A question about elementals

[hitotsu]

I think i remember in the old battletech cartoon elementals using their claw to cling onto enemy mechs take pot shots at them will this still be possible in the first release or planned in any release?

[Stahlseele]

probably in a later release.
if i remember correctly, in the first release, you get to RIP AND TEAR into the Mechs with your Claws allready.
And because the mechs are huge that means you have huge innards to rip and tear into too. rip and tear!

[Flyingdebris]

there's nothing wrong with you i can't fix, WITH MY HANDS!

[Criminal]

This is a bit of a sensitive question right now. We are right now in the process of extending our claw so that you are again able to grab onto vehicles. This has always been an important feature, not so much for offensive action but for different reasons. We want the player to be able to grab onto friendly and enemy vehicles to not only hitch a ride to battle but to be able to effectively nullify any offensive capabilities that mech may have against you. You will not be able to shoot whilst clawed to a mech or vehicle, for a few reasons, one of the main ones being the splash radius of most of the weapons. With that said the battle suits have lots to do IF they get close enough to a mech. They have C8 charges to lay on different components (like legs or other important weapons) so really if you are in a battle suit and you sneak up on a mech you can basically do surgery on the mech while the mech pilot will have a difficult time getting rid of you

[Flyingdebris]

aw damn, i wanted to stick to a mech and laser it to death from my little perch

[Criminal]

Well if you got real skill you can stand on top of the mech and laser the shit out of it

[Stahlseele]

other question:
if elemental grabs onto front of mech cockpit, the pilot probably won't be able to see and thus shoot at other things . .
and if another mech tries to shoo(t) the mech away, he will most likely headshot the carrier mech right? O.o

[Criminal]

That's exactly what can happen. Hehe all the mech pilot will see is the smiling face of an elemental clinging onto him. Likely too if the mech pilots buddy tries to shoot off the elemental he wil no doubt do some damage to his own teammate and if it was right at the cockpit then yes it would be a nice headshot.

[Stahlseele]

i hereby petition for weapons placeable at cockpit location! ^^
some small puls-laser or MG or (L)A.M.S

[AoP]

i hereby petition for weapons placeable at cockpit location! ^^
some small puls-laser or MG or (L)A.M.S

I'd rather see something like an EMP-flash or something like that happening, for the simple reason that basically any weapon fired that close to the cockpit would cause splash damage to the cockpit. Imagine how pissed you'd be if you accidentally killed yourself while trying to get rid of a small elemental on your front window which, at this time, can't even do any damage to you while clinged on.

[Stahlseele]

would the mech self-destruct killing the elemental too?

[AoP]

would the mech self-destruct killing the elemental too?

The explosion itself has enough destructive power to wipe out any battlearmor in range.
However, if the battlearmor realises what's going on and knows how to handle their suit, they usually should have no problem to jumpjet into safety.
After all, self-destruct is not supposed to be a weapon, not even a defensive one, even though it works quite well against less agile enemies.

[Stahlseele]

like buildings and jumpships

[Flyingdebris]

can we expect to be able to be able to do a little point blank shooting while clinging onto mechs in some future release?

As for defense.  Anti infantry pods are always possible, i know rules wise they only work on unarmored infantry, but come on, its a half ton claymore mine, i'm surprised the explosion alone doesn't blow off the legs of the mech using them considering that 1 mine is equivalent to 60 lrms or 2.5 arrow 4s in weight.

[AoP]

like buildings and jumpships

No, like most Mechs and heavy vehicles. If you're in a war-torn Atlas, you will not want to get too close to, say, a Puma, because even if you beat them, chances are they'll find revenge after dying.