD got some ripe old age poo poo and KSD got to become a Clan warrior.

I'm just saying, I'd take Blood of Kerensky over the Warrior Trilogy any day. Neither of them are good because Stackpole can't write dialogue to save his life, but at least BoK succeeds at having antagonists with at least the barest chance of victory.

# ? Feb 9, 2017 21:32

Skoll: Jul 26, 2013; Oh You'll Love My Toxic Love; Grimey Drawer

Defiance Industries posted:

I'm just saying, I'd take Blood of Kerensky over the Warrior Trilogy any day. Neither of them are good because Stackpole can't write dialogue to save his life, but at least BoK succeeds at having antagonists with at least the barest chance of victory.

I see your point and agree. The fights in WT felt predetermined as gently caress and it was lazy writing. I like Stackpole's Star Wars novels to be up front, but I do remember him saying he has a system worked out to where he can poo poo out 300 page novels pretty easily and just send them off to be edited.

# ? Feb 9, 2017 21:35

mcjomar: Jun 11, 2012; Grimey Drawer

Skoll posted:

I see your point and agree. The fights in WT felt predetermined as gently caress and it was lazy writing. I like Stackpole's Star Wars novels to be up front, but I do remember him saying he has a system worked out to where he can poo poo out 300 page novels pretty easily and just send them off to be edited.

Yeah, PTN pointed out that he (Stackpole) had some skill in that area.
That said, I like in WT that the protagonist for most of the novel comes off as becoming a hateful traitor who despises the feddies, and is reasonably played that way.
But the fights were pretty much a given, so that's kind of crappy.
BoK was better in that the protagonists actually sometimes lost, but it's also the series that introduced us to the super friends in the first place, so I'm of two minds about that side of things.

RE: Star Wars, while some of his x-wing characters were a little bit flat, I do still like his action scene writing (although I could accuse him of occasionally being a little bit repetitive with his descriptions - but devil's advocate, there's only so many ways to describe spaceships pew-pewing each other).

I like to describe Stackpole as being the McDonalds of sci-fi books. You know it's junk (food) but it still can be enjoyable. But in comparison, I,Jedi was basically worse than Burger King on their worst day ever, combined with a really lovely KFC I went to on the M62 in the middle of England this one time (near Manchester) which served what was probably the worst chicken I have ever seen in my life. And I like my chicken. Okay so maybe that was breaking the metaphor a bit - so I guess I, Jedi was like those horror stories you hear of people getting a chicken foot in their McNuggets?

# ? Feb 10, 2017 09:41

Skoll: Jul 26, 2013; Oh You'll Love My Toxic Love; Grimey Drawer

Summary of the last Q&A :

https://community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/5741/comments/106258

quote:

Story-related Questions

One of the fans on the forums asked if the game (the story) is closer to Game of Thrones in Space, a Less Spicy Dune, Machiavelli with Mechs or Something else all together. HBS said it is a bit of all of those. They took inspiration of all those things. GoT had strong characters and that is something that they want to convey as well.

They didn't collaborate with other BT authors specifically when writing the story, although Jordan Weisman (one of the founders of the BattleTech universe) is the studio head.

As to how they came up with the idea, Mike McCain said that there is a certain quote about authors. Some authors are like architects and plan out everything to a T. They say they will do this and then go do that exactly. Others are like gardeners. They plant the seeds, hope they planted the right ones and nurture those to see what becomes. BattleTech's story creation is somewhere in between. The story is partly created to fit certain gameplay goals. They want the players to have a gameplay experience, and the story can't conflict that. So, they created a framework and then filled it out. They wanted a revolution story and make the players either join that revolution or not. Seemed like a good "merc fit".

BattleTech isn't about black and white. Individuals might in their own mind think that certain factions / others are black or white, but in the end, the universe itself does not care. The individuals do. HBS feels that having strong characters gives perspective and may change the view you, as a player, have on the conflict in the Aurigan Reaches.

There are huge differences between constructing a deep rpg like Shadowrun and a tactical game like BattleTech. Last thing you want when in a mission is to work your way through a dialogue branch. It arrests your flow. An RPG is about branching, a tactical game not so much.

In Shadowrun, they took a more literary approach to the dialogue and relied more on GM text.

As to the story linearity, you can look a bit to GTA. You can explore at will in that game and choose when to undertake which mission. Each mission itself however doesn't have a lot of branching or rpg-interaction. BattleTech will be similar to that approach.
Playing the game and the effects your playstyle has on the ending of the game boils down to whether or not you want to see the Aurigan Restoration (the Revolution that the "good guys" undertake, as it were) to its ending or not. You can choose to leave the rebellion "hanging".

You don't have to play the story missions. Once the game opens up (you have access to the Argo), you can choose how much missions for the Restoration you undertake. If you don't do missions, the Restoration will fail. So, failing the storyline, does not mean you fail your career in the game. The game won't end.

You cannot side with the Directorate itself (mainly because of budget / time limitations with developping the game), but you can watch the rebellion fall apart (by not doing missions for the Aurigan Restoration).
Story missions will have scripted elements and randomized elements. Just how much of each is still subject to change!

If you fail a story mission, you will be able to re-do it. HBS does want to avoid "snowballing", meaning that you lose a mission, lose Mechs, redo the mission, lose again and ultimately are left with nothing. That said, if you fail a storyline mission, you might want to go do something else to recover and recuperate. You'll never be stuck with just having the choice of doing that difficult story mission.

You start out with a ragtag crew. Later on, you'll be able to take on missions for different clients, which affects your reputation with those clients. The Restoration will then contact you and let you undertake missions. It is a bit of back and forth.
The Aurigan Restoration considers you as a "special ops" unit. You are not with the rank and file and are called upon to do special missions. They will use you to do sketchy missions, so they can disavow that certain things happend. Your actions will help the regular army advance and gain ground.

Between missions, you will be able (optionally) to interact with your crew. Think dialogues with your crew in Shadowrun, just not as deep, more light-branching background. You'll also be able to learn their opinion on the world and the events around them. They want to flesh out a bit the "upstairs, downstairs" difference in viewpoints. What the aristocracy and the noble houses think, is in contrast to what the Regular Joe and Jane might think.

Crew progression is linked to upgrading the Argo. The DropShip you get in the beginning is all banged up and you'll need to repair/upgrade it piece by piece (repairing a MechBay to full operation for instance).

No romances in the game
.
When creating your Mercenary Commander, you'll be presented with a three-stage character creator. Remember, you will be creating a character that becomes a mercenary, so the choices you can make for your background will take that in account. You will be presented with 6 choices and some sub-choices to that effect.

Character background will have an impact in at least one story mission, where your background will have effects on what people / you say or do in that mission. Work in progress.

When calling in artillery and the like, you will get nice "audio barks".

In MechCommander, each MechWarrior had about 30 lines of spoken audio. In BattleTech, that will be about 150 per MechWarrior. HBS admitted that was expensive.

One lesson learned from writing story for the Shadowrun games is that creating interesting backstories for each of your crew, dropping them in a relatively simple conflict and letting the interactions drive the drama provides an interesting view on the world around the characters.

They way to sell the story to newcomers to the BattleTech universe, is by way of the characters. If you're able to strip the sci-fi elements from the story and still have it interesting to the player, that is a good story. If you then work in canon elements and make it fit the universe, you'll draw in the fans of the setting too.

Re-reading the fiction and sourcebooks leading up to the creation of the story has been a lot of fun.

General questions

The MechWarriors you hire and use will not interact with the story themselves. The crew of the Argo and you as a commander will.

Be prepared to lose MechWarriors. In this part of the setting (and the current year), the metal is more important than the meat. It is unlikely that a MechWarrior survives till the end of the story, but the Mechs might.

Infantry is a fine candidate for post-launch success and updates.

Nothing is being done to actively prevent modding, but you won't get a toolkit as well. Unity is also no the most flexible engine. But HBS won't stop you from messing with the raw files.

Salvage will be a strong negotiation point in the contracts that you take in the game.

Weapons and "interesting" parts can salvaged as is. Other parts (like engines, actuators, ...) are sold automatically and you receive cash. You also collect scrap. [Note: I do not know whether this means scrap as a general resource or not]

Engines on Mechs cannot be swapped.

The parts you salvage also depends on how efficient you were at blowing up a `Mech. If you blow almost everything to smithereens before taking the `Mech down, you probably won't get much back.

Expect salvage to be a major source of upgrades. There will be stores, but (certainly in the early part of the game) they will have an incomplete and mis-matched inventory.

They are discussing the possibility that enemies might pro-actively surrender to the player in single-player. There won't be a "parlay" option and if the enemy want to surrender, you will certainly not get a dialogue wheel or somesuch.

There will be contracts offered by parties other than the five Houses (being House Davion, Steiner, Kurita, Liao and Marik).

The movement of Mechs in the game will match the movement speeds of tabletop. That said, they applied a bell-curve as to eliminate the edges. An UrbanMech will not be so damnably slow, a locust will not be blazingly fast.

You will probably not be able to send lances out on simultaneous missions. There is a spec for something called "secondary missions" where you send out someone to do them, but that will be revisited post-launch (if the game is successful).

HBS will not be at Pax East. They rather work on the game.

There are 5 terrain biomes in production. Mountainous, Arid Desert, Glacial Lowlands, Terrestrial Lowlands, Frozen, Martian, Lunar and Tundra. Each biome has their own terrain features. Forrests will be pretty much in all biomes. There is for instance a Crystal Field in the Desert, in which lasers will be less powerful, but kinetic and missiles will work just fine. Each biome will have a set of valid weather and lighting and fog etc ... It will change depending on the battle and other factors.

Contracts will in general last for one mission. What will be in the game, is mission chains. You do contract 01 and complete it, contract 02 will be available, and so forth. They wanted to do this so that you can take a break and go do another mission for instance. Also, it will allow for re-supply. Missions in this game tend to take longer to complete than the team had originally anticipated (which they find a good thing) and they don't want to shut a player out of the simulation part of the game for 4 hours in a row (which would have been the case if contracts took multiple missions to complete).

There is a system for camo-schemes and paintjobs. Each chassis has 6 different paint schemes (for instance stripes, double stripes, across the chest, ...). You can choose 4 colors to make up your Mech and use those to make a global paint scheme for your Mech or you can make each Mech individual.

You can also put a heraldry icon on your Mech on several locations (you have a nice cat picture? You can put it on the chest!).

Heraldry can be made in the emblem editor.

You can continue to play the game after the story has finished / failed.

BattleTech and the announced MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries will not be linked, story-wise or gameplay-wise. They take place in different timeperiods of the universe as well. The only link between HBS and Piranha Games (creators of MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5) is that the latter have supplied Mechs (and a few tanks) to the former.

You will face a lance of 4 Mechs quite often.

The game will be available on Windows, Mac and Linux. You can purchase the game on Steam, GoG and Humble. That's about it, because they do not have the license to do anything else.

You will not be able to put an axe on an Atlas assault Mech (sadly enough).

BattleTech has a hardpoint system for the Mechs, similar to MechWarrior Online, but not the same. Hardpoints on Mechs will not change, the weapons you put in can be changed (within what that hardpoint allows). More details will be revealed later.
You can make PPC boats (`Mechs bearing nothing but Particle Projection Cannons), but only if the hardpoints on the `Mech allow it.

You will start with a lance, one of those being a Blackjack. That Blackjack has been modified in order to fulfill a certain request. [Note: No more info was given]

The starting lance will NOT have Assault Mechs.

A Mech will not be able to take up scrap or trees and use it to bludgeon other mechs. Not possible in the scope of the game. If they had 10 million extra...

The money raised with the kickstarter is not a lot, compared to other game budgets. It allowed for the team to be paid, food to be bought and chairs to be placed. Focus = quality, they can't do many things well. So, buy the game, make your friends buy the game, make their friends buy the game.

You will only have Leopard Dropships available. They will be your shuttles from the Argo to the surface.

Multiplayer combat will be 1 player vs 1 player.

Mechs painted red will not go faster.

There will be difficulty options, but they are still kinking out the details.

A movie replay of your battles will not be in the game. Once again, limited budget.

No dropping Mechs from orbit.

No "Stackpoling" Mechs. [Note: Stackpoling refers to shutting down the safety regulators on your Mech's fusion engine, creating a fusion explosion. BattleTech author Michael A. Stackpole used that in his novels, but realistically, you cannot easily turn a fusion reactor in a fusion bomb]

A mission will last about 30 to 40 minutes.

Combining the Shadowrun Engine with the BattleTech engine in order to make the ultimate MechWarrior campaign ... A bit like mixing Nitric Acid and Sulfuric Acid, while adding a bit of Glycerin. It creates explosive results. So, yeah, no, not gonna happen.
UrbanMechs will be in the game. Hell yes.

Ammo explosions happen. First shot disables the mechanism feed, the second sets it off.

Light Mechs get higher initiative, are harder to hit because they are smaller (the enemy gets to-hit penalties, even if the light Mech stands still!) and can move further in general, creating more bonuses.

A light Mech in melee might not sound like a good idea, but do not forget that Melee also includes fire your small weaponry. A Firestarter light Mech can charge in melee and unleash a lot of flamers and small lasers on you, creating pain. But if a locust does this and charges an Awesome, the returnpunch can hurt the Locust a lot.

Tonnage is not the only indicator of a Mechs prowess in melee. A chassis might have certain bonuses to melee.

There is a save-in-mission option.

Ironman mode? Yes.

# ? Feb 10, 2017 16:02

DrPop: Aug 22, 2004

Latest Q&A posted:

Engines on Mechs cannot be swapped.

No "Stackpoling" Mechs.

Yee and yee

# ? Feb 10, 2017 18:18

Skoll: Jul 26, 2013; Oh You'll Love My Toxic Love; Grimey Drawer

I actually really like the no engine switching thing. Mechs will retain their personalities imo.

# ? Feb 10, 2017 18:23

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

It's a good decision.

# ? Feb 11, 2017 02:07

Sam Hall: Jun 29, 2003

Skoll posted:

A movie replay of your battles will not be in the game. Once again, limited budget.

yo hold up, what kind of feature are they trying to describe when they say "movie replay"? Are they talking about a demo record/playback function? I can't see that being expensive to implement in a turn-based game.

# ? Feb 11, 2017 05:15

mcjomar: Jun 11, 2012; Grimey Drawer

It may just be coding/time budget with them dumping any features which aren't part of their chosen "core" in the backlog.
It's likely that feature was shoved completely out of "Must" and "Should" and at most remained in "Could" or "Would be nice to have" as far as their development priorities went.
What I'm saying is if they're ignoring it in favour of making sure DFAs work correctly/at all, then I'm fine with it. They can always patch it in later.

# ? Feb 11, 2017 09:51

Defiance Industries: Jul 22, 2010; A five-star manufacturer

mcjomar posted:

It may just be coding/time budget with them dumping any features which aren't part of their chosen "core" in the backlog.
It's likely that feature was shoved completely out of "Must" and "Should" and at most remained in "Could" or "Would be nice to have" as far as their development priorities went.
What I'm saying is if they're ignoring it in favour of making sure DFAs work correctly/at all, then I'm fine with it. They can always patch it in later.

But making DFAs work correctly IS making them never work all. Those loving TNs.

# ? Feb 11, 2017 10:26

Sidesaddle Cavalry: Mar 15, 2013; Oh Boy Desert Map

Xarbala posted:

It's a good decision.

I like the decision too, but I also think there are way way too many 'Mechs that move 4/6 or slower in the time period.

# ? Feb 11, 2017 17:37

Taerkar: Dec 7, 2002; kind of into it, really

4/6 is the old 5/8

# ? Feb 11, 2017 18:13

Sidesaddle Cavalry: Mar 15, 2013; Oh Boy Desert Map

That's true in the sense that I believe you're thinking of, but the difference between 5/8 and 4/6 is the difference between actually breaking even on target speed modifier against your own movement modifier, versus the majority of 'Mech playstyle ending up as just parking in a spot and rolling weapon attacks forever.

No big deal though wrt HBS BattleTech, because weapon attack rolls are done differently anyways if i'm getting all this correctly.

fe: Also I like Jump Jet 'Mechs because there's a point to moving with them to get over terrain and a better shot at stuff

# ? Feb 11, 2017 19:00

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

mediocre dad okay posted:

I don't think so, but I've had some success using Fate Core for the non-mech bits. The mechanics actually mesh fairly well: Mech Quirks become aspects, pilot abilities can be bought as stunts, pilot hits go into your stress boxes/consequences etc. Plus, you can allow the use of Fate Points to reroll headshots/ammo TACs if you want your players to live longer.

Older post but I've been thinking about this lately.. do you have any kind of hack document that you use for FATE to run a Battletech game, or is there really not much converting that needs to be done?

# ? Feb 14, 2017 11:16

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Drone posted:

Older post but I've been thinking about this lately.. do you have any kind of hack document that you use for FATE to run a Battletech game, or is there really not much converting that needs to be done?

FATE is one of those extremely super rules light universal systems so it's just a matter of taking FATE concepts and applying them on the fly while running the game since, well, winging it is sort of built in to FATE and figuring stuff out should be fairly easy. Basically BT already has an extensive set of rules for basic interactions [moving, shooting, kicking, etc.] while stapling FATE on would basically give players an expanded "cheat sheet" to handle things BT doesn't explicitly have rules for, or spending Edge in ways that AToW might not allow. The thing about the system is that as a part of the narrative-system school of design, it has rules for gamifying ways for players to influence how scenes or events play out that don't normally fly in a competitive and "fair" environment. Something like your character's specific narrative hooks, background details, and so forth (called Aspects in FATE) have as much mechanical relevance as their hard skill numbers, and they can Invoke them to use them for their own benefit or be Compelled by them wherein someone else, such as the GM, uses their Aspects against them.

It's elegant but explicitly does not mean to satisfy a desire for heavy crunch. But it does make creating campaigns a very hands-on experience for players as much as the GM, as it's designed as a collaborative effort by all parties involved to make an entertaining and fun story.

https://fate-srd.com/

If worse comes to worst, though, you can always just use FATE for out-of-'Mech conflict resolution and leave it out of the robot action.

Runa fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Feb 14, 2017

# ? Feb 14, 2017 14:02

Drone: Aug 22, 2003; Incredible machine

Xarbala posted:

If worse comes to worst, though, you can always just use FATE for out-of-'Mech conflict resolution and leave it out of the robot action.

That's probably what I would do. Everything that takes place inside a robot would probably be done in MegaMek, and everything outside the robot in FATE. As much as AToW's crunchy-rear end character creation is a guilty pleasure of mine, I'm not sure I'd actually want to, uh, play it.

# ? Feb 14, 2017 14:30

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 04:39

Runa: Feb 13, 2011

Drone posted:

That's probably what I would do. Everything that takes place inside a robot would probably be done in MegaMek, and everything outside the robot in FATE. As much as AToW's crunchy-rear end character creation is a guilty pleasure of mine, I'm not sure I'd actually want to, uh, play it.

Yeah, I don't think it'd be possible to reconcile FATE with Megamek-run battles but it uh, it would certainly speed up char creation and just about everything else for that matter.

# ? Feb 14, 2017 14:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Battletech Megathread: Giant robots are awesome

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