Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[TFT-A9]

Ironically, this is something MWO did right (I know, shocking). Clan Omnis generally have fewer crits and very few options for customization outside OmniPod components (which can alter the available hardpoints and change the group bonuses) and weapons/equipment.

Meanwhile, you can completely overhaul the fuck out of an IS BattleMech. Some refits (engines especially) can get pricey but it's doable.

Clan Omnis in MWO are in a weird spot because many have "Set of 8" bonuses if you stick to stock pods on a given variant - but you'll probably never bother using all stock pods on a given variant for a multitude of reasons. Beyond that, some are doomed to borderline irrelevancy anyway. Hellbringer/Loki is only really good at laser vomit, Nova/Blackhawk is mostly the same, Ice Ferret/Fenris is very nearly a jokemech at this point, Mist Lynx/Koshi is pretty much only ever used with MLX-G pods (sometimes full set but the So8 is irrelevant anyway) as an MG/laser harasser a la Piranha with JJs, Arctic Cheetah/Hankyu (think that's the IS name) is in a similar boat as the MLX but with ECM or Heavy Lasers or both and it's... not great since the Clan Small Pulse Laser nerf, Stormcrow/Ryoken can be workable with a handful of builds but not really fantastic, Viper/Dragonfly is dangerously close to being a jokemech but its insane agility rescues it, Kitfox/Uller is surprisingly in an OK spot all things considered, Summoner/Thor is pretty much only ever used for Clan ERPPC poptarting, Gargoyle/Man-o-War has one silly trick (boating the everloving shit out of smaller lasers) and sucks at anything else, Executioner/Gladiator is POTENTIALLY OK in the right hands but is EXTREMELY difficult to make worth your while, Direwolf/Daishi is pretty much only ever used as an AC-spam turret, Warhawk/Masakari is really only relevant as a quad-ERPPC DPS assault, Timberwolf/Madcat is honestly incredibly mediocre and anything it does something else will do much better, but it CAN do nearly anything... basically in MWO Clan Omnis are usually the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the idea of Omnimechs are supposed to be, they're generally idiot-savant mechs and Battlemechs are MORE flexible if not just outright better.

Meanwhile Clan Battlemechs range from insanely good/borderline OP (Vapor Eagle) to trash (Kodiak - and it's only bad because PGI nerfed the everloving shit out of it pretty much the moment it stopped being a cashmech, though since the Spirit Bear hero is still a cashmech and might well be the WORST of the bunch, who the fuck knows what goes through Paul Inouye's mind during a "balance pass")

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

Duchy of Oriente here. Somehow we made it out of the Dark Ages in a waaaaaay better shape than I expected.

Well shit, I don't think I've ever run into another Leaguer who went Oriente too. Marik-Stewart Commonwealth, sure, but they're still kinda salty about the False Thomas's family running things. Best standard of living in the League and hell maybe the Sphere outside of Terra and the capitals. Oriente's always had good units, especially with Orloff. And the last Thera is still floating around Les Helles. I mean, it can't go anywhere, but it's there.

Hey man, I'll gladly take an 85 ton super-Victor even if it doesn't have the almost-mandatory JJ. Then again, I'm shamelessly FedSuns due to their love of autocannons and possession of a strangely competent ruling family. There's a reason everyone gives Victor shit despite being only as much of a fuck-up as your average Liao. That and the fact his father Hanse Davion is well... Hanse Davion, the Inner Sphere's most magnificent bastard.

That and he knocked up the daughters of two successor lords. I'm pretty sure his dad only banged both Katrina and Melissa. I don't even really dislike Victor, I just think he took the White Hat thing a little too seriously.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Make no mistake, PGI has plenty of sins on its ledger. Ghost heat is a fucking abomination and should be removed, and the way hitboxes work do some mechs zero favors.

That and he knocked up the daughters of two successor lords. I'm pretty sure his dad only banged both Katrina and Melissa. I don't even really dislike Victor, I just think he took the White Hat thing a little too seriously.

When you're the lord of a Successor State, you really don't have the luxury of being a White Hat. The problem is that Victor is terrible at being anything but that. The whole 'replace Thomas Marik Halas's son with a duplicate' -- he should've taken one look at that and said, 'Oh ffs dad, no, not even for advanced stuff from the FWL' and killed the project. He even admits it to Thomas -- and then follows up by discreetly hinting he knows damn well Thomas is an imposter.

Victor can do sneaky, but he's awful at being a bastard. And it shows.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

When you're the lord of a Successor State, you really don't have the luxury of being a White Hat. The problem is that Victor is terrible at being anything but that. The whole 'replace Thomas Marik Halas's son with a duplicate' -- he should've taken one look at that and said, 'Oh ffs dad, no, not even for advanced stuff from the FWL' and killed the project. He even admits it to Thomas -- and then follows up by discreetly hinting he knows damn well Thomas is an imposter.

Victor can do sneaky, but he's awful at being a bastard. And it shows.

To be fair, the Ice Bitch got all of those genes from both sides of the family. I mean all of them, nothing left for poor Victor. I mean, she fucked her way into basically running a Clan from the shadows. Which is impressive considering that's just how Clanners say hello. The sad part about that whole duplicate thing is that I'm pretty sure the League was about perfectly willing to sell shit to everyone. Industrial power of the Sphere, untouched by the trashborn and their spergout, shit designs in some cases but lots of them. But sure, lets piss them off with Cappie-tier plans. Lets drive them further into working with the Cappies and the Snakes. I honestly think Davion just got used to dealing with the batshit insanity from the Confederation and the weeb-tier Bushido nonsense from the Snakes and forgot how to deal with normal people.

 

[TFT-A9]

Make no mistake, PGI has plenty of sins on its ledger. Ghost heat is a fucking abomination and should be removed, and the way hitboxes work do some mechs zero favors.

Re: hitboxes, I was just fucking about in my Shadowhawk and an enemy player got a hit squarely on CT rear from side, slightly to front. My Cicada constantly gets its back armor sheared off from shots taken at my front. My Marauder regularly loses rear side torso armor from SLIGHTLY oblique front-on shots.

Ghost heat is a mechanic that no longer has any purpose. There are plenty of ways to work around it, plenty of builds that just fucking tank the extra heat anyway. The AC20 is in no way the scariest gun on the field anymore, and it takes a substantial heat penalty for firing 2 at once. Dual Heavy Gauss builds laugh into their sleeves at Boomcats and Boomjagers. Quad LB10X Cyclops Hero thinks Boomjagers/cats are downright quaint. Boating Medium Lasers? Not really very scary even without Ghost Heat in current tech level, the only thing on IS side I can think of that can actually boat MLs is the Hunchback-4P and 9 Medium Lasers/8 Medium Lasers and a Small Laser is absolutely INCONSEQUENTIAL compared to some of the absolute horseshit you will see.

 

[Urbanmech]

Boating Medium Lasers? Not really very scary even without Ghost Heat in current tech level, the only thing on IS side I can think of that can actually boat MLs is the Hunchback-4P and 9 Medium Lasers/8 Medium Lasers and a Small Laser is absolutely INCONSEQUENTIAL compared to some of the absolute horseshit you will see.

I will always want to face a Hunchie Laser boat over a light Mech Laser boat like a Firestarter anyday.

 

[Snekposter]

Make no mistake, PGI has plenty of sins on its ledger. Ghost heat is a fucking abomination and should be removed, and the way hitboxes work do some mechs zero favors.


When you're the lord of a Successor State, you really don't have the luxury of being a White Hat. The problem is that Victor is terrible at being anything but that. The whole 'replace Thomas Marik Halas's son with a duplicate' -- he should've taken one look at that and said, 'Oh ffs dad, no, not even for advanced stuff from the FWL' and killed the project. He even admits it to Thomas -- and then follows up by discreetly hinting he knows damn well Thomas is an imposter.

Victor can do sneaky, but he's awful at being a bastard. And it shows.

He's the First Prince the FedSuns deserved (one to truly live up to their reputation as The Good Guys), but not the one they needed. And yeah, agreed on the Cappie/Drac dealings mentioned up above. Poor dude probably panicked at the thought of telling Thomas his son was dead since either the Liaos or Kuritans would have almost certainly declared all-out war for the crime of managing to keep a kid with leukemia alive for several years when he was already one foot in the grave prior with constant, obvious hypoxia. And I wish I was being ironic here. That said, being Focht's understudy at ComStar as the new Precentor Martial is probably the best place in the galaxy both for him and the IS. Keeps him out of much of the politics he's terrible at and keeps him focused on training up military forces which he is really good at.

 

[TFT-A9]

I will always want to face a Hunchie Laser boat over a light Mech Laser boat like a Firestarter anyday.

Firestarters are a joke now.

 

[Urbanmech]

Firestarters are a joke now.

So is the Hunchie, still rather take on the slower Lazervomit mech.

 

[TFT-A9]

So is the Hunchie, still rather take on the slower Lazervomit mech.

Hunchie 4P outfights a Firestarter any day and twice on Sunday.

You want good light laservomit, Javelin-11A. Gets a special quirk that lets it fire 7 MLs without tripping Ghost Heat.

 

[Snekposter]

So much for "sneaky as a Javelin" when it lights itself up like a disco ball.

 

[TFT-A9]

So much for "sneaky as a Javelin" when it lights itself up like a disco ball.

If you're not running ECM/Stealth you're not sneaky. Go fast eat asses with Medium Lasers.

(Even if you're running ECM/Stealth you're probably not as sneaky as you think you are.)

 

[Urbanmech]

Hunchie 4P outfights a Firestarter any day and twice on Sunday.

You want good light laservomit, Javelin-11A. Gets a special quirk that lets it fire 7 MLs without tripping Ghost Heat.

So what exactly did they do to the Firestarter then because I used to be able to take on Lances for a bit with them and get a few kills in sometimes.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

OmniMechs are a logical step in terms of the game's lore and they do make sense from a technical point of view, but it also meant that you get overwhelmed with a shitload of variants for mechs and they start to feel samey.
I do have a bit of a soft spot for the Hauptmann though. There's just something about a big frowny Mech with a cigar-laser that plasters an enemy with a healthy dose of LB-20-X FedCom Repellant. The A Variant mounts JumpJets and some significant short range firepower backed up by a Gauss Rifle in case cowardly Mechwarriors prance around at a distance and the B Variant carries 2 ER PPCs and an Ultra-AC/20...
on a sidenote, thank fuck no one has yet come up with an LB-X UltraAC.

I agree that the MW4 mech-customization was a great game mechanic to make mechs feel unique in what they could equip and Omnis had a nice advantage of having general slots that could take any type of weapon while non-Omnis had to stick to whatever slots were available. I can't remember how it was done in MechCommander 1, but I think it was fairly similar.
One of the worst offenders of bad choices when it comes to this must be MW3, which allowed you to stick anything into any part of the mech, as long as it had enough critical slots and weight. Wouldn't surprise me if you could put Gauss Rifles into your Bushwacker's legs, if you downgraded everything else enough... that being said, I think MW3 had a great campaign (and both the intro and the cutscene before the first mission were absolutely amazing) and even though MW4 has a better graphics engine, I feel MW3's looks aged a whole lot better and the graphic design was way better in MW3 than in MW4. Everything down to the HUD and effects just looked so much more "Battletech" than MW4's almost cartoonishly bright colors.

Gameplaywise both were great fun, though in my memory MW3 was hard as nails. I'll forever cherish the memories of downing Peregrine VTOLS with my Uziel's PPC in MW4... In one mission, on my first attempt, I managed to hit a Peregrine flying towards me and that thing ended up crashing directly into my mech on its way down, instantly crushing the cockpit and killing me.

 

[TerribleIdeas™]

I still want to know what happened to the Minnesotans.

I would pay to see someone make a mod that creates a hireable mechpilot with some of Jim's best lines.

Although one might note that if you're going to play the 'war crime' card, you'd need to talk about the Firestarter and Pirahna first.

No force except excessive force.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

No force except excessive force.

It's the Steiner Motto:
"If brute force doesn't solve your problems, you're not using enough of it."

 

[TFT-A9]

So what exactly did they do to the Firestarter then because I used to be able to take on Lances for a bit with them and get a few kills in sometimes.

Nerfed its agility and rescaled it to be way too big. It's not as dead in the water as the Jenner but that's a low bar to clear.

 

[Dick Justice]

Old MW4 fan, haven't got into the ttg because holy shit that's a huge timesink, games you have to play in person are hard to organize, and mechs with hands are dumb.
What was the final verdict on the recent Trannytech game from HBS? Is it worth trying?

 

[TFT-A9]

Old MW4 fan, haven't got into the ttg because holy shit that's a huge timesink, games you have to play in person are hard to organize, and mechs with hands are dumb.
What was the final verdict on the recent Trannytech game from HBS? Is it worth trying?

It's mediocre in vanilla, RogueTech and other mods will drastically improve much of it. Optimization in vanilla is absolutely atrocious and is sadly typical for Unity stuff (even though you can absolutely optimize with Unity). Get it on sale if at all possible, and mod it.

 

[robobobo]

Omnis are fairly stupid premise-wise, because improving modularity should make something cheaper to work with, not more expensive. I get that it's supposed to be a balancing thing, but they should've just made the better components themselves more expensive rather than try to have a bizarre tax on standardized construction. That thing that made the industrial revolution possible and propelled humanity into our joyous future.