Battletech Beatdowns in Northern VA

[Daryk]

Perfect... unless he has something going on that weekend, I'm sure I can bring him in!  :thumbsup:

[Jatska]

I know some of you are not fans of clans, so letting you all know Im open to trading IS mechs for clan ones from the KS. It depends on what final stuff looks like(more IS for trade) but I know Im gonna have a few dupes I will have no problem trading.

[Jester006]

I know some of you are not fans of clans, so letting you all know Im open to trading IS mechs for clan ones from the KS. It depends on what final stuff looks like(more IS for trade) but I know Im gonna have a few dupes I will have no problem trading.

I'll take you up on that offer.  With the current update of what mechs come in which packs, I'll have the following available for trading:

Supernova, Warhammer IIC, Cougar and maybe a Marauder IIC.

[Daryk]

Heh... I'd take you up on that if I was getting any clan 'mechs.  My plan at this point is to pledge $20 and add on all but one of the IS lance packs.

[Jatska]

Id for sure be interested in all 4 of those, infact heavy star was one of few I had down for 2 copies cause of my Super Nova love. If it helps any Daryk since Im open to trade you may wanna look into 300 pledge, it would be more than what you planned on spending but not too much and it might give you alot more to trade/ebay for more IS stuff. Im sure you already looked into it but if this info helps, you got a little bit of time to decide.

[Daryk]

I'll look into it tomorrow... too close to bed time at the moment...

[Firesprocket]

Recommend taking the discussion private and on the DL.  Rule 9 and all.

[Jester006]

Recommend taking the discussion private and on the DL.  Rule 9 and all.

Ahh, didn't know that was a thing.  Thanks for the heads up.

[Jester006]

Ok, I want you all to start thinking about designing a company as a group with the following guidlines:

12 pilots/crews with a base gunnery skill of 3 and a base piloting of 4
All starting mechs/vehicles are in the light weight class (25 tons or less) using 3025 tech level

You will, as a group, have 24 points to spend.  Spending one point can do one of the following:

Upgrade the base skill of a pilot/crew (no lower than a 1/2)
Upgrade the mech/vehicle to the next weight class
Upgrade the tech level of a mech/vehicle to the most current tech level.

For instance, if you wanted to upgrade a pilot from a 3/4 to a 2/3, then upgrade that pilot's mech to an assault class, that'll cost you 4 points.

Each player will then select a single pilot that will sort of be representing themselves and they will get to hand pick the mech that is applicable to the weight class and tech level; there will be certain restrictions however.  All other mechs will be randomly rolled for.

[Daryk]

Since you defined "Light" as 25 tons or less, what weight classes are you using?

[Jester006]

Since you defined "Light" as 25 tons or less, what weight classes are you using?

Thanks for catching my mistake.  I meant the original weight classes we're use to.  Light 35 tons or less, medium 40-55 tons, heavy 60-75 and assault 80-100.

Was late when I posted last night, wasnt thinking clearly.

[Daryk]

Ah, cool... thanks for fixing it!  :thumbsup:

[Firesprocket]

Questions!

Ok, I want you all to start thinking about designing a company as a group with the following guidlines:

12 pilots/crews with a base gunnery skill of 3 and a base piloting of 4
All starting mechs/vehicles are in the light weight class (35 tons or less) using 3025 tech level

So this is an aggregate and we should all be pitching our ideas here to figure out what we are all thinking?

You will, as a group, have 24 points to spend.  Spending one point can do one of the following:

Upgrade the base skill of a pilot/crew (no lower than a 1/2)
Upgrade the mech/vehicle to the next weight class
Upgrade the tech level of a mech/vehicle to the most current tech level.

So a point spent= a 1 point reduction in both piloting and gunnery to a max reduction of 1/2?

Upgrade in tech level, how are we defining this?  Am I getting an upgrade to Star League tech, Dark Age tech?  Does it mean I just get to slap a Blazer Cannon everything, listen kill missiles, or whatever late Succession Wars shenanigans exist?

Each player will then select a single pilot that will sort of be representing themselves and they will get to hand pick the mech that is applicable to the weight class and tech level; there will be certain restrictions however.  All other mechs will be randomly rolled for.

So everyone is picking out their pilots from a pool of 24 points and then we roll the rest of the forces or did I understand that incorrectly?  Also what are the restrictions.  Inquiring minds want to know ;)

[Jester006]

Questions!
So this is an aggregate and we should all be pitching our ideas here to figure out what we are all thinking?
So a point spent= a 1 point reduction in both piloting and gunnery to a max reduction of 1/2?

Upgrade in tech level, how are we defining this?  Am I getting an upgrade to Star League tech, Dark Age tech?  Does it mean I just get to slap a Blazer Cannon everything, listen kill missiles, or whatever late Succession Wars shenanigans exist?
So everyone is picking out their pilots from a pool of 24 points and then we roll the rest of the forces or did I understand that incorrectly?  Also what are the restrictions.  Inquiring minds want to know ;)

As to the first question, go ahead and post here so the other players can see and maybe bounce suggestions off of each other.

Spending 1 point on upgrading a pilot will upgrade both gunnery and piloting.  So going from a 3/4 to a 2/3 will cost 1 point, 3/4 to a 1/2 would cost you 2 points.

For upgrading the tech level of the mechs, it will give access for that particular mech to be a variant that has access to Star League and/or pre-Clan invasion equipment.  For instance, if you wanted to have a regular 7D Atlas, that wouldn't cost any extra points (other than the 3 points to upgrade the light to an assault).  If you wanted to have a more modern version of an Atlas you would need to spend a point.  Starting off, each mech can only be a 3025 variant.

The 24 points is to be spent amongst the entire company of mechs.  After a general consensus is made of what the company will consist of, each player will get to hand pick the mech for ONE pilot (its basically representing who that player is).  After everyone has picked their one mech, the rest will be rolled for.  I am creating a list of mechs for each weight class and tech level.  If you want to make some modifications on the mech you hand picked, I am open to that.

Basically, I'm looking for a company roster that will look something like:

Light mech (2/3)(tech up)

Medium mech (2/3)(tech up)

Heavy mech (2/3)(tech up)

Light mech (3/4)

Medium mech (3/4)

Heavy mech (2/3)(tech up)

Light mech (3/4)

Medium mech (3/4)

Heavy mech (2/3)

Light mech (3/4)

Medium mech (3/4)

Assault mech (2/3)(tech up)

Doesn't have to be in that format.  As long as you make it clear which mechs get upgrades in both class and tech and which pilots get upgrades.

[Daryk]

So a Blazer Cannon wouldn't cost any points?  >:D

[Jester006]

So a Blazer Cannon wouldn't cost any points?  >:D

Correct.  If you all want to put a blazer on a couple of mechs in the company, I'd allow it at no extra cost.

[Firesprocket]

I myself was talking about mechs, like the SW Zeus, built with one.  Not so much retrofitting one.  But I guess we could do both.

[Tinyozora]

I think what he's getting at is that as long as the base mech chosen has a 3025 equivalent, it can be upgraded.  Since we're in 3040s, no 3050 designs yet. 

I'm good with this.  So the hardest part is either the pilot upgrades or the weight.  After THAT, then we can do tech upgrades. 

Can tech upgrades come after we find out the randomly chosen mechs are so maybe we can upgrade that Charger into something more useful?

[Jester006]

So if you hand-pick a mech, it can be any mech of that weight class and in the proper tech level.  If you want to make a few adjustments to that hand-picked mech, run the modifications by me first and we'll see what we can do.

For randomly rolled mechs, you can pick the variant but no modifications.  These mechs, and their pilots, represent the odd ball fellow mechwarriros that you will fighting along side.  Now if you come across some salvage and wish to make modifications to these mechs afterwards, knock yourselves out.

I wanted to give the hand-picked mechs a little bit more customization because that's suppose to be your personal mechs and due to the nature of where your pilots are coming from, you get to have a little bit more freedom in the mechs you have.

Now you can't go buck wild with the modifications.  For instance, if you wanted to take a King Crab and replace one of its AC20s with a gauss rifle, that should be fine.  Replacing both AC20s with gauss rifle on the other hand is a no.

If you want to move certain critical slots around, like moving the Hunchback's AC20 ammo to the same torso as its gun  :bang: , I'm perfectly fine with that as well.

[Daryk]

Hmmm... so how many points would a WVR-6M with a Blazer Cannon be?  Just 1 extra?  :drool:

[Jester006]

Hmmm... so how many points would a WVR-6M with a Blazer Cannon be?  Just 1 extra?  :drool:

Correct.  If you wanted to upgrade the tech on that guy to have access to double heat sinks, I'd allow it and that would cost 1 extra point.

[Daryk]

Ohhh... now I'm really  :drool:

[Daryk]

Here's the link to what I just whipped up in SSW: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=66616.0

I'll (of course) take as many other points as I can get to improve the pilot...

[Tinyozora]

I think a group excel sheet would be really good for this.  That way anyone can make edits live and others can see and interact.

Let me know among the less technically inclined if this is a problem.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18SlewiSIYutLpEy1qRfD802m89OpQqUwoBtG2mpI2MI/edit?usp=sharing

This is an open link and once we have everyone in we can close it.  Or if you'd prefer, send me an email and we can go that route.

[Daryk]

I'm not particularly familiar with Google (and am not interested in an account), so I'm not sure if my changes are showing.  I went for 4 points total, as a head-capper with a 1 gunner was too tempting to pass up (2 for the pilot, 2 for the 'mech).

[Tinyozora]

Dont need an account and it's all there.

[Daryk]

Cool, thanks!

[Jester006]

Now as an option, you all can get up to 3 additional points for the company, but theres a catch.

Each extra point you take will mean one of the random mech pilots will have a flaw.  That flaw could be that they have a substance addiction.  They could be belligerent and charge out recklessly to engage the enemy. 

They could be so disruptive to company communications due to playing their custom speaker system over the radio to where it starts negatively affecting your initiative rolls.  Maybe they freeze in combat under high stress situations.

You wont know which flaws they have until it happens.  But hey, you all.get some pitty points for the potential screw over.  What's the worst that could happen?   >:D

[Daryk]

I'm not sure we'll need the extra points, but we'll keep the possibility in mind...  ^-^

[Col.Matthew.Steiner]

Anything going down this weekend at Huzzah or Games and Stuff?