What is it with AC/5s and SRMs/LRMs on everything?

[Kovax]

Topic: What is it with AC/5s and SRMs/LRMs on everything?

Reply: What is it with Medium Lasers and PPCs on everything?

Other than MLs and PPCs, everything else in 3025 was ACs and LRMs/SRMs because there really wasn't much else, and the weight of an AC/10 or AC/20 prohibited their use on a lot of medium-tonnage stuff, even after they were added.  There are a few "niche" AC/2 wielders, and a fair number of designs with MGs, plus the occasional "incendiary" design with a Flamer.  That's about it.

[Azakael]

If you play using the forced withdrawal rules, that's exactly what happens, too.

Heck, even *if* Forced Withdrawal isn't being used, if my armor is potentially lunchbait, I'll ditch it. Better to risk losing the vehicle if I don't hold the field than have to pay to replace both.

[grimlock1]

Absolutely true, pre - TRO:3025. Note that nothing in the original box set has anything but the AC-5.

(That said, one of Battletech's best cheap-and-nasty tanks is the Po, which is an AC-10 on treads with a sheath of armor and a couple of MGs. Ditto for the Gladius, which replaces the MGs, treads, and armor with hoverskirts and a cupholder for the crews' brass balls. Underestimate either at ones' own risk.)

Is it called out as an AC/5 or just "autocannon?"

[Dies Irae]

In the 2nd Edition box set, it was just Autocannon.

[ActionButler]

Absolutely true, pre - TRO:3025. Note that nothing in the original box set has anything but the AC-5.

I suddenly feel like I understand so much more about the core mechanics and designs of the game after reading that.

[JadeHellbringer]

I suddenly feel like I understand so much more about the core mechanics and designs of the game after reading that.

Isn't that something? It also explains the Vedette being one of the first tanks we see in the game, since it's little more than an AC-5 on treads. The realization that tanks can't use energy weapons well plus the AC-5 being crap is probably where the early devs realized they needed other sizes of gun (and thus the Demolisher was born, another of the game's earliest tanks)