HBS Battletech: Heavy Metal Expansion thread. What do you hope to see happen?

[omega2010]

On a related note, the other new weapon is the Mech mortar.  So we are getting AoE weapons.

[DarkSpade]

Here's a post from someone who got a chance to play at PAXcon.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/heavy-metal-on-its-way.1261165/page-9#post-25921887

[Jayof9s]

The quirks sound like a pretty interesting addition. Hopefully they went back and added them to all 'Mechs and not just the newest ones. Plenty of old designs that could use a bit of a nudge to make them better or push them to specialize in their niche.

[DarkSpade]

Sounds like they didn't, which would be a real shame.

[Jayof9s]

On the upside, mods should hopefully be able to add quirks pretty easily. Hopefully there's enough variety to keep it interesting if nothing else.

[Deadborder]

The Bull Shark is a 95 ton 'Mech created for a Battletech video game. Clearly it's the arch-nemesis of the Corsair

[Insaniac99]

I'm curious to see the story behind the bullshark.  The loadout seen on the stream is impossible to build unless you use clantech or have absolutely 0 armor.

Much of this expansion seems to be giving you a bunch of things that are intentionally not balanced and the only control on it is that you have to take only 4 unbalanced pieces of equipment out.

2-shot artillery isn't bad, but Call shot bonus and Damage reduction for your whole team?  The mechanics of the game make that incredibly powerful.

 A Laser that fits on a flea, and can do the equivalent damage of 2.8 AC/20 shots to a single location? I don't think there is a mech that can take that and have armor left, and most things will have that section destroyed. Combine that with the ECM module from Urban Warfare and you could probably go without any armor

[Daryk]

It's almost like they're making a video game instead of BattleTech...

[Insaniac99]

I like games to have a challenge and a nice balance between mechanics.  If the only balance is you can only bring a limited amounts of overpowered gear -- I wouldn't exactly call it balanced.  If the challenge is only had by purposely handicapping yourself then that's a game design problem.

I already have the DLC because I bought the season pass (I also backed the Kickstarter, and their Shadowrun ones) but I'm not excited for a collection of unbalanced and overpowered gear that I purposely avoided adding in via mods.

I hope as more information about this stuff comes out, I'm proven wrong about the mechanics.

[DarkSpade]

It's almost like they're making a video game instead of BattleTech...

Video games still require balance.

[Daryk]

Balance is a different game when you can issue a patch in something less than five years...

[Jayof9s]

I'm curious to see the story behind the bullshark.  The loadout seen on the stream is impossible to build unless you use clantech or have absolutely 0 armor.

I'd be curious to see how they'd convert it to TT if it's ever officially attempted.

With IS tech: just to fit 2x LB10X and 2x UAC5 + ammo and 4x Med Lasers with 18 tons of armor, you can still be 3/5 but you need an XL engine. Without an XL it won't fit even at 2/3 movement. And there's not enough space for other weight saving tech. The Thumper is lost completely even at 2/3 with an XL. You also cannot fit an LBX and UAC in each arm, even with the lower arm and hand actuators removed.

With Clan Tech: At 2/3 with an XL you can fit 17.5 tons of armor and all the weapons. Although the Thumper is too big to be contained in just the torso and 5 crits overflow into the arm, requiring 3 ACs to be crammed into the opposite torso/arm, instead of evenly split between the arms.

Either way, it should be a fun unit in HBS Battletech, regardless of being a little illegal by TT construction rules.

[Insaniac99]

With Clan Tech: At 2/3 with an XL you can fit 17.5 tons of armor and all the weapons. Although the Thumper is too big to be contained in just the torso and 5 crits overflow into the arm, requiring 3 ACs to be crammed into the opposite torso/arm, instead of evenly split between the arms.

One small clarification, the crits in the game name it the Thumper Cannon, which changes the crits and you can fit the weapons in the arms.

[DarkSpade]

With the little bit we know of the story and those ++ on so many of the weapons, I'm assuming it's clan or near clan tech.

[Jayof9s]

One small clarification, the crits in the game name it the Thumper Cannon, which changes the crits and you can fit the weapons in the arms.

Good catch and that actually would make more sense. Still won't fit on the chassis with IS ballistics, which brings us back to being at least semi-clan if it was made canon.

That also frees up some more weight since the thumper cannon is only 10 tons. It could either be 3/5 (XL) and have 17 tons of armor or 2/3 with max armor (which it looks like it might hold more than the maximum if following TT rules from the screenshot) and some additional heat sinks.

I'll be curious to see how fast/slow it is when we get it.

[Retry]

I'm curious to see the story behind the bullshark.  The loadout seen on the stream is impossible to build unless you use clantech or have absolutely 0 armor.

I'd be curious to see how they'd convert it to TT if it's ever officially attempted.

With IS tech: just to fit 2x LB10X and 2x UAC5 + ammo and 4x Med Lasers with 18 tons of armor, you can still be 3/5 but you need an XL engine. Without an XL it won't fit even at 2/3 movement. And there's not enough space for other weight saving tech. The Thumper is lost completely even at 2/3 with an XL. You also cannot fit an LBX and UAC in each arm, even with the lower arm and hand actuators removed.

With Clan Tech: At 2/3 with an XL you can fit 17.5 tons of armor and all the weapons. Although the Thumper is too big to be contained in just the torso and 5 crits overflow into the arm, requiring 3 ACs to be crammed into the opposite torso/arm, instead of evenly split between the arms.

Either way, it should be a fun unit in HBS Battletech, regardless of being a little illegal by TT construction rules.

Good catch and that actually would make more sense. Still won't fit on the chassis with IS ballistics, which brings us back to being at least semi-clan if it was made canon.

That also frees up some more weight since the thumper cannon is only 10 tons. It could either be 3/5 (XL) and have 17 tons of armor or 2/3 with max armor (which it looks like it might hold more than the maximum if following TT rules from the screenshot) and some additional heat sinks.

I'll be curious to see how fast/slow it is when we get it.

It may very well be semi-clan.



Exhibit A:

The "LB-X ++" has, in addition to its other bonus, a weight reduction of 1 ton.  The UAC ++ has, in addition to its other bonus, a weight reduction of 2 tons.  As far as I know, no other +/++/+++ weapons has lighter weight as their bonus.

If the regular LB-10X and UAC-5 are the vanilla IS guns, that would put these ++ variants at exactly the weight of a Clan-spec version of those weapons in both cases.

Exhibit B:

I mean... just look at the Bull Shark's fluff text.

[Jayof9s]

Definitely sounds like it could be at least partially clan. The ER Mediums also push that narrative, since they weren't SL tech.

As for the reduced weigh, they added + / ++ versions of other lostech during one of the patches (I think with Flashpoint but maybe Urban Warfare?) and most of the improvements reduced weight. I had a 1-2 ton lighter Gauss Rifle, for instance.

But it does get the ballistics more in line with clan tech.

[wolfcannon]

Retry where did you find the fluff and the pic for the Bull Shark?

[Insaniac99]

Retry where did you find the fluff and the pic for the Bull Shark?

It was from the live stream, people have been taking screenshots of it.  you can see the picture of Mitch Gitelman under the pasted on picture of the thumper canon text

[Apocal]

I've honestly never really felt a pressing need for an AoE weapon in this game.

[Caedis Animus]

I've had one or two, but it was mostly in situations where it had really, REALLY hit the fan and the enemy was conveniently cluster.

If it works the way I think it will, it'll be an extra ability instead of a straight weapon attack, which is very XCOM like.

[Jayof9s]

I saw some details from a recent stream that detailed some more of the units. Apparently there will be a second Bull Shark variant that doesn't include the thumper.

[Caedis Animus]

I saw some details from a recent stream that detailed some more of the units. Apparently there will be a second Bull Shark variant that doesn't include the thumper.

Yes, it uses small lasers and LRM-5s or something, right? At least, I've heard as much.

Kind of makes me hope any later DLCs will start adding new variants and such and new gameplay changes. New pilot abilities or another skill revamp would be nice.

[Apocal]

I'd be curious to see how they'd convert it to TT if it's ever officially attempted.

It is probably a better idea to simply drop one of each ballistic type. Things make much more sense that way. Although ballistics being strong as hell in this game, combining short and medium range brackets and there being a lot more LoS-breaking cover means the flavor is going to be lost once you convert to TT. AC20s are beasts and the AC5 is a decent ranged punisher.

[Caedis Animus]

On the subject of the Marauder giving a damage boon to the team (Reducing damage taken), that should affect the enemy just as well as it affects your lance...

That said, I would love for this game to start pulling out more stops. A full pilot creator, XCOM-style (Able to write backstories for your noobs after you hire them), more events, more options to dress up your pilots (Please just let me put a helmet over my hideous neanderthal person); Mid-misc mission objective changes (A battle turns into a defense mission after mission control notifies you that they found out what the enemy objective was mid-fight), stuff like that.

Hell, even enemy artillery would be great. More miscellaneous instead of mini-story flashpoints, too.

[Daryk]

Having experienced enemy artillery in the campaign, I'm not anxious to see it added to random missions too...

[Caedis Animus]

Having experienced enemy artillery in the campaign, I'm not anxious to see it added to random missions too...

You mean the incredibly obvious 'don't touch here' boxes?

Like, just don't step on them. It's not hard.

[Daryk]

With the load times and crashes my ancient machine inflicts, it took a bit to figure those out.

[Caedis Animus]

Honestly, that's not really the game's fault then.

[Daryk]

True, though I wasn't much of a fan of the idea once I did figure it out.  Area control that can only be avoided is annoying.