Id love to play (if only for a day) a Mechwarrior game that totally followed CBT, like the board game not even the fluff. Just to see if it would be as lame as everyone claims, or perhapss the best MW game ever.
So like just arbitrarily pick a number to be the standard 'turn time' though obviously all weapon recycles would be independent based on when fired. All weapons would have a 6 (for example) second recycle time, except for pulse lasers MGs and rotary\ultra ACs which would fire twice a 'turn' or more like 6 times for MGs.
Every weapon does its CBT damage value, all weapons that fire more than once (with the exception of ultras\ RACs perhaps) are halved or whatever to make their total damage potential the same, it just means if you miss once, you can still get half the total potential damage faster than a medium laser's recharge time. So YES a medium laser has the same recycle as an AC20, but does 1/4 of the damage!
Mech designs are carbon copies of their TRO entries (equipment not visually) meaning armor values translate directly, critical hit tables and variability would be epic as well. So be careful if you pick to pilot a hussar.
Ranges can be extended a bit, id say a 100 meter per hex for weapon range (not move speed), though this could put fast short range mechs at a disadvantage in open terrain, your AC20 is gonna be firing alot farther now too, but itll take longer to get in range meaning using cover is essential, but you dont need to get as retardedly close to open up with short range weapons. Accuracy penalties would be in effect, so even if your AC 5 shoots almost 2km theres probably a 60% chance the shot will deviate enough in the small cone of fire present that is misses, annd you definetly cant pick your target location to hit untill about 1/2 or 1/3 max range.
Oh and the tech level should be 3025... NO double heat sinks! or silly clan lasers and head capping gauss rifles....
I feel this would capture the feel of the novels much better. In a battletech novel mech combat is brutal and fast paced, but I always get the feeling weapons dont fire very fast. Every shot counts, and in the books a pilot can trigger a medium laser, do reasonable damage, but then not use it again for a while. A real time simulation of battletech I think would mean every shot counts, and your constantly battling heat, and managing rather small ammo amounts. Plenty of mechs use weapons with only 10-20 shots in them, often primary armaments like AC/10s.
I think its silly that a light mech could mount NINE medium lasers, move AT ALL and not overheat like crazy.
In 3025 nine medium lasers would be a decent armament for an assault mech!
