Are you keeping all the traditional weights and criticals of the classic rules, or have you rebalanced some of them (like, say, ACs)? –Hao Yu
[DAVID] The weights and critical slots of weapons will remain the same, so that we can take ’Mechs straight out of the Technical Readout manuals and into the game. What we will be looking at tuning is the damage, cooldown time, speed, etc. of the weapons.
This is pretty important I think. Past Mechwarrior games didn't do this afaik.
Yeah, afaik they made it up as they went along. God damn this game is sounding more and more like the greatest mech game ever made.
Methinks I should dig my second Steel Battalion controller out of storage and start contemplating modding it for use on the PC.
I'm still hoping they go all the way through with HOTAS support.
Having played Mechwarrior 4 with a full HOTAS + Rudder setup, I can say with authority that it is the greatest shit ever.
You better believe it is. I was recently able to use Logitech's software to make HOTAS work in MW4 (which only detects one controller) with my G940.
It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn great.
Also: force feedback support. So awesome.
Yar, I had to do some fiddling with the X52's programming stuff to get the whole thing to work together in MW4 also but god damn was it worth it. Turning and controlling jump jets with the pedals? *fapfapfapfap*
The one problem is the throttle bar--breaking it into zones along the keypads doesn't really work, so the only option is for pushing forward to be accelerating, while pulling back slows you down. Otherwise, good but complicated.
Aw, those are just sex. Catapult has been a sentimental favorite of mine, couldn't really tell you why but it is. In different minis/artwork through the years it's sometimes looked OK and sometimes looked like a gooddamn flamingo. The new design was definitely the best-looking take on it already, but these in-game shots are blowing me away. That fan of missiles! And it looks like the PPC variant is available too!
You have to cover those missiles. What if they come loose and fall out? You'd want them to hit the cover and destroy both those arms! So nothing will be salvaged by the enemy.
Do not question the design of this glorious beast!
Well shit, guess it's going to be time to upgrade my desktop before too long.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
I really hope those doors stay closed until ready to fire or you can manually open/close them just for "oh shit" factor.
You're all running around, being great, then get tagged by some little dinky Raven carrying a NARC system. Then you see a pair of Catapaults on a ridge, blast doors swinging open as they see the easy meat.
I've got an urge to somehow attach several toggle switches to my keyboard.
Contact! One medium, location G5, heading south-east... ID Centurion, target acquired, ready one *flick* ready two *flick* Firing *SHOOMSHOOMSHOMSHOMSHOMOMOM*... Direct hit! Target down, well done Lance 2
Dammit... when they were showing the bigger mechs, I could withstand it. "Good, old school Atlus's and such, well that's cool, I will look forward to this..."
But the arty and smaller mechs? Those are my wheelhouse cockpit. Frothing desire has been activated, the only cure is yelling "Woop Woop Woop!" and running my mech behind a mountain to hide from a metal killing behemoth twice my size that I just managed to piss off.
We wanted to give you an update on what’s going on over here at Piranha, how work on MechWarrior Online is going, and what to expect this month from us. We’ve skipped the usual ‘(Month) Is (Something) Warfare Month’ as we want to bring more specific things to your attention. Therefore, here is what to expect for the month ahead:
Arg...those damn missile rack covers. I was afraid those would be in there.
Well, I'm sure there's a good reason to have them. Rain, or something. And at least they're including other variants.
What's wrong with covering your missile racks? Keeps the dust and bugs out. Also maybe small-arms fire.
And it keeps in the Tradition!
They looked stupid back in MechCommander promotional art. They still look stupid. It's that simple.
It also drops more questions than it answers.
"Are they hydraulic? Or do the missiles just 'push' them out of the way, because let's face it, people in this universe are that stupid."
"So why don't any other missile racks or gun arrays have covers? Are they somehow immune to everything the Catapult isn't?"
"Can they break off in combat? And what if they jam, seeing how they look about as durable as windshield wipers. Does that missile pod disable, do they pop off, or do you just have a catastrophic weapons explosion?"
Arg...those damn missile rack covers. I was afraid those would be in there.
Well, I'm sure there's a good reason to have them. Rain, or something. And at least they're including other variants.
What's wrong with covering your missile racks? Keeps the dust and bugs out. Also maybe small-arms fire.
And it keeps in the Tradition!
They looked stupid back in MechCommander promotional art. They still look stupid. It's that simple.
It also drops more questions than it answers.
"Are they hydraulic? Or do the missiles just 'push' them out of the way, because let's face it, people in this universe are that stupid."
"So why don't any other missile racks or gun arrays have covers? Are they somehow immune to everything the Catapult isn't?"
"Can they break off in combat? And what if they jam, seeing how they look about as durable as windshield wipers. Does that missile pod disable, do they pop off, or do you just have a catastrophic weapons explosion?"
In other words--they're stupid. Fuck tradition.
Someone has put waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much thought into why they hate something in a game.
Arg...those damn missile rack covers. I was afraid those would be in there.
Well, I'm sure there's a good reason to have them. Rain, or something. And at least they're including other variants.
What's wrong with covering your missile racks? Keeps the dust and bugs out. Also maybe small-arms fire.
And it keeps in the Tradition!
They looked stupid back in MechCommander promotional art. They still look stupid. It's that simple.
It also drops more questions than it answers.
"Are they hydraulic? Or do the missiles just 'push' them out of the way, because let's face it, people in this universe are that stupid."
"So why don't any other missile racks or gun arrays have covers? Are they somehow immune to everything the Catapult isn't?"
"Can they break off in combat? And what if they jam, seeing how they look about as durable as windshield wipers. Does that missile pod disable, do they pop off, or do you just have a catastrophic weapons explosion?"
In other words--they're stupid. Fuck tradition.
Someone has put waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much thought into why they hate something in a game.
TO be fair, from an outside perspective, there is a lot of silly fluff in BattleTech. From a mechwarrior standpoint, a series that bills itself as a mech simulator, thinking about these things is part of the fun.
It'd be like if microsoft flight simulator just added extra wings on the 747 because it "looked cool."
Arg...those damn missile rack covers. I was afraid those would be in there.
Well, I'm sure there's a good reason to have them. Rain, or something. And at least they're including other variants.
What's wrong with covering your missile racks? Keeps the dust and bugs out. Also maybe small-arms fire.
And it keeps in the Tradition!
They looked stupid back in MechCommander promotional art. They still look stupid. It's that simple.
It also drops more questions than it answers.
"Are they hydraulic? Or do the missiles just 'push' them out of the way, because let's face it, people in this universe are that stupid."
"So why don't any other missile racks or gun arrays have covers? Are they somehow immune to everything the Catapult isn't?"
"Can they break off in combat? And what if they jam, seeing how they look about as durable as windshield wipers. Does that missile pod disable, do they pop off, or do you just have a catastrophic weapons explosion?"
In other words--they're stupid. Fuck tradition.
Someone has put waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much thought into why they hate something in a game.
It took me all of 30 seconds to come up with threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reasons. Your time must be valuable as hell. :P
Also, I think you've missed a good 60% of what's discussed in this thread. Maybe 70%.
EDIT: Also, @TeeMan I cannot imagine they would ever make such a feature manually controlled, as that would lead to 1) either the missiles smashing and maybe exploding against the panels or 2) a "WARMP" alarm tone telling you you couldn't fire, both of which players would hate. It'd be like actually giving you the option to switch the safeties on individual weapons on and off.
It would demonstrate why those covers are so stupid, which is another reason they'd be automatic.
Arg...those damn missile rack covers. I was afraid those would be in there.
Well, I'm sure there's a good reason to have them. Rain, or something. And at least they're including other variants.
What's wrong with covering your missile racks? Keeps the dust and bugs out. Also maybe small-arms fire.
And it keeps in the Tradition!
They looked stupid back in MechCommander promotional art. They still look stupid. It's that simple.
It also drops more questions than it answers.
"Are they hydraulic? Or do the missiles just 'push' them out of the way, because let's face it, people in this universe are that stupid."
"So why don't any other missile racks or gun arrays have covers? Are they somehow immune to everything the Catapult isn't?"
"Can they break off in combat? And what if they jam, seeing how they look about as durable as windshield wipers. Does that missile pod disable, do they pop off, or do you just have a catastrophic weapons explosion?"
In other words--they're stupid. Fuck tradition.
Someone has put waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much thought into why they hate something in a game.
It took me all of 30 seconds to come up with threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reasons. Your time must be valuable as hell. :P
Also, I think you've missed a good 60% of what's discussed in this thread. Maybe 70%.
EDIT: Also, @TeeMan I cannot imagine they would ever make such a feature manually controlled, as that would lead to 1) either the missiles smashing and maybe exploding against the panels or 2) a "WARMP" alarm tone telling you you couldn't fire, both of which players would hate. It'd be like actually giving you the option to switch the safeties on individual weapons on and off.
It would demonstrate why those covers are so stupid, which is another reason they'd be automatic.
And I thought I was finicky about that stuff.
Here's an explanation that might satisfy. They're armored covers. So some pipsqueak with a small laser or machine gun doesn't take out half your ammo with a lucky shot. Also there is no reason they can't have explosive bolts on them to fire if they happened to get jammed. That's pretty standard on most military equipment with critical hatches.
Armored hatches is a very different explanation then weather proofing, but it does question their absence on medium-range mechs with missile racks (pick your model) or other long range models like the Mad Dog/Vulture. They'd benefit just as much as the Catapult, if not more (with their added middle-range mission profile).
I think I've seen Timber Wolf/Mad Cat artwork with the same covers (very cringeworthy), but that's about it. If it's more common in the universe, I'd buy it as an up-armoring feature, but frankly, it seems as much a liability as anything else. Consider: they're armored plates. Okay. So they take fire the missile racks themselves would otherwise take, fine. What happens when enough fire hits them to damage them but not totally break them off?
Your explosive bolts come into play, but given how well things work in BT, you're left with the hilarious thought of how many MechWarriors ejected/died when their Catapult exploded an LRM20 barrage (or two) a few meters from their cockpit.
It's the same reason you don't see Mechs with retractable armored windshields, I'd say. An obvious advantage outweighed by the less obvious, much more numerous disadvantages. Still, we're talking about a BT universe that championed fingers on Mechs that couldn't pick up weapons. And this.
You know, I'm slighty confused on how the MWO MechLab is going to work. Some of the statements make it sound very odd.
My initial impression was going to be that it would work like MW4 - you would have a set of energy, missile, and ballistic hardpoints, and you can go buck wild sticking weapons in hardpoints up to your tonnage limit. But some of the dev Q&A answers have me confused:
Lets say I take an Awesome, normally with 3 PPCs, 1 small laser. Then I modify it to its maximum theoreitcaly extent, that is to say 10 medium lasers. Will this be possible, or could the hardpoint system further restrict so there's a maximum number of smaller weapons that could replace a larger one to help prevent crazy boating?
- [DAVID] The hardpoint system will be related to how many weapons are in the default loadout, and not how many slots those weapons take up]
This makes it sound like you could only replace those beam weapons with another beam weapon regardless of slot size. So you could replace those 3 PPC's with 3 Large Lasers, but not add additional weapons to those areas even if you had hardpoint space.
Isnt this system a little rigid? If i got this right you can only downgrade weapons because you couldnt fit a bigger weapon into the hardpoints even if you reduced armor.
[DAVID] Hardpoints will limit the number of weapons that can be placed in a location on the ’Mech. The number of slots those weapons can occupy is not predefined (outside of the maximum number of slots in the location). So let’s say that I’m allowed 2 energy weapons in my right arm. I currently have 2 Medium Lasers which occupy 1 slot each. I would still be allowed to put in 2 Large Lasers, which occupy 2 slots each.
This one seems to say the same thing, that you are allowed only 2 energy weapons in your arm, even if you had enough hardpoint space for 3 medium lasers.
Anyone have a good idea on how it will work?
Tejs on
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grouch993Both a man and a numberRegistered Userregular
That seems sort of crazy, unless there are still overall tonnage limits. Otherwise you can replace that small laser in your Mercury with an ERPPC.
MechLab with more stringent hardpoint limits--so, a variant that has three beam weapon barrels in the right arm will never carry more than three beam weapons of any kind, including small lasers, and will be limited by the upper size of the weapons and weight as well.
The number of missile tubes varies between games for a Catapult, but they always can carry an LRM20. I doubt they'll be as precise when it comes to missile tubes, which are pretty much always an aesthetic choice. That'll be measured by "number of missile banks".
You know, I'm slighty confused on how the MWO MechLab is going to work. Some of the statements make it sound very odd.
My initial impression was going to be that it would work like MW4 - you would have a set of energy, missile, and ballistic hardpoints, and you can go buck wild sticking weapons in hardpoints up to your tonnage limit. But some of the dev Q&A answers have me confused:
Lets say I take an Awesome, normally with 3 PPCs, 1 small laser. Then I modify it to its maximum theoreitcaly extent, that is to say 10 medium lasers. Will this be possible, or could the hardpoint system further restrict so there's a maximum number of smaller weapons that could replace a larger one to help prevent crazy boating?
- [DAVID] The hardpoint system will be related to how many weapons are in the default loadout, and not how many slots those weapons take up]
This makes it sound like you could only replace those beam weapons with another beam weapon regardless of slot size. So you could replace those 3 PPC's with 3 Large Lasers, but not add additional weapons to those areas even if you had hardpoint space.
Isnt this system a little rigid? If i got this right you can only downgrade weapons because you couldnt fit a bigger weapon into the hardpoints even if you reduced armor.
[DAVID] Hardpoints will limit the number of weapons that can be placed in a location on the ’Mech. The number of slots those weapons can occupy is not predefined (outside of the maximum number of slots in the location). So let’s say that I’m allowed 2 energy weapons in my right arm. I currently have 2 Medium Lasers which occupy 1 slot each. I would still be allowed to put in 2 Large Lasers, which occupy 2 slots each.
This one seems to say the same thing, that you are allowed only 2 energy weapons in your arm, even if you had enough hardpoint space for 3 medium lasers.
Anyone have a good idea on how it will work?
Don't mix up hardpoints and critical slots. Hardpoints define how many weapons you can mount, and of what types. Critical slots restrict the overall bulk of weapons/equipment you can load in a given location.
So yes, in the latter example, if you have only 2 energy hardpoints on your arm, you can't mount any more lasers than that, even if you have the slots for them. But as the dev points out there, you can still swap in bigger/more powerful energy weapons (assuming there are enough slots) as long as you don't mount more than 2 of them.
Basically I think the hardpoints are intended to represent the 'Mech's baseline internal infrastructure for weapons - mounting hardware, wiring, fire-control equipment, ammo feed lines, coolant lines, all that stuff which kind of ramifies throughout the chassis and can't simply be re-worked by popping open an access hatch on one arm or torso segment. Then the critical slots simply represent the amount of room inside a location. If there's enough room you can bolt a bigger gun onto an existing mount, but adding a whole new mount and all the crap that goes with it is outside the scope of customizing your 'Mech (at least if it's not an OmniMech I guess).
That reasoning kind of breaks down when you consider that you can put heat sinks and so forth all over the damn place (unless they've said otherwise?), but eh, it's sufficient justification for me - and it helps prevent boating, which is obviously the main design consideration for doing it this way. And a laudable goal in my opinion!
Posts
The one problem is the throttle bar--breaking it into zones along the keypads doesn't really work, so the only option is for pushing forward to be accelerating, while pulling back slows you down. Otherwise, good but complicated.
Holy shit.
I need this game yesterday.
A poet. Should have sent a poet.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Well, I'm sure there's a good reason to have them. Rain, or something. And at least they're including other variants.
What's wrong with covering your missile racks? Keeps the dust and bugs out. Also maybe small-arms fire.
And it keeps in the Tradition!
There are women present!
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Need more concept artists for Mechs! The engine looks great from those stills, it'd be nice to see more action videos though
Do not question the design of this glorious beast!
You're all running around, being great, then get tagged by some little dinky Raven carrying a NARC system. Then you see a pair of Catapaults on a ridge, blast doors swinging open as they see the easy meat.
GAME OVER, MAN. GAME OVER.
I've got an urge to somehow attach several toggle switches to my keyboard.
Contact! One medium, location G5, heading south-east... ID Centurion, target acquired, ready one *flick* ready two *flick* Firing *SHOOMSHOOMSHOMSHOMSHOMOMOM*... Direct hit! Target down, well done Lance 2
SO much joy to be had, all the joy
Missile Cover May
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
ALLOFMYMONEY.JPG
Also that last picture is SO getting used as desktop wallpaper.
But the arty and smaller mechs? Those are my wheelhouse cockpit. Frothing desire has been activated, the only cure is yelling "Woop Woop Woop!" and running my mech behind a mountain to hide from a metal killing behemoth twice my size that I just managed to piss off.
They looked stupid back in MechCommander promotional art. They still look stupid. It's that simple.
It also drops more questions than it answers.
"Are they hydraulic? Or do the missiles just 'push' them out of the way, because let's face it, people in this universe are that stupid."
"So why don't any other missile racks or gun arrays have covers? Are they somehow immune to everything the Catapult isn't?"
"Can they break off in combat? And what if they jam, seeing how they look about as durable as windshield wipers. Does that missile pod disable, do they pop off, or do you just have a catastrophic weapons explosion?"
In other words--they're stupid. Fuck tradition.
Someone has put waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much thought into why they hate something in a game.
TO be fair, from an outside perspective, there is a lot of silly fluff in BattleTech. From a mechwarrior standpoint, a series that bills itself as a mech simulator, thinking about these things is part of the fun.
It'd be like if microsoft flight simulator just added extra wings on the 747 because it "looked cool."
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
Perhaps, on the G940, you do. The price you pay for awesome force feedback.
It took me all of 30 seconds to come up with threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee reasons. Your time must be valuable as hell. :P
Also, I think you've missed a good 60% of what's discussed in this thread. Maybe 70%.
EDIT: Also, @TeeMan I cannot imagine they would ever make such a feature manually controlled, as that would lead to 1) either the missiles smashing and maybe exploding against the panels or 2) a "WARMP" alarm tone telling you you couldn't fire, both of which players would hate. It'd be like actually giving you the option to switch the safeties on individual weapons on and off.
It would demonstrate why those covers are so stupid, which is another reason they'd be automatic.
And I thought I was finicky about that stuff.
Here's an explanation that might satisfy. They're armored covers. So some pipsqueak with a small laser or machine gun doesn't take out half your ammo with a lucky shot. Also there is no reason they can't have explosive bolts on them to fire if they happened to get jammed. That's pretty standard on most military equipment with critical hatches.
I think I've seen Timber Wolf/Mad Cat artwork with the same covers (very cringeworthy), but that's about it. If it's more common in the universe, I'd buy it as an up-armoring feature, but frankly, it seems as much a liability as anything else. Consider: they're armored plates. Okay. So they take fire the missile racks themselves would otherwise take, fine. What happens when enough fire hits them to damage them but not totally break them off?
Your explosive bolts come into play, but given how well things work in BT, you're left with the hilarious thought of how many MechWarriors ejected/died when their Catapult exploded an LRM20 barrage (or two) a few meters from their cockpit.
It's the same reason you don't see Mechs with retractable armored windshields, I'd say. An obvious advantage outweighed by the less obvious, much more numerous disadvantages. Still, we're talking about a BT universe that championed fingers on Mechs that couldn't pick up weapons. And this.
My initial impression was going to be that it would work like MW4 - you would have a set of energy, missile, and ballistic hardpoints, and you can go buck wild sticking weapons in hardpoints up to your tonnage limit. But some of the dev Q&A answers have me confused:
This makes it sound like you could only replace those beam weapons with another beam weapon regardless of slot size. So you could replace those 3 PPC's with 3 Large Lasers, but not add additional weapons to those areas even if you had hardpoint space.
This one seems to say the same thing, that you are allowed only 2 energy weapons in your arm, even if you had enough hardpoint space for 3 medium lasers.
Anyone have a good idea on how it will work?
Don't mix up hardpoints and critical slots. Hardpoints define how many weapons you can mount, and of what types. Critical slots restrict the overall bulk of weapons/equipment you can load in a given location.
So yes, in the latter example, if you have only 2 energy hardpoints on your arm, you can't mount any more lasers than that, even if you have the slots for them. But as the dev points out there, you can still swap in bigger/more powerful energy weapons (assuming there are enough slots) as long as you don't mount more than 2 of them.
Basically I think the hardpoints are intended to represent the 'Mech's baseline internal infrastructure for weapons - mounting hardware, wiring, fire-control equipment, ammo feed lines, coolant lines, all that stuff which kind of ramifies throughout the chassis and can't simply be re-worked by popping open an access hatch on one arm or torso segment. Then the critical slots simply represent the amount of room inside a location. If there's enough room you can bolt a bigger gun onto an existing mount, but adding a whole new mount and all the crap that goes with it is outside the scope of customizing your 'Mech (at least if it's not an OmniMech I guess).
That reasoning kind of breaks down when you consider that you can put heat sinks and so forth all over the damn place (unless they've said otherwise?), but eh, it's sufficient justification for me - and it helps prevent boating, which is obviously the main design consideration for doing it this way. And a laudable goal in my opinion!