@Dreaming
As far as roles go, it'll depend on how you customize your FRAME within the RP. There will be a number of ways to fit weapons onto the machines within their allocated weight/power ratio. Most FRAMEs will have a relatively balanced set of armaments - say, an autocannon, AT missile launcher and anti-personnel machinegun. But there are many variations you could take; maybe two missile pods and a lighter gun, or even a number of autocannons, or larger tank-sized cannons. It'll mostly depend on what's available to you, but strictly speaking, roles will come into play on a per-mission basis.

Oh snap son, I'm liking all the things I'm hearin' so far. I have trillion billion questions but I also have a lab I need to get to so they'll have to wait. Color me interested though.

@Aristo So luckily I could glean a lot of the most prevalent answers to my lingering questions by reading back a bit, but there is still a thing or two I have suspisions of, but would like clarification on. Deliberate combat is fine. But do we have a specific, limited suite of weapons to mix and match from, or is it within our imagination to create these weapons and just make sure they accomodate the rules?

Also, slower than gundam is cool, but I personally have always gone for either the heavy armed saboteur, or an 'aerial swordsman' archetype when building mechs. That said, would any possibility for frames to be able to attain flight(jet boosters, anti-gravity mechanism, kinetic dispersal, whichever the settings tech would permit, really) exist?

Edit: And what about personal defense systems? Energy/plasma/kinetic shields/barriers? Or are we relying solely on positioning and the defense of our natural armor? This would help me determine my style and build a bit easier.

@Aristo
My logistical walker would be more multipurpose- Designed to provide battlefield awareness, enemy weakness and warning, and to route supplies to where they need to go, while also calling in air support, resupply, reinforcements, or requests for new orders.

So he'd technically be the player that would do everything but fight on the lines, even though he very well could be more crucial. You know? If there's no air support, then he might launch drones, or cruise missiles on his own walker, and if the enemy suddenly has it, he'd be the one trying to knock them out of the sky with electronic warfare, or call for a retreat, or for a certain unit to get out of the way.

@Gun
The weapons available to you will be mildly limited at the start of the RP. Over the course of our operations, the variety will grow and there will be many more distinct armaments to chose from. There will be rough categories, such as light, medium and heavy autocannons, which can be inferred from the statistics of the weapons. I will try to keep the equipment available diverse so you'll have plenty of choices.

Here's a sample of what a weapon entry might look like:

LFC-40/M Autocannon
Manufacturer: Halabrad-Phell
Caliber: 30 mm
Effective Range: 1200 m
Penetration: 105 mm RHA
Rate of Fire: 300 RPM
Ammunition Capacity: 50 rounds/magazine
Weight: 8 (Weight is an abstract value subtracted from a FRAME's power/weight output which signifies how much gear it can carry. It does not signify an actual form of measurement)

And weapons will be grounded together by type in hiders. The reason for starting off with a more limited roster is to keep things fresh and have better gear to look forward to. As a reminder, these values, asides from weight, have no hard effect on any battle system. They are just guidelines to follow in the narrative.

As far as things like flight go, no FRAME has obtained true flight at this point in time. There will be boosters and such that could allow for limited jumps, but sustaining flight has not been achieved. FRAMEs can control their descent from aircraft with boosters as well.

Energy/plasma in a weapon/defensive context is extremely experimental at this point. No FRAME unit has been formally issued equipment that makes use of the technology, but that's not to say it won't appear down the road. For protection, we're mostly looking at armor, positioning, conventional countermeasures, etc. Alloy shields exist, but are not widely used by professional militaries.

@WilsonTurner
That sounds fine to me; I will be sure to incorporate systems that'll be geared towards those kinds of roles in the starting allotment so you can grab them early and work towards that niche.

Sounds good. So is there a sheet template well be using?

@GunI'm wrapping that up today!
@Mr Allen J@Timeless@Dynamo Frokane@Vigfast@Terminal@WilsonTurner@Sophrus@Dreaming@Gun@Commodore Robot
In the meantime, I have a matter I'd like to call a vote of sorts on. I've been a bit indecisive about this and want to know how you as players would prefer it:

FRAME chassis: Would you like to buy the core, arms, legs, etc. separately as in Front Mission/Armored Core, or as a whole unit? Because the stats of the weapons and other equipment are narrative-driven, there isn't a tremendous reason to differentiate between chassis parts unless you want arms with built-in armaments or a tracked unit instead of legs. We could go with a hybrid system that allows for both options, allowing you to replace bits and pieces; that would mean assigning monetary costs to every part in addition to calculating their weight. If we buy parts separately, how in-depth would you prefer it? Do you want to buy left/right arms seperately? Should heads come with the core unit? Etc, etc.

@Aristo I vote to buy as a whole unit, call me simple but its just easier to focus on RPing for me.

@Aristo I vote to buy as a whole unit, call me simple but its just easier to focus on RPing for me.

That'd definitely make the system simpler so more focus could be paid to the narrative. Also, less work for me!

I'd vote for whole chassis, due to convenience and also because it makes more sense, given that someone would have to in-setting have developed, tested, and produced said parts.

I honestly think some hybrid system might be nice, but one that heavily favors standardization over customization (higher cost, knowledge, effort). You can always add some variants of main chassis to spice things up if needed.

Sort of like how customization works in BT:

Is it possible to customize a mech? Sure.

Is it common or something the average soldier/mercenary has the benefit of? No, unless you count field mods or repairs, because you can't just haphazardly throw parts onto a mech and expect that it will work well.

-------------

@Sophrus@Gun@Vigfast
I'll try to be specific here; the pace of combat is intended to be slower and more deliberate than Armored Core or Gundam, but faster than Battletech/Mechwarrior. Imagine an infantry fireteam sweeping through the hallways of a building. Now imagine FRAMEs sweeping through urban streets. FRAME combat has the potential to be faster, as evident by the 'skate' ability they have, but you won't see many pilots zipping around everywhere in the middle of a firefight (unless they're dashing to cover or making a hit-and-run attack, perhaps).

Here are a couple more cinematics to take reference from. Combat in the RP will probably be more deliberate and won't feature as much skating than they depict, but otherwise, they're pretty similar. FRAMEs are pretty mobile and are known for hitting quickly and hard.

youtu.be/WOL5NvSQffM
youtu.be/FNu5oFAsBIU

That said, I'm very flexible, so if you guys have common preferences, I'm willing to cater to them.

Ok, that sounds promising, I guess what I am always leery of is mechs that act more like giant humans (Gundam or Armored Core) rather than like machines.

So for clarity's sake, FRAMES are like Wanzers and Gears right? Decently mobile but not capable of flight or anything?

Edit: reading comprehension is a hell of a drug.

So for clarity's sake, FRAMES are like Wanzers and Gears right? Decently mobile but not capable of flight or anything?

Edit: reading comprehension is a hell of a drug.

Quite right!

Hey Aristo - I'm interested in joining, which I'm sure doesn't surprise you at all. I remember the original Mobile Frame, and I enjoyed that a lot. Your mecha also remind me quite a lot of the GEARs from my game of the same name. I like the setting too, making it a 'sidestep' from reality really appeals to me a lot.
I'd love to join in if you'll have me, although I do want to make the point that I may be slow to reply at times, or not as active as some players, due to my schedule and other hobbies also taking up my time. However, I will always try to deliver high quality posts at least.
I'd really like to get into something as a player, and your game is the first thing I've seen in a long time that really interests me!

@Silverwind Blade
I knew it was just a matter of time till you stopped by!
You're welcome to join in; always did enjoy working with you.

@Silverwind Blade
I knew it was just a matter of time till you stopped by!
You're welcome to join in; always did enjoy working with you.

Cool, I'll be happy to be aboard then. Looking forward to it already!

@VigfastThe thing is, speaking realistically, mechs would be developed ultimately to mimic human movement. Its the natural progression. Gundam has more 'human' mecha because gundam takes place quite a while after the mecha have become mainstream, and therefore sufficiently advanced at this point to mimic humanity, because the first gundam was not anywhere near as mobile or speak.

more of a personal opinion now, but id honestly prefer piloting something exactly like me, than feeling like I am actually controlling a giant stiff hunk of metal. It would be less responsive, and less streamlined or good for open combat to me.

as for 'mods' I can imagine many reasons why operatives would have personalized frames. Funding would be provided by our contractors to use as we see fit as id imagine with the current plot. From there, your character only needs to understand physics and engineering(things they would because they pilot the damn things.) From there its just finding the engineer to install said upgrades.

@Mr Allen J@Timeless@Dynamo Frokane@Vigfast@Terminal@WilsonTurner@Sophrus@Dreaming@Gun@Commodore Robot@Silverwind Blade
Hey all!
I have put the OOC up here: roleplayerguild.com/topics/88177-frame..
Note that I still am working on labeling a map and writing up briefs of the major factions, but I wanted to give you the basics of FRAME customization and let you sample the parts available at the start.
I'll be honest - I know the selection at the moment is rather sparse (two FRAMEs and four weapon selections) but after the 'intro' mission your options will open up greatly. I just wanted to K.I.S.S. for the opening and then let you get into the good stuff after we've gotten comfy.

@VigfastThe thing is, speaking realistically, mechs would be developed ultimately to mimic human movement. Its the natural progression. Gundam has more 'human' mecha because gundam takes place quite a while after the mecha have become mainstream, and therefore sufficiently advanced at this point to mimic humanity, because the first gundam was not anywhere near as mobile or speak.

more of a personal opinion now, but id honestly prefer piloting something exactly like me, than feeling like I am actually controlling a giant stiff hunk of metal. It would be less responsive, and less streamlined or good for open combat to me.

as for 'mods' I can imagine many reasons why operatives would have personalized frames. Funding would be provided by our contractors to use as we see fit as id imagine with the current plot. From there, your character only needs to understand physics and engineering(things they would because they pilot the damn things.) From there its just finding the engineer to install said upgrades.

I think the issue really comes down to whether you want to focus on mechs in a hard science fiction (i.e. sort of realistic or plausible) or soft science fiction (i.e. science is magic) type of way.

Machines that move like humans (in regards to agility/dexterity) and machines that can be customized, upgraded or retrofitted without great difficulty (ignoring the difficulty of making changes to standardized designs) to me at least falls a bit too far into the "science is magic" category of settings.

Naturally, it's all a matter of taste though and there is no right answer. ;)

@Aristo @Silverwind Blade

Someone say GEAR?

@Aristo @Silverwind Blade

Someone say GEAR?

If you mean FRAME, then yes!
I hope that this manages to retain a lot of the spirit of GEARs that we enjoyed. Come stop by the OOC if you're interested!