’Mech of the Week: Viper

[Marveryn]

that the one decision i never understood about fasa making jump jets pod available.  Mostly cause it kills the idea of having Fix jump jets on design liek the viper and Summoner.  why bother making jump jet machine when you can keep them off the original design and mount them when needed with a few model.  Viper does well in the tradional roles of a point man.  At 40 tons is in the middle ground of a heavy scout, weak med which may have to do for some people dislike who prefer mech 5 tons lighter for scouting or 5 tons or more heavier for more heavy duty action. 

there nothing bad that can be said about it movement, able to match speed with the some of the fatest inner sphere mechs and nearly out gun them.  It is a terror when dealing with non clan machine against clan forces who have machine that can match its firepower it still has very good edge when it comes to manuever and firepower that depending on the pilot i wouldn't bet against them winning even against stock design 10 to 20 tons heavier.  of course this is all depend on who behind the controls and the terrain.  armor is what you expect from a machine this light so it best bet is to keep moving and use it jump jets and high running speed to maintain a difficult to hit modifier as long as possible, but even saying that i should be able to take one or two well hit from heavy weapons before the pilot has to start writing his tombstone. 

the main fault of the desing and why it isn't more popular can only be sum up by one thing.   design look .  it pretty much bland and lack the lines to give it an agreesive appearances nor the slickness that convey a speed demon.  more to the point what up with that underchin?? ...

[Orin J.]

why bother making jump jet machine when you can keep them off the original design and mount them when needed with a few model. 

because there's plenty of times you don't realize you need jump jets until you're out in the field and your plan makes contact with the enemy.  [metalhealth]

[Scotty]

If you don't realize you need jump jets until you're in the field, you really ****** up on your briefing about what terrain you're in.

[Fear Factory]

I do agree that if jump jets were actually fixed only, instead of pod mountable, plenty of designs would make more sense.

[Iron Mongoose]

The Ice Ferret's not all bad.  I'd gladly take a D over the Viper A, unless the terrain was so choppy that I'd take a Viper C over an Ice Ferret D.  But, the Viper starts from a much better place, and on an ultra fast mech jets are nearly always a welcome addition, so no one ever really makes too much fuss.  As a 40 tonner in a world of Clan heavy and assualt mechs with ER PPCs, you can never be too moble, I don't think. 

[Diablo48]

I do agree that if jump jets were actually fixed only, instead of pod mountable, plenty of designs would make more sense.

Same here.  That is one omni pod rule that I strongly disagree with.  Every other motive system component is fixed on the frame, so it would make a lot of sense to not allow pod mounting Jump Jets and would also add more differentiation between different omni frames.  Still, it is what it is and that is not going to change at this point thanks to the number of canon configurations which pod mount jets.

The Ice Ferret's not all bad.  I'd gladly take a D over the Viper A, unless the terrain was so choppy that I'd take a Viper C over an Ice Ferret D.  But, the Viper starts from a much better place, and on an ultra fast mech jets are nearly always a welcome addition, so no one ever really makes too much fuss.  As a 40 tonner in a world of Clan heavy and assualt mechs with ER PPCs, you can never be too moble, I don't think. 

Honestly, I would not compare the Ice Ferret D to the Viper A.  That Ice Ferret configuration is an interceptor designed to hunt down other lights with its highly accurate Pulse Lasers, a roll best filled by the Viper B with its enormous ERPPC which has the penetrating power to quickly drop other lights and comparable accuracy due to its longer range bands.

The Viper A is more optimized to backstab larger 'Mechs and vehicles with its overwhelming burst of firepower which can open up the rear armor of many heavies for the SRMs before jumping away to cool off, and is most comparable to the hard hitting Ice Ferret E which it handily outperforms.

[Zeruel]

The Viper A is more optimized to backstab larger 'Mechs and vehicles with its overwhelming burst of firepower which can open up the rear armor of many heavies for the SRMs before jumping away to cool off, and is most comparable to the hard hitting Ice Ferret E which it handily outperforms.

to emphasize this point, i ran a couple of consecutive duels (so keeping the same damage and ammo from fight to fight) on MM (i know, i know, against the bot, not exactly the best opponent, but still...), and my Viper A (with a 3/4 pilot) killed a Fire Moth H, followed by another Viper A, then a Mad Dog B, and then an Executioner Prime...my next opponent, a Kodiak, finally killed me (all with 3/4 pilots)

the bot Viper gave me the most trouble, and the Mad Dog went down to one alpha strike to the rear armour

[Fear Factory]

I've had similar results with human players.

[Diablo48]

to emphasize this point, i ran a couple of consecutive duels (so keeping the same damage and ammo from fight to fight) on MM (i know, i know, against the bot, not exactly the best opponent, but still...), and my Viper A (with a 3/4 pilot) killed a Fire Moth H, followed by another Viper A, then a Mad Dog B, and then an Executioner Prime...my next opponent, a Kodiak, finally killed me (all with 3/4 pilots)

the bot Viper gave me the most trouble, and the Mad Dog went down to one alpha strike to the rear armour

That sounds right to me, and I think you probably could have taken that Kodiak as well if you had been fresh.

[Zeruel]

well actually, the bot was stupid and deployed on a hill it couldn't get off, so i ended up closing range to the corner of the map and couldn't really dance around it the way you should...

[Diablo48]

well actually, the bot was stupid and deployed on a hill it couldn't get off, so i ended up closing range to the corner of the map and couldn't really dance around it the way you should...

"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams

[Sabelkatten]

I really, really hate this mech when running 3025 forces. It's real hard to get the TNs down below 10 when trying to hit the damn bastard!

However when using SL tech or better it gets much less scary. On most maps a fast runner can close to short range against it as long as you can move after it. Add in pulse lasers and possibly even a TC and the TNs can drop to 8 or less. During one fight (admittedly against the MM bot) I completely bullied a Viper with a pair of fast (13/20) 20-tonners with twin MPLs.

[Diablo48]

All this talk about the Viper got me to make myself a signature variant along with a number of other configurations (including one with C3i because the Bears appear to be experimenting with that a little bit), so here is a link to all my custom configurations.

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,253.msg514500.html#msg514500