What new technology for 3150

[Diamondshark]

They used to have Inferno SSRM-2s.  Brutal stuff.  Now, if there was an Inferno SLRM-20, or Inferno MRM-40, I would go hide somewhere, and/or only use things that either had fire resistant armor, or never tracked heat.  [blank]

[Moonsword]

Believe me, you don't want to see what they do to vehicles under TW rules, either.

[Onisuzume]

Streak Infernos: An all new reason to keep a copy of Jane's or the OED handy at the gaming table.

Personally, I'd rather see Streak MRMs.

or only use things that either had fire resistant armor

Well, we got that fo Battle Armour (or maybe just the clans?), so it wouldn't be too impossible to eventually see it 'Mech-scale.

Inferno MRM-40, I would go hide somewhere,

Indeed, either that, or be the one using it.

[Diplominator]

Man, carrying inferno SRMs makes mechwarriors nervous enough, and you want them to carry MRM-40-loads of them?  That's just mean.

Plus, 15 max heat, so it's kinda overkill. Although, they could be more like incendiary LRMs and not inflict heat and do less damage to 'Mechs, but be able to slaughter non-'Mechs and set ANYTHING on fire.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Personally, I'd rather see Streak MRMs.

Pfff, you're not munchkin enough.  Streak RLs.

[verybad]

Man, carrying inferno SRMs makes mechwarriors nervous enough, and you want them to carry MRM-40-loads of them?  That's just mean.

Plus, 15 max heat, so it's kinda overkill. Although, they could be more like incendiary LRMs and not inflict heat and do less damage to 'Mechs, but be able to slaughter non-'Mechs and set ANYTHING on fire.

Yeah, they'd have to make rules for burning water.

[stoicfaux]

Yeah, they'd have to make rules for burning water.

That's uhm, really possible.  Arsonists will sometimes use rocket fuel to create a fire so hot that it breaks down water (say from the firemen's hoses) into hydrogen and oxygen, thus fueling the fire.  Nuclear fuel could accomplish the same.  However, you would want these working on top of the water, otherwise the fire would be smothered.

And then there was Love Canal where the water was so polluted that it actually caught on fire.

In short, never underestimate what you can accomplish with technology...


As for MRMs and the heat limit rule, I imagine that, like tracer rounds, you don't need all the missiles/rounds to be of a particular type.  Meaning, a single MRM40 salvo could contain 20 incendiary and 20 normal missiles.

[verybad]

I know you can burn water, but the point I was trying to make it's that an MRM-40 streak inferno is a bit overkill...

[rlbell]

The Clans always had this wierd issue that their worlds weren't rich with resources. Recycling materials is not efficient in general partly because of the energy consumption. Using the Dyson Bubbble to extract a huge amount of energy more efficiently than whatever the any faction could hope to do without it would be an extreme way of addressing clan resoruce issues. The farming idea is just something additional I pulled out of my butt.

Someone (Ithink it was Cray) calculated the power output of a Leopard class dropship's transit drive, which came out to ten percent of the Earth's total insolation.  So the entire sun's out put is only ten times the ratio of a 1 AU radius* spherical surface area divided by the area presented by the Earth [10*4*(150,000,000/5500)^2], or thirty billion leopard class dropship engines.  Thirty billion seems like a huge number, until you try to manufacture nearly three hundred million billion (3*10^17) square kilometers of collector (admittedly, you need less collector area if you build it to a smaller radius, but even a sphere at the radius of mercury will need close to 5*10^16 square kilometers and keeping it from boiling into space becomes an issue).

Fusion power, as implied by battletech fluff, destroys the notion of scarcity.  Making heavier atoms by bombarding lighter atoms with protons or neutrons (as appropriate) is time consuming and energy intensive, but energy in the BTU is cheap as dirt.

* If my guess of an AU being 150 million kilometers is wrong, please scale my number accordingly.

[Istal_Devalis]

Pfff, you're not munchkin enough.  Streak RLs.

Isnt that just a iOS missile launcher?

[Carbon Elasmobranch]

Isnt that just a iOS missile launcher?

Only if you're with the Clans and get Streak LRMs.  And then, they aren't anywhere near as light as RLs...

[Marwynn]

TechManual 3150 eh?

- More advanced vehicles, some using double heatsinks
- Inner Sphere counter to ProtoMechs--essentially ultra lights
- LAMs. Yeah, I went there.
- I wouldn't mind an upgraded BattleMech with the weapon technologies to back up that claim: New BattleMech design and tech halves all heat generated by weapons due to superior whatever. All sorts of things.
- Better Omni technology allows for the pod-installation of alternative motive types, so that we can play underwater and in space or some toxic/other environment and alter but not degrade the experience.

But I don't think they'll move in this direction, it loses too much of the feeling of continuity with 'Mechs.

[willydstyle]

TechManual 3150 eh?

- More advanced vehicles, some using double heatsinks
- Inner Sphere counter to ProtoMechs--essentially ultra lights
- LAMs. Yeah, I went there.
- I wouldn't mind an upgraded BattleMech with the weapon technologies to back up that claim: New BattleMech design and tech halves all heat generated by weapons due to superior whatever. All sorts of things.
- Better Omni technology allows for the pod-installation of alternative motive types, so that we can play underwater and in space or some toxic/other environment and alter but not degrade the experience.

But I don't think they'll move in this direction, it loses too much of the feeling of continuity with 'Mechs.

LAMs are in TRO 3085, and I'm pretty sure there are some omni designs with pod-mounted UMUs.

[verybad]

Only if you're with the Clans and get Streak LRMs.  And then, they aren't anywhere near as light as RLs...

Considering RLs don't have guidance systems...not likely. They're oposite ends of the spectrum.

Streak Tbolts...those might be interesting...I would expeect the larger missile to be easier to get better systems, rather than guiding 20 LRMs, your'e just guiding a single large missile with more room for electronics. Lots of room for variations on the Tbolt theme.

[Sid]

  Probably some of the stuff from MW:DA- notably the Ares 'mechs and the Horses' new vehicle type that was mentioned.  I want to say it was called a 'quad-vee' ?  A vehicle with legs?

  There's also that EMP terrain card, I think it's what Worktroll mentioned.

[Sartris]

So we have weapons like pulse and VSPLs that are more accurate at close range.  What about advanced missile weapons that flip the range brackets?  +4 at short, +0 at long?

[verybad]

So we have weapons like pulse and VSPLs that are more accurate at close range.  What about advanced missile weapons that flip the range brackets?  +4 at short, +0 at long?

Check minimum range. May not be called the same, but that essentially gives you the same tactical use. Artillery is also similiar.

[Sid]

So we have weapons like pulse and VSPLs that are more accurate at close range.  What about advanced missile weapons that flip the range brackets?  +4 at short, +0 at long?

There were optional targeting systems in Maximum Tech (and I believe it's predecessor, the Tactical Handbook) that did that.  There were a few- the last was the variable system, that let you switch between the different range settings in the End Phase (essentially all systems in one).

[Sartris]

Check minimum range. May not be called the same, but that essentially gives you the same tactical use. Artillery is also similiar.

Not really.  LRMs still have +4 mod at 20 hexes.  Artillery has its own bulk of rules. 

[verybad]

The tactical use will be to avoid nearby ranges and provide support fire. Nothing's changed. LRMS are often used for long range by unmoving mechs to soften up the opposition. They avoid nearby fights. So yes, the tactical use stays the same. Your proposal would certainly be more effective, but considering that the area covered by a long range radius is much higher than the area covered by a short range or medium radius, I think it might be a bit too effective to maintain balance. Such a weapon would need signifigant penalties. As is, an ELRM can usually fire at everythign on a map at medium range.

The minimum range system already covers the basic tactical use of that style weapon. You can call it somethign else, but it doesn't really change it.

[Carbon Elasmobranch]

Considering RLs don't have guidance systems...not likely. They're oposite ends of the spectrum.

I don't think that the suggestion was serious in the first place.  ^VVVVVVV^

Streak Tbolts...those might be interesting...I would expeect the larger missile to be easier to get better systems, rather than guiding 20 LRMs, your'e just guiding a single large missile with more room for electronics. Lots of room for variations on the Tbolt theme.

That would save you from firing if it didn't lock on, and not much else.

[verybad]

Tbolts are pretty heavy ammo, so that's signigicant. So logn as it doesn't dobule the weight of the launcher...

[Sartris]

The minimum range system already covers the basic tactical use of that style weapon. You can call it somethign else, but it doesn't really change it.

Ok.  It's boring. I was keeping some of the crazy stuff to my self... but if you insist  ;)

Area of effect weapons like hyper-flamers that hit 5 hexes in a line or hexes adjacent to the mech.

Subterranean units

Sprayers that create columns of particles that act like chaff and mess with missiles that pass through them

Anti-building munitions (not so crazy)

Missiles that can take indirect routes to the target

Launchers that can split fire between targets

Vehicle turrets with infantry compartments that can detach and act as a fixed position / pillbox

Weapons designed to alter terrain

Narc pods that temporarily simulate sensor hits

... stop looking at me at like that.

[Carbon Elasmobranch]

Tbolts are pretty heavy ammo, so that's signigicant. So logn as it doesn't dobule the weight of the launcher...

Given that most Streak systems tend to do that, one would imagine that it would at least add a bit of extra weight, which might end up being self-defeating.

[Marwynn]

LAMs are in TRO 3085, and I'm pretty sure there are some omni designs with pod-mounted UMUs.

Considering it's for a TechManual hopefully we'll get rules to build the LAMs (if they're included). I don't know about the pod-mounted UMUs, but again that's only a small part of an "advanced" Omni system.

[Moonsword]

LAMs are in TRO 3085, and I'm pretty sure there are some omni designs with pod-mounted UMUs.

There are.  Several of the older Clan omnis that didn't have fixed jump jets received U configurations featuring UMUs.

[willydstyle]

There are.  Several of the older Clan omnis that didn't have fixed jump jets received U configurations featuring UMUs.

Yeah, I saw those on the MUL.  They were all "IS general" I think too, which I thought was weird.

[Red Pins]

Actually, I found myself considering laser-guided artillery shells.  Does anybody have a better idea how they work?

[Moonsword]

Actually, I found myself considering laser-guided artillery shells.  Does anybody have a better idea how they work?

Are you asking how do the rules for them work?  They're already in TacOps (Copperhead and Arrow IV Homing).

[Red Pins]

Are you asking how do the rules for them work?  They're already in TacOps (Copperhead and Arrow IV Homing).

...No, RL laser-guided artillery SHELLS.  My understanding is that american battleships use a helo to spot over the horizon for their main guns - but it was Tom Clancy or something.  Do they even exist?