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[Dohon]

As Meph already said, new update is out. It talks about progress since the pre-alpha video, how melee will work in the game and how you can get some nice BT swag.

[Scripten]

"too anime" when the most critical part of melee is knocking 'mechs down because they can't stand back up easily? When DFA is all about making use of the laws of physics that 'mechs do decide to conform to as a weapon? Fucking LAMs are too anime and people drool over them. It ain't like you've got your Atlas pulling out a beamsaber or some shit.

Pretty much this. The gifs show off the chunkiest, most beautiful melee mech action I've seen in anything Battletech. It really feels like multi-ton machines trying to bash each other's cockpits in.

[NullForceOmega]

I'm getting my axeman, then we'll see about 'too anime'.

[Flying Dice]

PSA: Not Anime.

[Mephansteras]

Eh, Mechs as a concept are 'too anime'. Physics says they'd suck in reality and be worse in pretty much every way compared to low profile vehicles mounted with similar weapons.

So, whatever. Mechs are awesome and seeing giant robots smash each other is fun! And, as they say in the update, you have to actually get in range of another mech for it to matter past all the medium and long range weapons fire to pull it off. It's not like it is going to be a particularly common way to engage.

[Neonivek]

Eh, Mechs as a concept are 'too anime'.

Ignoring that the MechWarrior universe, in spite being somewhat hard science, they do run off a different set of physics then we do in real life... Mechs do have a purpose, if we could ever get over the kinks, which is that they can traverse some terrain that even tanks cannot.

Though while I say that... if the games excluded some of the rules that totally mess vehicles over for no other reason than to make mechs better... they WOULD be flat out better than Mechs in most situations.

Vehicles already laugh at light mechs by doing their job WAY better than they can.

[Erkki]

Vehicles were for a long time worse than mechs because... they were worse than mechs. Their crit table was different and made them horrificly vulnerable no matter how much armor they had. Also mines and certain special ammo were even more murder to them. After all, BT was supposed to be about Mechs, and vehicles fulfilled the role of OPFOR to stomp over perfectly.

With the new crit table rules vehicles are now much better and whether you balance by BV or by C-bill cost, they can fill many roles mechs cant and do some other things better or at least more cost-efficiently. More specificly, vehicles can carry helluva lot more raw firepower, are easier to hide and hovers are faster and can cross waters, while mechs can jump, do melee and cross rocky or otherwise rough terrain and woods better. Mechs also still are less vulnerable to head and through-armor engine, gyro and leg hits than vehicles are to motive hits.

[Neonivek]

How new are these rules?

To my knowledge Vehicles still have a lot of crit spots that kill them or immediately disable them.

[Rince Wind]

Isn't that an optional rule?

[Erkki]

Yes, improved vehicle crits are an optional rule but IMHO mandatory for game balance. Like so many other rules. Theres also a rule for improved firing arcs. I think they're both in Maximum Tech rulebook. Quite honestly, tournament rules are pretty bad...

I dont remember when they changed inferno SRMs to be less murderous, that too helped vehicles a lot. In the 90s?

[Puzzlemaker]

In reality, I don't think combat mechs will ever be a thing sadly.  Powered armor, yes, but larger units will be too vulnerable to fire.  I can see four legged walkers being a thing, though.  Imagine a tank with four treads instead of two.  Hydraulic legs let it "stand up" and walk over rough terrain, but it can easily crouch down and have a low profile plus travel quickly over flat terrain.

Something like this:

http://i913.photobucket.com/albums/ac338/Alsstrike02/futuristic-tank.jpg

Not the best design either, there isn't any armor skirting on the side nor any armor for the front of the treads when in "tank mode".  I have yet to find a good picture of this concept.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v201/btwins/Future%20Tech/wooten_04.jpg

That one is better, but I don't think the artist actually had the idea of letting it extend and then walk on the treads.  The front treads also stick out too much.

If you look at a modern tank:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c9/fe/01/c9fe0134101931d742af0bf5762143d9.jpg

You can see the main design motiff:  High firepower with a low profile and sloped armor, something that mechs simply do not, and can not, have.  One day I hope to see realistic mechanized combat in a futuristic game...

[Neonivek]

You can see the main design motiff:  High firepower with a low profile and sloped armor, something that mechs simply do not, and can not, have.  One day I hope to see realistic mechanized combat in a futuristic game...

You wouldn't because in a futuristic setting tanks would be on their way out... there would be no mechanized combat in a "realistic futuristic game"

[Puzzlemaker]

You can see the main design motiff:  High firepower with a low profile and sloped armor, something that mechs simply do not, and can not, have.  One day I hope to see realistic mechanized combat in a futuristic game...

You wouldn't because in a futuristic setting tanks would be on their way out... there would be no mechanized combat in a "realistic futuristic game"

Haha yeah that's true, it would mostly be drones and missiles killing things from hundreds of miles away.  That being said, I hope that eventually we figure out forcefields of some sort that let defenses actually be effective again, because currently attack trumps all.  Last time defenses were king was WW1, but by the end of the war that had changed.

[umiman]

Sure there will be tanks. But instead of using it on our enemies, it'd be used on the populace instead.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So in a sense, they'd have to be built as intimidating and scary as possible. I could see them going for the terminator look.

But yeah, mechs would probably be pretty pointless unless some amazing technology appeared that completely overturns all conventions about it. I can't even imagine any Battletech mech even standing up to today's conventional military. Hell, I'm pretty sure they'd have been slaughtered even during the cold war. Even those Middle Eastern tribes living in the caves of Afghanistan would probably own them.

[Krevsin]

You can see the main design motiff:  High firepower with a low profile and sloped armor, something that mechs simply do not, and can not, have.  One day I hope to see realistic mechanized combat in a futuristic game...

You wouldn't because in a futuristic setting tanks would be on their way out... there would be no mechanized combat in a "realistic futuristic game"

Haha yeah that's true, it would mostly be drones and missiles killing things from hundreds of miles away.  That being said, I hope that eventually we figure out forcefields of some sort that let defenses actually be effective again, because currently attack trumps all.  Last time defenses were king was WW1, but by the end of the war that had changed.

If laser weaponry continues maturing at the rate it's currently doing, drones will become pretty much useless when attacking anyplace even remotely fortified. It's all missiles and over-the-horizon railgun bombardment.

Of course that's assuming conventional combat as we know it still applies and that's far from given if modern conflicts are to be any sort of metric.