artillary

[Walter Kovacs]

Hey guys

Myself and a group of friends have been playing Mechwarrior: the dark age (this is the click based miniture game) for a few years now and love it to death.  So much so that we created our own campaign system that has been going of for about a year now with no signs of letting up. 

I got very excited about this game because it incorperates many of the different aspects of the Dark age universe: Battle armour, vehicles, tanks, vtols, and mechs that simply was not present or not an issue in the mechwarrior PC games.

One thing though that makes the Dark Age game awesome is the use of Artillary.  I know that this will not be intoduced into the beta, but I was wondering if there had been any though as to including it somewhere down the line?

I am thinking that you would buy an artillary tank like any other tank but instead of the normal crosshairs, there would be a map and your team mates would have to feed you data or "paint" the target like the LRM's in one of the pictures.  Then this tank would fire a round into the air .... seconds later bam.  These tanks (like in dark age) are usually very easy to kill and artillary can be dodged but their biggest defence is that they are not on the front line and can be great support.

Just a thought but I think they could be valuble additions to the game.

[Stahlseele]

What is this Artillary you so fondly speak of?
Artillery will be in, sooner or later.
Long Tom, Arrow IV or Thunder-Missles with TAG Target Aquiring Gear laser

[Walter Kovacs]

man I knew it didn't look right, well beside my spelling blunder I still think its a good idea.  I have tag systems on mechs too so that little mechs may be more of a threat to larger mechs if they have the arty support.  Artillary....how did my brain let that one go.

[Stahlseele]

eh, it happens ^^
and it will be in, and yes, small mechs and battle armor will get the tag system, nothing big . .

[(TLL) Heretic]

Like the Indirect Fire mode that you suggest, would mean the Arty unit spends most of their time looking at the cockpit screens, but I for one would enjoy landing some accurate support fire from back at base and hoping that the team takes care of any Aero's that come looking for the easy kill!

[~SJ~ Griffin]

yeah always remember even if there are no artillery tanks chances are there will be some artillery weapons for mechs to use.

P.S. I am so jealous you have friends that play dark age....all mine quit and i still have tons of units under my bed that have been there for years...that game is fun times

[Walter Kovacs]

Right now I there are .... seven of us that still play Mechwarrior the dark age every month and some times a couple times a month.  The campaign is seriously what kept us in it because it is soooooooooo awesome.  Basically think of the Battle tech map with all the solar systems.  Now think the map like a "risk" map with the planets being counties to be taken over.  You need to move points around planets like you move armies in risk except when ever there is a battle they are played you on the mechwarrior battlefield.  Just like risk, you can attack with more forces than you can defend with but the defenders get certain bonuses during battle.  Awesome.  (I am a steiner man myself so down with clanner scum  )

Anyways, for the artillery tanks, they should still be able to see infront of them but have the map taking up a chunk of the screen and whenever something is "painted" it turns up red on the map.  Also you should be able to paint anything so that you can paint the area infront of a tank so that when the shells get there, they are right on target.

just my 2 cents

[ToeBall]

You mean like a vehicle, maybe even a mech, equipped with LRM's or Arrow IV's or something sitting at the back of the battlefield and someone with a TAG laser illuminates a target, the long range mech can then volley fire until it kills the target? That kind of artillery?

[Starseeker]

maby make the artillery more like moble turrets, u can drive them where u want and can leave to join the main battle while the artillery automatically fires on anything that gets a TAG. that way nobody has to just sit there, but u still have artillery.

[(TLL) Heretic]

You mean like a vehicle, maybe even a mech, equipped with LRM's or Arrow IV's or something sitting at the back of the battlefield and someone with a TAG laser illuminates a target, the long range mech can then volley fire until it kills the target? That kind of artillery?

Sounds fantastic!

By that point the enemy should have some heavy aero's pouncing on the Arty pretty fast I'd think, seems like valid teamplay tactic to me......

[Whiplash]

maby make the artillery more like moble turrets, u can drive them where u want and can leave to join the main battle while the artillery automatically fires on anything that gets a TAG. that way nobody has to just sit there, but u still have artillery.

Wow...

You mean like a vehicle, maybe even a mech, equipped with LRM's or Arrow IV's or something sitting at the back of the battlefield and someone with a TAG laser illuminates a target, the long range mech can then volley fire until it kills the target? That kind of artillery?

[Diablo48]

maby make the artillery more like moble turrets, u can drive them where u want and can leave to join the main battle while the artillery automatically fires on anything that gets a TAG. that way nobody has to just sit there, but u still have artillery.

A better solution might be to allow anyone equipped with Arrow IV to go into an overhead view of the map and drop shells anywhere without line of sight.  To be consistent with CBT artillery, the shells should have some scatter from the target location but have a large blast radius to compensate for the inaccuracy.  For simplicity I would combine the homing and explosive shells so it can be guided into a target by TAG which would give the bonus of having the damage concentrated on one section of the 'Mech from a direct hit.

[~SJ~ Griffin]

Right now I there are .... seven of us that still play Mechwarrior the dark age every month and some times a couple times a month.  The campaign is seriously what kept us in it because it is soooooooooo awesome.  Basically think of the Battle tech map with all the solar systems.  Now think the map like a "risk" map with the planets being counties to be taken over.  You need to move points around planets like you move armies in risk except when ever there is a battle they are played you on the mechwarrior battlefield.  Just like risk, you can attack with more forces than you can defend with but the defenders get certain bonuses during battle.  Awesome.  (I am a steiner man myself so down with clanner scum  )

that does sound really cool...unfortunately none of my friends would be interested in something like that these days. Well maybe a few of them but they have the bad habit of getting bored with stuff real quick. Anyway I'll have to find some ppl somewhere around me that are still into dark age and see if i can get one of these going. I may need to ask for your assistance in the future just in case i have trouble figuring rules out for the planet travel and stuff, ty for the great idea.

[(TLL)KitLightning]

LT-MOB-25 Mobile Long Tom Artillary. No other arty needed.

[(TLL) Heretic]

LT-MOB-25 Mobile Long Tom Artillary. No other arty needed.

Pah!!  Call that Mobile Artillery!

That! is Mobile Artillery......
*points to a descending 6000ton Fortress Class Military Dropship! (that everyone thought was a cloud)*

http://users.anet.com/~cplkagan/equipment/spheretech/dropships/ds-fortress.html

Plus you get a full Company of 'mechs to defend it, just drop it anywhere within a few dozen klicks of any target, deploy the Longtom rinse and repeat!