Things you'd like to see or change

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Retry
05/05/18 02:31 PM
64.189.130.11

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Obviously we all like BT, parts of the BT universe, and the idea of big stompy robots, or we wouldn't be here. But with the vastness that is the BT universe and its lore, it's virtually inevitable that there are regions that we wish were different or regions we think could be improved upon.

What's are things that you would change of Battletech, its equipment, construction rules, canon variants, lore, general game rules, etc?

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WEAPONS

IS ER Large Laser: While I'm not against non-standardized brackets, I think making the IS ERLL 7/14/21 range would make more sense and be easier, and make it slightly more practical, and easier to remember than its current 7/14/19 profile.

MRM:Same with the laser, standardize to 5/10/15 range profile from 3/8/15.

Armored Motive System:Way too heavy, and costly in C-Bills. Make the clan version 5% of vehicle weight and the IS version 7.5% of vehicle weight.

HVACs: At least make the production model not blow itself up once every 36 shots

Protomech AC:Drop weight by 1 ton across the board, if not even 1.5 tons.

Ability to allocate tonnage for bombing hardpoints on Aerospace fighters and Small Craft: maybe a half ton or full ton for additional hardpoints, so you can make specialized ground-attack craft with higher payloads than standard craft, with no speed penalty since the vehicle allocates the tonnage for the payload. Could be useful for VTOLs especially since otherwise they take -1 MP per bomb.

AMS/LAMS: Instead of applying a flat -4 to the cluster-hits table, have AMS systems just roll to intercept a number of missiles that hit per turn. Removes the weirdness that firing with 4 LRM-5s are way better at foiling AMS than a single LRM-20 volley, and something like a MRM-40 can simply overwhelm the AMS

New Weapons?

Separating Regular Artillery & AAA: Currently a Long Tom or Arrow IV can be fire at a bunker for 10 seconds, switch its gun to flak mode and swipe at a Boeing Jump Bomber passing by the next 10 seconds, swat a Kestrel VTOL coming from the other side the next 10 seconds, and switch back to the bunker the next 10 seconds. If Regular Artillery and AAA were separated and artillery were less multi-purpose, it'd open up the possibility of more designs to fill the two separate niches. The separated weapons could be called stuff as unimaginative as "Anti-Air Long Tom Artillery" or "Anti Air Arrow IV Launcher" or whatever.

Production-grade Fusillade Launchers for Protomechs that are a lot lighter and more practical.

MLRS: Multi-Launch Rocket Systems to diversify the Artillery lineup. The tricky thing would be making rules for an artillery system that fires multiple artillery shots at an area. Probably not practical on the physical tabletop but a computerized version (MegaMek) can do it easily.

Mortars: More realistic ones, not those dinky infantry-based ones with 100 meters of range tops. Lightweight artillery support that can reach 2 or 3, maybe even 4 mapsheets with indirect fire for the heaviest versions. The BA Tube Artillery is a good model for this.

BARPADs: Battle ARmor Portable Air Defense. Some sort of missile-based weapon that BA squads can carry that's particularly accurate and dangerous against VTOLs and Conventional aircraft, with some ability to threaten Aerospace in large enough numbers. Something more potent and specialized than LRMs, though those would be a good basis for a BARPAD.

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Opening up certain arbitrary restrictions for tech base, and add some new parameters/change old parameters:

Internal Structure:Allow Vehicles to choose these from the Battlemech options, including Endo-Steel, Endo-Composite, Composite Structure, and Reinforced Structure.

Reinforced structure: I'd change its weight formula to (standard)*1.5, rounded up, instead of 2*standard. Since it's so heavy no one really uses it in actual designs, so making it a bit lighter while keeping the benefits may give it more appeal and increase its usage in canon and non-canon designs.

Lift/Drive/Rotor Modifications:Add as a subset of vehicle chassis design. The following would be available as modifications:

[Old-Standard]:Consists of all legal design's lift/drive/rotors up until this point. Identical to the lift/drive/rotor of base game.

Heavy-Duty: 100% of old-standard weight (so same weight). Applies a -1 modifier to motive system critical hit rolls for WiGEs/Hovers/Subs, and VTOLs with HD rotors do not apply -1 MP to rotor hits. The HD rotor might also get +1 maximum armor point. It would also be more expensive than the Old Standard to some degree.

New-Standard: Upgraded version of standard versions of lifts: Weighs only 75% that of the Old-Standard. It would also be more expensive than the Old Standard to some degree.

Lightweight: 50% of old-standard weight. Applies a +1 modifier to motive system critical hit rolls for WiGEs/Hovers/Subs, and VTOLs with LW rotors take (damage)/5 damage to the rotor instead of (damage)/10. The LW rotor might also get -1 maximum armor point. It would be more expensive than the Old Standard to some degree.

Engine Shielding: Add a choice between improved engine shielding and standard engine shielding for vehicles with fusion/fission engines. The latter would be the standard shielding type that adds 50% of the engine's weight as per standard construction rules. The former would be more expensive and add 25% of the engine's weight.

Vehicle Control Modifications:Add as a subset of vehicle chassis design. The following would be available as modifications:

Standard Controls:No special rules, just follows standard construction rules.

Heavy-Duty:Weighs 50% more than Standard Controls. -1 modifier to motive system critical hit rolls. More expensive than standard controls.

Lightweight:Weighs half that of Standard Controls. +1 modifier to motive system critical hit rolls. More expensive than standard controls.

LAMs:Eliminate arbitrary restriction on motive type (allowing Quads and Tripods). Also eliminate arbitrary restrictions on engine, gyro, structure, armor types, and tech base. Ret-con out the fluff reasoning for these restrictions. I understand the clans don't like them but anyone with access to a clan-spec Endo-steel yard (like IS powers with "pet" clans after the Invasion) should be free to experiment with them.

Gyros:
Reduce the weight of the Heavy-Duty Gyro to 150% of an equivalent gyro instead of 200%, to make them more practical and increase the chance of a battlemech using one.

Engines:
Reduce the weight of the Compact engine to 125% (so slightly more than standard engines). Still probably sub-optimal, but maybe they'd actually be useful sometimes.

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Karagin
05/05/18 04:24 PM
72.176.187.91

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Simple changes, allow vehicles to use Endo and DHS. Lighter IC Engines. A combing of the normal vehicle rules and the support vehicles rules for a SINGLE rule set for vehicles.

Things to get rid of...acid gun, paint gun and a lot of the silliness that is found in the "higher" tech weapons that made their showing from "Dark Age" forward.

Better rules for ECM and other electronics and Probes. Which would make having them in the game more useful and fun to use.

Less of just because the Clans have it the Inner Sphere MUST have it thinking that has taken hold of the game.
Karagin

Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
AmaroqStarwind
05/05/18 04:44 PM
108.255.82.176

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1. More parts where the Inner Sphere version is actually better than the Clan version
2. Return Quarter-final rounding, and apply to Gyros as well instead of Full-Ton rounding
3. Make SuperHeavy units and Large Engines more viable.
4. Reclassify Heavy Lasers as Inner Sphere technology, and Chemical Lasers as Primitive technology.
5. Make 10-to-15 ton ProtoMechs more viable.
6. Make Light Fusion Engines occupy one less critical slot in the center torso, that way mixed-technology units still have a reason to use them over Clan XL Engines.
7. Reduce (or remove) the Ammo Per Ton penalty with acid missiles
8. Make Light Ferro Fibrous become the new Standard Armor for Clan Mechs, or at the very least make patchwork armor more common on Clan Mechs. Offset by the increased availability of Acid missiles.
9. Change the name of Endo-Composite Structure to Hybrid Internal Structure, so that there is less confusion with the Composite Internal Skeleton.
10. Combined with the reduced weight for Heavy-Duty Gyros, prohibit Gyros from being made into Armored Components unless they are already Heavy-Duty Gyros.
11. Allow the different types of Gyro to be split between adjacent torso sections, as long as at least two critical spaces are occupied by the Gyro in the center torso and as long as the arrangement is symmetrical.
12. Allow standard and compact fusion engines to be split between the center torso and the side torso, as long as at least one critical space in the center torso is occupied by the engine. This might not make sense, but honestly, what is the worst that could happen?
13. Make a result of 7 on a Cluster Hits Roll for volleys of 2 be a re-roll.
14. Change the Binary Laser and Snub-Nose PPC to Cluster Hits weapons.
Discord: Amaroq the Kitsune#1092
Telegram: @Lycanphoenix
MechEngine (Alpha) -- On Hiatus

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Edited by AmaroqStarwind (05/05/18 07:10 PM)
Karagin
05/05/18 07:10 PM
72.176.187.91

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Bring back official the 10-15 ton ultra light mechs.
Return of the Scenario Packs
Karagin

Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.


Edited by Karagin (05/05/18 07:10 PM)
ghostrider
05/06/18 04:44 AM
66.74.61.223

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Make gyros half ton increments.
More realistic ranges on weapons. Maybe double or triple the ranges as is.
Melee weapons would be more for arenas, then actual battle fields.
Shields should be arena only items.
Lessen the hover craft suspension factor for the heavier ones. Make them use larger engines or run slower.
Lighten ICE engines, or use alternate materials to make a light version.
Limit armor on vehicles to something like 5 times structure.
Reduce heat in mechs from ballistic weapons.
Lighten ac's.
Actually come up with detection ranges and modifiers for things like ecm, or probes. Opposed rolls might be good here.
Make only new equipment have any differences between clans/IS. Older then 20 years should be the same for both.
Figure out how to handle infantry correctly, including armored but not power armor units.
Increase LOS thru light woods, IE 3 should not block it.
High towers should have a bonus range on ballistic and missile weapons. Like +1 or so. Possibly -1 to hit when used as such. Idea is arcing shots.
Improve the targeting systems on all units. Instead of 4/6/8 for short/medium/long use 3/5/7 or so.
ghostrider
05/08/18 12:41 AM
66.74.61.223

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One major thing that should never have occurred is the mythical skill the writers came up with. The stealth skill.
First Morgan Kell, then Yuringa (spelling?) Kurita learned how to use, but is completely against the skills own rules. And they continue it thru the clan invasion of Luthien.
This goes along with their breaking their own role playing rules by not allowing other to copy their violations of major characters doing things like the natural gunnery skills in the later additions.
The continuity of time is another I would love to see changed. Rules changes that would change the entire outcome of more then a few battles, making the win/loss of a world more/less likely.
Aerofighters strafes and the writers exploding fusion engines would have changed the outcomes as well.
AmaroqStarwind
05/11/18 01:11 AM
108.255.82.176

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UltraHeavy ProtoMechs and Ultralight BattleMechs should have a lot more overlap in their capabilities and construction rules. For example, Partial Wings should weigh 5% to 7% of an UltraHeavy ProtoMech's weight like it would on a BattleMech of the same tonnage, instead of 20% its weight like it currently does.

Meanwhile, Ultralight BattleMechs should be able to carry ProtoMech-sized Missile Launchers and Battle Armor-sized lasers. And for anything weighing 15 tons or less, Fractional Accounting should be used by default.
Discord: Amaroq the Kitsune#1092
Telegram: @Lycanphoenix
MechEngine (Alpha) -- On Hiatus

The Scientist Caste has determined that time travel is dishonorable.
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