Battle Armor
Battle Armor (abbreviated BA) is a powered armor that the player spawns in. For the Inner Sphere it is the Longinus, and for the Clan it is the Elemental.
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Notes on Battle Armor
Battlearmor are extreme high risk, high reward units. A single full blast from a medium laser can end them, but they are also the single most agile asset in the game, allowing them to weave between an enemy's feet, hide in urban areas, and even hitch rides on allies - and enemies. Battlearmor are particularly suited for harassing slow targets, and delaying enemy advances as they can be very difficult to root out from positions.
As a single battlearmor actually represents Five Battlearmor from the Battletech boardgame, their weapon firepower is significantly boosted - though they can only fire their weapons one-at-a-time like a standard first person shooter, compared to a mech's ability to fire any weapon at any time, making their overall DPS quite low. The utilize their maximum damage potential, a pilot needs to juggle their weapons cooldowns and preserve their jetpack fuel to remain nimble.
Despite a hefty point multiplier for using a 2 ticket unit, it can be difficult for new pilots to generate score and rank up when using them. While nimble within a small area, they truly suffer traversing the large distances between points; severely reducing their map presence unless coordinated with their team.
Currently the Battle Armor has:
- Health Regen after 5 seconds of taking no damage- which can be increased by crouching
- 125 Total Health
- Infinite Ammo for Weapons (Not for SRM)
- Speed and Maneuverability
- Small Size
- Low Radar Profile
- Varied Weapon Options
Battle Armor Weapons
BA weapons are essentially scaled down versions of standard Mech weapons. The BA is equipped with a Small Laser as a primary weapon and two free SRM-2 missiles by default, but can purchase different weapons and ammunition.
Battle Armor Equipment
Battle Armor are equipped in three default features: Jump Jets (mount in backpack of Longinus and legs of Elemental) allowing it to fly for limited time, Standard Optics allowing them to zoom-in for more accurate fire, and the Night Vision for night operations.
Battle Armor Vector Thrusting
In low gravity environments BAs are able to change their thrust vector by looking up or down, and by using the 'X' (rotate left) or 'C' (rotate right) -- these allow the BA to rotate freely, and the jump jet thrust will always be directed down towards the feet. For example, flipping upside down will allow a BA to jet towards the ground (note that they do not take damage from impact).
Elemental
The Elemental is the default Battle Armor for Clan players. Functionally, it is currently no different than the Inner Sphere Longinus.
Canon
The standard against which all battle armor is measured, the Elemental battle armor was first introduced in 2868 by Clan Wolf in a Trial of Possession against the Nova Cats. It was a marvel of Clan engineering that allowed a small group of operators to take down large 'Mechs and survive the encounter. The canon Elemental only has one shot of SRM2, unlike the unlimited amount that the MWLL Beta Elemental has.
Longinus
The Longinus is the default Battle Armor for Inner Sphere players. Functionally, it is currently no different than the Clan Elemental.
Canon
The Longinus Battle Armor was developed in 3058 by the Free Worlds League to attempt to duplicate the functionality of the Elemental. Though they were unable to match the original Clan-tech machine, the Longinus came the closest of any Inner Sphere attempt at the time, thanks in part to the help of the Word of Blake. Unlike the MWLL version, the canon Longinus has a one shot SRM2 pack as opposed to an unlimited SRM2 pack.
