BA Claw Countermeasures

[Brainwright]

Actually, coolant, while flushed through a reactor core to lower it's temperature, absorbs the heat and gets extremely hot at the point when it's exhausted, working as a heat pump. That brings me to a great idea: if mech exhausts used coolant as extremely hot gas, this could actually be a great anti-claw measure, as every BA, who is attached to this mech should get some damage from exhausted coolant. Not an instant kill, but enough to scare them off. With a two seconds coolant flush being deadly, every BA should think twice to stay attached for too long.

I wouldn't say two seconds due to lag concerns.  Not even lava is that unforgiving.  I would go for damage ticks like lava and the weapons being disabled due to overheating.

[(TLL) Zeh]

I would say 2 seconds is generous.  I would prefer an instant-kill-gtf-off-my-mech flamer burst, but this would still accomplish the act of forcing them off you.  It also shouldn't burn ALL your coolant, as it would if took much longer, because once the claw goes live, there's going to be many more BAs hopping around.

[HAARP]

Very good idea. Make it 4 secs and it's perfect.

[sgnl05]

How about, claw can be used for an infinite amount of time, but can't actually make any attacks and guns can't be fired while using the claw. The point would be that you shoot yourself towards the mech you want to kill, grab ahold and then stick as many C8's as possible to it before they explode and kill you.

This way, BA still has a perfectly good reason to use the claw; sticking C8 to moving mechs as it is is very hard, and sticking 3 to the same component in a short period of time is near impossible. The claw would guarantee you about 3 C8 hits to the same place if you managed to attach, surely that's good enough?

It also forces BA to get off after attacking, sidestepping the problem of them just sitting there forever slowly stripping off armor without the mech being able to do anything about it. Of course they can still sit there forever but if they're not doing any damage, who cares? And you don't need any artificial gameplay mechanic like "oh the claw's run out of fuel".

Also BA could still use the claw to ride friendly mechs, which is another important use of it.

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

I assume the discussion of coolant in here means that 0.1.0's coolant flush instagibbing BA's was unintended? (Though a BA suddenly being engulfed in superheated vapour SHOULD fry it instantly imo, it makes BA's latching on completely unviable)

[(TLL)Siilk]

Actually, coolant, while flushed through a reactor core to lower it's temperature, absorbs the heat and gets extremely hot at the point when it's exhausted, working as a heat pump. That brings me to a great idea: if mech exhausts used coolant as extremely hot gas, this could actually be a great anti-claw measure, as every BA, who is attached to this mech should get some damage from exhausted coolant. Not an instant kill, but enough to scare them off. With a two seconds coolant flush being deadly, every BA should think twice to stay attached for too long.

I wouldn't say two seconds due to lag concerns.  Not even lava is that unforgiving.  I would go for damage ticks like lava and the weapons being disabled due to overheating.

 Agreed, lava is a good example of how extreme heat should affect BA. The thing I had in mind with coolant exhaust being dangerous to BA was not instant death, but more of a heap and easy way to scare the toads off you. Every mech in MWLL have coolant, so every mechwarrior would have a 'last resort' anti-BA countermeasure, to drive them off, if they're clawed on their cockpit.

 With coolant flushes being a close combat measure, disposable anti-BA pods, discussed earlier, could actually have up to 100-150m area damage, keeping BAs further away from ABA pod-equipped mech.

[Infinite o0o]

I say no timer on "the claw" but we need to have the ability to equip vehicles with AP(anti-personnel) pods, their drawback being that they would also damage your vehicle's armor when used. but besides that, you should still have to rely on teammates to take care of BA if you're not in a vehicle that can take care of itself in that situation.

[~SJ~ Xarg Talasko]

I don't suppose there are any novel/canon examples of a 'Mech dislodging a BA through anything other than trying to pancake it?

[=KoS=toasterpastries]

I think AMS should be able to shoot at enemy BA riding on you. They would give missiles priority, and hit BA within very close range when there are no missiles.

[No!Petru]

Any updates on the claw? According to [TLL]420me or whatever his name is (and since a fair chunk of TLL are alpha testers and internal workers, I figured it was reliable), the Claw wasn't coming anymore as it can't be made to work.

[Nakor]

I don't think the claw will be all that big of an issue really.. BA's can already be removed from friendly mechs relatively painlessly already.  Just use machine guns and be careful, its not super hard..  That being said, most of the threat from the claw IS c8 and that completely precludes hanging on for long periods of time anyway.  I might also point out that several of the BA guns deal splash damage which would make using them in conjunction with the claw problematic anyway.. PPC and flamer in particular.   That combined with existing BA countermeausures makes me think it won't really be that big a deal.. I guess if like 5 guys went BA and gang clawed a mech and slapped c8 on it together it would be pretty sick.. but thats kinda the way its supposed to work isn't it?  I doubt very much that single BA units will be that much of threat.. And if you want to stop people from leaping out of mechs with that shit, just make it so you can only buy it from the APC, it would help encourage people to use BA's properly, instead of this bailing from totally green mechs bullshit.  I think the claw will be totally badass btw, can't wait to strap some c8 to an Atlas' face and watch it poof

[DFDelta]

I don't think the claw will be all that big of an issue really.. BA's can already be removed from friendly mechs relatively painlessly already.  Just use machine guns and be careful, its not super hard..  That being said, most of the threat from the claw IS c8 and that completely precludes hanging on for long periods of time anyway.  I might also point out that several of the BA guns deal splash damage which would make using them in conjunction with the claw problematic anyway.. PPC and flamer in particular.   That combined with existing BA countermeausures makes me think it won't really be that big a deal.. I guess if like 5 guys went BA and gang clawed a mech and slapped c8 on it together it would be pretty sick.. but thats kinda the way its supposed to work isn't it?  I doubt very much that single BA units will be that much of threat.. And if you want to stop people from leaping out of mechs with that shit, just make it so you can only buy it from the APC, it would help encourage people to use BA's properly, instead of this bailing from totally green mechs bullshit.  I think the claw will be totally badass btw, can't wait to strap some c8 to an Atlas' face and watch it poof

My toughts exactly, plus you can't even use C8 while clawed, as the splash of it would surely kill you.
Ever tried to stand on the right LRM rack of a Catapult and attached a C8 to the left one? Kills you. Same with standing far on the back of a Madcat and attaching one at the tip of the cockpit, kills you, too 
Claw is totally hyped and will not even come close to what people think now.

All weapons you could use while attached to a mech would be SBL, AC2, Bearclaw-AC, NARC and TAG, and two of those would be very stupid and one useless

[Brainwright]

My toughts exactly, plus you can't even use C8 while clawed, as the splash of it would surely kill you.
Ever tried to stand on the right LRM rack of a Catapult and attached a C8 to the left one? Kills you. Same with standing far on the back of a Madcat and attaching one at the tip of the cockpit, kills you, too 
Claw is totally hyped and will not even come close to what people think now.

All weapons you could use while attached to a mech would be SBL, AC2, Bearclaw-AC, NARC and TAG, and two of those would be very stupid and one useless

Dude.  You just slap two C8's on there, jump off, and jump back on once they've gone off.  Rinse, repeat, and get your points.

It's not that hard a concept.

Though, I've been thinking on this, and I've got to ask... which hand would the battle armor use to plant the explosives?

[Flyingdebris]

groin mounted launcher

[(TLL)martinroshak]

Though, I've been thinking on this, and I've got to ask... which hand would the battle armor use to plant the explosives?

The left, totally makes sense.  And no, I'm not left handed