Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Snekposter]

• By the end of that match, the only 'Mechs left standing were a Wolf Stormcrow with half its weapons and a side torso blown out, and a mostly undamaged Jade Falcon Fire Moth with a damaged hip. The Falcon player started gloating about how he could circlestrafe the Stormcrow all day, and then his pilot failed a roll, faceplanted right in front of the Stormcrow, failed the consciousness roll, and got promptly blown away. Wolves win by Kerensky's plot armor, more on that later.

Peak Star Colonel Malthus right there.

Anyway, no joke: the most fun way to play Clan, by far, is to go full ham on the roleplay. I thought the "YOU DARE REFUSE MY BATCHALL?!" joke would have outstayed its welcome by the end of the session, but we were still laughing like a bunch of morons whenever it dropped even after the post-game pizza arrived.

No, my bad, that is Peak Star Colonel Malthus right there.

Honestly if we ever get a Clan expansion to MW5 (fuckers teased us with the ending of the campaign), I hope to God we hear that line. Just once though. Maybe twice, if Commander Mason gets to declare a batchall of his own against the Falcons. Nothing quite like a full lance of salvaged Dire Wolves to put the fear of Kerensky into Clanners.

 

[BlackDragoons]

I enjoy roleplaying even when its casual games, just brings a whole new level of enjoyment to the game. Plus it gives me a reason to act like a autistic tard that I am.

One of my friends even puts X's on his Marauder's PPC everytime it gets a kill.

 

[White Devil]

I enjoy roleplaying even when its casual games, just brings a whole new level of enjoyment to the game. Plus it gives me a reason to act like a autistic tard that I am.

One of my friends even puts X's on his Marauder's PPC everytime it gets a kill.

MechWarrior 4 actually had a pretty vibrant roleplaying community and tournament scene before MWO destroyed that.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I've started playing HBS BT again, it's still fun but damn, the writing is painful sometimes, especially during Flashpoints.

For context: One of the flashpoints sends you to a city under siege by Steiner units. After the first mission, some pilot named "Chavez" or something tells you to watch your back around "Jailbird", the next mission, you learn from Jailbird that Chavez and her had an argument and she stabbed Chavez, which landed her in jail.

Before the last mission, you need to choose whether you will take Chavez or Jailbird as backup, but both communicate that they are really fucking upset if you pick the other one. I picked Jailbird, making Chavez instantly go AWOL, threatening to kill you if she finds you on the battlefield.
Also, you learn that the Steiner general is only besieging the city cause his fiancee ran away and hid in there.

You are treated to this little blurb:

What makes this even worse is that Jailbird an Chavez' argument that ended with Jailbird stabbing Chavez was over some cheating asshat dude.

It's like the people writing for this game did not mature past high school jfc

The missions are decent enough though, so I glance over the writing and can still enjoy the game a lot. Now, if only it allowed me to pick a weight-class, so I can run my Crab/Shadowhawk/Blackjack/Urbanmech lance...

One of my friends even puts X's on his Marauder's PPC everytime it gets a kill.

There are a few canon paintschemes where the mech gets something nice for every kill.
Forgot the unit, but one uses a black paintscheme and for every kill, you get one red thunderbolt, which is kind of cool.

The Combine's 1st Ghost Regiment has a green dragon design that goes from the right torso across the back and then spirals down the left leg. For every kill, you paint one scale of that dragon gold. I really like that kind of stuff.

I bet with a fitting mech, you could also do rings around gunbarrels for Steiner units or something like that.

 

[Corn Flakes]

There are a few canon paintschemes where the mech gets something nice for every kill.
Forgot the unit, but one uses a black paintscheme and for every kill, you get one red thunderbolt, which is kind of cool.

The Combine's 1st Ghost Regiment has a green dragon design that goes from the right torso across the back and then spirals down the left leg. For every kill, you paint one scale of that dragon gold. I really like that kind of stuff.

I bet with a fitting mech, you could also do rings around gunbarrels for Steiner units or something like that.

That is a very fun little piece of unit lore that's very easy to represent.

Back when I was still considering which faction to focus on (BT wasn't as popular so I couldn't find/afford a lot of minis), I thought about doing a Steiner-aligned merc unit with something like that. Blue with white and yellow accents. After 5 'Mech kills a MechWarrior was considered an Ace and the right arm on his or her 'Mech was painted entirely white. Get to 10 kills and the other arm was painted as well.

Actually, I was thinking about setting up another unit. Might actually just dig up my notes on that merc unit idea and go looking for some minis for them.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Was on /tg/ and saw some people discussing the merits of Ballistic weapons vs Energy weapons and honestly my opinion is that there both good equally.

I love the Marauder-3R even if people poopoo AC/5 I still love it.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Was on /tg/ and saw some people discussing the merits of Ballistic weapons vs Energy weapons and honestly my opinion is that there both good equally.

I love the Marauder-3R even if people poopoo AC/5 I still love it.

You got a link? Those discussions are always fun.

As for the AC/5 on the Marauder? Give me a Large Laser and 4 (double or single) heatsinks any day of the week. Unless we're talking UACs or LB/Xs (or RACs if you're being cheeky), anything under the 10-grade is a no from me. Even with AC/10s and 20s, I would much rather have the extra punch of the Ultras or the crit-seeking of LB/Xs than standard ACs, special ammo and all.

 

[BlackDragoons]

You got a link? Those discussions are always fun.

As for the AC/5 on the Marauder? Give me a Large Laser and 4 (double or single) heatsinks any day of the week. Unless we're talking UACs or LB/Xs (or RACs if you're being cheeky), anything under the 10-grade is a no from me. Even with AC/10s and 20s, I would much rather have the extra punch of the Ultras or the crit-seeking of LB/Xs than standard ACs, special ammo and all.

Eyup.

Also ran a variant of the 5M in a campaign i did where I replaced the two large pulse lasers for normal Large Lasers, with the 2 extra tons I put in an additional ton of ammo and 1 ton of cluster ammo. The 3D is great but holy balls does it cook you alive.

https://boards.4channel.org/tg/thread/83087150#p83093190

 

[Techpriest]

You got a link? Those discussions are always fun.

As for the AC/5 on the Marauder? Give me a Large Laser and 4 (double or single) heatsinks any day of the week. Unless we're talking UACs or LB/Xs (or RACs if you're being cheeky), anything under the 10-grade is a no from me. Even with AC/10s and 20s, I would much rather have the extra punch of the Ultras or the crit-seeking of LB/Xs than standard ACs, special ammo and all.

Replace it with a light gauss rifle. Instant improvement but it does need endo for that.

 

[Balr0g]

You got a link? Those discussions are always fun.

As for the AC/5 on the Marauder? Give me a Large Laser and 4 (double or single) heatsinks any day of the week. Unless we're talking UACs or LB/Xs (or RACs if you're being cheeky), anything under the 10-grade is a no from me. Even with AC/10s and 20s, I would much rather have the extra punch of the Ultras or the crit-seeking of LB/Xs than standard ACs, special ammo and all.

Depending on the timeline I would replace the AC5 with a light version. Yes it looses some range but I can also use it in close combat now. And to sweeten it load the AC with specialty ammo like armorpiercing or homing rounds. And spend the leftover tonnage on some more ammo, case, armor or perhaps an ECM

 

[Corn Flakes]

Replace it with a light gauss rifle. Instant improvement but it does need endo for that.

Given the tonnage leeway, I'll replace an AC/5 with a LGR any day of the week, and it's not just my Marik loyalty speaking.

Depending on the timeline I would replace the AC5 with a light version. Yes it looses some range but I can also use it in close combat now. And to sweeten it load the AC with specialty ammo like armorpiercing or homing rounds. And spend the leftover tonnage on some more ammo, case, armor or perhaps an ECM

The problem is that even with a Light AC/5 you're still paying at least 6 tons for a Medium Laser with more range and an ammo dependency. Even if you ignore the 10 freebie heatsinks and always get enough heatsinks to make all weapons heat-neutral, you'd still be paying only 4 tons for the Medium Laser, vs at least 7 tons for the LAC.

I really want to like the low-caliber Autocannons. They're total underdogs and I'd like nothing more than to make them work. But until Ultras roll out the AC/5 is too inefficient to even consider using. And even the Ultra AC/5 is iffy because you're paying a lot of tonnage for something that will on average deal the same damage as a Large Laser, and it's also liable to jam and stop working for the rest of the fight. And the least said about AC/2s the better. These things are just a complete waste of tonnage no matter the variant.

It's clear the developers intended Autocannons to be the "main guns" for Mechs. The big, hard hitters supplemented by the missiles and lasers. But they completely fucked that up. If instead of AC/2, 5, 10 and 20 we had AC/5, 10, 15 and 20 with the same tonnages and adjusted brackets, then we'd be in business. 9+ tons and 5+ slots to fling 10 damage out to 15 hexes for 3 heat? That's a bit more balanced compared to a PPC.

Really, the problem is that Medium Lasers are way too good for their heat/tonnage. But that's a whole different can of worms.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

That's always been a big problem with the Ultra AC; once it's jams, it's done. It's dead weight for the rest of the battle and your ammo is useless. When the rotary AC came out, the devs should've revised the UAC rules to allow for unjamming.

 

[Corn Flakes]

That's always been a big problem with the Ultra AC; once it's jams, it's done. It's dead weight for the rest of the battle and your ammo is useless. When the rotary AC came out, the devs should've revised the UAC rules to allow for unjamming.

I would go further than that.

Normal and Light Autocannons: can fire at twice per turn, with a MASC-style chance to jam so rapid fire over multiple turns becomes more difficult. Once jammed, they're inoperable until fixed post-battle.

Ultra Autocannons: can fire twice per firing phase, jamming on a hit roll of 2 when rapid-firing. When jammed, they cannot fire for the following turn only while the autocannon is unjamming itself.

LB-X Autocannons: can fire twice per firing phase, with the same MASC-style jam chance as the vanilla ACs. Must select which ammo type it will be firing for all shots fired that turn. When rapid-firing cluster shot, if both shots hit the same target only one cluster roll is made, but each pellet deals 2 damage instead of 1. Once jammed, they're inoperable until fixed post-battle.

Rotary Autocannons: remain as they are.

As they are, Ultra Autocannons gain an absurd amount of power for very little cost compared to normal ACs. Being able to double your firepower for just 1 extra ton is ridiculous. But UACs don't need to be nerfed, normal ACs need buffing. So, allow all autocannons to rapid-fire, without changing any of their stats otherwise so canon designs are all still valid, but distinguish them by how long they can rapid-fire before they jam, and make Ultras only pay 1 ton for being more reliable. This would throw the AC/5s a much-needed bone (the AC/2 is still a waste of tonnage), and while it might seem excessive to allow normal AC/10s and 20s to double tap they're very liable to run out of ammo and/or jam if they try rapid-firing too often, and once Ultras are available you now have a reason to still field them.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

I would go further than that.

Normal and Light Autocannons: can fire at twice per turn, with a MASC-style chance to jam so rapid fire over multiple turns becomes more difficult. Once jammed, they're inoperable until fixed post-battle.

Ultra Autocannons: can fire twice per firing phase, jamming on a hit roll of 2 when rapid-firing. When jammed, they cannot fire for the following turn only while the autocannon is unjamming itself.

LB-X Autocannons: can fire twice per firing phase, with the same MASC-style jam chance as the vanilla ACs. Must select which ammo type it will be firing for all shots fired that turn. Once jammed, they're inoperable until fixed post-battle.

Rotary Autocannons: remain as they are.

As they are, Ultra Autocannons gain an absurd amount of power for very little cost compared to normal ACs. Being able to double your firepower for just 1 extra ton is ridiculous. But UACs don't need to be nerfed, normal ACs need buffing. So, allow all autocannons to rapid-fire, without changing any of their stats otherwise so canon designs are all still valid, but distinguish them by how long they can rapid-fire before they jam, and make Ultras only pay 1 ton for being more reliable. This would throw the AC/5s a much-needed bone (the AC/2 is still a waste of tonnage), and while it might seem excessive to allow normal AC/10s and 20s to double tap they're very liable to run out of ammo and/or jam if they try rapid-firing too often, and once Ultras are available you now have a reason to still field them.

Hm. I'd disallow LBX autocannons from double-firing with cluster rounds, but for solid-slug, sure. The reason is that cluster, especially on the larger LBX ACs, gives a WHOLE lot of chances to critical hit or head hit, since you roll for every pellet as opposed to five-point clusters. You want someone to throw 30+ chances to TAC or bonk your pilot?

Allowing regular ACs to double-shot would also reinvigorate the AC/2, which (as people have noted) is a terrible weapon unless you have ungodly luck.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Hm. I'd disallow LBX autocannons from double-firing with cluster rounds, but for solid-slug, sure. The reason is that cluster, especially on the larger LBX ACs, gives a WHOLE lot of chances to critical hit or head hit, since you roll for every pellet as opposed to five-point clusters. You want someone to throw 30+ chances to TAC or bonk your pilot?

Just so one of the LBX's unique aspects isn't completely unusable in rapid fire, I'll add this:

When rapid-firing cluster shot, if both shots hit the same target only one cluster roll is made, but each pellet deals 2 damage instead of 1.

It sort of turns rapid-firing LBXs into SRM shotguns, but I like that.

 

[BlackDragoons]

That's always been a big problem with the Ultra AC; once it's jams, it's done. It's dead weight for the rest of the battle and your ammo is useless. When the rotary AC came out, the devs should've revised the UAC rules to allow for unjamming.

Reason I love RAC/5 you can fire more then 2 rounds a shot and if it jams you can unjam the son of a bitch.


Also if you roll right 30 damage is great.

 

[Bassomatic]

Was on /tg/ and saw some people discussing the merits of Ballistic weapons vs Energy weapons and honestly my opinion is that there both good equally.

I love the Marauder-3R even if people poopoo AC/5 I still love it.

I'm a huge BTG fag. It's the best place to talk BT imho.

The ac5 is literally math backed one of the worst guns in BT. I'm sorry it sucks, I love the flavor of it and don't like XLs so most clan invasion era MADs, but a simple LBX5 swap is comfy. Now imho a PERFECT mad is LFE 2 PPC 2 ML lbx10. DHS swap. I don't feel like opening SSW to show exact but that's just a great mech.

 

[Techpriest]

I'm a huge BTG fag. It's the best place to talk BT imho.

The ac5 is literally math backed one of the worst guns in BT. I'm sorry it sucks, I love the flavor of it and don't like XLs so most clan invasion era MADs, but a simple LBX5 swap is comfy. Now imho a PERFECT mad is LFE 2 PPC 2 ML lbx10. DHS swap. I don't feel like opening SSW to show exact but that's just a great mech.

That is a fantastic configuration. I do think that the light Fusion engine really shines for IS heavy mechs.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I do think that the light Fusion engine really shines for IS heavy mechs.

Light Fusion engines are great little weight-savers if you have the crit space for it.

Just like Clan XLs, though, they're not the panacea a lot of people think they are. Your Daishi might still be able to fight with a side torso blown off, but besides losing any gear on that side of the 'Mech, it also lost any heatsinks in those locations. And it's now generating 10 extra heat from the damaged engine. Ironically, Clan XLs and IS Lights are a good argument for a more ballistics-heavy loadout.

 

[Snekposter]

The ac5 is literally math backed one of the worst guns in BT.

Feels bad man. And I'm one of those guys that loves a nice big kaboom. Some quick and dirty in-my-head mathhammering using Sarna has even the AC/10 come out pretty poorly compared to the LL, since its 13 tons and 8 crits when you include a ton of ammo, and a Large laser and the 5 HS extra needed to match the AC/10 for heat efficiency will run you 10 tons and 7 crits. Slap in another HS and you'll run cooler, use the same crits, and still have 2 tons free and no ammo dependency. And all you get for that extra crit and 3 tons is two more damage and the ability to load specialized ammo.

Really, the AC/20 is the only ballistic that isn't overshadowed by energy weapons of its era, but only because 20 damage is a lot.