AJC
07/10/10 02:39 PM
66.227.132.167
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you know you'd think that by the years of the of the darkages
you'd think someone in the Clans would come up with the Pulse version of the Heavy laser system or we would be seeing the missile racks getting expanded on both Inner sphere and clans.
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Karagin
07/10/10 03:06 PM
217.5.180.114
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How so on the missile expansion, are you saying like an LRM 25 or LRM 30?
And why would they need a pulse version of the heavy lasers when their pulse weapons are the top of heap as it is?
Better naval weapons I think would be on the drawing boards.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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AJC
07/10/10 03:58 PM
66.227.132.167
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ya also reading some of the custom weapons on the wiki mostly the autocannon 15 and the expanded SRM types also seem logical as well.
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ix
07/10/10 05:02 PM
81.6.219.90
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AC/30 with decent range and going into silly land of course a rotary Gauss Rifle. I think there are fun areas for mech development. LAMs are too big a step forward technologically, instead there should be transitional stages like WiGE mechs.
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Karagin
07/10/10 06:10 PM
217.5.180.114
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Some do indeed sound logical, but there is a small issue, the weights of the canon weapons are the area that lends to how do you place them?
Some of the ideas for home tech weapons aka customs are out there in left field.
If you want to use them, then do so. Just try to make them available to all players so as to keep thing balanced. my group has pages of custom weapons and we have never had any issues with them, then again we normally ruled out the crazy and far fetched.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Karagin
07/10/10 06:13 PM
217.5.180.114
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AC30 could work, but it would NOT have the decent range since the model before it is a short ranged weapon.
How is a Rotary Gauss silly? It would be logical to combine the RAC and the Gauss into one weapons system.
WiGE are not that practical, they are not better then hover tanks and don't give you much more beyond some extra lift. LAMs are do able but should be super rare.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Tripod
07/14/10 04:42 AM
192.91.75.29
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WIGE's do have a few advantages ofer Hover's. I'm not sure what the weight differance is durring construction. The real advantage to a WIGE is the ability to glide over terrain thats otherwise impassable by hover or wige.
And.... you can build a 200 ton WIGE...
TBA
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ix
07/14/10 12:54 PM
81.6.219.90
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WiGE makes more sense as a step in a progression from walking tank to flying-walking tank than instantly arriving at the silly all-capable transformers that are LAMs. I'm not talking about rules advantages, I was thinking of adding lift to a tank, the high lift of the ground effect and limited requirements of aerodynamics and wingsize make this a more logical step. LAMs would never exist- what possible reason is there to include legs and arms on a machine that should be able to hover indefinitely in atmospheres? It's just a tenacious holdover of the mecha origins of Battletech.
Rotary Gauss seems silly because the majority of the mass of the weapon is what creates the force that fires the projectile (capacitors and the rail). To have a rotary gauss you'd either show the current gauss technology is way out of date, create a weapon that fires with one sixth of the force or is near six times the size (assuming we're talking about a similar rotary rules set to the autocannons). Rotary autocannons are not the same because the force comes from the shell's propellant charge, making a reinforced and faster cycling weapon far more plausible.
You're right about the range trend for ACs, I just think it's an extremely silly one that makes no sense and would make an AC/30 rather too short-ranged. But then I'd happily re-jig autocannons and lasers to rebalance the rules. Ammunition weapons are more fun but energy weapons have nearly every advantage at present.
More effective and longer ranged magnetic disruption weapons would be interesting if you could create some kind of metagame balancing between using a non-Fusion engine and Fusion engines with additional shielding, along with normal Fusion units being very vulnerable to this new class of weapons. If you wanted to make the Dark Ages distinct a new tech that upped heat levels and pushed toward non-energy weapon designs and non-fusion powerplants as a result would be very fitting and flavourful. Thinking as a game designer I'd want a Dark Age setting to feel like that- lower tech, shorter range, lower speed and more closecombat. You could use technological advancements to create this metagame.
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Karagin
07/14/10 02:05 PM
217.5.180.114
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200 tons...cool, but still we should be able to build via the combat vehicle rules 200 ton hover tanks already. Really wish they would combine the two vehicle rule sets, get rid of the BAR (man that sounds silly and more like a fall back to days of D&D).
Fun thing is I can turn most of the WIGEs into hovers, as I said most.
Still at the rate we are going grav tanks should be just around that certain corner...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Karagin
07/14/10 02:07 PM
217.5.180.114
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On the Rotary Gauss, I am not saying it won't have draw back, but it is possible and given that we have crap like the Bombast Laser and some of the other stuff, nail guns for mechs in combat...
My group used for a while an Ultra Gauss Rifle, I will see if I have the stats still for it.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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LAMdriver
07/28/10 02:24 AM
68.118.31.98
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Personally, I don't see what the big deal with LAMs is about. They were written out of existance when the Clans invaded and the technology was lost to time. Now that being said, LAM technology (and rules for them) are coming back. This is no different than any "lostech" that has come back. Double Heat sinks, endo steel, and other technology were rediscovered, so why not LAMs?
As to WiGE...what the hell is it? I just can't get my mind around was it does. I can't seem to get a modern comparison for it. I need a vehicle from today to get my mind around it does.
As for future weapons development...why not a Rotary Gauss weapon...nice idea. Better have some major penalities to offset the massive damge that I think that it would do.
A/C 30...what could this thing shoot? 16 inch shells from a battleship of today. One reload ton of 2 shells...wait a minute I think that they already have this...its called a Long Tom/ Sniper/ Thumper cannon.
I agree with Karagin on the grav tanks idea. Uber kewl idea, but then you run the risk of becoming like other war games (Warhammer40K, Star Wars, etc).
$0.02 Davion Pound.
" The object of war is not to die for your country. It's to make some other bastard die for his!"--Patton
""War is Hell. Combat is a motherfucker."---General Tommy Franks
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AJC
07/28/10 06:25 AM
66.227.132.167
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here's a hilarious idea...Rotary or even Pulse PPCs boy that would be some funky stuff there.
to make up for the fact it's a rapid fire PPC system make it unable to use PPC Capacitors with it.
Edited by AJC (07/28/10 06:28 AM)
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Karagin
07/28/10 08:29 AM
80.149.45.147
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Actually some one beat you to the idea of a Pulse PPC, Herb Barnnets came up with one in the late 90s. Followed the then official rules for pulse weapons, but only got a -1 to hit. And was Clanish tech only. IIRCC it took up one more crit then Clan ERPPC did.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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ix
08/05/10 07:35 PM
81.6.219.90
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Quote:
I can't seem to get a modern comparison for it. I need a vehicle from today to get my mind around it does.
I think they're supposed to use the ground effect, a piece of physics where by the lift generated by a lifting body is much greater near the ground. This is a real life use of the idea:
http://helian.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/ekranoplan.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan
Essentially an aircraft with small wings that flies at high speed over seas and rivers, and possibly very flat land at an altitude of between one and four metres.
Edited by ix (08/05/10 07:35 PM)
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Christopher_Perkins
12/09/10 06:13 PM
138.162.128.52
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The BAR rating is just a method of handicapping Armor...
if a Point of Armour is BAR 5 Tech Level D, then it is 50% as Effective and gives 50% the Deffensive BV and masses (roughly) half as much as a BAR 10 Tech D point of armour (Standard BattleMech 3025 Tech Armor).
Another way to say this is that the same Level of Protection costs twice as many points for the same mass.
The Official Rules are a lot Simpler and do an extremely poor job of explaining why this started as a good idea (Enforcing the Assumption that a piece of industrial Equipment will have Less Armour than a warfighting or battlefield supply vehicle) as well as making Standard weapons over powered vs BAR lower than 7 because no one likes to use a calculator for determining the Amount of Damage that a Medium Laser Would do if it hit the vehicle.
Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
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Karagin
12/11/10 04:51 PM
178.76.138.173
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They could have just kept things simple and added the new stuff into the old vehicle construction rules and not added another level and layer of rules and what can or can not have something...
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Christopher_Perkins
12/13/10 04:55 PM
138.162.128.54
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limited agreement..
Should have Given option to use Complex SUV Style Rules for Combat Vehicle Construction... then would have same amount of data for each.
Note, Per Mercenaries Supplimental II, SUV can be approximated by Nerfing 20% of vehicle weight when using standard construction rules... but that really only intended to get to a Tech level C (Pre BattleMech) Vehicle... remember, the "Combat Vehicle" we know in the CBT era (3005 - 3081) was supposedly introduced subsequent to introduction of BattleMech.
So, we have two ways to generate Support Vehicles but only one way to generate Combat Vehicles.
Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
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Christopher_Perkins
12/13/10 05:09 PM
138.162.128.53
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The "What can or cannot have something" in the new rules totally replaces the old system, the Availability Level in an originating house is one level Higher (worse, i.e. A > B, B > C, etc) if you are trying to get the item from a different house. This Really only codifies what has always been in place... it also serves to make something that is rare in the originating house almost impossible to get in another house (a metric that didnt exist prior to the repackaging of the old rules in the new books)
Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
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Karagin
12/14/10 06:53 AM
178.76.138.173
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Sorry to bust the bubble, but NOTHING is rare or limited to one house or power base in BT. Never has been, each side has the same weapons tech, same building materials etc...what mainly matters is who comes up with the new stuff first, uses it before the other powers steal or copy it, that is only rare thing in the whole game.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Christopher_Perkins
12/14/10 11:03 PM
166.137.10.116
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Quote:
Sorry to bust the bubble, but NOTHING is rare or limited to one house or power base in BT.
All depends... In the age of war the Terran hegemony developed the 3025 standard stuff... And it slowly spread. And as it spread it's availability rating changed over the decades. The availability rating is for the specific point in time that the book is published for... Iirc the new core rules are set for 3067 before the fit hits the Shan .
Quote:
Never has been, each side has the same weapons tech, same building materials etc...
Never being before the clans were introduced and the starleague "re-introduced"?
Quote:
what mainly matters is who comes up with the new stuff first, uses it before the other powers steal or copy
That is exactly the metric that the availability ratings go for.
Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
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Karagin
12/21/10 05:29 PM
72.178.75.99
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Chris you just said the same thing I did. Nothing stays unique in Battletech long enough for it to matter WHICH side has said item. If it did then we would not see a Davion mech carrying Plasma guns or a Combine mech running around with stealth armor etc...yet we do in fact see these things, so your bubble is busted and has been since the game first hit the shelves way back when it was called Battledorids.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Christopher_Perkins
12/21/10 06:08 PM
138.162.128.55
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As i said... the Availability Rating is How common the item is in the Houses or Clans that Build it, the Houses or Clans that do not produce the item acquire the unit at one letter grade below (i.e. A - Very Common to B - Common) the published rating, making it harder to acquire. When a House is trying to acquire a clan produced item, then they acquire it as if it had dropped two letter grades.
So, the Availability ratings are the metric that allows for this.
That being said... if some thing is Rare or Unique in its originating House or Clan... then it would really be unavailable in the other factions.
Age of War weapons are more or less built in all Houses in 3067 so all Houses would have to expend the same amount of effort to acquire an item.
Similarly, Age of War Armor, Heat Sinks, and Chassis materiels in are made by all Clans & Houses in 3067, so all factions would have to expend the same effort as well.
It all comes down to what factions produce something.
Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
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Karagin
12/23/10 04:02 PM
72.178.75.99
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Right and folks really worry about availability when they want to use something...and NO nothing in this game is so rare that it is only one group use. Everyone ends up getting the item or items over time and as I said, the only thing that matters is who uses it first.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Xephan
02/28/11 02:35 PM
97.117.227.53
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Rotary guass rifles pretty much allready exist, Clan Hyper Assult Guass *Guass Rifle minigun*
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