RE: Calling all BattleTechies
08-31-2018, 02:51 PM (This post was last modified: 08-31-2018, 03:00 PM by Acyl.)
08-31-2018, 02:51 PM (This post was last modified: 08-31-2018, 03:00 PM by Acyl.)
BattleTech as a setting treats dishonoured or taboo 'Mech designs and names pretty seriously, so... Jackrabbit is a tainted name in setting, simply. How seriously it's seen would vary, but it doesn't have the harmless connotation you feel it would. And, regardless, the Grasshopper name clash applies. Admittedly you, as the SI, wouldn't know that, so you could still ignore the issue.
The stock Charger is not heavily armoured. Essentially the stock introtech design spends most of its tonnage on the engine due to how engine capacity is calculated, leaving nothing for weapons, and not much for armour. It has equal armour to that Dragon, which is only really moderate at best in absolute terms and low for an assault... only benefit a stock Charger has is that the weight buffs its melee damage. For something of the same speed+armor, there are mediums and heavies which do that and carry better guns. It is considered a lousy mech for a reason.
Scrapper or brute, not tank, since effectively the Dragon is almost as durable (Charger would still have stronger skeleton beneath armour).
Hm...ah, yeah. You've made a minor miscalc in the manifest, I think... the Danais has two small craft bays, you have listed two shuttles and two fighters, for a total of four subcraft...there are only two berths. A small craft bay in the BattleTech context means a bay that takes a non-DropShip space vessel under 200 tons, including shuttles, gunships, and yes, LAMs and aerospace fighters.
Canonically the signature Danais droppers in novels, the Gray Death Legion's ones, they carry a pair of fighters in those bays.
It is possible for a cargo ship to carry a shuttle, aerospace fighter, or air breathing jet as cargo and not in a small craft bay, but this means the fighter or whatever cannot be easily launched and retrieved, it would need to be craned, winched, forklifted out or something, or some other kind of ad hoc flying out of a cargo ramp sort of move.
There is no canon deck plan for the Danais, but there is for the Union which the Danais is said to super closely resemble, and the main bay loading doors for the Union don't open straight into a cavernous space, they are doors at the base of the ship for use when grounded, leading into a big spiral ramp that winds round the base of the DropShip on the inside, leading up to the main bay. Therefore if this is so for the Danais, it's a bit of a bitch but not impossible to land a fighter in the cargo bay, I guess. Just stupidly byzantine.
There is a general lack of mention of shuttles in BT. No real explanation or reason, logically it SHOULD be more of a thing, but it's generally overlooked.
The stock Charger is not heavily armoured. Essentially the stock introtech design spends most of its tonnage on the engine due to how engine capacity is calculated, leaving nothing for weapons, and not much for armour. It has equal armour to that Dragon, which is only really moderate at best in absolute terms and low for an assault... only benefit a stock Charger has is that the weight buffs its melee damage. For something of the same speed+armor, there are mediums and heavies which do that and carry better guns. It is considered a lousy mech for a reason.
Scrapper or brute, not tank, since effectively the Dragon is almost as durable (Charger would still have stronger skeleton beneath armour).
Hm...ah, yeah. You've made a minor miscalc in the manifest, I think... the Danais has two small craft bays, you have listed two shuttles and two fighters, for a total of four subcraft...there are only two berths. A small craft bay in the BattleTech context means a bay that takes a non-DropShip space vessel under 200 tons, including shuttles, gunships, and yes, LAMs and aerospace fighters.
Canonically the signature Danais droppers in novels, the Gray Death Legion's ones, they carry a pair of fighters in those bays.
It is possible for a cargo ship to carry a shuttle, aerospace fighter, or air breathing jet as cargo and not in a small craft bay, but this means the fighter or whatever cannot be easily launched and retrieved, it would need to be craned, winched, forklifted out or something, or some other kind of ad hoc flying out of a cargo ramp sort of move.
There is no canon deck plan for the Danais, but there is for the Union which the Danais is said to super closely resemble, and the main bay loading doors for the Union don't open straight into a cavernous space, they are doors at the base of the ship for use when grounded, leading into a big spiral ramp that winds round the base of the DropShip on the inside, leading up to the main bay. Therefore if this is so for the Danais, it's a bit of a bitch but not impossible to land a fighter in the cargo bay, I guess. Just stupidly byzantine.
There is a general lack of mention of shuttles in BT. No real explanation or reason, logically it SHOULD be more of a thing, but it's generally overlooked.