[Source] It is finally here, the final assault battlemech has been announced! Battlemech #20 has been confirmed now as the Victor, an 80 ton assault mech built in 2508 by the Terran Hegemony. As some may or may not know this mech should be landing on the battlefield sometime in July according to Bryan in the most recent ask the devs. This makes this mech the second last mech before we could be seeing the first of the Clan designs. Current Release Schedule as of recent known data: June - Orion (Confirmed on NGNG podcast with Bryan) July - Victor (Confirmed in the Ask the devs) August - Flea (Only one left) So what are we getting into with this mech? Well lets look at some of the most well known versions of the battlemech the VTR-9A, VTR-9B, VTR-9D. VTR-9A Loadout: 1 AC/20, 2 Medium Lasers, 2 Flamers, 1 SRM4, 1 MG Equipment: 4 Jump Jets, 320 STD Engine Potential Hard-points: 2 Ballistic, 4 Energy, 1 Missile Guess on MWO Hard-points: 2 Ballistic, 4 Energy, 2 Missile VTR-9B Loadout: 1 AC/20, 2 Medium Lasers, 1 SRM4 Equipment: 4 Jump Jets, 320 STD Potential Hard-points: 1 Ballistic, 2 Energy, 1 Missile Guess on MWO Hard-points: 1 Ballistic, 3 Energy, 2 Missile VTR-9D Loadout: 1 Guass, 2 Medium Pulse Lasers, 1 SRM4 Equipment: 4 Jump Jets, 320 STD, Endo Steel Potential Hard-points: 1 Ballistic, 2 Energy, 1 Missile Guess on MWO Hard-points: 2 Ballistic, 3 Energy, 2 Missile With all these considered unless the 4th variant is something special or original there is not going to be much difference in the hard points of the Victor - meaning that once again most builds that work in one are going to work in all of them. Which in my opinion is a bit boring. I wouldn't mind more diversity in the mech builds and hard points to give each Victor a different feel and hopefully we will see that with the potential 4th variant of the mech. In conclusion the Victor looks amazing and FD has done another great job with the battlemech design. What are your thoughts on the Victor? Will you pilot one? Any variants you are looking forward too or that you think will be in the game? Let us know!
oh it had to be the Victor didn't it? was anyone in any doubt? had kinda been hoping it was an 'unseen' but in my heart I know that not gonna happen for 8 years :'-( roll on 3055/3058
Why would the unseen appear in 8 years? I am loving the Victor... the Grimm Reaper Company has them for TT games!
Always liked the Victor, just not as much as my Highlander. Still be nice to have a fast assault that can also jump. I imagine you'll see some double gauss or AC/20 assaults jumping around quickly with XLs as the main FOM.
I'm not overly worried about dual gauss since the ballistic points will most likely be in the arm - limiting it to 1 Gauss or 1 Ac/20. The only one im thinking off having 2 ballistic would be to mount dual UAC5's or something. I think you will see 1 Gauss + 2 PPCs though for jumping. Never know though - hopefully people will feel tempted to try something new ...
Well the 'unseen mechs ( mostly ) appeared in the original 3050 book ( actually have a copy of it here, with me ) however it turns out that the images were used without permissions, and thus the mechs were removed from later versions ( hence 'unseen' ). However in the 3058 Project Phoenix with mostly new designs ( the 'reseen') from what I know 1 day in mwo is one day in the timeline, so we have to wait 8 years for the battlemaster , Phoenix hawk and more.....
Don't want to get into another unseen / reseen debate but FASA did use the designed with permission from the original makers of the designs - they went to the Japanese company which owned the rights to the designs - payed for them - etc. The problem came from North America where a company also owned the rights to the designs through the release of Robotech and owning the rights to the IP in North America - hence the court case even though the original IP creators in Japan gave permissions. This is also why the original Japanese company did the first re-designs that looks very anime-ish and why if Battletech was made in Europe or Japan we could actually use the original designs because Harmony Gold doesn't have the licence in those regions. Its all very confusing and complected copyright law bullshit.
Amazing! It looks like the Highlander I wanted: a quick, agile, jumpy assault. Great job on the artist's rendering, as always.
It looks good, but than I had a look at the loadout, and also the picture, and my first thought was "Highlander on a diet." Yes, the picture looks good, and I am sure they will do an excellent job on making up the model. But in reality, I think it will wind up being another jump sniper, it has the JJ, it has the hardpoints for Gauss and ERPPC, which is what most people will do. And I am basing this on what we are seeing with the current meta. And it will also most likely have the SRMs changed out for either Streaks, or LRMs. And my personal opinion, I wanted the King Crab, but it is good to know what the last mech will be.
Is starting to look like 95 tons and 55 tons are never going to happen with a PGI bias towards pop tarding with gauss and PPCs. Will never give this mech a thought other than how to flank it and shank it on the battlefield when it arrives.
Until PGI properly fixes PPCs (delete them entirely for all I care), this is just going to be a 3 ER PPC + Gauss poptart. Yay.
Eh, it's not PPCs that are the problem, but how accurate you are with jump jets. 320 STD engine means we're going to see these things outpacing most Awesomes. I just wonder how much firepower will be left when they have 4 JJs and a 340 XL (or whatever will fit).
I was thinking the same and tried to calculate it by myself, but then I found this post. I have to admit that I didn't doublecheck the information used here, but even when he's off for some details, sadly this definitely doesn't speak for the Victor.
The problem isn’t the weight (all Mechs have a sweet spot for speed, above which the lighter mechs have more tonnage and below which a bigger mech will). The problem is that it is the lightest mech that uses 2-ton jump jets. Let’s look at it, though. 480/494 armor is 15 tons. Endo-steel internals is 4 tons. 4xJJ is going to be 8 tons. Before engine and weapons, we’re already at 27 tons, leaving 53 tons left. If we assume 325 engine, that leaves 37.5 tons with an XL engine or 22.5 for a STD. The 325 engine would be 72.4 kph after speed tweak. With an XL engine, it should be easy to do Gauss +3xLL or Gauss+2xER PPC (assume roughly 30 tons for weapons, add on ammo and DHS). With a STD engine, it would be hard to fit in a brawler setup of AC/20+MLs+SRMs; it would probably require SRM4s or BAP+SSRM2s. I don’t see this as a viable LRM boat (if it primarily uses 4 tubes), and it only has a narrow band of usefulness between the Cataphract and the Highlander. On the other hand, that AC/20 in the arm is going to be nice over most of those variants. I will say it has much more of a window of usefulness than the Blackjack currently does, and if you decide to skimp out on the jump jets, it offers a lot more tonnage.
PPCs are absolutely the problem. JJ shake is just going to push the meta to PPC Stalkers. Gauss rifles are totally fine, because nothing can fit more than 2. PPCs are the broken part. They're still the highest DPS, highest range energy weapon with infinite ammo and pinpoint damage. 1 or more of those variables needs to change for them to be balanced. Personally, I think they should move 50% of their current damage to splash damage.
I would like to see some splash damage on the PPC too, it makes sense that it would not be a pinpoint weapon. It is an area of effect weapon, so we should treat it like one. Maybe not 50%, but at least 25% of the damage could splash over to other areas.
Sadly not, skribs. Check the JJs, the 1 Ton design is valid for up to 80 tons. So the Victor will be able to fit in 4 JJs for 4 Tons total Source, Smurfy: JUMP JETS - CLASS III Tons: 1.0 Range: 60t - 80t
