If you say so. That's entirely your opinion, though - there's no objective value that says "Shadowrun = Good MMO, Battletech = Bad MMO."
Personally, I think Mechwarrior is every bit as perfect for this kind of thing as Shadowrun is... If not moreso, because there's so much MORE emphasis on combat, rather than social engineering/infiltration/contacts.

I'm very pleased by the definite commitment to joystick support. I get that not everyone has or wants a joystick these days, but if you're going to make a "'Mech sim" that appeals to the existing fanbase, joystick support is an absolute must-have.

Damned modern joysticks, all look like they were ripped out of a CF-188!

I think the only way I would be convinced is if they managed to make a MMO in the veins of EVE Online, where the gameworld and gameplay has enough depth as to be much more than a pure fragfast. Actually, if they allow players to create and manage companies in depth (be it house affiliated, or merc, or bandit kings, etc) , with its own hierarchy, economy, assets [vehicles, infantry, dropships], etc, all the while meshing and interacting with the background world and story.. well, it could rock.

One very important thing for this to work, would be the existence of a mission structure based on realistic military campaign premises - recon, patrol, rescue, diversionary maneuvers, etc. with objectives clearly related to a greater context / operational theater, and preferentially all linked to each other in a dynamic way (Eg: if your company [not necessarily you] performed a successful recon on the last mission, than you will have info available on all oposition for your next mission ).

I want to barrage my enemies with firepower, be able to strip their hulls, and hear the lamentations of their engineers!!!

One of my greatest Battletech miniatures moments was surviving 150+ incoming long range missiles.

I'd made a particularly unwise move and ended my turn in range of 8 enemy units, all with LRM racks.

After a massive amount of D6s being rolled, the results were... not a single missile hit.

We decided the missiles had all hit each OTHER on the way in, and there was an area of scorched devastated ground with a little bubble in the middle containing one untouched mech, who's pilot had soiled his pants.



-k

I want moments like that.

Play BattleTech. It's awesome. One of the most memorable moments in my group was when one of the guys attempted a running turn on pavement, failed his Piloting skill roll, and skidded into a building. On the first turn. I think it took him four more turns to inflict as much damage on the enemy as he had inflicted on himself. Then there was the time another guy jumped onto a building that couldn't hold him, fell on his head, and self-critted his own cockpit. Different game, but that also happened on the first turn.

I've seen someone, in an Atlas, somehow fall on a road and self-crit his own cockpit.

I don't remember exactly how he did it but I remember the player getting ribbed about it a lot since it was his first turn in that game.




-k

I can't even get a group going in the city. Every time I try everything falls apart.

I'm on the fifth attempt this year.

Check out MegaMek! The AI is pretty good, all things considered, and you can play online. And most importantly, it plays just like the wargame.

And you're basing your judgement on...?

Yeah, I was about to say, both are games played by groups of people.

Hell, Battletech is at it's base not much different from a board game. It just has a lot more complexity.

At least Battletech doesn't have the problem where people in online games often don't roleplay at all.



-k

I've seen so many first turn PPC (and ERPPC) headshots in round one...

The best ever was my friend (on his birthday no less) getting his leg blown off while standing next to another mech. He falls, other mech kicks his head off, literally. I seem to recall him ejecting in time, but I could be misremembering. Or the number of ammo bin shots on mechs with machine guns... I refuse to carry those.

Bastards, the lot of you!

Not our fault you live in the inhospitable north.

OMG, I have to mention the "zombie Crusader." Over the course of three or four turns, this thing lost both arms and both its side torso locations, but refused to die, even with multiple 'Mechs firing on it. We couldn't even declare it combat-ineffective, because it still had the SRM-6 launchers in its legs. I think it finally died when somebody scored multiple CT crits and destroyed its engine.

I remember figuring out a cheestastic tactic using Land-Air Mechs. The Charge.

Normally, a successful charge is resolved by taking the tonnage of the charging Mech and dividing it into 5-point groups. You then randomly roll on the hit location charts to see where each 5-point group hits the target Mech. A 55-ton Mech would inflict eleven 5-point "dings" to it's target, which when spread out over multiple hit locations isn't usually all THAT impressive. Which is why you don't normally see Mechs charging each other.

The charging Mech also takes a little damage, equal to 10% of the target Mech's tonnage, also split into 5 point groups and randomly located via the hit location chart.

However! The Land Air Mech, when in AirMech mode, can charge while flying. As such to determine the locations of the 5-point hits you use a different set of hit location charts - the Punch Location Chart. The charging Mech figures the "return" damage using the Kick Location Chart. The theory being that a flying mech can only strike the upper portions of the target mech with it's own lower portions.

The Punch Location Chart has only six possible results. The Head, two Arms, and the left/center/right Torso. A one in six chance of hitting the Head. A 55-ton charging LAM inflicts eleven 5-point hits, remember? That's a D6, rolled 11 times. Chances are, the One will be rolled at least twice. Given that no Mech can have more than 3 internal structure points and 6 armor points on the head, a successful LAM charge will on average instantly kill any mech that it strikes.

In return the LAM takes at most two 5-points hits to locations that are likely among the most heavily armored areas - it's legs. And even if it loses it's legs it can still move around, unlike it's land-bound cousins.

So of course I created a 55-ton LAM with max leg armor, almost no weapons, and the biggest damn engine I could fit. I nicknamed it The Curbstomper, as it kicked it's enemies to death.

I fielded three out of the four mechs in my lance as these. The fourth, I made a 100 ton assault mech with almost no armor or engine, and crammed in 3 or 4 Arrow artillery guns. I equipped TAG targeting on the LAMs, and whatever I wasn't kicking to death I targeted with the TAG units, which let the 100-ton mech unload it's OMGWTF damage on the hapless target from anywhere on the map.

After that game some house rules were hastily erected to stop me from doing that again.



-k

Yeah, in the game before last I had a first-time player who opined that it was probably possible to munchkin the hell out of BattleTech. Another, more experienced player told him that real munchkinry only becomes possible with custom units. I agree with that sentiment. It's important for the GM (referee, whatever you want to call him) to exercise "editorial control" over homebrew 'Mechs.

Homebrew mechs work best when you only allow modding the weapons loadout, the rest of the mech should be as built. Tearing an engine out and putting in a different one is a huge undertaking.
<edit> well, weapons and heatsinks, actually.

Weapons and Heatsink are Field Repair.
You can do that in your Backyard.
Internal Structure and Engine are Factory Level Refit.
Means you basically would have to mail your mech in and get it back one year later with the new Parts.

I really want to do a RPG of this now.

There is an RPG of Battletech actually.
Two, if i am not mistaken. One is called Mechwarrior and the other is called A Time of War i think.

Good news: you can!

I don't know about the MECHWARRIOR RPG, but Character Generation in ATOW was actually horribly complicated, as far as i remember . .

ATOW actually simplified it somewhat (in my opinion) compared to previous editions of Mechwarrior. The lifepaths are shorter and less complex than they used to be...or at least they seemed to be, when I read through ATOW on the way home from GenCon. There's the distinct possibility I was just totally exhausted and I'm misremembering.

Dude, it ATOW is SIMPLER . . i don't think i want to try what was before . .
Also, still very much possible and highly probable that you will lose a limb or sensory organ in character creation . .

The lifepaths in MW3rd were complicated to say the very least. But, aside from all the math you end up doing at the end to finalize the character, actually rolling through the paths can be quite fun. Give your players 2 characters to roll from scratch using the normal rules (edge burn to reroll or +/- 1 to the result) and them the pick the one they prefer, in case one gets totally screwed out of being a mech pilot.

Yeah... And I get my group where exactly?

same where you get your shadowrun groups ^^

BASTARDS THE WHOLE LOT OF YOU!

love you too Ray ^^

I would say best one I had a wolverine and did Death From Above over and over on a Stalker and walked away

You should have played SR 1st ed you needed to a physicist to play and understand the formula

Hell Ray you can play in our groups

That's a bit before my time i am afraid.

SR and MW are like D&D compared to what they were like to begin with

Never played D&D.

Really I thought everyone cuts their teeth on D&D

Nope, not me. I'm different!

Big news.

LOL

I didn't play D&D until I got to Winnipeg.

Well than thinking back on this all we had was D&D when I was in grade school and of course we played because the church said it was EVIL. That made it fun LOL, now some churches who use it to for interaction skills.

...

Nope, still feel old.

You or me?

Me.

How do you think I feel

http://mwomercs.com/news/2011/11/28-cryeng...hwarrior-online
i am not sure how to feel about this . .

Already got my callsign.