/btg/ BattleTech General

Official forums: the hellhole; the nightmare.

What could have been? Yeah, it could've been the worst Atlas design in existence.
So fucking ugly.

Nice. The game seems to be shaping up nicely. Some nice images there for btg fodder too.

Well damn, fools. They're cranking along. I'll check out that vid later today and see what's up with it.

Screenshots look good. Wonder how they're gonna do the cinematics, will they be fully animated or will they be still screens with voice-over? I'm good with either, just curious. MechLab looks solid, like the visuals of the mission and the dropships. All looks solid at the moment honestly.

Bring back the FMVs.

...

I see, I gather this medron is one of the holy cows there?
It's only I prefer the HS after Jihad than the official one, it raped the Taurians a lot less. And every one getting the FWL treatement its beautiful.

Small laser damage: - 20.
Flamer damage: - 5, but no heat?!

Will we be able to romance Kamea mass effect style?

She's my waifu. Already boned her repeatedly.

She looks boring

I like the weapons having a Stability stat, which I assume is how effective they are at forcing a PSR on the target. It never made sense to me how a mech could get knocked over by 4 MLs, but not by a gauss rifle slug.

>customization
aaaaand game goes to shit

Customization is supposedly only for single-player. Multiplayer is, I believe, only stock models, to prevent the very thing you're afraid of.

I've been in a FWL-character focused AU for a while where the League holds together through the Jihad and emerges in the 3080s in a position similar to the Federated Suns in the 3020s. That is, holding a military advantage over its neighbors. Stone's attempt to annex all the League's Terraward worlds, for example, is mostly repulsed. The League and Confederation enter into a second detente to cooperate in their resistance to the RotS.

and you wont be forced to play with people using 3pv

>On one hand, a chance to prey on the Caps Early SW style and gobble them up for good while the crushed and powerless MoC looks on helplessly
>On the other, fucking Stoners trying to take away Stewart, Irian and Kalidasa, basically half the mech production in the realm
>Stoners actually have five times the mechs in 3085 as they do in 3130

The solution is obviously to sic the Regulans on the Stoners and send everyone else against the Caps. A Regulan Aero fleet based around the two surviving Thera's and a buttload of PWS could really raise some hell in the core worlds. See how much those Stoners can hold that campaign together when four regiments of ASF's, four regiments of SC Gunships, and a dozen PWS are rampaging around Devil's Rock and Liberty.

Actually, technically you're not forced. You always have the willful choice to not play at all.

>Theras burning Terra
POTTERY

Out of curiosity, what did you like about the Battletech franchise to begin with?

Our characters have had an insiders view into League politics since one of our original NPC commanders is the grandfather of the current Captain-General.
Basically with the Lyrans and Feddies cozying up to Stone, and the Marik-Liao detente of the 3050s enduring a little better than it did, the FWL parliament and the C-G decided maintaining that detente to keep another viable power as a partner against the aggression of the Commonwealth, Federation and RotS. In part because even in our AU the Combine was borderline useless as an ally and handicapped by the BDS.
As you observe though, the Theras played a major role in holding on to Irian.

To add, the Regulans are at the center of why the League held together. Regulan Hussars and Free Worlds Guard fighting side by side against Stone's Brigade, etc.

The sureity that my faction is better than yours.

I'm OP and I found a pile of salvage.

Welp, better fucking throw it all in the trash because I hate fun that isn't my precise idea of fun.

Unfortunately "there's no shipping in Battletech" to quote mitch.

>no shipping
>in the same verse as Vic "Harem Protagonist" S-D

Battletech dev doesn't know the lore. News at 11!

Jokes on you, I like that faction too.

>two roastie gfs
>harem shipping

Pick one.

Not but I understand why they feel that way. Pretty much in all the Mechwarrior games, allowing customization just leads everyone to running the same builds, usually some kind of laser/PPC/AC boat. That ends up making mechs feel super generic and gets boring really quick.

It's kinda like having only one person who plays Battletech at your FLGS, but they only run a single set of ultra min-max'd custom munchkin units. It takes away a lot from the game DESU.

In order from most draw to peripheral but cool as balls:

>Big stompy mechs beating the absolute snot out of each other.

>Jade Falcon Star Colonel whatsherface from MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. That lady got a serious pair of UrbanMech-sized ferro-fibrous balls.

>Free Rasalhague Republic being a mix of 70% SpaceScandinavia and 30% SpaceJapan. Even though they get absolutely ROFLstomped by Ghost Bear the survivors essentially annex Ghost Bear from within and turn it into the Rasalhague Dominion.

Kurita bastards go home ReeeeEEEEE

>yamato nadeshiko
>burd girl
>brocon sis

>Will we be able to romance Kamea mass effect style?

Why can't there be a nice pure white girl to romance instead of the ethnic ones?

because beautiful white girls are absolutely haram to non-indie devs.

Not him but Big Stompy robots, lots of vees and aeros, the starships look bitching and the IS factions had cool hats (specially all the internal stuff of the FWL or the canopians stuborness in defending) but the periphery sounded cooler, also all the lore and fluff about development mechs/vee/aero, tech and how limited the production is, it feels all very down to earth . I dislike the sue factions, than the periphery is the punching bag of everyone and only exist to suffer (like the Taurians), than space ships are rare as fuck and everything Jihad and beyond. Also Proto-mechs, love the idea, hate how they did them, specially being clan only and ultra manlets being the sole pilots.

She seems a brunette to me, pure FWL waifu.

The only way to embrace diversity is to erase whites from history.

Oh christ and hunter, they did it the bad way...

Having to one by one command your dudes to move a certain distance outside of combat is going to make this game boring as fuck. Especially on bigger maps.

You'd THINK they would have learned from Shadowrun that large maps and turn based movement DO NOT MIX.

The damn imp lice wouldn't know a idea if a glitch Trojan horse uploaded it directly into their O-Web, you roj?

Eh, having played the Shadowrun games and played the beta for this, it's really not a huge deal. It isn't a dealbreaker by any means, especially since you can start moving while people are talking to you, leading me to believe that there will be times when NPCs are talking over you just moving towards the objective. Shouldn't be a big issue unless they make maps *so* huge that most of your time is doing that, which does not appear to be the case.

It might not be a "deal breaker" for one or two missions, but trust me, it starts to really bore you after a while.

nu-XCOM had multiple missions like this, and shadowrun had egregious examples of this. Especially shadowrun: dragonfall before the final boss. Yuck. Yuck. Fucking yuck.

I've got 700 hours in XCOM 2 and about a thousand in XCOM:EW, it doesn't bug me at all, man. I don't think it's a deal breaker as long as the actual in-combat gameplay is worth it, and it looks to be worth it, especially based on the beta I've played a good 30 hours of so far. If it turns you off, that's fair, but I don't think it's nearly as big a deal as you make it out to be.

Making do with unoptimized units and playing against others doing the same. Becomes a game of skill in making do.

I'm being dramatic - I'm not against customization. I think it'd be super fun and fluffy for customs to generate negative quirks so that the stock variants are preferable. But when you need to repair a thing and there ain't nothing else around, well, something is better than nothing...

Any idea when the new starter kit will be on shelves?

That the stompy robots were cool enough to want to pilot, and that the setting was functional but just shitty enough to have lots of fodder for endless discussions on how to fix it.

Never, since HG is going to murder it. If that somehow gets resolved satisfactorily, then *maybe* GenCon 2018. Higher chance GenCon 2019, but still not amazing.

>Comstar FOB + pine trees
>Clan Ghost Bear’s IKEA outlet
>a faction
Yeah, not so much. Rasalhague is a sock puppet regime full of traitors to humanity who sold out to furry, space communist tube babies. Rip on the Coordinator and the faux-panese culture all you want, but don’t grab your ankles for an autistic, SLDF BDSM-LARP gone wrong.

>dont want a tube grown APEX dong

If CGL had lawyers worth half a damn, they'd file to dismiss the suit on the grounds that HG lacks standing after the recent(ish) Japanese court decision that states that the company that HG gets the supposedly rights from(Tatsunoko Productions) doesn't own the rights to the designs, but rather Studio Nue/Big West. It'd at very least would force HG to justify how they have the rights, which seems super unlikely given they continue to spite and cockblock Macross in the states.

Of course, given everything else about CGL, I doubt they have good lawyers.

not even a jap court, an American court said the EXACT SAME THING

You're one of those guys who refit 'mechs with compact gyros so they can mount a fluid gun and two tons of ammo low in the CT, eh?

A hit to the ammo bin...

...just makes me run cooler.

>pure
>Taylor Swift
Pick one. Hasn't that girl been ridden more than the Metro-Rail?

No matter how many times you imply it, Taylor Swift isn't your mom, user.

Didn't CGL decide not to defend themselves at all? IIRC the judge just ruled against them. Dunno, not a lawyer, but that what it looked like.

CGL didn't defend themselves, they literally just rolled over and accepted summary judgment against them. They not only don't have good lawyers, they don't have lawyers *at all*.

>Do a classic Goliath, with the big clompy feet and the gun turret and everything.

Emperor's Teeth! I need to watch Inker's stream and figure out how he works. It took me half a day to draw this, and now I've got a headache and my neck is sore. I bet he could've shot out six times as many in that time!

Holy shit someone did my request. Looks great, user. Really impressive, I'm a big fan, thanks so much.

False information is false, user. A lot of people wanted that to be what the case found, so they ignored the judge literally ruling in favour of Harmony Gold to spam LMAO HG BTFO!!11eleventy everywhere when that isn't correct at all.

CGL accepted summary judgement in default and removed everything that infringed on HG's IP already. Even when the clock runs out on HG's license in 2021 there's no guarantee that CGL will be able to bring back the Unseen because at that point they'll have to negotiate with the Jap IP holders, who by that point will have had decades of shit relationships with Western companies and probably won't be keen on parting with any of their rights.

If that's true, that's especially dumb as shit. I don't even think you'd need real lawyers to do that much; just someone to google the decision(s) and pay some money to get a copy of the judgements. From there the case basically handles itself.

rockpapershotgun.com/2017/11/15/battletechs-campaign-mode-is-a-robot-dark-ages/

So in the article Jordan mentions he is enthused at the prospect of a Battletech game reminiscent of Crusader Kings. I had thought the current project was the game I most needed in life. I am not sure how to handle the thought of being say Baron von Glengary and backstabbing my way to the Archonship. HBS is too good for this world.

The judge doesn't actually deliver the ruling until next September, FYI

Studio Nue has worked with Battletech before though. All the Japanese Battletech designs were done by them.

Now, most of them don't look like the originals, but at the time, Studio Nue didn't have clear rights to the designs. Some of them were from other shows, some where from Macross, which was in legal limbo at the time even in Japan. However, Studio Nue DID one the rights fully to one design. They owned the rights to the original design to the Locust, the OSTALL from Crusher Joe. And when they did redo it, they did it the most blantent way possible.

Above, the OSTALL art from the model kit. Below, the official artwork for the Japanese Locust by Studio Nue. Yes, by any reasonable standard they appeared to have plagiarized their own art. The pose is literally identical. Someone clearly knew that Battletech was using the OSTALL for the Locust, and did not care.

This doesn't mean that if HG fucks off that Battletech can use the rights freely, it just suggests that getting permission/rights to a derivative design isn't impossible or unheard off. Japan tends to be more lax and willing to work with derivative works; See: Super Robot Wars.

Diversity. Mech designs aren't meant to be optimized, they're meant to be unique. It's funny I know, but it's true. Play the game long enough and you'll realize why. The tabletop game, that is. You can't balance a videogame because group weapons fire was never meant to exist and the weapons don't account for it.

In the end you have either an ACboat, Mlaser boat or C-ER-PPCboat give or take clan pulse lasers depending on tech level.

If it's a videogame it's medium lasers, all medium lasers all in one giant blazer array. They're the most efficient weapon and only not overpowered because of their range brackets and because you have to roll hit location for all of them. Toss that out of the window and make the maps small enough to encourage brawling and a brace of Mlasers beats every other weapon by miles.

It's why the silly concept of ghost heat exists.

I'll even elaborate here, we want to hit someone really hard all at once so an autocannon 20 is the natural winner, right?

An AC20 deals 20 damage at 4-6 medium range for 7 heat, and weighs 14 tons. It also requires ammunition.

A medium laser deals 5 damage at 4-6 medium range for 1 heat, and weighs 1 ton.

With the minimum one ton of ammunition an AC/20 is 15 tons. 15 tons of medium lasers and heat sinks to bring their total generation down to 7 is 11 mediums and 4 (single) heatsinks. Yes I said SINGLE heatsinks. Get into doubles and ultra autocannons and ER lasers and shit gets arguably worse.

11 medium lasers at the same range deals 55 damage. Over double, almost three times what an AC20 does.

While nice of you to illustrate, pretty much everyone here already knew that MLs are bullshit and need a revision. Most of us have done the whole "babbys first laserboat" thing.

>medium laser
>3 heat
I've only dabbled in the HBS game, is this true? I'm pretty sure it's not true anywhere else.

That's how it's been on the tabletop since '83

It is absolutely correct, Medium Lasers generate 3 heat.

>A medium laser deals 5 damage at 4-6 medium range for 1 heat, and weighs 1 ton.

That's wrong, user. Medium Lasers generate 3 heat per shot. That makes the rest of your math very, very off.

That being said, heat neutral Medium Lasers are 4 tons a pop. A heat neutral AC/20 is 22 tons with one ton of ammo. On a strict damage per ton basis, Medium Lasers are better. They're also more flexible, since heat sinks can be used for other weapons(such as PPCs and LRMs). In the AC 20's defense, damage concentration isn't nothing(an AC 20 hit is a potential kill shot on a lot of mechs), but it's still underwhelming.

Pretty much even in the level 1/intro-tech era, ACs are underpowered. AC 20s and AC 10s are only somewhat underpowered, AC 2s have very limited niche uses and suck mostly, and AC 5's are a candidate for "Worst Weapon" in the game.

How much heat would MLs need to generate to be balanced?

According to the people who discover how broken MLs are for the first time, 10. Possibly 20.

>AC 5's are a candidate for "Worst Weapon" in the game.
And along with the "wonderful" SRM 2 and "lovely' LRM 5, the Shad gets an AC/5 as its primary weapon. GG, Weisman, GG.

You don't think 1 and a quarter tons of armor explosively vaporizing over the course of a few seconds could knock a mech over?

Goddamit, I meant to post
>not 3 heat
since he has 1 heat listed there. Derp.

LRM 5s are great what are you talking about user?

Four, maybe 5. The only thing is that if base MLs are 5, then ISERMLs should be 8, which is a bit too much for what they do. 4/6 is probably about right IMO

On the case where CGL was a defendant and immediately said "our bad" then complied with all of HG's demands because of it, sure.

On the other case that anons are saying destroyed HG's arguments, the actual findings were very different.

Looks shitty

Pre-DHS, Medium Lasers are super strong, but they're not especially unbalanced. LRM 5s hit for half the damage but with over twice the range for similar tonnage(LRM 5s weight one more ton), SRMs have competitive damage per ton and extra utility(Crit Seeking, Infernos), and PPCs are literally 4x the weight for twice the damage and range. In those cases you pick what you want to do and pick what's the best.

It's only really ACs that look really bad compared to Medium Lasers, and maybe the Large Laser, who struggles for a niche between PPCs and Medium Lasers.

It's only really in the post DHS era that Medium Lasers start to surpass their competitors. Even then, I'd focus more on buffs for other weapons, since it'd be less changes to current designs and less of a balance nightmare.

For what exactly?
Smoke munitions?
Crit seeking when you don't have the weight for an LBX?

why does everybody in here hate brown people so much, fucks sake

Did you mean to post this on /pol/?

LRM 5s are the most weight efficient version of LRMs. Even with single heat sinks, 4 LRMs are exactly the same weight as a LRM 20, with more redundancy, the ability to split fire and use multiple ammo types in a single round, and basically doesn't care about AMS.

If you think LRM 5s are bad, then LRMs are bad as a whole.

nope
honestly though, and just to sate my curiosity, how many anons in here actually have an issue with people of colour?

Sure, a pack of four if them is alright. A single one on a mech that is otherwise all over the place when it comes to range and mission profile is not.

Also, LRMs kinda aren't great as a whole, so you're not really doing yourself a favor there. If we're talking just objectively best weapons (as indeed it seems we are), LRMs aren't even close to the list.

Yup or mines, plus 2 lrm5s can split targets vs a single 10.
Someone has to have the picture I think it was NEA who did the math on them.

There's the one /pol/fag Taylor swift waifuist and his occasional bursts of samefagging, but that's really about it

>56441360
user, no, don't do it.

>how many anons in here actually have an issue with people of colour?

No issue with people of color, just an issue with diversity-mad game designers ramming their SJW bullshit down our throats.

You know, 100% that the only white cis male in that game is going to be the bad guy.