Battletech - Urban Warcrimes: So quoth the RVN-3L, Arrow IV.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Battletech - Urban Warcrimes: So quoth the RVN-3L, Arrow IV.

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Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Hob_Gadling posted:

I played that on the board some 25 years ago.

If you simplify it you're guaranteed to keep getting shots from the rear, making air very powerful even with just the strafing rules, no bombs allowed. Or alternately you force everyone to duck and cover which is fun for maybe one game but kills the fun of mobile mech combat. And it's still too much of a "kill this" button because everyone can and will concentrate on the same target.

If you play a separate board of Aerotech on the side, well, you have to play a separate board of Aerotech on the side. That game is bad, at least in its first edition. I don't know whether the rules have been made more sensible but there were all sorts of stupid design decisions which convinced me the game designers never actually played on their own rules. Like fuel: a light fighter has fuel for 30 seconds, then it's out and starts drifting helplessly. On the other hand if you never actually steer the light plane, it can carry several times as many bombs as a heavy bomber. Best bomb is the inferno bomb which is also the lightest bomb, you could easily stack somewhere around 40-60 of them on a light aircraft. 4-6 are enough to force a shutdown on anything because they forcibly cause 10 points of heat per bomb and it stacks. A near miss causes 5 points of heat and is the worst result you could get from the bombing table. And the distances: a plane can zip trivially from Earth to Moon and back in 10 seconds, even the slowest aircraft hit 2000 kph in atmosphere, but you can still only shoot at stuff within the same map sheet (ie. distances of 630 meters or less). Unless you're in space, where standard medium lasers reach out to 100,000 kilometers.

You'd have to create an entire new air combat game for any of it to make any sense, just so you could get the strafing runs lined up organically instead of from the best direction/randomly. Probably not worth it, even if you had the resources of a large company.

80% of this is no longer true.

Fuel is practically impossible to run out of over the course of a single ground battle; bombing is limited by tonnage and reduces thrust significantly; external heat is capped at 15 per turn regardless of source; nothing in the game can move 720,000 km (the distance to and from the moon) in one turn (it'd take a turn to leave atmosphere, a turn at minimum at full burn to get there with the fastest fighter [20 hexes], a turn to turn around and kill velocity, two turns to get back because you don't want to overshoot, and a turn to get back into atmosphere; all of this assuming the fastest fighter in the game hauling rear end and with no regard for spinning out of control when you fail the +8 control roll for turning at that speed)

# ¿ Feb 16, 2018 02:15

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 14:04

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

A.o.D. posted:

Actually no. Unlike the production starved Draconis combine, The Lyran Alliance has always had a surplus of production. In fact, if you see a new battlemech in the southern periphery, if it's not a Free Worlds model, it's most likely a Steiner.

Key word here being "new". Old rustbuckets are kicking around wherever random chance says they do.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2018 04:00

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Phrosphor posted:

Who is good at Mech silhouettes? Can anyone identify the robit to the left of the Awesome here? Is that an Assassin??

That looks very much to me like an Orion.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2018 01:52

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

aniviron posted:

It's also super frustrating on most first-plays of a game; when I want to test something out that the game's rules don't explicitly spell out. "Does throwing a grenade here in XCOM make the ceiling collapse? Do two tons of falling concrete hurt a muton?" If you have ironman on, there's no way you're going to risk throwing that grenade, because if you do, one of your mans will probably die for no reason if you don't do the boring thing and set up your squad to pin & overwatch. With ironman off, you're free to, you know, play around. You can experiment with weird things that might or might not work in the game and see what comes of it.

Don't play your first game with Ironman on maybe? :shrug:

I dunno, this feels like a problem with a really easy solution.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 00:00

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Captain Foo posted:

under standard tabletop 3025-era rules, anything that hits the HD has a chance, very small though it might be, to kill your pilot, and the ac20 is the only weapon with enough damage output to outright destroy the HD in a single hit.

The only way anything smaller than an AC/10 or PPC (unless the 'Mech is poorly designed, like a Rifleman or Wasp) kills a pilot in 3025 is by knocking them unconscious, and the fall or falling onto the HD killing them. Floating TACs is not a standard-level rule, even though everyone thinks it is.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 00:45

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Phrosphor posted:

If we investigate that in game terms. Lets say a head hit knocks a pilot over. He takes a pilot injury for the head hit, then falls, and that is another automatic pilot hit.

That's not really the weapon doing it though, is it? Second and third order effects aren't exactly an attribute of the weapons. Especially in the tabletop (which is what I was responding to), where unless you get a crit on the cockpit, it's definitely not the weapon doing the pilot killing.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 01:39

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

TheParadigm posted:

That's awesome. And yeah! Your LP was in the forefront of my mind when I asked. They're greener than a neon pastel set, but they seem to to actualy improve, but losing them would also suuuck because, well. Not just lack of progress, but starting the same path with someone worse.

For shits and giggles, Just how bad would that 8/8 pilot have been in HBS-game terms if we had hired them? You know, that random one on the periphery job?

8/8 corresponds somewhere below "first day in a 'Mech with no previous experience of any kind and no prior military training", so.... pretty bad.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 02:06

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

"Advancement" is not "customization".

"Customization" in a game like this is literally changing portraits, names, and biographies.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2018 07:04

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Rygar201 posted:

I've wanted a successor to Ogre Battle 64 for a long time, but I think the level of abstraction and indirect control in that game would repel Battletech grogs

Good.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2018 23:25

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Psion posted:

I can guarantee you that�s incorrect, Rygar. There is no universal agreement on anything in this entire franchise.

Except maybe that Dark Age was bad. Although you never know ...someone out there is probably writing a passionate defense of it right this minute.

Dark Age/Age of Destruction the game was pretty terrible. The early fiction for it was also terrible.

Dark Age now is probably an acquired taste, but I love it.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2018 18:41

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Xarbala posted:

I'm proud of the art I did for tro3145/3150

Which ones are yours? I love most of the designs in those books.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2018 22:56

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

You drew like half of TRO 3145 FWL. :swoon:

I love those things.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2018 23:10

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Xarbala posted:

Thank you, I really appreciate that. Most people will never give my stuff a second look because it's set in a time period that everybody wishes didn't exist.

Well, the Dark Ages are the only period in BattleTech past the 1st Succession War where the Free Worlds League is not either Incompetent, Evil, or Both, so I take what I can get.

The unit designs being sick as hell is a major draw, too.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2018 23:23

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Bubbacub posted:

I don't understand why some of the unseen are in and some aren't. Whatever, IANAL.

The ones that aren't are all from Macross. The ones that are, are from properties that were not controlled by Harmony Gold (allegedly).

They're also different from the initial incarnations, so they're not technically Unseen in the first place. HG is currently (almost definitely) losing a court case about that.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2018 01:22

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Xarbala posted:

I don't know if there's such a thing as a fast assault before XL engines become common.

The Charger and Banshee both qualify.

They're also pieces of poo poo until XL Engines become common.

RabidWeasel posted:

Having seen that there are several melee-enhancing components you can add to your mechs, I am really wondering how likely it will be viable to make a heavily melee dedicated mech.

I guess that they decided in testing that it was good otherwise they wouldn't have removed AoD (I presume the reason for removal was that it was too good)

I just wanna have a reason to slap jump jets on a fast assault and go completely ham with robofists

The Neanderthal is one of my favorite 'Mechs ever, and it's a melee monster. 80 tons, 5/8 movement with TSM to get up to 6/9, and it has a mace (20 damage on hit at its size). With TSM it swings for 40 on the full body table.

My favorite variant also has a couple snub-nose PPCs with capacitors for 15 point holes at 9 hexes, and follows up by literally strapping a trio of 'Mech scale claymores to its chest. :allears:

# ¿ Apr 3, 2018 02:01

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Arcturas posted:

There�s a Ti Tsang or something like that which is 6/9/6 with a hatchet and ER lasers-large, 3 medium, 2 small. It can jump all the time and land headcapping hatchet swings constantly. While keeping TSM running by tweaking your laser usage.

24 damage is fun and all, but it's no 40 point chunk. The Ti'Tsang in the Grinder kit right now is the one with five ER Mediums and four ER Smalls.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2018 02:27

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

I would like a batshit crazy Dark Age game, while were throwing out wishlists.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2018 05:41

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Having not played a lick of the actual game yet, how much improvement does the Shadow Hawk merit if your rip out the JJs and replace the SRM-2 with an SRM-4 and a half ton of armor?

# ¿ Apr 4, 2018 03:39

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

It doesn't actually take engine shenanigans to put 2x AC/20s on a Jagermech. An AC/5 + AC/2 is the same tonnage as an AC/20. Swap ammo 1:1 and rip out the MLs for more. Easy enough.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2018 00:55

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Xarbala posted:

My b

It's, uh, still not a great idea, because it leaves a Jagermech's armor exactly intact, and also overheating by movement-penalty levels every time it moves and shoots both.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2018 00:59

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

PoptartsNinja posted:

3039 adds the Wolfhound and basically nothing else but variants for existing designs, and the Star League TRO includes the advanced tech that often gets called out as being 'the beginning of the end' (of boring 4/6 play).

All BattleTech is good and fun. You don't have to like the Clans or anything, but asymmetric battles can be fun to fight. I built an entire LP on stacking the deck against players and then giving them one huge advantage to compensate. XL engines were a boon to the game.

To bring things back to Xarbala's point: yes, the game needs more light 'Mechs, but that pool isn't particularly deep and heavies have the same issue.

I think it also adds the Merlin and Raven.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2018 18:39

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Magni posted:

So, uh, this seems to be a thing:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_33WnIpLEADui_Rh6dqSqtOKgNWRveWQ/view

Harmony Gold's lawsuit apparently got dismissed with prejudice, on behalf of both parties, it seems?

Against HBS, yes. It's still going against PGI.

# ¿ Apr 13, 2018 00:52

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Xotl posted:

Pretty much everything is out of stock at the moment, but it's all coming back into print in the next few months in errata-corrected new printings, along with two new main box sets with re-edited rules for clarity, more modern production values, and new minis that don't look like boxes form the 80s, in order to help new players pick up the game.

There is a new rulebook available right now though that is just mechs only (as they've acknowledged that that's the reason people play, for the most part) and has been written from the ground up to be as user friendly as the current rules allow while still giving people access to all the tech toys that the game has released over the years.

...he says, conveniently failing to mention that he wrote the aforementioned new rulebook. :v:

It's a good book, highly recommend if you like playing Battletech. It's aesthetically pleasing in addition to being much better laid out than Total Warfare.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2018 22:49

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Gwaihir posted:

I think the real money is going to be in the more rare weapons with the various accuracy, damage, heat, or stability modifiers, and you're probably not going to ever run in to a real surplus of those.

In that context I think it's fine that you get a bunch of stock medium lasers and AC5s and what not.

(That, and if you wanted to all it takes is changing a digit to make a Mech require 6 parts to assemble from salvage instead of 3).

I would definitely like to see a version of the game where you don't get free guns from 'Mech pieces. I feel like that'd work materially toward a more rough and tumble campaign feel, where deploying a 'Mech missing parts could be a reasonable option.

But that might also be moddable, who knows?

# ¿ Apr 21, 2018 00:37

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Radio Free Kobold posted:

As excited as I am for the base game, I'm really really eager to see what HBS has planned for expansions and what sorts of crazy poo poo we'll get for mods. Just out the gate you could probably rework the map and campaign into any Battletech 'era you want, clan invasion, succession wars, poo poo even the wobbie jihad why not. If you want to get really ambitious you could expand both the map and the timeline to make a 'Grand Campaign' that starts you off in 3025 and runs through the whole setting, making conflicts and 'mechs and wargear available or unavailable as the timeline progresses.

Starting way back in 2788 and moving clear through to the Jihad would own bones.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2018 00:57

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

NoNotTheMindProbe posted:

Is airpower a thing in the battletech universe? It seems to me that mechs would be big obvious targets for airstrikes.

It is.

Aerospace fighters are hideously fragile when used on ground attack runs.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2018 01:16

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Phrosphor posted:

Something Awful Battletech Launch Tournament!

Seeing as the game is about to launch, and everyone is hype as gently caress for it. We want to run a friendly multiplayer tournament to set the foundation for a fun pvp scene in the game.

HBS are really keen for a competitive scene for the game, with Solaris Arena still on the cards and their recent hiring of network engineers to help them make sure that their multiplayer is cheatproof.

In preparation, lets smash some mechs into each other and learn the game.

Tournament Rules

1. Stock Mechs Only
2. 25 Million C-Bill Limit
3. This is a quickfire tournament, so you have 48 hours from the pairings being posted to organise and play your round.
4. Winner gets bragging rights

Signup sheet is here. Signups are open until Tuesday 24th of April. I will post the pairings when the game is released.

I haven't played any of the beta at all, so I'm 100% ready to get my poo poo kicked in. I've got an unavoidable commitment coming up in a few (four) weeks, will this be wrapped up by then?

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 02:07

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Ciaphas posted:

Is there such a thing as canonical good guys to relate to in BT, because I truly care about my character's background

Not for the entire duration of the setting. At this exact moment, Steiner/Lyran Commonwealth is probably the least morally repugnant state you could root for out of the major powers, on account of them not actively loving over their own people (Davion Outback; Liao's entire class system; Kurita's deeply entrenched misogyny), and also being a functional state that is not at all getting clowned all the gently caress over by random groups of mercenaries for shits and grins (Marik).

Outworlds Alliance is the next best thing to the platonic ideal of "Benevolent Neglect: Government Edition" for the Periphery so that could also work.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 18:32

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Mordja posted:

LMAO at people itt trying to charecterize all the negative steam reviews as "toxic internet" though when most of them are tech complaints.

At the same time, kinda lovely to bomb a new game's reviews with tech support issues instead of, you know, asking tech support for a fix.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 20:03

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Week 28 and I'm finally having to actually switch up my MechWarrior roster. Commander took four pilot hits against a bunch of 'Mechs on a 2 skull, which at least means that fixing up the Centurion he's in doesn't suck anything except time.

Feels weird dropping with some rando I just hired.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 02:49

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

I just found an LRM-20+++ in a store. I don't care that it's 400 grand give it to me now!

I also don't care that literally nothing I have is set up to be an LRM boat. I will make one.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 03:40

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Apparently the LRM-20+++ I got is +Damage and ++Stability Damage, which combined with the +Crit Chance +Stability Damage PPC I got is doing :circlefap:

things to whatever I point it at.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 05:17

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Taintrunner posted:

So far my best luck has been looking at the board like you�ve got a scalpel in your hand and cut out whatever feels like the biggest threat - which can be a mix of armaments and mobility.

A damaged unit can still attack you for full damage with whatever weapons it still has. You can have decent luck with using jump jets to get the mobility around heavier units while cutting out the smaller guys before focusing in on the big boys.

Try to not let yourself be exposed to more targets than the one you want to shoot next - that�s all the goons that are gonna be shooting back at you in a minute. If you have to fall back, then fall back and let them come to you.

To touch on this: the most dangerous thing on the field is the one that hasn't moved yet. If you have a shot at two equally killable things, but one has moved that round and the other has not, kill the one that hasn't moved yet. That's damage that you're suddenly not taking, whereas the one that's already moved has already done all its damage for that turn.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 05:18

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Baron Porkface posted:

It's pretty unfortunate that you are restricted to 4 mechwarriors rather than a tonnage limit. Doesn't seem to be a role for lighter mechs.

I like it, because it's a really easy way to tell who hasn't figured out how to use Light 'Mechs well yet.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 05:44

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Khisanth Magus posted:

I'm debating whether I can rip apart glitch's vindy to put 2 PPCs on it without being totally hosed. Basically turn it into the Uziel 2xPPC variant on a vindy chassis.

You have to strip every other weapon, the JJs, and a half ton of armor.

It's much easier and faster to do it to the Blackjack, where you *technically* just need to replace the AC/2s and two MLs (for hardpoints).

# ¿ Apr 25, 2018 18:53

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Zore posted:

Be careful how quickly you do plot missions. They seem to scale up base level of difficulty everywhere. Every system is now 2 skull minmum and the lowest contracts I can find are 1.5 skull with the vast majority being 2.5

Im on the edge of bankruptcy constantly since any 2.5 star mission is going to knock out some of my good mech for a while. You really need those extra mech bays.

Difficulty of offered missions is something that changes based on what system you're in, too. If you're on the star map/navigation screen, you should be able to see some info about the system's relative risk level.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2018 06:53

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Eifert Posting posted:

So two questions:
1. Does this game have Uziels?
2. I would like to place an order for 8 Uziels.

A man after my own heart.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 00:41

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

RIP Dekker, Week 54.

Turns out even 7 Guts isn't enough.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 03:53

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Xarbala posted:

The vindi is good in the start of the game because glitch is probably in it, but has no real purpose when you start moving into heavier difficulty tiers. The trench bucket is just worse than the cent at missle boating that it's a bit silly.

There's something to be said for putting the best LRM-20 you have on the Trebuchet's arm mount, because arm mounts are more accurate.

That's literally the only reason though.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2018 04:16

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 14:04

Strobe: Jun 30, 2014; GW BRAINWORMS CREW

Ciaphas posted:

Wait if the Mad Cat is the Timberwolf now then what the hell is a Mad Cat Mk2

A bigger Mad Cat, made explicitly to cash in on how cool people think the Mad Cat is (in universe). It's called that because the hotshot IS pilots who would want to buy one call them Mad Cats already.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2018 01:59

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Battletech - Urban Warcrimes: So quoth the RVN-3L, Arrow IV.

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