Redesigning Clan Tech - Part 1

Balancing Mechs and their features

Before we go over some points by Mr. Inouye post, I like to start with a newer post by David Bradley. As a note I had this post done last week, but I updated it to directly talk about the newly posted points. Sadly I wish I push the publish button last week... oh well.

In the latest post I found many of their points, well not right. Its really important before looking at each the points in Omni mech post that we have an overall design goal with Clan Tech. This is really important. Why build an overall design theme/goal?

Mr. Inouye points out:

“Clan Technology was initially implemented in BattleTech Table Top rules as a base around a new breed of warriors that adhered to a certain set of combat “rules”. The term “zellbrigen” refers to a style of combat which restricted the type of activities a MechWarrior would do during a fight. MechWarrior Online does not include this rule set for two main reasons. First off, it is a rule set that not everyone will want to adhere to, and secondly it would not be very fun to anyone not familiar with the rules in the first place (a much broader audience). Even through lore, zellbrigen was essentially phased out due to non-adherence by the Inner Sphere MechWarriors on the field of combat.”

And that means no limitations on Clan Tech, compared the current Inner Sphere Tech, well if left as is. But we don’t want to make changes that just for the point of balance. It’s nice to make changes to fit a feel and theme. And like any planning, a little outlining doesn’t hurt. I feel especially the Omni mech post that there is a lack of a overall design goal, other than keeping to cannon. Which I don't think is a good goal.

For Inner Sphere (IS) , we have a Cowboy/Merc feeling where anything goes, so we want

• Highly customizable mechs that are all different
• Not the best equipment, but cheap
• Underdog feeling
• Use Targeting Computers, ECM for any advantage in combat
• Have Air Strikes and Artillery to make up for weak weapons

For Clan, we want the highly tuned machines that skilled warriors use.

• Not so customizable designs, limited flexibility
• The best (and expensive) equipment
• Don’t use ECM and Targeting Computers, prefer raw skill
• Don’t use Air Strikes and Artillery, preferring to deal damage directly
• Mechs are tough and fight to the bitter end

This is really important to identify and work with these goals. We want Clan to IS to play differently but be competitive. Cannon will not get us there. So let’s start with balancing base mechs options.

For a given a Mech let have the following frame options

	Inner Sphere	Clan	Reasons Why
Engines	Can mount a wide range of engine for a Mech Frame. So most Mechs have limit to what the maximum engine can be mounted. XL Engines have 3 slots to each side, a cause a kill when any section is destroyed.	Have a very limited Engine mount range, plus or minus 10 rating their base engine. XL Engines have 2 slots to each side, and doesn’t cause a kill when any one section is destroyed. Omnimech Rules Post - Pretty much the same idea.	Clan have better engines, and are harder to get engine kills on. This is balanced out by they can’t min and max a design the way IS Mechs can be done. Omnimech Rules Post - Lacks information on how engine sizing will work.
Armor	Ferro-Fibrous - 12% more armor per ton for 14 Slots	Ferro-Fibrous - 10% more armor per ton for 7 Slots Omnimech Rules Post:  They are going with the 20%, which is too much advantage to clan.	So normally Clan would get 20% for 7 slots, and thats too much. This seemed to be a good compromise point. As IS Heavy and Assault Mechs will have to pick between Ferro-Fibrous upgrade or Endo-Steel, as they are too many slots together. Clan can have both upgrades.
Structure	Endo Steel - Half the Structure Weight for 14 Slots	Endo Steel - Half the Structure Weight for 7 Slots. Omnimech Rules Post - Pretty much the same idea.	This is key advantage for Clan Mechs. But will be balanced out by other tweaks.
Heat Sinks	Standard are 1 Heat Dissipated   Double are 1.5 Heat Dissipated for 3 slots, and 40% more total heat Note: Current Game - Double Heat Sinks are 1.4 Dissipated	Standard Heat Sinks are 1 Heat Dissipated and 20% more total heat before shutdown Double are 1.3 Heat Dissipated for 2 slots, and 65% more total heat before shutdown, Water Bonus for Clan is 20% more than IS. Omnimech Rules Post: “Provide the same heat loss as Inner Sphere Double Heat Sinks.” “Each Clan Double Heat Sinks occupies 2 critical slots.”	So in my design Clan can run more Heat than IS, but don’t have the heat dissipation as IS per Heat sink. There is a Increase to IS over what is in the game, right now .1, but this will be needed to give IS an edge. Clan can mount Double Heat Sinks in the legs for water bonus, which IS cannot. Making Clan Pilots, use tactics of standing in water for extra cooling. Fitting with the tactically theme for clan. In addition, Clan can mount more Heat Sinks than IS, so it Balances out in that way too. Omnimech Rules Post, doing what they outline is just too powerful, and does offer an change in game play for Clan over IS.
ECM	Only Key Mechs have ECM Slots, but increase the number of models by more than double.	No ECM Mounts	This give IS a huge advantage in sneaking and deployment. This jams more powerful weapons like Clan LRMS and Streaks.
Probes	1.5 tons and 2 critical spaces	1 tons and 1 critical spaces,	Allows Clan to field Probes easier. Allowing them to field better data about damage, and counter ECM at close ranges.
Anti-Missile System	Have an Ammo based Anti-Missile System. Increase all mount points by 1. But all Mechs can mount anti-missiles systems.	Have a Laser Anti-Missile System, which builds heat. All Mechs have at most 1, but many don’t have the option.	This allows IS poorer quality LRMS to have a chance, and IS to have a Chance against Clan LRMs. Also IS have a better chance to weaken Clan Armor at range. So a good IS polit might stand back and use LRMs to shave off armor before closing for a kill.
CASE	Takes 1 Slot and 0.5 Tons per section. Can only be mounted in Left or Right Torso Sections. Prevents an Explosion from transferring from to another section of the mech.	Free with any ammo added to the mech. Expect for Leg location, where CASE will not be an option. Works on Arms to. Omnimech Rules Post - Pretty much the same idea, minus the Leg limitation.	So for Clan this a big advantage. But it plays into tougher and higher quality theme of Clan mechs. The lack of CASE in the legs, is encourage people to put heatsinks in the legs instead of ammo. Pretty much to encourage them to stand in water for more heat dispersion.

These changes break from the canon of the board game, but not too much. Clan are tougher, but need more tactical skill to work with. With these list changes, we are somewhat close to our goals, outlined above.

Clan Tactics

Clan mechs run hotter than IS, but can store up more heat before risking shutdown, so they will need time to cool between fights. Best if they move into water for extra cooling. For Clan, controlling access to water or fighting in water will give them an advantage.

Another change is the Anti-missile systems. Clan mechs don’t have as much protection from missiles short and long range as IS Mechs do. So this means they either run the risk of ineffective missile shots, or they must take more missile launchers in case they need to cut through the Anti-missile systems.

IS Tactics

IS can set themselves up to last longer in fights if they don’t overwhelm their heat sinks. Most of all IS has ECM, over Clan. This gives them better battlefield placement, and the ability to shield themselves from Long Range Missiles (LRMs). Even better when Clan LRMs are way better than IS LRMs.

IS have better protection from missiles, allowing them to have more armor by the time they engage. Using ammo, they can run out of protection, and if they load up on too much anti-missile ammo, they make themselves more vulnerable to damage. Which is a nice balance.

See, now we have different fighting styles and tactics among the two sides, giving to more fun play, and breaking up any monotony of just clumping up and smashing each other. In the Omni mech Post, I didn’t get any feel of a theme or overall game design. There were no points that pointed out different tactics for Clan mechs over the current Inner Sphere Mechs.

Where my outlined changes, Clan mechs will be tatically different than Inner Sphere Mechs. Now the Omni Mechs post was most outlining how OnmiPods will work Which I was planning to go over later, in future post. I need to talk about the weapons before talking about Omni Pods. Trust me on this, I have a better Idea of how Omni Pods will work and make for fun game play.

So let’s look at what would a clan Mech look like.. and let’s take the most overpowered clan mech that will be in the game... Warhawk/Masakari

The Warhawk is a monster at best; it’s very powerful and deadly. In the board game, to balance out two technology options of Clan Tech and Inner Sphere Tech, a point system was used to calculate the power of a Mech design so that you can roughly match it with the same power, and its called Battle Value.

The Warhawk comes in at 3,194 points. Sure but what does that mean, the Altas comes in at 1,897. The Warhawk is a little shy of two... two Altases(Altali? Atlantes? *shrug*). Did I mention deadly?

Warhawk

	Original	Online Version	Notes and Reasons
Engine	340 XL	340 XL
Armor	Ferro-Fibrous 259 points	Ferro-Fibrous 228	A little loss of armor, but not a lot. With less overall armor, this mech will have to rely on the tougher engine and better CASE protection.
Structure	Standard	Standard	No real change, No Endo-Steel to maximize the space in the mech for more stuff like heat sinks.
Heat Sinks	20 Double Heat Sinks Count as 40 Heat Sinks	20 Double Heat Sinks Count as 26 Standard Heat Sinks Works out to 20 seconds to cool after firing all PPCs with a rate of 2.79 heat a second, on a cool map. Where IS Mech firing the same weapons would in 18 seconds to cool and 3.22 heat a second	Warhawk comes with 4 PPCs, which works out to 60 heat. In the board game it would take two turns to cool off after firing all four. In the Online version, it take a long while to cool down. You can fire each PPC about twice, then you will have to wait to cool.
ECM	None	None	It sucks to be Clan!
Probe	None	1 Probe	This helps counter ECM effects and provide faster targeting information.
Anti-Missile System	None	1 Laser Anti-Missile System	Allow for some protection from missiles, which will be needed.
Targeting Computer	1 for all weapons	None	Nope, you need skill to use this toy.

So you can see not much has changed between the Board Game version and the real time version. It still has the heat capacity for an alpha strike, but it’s going to take a long time to cool. So we will need some weapon tuning next. But it does have a targeting computer for that extra edge of lethality.

Clan Extra Light Engines will give a bit of an survivability edge, but the lighter armor leaves a bit more vulnerability. Laser Anti-Missile System will allow it to reduce missile damage, but if they are running the 4x ER PPCs, they will have to manage how many to fire, based on the incoming missiles. If the Anti-missile system is firing too much, this is going to cut into their offensive firepower as this is going to build heat.

So Warhawk verse and Atlas will need water in order to take on more than just one atlas. It have a strong alpha, but they Clan polit will need to use the speed and cover, between shots, waiting for the mech to cool. The Atlas, can fire longer, but lacks a strong alpha, so will try to keep in the fight to slowly rip the Warhawk apart.

Different styles of play. And more fun in the game.

So Next Week: Weapons!