TRO 3145--Federated Suns

[wantec]

Something just occurred to me, but I'm on a laptop away from my pdfs at the moment and I can't confirm my suspicions. The new Centurions and Templar IIIs are Omnis, so PPCs and autocannons in the arms mean no LA/Hand actuators, right? I thought that visually "no LA/Hand actuators" meant that the arms were supposed to be Rifleman-style turret arms. I mean, that's been broken as long as OmniMechs have existed, from the Dire Wolf's UAC arms to the original Templar, but am I wrong about the way it's supposed to be? I seem to remember both of the new Omnis looking like they had LA actuators.

Then again, I'm a little unclear on what each actuator does. Hand is obvious but from there it seems like there's three actuators for two axes of movement. Maybe MWO is confusing me.

The best way to understand actuators is to look at your own arm. The Shoulder is obvious. Next is the Upper Arm actuator, roughly equivalent to your elbow. Then comes the Lower Arm actuator, think wrist. Last is the Hand actuator which would be the fingers/thumb. So every mech arm (excluding designs like the Blitzkreig with no arms) has a shoulder and an elbow.

[A. Lurker]

For those with an eye for BF/QS/AS-scale combat, do any of the units in this volume look like they might be interesting options when converted over?

I used SSW to have a go at converting the Gunsmith shown in the preview PDF over in another thread, and it seems like its speed would certainly be a factor; not least since, under that scale of rules, it starts off with the +4 to hit bonus automatically. (Which is just as well, given how fragile the 'Mech is in that scale.) The heat issues don't seem to translate over, however, since it seems to get an OV of 0 post-conversion.

Inaccurate BF Overheat values do seem to be a recurring issue with SSW, yes. I've caught it way undervaluing the heat issues of some of my own designs (including at least one TSM one that was quite naturally meant to get hot under the collar at the proper times) myself.

[Acolyte]

Something just occurred to me, but I'm on a laptop away from my pdfs at the moment and I can't confirm my suspicions. The new Centurions and Templar IIIs are Omnis, so PPCs and autocannons in the arms mean no LA/Hand actuators, right? I thought that visually "no LA/Hand actuators" meant that the arms were supposed to be Rifleman-style turret arms. I mean, that's been broken as long as OmniMechs have existed, from the Dire Wolf's UAC arms to the original Templar, but am I wrong about the way it's supposed to be? I seem to remember both of the new Omnis looking like they had LA actuators.

Then again, I'm a little unclear on what each actuator does. Hand is obvious but from there it seems like there's three actuators for two axes of movement. Maybe MWO is confusing me.

You'd have to be missing both the hand and lower arm actuators to look like a riffleman.

   - Shane

[Istal_Devalis]

Heh, to think; the same design crew may just be responsible for the Steiner volume. :P

If you guys havent designed a ground unit with quad Improved Heavy Gauss I'm going to be VERY dissapointed in you.

[wantec]

If you guys havent designed a ground unit with quad Improved Heavy Gauss I'm going to be VERY dissapointed in you.

Well, short of a Superheavy Mech (which we haven't seen so far), all that's left is superheavy vehicles. There's a chance, but somehow I doubt it.

[Diplominator]

I have two problems with the lower-arm-actuator-is-the-wrist interpretation.

-It means that designs like the JagerMech and Rifleman have art that don't match their stats. Now, obviously stats trump art and we're going to get inconsistencies no matter what, but the fact that anything with no LA/H actuators being able to flip their arms is a rule specifically of things like the Rifleman makes me want to assume they are correct and other things are inconsistent.

-There are lots of things that have lower arm actuators but no hand actuators, and I can't even comprehend what a wrist with no hand attached would even be. I'm talking about things like the original Warhammer, where the arm has two sections and flexes at the shoulder and elbow.

The interpretation I'm leaning toward is that the shoulder and upper arm actuators both move the 'Mech's "shoulder," but one controls abduction/adduction and the other controls flexion/extension. I think those are the right terms. Anyway, this suggests that the lower arm actuator is the elbow and art with elbows on Omnis PPCs/ACs is in error. It also implies MechWarrior Online is being dumb when it restricts horizontal movement on designs without lower arm actuators.

[RyuWanderfalke]

If you guys havent designed a ground unit with quad Improved Heavy Gauss I'm going to be VERY dissapointed in you.

I'm ok with just triple iHGRs on a stealth super-heavy 3/5 quad.
Adding to that an actually decent Fenrir II sporting at least 2 Medium VSPLs.
For all I care the rest may very well be total junk then.

edit: Oh... and I want a Berserker with TSM, a supercharger, C³, AECM and hardened armor as well as a battery of heat neutral Clan spec ER Medium Lasers.
The last one is actually very much doable btw. I know that for a fact. ;)

[cavingjan]

Edit: Forgot to add, the Gunsmith seems to be a great tool when dealing with Anubis 'Mechs of every published flavor. They can close, pick a range bracket that neutralized Stealth Armor and most of its weapons, and kill it.

Paul

Hush you. There is no dealing with the death by a thousand papercuts army that is the Anubis Swarm (trademark pending) ;)

[Paul]

Hush you. There is no dealing with the death by a thousand papercuts army that is the Anubis Swarm (trademark pending) ;)

Damn, you saw that? Well, I guess it ruins the surprise, but I think we should have a company of Anubi vs a company of Gunsmiths in the near future. You get to pick any variant you want. What say you? =)

Paul

[SteelRaven]

Just realized that that the Steiner TRO won't have a Atlas after the Davions called dibs... kinda sad and frightening at the same time :(

[RyuWanderfalke]

I kinda have a feeling there will be a Banshee in one form or another...

[Alexander Knight]

An Atlas is too light for the army of HOGARTH after the discovery of the WoB Omega!  :D

[phoenixalpha]

If we follow the pattern of current winning sides actually getting good stuff, while the losing sides actually get... ehr the rather subpar stuff, I guess TRO The Clans will be packed with monstrously efficient Clan designs while TRO LyrCom will make me shiver and quit the universe.  #P

If we see the lovefest continue from TPTB, some of the Clan stuff will blow yer socks off, some will be meh but if we continue in this line of thinking, TRO CC & DC were pretty decent if not good. TRO FS is amazingly meh and shows why the FS are losing... (hey lets swap all our half decent mechs for crippled versions of themselves whilst we say they are actually "upgrades") - really God help the Lyrans - they'll probably end up with a couple of converted converted pick up trucks and a rifle platoon as their new front line forces.

[Rainbow 6]

Another cracking TRO, seems like a lot of clan tech to me though  :-\

Best news though is that the Free Worlds TRO is next  :)

[RyuWanderfalke]

really God help the Lyrans - they'll probably end up with a couple of converted converted pick up trucks and a rifle platoon as their new front line forces.

Alright, I laughed  O0

[A. Lurker]

Considering what the Lyrans use for "battle armor", I'd be seriously worried about their "pickup trucks".

But that's more a topic for that thread when its time comes, I think. ;)

[MadCapellan]

An Atlas is too light for the army of HOGARTH after the discovery of the WoB Omega!  :D

After developing the BattleMech towing hitch, the Lyrans will premier a hutt-like, 200 ton quad Heavy Gauss armed BattleBunker pulled on a sled by a team eight unfortunate Commandos.

[RyuWanderfalke]

I think something of a railway super-heavy gauss gun is long overdue, basically a successor to the Schwerer Gustav and Dora.

[Coldwyn]

I think something of a railway super-heavy gauss gun is long overdue, basically a successor to the Schwerer Gustav and Dora.

Will suffer the same fate as Mule Ironhorse.

[Alexander Knight]

After developing the BattleMech towing hitch, the Lyrans will premier a hutt-like, 200 ton quad Heavy Gauss armed BattleBunker pulled on a sled by a team eight unfortunate Commandos.

Beware the new Lyran battlecry of "Ho, Ho, Ho!!!"

[bblaney]

So a new TRO every week so far 'eh?

[megatrons2nd]

I just got this.  Where are the rules for the Radical heat sinks?  They are not in TacOps, at least not the original book.

[Stormlion1]

That's not how jettison works though. It's a call back to the old unseen with 'handheld' weapons that were hardwired into the machines. This one's no different. It's not like an Omni where you can plug in any weapon, or a a handheld where it can pick up anything. If you want to change the gun out, you need to do it the old fashioned way.

I guess, it just seems like such a waste not to have several options instead of the two we are given. And it probably wouldn't be all that hard to build multiple options either.

[Diplominator]

I just got this.  Where are the rules for the Radical heat sinks?  They are not in TacOps, at least not the original book.

They'll be in FM:3145. I'm guessing something along the lines of MASC, but for heat sinks.

[Nav_Alpha]

So a new TRO every week so far 'eh?

This rapidly draining my bank balance...

[GhostBear]

So a new TRO every week so far 'eh?

No. This was the originally slated week for TRO45:FS to publish. We are now caught up with our original publication plan.

[Istal_Devalis]

I kinda have a feeling there will be a Banshee in one form or another...

Considering how often they showed up in MWDA? I'm thinking a production model 'Zeus X'. With luck they went with the DA Centurion option since the Lyrans seem to love it as a testbed anyways.
... I suspect we need to start a new TRO Lyran thread at this rate. :D

[Diplominator]

No. This was the originally slated week for TRO45:FS to publish. We are now caught up with our original publication plan.

It's been about two months since Mercs, so the original plan was two-ish weeks apart?

Would it be unreasonable to expect FWL to also come out this month, then LC and...Clans (?) in July?

[SteelRaven]

Considering how often they showed up in MWDA? I'm thinking a production model 'Zeus X'. With luck they went with the DA Centurion option since the Lyrans seem to love it as a testbed anyways.
... I suspect we need to start a new TRO Lyran thread at this rate. :D

We have yet to see the AoD King Crab as well. Ether way, it will be interesting to see what we get after the Templar III and the others.

Edit: forgot that the King Crab was built by Star Corp, not Defiance. 

[BARNESGN]

Black knight  [drool]