Crazy thought of the day: bye bye assault weight class

[Dave Baughman]

What are your thoughts on moving all of the weight classifications to match those used for aerospace fights? That is:

20-45 -- light
50-70 -- medium
75-100 -- heavy

I've been thinking about it and these brackets actually do a better job of defining the 'Mech roles, rather than the 40-55 medium that's split between the fast scouts in 40-45 and the "trooper" brawlers in 50-55. Plus, it gets the "weak" 60-65 ton heavies like the Dragon and the Quickdraw into a more appropriate group of units.

The game mechanical benefit of this is that it would reduce the number of equipment tables needed overall while allowing a somewhat more realistic tactical mix for ground units. Additionally, the way the BV numbers work out, the starting tables for the assault class woudl be really munchtastic (average BV of 3000 per 'Mech for the "A" table), so this would reign in the proliferation of super-optimized designs.

Anyone see any serious drawbacks to this approach?

[Daemonknight]

Neg, I like it. Only drawback( I don't see it as serious), is taking a rat out. For those already chopping at the bit for losing 'flexibility' in what theybcan bring, now it'll  be a bit worse.

[chaosxtreme]

Meh.

Three RAT's mean's 36 design's. More if their is an A and a B quality even more if you get an A,B,C quality.


36 as opposed 48? That's not really losing.

That's still ton's. And the change in weight class's means I get to keep more design's I favor but are not solid in their current weight class. I.E. I LIKE the Anvil taking it against a warhammer as an equal matchup is crazy talk.

Taking it against a Grand Dragon? Much fairer fight. :-)

Though speaking of RAT's that brings up an interesting question. Omni's as a single spot on the RAT rather then Variant's having a spot on the RAT.

I would like to pitch the idea of Omni's in RAT's taking the BV of their most expensive variant but the trade off being any Canon Omni Configuration being available to the player in MM.

Make's Omni's more expensive in game the strategic portion of the game but pay's that expense back in tactical flexibility which is supposed to be the trade off with Omni's anyway.

So for example Vulture would be listed as it's highest variant BV but your not required to take that configuration in a match in a match it could be PRIME or H or J or whatever really.

[Dave Baughman]

I have mixed feelings about giving 100% unrestricted access to Omnimech design configurations for two reasons. First, there's a "game psychology" issue; some Omnis have particular variants that are dramatically more effective than others - Dire Wolf A/C/Widowmaker or Warhawk C for example. By forcing players to pay the highest amount of cost for the chassis, it encourages them to always use the most expensive (and effective) variant in MegaMek. That's not the behavioral incentive I want to give with the table system. Second, it doesn't jive with the canon material - almost every Canon RAT specifies variants, so my inclination is to keep this practice in order maintain the "feel" of the force allocations.

Having said that I'm working on a way to allow some Omni flexibility in a controlled way, because its an aspect of the universe that should still be reflected. I haven't decided yet exactly how that is going to work, but by the time the ground tables are ready to implement, I will brief everyone on it and seek feedback.

Meh.

Three RAT's mean's 36 design's. More if their is an A and a B quality even more if you get an A,B,C quality.


36 as opposed 48? That's not really losing.

That's still ton's. And the change in weight class's means I get to keep more design's I favor but are not solid in their current weight class. I.E. I LIKE the Anvil taking it against a warhammer as an equal matchup is crazy talk.

Taking it against a Grand Dragon? Much fairer fight. :-)

Though speaking of RAT's that brings up an interesting question. Omni's as a single spot on the RAT rather then Variant's having a spot on the RAT.

I would like to pitch the idea of Omni's in RAT's taking the BV of their most expensive variant but the trade off being any Canon Omni Configuration being available to the player in MM.

Make's Omni's more expensive in game the strategic portion of the game but pay's that expense back in tactical flexibility which is supposed to be the trade off with Omni's anyway.

So for example Vulture would be listed as it's highest variant BV but your not required to take that configuration in a match in a match it could be PRIME or H or J or whatever really.

[Deathrider6]

For game purposes and sheet building I think the brackets as you have set them are pretty close to optimum my take on the three brackets is slightly different so I will refrain from posting them since there will be a bit of "play" witht e brackets as you have proposed anyways. Having Two major categories of mechs (1st line/SL and 2nd Line/  3025) makes sense since you can have up to 72 designs listed at maximum. Just my .02 C-Bills.

[Mekslayer]

I also think its a decent idea... except maybe for the 70 ton mech...
which I have a little trouble thinking of as a medium mech...
though I agree that 60-65 makes sense as mediums.

-Mek