|
It's taken two weeks, but I finally finished reading through this whole drat thread. put me on the mechwarrior list please! I have PMs and also my username at gmail will work. I've played megamek. Back in the late 80s I played a game or two of tabletop battletech. And I played [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleTech:_The_Crescent_Hawk%27s_Revenge[/url]Crescent Hawk's Revenge[/url] which was, if my memory serves (which it might not), a pretty faithful translation of the tabletop game to the PC. However I never read any of the fluff so it's been an education getting through this thread. Oh yeah did no-one else catch this? Chronojam posted:If his mechwarrior stops using contraceptives, she might inevitably find herself using contractions. Just saying.
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2011 06:17
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:42 |
|
|
Whatever Bobbin Threadbare has planned, I want to see it. I vote C.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2011 06:36
|
|
|
I voted C because I wanted to be sure we got to do Bobbin's scenario. But now that I know it's going to be available later as well, I Switch my vote from C to A.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2011 20:29
|
|
|
Those Stingers also have jump jets. Which don't suffer the move penalty, so I expect to see a lot of leaping mechs this game! e. Oh yeah and they're just 20 tons each. Really light mechs with jumpjets probably don't have much armor... (I'm annoyed that the sarna wiki pages doesn't have in-game stats like tons of armor or speed in hexes. Why is that?) Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Apr 21, 2011 |
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2011 23:30
|
|
|
ShadowDragon8685 posted:Presumably not to completely obliviate the need to purchase the TRO books and hence, not get their asses hit with some kind of legal-jitsu by whomever currently holds the BTech tabletop rights. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I thought all the rules were more or less published at this point, but of course they just released a new box set so obviously that's wrong. also the word is 'obviate', I only mention it because you said you're a writer and I thought you'd want to know
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2011 23:38
|
|
|
Or maybe Great White is playing there and everyone will be pissed at our But more likely there's someone important in there, yeah. e. Uprooting a statue and using it as a club to bludgeon another mech with: priceless.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2011 00:16
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:Normally, I don't mind the nitpicking; but in this case it's premature. I really mind the nitpicking. Maybe it's because I consumed the whole thread in two weeks, but I'm really sick of reading Zaodai's seemingly limitless capacity to attempt to use in-game reasoning to undermine your decisions about scenario and narrative and game structure. (Also implying people are voting wrongly or stupidly, as if some of the scenario choices you're offering are traps for the stupid.) It got especially bad two scenarios ago when he kept implying you were somehow coddling the players and therefore doing it wrong. If some detail of the scenario puzzles you, you have a choice: you can insist it makes no sense, or you can actually be creative and think of ways in which it could possibly make sense. The former is irritating and the latter is actually productive and, potentially, a helpful contribution.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2011 04:45
|
|
|
Zaodai posted:Other people also have the option of not trying to use rear end-pulls to rationalize it when they know I'm going to argue it. I'm not arguing against PTN's planning from a narrative standpoint, I'm arguing against the people who try to claim it's realistic or perfectly rational from a military standpoint. When generally, whatever I'm arguing is not. If people would accept that narrative handwaves occur and that they make no rational sense rather than trying to shout it down, you wouldn't have to read my oh-so-intrusive bouts of logic and reasoning. So let me get this straight: you're going to go ahead and nitpick the reality of various details, but anyone who suggests there might be a reasonable explanation for things is picking the fight, and you obviously have no choice but to show them that they are indisputably wrong? You're not getting what I'm saying, then. I'm saying you're acting as though just because you cannot think of a reasonable explanation for a detail in a scenario, no such explanation could exist. Especially in fiction, that's pretty foolish, and I find it really annoying. If I'm alone in that opinion than I'll be happy to shut up, though. I don't want to derail things. I just wanted to suggest that actually Poptarts is being really drat lenient with you and if I were running the thread, I'd be far less accommodating by now.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2011 06:02
|
|
|
I still say someone needs to go over to the statue, physically uproot it, and then use it like a club to smash in the cockpit of an enemy mech.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2011 23:42
|
|
|
The SRM-2 is definitely wasteful in terms of ammo, but it's not a totally stupid thing to have. It generates hardly any heat and has a good crit table. Combined with excellent speed and jump capacity, you can wait till an enemy mech has a few holes in its armor, and then jump into just the right spot to include those gaps in your crit table and fire in the same turn you jumped without overheating too badly. The better design choice is to take a single ton of SRM ammo and then take two or three SRM-2 launchers, or combine the SRM-2 with an SRM6 or something. More efficient in terms of ammo usage and gives you a couple of different options for heat accumulation and crit seeking opportunities. (The best choice, of course, is to get rid of the SRMs entirely and just take a bunch of machine guns, which generate no heat at all. I played a MegaMek game against the AI the other day using one of those Piranha mechs and it was amazing.)
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2011 19:00
|
|
|
Yeah the key point with missiles is that a "hit" means some number of missiles hit (but usually not all of them): and then also that those missiles are spread across one or more locations. The more missiles that hit, the better your chances of hitting more locations. Since any hit on a section with the armor gone causes a "crit chance", this is actually a big reason why missiles are good. The secondary reason is less heat per shot. The main drawbacks are the need to carry ammo, and the explosiveness of that ammo. Battletech is actually really well designed (strictly from a mechanical perspective) because most options have at least one benefit that you might reasonably want, even if it also has drawbacks that make it worse than some other option in many circumstances. The need to balance heat, damage output, damage spread, weight, and crit locations for every weapon (and weapons vs. armor and engine capacity and jump jets and heat sinks when doing overall design) ensures a large range of mech designs with no single design being the "best" under every possible circumstance. So what I'm getting at is, an SRM-2 is a poor choice under a lot of circumstances. But there are certain circumstances where it offers a benefit that shouldn't be totally discounted. This is generally true to varying degrees of pretty much every weapon option.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2011 23:26
|
|
|
The ANH-1E variant has 4 PPCs and 40 heat sinks. That's terrifying no matter how ugly it is.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2011 03:21
|
|
|
I think you can jump up from one building to a higher building; it's the differential between your starting and ending z-levels that matters. Along the lines of "there's a rule for everything", what are the rules for mechs (with hands, I assume) climbing up buildings manually?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2011 03:53
|
|
|
the JJ posted:But, most jump jet, uh... energy/fuel/whatever is presumably consumed more quickly going up then down. Could you not burn your jets at, say, half thrust, and land softly as a falling feather? Hahahahaha physics don't apply here, sir. Physics are Lostech.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2011 03:58
|
|
|
I really like the dots. Much easier to read than the old maps. You could probably even get away with not putting up the white text for where mechs used to be, since the dots show the origin pretty well. Looking at the key (which is excellent because it tells me which friendly mech is which, something that's also been occasionally hard to figure out), I think the enemy color is just a bit too close to the H3's colors; I'd suggest using something else (maybe orange?).
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2011 18:53
|
|
|
Pick up train cars and hurl them into expensive industrial buildings!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2011 02:08
|
|
|
Mechs can pretty much just walk right through light buildings (with a piloting check I believe). That is also the best way to mug an opponent mech, when the opposing mech pilot hasn't been thinking of the surrounding buildings as being dispensable. You waltz right through a building, bursting out the other side in a shower of glass and wood timbers, and gank the bitch with a punch to the neck.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2011 19:38
|
|
|
Those buildings near the tanks aren't necessarily residential; just "civilian" which could mean office space or a shopping center or something. Anyway I'm gonna argue that you guys should generally aim to move adjacent to a building, use non arm-mounted weapons against the enemy mechs, and then use the physical combat phase to punch buildings. Every turn your mech isn't punching a building is going to make it harder to hit the target damage. You all have plenty of ammo to last the scenario but you don't want to be using it on buildings while enemy mechs are accumulating, and you can expect more mechs to arrive at any time. Best to prioritize killing mechs then.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 29, 2011 22:43
|
|
|
H3 ended his turn adjacent to some nice tall structures on that building, and his armaments are torso-mounted. So, he could have punched a couple of buildings but didn't! Guys, remember to put in a physical combat order every turn you have an opportunity. A missed kick causes a piloting roll, so there is some risk to that, but punching is basically risk-free.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2011 19:53
|
|
|
I came up with an idea a couple years ago that, while causing a few other problems, could resolve a lot of the issues with the Battletech setting and giant robots being stupid and nonsensical, ablative paper armor, absence of realistic air power, super-short ranges on everything, etc. Move the entire setting into a steampunk-style setting. Not that I'm a huge steampunk fan, but it would totally work. The "inner sphere" is pseudo-Europe. The outer colonies are... the colonies. Mechs run on boilers and need radiators to dissipate heat from their steam-powered weapons. I guess throw in some Nicola-Tesla's-Wet-Dreams style electric weapons too, if you want. Mechs use cannons and primitive rockets (no guidance systems), and then your typical rennaisance/victorian fantasy unobtanium/super-acid/blue lightning/whatever extra poo poo to represent all the other weapons. Get rid of all the aircraft and go with dirigibles and gyrocopters and whatnot. Mechs can drop out of the sky from huge zeppelins, on parachutes. Jump jets are powered by steam. Mechs don't have to be better than WWII-era tanks because those are future-tech. You don't need lostech at all. Comstar owns the telegraph lines. Etc. Etc. Obviously it wouldn't be the same setting, but I think most or all of the game mechanics could be translated over more or less intact, and maybe you'd escape from a lot of the silliness of a future setting using technologies obviously inferior to late 20th century tech, yet having a smattering of technologies wildly superior-than.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2011 20:33
|
|
|
Well yes to both. I actually don't like "steampunk" (as realized by gluing loving gears to everything and then wearing victorian velvet poo poo along with it) at all, and, I'm quite happy to just play giant robots. But I had the thought and it seemed like it would work so I wanted to tell you guys.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2011 20:49
|
|
|
I think Agamemnon is a ship from Babylon 5 universe.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2011 20:57
|
|
|
Right, the Babylon 5 universe humans suffer from having ships that obey a lot more of real-life physics than any of the other settings.
|
|
#
¿
May 1, 2011 21:02
|
|
|
What fictional universe is the Culture from? I'm not familiar with them. \/\/\/ Ah OK, thanks. I've never read any of his books so that explains it. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 01:37 on May 2, 2011 |
|
#
¿
May 2, 2011 01:27
|
|
|
Terror storm posted:As a quick question does anyone think that me taking a pot-shot at the heli this turn is worth it, or should I finish off the mall or move elsewhere? (I'm the commando). I suggest you move to 1022 or 1122 and then turn around 180 degrees. You can shoot at the copter while leaving your left arm free to throw a punch at that building in the physical combat phase.
|
|
#
¿
May 2, 2011 23:34
|
|
|
I think you guys are hosed now. The commando will be destroyed by a single 10-pt hit to the center torso, someone has to get halfway across the map, and you're surrounded. The 1/2 pilots are going to completely own you on even exchanges of fire, too. This is now a suicide mission. I'm gonna predict that at least two mechs are destroyed before anyone takes out the nightclub; you aren't going to hit the damage c-bills target; and any future objectives that pop up are pretty unlikely to be successful either.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2011 01:14
|
|
|
I could totally make that drink. My concern is that sardines are genearally packed in oil: while an alcohol fire is very low temp and so you can kind of snuff it right before you drink it and not burn your face off... sardine oil might burn at a much higher temp, and the fish itself might act as a wick. Also it could get pretty loving hot. "brown alcohol", however, is easy to figure out, and I can throw some pickled onions or a celery stalk (how could someone possibly be unsure which is which???) in as well. e. OK I amazingly have a can of sardines "in soybean oil", and my darkest liquor is the sailor jerry's spiced rum. I have no brown soda to cut it with though. I somehow have no pickled onions, we must be out, and no celery either. I do have raw onion. It is only 5 pm and I have to drive in a bit so this will have to wait till later this evening. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 01:05 on May 6, 2011 |
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 01:01
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:I don't... I don't want anyone to actually drink one of these. Sardines are not that big. I don't think it'd take all that much booze in a glass to cover a sardine. Also I will probably chew the sardine a bit before I swallow because I don't want to choke on it. Honestly if I made a bloody mary, I bet the sardine would taste fine in it. I even have V8. It's just not brown. Gothsheep posted:Wait, so they introduce this character, spend paragraphs describing her, probably spend most of the chapter characterizing her, and then kill her off at the end of the chapter? I think the point of the chapter was to introduce the idea that Rose has a halo of doom around him. Most people have no problem identifying him as an rear end in a top hat they want nothing to do with; or at best, someone they can exploit (Warwick). But someone like Jaryl, who fails to quickly detect what Rose really is, dies as a direct result of his previous actions (ridiculously pissing off Warwick for no reason). We can therefore assume that both his sister and his pilot girlfriend are doomed as well; he will get them killed in some indirect manner as a result of his idiotic and selfish actions.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 01:39
|
|
|
Regarding "cut with": you're supposed to understand that starting with pure grain alcohol and then "cutting" it with hard liquor is kind of a joke. You're effectively taking hard liquor and making it more alcoholic by adding grain alcohol, which is sort of the opposite to what you would normally expect when someone is cutting a drink with an addition. E.g., its the kind of drink that will taste awful, make you instantaneously drunk, and has no other purpose than total shitfaced irresponsibility. The only people who drink drinks like that are college students trying to prove how drunk they can get, alcoholics, and people who are too insecure to ever turn down a dare.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 05:15
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:people who are too insecure to ever turn down a dare. Righto, then. We should all understand what kind of person I am... Mechwarrior "Pelican Shooter" Step 1 Gather the key ingredients. Specifically, we need a drink containing "Dark alcoholic drink", onions and/or celery, a sardine, and fire. I hit the liquor cabinet up for a selection of brownish alcohols. Avoiding all my single-malt scotch, this is what I came up with:  Step 2 Chop some onion.  Step 3 Open the sardines. I always thought they came with a little 'key' for the can, but this one didn't. Fortunately, my can opener was up to the task.   Step 4 I noticed the big jug of Sailor Jerry's that I'd forgotten. Also, fire requires an ignition source (it is unlikely we will achieve sufficient pressure and heat for the ethanol to spontaneously ignite) so I fetched matches. A shot-sized measure will also perhaps be useful.  Step 5 Add one shot of Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum to the glass.  Step 6 The rum was far too light in color. The darkest things on the table were the Kahlua (a coffee liqueur) and the Creme de Cacao (my wife bought this for some reason). Smelling each, I decided sardines would go better with chocolate. So, I added a little more than half a shot of Creme de Cacao.  That's better color now:  Step 7 Add a fork of diced yellow onion.  I was assuming the onion would float, but it immediately sank. Step 8 Add one sardine. None of the sardines were complete, but I fished around (lol) and got the most intact one.  It also sank. I deemed this constituted "covered by the alcohol" as specified:  Step 9 Ignite.  Uhhh...  OK that didn't work. I tried another match but no dice. My guess is that either the alcohol content is too low, or perhaps the sheen of soybean oil covering the surface of the drink acts as a barrier, preventing alcohol vapors from escaping and getting lit. I decided to turn to the highest-proof booze in my arsenal for assistance. Step 10: Add 4 tsp Wild Turkey Rye (101 proof) to a separate glass.   Step 11: Ignite the rye.  Success!  Step 12: quickly pour the lit rye into the main glass, only mildly burning your fingers on the hot shot glass.  Step 13: My worries about burning fish proved unfounded: the mixture instantly went out, so I decided it was time to down the concoction. Mmmmm...  Fishy  That's the last of it!  Victory!  Conclusion It tasted... actually, not nearly as bad as I was expecting. First, I have to say, somehow Rum + Creme de Cacao + Rye, by itself, isn't that horrible. The chunks of onion were crunchy and oniony, but not much of a distraction from the rye and rum taste. The Creme de Cacao didn't really add much. The sardine kind of fell apart as I drank it. I chewed a little and tasted fish and salt, and while that wasn't really well aligned with the other flavors, it also wasn't revolting either. Just kind of a clash of flavors. While I would not make this drink intentionally to enjoy, I could see it being something people at a party would drink on a dare without actually poisoning themselves. The failure to ignite might be overcome with a larger volume of alcohol, and perhaps also by lighting the drink before adding the sardine. All in all, I'd say any Mechwarrior worth his giant stompy robot should be able to down one of these things without complaint. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 08:08 on May 6, 2011 |
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 07:30
|
|
|
PoptartsNinja posted:Alternatively, I will give bonus points to anyone who makes (and drinks) a Pelican Shooter with double bonus points if you live (Note: please don’t actually try a Pelican Shooter; I don’t want anyone to die trying to drink a whole sardine). Oh yeah, I forgot it was called a Pelican Shooter (I'll edit that into the title). Anyway, I was promised Double Bonus Points so I expect I'll probably get them.  e. also, it turns out cats love leftover sardines! Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 08:09 on May 6, 2011 |
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 08:07
|
|
|
Not hard for me to avoid that, since A) I've never heard of it before, and B) unless they sell it at Ikea, I have no idea where to buy some. But yeah it does not sound tasty.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 08:22
|
|
|
Yeah, I'll um... I'll get right on that.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 10:03
|
|
|
Captain Foo posted:Leperflesh that was amazing. Oh hey Foo! How's it going! goatface posted:You really should have used some dark rum. Woods Navy would probably have been a good one, nice dark colour, 57% ABV. OK, I'll look out for that. Honestly I don't know my rums very well (I'm a whisk(e)y man) but I like rum just fine so I don't mind trying something out. PoptartsNinja posted:Well, I wasn't intending for anyone to actually try that and I have no actual prizes prepared. Don't fret too much about it PN. Being the center of attention for two minutes is its own reward. Affi posted:carbombs marvelousSynthOrange posted:Mech named after him! Mech named after him! Hah! But, that would be weird though, given that my username is stolen from Warhammer. ulmont posted:Yep. You need something about a minimum of 100 proof to burn at all, and upwards of that (the 151) to burn well. Aaah, okay. Did not know that. I did consider warming the drink, but I decided heating the fish would be a mistake.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2011 18:57
|
|
|
OH GOD I really want to name me some clan mechs. But A mystery box What's in the mystery box It might be fish! Or two smaller mystery boxes, each containing a fish! Or it might be an all-expenses-paid trip for four to Omaha, Nebraska! I'LL TAKE THE MYSTERY BOX ALEX! Gimme #3? Was there ever any doubt? A man who will drink a fish is always going to pick the mystery box
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2011 07:01
|
|
|
The contents of the Secret Surprise Box were secret. But I have beheld them and am joyful. The rest of you will find out the nature of my reward in due time.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2011 19:28
|
|
|
The other thing you have to remember is that by falling down through a building, your mech is now prone. Which means it has to stand up, which means it cannot jump, next turn. Which means you guys are dead meat. The plan was to walk through the light buildings, not jump on top of them and fall down!
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2011 03:21
|
|
|
Firebird is awesome but you don't gotta watch Disney to listen to it. It's Stravinski, and well worth listening to the entire thing (one of my favorite classical albums). yes, it's a ballet, so what
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2011 08:01
|
|
|
The Valkyrie should walk South, right through the refinery, and head down toward the train station. Hopefully the Griffin follows him as it loses sight of him, so that next turn the Valkyrie can turn around and set off the explosive refinery explosion. This keeps him safe, helps to blow up the refinery, makes an attempt at hurting the griffin, and leaves him near the train which as we've already been told is another expensive, easy to wreck target. I'd say, go to hex 0828 or thereabouts. This does mean you're adjacent to a civilian building, so you don't want to blow up right there, but the assumption is the griffin doesn't get a shot at you while you're there and you're going to move on right away next turn. e. I'd also suggest the Assasin head southwest; there's another building to explode there, and perhaps in a turn or two it'll be in position to focus-fire on that griffin threatening the Valkyrie. Move to 1624 and stand in that building this turn, if you can get there (I forget how much move you can do in this weather without seriously risking tripping and falling over but I think it's 7 move to get there by walking) e.e. no it's 8, that's probably too far to go (and you don't want to try jumping into another light building). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 05:18 on May 11, 2011 |
|
#
¿
May 11, 2011 05:10
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 03:42 |
|
|
Yeah I think we can trust PTN's storytelling abilities enough to assume we are not on an unimportant side-mission here. Everything the players do matters.
|
|
#
¿
May 12, 2011 23:09
|
|