From: trent@mailhost.hsas.washington.edu (Sigfried Trent)
Subject: Re: Battle tech nitty gritty mech designs
Followup-To: rec.games.board
Organization: Academic Services, UW
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:22:16 GMT

In article <BuKrAE.6Hw@apollo.hp.com>, carlton@apollo.hp.com (Carl Hommel)
wrote:
> I've never been a big fan of exploding ammo, ever since I lost my first
> two Stalkers...  It all depends on your playing style.  I prefer plinking
> away with PPC+ at range 10+.  If the other mechs in your lance are slowing the
> opponents down, you should be able to peel away several 10pt sections of armor
> before they can start using their shorter range weapons.
> 
Indeed, I hate exploding ammo.  The crusader and hunchback designs
realy boil my bottom.  Gosh, lets put the ammo all by its self.
I generaly like to put my ammo in the center torso, where by the
time it gets hit you are in pretty sad shape anyway.
The long range plinking can be a verry efective method, but its
not my style.  I usualy play up close and personal it I can.
Of course sometimes that just isnt possible.

> >Tonage:  Armor=16.25(259 points)
> Aha!  You are allocating a .25 ton of armor!  Is this legal?  The mecheditor
> is upping this to 16.5 tons.

It might not be, I'm not sure.  I always round up tonnages unless
there are other tonages in the design to compensate.  I never round 
down.  So it might not be to the letter of the law, but from my
experience most people add up quarter tons before rounding, even
though the rules say otherwise.  But if it was nessesary I could
change one of the lazers or drop a little armor.

> 
> >Space:  A normal mech has 47 free spaces available.
> >XL engine=+6  4LRM15s=+8  10tons ammo=+10  Douple heat sink=+3
> >large lazer=+2  4med lazers=+4  C3=+1  Endo=+14  No hand&lower arm=-4
> >This yields a grand total of 44 spaces used, 3 short of total 
> >avalable.
> Counting spaces isn't enough.  For example, I assume you are putting
> one Jump Jet in each leg.  Where is the third one going?  It can't go into
> the CT or HD, so it will not be symmetrical.  While this may be within the
> letter of the law, I would hesitate to design a mech this way.

Jump jets!!!  I forgot about the jump jets, that must be what those 3
extra spaces were fore.  And yes they are in the legs, It is 
asymetrical unfortunately.  That has never bothered me too much.
Who is to say that you cant use directional flow or some such
thing to balance the thrust.  I'm sure where there is a will
there is a way in the far future.  I concider this design to be 3050
so scrappy technology isnt so much of a problem.

> 
> Also, where are you placing the ammo bins?
> 
The ammo bins are all over the place, but are only located
in the locations where you find the launchers.  ie. the arms
and torsos.  They are not too balanced though, some locations
have more tons of ammo than others.

> Please don't think I'm being too adversarial,

Certainly not.  I apreciate that you take the time to review
my designs.  I like to pride myself on having resonable and 
legal designs.  Of course I have and do make mistakes.  I'm glad
when others find them so they can be corrected.  Thanks.

> Carl Hommel
> carlton@apollo.hp.com

"We live in an age when lemonaid is made with artificial flavoring and
dishwashing soap is made with real lemons"    Alfred E Newman
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