eathotlead
Junior Strategist
PP forumite since 2004
Posts: 259 
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Post by eathotlead on Oct 15, 2018 19:25:31 GMT
From an email I sent PP...
"Since late Mark I, I've wondered why we haven't gotten entirely new chassis for warjacks more often. I understand there's an iconic look to the Juggernaut frame or "Clamjack" chassis, but I guess I always thought Matt Wilson and the concept artists would come up with others fairly often. I have great trust in said imaginations!
If it's too hard to find a niche for a new chassis - and not just for Khador lol - maybe release them with a new mechanic, like three 50mm bases that can merge in-play into a huge base (being replaced by it) -or the reverse of that- a la Voltron? Just an idea. (Maybe the larger form factor would even mean it could be a BAHI product.)"
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Has anyone else thought about the concept of entirely new chasis in your factions? Or novel game mechanics that might make design space for them?
(Or maybe this is just out in left field. I'm more of a hobbyist and interested in the aesthetic.)
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Post by smoothcriminal on Oct 15, 2018 20:01:16 GMT
There are a lot of staple robot designs not present in wmh. Everything's an iron dude with a stick.
Flying warjacks with wings.
Multi-limbed warjacks.
Beastial warjacks that look and move like animals or insects or whatever.
Warjacks on tank tracks or wheels.
Warjacks that transform.
Warjacks with big 2handed sticks or guns.
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Post by Charistoph on Oct 15, 2018 20:09:10 GMT
How long did take them to make the Toro which has been in the fluff since Rutger Shaw?
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Post by mydnight on Oct 15, 2018 20:14:19 GMT
How long did take them to make the Toro which has been in the fluff since Rutger Shaw? The Toro isn't even that different. PP's imagination is rather limited, or at least they are rather adverse to trying things out. |
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Post by Korianneder on Oct 15, 2018 20:26:19 GMT
There's various weird warjack designs. Convergence as a whole, cryx jacks like cankerworm and kharybdis, the Vulcan is on wheels. Most warjacks are just a dude holding a weapon though.
I think the fluff is going to restrict them quite a bit though. Khador isn't going to make a voltron due to lack of cortexes advanced enough. Warjacks are basically a simple a.i. and getting three of them to work together that well in combat seems difficult. Convergence might be able to do something like that since their induction nodes work very differently.
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eathotlead
Junior Strategist
PP forumite since 2004
Posts: 259
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Post by eathotlead on Oct 15, 2018 22:11:46 GMT
Yeah, looking across factions there's a cool breadth of stuff. Within them, though, lots of variants on just two or three chassis. That's cool, too - I'd just like to see something in Khador that's not on a Juggie or Clamjack or Berserker frame. Or something for my Rhulic mercs that's not a Driller chassis or gunbunny. :/
Cygnar's in a similar boat, as is the Protectorate.
First world problems, I guess. And the Colossals were different FWIW.
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Post by Charistoph on Oct 15, 2018 23:42:22 GMT
Indeed. It seems Mercs is the most diverse between the Mangler, Freebooter, and the Trio all having different chassis between them. The Rhulic heavies don't share a chassis, but the Monstrosities do.
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psyllus
Junior Strategist
Posts: 119
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Post by psyllus on Oct 16, 2018 2:41:44 GMT
The Rhulic heavies don't share a chassis, but the Monstrosities do. Driller, Rockram, and Avalancher share the same chassis. |
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Post by michael on Oct 16, 2018 2:46:07 GMT
Let’s be honest: how many warjack chassis do we need?
Taking Khador as an example: what niche remains to be filled in the warjack stable?
Let’s be honest: they were stretching when Khador got the Mad Dog and Rager in Reckoning. What in-game needs are left to be addressed (excepting the obvious off-limits-due-to-fluff things like arc nodes or high RAT or > SPD 4)?
There’s not much there, especially when you consider the practical production realities that mean the chassis will need to support 2 or even 3 different models in order to get made.
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Post by mydnight on Oct 16, 2018 3:07:45 GMT
Skorne probably has the most variety within faction in terms of beasts, maybe circle. In general hordes have more variety. Within faction robots tend to be boring. I can hardly tell the difference between many ret and coc heavies.
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Post by Cryptix on Oct 16, 2018 3:52:29 GMT
I'm more pissed off about how the Juggernaut chassis has like 5 jacks on it while kodiak is stuck with two. I always felt like the Kodiak chassis should be where Khador's new developments in jack technology should go, like any new tech seized from the CG or the Thornwood War.
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whydak
Junior Strategist
Posts: 288
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Post by whydak on Oct 16, 2018 6:18:03 GMT
From visual point of view something on bigger base could be awesome. Like 70-80mm very heavy warjacks. But it could make a lot of mess balance wise. And could have sick prices with current PP policy.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Oct 16, 2018 8:22:54 GMT
As others have said, most of your examples do exist across factions. It's also about conserving the visual faction identity. If they give each faction all kinds of jacks, the factions start blending together and it's more difficult to discern them on the table top.
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Post by droopingpuppy on Oct 16, 2018 10:08:44 GMT
Isn't already enough to have two chassis at each light and heavy class for each faction? Then each faction have four chassis, and if each chassis has three varients then you have 12 diffrent warjacks. Total 12 designs, 6 for light and 6 for heavy, seems already give you enough varients. Ah, not to mention about renowned warjacks of Escalation that each has two varients now.
And... usually military prefer the stability. If you can do something with your own tool then it is better to do with it. If you did run Ironclad chassis countless times, then if you need a warjack for some task and you can pick either modify Ironclad chassis or making a whole new brand chassis, modify existing Ironclad chassis would be far better idea in the most times.
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Post by borderprince on Oct 16, 2018 10:17:53 GMT
Aside from many of the examples existing, there's also the point that these are warjacks, and it makes sense for militaries to maintain fairly standardised models. That not only helps with logistics (your jacks use the same basic parts, so you don't need to carry multiple different sets of legs around for repairs), but also training (your mechanics don't need to learn how to fix lots of different types of machines). Character jacks can exist outside that paradigm because they're unique and peculiar. In general you probably don't want too much diversity in your equipment, especially if the existing models are doing the job well-enough.
I remember Doug Seacat chiming in on the RPG boards ages ago to say that the nature of cortexes is also an issue, as they seem to replicate biological brains to some extent, and struggle when placed in unusual chassis (he gave the example of a cortex in a ship, I think, when someone asked about tanks). I think that justification must be weakening with things like the Vulcan. Cryx has always existed outside that model, but their jacks are the product of mad science by Necrotechs rather than the more industrial production and maintenance of the main Iron Kingdoms. Convergence is also different, but they don't use cortexes in the same way as other factions.
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