Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Neonivek]

The next weapons making a comeback after basically becoming nearly useless believe it or not... are machine cannons (for lack of a better term).

Targeting hardware/software will get to the point where homing will be outdated.

[Cthulhu]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

[umiman]

A big chunk of metal is significantly cheaper than a tomahawk missile.

[Krevsin]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

I would not call modern artillery bombardment techniques "dumb" by any metric but sure.

Anyway, if combat continues to be increasingly more urban and use mostly guerilla tactics, with most of the civilians not having been evacuated from the combat area, bombardment of any kind other than high precision, low collateral damage variety becomes untenable very swiftly.

Future combat seems to be firmly in the hands of the infantry, as infantry is best suited to combat in urban areas. I'd expect power armour sooner than I'd expect gigantic battle mechs. 

[Sean Mirrsen]

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.

So... as ugly and foreboding as conceivable, so that fear itself would be their ally?

I could honestly see "mini-mecha" see use on the battlefield, but they'd have to be closer to large, armored infantry-shaped IFVs. Not made to brawl with tanks or take huge hits or bombard positions, but to clear out regular infantry with more finesse than regular armored vehicles (and sparing much more armor to protect its one human on board), in addition to the myriad of utility tasks they could be used for on the field. Really, the only thing standing in the way of something like that is BT-style myomers. They're the only technology that regular vehicles can't make use of better than mechs.

[umiman]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

I would not call modern artillery bombardment techniques "dumb" by any metric but sure.

He means they're not guided. Not that they're stupid.

[Flying Dice]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

I would not call modern artillery bombardment techniques "dumb" by any metric but sure.

He means they're not guided. Not that they're stupid.

I'm pretty sure the point was that some/a lot of modern artillery isn't generally dumb, at least by first-world standards. Like, look at the Excalibur, it's a long-range GPS-guided 155mm shell with absurd precision.

[Sean Mirrsen]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

I would not call modern artillery bombardment techniques "dumb" by any metric but sure.

He means they're not guided. Not that they're stupid.

I'm pretty sure the point was that some/a lot of modern artillery isn't generally dumb, at least by first-world standards. Like, look at the Excalibur, it's a long-range GPS-guided 155mm shell with absurd precision.

And I suspect it costs about as much as a missile. In comparison, "dumb" munitions can be a lot cheaper and can overcome point-defenses just by the amount of them deployed.

[Krevsin]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

I would not call modern artillery bombardment techniques "dumb" by any metric but sure.

He means they're not guided. Not that they're stupid.

I know, it's just one of those popular monikers that seems reductive and gives people a false impression of the thing it describes. "Dumb projectile" doesn't evoke quite the same mental image as "unguided projectile" despite describing the same thing.

[Flying Dice]

The word you're looking for is cannons.

But yeah, some strategists are speculating battleship-style dumb projectile warfare will make a comeback as point-defense technology outpaces missile technology.

I would not call modern artillery bombardment techniques "dumb" by any metric but sure.

He means they're not guided. Not that they're stupid.

I'm pretty sure the point was that some/a lot of modern artillery isn't generally dumb, at least by first-world standards. Like, look at the Excalibur, it's a long-range GPS-guided 155mm shell with absurd precision.

And I suspect it costs about as much as a missile. In comparison, "dumb" munitions can be a lot cheaper and can overcome point-defenses just by the amount of them deployed.

M982 shell: $68,000 US.
MGM-140 ATACMS: ~$800,000 US.
Tomahawk cruise missile: ~$1.5m US.

Yes, those are the per-unit costs. So both a short-ranged ballistic missile and a long-range cruise missile are more than an order of magnitude more costly than a GPS-guided artillery shell. And yes, more destructive and longer-ranged (the ATACMS has about 4-6x the range and there's no point even comparing to the Tomahawk). But it's also a much newer system and the cost is much lower than it would be if it were scaled down based on warhead and range. Numbers I've seen on the cost of somewhat smaller WWI-II dumbfire shells are in the $30 per unit range, yes, they're astronomically cheaper.

But that's sort of the question you need to ask. Do you want to deal with a problem by dropping one shell right on top of the target even when friendly forces are within 100m without worrying about falling short or collateral damage, or do you want to level everything in a three-block radius and still maybe not even hit the target directly?

Obviously if we get to the point where targeting systems are precise enough and we can field combat-functional railguns the costs will drop, but guided shells are an intermediary that fill a gap where you're questioning whether it's worth spending literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to nail a couple guys in a house but don't want to kill a bunch of civilians and maybe your own infantry.

[Dohon]

Some new pre-alpha footage. Should contain a peak at some new ´Mechs, the Griffin and Trebuchet.

[Dohon]

Q&A for January can be found here.

Some bulletpoints:

• There is an Inspiration system (previously known as morale system, name-in-progress). As you do "positive" actions (destroying `Mechs, achieving objectives, ...), they will add to an influence bar. Once filled, your troops will be inspired and receive positive buffs. This system is in place to speed up the "cleaning up" face of a mission.
• Airstrike / artillery don't hit their targets immediatly. Experienced crews can shorten the delay, but it'll never be instantaneous.
• HBS wants to make stock 'mechs viable. They don't want to make people "grind" for expensive gear, just to be competitive (both single and multi-player). For instance, an AC20 might do more damage than a stock model, but might hold less ammo. Stock Mechs Only will be a game option.
• No plans to have players "unlock" gear in Multiplayer.
• Gear must be unlocked in Single-player.
• Backer Beta streaming / discussion allowed. No NDA's or somesuch.
• Backer Beta will be skirmish mode, lance on lance (4 mechs versus 4 mechs). Both CPU and multiplayer skirmish will be possible.
• Backer Beta will have a good selection of mechs, though not all.
• Backer beta will not have Mekbay at beta launch (meaning no custom mechs). Later in the beta though.
• Backer Beta will not have a single-player campaign (meaning no story or mercenary open-ended missions).
• Vehicles are just there for assymmetrical opposition in the single-player campaign. Players won't use them themselves. You can bring support vehicles (such as artillery), but they will function off-screen.
• Vehicles in game:
  
  Swiftwind Scout Car
  APC
  Striker Light Tanks
  Galleon Tank
  Scorpion Tank
  Long Tom Artillery
  Mobile HQ
  Bulldog Tank
  LRM Carrier
  SRM Carrier
  Manticore
  Demolisher
  Shrek PPC Carrier
  
  
• Aerospace fighters will just be shown as they deliver an airstrike.
• No Hatchetman BattleMech. Strong (strong!) internal support for the Mech. Strong candidate for post-launch updates. Strong!
• No hovercraft vehicles. They cut the hovercraft movement model. Strong candidate for post-launch updates.
• The team is aiming to have dense urban environments. They'll have destructible buildings.
• Stability system (as seen in Melee reveal). As you mech gets damaged and / or gets meleed, you'll get a stability risk and as more damage piles on, you fall over.
• Once a ´Mech has fallen, you'll need a movement turn to get up.
• Mechwarriors can get injured during falls.
• AI for the MechCon demo (the reveal of gameplay) was just a script. "Go to enemy, pick biggest target it, shoot it". AI now actually has decision trees, checks heat, checks cover. The AI will be worked on till release (and probably some more during patches).
• Pilots will have battle-chatter. It has three times the amount of battle chatter, with more triggers when compared to MechCommander. It won't be on constantly though, that'd get annoying real fast.
• The game will have randomly generated pilots, so they will provide a variety of voices.
• Pilots can be renamed.
• Mekbay isn't coded yet. They have a concept on paper, but no code so far.
• Game will have ironman mode.
• There will be Death From Above (DFA for short, HyperRPG BattleTech-related show on Twitch) related achievements.
• There might be BattleMechs in the game that are not in the MechWarrior Online roster. Depends on how succesfull the game is.
• HBS will not disclose what criteria they use to define "a succesful game". In other words, you'll see and notice if the game is succesful.
• What will it take to introduce Clans to the game? Success! If you and ten friends of you buy the game, chances are looking good. *wink wink*
• There are plans to have several DFA characters in the game. They don't know if those mercs will be voiced by the people who played those mercs during the DFA show.
• There is a chance that George Ledoux (aka Duncan Fisher from the MechWarrior games) will be involved.
• The Von Luckner tank will not be available at launch. Maybe after.
• You can specialize your commander to be a light mech expert. It won't mean you'll be able to stand-up to an assault lance, but you'll be a good spotter and a very maneuvrable MechWarrior. Specializing your Commander a certain way won't be so damning.
• Custom portraits cannot be uploaded.
• There will not be a mission editor. It is a huge undertaking and breaks futureproofing your game.
• Mech Data is storen in .json files. You can strip the mech and add different weapons to it, but the .json files are still tied to a certain Mech (animation, model, ...).
• You can't ask the enemy to surrender. The enemy might retreat though.
• There will be Mech variants. Not all Mechs will have variants.
• Missions will have additional optional objectives.
• There will be an option to fight against a random enemy force in Skirmish.
• No idea how long the campaign will last, because it isn't built yet.
• The most difficult gameplay system to develop is the combat module and the balance. The movement system in the early days was also challenging.
• The Death From Above animation for the King Crab has not (yet) been made.

[Sensei]

Does anyone write a summary of the interesting bits in these Q&A sessions for those of us who don't want to watch an hour-long video?

[Flying Dice]

You want to skip a Q&A that opens with 

"How much love is one dollar worth?"

"I'll show you after the show."

 

[Dohon]

HBS posted this on their facebook account.

Spoiler: Awesome GIF (click to show/hide)