Equipment and Weaponry
General Overview
What follows is a brief assessment of the various parts of BattleMechs and combat vehicles, meant to help understand what these things are when referenced inside the articles. For more comprehensive data, the Sarna BattleTech wikipedia will be able to fill in things with more detail. Those who wish to learn still more are directed to find a copy of the TechManual published by Catalyst Game Labs, as it goes into fairly exhaustive detail on the technology.(Author's Note: For the purposes of this particular site and the contents within, this brief assessment should suffice. Please leave a comment if you find something is not sufficiently explained and I will see about revisions to this page (or others) if I can offer the information properly.)
Equipment
Engine: There are two types of engine used in war machines, the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the Fusion Engine. BattleMech systems require such a vast amount of power to operate, they utilize Fusion Engines; most energy-based weapons similarly require so much power it is incredibly difficult to supply it via combustion engines. When an engine is damaged, it begins putting off considerably more waste heat when in operation; it can take a total of three hits before safety systems shut it down. Furthermore, replacing a fusion engine which is no longer operational is a very involved task; building a new one is done only in automated factories, and this is a very carefully protected and tightly controlled business.Heat Sinks: What is colloquially referred to as "heat sinks" are actually extensions of the cooling system of a BattleMech or vehicle. These pieces of equipment are vital to dissipating waste heat generated by systems on a BattleMech; usually energy-based weapons are what cause the intense production. A BattleMech thus can 'bleed off' the waste heat at a rate related to how much is invested in the cooling system; the "heat sink capacity". For purposes of our awareness, however, it can be treated as a mostly-modular system which can have parts of it repaired (or replaced the failure of one part of the cooling system does not cause the entire system to break down, but it will affect how efficiently it removes waste heat. A number of these heat sinks are located within the engine construction itself, but there are often others which exist outside the engine and are vulnerable to being damaged.
Gyro: The gyro is what lets the BattleMech balance upright, and damage to it will make it much harder to manage. Each gyro is specifically calibrated for the intended model and variant of BattleMech, and they are not readily interchangeable like other parts.
Myomer: The muscles which move a BattleMech are made from a technology called "myomer bundles" which are incredibly complex to the point very few who use BattleMechs really know exactly how they work. What is known is simple however; without myomer bundles, the BattleMech is an impossibility to be functional anywhere near as much as it was when the design of the first BattleMech was conceived.
Actuators: Where myomer bundles are the muscle of a BattleMech, actuators are analogous to the joints. These pieces of equipment are installed in the limbs to facilitate a range of motion, but not every BattleMech is designed with the same number of actuators. Notably, there are often hand and arm actuators missing from some designs; those are usually easy to tell at a glance. Two special actuators bear notice, however - the hip and shoulder joints. These actuators are considerably more integral to the internal construction, and damage to one necessitates a replacement of the whole leg or arm.
Jump Jets: These pieces of equipment are installed in BattleMechs to allow them to quickly ascend and land in a 'jump' maneuver, making it easier for them to traverse rough terrain. These maneuvers are, however, highly detrimental to the ability of the Pilot to be accurate with weapons and generate a good amount of waste heat. The reckless can even utilize jumping to land feet-first into a target, a maneuver known as "Death From Above" which is almost as dangerous to the attacker as the target.
Weapons
Ballistic Weapons
Machine Guns: When we talk about BattleMech-grade Machine Guns, we are talking about a considerably heavy piece of equipment. A Machine Gun is designed to fire a hail of bullets at a very close effective range, but it generates practically no waste heat and is remarkably good at dealing with infantry units. Against the standard BattleMech armor, however, it's really closer to an annoyance. One ton of ammunition carries two hundred rounds of shot, which is often considered "overkill" by those who still use that word.Autocannons: Autocannons are a larger form of Machine Gun, a ballistic weapon capable of firing at long distances and dealing a considerable amount of damage within its effective range. The few detriments are the occasional minimum range to deal with in the lighter versions, and having an ammo dependency. The heavier the autocannon, the less shots a ton of ammunition hold. It should be noted the "Class" of autocannon refers to the damage potential instead of caliber of ordinance it fires. An Autocannon/20 does not necessarily fire a single massive shell, nor a steady stream of bullets.
- Class 2 Autocannons: The lightest version of autocannon, it produces very little waste heat and has the longest effective range of weapons which are still in use. However, since it is so light and has a long range the damage is also rather low. These are suitable for anti-aircraft capabilities, more often than being used as more than a harassment technique against more heavily armored targets.
- Class 5 Autocannons: This class of autocannon is heavier, and has an effective range comparable to a Particle Projection Cannon at a slightly lighter weight and with less bulk needed to cope with the waste heat. However, these weapons are roughly half as destructive; it is more common to find combat vehicles armed with these classes of autocannon instead of BattleMechs.
- Class 10 Autocannons: A common class of autocannon installed on BattleMechs, this weapon is heavy, and requires a great deal of internal space to house the ammunition feed and firing mechanisms. As such, you will usually see these deployed as single weapons on BattleMechs. They have roughly the same effective range as a Large Laser, but are more damaging and create far less waste heat.
- Class 20 Autocannons: The heaviest class of autocannon, this is very often the main armament on a BattleMech or combat vehicle due to the weight and bulk involved. Widely feared by many combatants, the Class 20 Autocannon is capable of truly destructive potential; it is one of the only weapons capable of shearing through armor and internal structure enough to completely destroy many light BattleMechs. More fearful is the capacity for this weapon to obliterate the head (and thus Pilot) of a BattleMech in a single shot.
Energy Weapons
Flamers: Similarly to Machine Guns, a 'Flamer' is not simply a flamethrower; it is a plume of weaponized heat which can quickly incinerate anything organic at the immediate point of impact. These are also used as an anti-infantry weapon, having an incredibly short effective range. However, enterprising MechWarriors have been known to instead use them to aim at other BattleMechs to introduce more waste heat to their system.Lasers: A laser fires a very intense beam of focused light at a target, with enough energy to cause damage through melting armor and overloading electronics. The weaponized lasers developed for use on BattleMechs and combat vehicles use an incredible amount of power, which practically requires a fusion engine as a source. There are methods of using a combustion engine to generate enough power, but this results in a great deal of excess bulk when it is done safely. The lasers come in Small, Medium, and Large and are calibrated for close-range, short-range, and long-range combat respectively.
Particle Projection Cannons: When a laser weapon is simply not enough, the Particle Projection Cannon (or PPC) is a heavy energy weapon which fires a bolt of charged particles at a target. Visually, this resembles something not unlike man-made lightning, and it deals a considerable amount of kinetic damage on impact. Its long range is somewhat mitigated by having a minimum range at which it can be fired without risking feedback.
Missile Weapons
Short-Range Missile Launchers: One of the two standard versions of unguided missile launchers, short-range missiles all share the same range and are more destructive on impact than their long-range counterparts. The launchers come in sizes of two, four, and six, which represent the number of missiles it fires in a single salvo. However, their unguided nature means they tend to stray considerably when fired.Long-Range Missile Launchers: Long-range missiles travel a good distance, and are often one of the more classic weapons used at those distances. Where the shorter-range missiles have a heavier warhead, most of the long-range missiles is devoted to allowing it to travel that distance and land accurately enough. By their design, they tend to cluster in groups of four to six missiles, and thanks to the longer flight time can be fired indirectly at enemies outside of line-of-sight with the aid of a spotter. The launchers are designed to fire salvos of five, ten, fifteen, and twenty missiles, each launcher having a notable increase in waste heat.
Melee Weapons
Punch: Any 'Mech with a working arm can throw a punch, even those whose "arms" are really just boxes with weapons stuck on them. (Said 'punch' won't be very effective, though.) Throwing a punch precludes firing with weapons mounted in that arm, which sometimes can be an issue. Why would anyone throw a punch? Aside from the sheer satisfaction of doing so, punches tend to hit higher on the body of another BattleMech; this means you can drive a reinforced metal fist into the side of your opponent's head.Kick: Since we covered you can punch, you might wonder if you can kick, and the answer is probably not going to surprise you. Kicking is remarkably easier to hit with than weapons, and has a chance of tripping up the opponent if they're a BattleMech. (If they're on the ground, not so much, but it's its own reward to kick them when they're down.) Much like punches, you are not allowed to use any weapons which are mounted to the hips or legs of a BattleMech when making a kick. Unlike punches, a miss could be dangerous since now you have to retain balance from a missed kick.
Hatchet: A rather recent development as far as a fully-dedicated permanent weapon goes, the hatchet is a Battle-Mech scaled melee weapon. While it's not uncommon in the past for similar weapons to have been used by BattleMechs, those usually lacked the resilience to last long in a battle and were usually improvised.
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