The lack of 6/9/6 mechs as a limit in the use of light/medium mechs

[Kutuzov1]

Thanks to the "unseen" problem (Google it, to long to explain) we lack most of the iconic mechs with a Table Top (TT) movement of 6 walk 9 run 6 jump. (approximately 6/12/6 in Harebrained Battletech).

As the weight of the engine+gyros combo is one of the key factors in how much weight is available for other equipment, the absence of the 6/9/6 and 5/8/5 mechs in the weight bracket between 20 to 45 tons limits our tactical options.
Currently we have very fast but fragile mechs (Locust, Jenner) or slow and robust mechs (Panther). There are only 2 mechs in that weight class with a walking speed of 6:s the Commando, that can be refitted with Jump jets (JJ) but it has a low weight and the Firestarter, that has a problem with the weapon layout.
Both good mechs, but we need some of the mechs that aren't subject to the unseen problems to cover more of that niche in the game: Javelin, Clint, Vulcan.

i would like to get back the Stinger, Wasp, Valkyrie and Phoenix Hawk, but, for now, adding the other mechs will allow more variability in the game.

 

[cpip]

Half of which don't exist (Wolfhound/Mauler/Hatamoto-Chi) while the Raven is still a (mostly non-functional) prototype-only special that wouldn't be seen anywhere near the periphery and the Hatchetman is a Lyran house unit that has only just been produced and wouldn't have had time to make it's way out of Lyran space yet, let alone all the way to our little corner of the periphery.

The Mackie wasn't built after the fall of the league and even back then there were a pittance of them still in service.

There's plenty of 'mechs to chose from that could be added, but many of the ones you've suggested make for a rather poor fit.

Given that we’re also seeing Cataphracts, seeing Ravens doesn’t seem impossible, though in both cases I’d expect to only see them when the OPFOR is Capellan.

Also, I’d love to see Chargers, just because the blessed things ARE so terrible. Imagine facing a CGR-1A1 as an early assault mech opponent, say during the 2-3 skull period of the game.

 

[Drasius]

Given that we’re also seeing Cataphracts, seeing Ravens doesn’t seem impossible, though in both cases I’d expect to only see them when the OPFOR is Capellan.

Also, I’d love to see Chargers, just because the blessed things ARE so terrible. Imagine facing a CGR-1A1 as an early assault mech opponent, say during the 2-3 skull period of the game.

Yes and no. The Cataphract is an oddity, though I sort of guess you can handwave it away in that they're testing out a line 'mech on crappy periphery merc outfits as you wouldn't expect a house unit to get stomped by a half dozen nobodies, but the Raven was mostly non-functional seeing as the early models had effectively no guns and everything was devoted to their EW suite. Even when they (the Raven) were deployed, IIRC they basically didn't do any fighting and were just there for the EW capabilities anyway (which could have and would have been better served by a command vehicle). Would you really want a relatively slow light with 7.5 tonnes of unusable EW equipment that can't be removed without scrapping the chassis?

As for the Charger, while it would be mildly scary early on due to so much armour and 5 support weapons making absolute mincemeat out of anything it touched, again, do you really want an assault that's even more useless than the Banshee? Why not ask for stuff like the Clint, Dervish or Ostsol, all of which would be no stranger to our little slice of the periphery?

 

[Agathos]

I miss the fast mediums (except the Cicada, but everyone knows it's really a light). The ideal way to solve this is to add the Phoenix Hawk. But failing that, the easiest way to solve this is to invent an introtech 6/9 variant of another 45-50 tonner and add that.

 

[Kutuzov1]

Hi Jade
Jago

 

[Drasius]

I miss the fast mediums (except the Cicada, but everyone knows it's really a light). The ideal way to solve this is to add the Phoenix Hawk. But failing that, the easiest way to solve this is to invent an introtech 6/9 variant of another 45-50 tonner and add that.

Like the Hermes II?

 

[Agathos]

Hermes II or other "new" 'Mechs would be nice too, but I'm really thinking about 'Mechs that PGI has already modeled. Use them and maybe the patch could ship in weeks, not months.

In fact I might do this myself with some JSON hacking, but I've avoided that scene for now. Maybe for a second playthrough.

 

[ShiaRa]

busy with a 2,5 skull mission with reinforcments... what lights need is SPACE to run around. and what have we in the game? such small maps which makes lights almost completly useless.... At first could they make the damn maps BIGGER and give the lights the space they need... at second.. it allways feels like the max range is the same for PPC and medium laser, whatever, when a mech is targetable its mediumrange and they start shooting with the lasers, why the hell am i carrying PPC and L Laser??

(little bit pissed off right now...) MegaMek was much better in this... BIGGER maps and a working mechanic...

 

[cpip]

Yes and no. The Cataphract is an oddity, though I sort of guess you can handwave it away in that they're testing out a line 'mech on crappy periphery merc outfits as you wouldn't expect a house unit to get stomped by a half dozen nobodies, but the Raven was mostly non-functional seeing as the early models had effectively no guns and everything was devoted to their EW suite. Even when they (the Raven) were deployed, IIRC they basically didn't do any fighting and were just there for the EW capabilities anyway (which could have and would have been better served by a command vehicle). Would you really want a relatively slow light with 7.5 tonnes of unusable EW equipment that can't be removed without scrapping the chassis?

As for the Charger, while it would be mildly scary early on due to so much armour and 5 support weapons making absolute mincemeat out of anything it touched, again, do you really want an assault that's even more useless than the Banshee? Why not ask for stuff like the Clint, Dervish or Ostsol, all of which would be no stranger to our little slice of the periphery?

I don't think the Raven would be useful to be salvaged and used by us, the mercs, but I'd love to see it in a Liao "test" lance. Maybe as part of a specific mission -- intercept and try and capture the prototype (which could well involve fighting your way past Cataphracts!).

I'd love to see the Clint and Dervish; especially the Clint given how ACs are restatted in this game. The Osts I'm just not a fan of, but that's totally personal preference; I came in while they were Mysterious Unseen, and I never really warmed to them the way that I did to, for instance, the Clint.

The Charger is for the same sort of sentimental reasons as having UrbanMechs in the game: because they're mostly useless except in incredibly specific circumstances.

 

[Vanguard319]

I wouldn't mind seeing an Axman myself. I mean, we have melee in this game so there's really no real excuse not to have the axe mechs.

 

[RAPT0R]

GIVE CYCLOPS!

Ahem, sorry, carry on...

~~~~

One downside of adding a lot more mechs is the way the salvage system works.

Would probably need to change to make each general chassis generic across all variants, and then let the player choose which variant they wanted to reassemble once they had three parts.

Remember though that the mechs you ran into would depend on where you were running missions.

 

[Drasius]

I wouldn't mind seeing an Axman myself. I mean, we have melee in this game so there's really no real excuse not to have the axe mechs.

.

Other than the Axman being introduced 23 years in the future and the Hatchetman being limited to Lyran garrisons on the other side of the Inner Sphere in extremely limited numbers?

I completely agree that the Axeman/Hatchetman are great and would love to see them turn up in an expansion pack as we progress the timeline, but they're not available for good reason currently.

 

[Sven Helgrim]

So, you don’t think that they will advance the timeline?

 

[Drasius]

So, you don’t think that they will advance the timeline?

Eventually, but they've stated that they're going to go slowly, so we won't be jumping straight to 3050 let alone the FedCom civil war era like some people appear to want.

I've got no issue with introducing timeline appropriate stuff as we progress through the timeline, what taxes my heatsinks is people repeatedly asking for post-helm/lostech/lvl 2/3/+ stuff to be added to the 3025 campaign.

What I really can't fathom is how people who complain about how common pilot injuries are from LRM also want Gauss Rifles to be commonplace. If you thought every second or third thread being about how the injury rate is too high was bad, wait until it's instant pilot death instead of just injuries.