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San Francisco, 6:08 AM
Tue Nov 10
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/15/09
I would Kick pregnant mothers out of the way to get this if it comes out with a similar Giant controller to the one released with Steel Battalion
07/15/09
07/16/09
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07/15/09
The "In Game Footage" watermark on the pics is wrong, this was a trailer built in the Unreal 3 engine.
/Late comment courtesy of borked IE commenting that started today with this post. (Not complaining.)
07/15/09
07/15/09
Been a BT/MW fan since before there were any computer games for it, just tabletop. When MS bought the rights, they totally destroyed it with the craptastic arcade style.
I still have my Mechwarrior game discs from the first DOS game too.
07/15/09
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07/15/09
Curse you jade falcon
07/15/09
Still won't bring back my beloved pre-lawsuit Marauder.
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07/15/09
I know that giant robots are hardly the gold standard for believability, but most mecha series make the giant robot the be-all-end-all war machine, and I'm not as convinced by this iteration.
07/15/09
I used to "pilot" one, the heaviest was 45 tons, and would be worked in a normal battle.
It's been 20 years since I played, however, and the game might have changed considerably since then.
07/15/09
In the games themselves... Well, the helicopters you come up against of occasion move really slowly... ;)
07/15/09
07/15/09
In addition there would be aircover on your side as well, protecting you. There are even air mechs.
07/15/09
and were lifted from Macross/Robotech
07/15/09
MW has never relied on the one-mech-beats-all concept that is prevalent in asian mech series. In fact, secondary units (tanks, comm convoys, VTOLs, etc) play a very important support role in more recent MW board games. Now, to go into specifics of your question:
* The weapons have a certain range, making tactical air strikes less desirable, particularly since that puts the planes into the mech's missile range. The mech, being heavily armored, can survive several hits - the plane or VTOL is toast with one hit from a long-range missile (LRM) (which, by the way, do lock on target).
* Many of the mech combats begin with an orbital insertion into (or near) urban areas. Tactical strikes are less desirable in urban settings since they destroy secondary assets (a defending force is more welcome if it doesn't blow up your entire town every time there's an invasion).
* To address your concern of accuracy, in MW lasers, autocannons and short-range missiles (SRMs) do not lock on target. You shoot where you aim, and in close-quarter nearly every shot lands on or near target. It's not that they're not hitting each other - in fact, the trailer shows many scenes where direct hits are happening. It's just a matter of armoring. The Atlas (skull-headed mech from the screenie above) has 1 1/2 the tonnage than the Warhammer (from whose POV you're seeing the clip), and to top that it's a frontline mech. There's a scene where you can see the bullets from the gatling gun just ricochet off that monster's heavy plating as the Warhammer is backing away. The particle cannon, too, definitively scored a hit. The last hit practically tore off the Atlas' left arm.
07/15/09
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07/15/09
Yeah, Nerd, the game changed considerably: Aerotech was added, as well as rules for Choppers and VTOL style craft. The mech you're referring to, the Phoenix Hawk LAM was a piece of crap.
Also, as someone said: The best defense against Aerospace fighters (which were relatively lightly armed and armored compared to a battlemech) was the HUGE amount of punishment they could take. Think about it: Your average assault-mech typically had something like 14+ tons of armor, and carried a massive amount of weaponary--even 'early mechs' of its time, such as the Marauder, boasted two PPCs (long-range, single-shot plasma bursts), four medium lasers, and an autocannon 10--and that's a dedicated groundpounder. I think the heaviest aerofighter in the game has like 3-4 tons armor, 1 PPC, pair of medium lasers and a missle rack. Assuming it didn't nail the Marauder with a PPC EVERY run (tougher than it sounds), it could shrug it off for a while.
07/15/09
07/15/09
FASA sues Playmates, 1 of 3 [1994 DEC]: http://alex.kaempen.org/fasa_v._playmates.html
FASA sues Playmates, 2 of 3 [1995 JUN]: http://alex.kaempen.org/fasa_v._playmates2.html
FASA sues Playmates, 3 of 3 [1996 JAN]: http://alex.kaempen.org/fasa_v._Playmates3.html
You will find the list of disputed toys in #3 above. I believe the picture I have scanned from the Playmates toy catalog mentioned in that document.
HG sues FASA, Nail in the "Unseen" coffin: http://alex.kaempen.org/harmony_gold_v._fasa.html
Whoops! You weren't supposed to get those documents: http://alex.kaempen.org/harmony_gold_v._fasa2.html
07/15/09
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07/15/09
I.. DIG ... GIANT ROBOTS!
YOU.. DIG ... GIANT ROBOTS!
WE.. DIG ... GIANT ROBOTS!
CHICKS.. DIG... GIANT ROBOTS!
... nice!
07/15/09
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07/15/09
Keep in mind this is an early build from a company that doesn't even have a publisher yet. It's very limited in scope. If it's anything like the old games, flanking, terrain, and other weapons will make a HUGE difference. Unfortunately, the time period the game takes place in precludes the use of indirect-fire LRMs/arrow IVs (no Tag lasers. Which is fine, because they could be broken in a small-scale skirmish style game anyway).
Also important things to note about this game that change things up: No universal Radar that magically tells you where everybody is, and you lose targeting when you lose LOS, which makes using terrain, ideally, VERY important.
07/15/09