Battletech Welcome to the Jungle

Knowledgeispower

Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
He intends to resolve that on his own.
I'm assuming by offering the Orca(shame the other ASF design that the Rimjobs were building had its database effectively destroyed albeit I suspect you could design something with roughly similar characteristics given enough time and expertise) was effectively as a suitable and far better replacement. Of course I assume Katrina knows the Lucifer sucks so she'll jump at the opportunity to procure a better ASF and have the Lucifer lines retooled. Mind you I suspect that said superior ASF is being produced by someone she owes a big favor to is just icing on the cake. Still I wonder how the data core being a thing will affect the Lyrans. Perhaps they'll start there own version of the NAIS?
 

Speaker4thesilent

Crazed Deplorable
I'm assuming by offering the Orca(shame the other ASF design that the Rimjobs were building had its database effectively destroyed albeit I suspect you could design something with roughly similar characteristics given enough time and expertise) was effectively as a suitable and far better replacement. Of course I assume Katrina knows the Lucifer sucks so she'll jump at the opportunity to procure a better ASF and have the Lucifer lines retooled. Mind you I suspect that said superior ASF is being produced by someone she owes a big favor to is just icing on the cake. Still I wonder how the data core being a thing will affect the Lyrans. Perhaps they'll start there own version of the NAIS?
Orca data was destroyed, but you are correct about them developing a better ASF.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
Better than the Lucifer shouldn't be too hard.

Granted it's a massive pile of flying guns but still... normally it's "Guns, Armor, Speed, pick any two." The Lucifer said "Naw, I only need one. Make it all guns." At least it's not the Chippewa and thus has slightly more armor than a Saltine cracker.

But you can upgrade, to the Lucifer II. Less armor than the Chippewa so it makes even the Saltine cracker look tough, wrapped around an obscenely expensive XL engine so you can get your pilot killed and also lose more money than half a squadron of the old Lucifers to a single bullet!

The Vulcan does seem like it'd be a decent replacement for that. Still slightly light on armor but a better balance.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
Huh didn't one the two ASF(I think it was the Vulcan) the rimjobs used Catachan to make the parts for have the data for it intact? Or am I mistaken?
It's Vulcan and Catachan also has 240 XLE factory so after they figure out how to install it and the freezers (not an easy process, as shown in the interlude), they will have room for even more guns and armor.
 

Blasterbot

Well-known member
Since I don't know aerotech that well could someone tell a bit about what makes a good ASF? What are a few good models to compare to the lucifer?
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
Pretty much every ASF in it's weight class. Lucifer has poor armor for the task it has and way too much ammo, not to mention that small lasers are a waste of weight on heavy ASF. Then there are also fluff problems, lacking ejection system being the most pressing one.
 
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Doomsought

Well-known member
Pretty much every ASF in it's weight class. Lucifer has poor armor for the task it has and way too much ammo, not to mention that small lasers are a waste of weight on heavy ASF. Then there are also fluff problems, lacking ejection system being the most pressing one.
How much armor does it have? When I looked it up on Sarna they only listed the armor for the Lucifer III, which was twenty-one tons of ferry-aluminum.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
How much armor does it have? When I looked it up on Sarna they only listed the armor for the Lucifer III, which was twenty-one tons of ferry-aluminum.
Eleven tons of standard on the R15, the "Prime" Lucifer model.

Since I don't know aerotech that well could someone tell a bit about what makes a good ASF? What are a few good models to compare to the lucifer?
Armor is even more important for an ASF than a 'mech, because a hit from a weapon can do a "through armor critical" and damage internal systems if your armor is less than ten times the weapons value (that's total armor, not current). So if you've got 49 points of armor on your nose, a medium laser or LRM cluster can punch through and kill the pilot. With 100 points of armor, only an AC20 can do that with level 1 weaponry.

Consequently probably the most reviled aerospace fighter is the Chippewa, which has only 7.5 tons of armor leaving it so vulnerable medium lasers can punch through the nose and small lasers can punch through the wings.

The weapons and speed are much like a 'mech, obviously you want as much speed and firepower as you can get. The Chippewa also excels at being terrible there, as it has a large number of guns it can't actually use due to not having the heat sinks to fire them all without exploding (it generates 54 freakin' heat on an alpha strike). A single big gun is significantly more desirable than several small ones, the small guns work better for a 'mech but a fighter wants those through-armor criticals so an AC20 or PPC is actually much, much better than you might expect from looking at 'mech combat (not that people like getting hit by an AC20 in a 'mech).

Speed matters of course and ASF lose speed when they add more bombs so ones that are going to be dropping bombs on the enemy, but that just has be balanced with engine size.

In my opinion one of the top fighters of the era here is the Stingray. It's slightly undersinked but not terribly, it needs a large laser or better to TAC the nose (Wings are vulnerable to medium laser or better), and it packs three big guns in the form of a PPC and two large lasers (along with a pair of medium lasers). It would generate three TACs against the Lucifer's nose and five against the Chippewa's on an Alpha strike, though such a strike isn't advised due to heat. It's armor is slightly thin (still a half ton ahead of the Lucifer despite being smaller), it would be better served by dropping the medium lasers for two more tons of armor. Oh, and it's faster than either of them.
 

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