It doesn't have anything to do with the evidence the novels provide; honestly I rather like the novels, but the fact remains that they don't match the game system. They range from relatively minor issues (the stuff we're arguing over right now) to very major problems (the head-shot proliferation in "Phoenix" comes to mind). Ultimately, BattleTech has no continuity control in place over their authors as far as technological accuracy goes, and each author has effectively their own take on the technology base.
Mr. Stackpole's novels DO fit with the Battletech rules. Of course since the Battletech, Aerotech, and Battlespace rules seem to contradict i suppose we could throw thos eout to
As an aside, what exactly does the fact that Mike Stackpole was a contributor of fiction to the compendium (indeed, a main storyline developer for the novel line!) have to do with the fact that his novels' remarks don't match the game system's statistics.
They do though unless you go outside the actual battletech rules. (the ranges even appear to match with a LL having a max range of 450)
In a game-based universe like BattleTech, the games have to trump the novels when it comes to a contradiction... otherwise the universe isn't really based on the games - and then, why call it BattleTech Universe? Everything else (even the novel line as of the completion of "Endgame"), is released under the MechWarrior (and MechCommander/MechAssault) label.
Except that games inherently have to deal with issues such as game balance. And I haven't been referencing any of the mechwarrior series novels. Just the battletech ones.
Key word: assuming
Of course that's as he as we can go without leaving the kilojoule range now isn't it? Of course there are 998 OTHER possible numbers all of them lower, that we could use if you like.
Your entire theory here is contingent on the theory that BattleMechs take damage in the exact same way from weapons fire the way they take damage from physical combat. I'll confess that I'm not a weapons engineer, but against an armored target, a gross impact is going to transfer its energy to its target much more effectively than a beam weapon that has to burn through the ablative elements of the armor, or a small-area kinetic penetrator that's likely to be deflected if the point of least resistance from its impact is somewhere other than the giant slab of armor it is running into.
This is all based on the kinetic energy present. That is a fixed amount, and why pray tell should a battlemech take more damage from a low speed impact than from a high speed impact? (Gauss rifle shells are supposed to be watermelon shaped for example)
Only when you scale the damage figures from the phyiscal attacks and assume a uniform level of energy being transfered to the target and a uniform level of efficiency in those transfers in all cases
Haven't you been doing the exact same thing only using the battlespace gauss rifle?
And physical attacks often do more damage than weapons. So we should assume those are more efficient than BTech weapons?
Even the smallest mech (20 tons IIRC) will suffer six damage just from falling down. This is an impact spread over a wider area than a weapon impact yet it does the same amount of damage as a medium pulse laser (and exceeds the damage of several weapons).
The character in the quote was not speaking in an authoratative voice; he never specified that he was referring literally to penetration mmes, and the context of the quote clearly seems to indicate he's talking about contemporary steel armor. This is supported by the TRO 3025 quote that refers to the Crab's standard armor are RHA, even though it has superior protection/ton to the armor of the Mackie, and perhaps more importantly behaves like "Mackie armor" instead of real RHA.
20 year update, page 73. Fed Com developed a guidance system the size of a hand grenade that allowed all of their missiles to home-on-target under battlefield conditions. Kurita had a booster module for their existing ECM modules to counter it within months. This is before Kurita fielded any units with Guardian ECM to my knowledge. Battlefield ECM is a reality, and it is the factor preventing homing missiles from working.
Notice that has nothing to do with WGMs.
And ECM is never mentioned as the reason for shorter ranges (or wouldn't it make more sense for all these dumbfire weapons to have the same effective range) nor does it explain the reason behind longer clan weapons range (at least if ECM was the limiting factor)
[QUOTE}As for WGM missiles being agressively jammed, with all due respect I don't need any evidence. I'm answering a hypothetical question on your part - its only one possible answer; the "real" answer to the "why no WGM" question is: "because the game developers decided the technology was, for whatever reason, no longer relevant by the 31st century."[/QUOTE]
So they lack technology we've had for decades, right.
