A bludgeoning weapon to deliver mines wouldn't be totally useless; such a weapon would extend your effective range, because otherwise you'd have to be in the same hex as your opponent to use what is effectively a grappling effect. And if you're going to plant a mine on an opponent, wouldn't you want to be as far away as you could when it actually went off?
I would appreciate it, Nama, if you wouldn't decry possible weapons or strategies just because you don't think they're stylistically what you want
your mech to do. I've always enjoyed the idea of mecha with big bashing weapons going at it in close quarters when ammunition is low; in the few Mechwarrior tabletop games I played one battle came down to two mechs attempting to beat the shit out of each other with the severed limbs of
other fallen mecha, and that was both really cool and incredibly hilarious.
On the subject of using "solid" weapons, Zem has a very good point. The potential for knockback just isn't there with a plasma weapon designed to cut. However, knockback does not imply damage, just force. So while it might be possible to use a weapon of that nature to strike an enemy, I've run the math on what GURPS Mecha calls "baroque" weapons, and their actual damage turns out to be really sad unless they weigh as much as a skyscraper. Weapons proportional to MAC armors would ultimately not do a hell of a lot of damage, though the force might definitely shove the enemy around without actually breaking through its protective measures. The net result is something like two participants on American Gladiators striking each other with giant foam bats. You might knock your opponent over, but you aren't going to break his skin.
I don't personally think that this is a "problem" per se because it's realistic; however, using vibro or monomolecular "solid" cutting weapons should definitely be viable, so I'm going to put in a little work on figuring that out soon.
As an aside, there's no reason a mech
couldn't have a big bashing weapon of some sort, but the standard "club," for example, probably isn't going to be a very effective weapon--when fighting other mecha. Anything with an impaling point that can get through armor is definitely possibly useful, though, and let's not forget that not all targets for mecha are other mecha; pulling up a huge steel lamppost and smashing nearby structures or infantry is
totally badass. <p>
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RPGWW Wiki!</div></p>
Edited by: Archmage144 at: 8/6/06 13:15