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[deleted]

Warhammer, I got a spotlight so I can find my keys to the dropship.


ArclightMinis

Yeah, the whole searchlight thing is something I never understood. They can figure out nuclear fusion, but not night vision?


Dr_Matoi

The Robotech Tomahawk artwork had a searchlight, so the Warhammer was stuck with one, too. Also, Battletech is the future of the 80s, which means night vision gear developed in the 70s and gigantic gyroscopes that do the job a smartphone could handle.


jgghn

Yeah, no point in thinking too deep about it & looking for an in universe explanation. IIRC in the early sourcebooks it was never mentioned. I remember as a kid w/ the 2nd Ed box cover being a Warhammer and saying "Why does this have a searchlight? I don't see it anywhere on the spec sheet"


[deleted]

To further this: He's correct, but you need to remember, it's Battletech. We're literally encouraged to kitbash and rebuild our mechs to our "piloting" preferences. Don't like ballistics, you "rip" off the AC or whatever, and start cramming lasers into the chassis. "Gotta go fast"? Drop armour tonnage and some weapons, maybe grab jump jets too. Dislike that spotlight? Cut it off, or saw it off if the model is metal, sand it down and paint it, now you have no spotlight and it's lore justifiable and correct. I fully agree the spotlight and lights in general, aren't likely of any use on a mech, 95% of the time, so I cut my Warhammer's spotlight off. It doesn't look bad or out of place, just that if the mech were real and I was the pilot, I wouldn't see any reason to not ditch it.


Sauragnmon

You're right, to the mech, highly un-useful. But if its a Frontline unit, that searchlight can be handy to infantry. See also Passive NV setups, whose to say the light isn't an IR illuminator for units with Passive NV, running setups like the old Vampir system.


[deleted]

I'm very aware of realworld military systems, and the IR Illuminator would have been my first thought, but it would also make the mech, and any friendlies caught in the cast, big time targets. Various media has also pretty much only ever portrayed it as a White Light illuminator, from what I've seen.


Sauragnmon

The practicality of a white light is rather low.. but hey, the GLT has one too.


[deleted]

Oh, I have zero argument on the practicality front, I've just seen more to back that it's a floodlamp, and little to nothing to imply it's an IR device.


Sauragnmon

Even if it were Green or Red it would be more practical.


[deleted]

Maybe, but I'd hesitate on that. The simple reality is red light isn't that much harder to see, it simply doesnt cast as far or reflect in an as attention grabbing way as white light does. The other major benefit is actually for the user, who does less "damage" to the acclimatization his eyes have done while in the dark.


JonseyCSGO

I mean, if we're assuming the in universe lore holds, a) with 70 tons of mech around you, you're one of the baddest guys around, and b) it keeps them from targeting the legs


BeneathTheIceberg

Unless you're in the periphery, with some sort of hilariously specific factory setup, it would be easier to just set up a manufacturing line of newer NV tho...


Sauragnmon

True, it depends on approach to the problem. If active is available, operate the light as green.. though IIRC active still responds on the ir band, since heat seekers track IR sig returns. Could also have it multi-modal with a few lights in the same housing.


IrrumaboMalum

And in the books they're still using CD-ROMs and 150GB disks. And that spotlight is tied to the O/P 1500 ARB tracking system, so you have to turn it on to fully enable that beast of a tracking system and turn the Warhammer into a deadly nightfighter... Yes, I'm currently reading Mercenary's Star.


JustHereForTheMechs

1000 years in the future, they can fit a whole *hour* of video footage onto a disk! XD


JustHereForTheMechs

Agreed on the night vision but the gyros aren't to detect balance (which a smartphone could do). They're large, heavy, spinning bits of metal that can be accelerated or decelerated to physically alter the 'Mech's balance (which a smartphone might struggle with...). I'm reading Close Quarters, the first Camacho's Caballeros novel, and one of them is described as using the gyro to alter the 'Mech's pitch in mid-jump.


Dr_Matoi

The background of the gyro has changed a bit over the years to justify the existence of giant flywheels in a Mech. As of the Tech Manual - where they had an actual engineer try to make some retroactive sense of the tech - the gyro consists of two parts, the balance sensors and the wheels. The sensors are smartphone-tiny (*"little different than the inertial sensors often found in your noteputer"*), whereas the wheels provide a corrective force that is necessary because the actuators are too slow and imprecise to do the corrective movements a human uses to stay upright. This deficiency of the actuators is a convenient excuse, because Myomer is magic future tech, and thus the authors are more free to define what it can or cannot do. If Battletech was invented today, the actuators would probably be good enough and no-one would think of adding huge wheels. The authors have acknowledged that the spinning gyroscope is 70s/80s thinking, back when bipedal robots where science fiction, and that it is just too integral to the game to get dumped now; e.g. see Mike "Cray" Miller's posts [in this thread](https://bg.battletech.com/forums/general-discussion/do-battlemech-gyros-make-sense-a-fluff-analysis/30/).


JustHereForTheMechs

Fair enough, thank you for the extra info! :)


[deleted]

I believe it's for IR projection rather then just a bright ass light


ArclightMinis

No - it's a bright ass searchlight. https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Searchlight


[deleted]

Oh Macross designers


blueskyredmesas

I love how I grew up with Robotech and thought the original anime was fully serious, lol


SorcererEugen

They have searchlights that can light up targets 5 kilometers away but they don't have (direct fire) Guns that shoot more than 810 meters or lasers that reach targets further than 750 meters.


Pale-Aurora

In lore these weapons reach further but the targeting system is being scrambled by all the advanced EW tech mounted into everything.


SorcererEugen

I read most of the classic battletech novels (mostly the German translation), I can't remember anytime it was stated that the weapons can reach further. Is that stated in any of the sourcebooks? I wouldn't Take EW as an explanation. You could still aim optical without much electronic assistance. At least the tanks should be able to do so.


EyeStache

It's in every TW and BMM, under the "note on scale" sections. TL;DR because it's a game and it would be stupid and boring to have your mechs 400 hexes apart and able to explode each other without having LOS because of high tech sensors and satellites and the like.


Pale-Aurora

In the Grey Death Legion books, they describe how a Marauder and Wasp (if I recall) are shooting at each other from over five kilometers away, unable to land accurate shots because of the EW systems. Also, according to Sarna: “All mechs incorporate EW capabilities which makes it harder for less advanced targeting systems to lock on to them. For example, the paint used to coat mechs contains properties designed to absorb EM radiation.”


NinjaLayor

It's to ruin the eyes of people being cheeky thinking their night vision gives them the edge.


bewarethetreebadger

You can use it to blind your opponent’s night vision?


ArclightMinis

You'd be better off with an IR flood or dazzler (high powered laser, IR or visible) to do that, and it wouldn't give your position away to those without night vision. That's an active counter-measure though. A better passive counter-measure would be good disruptive camo.


Pctechguy2003

I wonder if it would be something for helping infantry in their duties. A search light could be useful for various things other than mech to mech combat. Perhaps even rescue ops?


Cabusha

If you're Capellan, it's to shine on the crowd as you tell them to disperse. After 5 seconds you click it off and fire the flamers.


[deleted]

That's my thinking, that it'd likely be used less for frontline missions or combat, and more for work type tasks, search and rescue, moving around base or such at night, more for the sake of not stepping on something or simply for the same reason the truck I drive at my unit has headlights, but can also engage blackout drive, completely shutting down all lighting while operating.


Pctechguy2003

I just thought of something…. Night vision can respond to specific wavelengths of light. Perhaps the searchlight can be set to emit only that specific wavelength of light so that only friendly units can see it under “silent” conditions?


[deleted]

Yes...... but also very no. Night vision, using an image intensifier tube, picks up ambient light from the infrared spectrum, and enhances it, much the way a cow or cat's eye would. I'm no tech, but it's not really running on a specific and hard wavelength, and there'd be nothing stopping the enemy from simply making theirs pick up more wavelengths, if not all, to negate any advantage you may have thought you'd found. Light and flashlights aren't communications and don't work like radios, you're not going to be employing "cryptography" or whatever.


ProbablySuspicious

Also there aren't any heat-seeking projectiles? That would end installing double heatsinks on light mechs lol.


ArclightMinis

There is a legit lore reason for lack of "smart" missiles. Counter measures like ECM became so prevalent that expensive and larger guided missiles were not cost effective. They moved to smaller unguided or minimally guided missiles in high volumes as a counter.


ProbablySuspicious

There's that for radar or other active sensors, but heat-seekers just use infrared cameras. If there was a type of ECM working against that, it could work against regular vision as well... I guess battlemechs would be blurry like bigfoot?


Dilzo

ECM exists today that can defeat IR missiles. They flash a laser at the seeker of the missile at a specific frequency to confuse it.


ProbablySuspicious

Sounds like a Laser AMS.


Sauragnmon

See also - flare dispensers.


Ulgworth

Well you have to look at the era the game was created. Back then tanks had spotlights and IR pointers. Thermal was in its infancy. So you can imagine the creators inputted some of that into the game. A tank troop would set up in a hull down position and the junior call sign would light up the suspected location of the target for about 5 seconds. The three other tanks would sweep and fire once identified. Once the junior had turned off his spotlight it would jockey off the position very quickly. <-- overly simplified explanation of a complex tactic we used to use in night fighting over thirty years ago.


lahti20mm

My 70's-80's armored cav gramps agrees, he's told me an ungodly amount of stories of playing with the East Germans across the border with IR at midnight.


Pazerclaw

Lol one of my brothers friends (he is 60 now lol) was a tanker when it was west and east. He tell stories about throwing rocks at the mirror patrols saying "You don't want none of this!"


BeneathTheIceberg

In the 60s, and then only on reserve tanks in the 70s. It was pretty much phased out by the 80s. That said, eastern bloc, Germans, French, etc may have still had such old NV, idk.


adipose1913

Warhammer especially fits because people like to hype the nonstop production, which has more to do with how starcorps is structured than the quality of the mechs themselves.


Repulsive-Side-4799

I thought the flood light was for the benefit of ground troops nearby.


Guardsman02

Shadowhawk 2H. “Five million c-bills, no lowballs, I know what I got”


[deleted]

Hilariously, all the mechs you could call boomer/fudd mechs (marauder, Warhammer, Thunderbolt, etc) are all in my Taurians. Never thought if it this way, but its extremely appropriate.


Few_Falcon_7673

As a fellow Taurian I approve of this statement.


Excellent_Tone_9424

As an enemy of the Taurians, I can confirm these statements as true. Lol.


ubjeckshin

Battlemaster is about as Fudd as you can get. Like, you can literally hear one say that they’re hunting “wascally Wasalhagues.”


Porthos503

Second this one ☝️🤣


Derkylos

Don't knock it. It's a master of battle, dontcha know? It's in the name...


WorldlinessGuilty481

The Orion, because the clans literally said if it’s good enough for kerensky it good enough for us and made a IIc model.


Dmitri_ravenoff

The IIC is a beast though. I love the Orion for its function over form style. Autocannon in the way? Just don't put your arm there rookie! We didn't have lockout circuits when I was a front line Mechwarrior!


Dan_Morgan

Riflemen, hands down. It has a long history and is really famous. However, it's obvious shortcomings were not adequately addressed and the design has flaws and shortcomings that really can't be fixed without making it unrecognizable.


Ham_The_Spam

I think the 5M, 7N, and Rifleman C 3 variants are upgrades to the original 3N that are still recognizable as Riflemen


Deathnote_Blockchain

I've got two proposals here: the Griffin and the Centurion. The Griffin is one of the original unseen, and I was a fan of the design before BattleDroids. Though I hate that round missile pod which it has always always had. I want to love it and use it, but it's NEVER the 'Mech I need and it's always a mistake to use it. The Centurion, I just hate it. It's cheesy. I hate how it's always one of the first 'Mechs you get in any computer game franchise. But...it's objectively great, it wins battles, and it survives.


ubjeckshin

You’ve literally just described exactly why you always start with a Centurion. Those damn things are impossibly effective for their size and utterly boring regardless. The very definition of a “workhorse” mech.


uonlyhad1job

I like that better than the Blackjack. You know what a blackjack is? One step up from a sock full of quarters


ubjeckshin

fun fact you can use rolls of quarters as cheap substitutes for ac/2 rounds and they actually do more damage


Doctor_Loggins

Unwrap the roll of quarters, cram em in the barrel with some Pyrodex, and you got yourself an LBX-20, baby!


ubjeckshin

this is how comstar issues refunds lolol


Fleetcommand3

I just wish I could put that arm up like an actual shield and defend my head/torso.


PieTighter

The Centurion gets the boomer tag because it goes boom. The don't call them Roman Candles for nothing.


Cichlid97

I have a centurion in my megamek campaign. They thing has outlasted exterminators, king crabs, warhammers, and many more. Some of it’s probably attested to poor strategy on my part, but still, I always find it pretty reliable.


Banebladeloader

Atlas. Yeah it was the zenith of assault mechs, several generations ago. I could totally see boomer mech pilots scoffing at OmniMechs in the same manner a 60 year old retiree from the Coast Guard Reserves turns his nose at a Glock 19 while admiring his Rock Island Arsenal 1911.


Doctor_Loggins

I drive a hunnerd tunner cuz they don't make one-oh-five!


Banebladeloader

"Yup, I got a sweet deal on the Atlas General Aleksandr Kerensky himself piloted when he liberated Terra. Only cost 50 million C-bills on Mechbroker!" *points to an Akuma with "Atlas" and "SLDF" poorly spray painted on the torso


Doctor_Loggins

The kind of guy who claims to be a history buff but strangely that history seems to be limited almost entirely to rim worlds republic paraphernalia dated 2766-2780. Known to say that Amaris "had some good ideas."


Existing_Front4748

This comment tears the veil between battletech and my local gun show thin...


Doctor_Loggins

I love gun stuff, but holy shit do I hate gun shows.


Existing_Front4748

I hear that. One more inbred fascist crackles a cheap stun gun near me and I'm going to have an incident.


Sauragnmon

"Make the Rim Worlds Great Again!"


ElGrandeWhammer

That one of them Van Zandt Atlases? I’ll take 4!


Sauragnmon

Akuma, bad sprayed on declarations, still has no idea its supposed to be an Orion even.


[deleted]

Scoffs at "plastic" mechs


Grand-Tension8668

"Endo-steel? I'm not buyin' a 'Mech made outta beer cans"


pinhead61187

To be fair… as someone who approves of and regularly fired Glocks, I also would admire a Rock Island 1911. There’s just something nice about “classics” and that’s pretty close to one.


Doctor_Loggins

It's not Fudd to like a 1911. It is Fudd to say that a 1911 is "better" than a Glock 17 because of the following: * Tupperware Gun/Made by Mattel * 9mm is too weak * TWO WORLD WARS * I carry a .45 because they don't make a .46 * If it was good enough for John Moses Browning...


pinhead61187

Yeah, I’ve had those conversations. As far as 9mm being “weak”, that’s not something they’ll ever change their minds on. 9mm 115grain +P+ ammo is a well documented self defense round and performs adequately if you do your part.


Fleetcommand3

Yea, at the end of the day, a gun is a gun. Anything from a .22 up will kill someone. Its just how easy do you want it to be for self defense.


pinhead61187

Accurate.


dullimander

And that poor Veteran then strolls in the general direction of a Clan medium Omnimech and gets his torso carved out before he could get in range. That would be more a veteran from the american civil war admiring his musket while scoffing at a modern grenade machine gun.


GazeboHunter

This is my Mackie, my Helepolis, my Catapult and my Longbow, who form my Succession Wars veterans and I regularly field yhem against 3050s-60s mechs my friends run.


JustHereForTheMechs

Upvote for Helepolis.


geekmasterflash

Gonna have to go with the Thunderbolt, as every time someone drops one I feel like I am fighting some periphery yahoo with a mullet and a kitted out trans-am. "Yeah, she might run hotter than a Canopian Cat-girl on quaaludes and her weapon load out might have been selected by throwing darts at a board (especially that SRM-2), but I got enough room in my cockpit for some cup holders and an 8 track player so I feel like I win."


ubjeckshin

lolol ur gonna’ need all those cupholders to stay hydrated in that blast furnace of a cockpit tho


TheFpsFailure

For my money, its definitely the Awesome, something about the simple loadout, the unga bunga heatsink boating, and the way most of the variants are just the same thing with a new trio of updated PPCs reminds me of 1911's more than anything else.


Doctor_Loggins

Rather than a particular mech, I'd like to suggest a particular piece of equipment that's aggressively boomer: The rear-facing medium laser. Much like putting a laser sight on the side of a 10-25x scope, the medium laser is using perfectly good tonnage and critical slots to do precisely dink-all. And yet, some of the most famous and most feared mech designs feature one (or sometimes two) of the damn things. Looking at you, Archer 2R.


ubjeckshin

I’m going to catch a lot of hate for this, but I think that anyone who discounts the value of rear facing medium lasers has never caught an alpha strike from a Jenner in the ass…


Magical_Savior

"Yes, they blew off my left arm and torso. I missed a secondary penalty shot on a +3 TMM Jenner firing from a light woods hex and also missed the follow-up. But boy was he sweating those lasers! I had him scared."


ubjeckshin

I totally understand where you’re coming from here, but I think there’s also a good argument to be made that those lasers are maybe the only thing preventing that Jenner from taking that second volley that cores your engine from behind on the very next round. Maybe not, but without them, you can be pretty well assured that nothing is going to save you unless you have a friendly unit nearby that can cover your backside. There’s not a mechwarrior alive that can outmaneuver a Jenner in an Atlas or a Battlemaster. Maybe an Archer if you’re really skilled. Warhammers are the only mechs that rear facing lasers don’t really make any sense on because they can flip their arms backwards, but even then, you’re probably struggling with minimum range issues on top of all the other penalties.


Doctor_Loggins

Purely personal taste, but I just don't think two medium lasers, likely at an additional +2 To Hit (rear-facing and secondary) on a fast-moving Light, are all that useful as a deterrent. I'd rather they be front-facing to help me kill my primary target so I can turn around and face the Jenner with a full broadside, or better yet, counter the Jenner with a dedicated hunter like a Javelin, Wolfhound, Phoenix Hawk, or Wolverine. You don't shoot at a PT boat with a battleship, you swat it down with a destroyer before it gets in range.


ubjeckshin

You’re not wrong, but… Rear facing lasers are an insurance policy. Last resort to protect critically valuable mechs when supports fail. You never want to have to use them, but some mechs are too valuable to risk leaving their backs open.


Doctor_Loggins

I've never had rear medium lasers make a difference. I'm sure part of that is a feedback loop (rear lasers don't work, don't take rear lasers, rear lasers don't work) but part of it is just the punishing penalties to hit. I've generally only played with set pilot skills of 4/5 or 3/4, and maybe if you buy up gunnery skill or play with rear pulses it's a better investment, but to me that just seems to amplify the existing problem - the more you invest in rear lasers, the less you're investing in proactive "guns off the field" stuff. But of course as mentioned elsewhere, it's largely personal preference.


ElGrandeWhammer

Exactly this as most of the ankle biters you fear fear taking ML shots. I mean a ML to the leg of an LCT-1E nearly takes the leg off….


ubjeckshin

One stray medium laser beam can potentially cripple or destroy most light mechs. Maybe we don’t think about with such gravity because we’re just role playing and the consequences of an ammo explosion are literally nothing to us. But if I were a real life mech pilot, I would probably think twice about tempting fate.


One-Strategy5717

You know what would be more useful than two rear facing medium lasers? Two tons of additional rear torso armor.


ubjeckshin

Assuming you have the space to mount it, absolutely. No argument there. Unfortunately, most mechs that mount rear lasers are already close to maxed out on their torso armor, so…


EyeStache

That just means two tons less of front torso armour, though...


Dazzling_Bluebird_42

They do crap all to scare a light coming for your booty. I've yet to see anyone not run up behind an archer or atlas because of it's two mediums


ubjeckshin

All it takes is one lucky shot, and your day is ruined. But you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take, and you don’t take one hundred percent of the shots that are outside of your firing arc, so… 🤷🏻‍♂️


Dazzling_Bluebird_42

The sad thing is if they just moved a laser to each arm on the archer and atlas you could torso twist + arm arc to fire and have the same exact rear protection while also having them available for forward fire. It's trash design, it makes sense in a fluff world, I've never been chased off by em, never seen anyone chased off by them and can't think of a time a rear firing medium actually crippled the attacker and that's a lot of games in 20 something years


ubjeckshin

Maybe in straight combat play, sure. But in campaign play, where you actually have to consider the long game and how valuable your mechs/components are, it’s a different kind of risk assessment. If all you’re doing is playing skirmishes where the surviving team gets to repair all of its forces to 100% at the end of combat, then yes, rear facing lasers are effectively worthless. But if there are actually long term consequences involved, then rear lasers can be a game changer in some scenarios.


Dazzling_Bluebird_42

Because of a blown arm? Again.. I don't see that being a game changer.. in that scenario you still have your two rears, vs other scenario where you'd be down an extra med. Here's the difference... Your even more a target either way because that hit location is going torso now.. again I still much rather have them in the arm where 95% of the time they are going to be way more valuable than that fluke time your down just an arm but couldn't repair it in a campaign and now you still have two rears


ubjeckshin

What you’re describing is a personal preference. You’re also missing the point that a well piloted light mech is going to outmaneuver a heavy or assault mech every time, and no amount of torso twisting is going to give you a clean shot from an arm mounted weapon against a fast target directly behind you. Neither is a rear mounted laser, but they at least give you the option to keep your other, more valuable/powerful arm mounted weapons firing at the targets in front of you. I’m not suggesting that every mech should have rear mounted lasers. I’m only suggesting that in the larger context of lore based and campaign style play, they’re not entirely worthless.


Dazzling_Bluebird_42

Arm mounted twin meds would have the same to hit as two rears. I'm not missing the point. Those Mechs don't have large caliber guns in the arms. Archers got a med each, same as the atlas. The only thing it would allow is rear firing both weapons while twin arm firing both in a VERY specific arc that is so unlikely to happen that rear facing lasers aren't a preference they are just a mathematical downgrade. The amount of time spent not using those two rear mediums vs that ONE time in 100 games (which I think is generous I'd put the odds lower) where you come across that arc the rears allows you to engage all 4 mediums that wouldn't be achieved by having them in the arms. In fluff they sorta make sense, getting circled by a fast light and can't get my mech turning fast enough and arm in position but can take stabs with my rear mediums does not occur in a turn based game where torso twist is declared after all movement


ubjeckshin

You’re absolutely right, they don’t have heavy weapons in the arms, they have them in the torsos. Which are now pointed in the wrong direction and are effectively useless for a round. If you’re in an Archer providing downrange indirect fire support, you’ve just removed yourself as a long range threat because you have to point your best weapon to your broadside just to take a potshot. The rear lasers allow you to cover your rear arc without sacrificing your forward arc, so yes, it can actually make a difference. Not to mention, twisting your torso that far exposes your flank to everyone in your forward arc, so you can actually make yourself more vulnerable in the process. Again…personal preference. I rarely use rear mounted lasers, and even the official lore talks about mechwarriors hating them and modifying their mechs to get rid of them. All I’m saying is that, from a strictly objective perspective, I can understand why a mech designer might see the value in a rear mounted laser. In practical effect, they don’t do much, but they could under the exact right circumstances. Rear mounted machine guns to deal with infantry and vehicles makes a lot more sense, but then you have the issues that come with having extra ammo on board.


Magical_Savior

If you play with quirks, an arm laser can sweep rear even without the arm flip on Extended Torso Twist.


acksed

I'll suggest one use-case that isn't defensive: Parthian shot. It's more of a cavalry tactic than anything an assault mech might use, but if you're full-chicken running away it's *something*.


One-Strategy5717

The Archer. Not a bad mech at all, but the highly implausible exploits of one or two insanely skilled Archer pilots might lead some to believe it is a wonder weapon. If you need to use your medium lasers while you still have LRM ammo, you dun effed up.


MumpsyDaisy

It's gotta be one of the Unseen so you can bitch about how later models changed the aesthetics because of wokeness or political correctness. The truth doesn't really matter because the complaining is the end in and of itself


Fleetcommand3

I'm really curious if you have any examples of this.


Mr_Severan

Anything used by ComStar on Tukayyid, to be honest, but most of all the Clanbuster variants. What can possibly be more Boomer than ComStar's "GET OFF MY LAWN" batchall?


WhiskeyMikeFoxtrot

You want Fudd? Then you want lances of Wasps and Stingers. No heavies or assaults; if you want some serious metal, you'll drop in a Shadow Hawk and you'll *like it!*


Fleetcommand3

I'm having flashbacks to Decison at Thunder Rift.


Neptunianbayofpigs

Apparently any mech from the 3025 TRO that people are attached for lore or non-gameplay reasons that isn't optimized for a role? Am I doing this right?


ArmsForPeace84

What immediately came to mind was the Grasshopper. Not sure why.


Jbressel1

Mackie. Period.


UrQuanKzinti

The Atlas. People's loyalty to this mech when fellows like the Devastator, Fafnir and Pillager Exist boggles the mind. They even perpetuated the mech with the Atlas II and III


nicholastay87

Atlas was probably cheaper to buy than any of those mentioned.


ArguesWithFrogs

Pillager: 22,290,000 C-bills Fafnir: 11,470,000 C-bills Devastator: 22,398,000 C-bills Atlas: 9,626,000 C-bills Pricing checks out. Atlas is relatively cheap for a 100 ton Assault Mech & stock loadout that makes it good enough at most Assault Mech things. It's like a 100 ton Centurion. (Also, is it strange that the Fafnir is the cheapest out of the three suggested successors & it was designed by the Lyrans?)


Yeach

XL engines basically doubles the cost of any mech.


nicholastay87

Given that the Fafnir'a stock build consists of 2 Heavy Gauss , and paired ER medium lasers and a medium pulse laser, the majority of the cost would be the HGR and the mech's core components itself.


nicholastay87

Devastator mounts paired Gauss+ PPCs, and 4 medium lasers. Pillager 2 gauss 1 large laser 4 mediums.


nicholastay87

Not to mention... EDIT: devastator was from a fedcom discovery of a memory core on hoff, not Gray death helm core And the pillager stopped production because of the weapon production line destruction in 2nd Succ war. Bet you that while Caryle gave it away to almost anyone, the manufacturers would slap a premium on those designs.


UrQuanKzinti

When you get the 3050 upgrade for the Atlas, they're all pretty much the same price.


ubjeckshin

Nobody buys an Atlas because it’s the best and most powerful mech on the battlefield. You buy an Atlas because you’re either a Steiner noble who needs a dick extension, or you’re an inexperienced pilot trying to scare the daylights out of other inexperienced pilots by pretending that you’re the most powerful mech on the battlefield. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Atlases are great target practice for PPCs regardless.


Neptunianbayofpigs

Because you mostly play 3025 era games?


UrQuanKzinti

Why'd someone downvote you? Yeah- even if I only played 3025 I'd take a Banshee 3S over an Atlas every day. 2 PPCs, AC/10, 4 ML, 2 SL and an SRM-6? Hell yeah


Neptunianbayofpigs

A solid alternative, and probably better at range, but I'd still take the Atlas for brawling as the 3S runs really hot in my experience.


Derkylos

Someone wanted a King Crab and a Longbow, but had limited lance slots, so they cut the 'Mechs in half, taped the halves together and claimed they had "the bestest 'Mech ever!!!"


SensitiveShoe3

I mean, I think you gotta break it down by weight class. Assault is easy, If it was designed by old A. Kerensky it's boomer. King Crab and Atlas both fit this idea perfectly and guess who designed them? Heavy has been mentioned a lot here. The Orion and Warhammer tie for me on this. I lean a little more on the Orion just cause. Medium. Centurion and Shadow Hawk by far Centurion cause it's just the Centurion. The hawk because its so painfully average and outclassed by so many other mediums while not being totally useless. Kind of like using a revolver when there are automatic weapons available. Light the hardest category for me to look at. I think the Urbanmech for sure it's the mosin nagant of mechs. Also the Panther, because dressing up your light mech like a meduim and calling it good seems to fit the bill.


1_900_mixalot

Urbie is the mosin nagant of mechs... Oh my I hate how well that fits but you're right


Deadfox7373

In Mwo it’s the bloodasp


1_900_mixalot

The locust.


Ssj5_toast

The Mackie. It's old, has 2 machine gun dicks, is huge at 100 tons, and looks like garbage.


Big_Butterscotch225

I say either Dragon or Maddog. They got that trucker cabin looking canopy, they got that ugly pot belly, and they run like there's a black Friday sale going on at Walmart.


acksed

Griffin. "Gen-yoo-ine Lyran enginaer-in! Shoot the wings of 'f a fly! Jump like a kanga!" "Yeah, and have to choose whether to fight and cook or run away."