Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Corn Flakes]

I know, that's what makes MRMs so awesome to me. It's literally just a cloud of dumb rockets going downrange. No fancy guidance systems, no bells, no whistles, just a launcher that packs a crapton of missiles, that are nothing more than a clump of explosives on a rocket engine.

So the issue isn't that I expect these missiles to be guided and thus there should be no to-hit-penalty, my point is, that it would make more sense to me to assume the missiles are fired in a wider pattern to ensure that the salvo will hit the target, even if that means less missiles hitting the target. Kinda like a shotgun firing birdshot though a duckbill.

I don't think fluff and rules run at odds here. Lore says "The missiles are unguided and go swoosh", rules say "to represent that, deduct -X on the cluster hits table".

Think about it this way: the cluster hit table already accounts for the missiles themselves scattering. That's the reason why the guided missiles also have to roll on it.

The dumbfire missiles roll on the cluster hits table without a penalty because the MechWarrior in the cockpit is aiming them manually (hence the penalty to hit). And as I said, most missiles in BT seem to be able to be ripple-fired, which makes it easier to walk them into the target. Meanwhile, the guided missiles roll on the cluster hits table because they're at the mercy of their own guidance systems and all the MechWarrior can do is try to fire them at the right angle and when the lock tone is the loudest. And yet most of them miss.

Besides, using your logic LBXs should also have a -X penalty on the cluster hits table. They're also unguided projectiles, the difference is that they fly faster than MRMs or rockets. Not even that much faster either, since autocannons are generally stated to chuck around HEAT rounds, LBXs fire explosive bomblets, and neither of those don't rely on speed to cause damage. And what do you know, they get a bonus to hit.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Think about it this way: the cluster hit table already accounts for the missiles themselves scattering. That's the reason why the guided missiles also have to roll on it.

Yes, and to represent a wider spread/pattern, you can give a penalty on the cluster hits table and I think it would be perfectly in tune with the lore.
Just like the Artemis system improves your probability of hitting with more missiles per volley due to better guidance, the unguided nature of the MRM could be represented as a penalty on that table rather than the penalty on hitting at all.

I mean, you could allow both versions and have the player make a choice before the game, basically taking the to-hit penalty with a tight pattern or the penalty on missile hits table with a wide pattern.
A bit like the choice between slug and clusters in LB-X ACs (only in this case, you need to decide before the game and you can't switch during gameplay).

Both make sense to me, but I think the to-hit penalty is way too harsh, given how crap to-hit-numbers can be in this game and LB-X ACs even receive a bonus on to-hit when firing cluster ammo due to, drumroll, firing clusters in a cone.

I really like MRMs, but I never use them, cause that penalty is just way too frustrating for me.

And as I said, most missiles in BT seem to be able to be ripple-fired, which makes it easier to walk them into the target.

Frankly, that seems like an argument in favor of my point.

The pilot aims for a mech, leads his aim to account for distance and speed of the target, fires the volley.
The first couple missiles are going to miss, so the pilot changes direction of his aim. Depending on how well he does this (and keeps the crosshair on the right spot while firing), more of his volley hits the target.

Walking the fire onto the target by definition means you miss with a few shots until you correct your aim and then hit with the rest of the volley. Ie: probability of successful attack is higher, but you will inevtiably miss with a few missiles (ie: normal to-hit and a penalty on missile hits).

But I think the idea behind MRMs is that they are fired all at once, that's at least what I interpret the -1 to represent. You hit the button, a crapton of missiles go downrange and leave their tubes so quickly, there is no time to really correct your aim.

Besides, using your logic LBXs should also have a -X penalty on the cluster hits table. They're also unguided projectiles, the difference is that they fly faster than MRMs or rockets.

The thing is: I apply that logic to LB-X ACs and think they could be treated differently. I am fine with how they work in the game, since it's way more convenient than what I have in mind and games must be abstracted down in some ways to keep them playable, but that doesn't mean that I don't think it might be neat to do things differently.

Specifically, with LB-X ACs firing cluster ammo, I think it might be interesting to treat them like this:

Rangewise, they have 0/+1/+2 (instead of -1/+1/+3) to represent that the clusters are spread out in a cone that gets wider. It means at the shortest range (when the projectiles are still flying in a tight group), you have no difference to a slug when it comes to aiming, the further out you go, the larger the effect of the spread (and thus how easy it is to hit a target with at least some clusters).

In terms of the cluster hits table, I'd opt for a bonus on short range, nothing in medium range and a penalty on long ranges. Ie: On short range, the likelihood of hitting with a larger part of the clusters is higher due to spread being at a minimum, on long range, spread is largest, so more clusters miss. How high the bonus/penalty actually are would need some balancing though.

Another change would be how damage is treated:
On short range, you apply it in 5-point clusters (like LRM fire), cause the spread is becoming noticable.
On medium and long range, you apply it in 1-point clusters, due to the wider spread.

Of course, this increases the complexity of an already complex system, but it would be a good representation of clusters being fired in a cone.
The biggest drawback is that LB-X ACs are meant as crit-seeker weapons, which would be diminished on short ranges. The biggest change in what niche they fill is the different to-hit modifiers I suggested, since it would make LB-X ACs more tempting to use for long-range fire.

I'm aware this is some German over-engineering, so I don't mind using the regular rules for LB-X ACs and I am not really opting to change anything about them. If the rules were the way I just described, I think I'd like them a tiny bit more, but it's really not a big deal.

In conclusion, I want to mention that there's a saying here in Germany when it comes to Battletech.

Whenever someone points out that the rules or lore in BT aren't very logical, the customary answer is to say:
"Well, after all, it's called Battletech and not Logitech".

I love how the Dracs were the ones to go all-in on C3. It makes perfect sense, too. "Fuck it, we'll always have someone trying to melee the enemy, might as well make everybody else benefit from it."

Yeah, it's kinda awesome in that regard. It's also a rather good counter against anyone trying to get close and personal with short range weapons like an AC/20 or medium pulse lasers.
Sure, you can get up in my grill and try to kill me via disco death light show, but any lancemate on the board with LOS will be able to shower you with their affection in return... unless you carry an ECM, in which case I might be hosed.

On a sidenote, I put together a vehicle lance with a C3 system. It's a Partisan (Air Defense version), a Manteuffel Prime, a Manticore (C3M) and a LRM Carrier (updated '55 Version with a C3 slave).
I have not yet fielded them, though, so no idea if this works out or not. I just liked the idea of having a vehicle fire support lance that brings two MBTs, some air defense and some artillery to the table.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Alright, the autism was so intense the quote bug hit so let me keep my own autism brief.

You missed the point that I was making about the cluster hits table. It's an abstraction. It exists to account for:

1. Guided missiles' guidance systems being shit. If you miss a LRM or a SRM volley it's not because your aim is bad, but because none of the missiles got a solid enough lock to hit the target. Because of that, improved guidance systems like Artemis and Streak allow you to either improve your roll or bypass it altogether.
   
   
2. "Shotgun" style weapons. The average hit ratios for a LB-20X cluster shot and a MRM-20 salvo are the same: 12. That means that in any given salvo, you're likely to miss with a good 40% of your projectiles. You don't need an additional penalty for it, the randomness of the cluster hits table is enough.
   
   
3. Rapid-fire weapons in general. Same thing: A RAC-5 firing at 6 shots/round gives you great hope for that juicy 6 x 5-point barrage, but on average you'll get 4 hits out of it. Again, no extra rules are needed, this is good enough at reining in these weapons' effectiveness.

That table exists to try to speed up what's already a very slow game, and it's pulling a lot of weight in the system. And whenever you have abstracted rules, they by definition conflict with the fluff.

And the fluff acknowledges that: weapons that operate in vastly different ways are all abstracted into the same categories. A MRM-40 might be a rocket vomit shotgun sandblasting the target with a single barrage and then having to wait 10 seconds for all the tubes to reload, or it might rapid-fire clusters of 5 rockets at a time so as to not blind the pilot with all the smoke, or it might fire a constant stream of continuously-reloaded missiles, 4 per second, turn by turn. No one is saying LRMs or SRMs all only fire when all the tubes are loaded either. All we know is that they fire their rated number of missiles every 10 seconds, how they get there depends on who's writing the fluff. That's why it doesn't make sense, and why we write the fluff to justify the rules and not the other way around.

As for not using MRMs, you're really missing out, dude. These things are SRMs with much better medium brackets. They're meant to be fired against slow-moving targets at 0 range modifier (yet another reason I keep saying BT is meant to be a close-range brawling game), where your usual worst case To-Hit is going to be 8 (4 base, +2 attacker movement, +1 defender movement, +1 MRM), but most likely 7. A MRM-40 is ton-for-ton very comparable to 4 x SRM-6, and even a below-average roll on the cluster hits table is going to force a Piloting Skill check on the target for 20+ damage/turn.

These things can be a lot of fun if you play to their strengths. Get into "you really need a cough drop, my man!" range with a heavy or assault-class target, blast them with an ungodly amount of missiles (hopefully to their back), then lay on the fisticuffs. Embrace the Kuritan ideal of dying so close to your enemy they can hear your screams through their cockpit plating.

And by the way, if you like C3 networks, MRMs benefit wonderfully from them. You don't need to take that +2 penalty for running when you can stay out at 12-15 hexes and pelt someone like you're in melee range with them. Does it make sense? Nope. But it's really funny and it's no coincidence the Dracs came up with both MRMs and C3 computers.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Alright, the autism was so intense the quote bug hit so let me keep my own autism brief.

You missed the point that I was making about the cluster hits table. It's an abstraction. It exists to account for:

1. Guided missiles' guidance systems being shit. If you miss a LRM or a SRM volley it's not because your aim is bad, but because none of the missiles got a solid enough lock to hit the target. Because of that, improved guidance systems like Artemis and Streak allow you to either improve your roll or bypass it altogether.
   
   
2. "Shotgun" style weapons. The average hit ratios for a LB-20X cluster shot and a MRM-20 salvo are the same: 12. That means that in any given salvo, you're likely to miss with a good 40% of your projectiles. You don't need an additional penalty for it, the randomness of the cluster hits table is enough.
   
   
3. Rapid-fire weapons in general. Same thing: A RAC-5 firing at 6 shots/round gives you great hope for that juicy 6 x 5-point barrage, but on average you'll get 4 hits out of it. Again, no extra rules are needed, this is good enough at reining in these weapons' effectiveness.

That table exists to try to speed up what's already a very slow game, and it's pulling a lot of weight in the system. And whenever you have abstracted rules, they by definition conflict with the fluff.

And the fluff acknowledges that: weapons that operate in vastly different ways are all abstracted into the same categories. A MRM-40 might be a rocket vomit shotgun sandblasting the target with a single barrage and then having to wait 10 seconds for all the tubes to reload, or it might rapid-fire clusters of 5 rockets at a time so as to not blind the pilot with all the smoke, or it might fire a constant stream of continuously-reloaded missiles, 4 per second, turn by turn. No one is saying LRMs or SRMs all only fire when all the tubes are loaded either. All we know is that they fire their rated number of missiles every 10 seconds, how they get there depends on who's writing the fluff. That's why it doesn't make sense, and why we write the fluff to justify the rules and not the other way around.

All that being said, I continue to think that the more appropriate abstraction for MRMs is to penalize them on the missile-hits table if at all. LB-X ACs gain a bonus on the to-hit for firing clusters of unguided projectiles downrange. MRMs do the very same thing and they get penalized for it. That makes no sense, not even from a game design POV.

I guess the idea is that LB-X ACs are compared to regular ACs, and since LB-X ACs will perform worse in terms of damage due to the missile hits table mechanic, they get their bonus on the to-hit-roll to balance them out with regular ACs.
MRMs are logically compared to SRMs and LRMs, which have no penalty on either to-hit or missile hits-table and the game devs decided to balance MRMs higher damage against SRMs and LRMs by penalizing the to-hit. I think it's a much more "organic" solution to say that MRMs are unguided and thus more will miss the mark by default (ie: penalty on the missile hits table). If that penalty was a -2, essentially it would downgrade a MRM40 to be a "MRM32" (with base damage of 12) which is still pretty solid. A -1 would still allow full damage on the roll of a 12, and only slightly change the damage curve downwards. One would need to run the numbers how that affects average damage per ton combined with the probability curve and so on to really see the effect it has on balancing MRMs to SRMs/LRMs...

I would prefer it to be in tune with how LB-X ACs work rulewise for consistency's sake, but giving MRMs a +1 on to-hit and an unmodified roll on the cluster hits table would shit all over SRMs/LRMs and taking away the +1 to-hit on the LB-X will shit all over LB-X ACs. So my above suggestion is still not ideal, but I consider it less awkward than a penalty on a type of weapon while a similar weapon gets a bonus.

But then again:
I'm not petitioning to change the rules as they are or calling the rules we have bad, I just point out my opinion about what I feel would have been a better way to handle it. I certainly don't have much of an issue with how it's done now.

Bit of a sidenote here, but wasn't there a rule in 4th edition to treat certain cluster-hits weapons as a category lower under certain circumstances? Like treating a LRM-20 as a LRM-15 for instance? I faintly remember reading something like that, but I can't remember what those "circumstances" were.

As for not using MRMs, you're really missing out, dude. These things are SRMs with much better medium brackets. They're meant to be fired against slow-moving targets at 0 range modifier (yet another reason I keep saying BT is meant to be a close-range brawling game), where your usual worst case To-Hit is going to be 8 (4 base, +2 attacker movement, +1 defender movement, +1 MRM), but most likely 7. A MRM-40 is ton-for-ton very comparable to 4 x SRM-6, and even a below-average roll on the cluster hits table is going to force a Piloting Skill check on the target for 20+ damage/turn.

These things can be a lot of fun if you play to their strengths. Get into "you really need a cough drop, my man!" range with a heavy or assault-class target, blast them with an ungodly amount of missiles (hopefully to their back), then lay on the fisticuffs. Embrace the Kuritan ideal of dying so close to your enemy they can hear your screams through their cockpit plating.

And by the way, if you like C3 networks, MRMs benefit wonderfully from them. You don't need to take that +2 penalty for running when you can stay out at 12-15 hexes and pelt someone like you're in melee range with them. Does it make sense? Nope. But it's really funny and it's no coincidence the Dracs came up with both MRMs and C3 computers.

It's actually kinda weird that the No-Dachi doesn't come with a C3 slave unit in the stock version for that very reason.
Remove the SRM-2 and its ammo, either upgrade the SRM-4 to an SRM-6 or add a medium laser and use the spare ton to add a C3 slave unit.

 

[Balr0g]

While you are talking about MRM's. MRM's have their own targeting upgrade just like LRM's and SRM's have with their Artemis IV system. MRM's have their Apollo system. The difference is though that the Apollo acts more like the targeting computer while Artemis is a guidance help which ensures that more missiles hit (unless there is an ECM nearby) Though I haven't seen this system on regular Mechs only on the assault dropship class Taihou. Not sure if the Apollo was actually meant for Dropships.

 

[Corn Flakes]

While you are talking about MRM's. MRM's have their own targeting upgrade just like LRM's and SRM's have with their Artmeris IV system. MRM's have their Apollo system. The difference is though that the Apollo acts more like the targeting computer while Artmeis is a guidance help which ensures that more missiles hit (unless there is an ECM nearby) Though I haven't seen this system on regular Mechs only on the assault dropship class Taihou. Not sure if the Apollo was actually meant for Dropships.

There's a good amount of equipment that is on the books but doesn't show up on any canon designs. So you can either design your own variants that carry that gear, or just chuck them into an Omni. I'm sure at least one rocket-happy Kurita MechWarrior must have slapped an Apollo-enabled MRM-40 plus a C3 unit in his Avatar at some point.

And yeah, the Apollo is basically a targeting computer for MRMs, with a -1 penalty to the cluster hits table just so MRMs don't become outright better than SRMs by default.

 

[Sumaire_STi]

Operation Lancaster News (SORTA BIG NEWS!)

• PDF File Update: The PDF file has been updated to version 1.0.5! This is the final planned update for the project file. The most important update is the additional color art piece by Pyralis for the Acalan dragon, but it also includes numerous text fixes/tweaks throughout. This has been a long time coming, and I'm happy to finally say that I feel I'm finished with this. I sincerely hope you enjoy it! - https://www.dropbox.com/s/pyzprdexjxtz62f/BattleTech - Operation Lancaster V105.pdf?dl=0

For anyone who hasn't seen it, here is the "Launch Video" made for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51HcUV39Buw

And here is the link for the record sheet pack (over 500 record sheets!): https://www.dropbox.com/s/t25cjblx4hwp1th/BattleTech - OpLancaster Record Sheets.rar?dl=0

 

[Snekposter]

NGL the war in Ukraine is giving me some serious Succession Wars vibes. Especially with the theft of washing machines, grain and tractors or events such as the complete loss of a full battalion on a failed attempt to cross a river.

Don't forget the war crimes and absurd rationalizations, too!

Although the latter are more of a Reunification Wars thing, IIRC.

 

[Bassomatic]

There's a good amount of equipment that is on the books but doesn't show up on any canon designs. So you can either design your own variants that carry that gear, or just chuck them into an Omni. I'm sure at least one rocket-happy Kurita MechWarrior must have slapped an Apollo-enabled MRM-40 plus a C3 unit in his Avatar at some point.

And yeah, the Apollo is basically a targeting computer for MRMs, with a -1 penalty to the cluster hits table just so MRMs don't become outright better than SRMs by default.

I can't tell you how much it pays off. Unless you DRAC HARD apollo never is a let down, many even not drac fanboys say it should end up as part of system.

I mean otherwise MRMs are ... Rocket Lauchers for more weight and all for a few extra shots. Do math a non Aplollo MRS v RLs...

c3 another whole monkeys paw....

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

While you are talking about MRM's. MRM's have their own targeting upgrade just like LRM's and SRM's have with their Artmeris IV system. MRM's have their Apollo system. The difference is though that the Apollo acts more like the targeting computer while Artmeis is a guidance help which ensures that more missiles hit (unless there is an ECM nearby) Though I haven't seen this system on regular Mechs only on the assault dropship class Taihou. Not sure if the Apollo was actually meant for Dropships.

Unfortunately, it's a Jihad-era piece of equippement, so it's off-limits to me. The construction rules specify that it can be used on mechs and non-mechs, btw.
But it's interesting to see that there is a built-in game mechanic that does pretty much what I suggested.

Don't forget the war crimes and absurd rationalizations, too!

Although the latter are more of a Reunification Wars thing, IIRC.

Oh yeah. And the "battlefield promotion of second grade military units to frontline assault duty".

Tell me you can't see this thing rumbling over a battlefield on Kentares:

 

[Balr0g]

There's a good amount of equipment that is on the books but doesn't show up on any canon designs. So you can either design your own variants that carry that gear, or just chuck them into an Omni. I'm sure at least one rocket-happy Kurita MechWarrior must have slapped an Apollo-enabled MRM-40 plus a C3 unit in his Avatar at some point.

And yeah, the Apollo is basically a targeting computer for MRMs, with a -1 penalty to the cluster hits table just so MRMs don't become outright better than SRMs by default.

And now I found some stock Mechs. Though interestingly enough it's the Republic (better to say was the Republic) with their Colossals who use the Apollo to enhance their MRM's. Though I bet that some Combine warrior have augmented their Phoenix Crusaders with Apollo. Gotta make those salvos more deadly after all.

I remember that in one Battletech forum where they sahred Battlemech designs one guy made a Mech just for the lols: a 100 ton Mech which was exclusively equipped with Rocketlaunchers. I don't remember how manch luanchers it was. I think if said mech fired every launcher and every rocket hit the opponent would be blasted into scrap

 

[Corn Flakes]

Rocket Launchers exist to be cheap burst damage. Sure, you can frontload all that damage but then you're left holding your dick with a ton of empty launchers that exist only to pad your crit table. It takes 24 Rocket Launcher 10s to give you as much total damage as a MRM-40 with a single ton of ammunition. That's 12 tons (and two full torsos, 24 crits) of Rawket Lawnchair vs. 13 tons (and 8 crits) of Murm + ammo.

It sounds reasonable, until you remember that the MRM-40 gets to double its potential damage with just another ton of ammo, and RLs still generate equivalent heat to MRMs when you fire them. Touching off all those 24 RL-10s for that glorious rocket vomit onto a target will generate 72 heat. So you better turn the other guy into scrap in a single salvo with Rocket Launchers, because if you fired that many chances are you'll be shut down by the end of the turn.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Rocket Launchers exist to be cheap burst damage. Sure, you can frontload all that damage but then you're left holding your dick with a ton of empty launchers that exist only to pad your crit table. It takes 24 Rocket Launcher 10s to give you as much total damage as a MRM-40 with a single ton of ammunition. That's 12 tons (and two full torsos, 24 crits) of Rawket Lawnchair vs. 13 tons (and 8 crits) of Murm + ammo.

It sounds reasonable, until you remember that the MRM-40 gets to double its potential damage with just another ton of ammo, and RLs still generate equivalent heat to MRMs when you fire them. Touching off all those 24 RL-10s for that glorious rocket vomit onto a target will generate 72 heat. So you better turn the other guy into scrap in a single salvo with Rocket Launchers, because if you fired that many chances are you'll be shut down by the end of the turn.

I guess a RL-10 is a decent addition when you have half a ton to spare and got nothing better to use it on. Like when you have a Mech with a machinegun and half a ton of ammo you want to get rid of, so you ditch the MG and add a Medium Laser, Heatsink or C3 Slave and use that half ton on the RL-10... if beefing up armor or a Small Laser isn't an option, that is.

Or something like the Locust 1V2 with a Medium Laser and 4 RL-10s: You just run in at full speed, unleash all RL-10s in one go and hope for some effect before you haul ass and get out of there. Anything quick and disposable could be used to soften up the enemy in this way.

Also, I've got a bit of a Mandela-Effect going. I seem to recall that there are special case rules (at least in 4th Edition) that allow a unit to attach rocketlaunchers, even if that means they end up overweight.
As far as I remember, that rule meant you'd be slowed down while hauling along the extra weight, but (I think) once you fired those Rocketlaunchers and dropped them, your unit would then behave regularly. Kinda like a T-34 Caliope...
Maybe it's just Alzheimer's though...

 

[TFT-A9]

I guess a RL-10 is a decent addition when you have half a ton to spare and got nothing better to use it on. Like when you have a Mech with a machinegun and half a ton of ammo you want to get rid of, so you ditch the MG and add a Medium Laser, Heatsink or C3 Slave and use that half ton on the RL-10... if beefing up armor or a Small Laser isn't an option, that is.

Or something like the Locust 1V2 with a Medium Laser and 4 RL-10s: You just run in at full speed, unleash all RL-10s in one go and hope for some effect before you haul ass and get out of there. Anything quick and disposable could be used to soften up the enemy in this way.

Also, I've got a bit of a Mandela-Effect going. I seem to recall that there are special case rules (at least in 4th Edition) that allow a unit to attach rocketlaunchers, even if that means they end up overweight.
As far as I remember, that rule meant you'd be slowed down while hauling along the extra weight, but (I think) once you fired those Rocketlaunchers and dropped them, your unit would then behave regularly. Kinda like a T-34 Caliope...
Maybe it's just Alzheimer's though...

It is kind of odd that a mech that expends a meaningful amount of ammo during an extended campaign doesn't get a bit of a speed boost or anything for running a little light but I suppose it would be a nightmare to figure out proper rules for that kind of thing.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

It is kind of odd that a mech that expends a meaningful amount of ammo during an extended campaign doesn't get a bit of a speed boost or anything for running a little light but I suppose it would be a nightmare to figure out proper rules for that kind of thing.

Well, I guess one could argue that the mechs are calibrated to move limbs at a certain speed with full load and that even when they drop a lot of their ammo (or lose an arm), you don't want your mech to exceed that movement speed to prevent excessive wear?
In reality, it would just be too much of a hassle to keep track of weight, though it is kinda funny to imagine a light mech to suddenly be as quick as greased lightning cause it lost half its weight and now runs twice as fast.

Another aspect: ammo does have some effect on speed, but even a mech like the Viking, that carries a lot of ammo, would not gain a full point of movement speed, when you recalculate the walking speed based on its "dry" weight and engine rating:
Fully loaded, it clocks in at 90 tons with a 270 engine and 3 walking MP.
At 82 tons (ie: without ammo) the 270-engine allows for 3.29 walking MP, which is simply rounded down to 3.
Since running speed is 3*1.5=4.5 -> rounded up to 5, increasing the walking speed doesn't even increase the running speed.

In a novel, the author could have a moment where a mechwarrior drops his ammo to squeeze a few more kph out of his mech for some dramatic effect, but in the game itself, it makes virtually no difference.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Well, I guess one could argue that the mechs are calibrated to move limbs at a certain speed with full load and that even when they drop a lot of their ammo (or lose an arm), you don't want your mech to exceed that movement speed to prevent excessive wear?
In reality, it would just be too much of a hassle to keep track of weight, though it is kinda funny to imagine a light mech to suddenly be as quick as greased lightning cause it lost half its weight and now runs twice as fast.

Another aspect: ammo does have some effect on speed, but even a mech like the Viking, that carries a lot of ammo, would not gain a full point of movement speed, when you recalculate the walking speed based on its "dry" weight and engine rating:
Fully loaded, it clocks in at 90 tons with a 270 engine and 3 walking MP.
At 82 tons (ie: without ammo) the 270-engine allows for 3.29 walking MP, which is simply rounded down to 3.
Since running speed is 3*1.5=4.5 -> rounded up to 5, increasing the walking speed doesn't even increase the running speed.

In a novel, the author could have a moment where a mechwarrior drops his ammo to squeeze a few more kph out of his mech for some dramatic effect, but in the game itself, it makes virtually no difference.

It's a combination of all these things.

Mechs are hard-capped to certain speeds for the same reason humans tend to fall over when they try to push past their maximum speed (like on a treadmill or downhill). Our muscles can only operate so quickly and we only have so much coordination to go at a certain speed. Mechs are the same, the myomers operating the actuators can only contract so quickly and there's a lot of inertia involved in getting a 20+ ton machine to go at 100+km/h. Upgrading the engine also implies upgrading the actuators themselves. It's not just a field swap, otherwise Omnis would be able to do it. MASC operates by forcing the myomers to contract faster, at the risk of damaging them and the actuators. Superchargers... make no sense and shouldn't be applicable to Fusion vehicles so we'll move on to the next point.

Even if that actuator-based speed governor wasn't there, shedding large amounts of weight by having limbs blown off has other issues. The gyro on a 'Mech is very finely tuned. There are more than a few examples in the fiction where having an arm blown off results in the MechWarrior inside the cockpit hearing/feeling the multi-ton gyro underneath them screaming against its housing as it struggles to keep the 'Mech upright against an unbalanced load. Presumably the gyro can adjust on the fly to ammo and other consumables being spent and armor being blown off (up to a certain point: see Piloting Skill Rolls vs. 20+ damage/turn), but large and sudden changes in mass distribution would do Bad Things™ to a 'Mech trying to run away quickly. (And rules-wise trying to calculate just how much, exactly, a 'Mech's arm weighs, on the fly, would be a pain in the ass.)

And fun fact: even if you spent all the ammo and sandblasted all the armor off an Atlas, you'd "only" bring it down to 76 tons. That's 19 tons of armor and 5 tons of ammo. With that Vlar 300 that thing is rocking, and assuming the actuators would hold, the 'Mechs theoretical maximum MP would be... 3.94. Still not quite enough to go up to 4MP, and at that point all you've got is 4 medium lasers mounted on the galaxy's largest Rock'Em Sock'Em Robot.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

It's a combination of all these things.

Mechs are hard-capped to certain speeds for the same reason humans tend to fall over when they try to push past their maximum speed (like on a treadmill or downhill). Our muscles can only operate so quickly and we only have so much coordination to go at a certain speed. Mechs are the same, the myomers operating the actuators can only contract so quickly and there's a lot of inertia involved in getting a 20+ ton machine to go at 100+km/h. Upgrading the engine also implies upgrading the actuators themselves. It's not just a field swap, otherwise Omnis would be able to do it. MASC operates by forcing the myomers to contract faster, at the risk of damaging them and the actuators. Superchargers... make no sense and shouldn't be applicable to Fusion vehicles so we'll move on to the next point.

Even if that actuator-based speed governor wasn't there, shedding large amounts of weight by having limbs blown off has other issues. The gyro on a 'Mech is very finely tuned. There are more than a few examples in the fiction where having an arm blown off results in the MechWarrior inside the cockpit hearing/feeling the multi-ton gyro underneath them screaming against its housing as it struggles to keep the 'Mech upright against an unbalanced load. Presumably the gyro can adjust on the fly to ammo and other consumables being spent and armor being blown off (up to a certain point: see Piloting Skill Rolls vs. 20+ damage/turn), but large and sudden changes in mass distribution would do Bad Things™ to a 'Mech trying to run away quickly. (And rules-wise trying to calculate just how much, exactly, a 'Mech's arm weighs, on the fly, would be a pain in the ass.)

And fun fact: even if you spent all the ammo and sandblasted all the armor off an Atlas, you'd "only" bring it down to 76 tons. That's 19 tons of armor and 5 tons of ammo. With that Vlar 300 that thing is rocking, and assuming the actuators would hold, the 'Mechs theoretical maximum MP would be... 3.94. Still not quite enough to go up to 4MP, and at that point all you've got is 4 medium lasers mounted on the galaxy's largest Rock'Em Sock'Em Robot.

There's also this tidbit in Tactical Operations for rules regarding low gravity that plays into this:

Determining Movement Effects: As shown in the following
rules, while low gravity generally allows units to move
faster, it does not reduce their mass and momentum, and so
offers a chance that the unit will suffer damage through normal
movement. For example, a ’Mech traveling at 200 kph on
a .5-G world is likely to snap off its legs. Gravity affects all units’
movement in the same way. [...]

Potential Damage From Running/Flanking Movement:
’Mech legs and vehicle suspensions are designed to operate
at maximum efficiency on worlds with close to 1 G gravity. If
the gravity of a world allows the unit to move faster than normal,
the strain on the unit’s systems may damage its internal
structure. If a unit spends more MP than its normal Running
(or Flanking) MP during a turn (as in the example above of the
unit moving on a world with .75 G), the player must make a
Piloting Skill Roll at the end of the phase in which the Running
MP was exceeded, appropriately modified for relevant conditions,
to determine if the unit takes any damage from moving
at an unusual rate. If the Piloting Skill Roll fails, the unit takes
the following damage: a ’Mech takes 1 point of internal structure
damage to each of its legs for every point of movement
by which the unit exceeded its normal Running MP (the ’Mech
does not fall if this roll fails). [...] Roll
on the Determining Critical Hits Table to resolve whether internal
structure damage resulted in a critical hit. Apply critical hit
results before the Weapon Attack Phase of the turn.

Losing weight is more of less like the mech being in low gravity, I guess. Point is, the explanation is that there's mechanical limits that, when exceeded, will damage the mech.
In low-G, you can move faster if you want to, cause the mech isn't (necessarily) calibrated to reflect the difference in gravity, thus it can exceed that limit, but it pays a high price.

 

[Snekposter]

Superchargers... make no sense and shouldn't be applicable to Fusion vehicles so we'll move on to the next point.

On FE's Superchargers are actually not superchargers. They're a system that temporarily overrides the engine's hardwired safety governors. Presumably that allows one to divert more power to the myomer, whereas MASC is a supplementary system in the myomers themselves that allows the incoming power to be amplified. You can use them both, but its really, really not recommended for obvious reasons of risking both engine and legs.

As to the gyros, according to Sarna they're a precisely balanced counter-friction system, the 'Mech torqueing off the gryo for both stability under impact and rapid turning, aided by the pilot's own sense of equilibrium through the neurohelmet, so yeah, the gyro itself will literally scream in agony under sudden load as things go out of balance fast and hard, especially under complex maneuvers.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Tren Sparks just released a new Audio Book Rock of the Republic. 3 hours long but nice to listen to while driving and doing errands and stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1KJ1B53/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=Tren+Sparks&qid=1652848552&s=audible&sr=1-10

 

[Corn Flakes]

On FE's Superchargers are actually not superchargers. They're a system that temporarily overrides the engine's hardwired safety governors. Presumably that allows one to divert more power to the myomer, whereas MASC is a supplementary system in the myomers themselves that allows the incoming power to be amplified. You can use them both, but its really, really not recommended for obvious reasons of risking both engine and legs.

The problem is that Fusion Engines already have plenty of power to dispense. Like, they can be used to generate enough thrust to lift a 100-ton 'Mech using Jump Jets. They can provide enough juice to power any laser vomit build you can think of. Hell, the Hollander's dinky Omni 175, an engine only slightly larger than the one powering the Locust, can charge a goddamn full-sized Gauss Rifle just fine. And yet the G2 model carries both a Light Gauss Rifle and a Supercharger.

Long story short, power was never the restriction here. If they had described the Supercharger as more of a capacitor attached to the engine itself, that then discharged onto the Myomers to get them to act more vigorously, and could overheat and pop if overused, that would work for me. But saying they overclock the engine, without generating any additional heat, is just being lazy with the fluff.