And 6 tons less pod weight than the Timber Wolf, 6.5 tons less than a Savage Wolf...but looks like you didn't use endo either, so you could gain back another 3.5 tons with that...still, if for some reason you can't use jump movement (say in a cave system or inside a large building), you're at a significant disadvantage...
Good catch; it's just straight better with endo steel and the XL rather than standard internals and the XXL. I got big googly eyes when looking at the new toys, but XXLs on slower mechs are a complete waste.
It's not optimized, IMnsHO...it's SPECIALIZED...
Unless you have a very good pilot and/or at short range, you're also going to be regretting that continual +3 to hit penalty, without the use of something to mitigate it...basically, your weapons payload is the same as a Gargoyle right now, and you don't even have the extra DHS's or ground speed it does...
Nope. Your analysis is just wrong.
You've come up with very specific scenarios wherein this design would lose. That doesn't mean it's not optimized. That just means it's
not quite broken enough to completely break the game under every conceivable scenario that a vengeful GM might conjure in order to punish a player who was obnoxious enough to actually use something like this.
You think it's not optimized because it can
lost fights in caves?! Say that back again to yourself. Out loud.
Yeah, that's what I thought. That's like saying a T-64 is a horrible tank because it will lose to a
Los Angeles-class fast attack boat every time.
The Artemis V won't get much use, because I'm going to pack an Angel ECM suite...
Yeah,
obviously if you get to counter-pick your scenario and your mech, you can contrive some weird edge case where this doesn't work very well. In fact, as a GM this would be a good thing to do if one of the players tried something this outrageously cheesy. Or, you know, started using
canon freaking designs that work like this. What I'm proposing is basically a scaled-up
Gyrfalcon.
you're jumping every turn, so you automatically have a +3 ton hit penalty on the ER Large and the ER PPC...you're trying to keep range, so that's another +2 to +4 penalty, so you're at +5 to +7 already, without factoring in my movement...You're AES will help your targeting penalty on your arm-mounted weapon, but nothing else...
My theory of design is sound because it's based on how the probability curve of a 2D6 works.
5/8 is a breaking point because it's the first movement speed where mech can potentially (depending on the terrain) force a higher target movement modifier on the enemy than it is forcing on itself. +3 to the enemy, +2 to itself for running, for a difference of 1.
A mech jumping 7 hexes also forces a difference of 1; +4 to the enemy, +3 to itself. Same deal, right? Only a set of five IJJs and that partial wing is a hell of a lot heavier than a 375XL. Much better to stick with the older, simpler design, since it accomplishes the same thing on less tonnage. WRONG. THE MATH SAYS WRONG.
If I can push my enemy's to-hit up to an 8, but keep mine at a 7, then I have a 58.33% to hit and they have a 41.66% chance to hit, which gives me an effective 40% multiplicative advantage in firepower. That more than makes up the difference in pod space.
But if I can push my enemy's to-hit up to a 9, but keep mine at an 8, which is exactly the sort of trade that you can force if you have 7 jump MP vs 8 run MP, then my to-hit is a 41.66% and theirs drops to 27.77%, which gives me a 50% advantage.
For 10 vs 9 this goes up to a 66% advantage, for 11 vs 10 it's an even 100%, and for 12 vs 11 it's a 200% advantage. For 13 vs 12, of course, it is an infinite advantage. Sure, I have to wait to roll boxcars, but until I run out of room to maneuver, I'm untouchable.
This is an inescapable consequence of how bell curves work mathematically. You remember... several iterations of the forums ago how some old-timer (Cray?) would rant about how all VTOLs must possess 10/15 movement or they're worthless death-traps? Same principle here. You
always want to push to-hit numbers as high as possible for a given difference between your and your enemy's to-hit numbers.
Always. The problem with this inescapable mathematical fact is that it results in an extremely boring playstyle. So maybe mathematical optimization isn't how you have fun playing Battletech. More on that later.
Meanwhile, I have a regular Clan OmniMech loaded to fight this 'Mech...a combination of pulse lasers and targeting computer means I'm at a +1 to hit you at long range, +2 for my running movement, +4 for your movement (+7 at long range)...and things only get better for me as the range closes...
1) Your purpose-built counterpick mech is based around clan pulse lasers and a targeting computer. You know, the combination that is
universally acknowledged to be one of the most broken things in the game. My uber-Gyrfalcon must be reasonably optimized if you need to resort to such measures to swat it.
2) I have 7 jump MP. Outside of a contrived scenario like a battle in a cave or a perfectly flat plane where a typical 5/8 won't ever lose MP while trying to close,
what on earth makes you think you'll ever close distance?3) I considered drafting the design with LPLs or ER LPLs and a TC, but I'd already showered that night and it would be a hassle to do so again. Part of the reason I chose an ER PPC+capacitor is that at least the gameplay is a bit less boring. Picking mechs to bit with 10 pointers is rather blase, but when you start flinging 20 pointers there's a certain anticipation that something really pyrotechnic
could happen that sort of offsets the fact that you're kiting them to death forever.
Otherwise, everyone would be fielding them now...
This is terrible logic.
Look, the construction system is not very well balanced, doesn't make any sense, and everyone has known this for decades. The reason the game works as well as it does there's a system of unspoken gentlemen's agreements that keeps everyone from fielding forces entirely comprised of rifleman IICs and garbage like that.
The canon designs don't follow
anything like a methodological in-universe arms race that trends towards greater optimization. Designs are usually very badly sub-optimal, and they serve for decades of in-universe time before being replaced by designs that are usually equally sub-optimal, just usually in different and interesting ways.
My point isn't that players should munchkin their hearts out or anything like that. This is not a game that really works with a competitive, optimization-driven mindset. It's much more casual, more about having fun with your friends over beer and pretzels.
My point is that the new rules allow for mechs that are generally superior to the old MadCat, or even the shiny new mk IVs, and that such machines aren't
terribly different than things that already exist. Just take a
Gyrfalcon and blow it up 40%, or take a
Jade Hawk and juggle the engine and jump jet configuration a bit.
