Thread 96959074

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Assorted Mecha Goodness:
https://pastebin.com/E2wi55AZ
Embryo Machine Translation:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1r_cjOLuUp3HussVRhbQYU3G0zK6hwy1r
Lancehounds Homebrew:
M3g4 folder/eMEBUbCL#kj2FRrlqTa-02U16XpnVRg

Previous Thread:
>>96798588

Question of the Thread:
What thoughts do you have on fancy/special technologies that make mecha possible?

Thread Theme:
https://youtu.be/T_kEs91V3b4

>TQ
I mean, the classic is some kind of neural interface that requires the mentally-interfaced machine to be shaped like a person...

Super-awesome alloys are also a good one.

>>96959074 (OP)
>What thoughts do you have on fancy/special technologies that make mecha possible?
I prefer a different question.

The question isn't "What makes mecha possible", but rather "What technology have made fighting a war as efficiently as possible no longer a necessity?"

I see a mech as being akin to a dueling sword, or a set of ceremonial armor. Is a ceremonial set of armor protective? Of course. Can a dueling sword still be dangerous? Absolutely. Would you use either in World War 3? Probably not.

But what about a world where conflicts aren't settled through massive wars, but through interpersonal duels? Where pure resource and combat efficiency aren't important because both sides abide by a pre-agreed upon set of rules? In such instances you needn't worry about pure efficiency, so your can customize your weapon to achieve a different goal entirely...winning the crowd.

>>96959074 (OP)
I was always a fan for the motion capture suit concept for mech piloting. Maybe with the pilot suspended in an inertia dampening fluid.

I think I'm getting better at making maps in my VTT, for those who GM, what do you normally watch out for when making stuff? I try to give various amounts of height and cover based on the terrain and conditions while also throwing in map objectives that aren't just "kill everything on the screen". I'm using a tileless system for Lancer and it's been working well so far outside of occasional issues with awkward cover.

>QoTT
It's necessarily to make up something when the square cubed law exists, whatever flavor you have is fine, but I prefer sci-fi super-metal stuff instead of fantasy or willpower based solutions.

>>96959074 (OP)
>TQ
Probably highly-efficient artificial muscles, in a form that has very limited applicability in conventional vehicles such that if it really had to be used in a tank, then that tank may as well be a mech in all but name.

This tied in with what >>96959186 said.

Because fuck the 'wouldn't XX technology be better used on a tank?' faggots.

Speaking of which, fantasy mecha are such an obvious derivation of the magic Law of Similarity & its corollaries. What more if magical properties lets it ignore inertia & momentum to some degree.

>>96959239
faaaaaaag
"erm actually they suck dick but no one cares and they're all just larping" is the gayest outcome. Great way to deflate all tension and gravity, that all of them would instantly toss aside their mechs to make way for tanks if it ever got "serious".
Dueling variants of mechs are cool though.
>>96959598
>It's necessarily to make up something when the square cubed law exists
No one even knows what it actually means, it's just a buzzword for people who don't like mechs in the first place. You literally just need big feet or more points of contact.

>>96960558
If you can't see the appeal of mechs being the equivalent of jousting then there's no helping you.

>>96959503
I used to feel the same but I eventually decided I liked there being a bit of "friction" in how they control. To help sell the power and size/weight of the things. I forget which property did it, but I like when it's a mixture of direct control and the equivalent of binding actions to keys (kind of like vidya controls).

>>96959074 (OP)
>What thoughts do you have on fancy/special technologies that make mecha possible?
Just possible or dominant?
Because for possible you only need a good enough internal combustion engine, which we have. Haptic interface with some refinement is more than enough to drive a small mecha (Heavy Gear sized).

For dominant you need way more - at minimum a good reason for why walking locomotion is preferred over wheeled or flight. BT myomers are actually a good answer even if rules laid out for them are pretty shit.
Also I always thought that BT would be way better if their FTL worked planet to planet instead of needing spaceships. Would have been way more obvious why people invested so heavily into mechs.

>>96960581
"G Gundam but it's gay"

>>96959598
I like to work in destructability elements, to properly sell the scale of the fighting. For my 2D maps, that means having terrain markers for rubble and fire, which I can overlay on top of existing terrain when a character does sufficient damage to that object. Or putting special decals on the map like craters.
If you are working with TTS or a similar program, maybe you can construct a building or terrain feature from stacked objects, then have rules for collapsing it? Or little markers to toss on the table to represent a missed shot?

>>96959074 (OP)
So what mecha TTRPGs do people actually play? The only ones I've ever heard about are:
Battletech, which is apparently Supreme autism.
Lancer, which is apparently more about political soapboxing and roleplaying JR meetings than mech combat.
GURPS, which is a meme non-answer.

>>96961397
I try to give opportunities to my players for destructible stuff, yeah, one of my guys is a Cannon user and really likes his Jackhammer Round so I give him walls and buildings to blow through, my VTT makes it easy to just take chunks out of objects and terrain in game so the feedback for them is nice. I should probably start giving tougher terrain more than 10HP though, might just visibly make walls thicker for stuff I don't want them to get through as easily.

>>96961614
Lancer can be good if you just say that the Union is the Star Trek Federation and avoid playing with idpol obsessed people, the mechanics of the system are solid.

>>96961614
>So what mecha TTRPGs do people actually play?
I mentioned this is a previous thread but I don't run a mecha system, I run Traveller and put mechs in it.
The problem I have with every mecha game I've tried (Robotech, Mechwarrior, Heavy Gear, Mekton, etc.) is that they are so focused on the mechs that hey leave so much play opportunity out
As a game master, I strive to create situations where the players have multiple ways of solving their problems and a variety of tools to do so. Mechs should be one tool but there should be viable reasons to leave it parked sometimes.

>>96961011
You mean "Gundam, but it's better". Mechs are too pretty to be associated with gritty war, they're better as tools of a duel, something with flare and culture and soul.

>>96959239
>>96963734
Go shit up the Battletech thread and leave us alone they’ll fall for it more

>>96961614
Heavy Gear and BCG

>>96963984
>Comes into the mecha thread
>Gets angry when he sees mecha

>>96961614
>Lancer, which is apparently more about political soapboxing and roleplaying JR meetings than mech combat.
The combat is the only good thing about the game. I just fixed the setting by basing my campaign on a massive asteroid mining colony that got burned by the Union reps at one point so they’re a splintered civilization that the various corps are trying to wrangle for themselves.

>>96959239
Efficiency in war is often secondary to effectiveness. If building mechs is more effective than traditional weapons then they will build mechs. Efficiency only matters when it comes to how scalable production is.

>>96964575
Well, therein lies the rub. Assuming no plot armor or magic, what are mechs really effective at? Toughness, not particularly, speed, not really, firepower, less than you'd want.

But style? Oh yes, mechs are VERY effective when it comes to style. Nothing is more stylish or more cool than a mech. So naturally any form of combat where style is more important than killing the enemy is going to prioritize the usage of mechs. And where do we see that? In duels, jousting, honorable combat between nobles and warriors, the stakes may be large or small, they might be fighting for their country or just settling a personal grudge match or just having a friendly spar, but no matter what you don't want to go into the arena of battle if you're not also going to win over the crowd.

Regular vehicles are like Legionaries. They get the job done, but they're boring. But a mech? A mech is a gladiator. It's triumphant and glorious, and flashy as it should be.

>>96964632
>Assuming no plot armor or magic
Anon. This entire board is about make believe and games. Your entire argument falls apart after this because it's a distraction from the fact we are all playing pretend. You pretend to be intelligent and I pretend to care. See? We are playing pretend.

>>96964679
Hey, retard-kun, the question of the thread was "What thoughts do you have on fancy/special technologies that make mecha possible?", if you didn't want to engage in the premise of the thread then you don't have to.

>>96964014
More that the question of mecha "realism" and "efficiency," along with the desire to relegate mecha to duels, has a history of starting arguments here. It strikes at the underpinnings of both Real Robot and many Super Robot genres, and frankly it is harder to apply to an actual tabletop RPG!
I've run tournament arcs in my games before (though not the mecha games), and it can be difficult to make sure each PC gets enough spotlight time. Not impossible, of course. Maybe each duelist mech has a pilot and co-pilot (controlled by another player). But harder than "your team goes to fight the bad guys/solve the problem together."

>>96964695
This is true. We don't need to engage with it.

>>96964632
For human shaped mechs, the best use would simply scaling up the versatility of a human. This assumes situations where the use of hands provides an advantage.
My favorite mechs fall into the "chick legged"type; think the AT-ST from Star Wars or the Locust from Battletech. In theory, these are mobility mechs. The idea is that they would have great speed over difficult terrain. In my mind, this would give you a lot of the advantages of helicopters with out the noise and a lower power consumption while sacrificing actual flying and altitude.
Another type of mech I don't see often that I love is the crab mech. This is essentially a replacement for tanks and other tracked vehicles by giving them rows of legs rather than tracks. They could have heavily armored legs or they could tuck their legs under themselves when hunkering down. Two possible advantages over normal tank would be being able to take on even more rough terrain and possibly climbing steeper slopes and being able to move in any direction without rotating the body.
Just my thoughts.

>>96964695
You literally posted a whataboutism to that question. One that is overused and boring. Everyone knows mechs are unrealistic, we don't care. In another thread we have people talking about killing dragons (without complaining about how unrealistic it would be) and dungeon diving (without arguing about the economic viability of the venture). No one here actually cares about or is interested in realism. The question was what bullshit you used to justify mechs. You gave your piece, don't act like your solution is better than the unrealistic, fantastic ones.
Hell I'd justify mechs with actual fucking magic if I did worldbuilding.

>>96964791
This is one reason I tend to like the Tau battlesuits or Exalted warstriders more than something like Battletech mechs. I personally find that, the more you try to justify your mechs as being 'realistic', the more questions it brings, and it rarely ever results in satisfying answers. The best answer really is just 'don't think too hard about it', and that answer tends to work best in settings that were never trying to be grounded or realistic in the first place.

>>96964846
>You gave your piece, don't act like your solution is better than the unrealistic, fantastic ones.
Holy projection batman, I never said mine was better than anyone else's. Are you really THAT insecure that the second anyone gives a suggestion that isn't yours, you instantly pop a lid and think they're trying to one-up you?

Look, it's none of my business, but you might want to see a therapist, you have some major insecurities you need to deal with.

>>96964868
So you aren't this fag?
>>96963734

>>96964944
Are you not THIS fag?
>>96961011
Because if not, it wasn't directed at you.

If you come to the mecha thread just to shit on mecha, then don't be surprised when people don't act nice to you dumbass.

>>96965039
Nah. I'm cool with G Gundam but I don't think it is better than the OG Gundam

>>96965080
I like G Gundam a bit more but the others are still really good.

>>96959074 (OP)
I've been particularly obsessed with the idea of consciousness transference. It was originally born out of the idea of having some kind of horror adventure where you explore some mech-sized environment so even if you were "killed" you could go back but every death/injury would add up on your actual body and mind.

It was also a way of getting around the going into space type deal allowing space exploration and exploitation while still living on Earth

>>96965811
I've always thought Eclipse Phase had good bones for a mech game.

>>96966023
I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner. It literally does all that right out of the box while I was obsessing over WoD/CofD because I liked the mood of it. Hell, EP even has psychic powers built into it.

>>96966023
IMO, that's the best way to go. Introduce mechs to a solid scifi game and you'll have a much better mech game.

In the system I'm working on to make camp and fully rest you need to succeed on a check everyone contributes to and every race gains a bonus if they are in a environment that suits them. So everyone essentially gains a bonus for being in a place that's similar to their home, except for humans, humans gain that bonus if they have access to a mecha cockpit.

>>96965811
Eclipse Phase, or similar?

>>96966400
Oops, page had not updated. Didn't see that it was already discussed.

>>96966057
Ah, though I could see ways to do it with WoD. Demon: the Fallen even had some use of the idea, since demons can find new hosts.

>>96966400
Originally wanted to use WoD/CofD but now I realize how much of an idiot I was for ignoring EP.

>>96965039
I am that fag and your idea is gay and your taste is indicative of molestation.

>>96966414
We all have those moments.

>>96959074 (OP)
>What thoughts do you have on fancy/special technologies that make mecha possible?
A pair of gloves where you bump your knuckles together and then turn into the head of the mecha.