Infantry can have a role in the game

[Panfilo]

Given that most of the game takes place on the periphery, and that the Tauran Concordant in particular had a lot of infantry protecting its assets, it makes sense to have Infantry as a support element. After all, we already have APCs in the game. In this particular Battletech game, Infantry could work like this:

Always Entrenched- Aside from Roads and Ice terrain, most weapons only do 50% damage vs Infantry platoons. While inherently fragile, they can be very difficult to dislodge unless you plan accordingly. Anti-infantry weapons (Flamers, Machine Guns) ignore this protection, but require getting into the infantry's own weapon range to engage them.

Hard to Detect- Unlike Battlemechs, infantry are much harder to detect. Both radar and visual confirmation of infantry happens at a fraction the distance of battlemechs, and infantry present in forests or buildings are even harder to spot. Target Lock also doesn't work on infantry.

Nimble- Infantry on foot can easily traverse terrain that larger Battlemechs struggle with. Rough terrain and dense forests are no impediment to infantry. They can also freely move in/out of buildings and travel through cities faster than mechs of the same speed. While not terribly fast on foot, since they aren't slowed by variants in terrain they can more easily take direct paths toward their objectives.

Stacking Up- Multiple infantry platoons can occupy the same 'hex' and can also hide inside buildings.

Swarm Attacks- Infantry can bumrush a nearby mech and swarm all over it, attacking weak points in the legs. While being swarmed the mech cannot brace or entrench and melee attacks are limited to trying to brush off the infantry. Friendly mechs can attempt to 'sandblast' the infantry off with flamers or machine guns but this has a high chance of damaging the victim as well.

Weapons: Infantry platoons carry Small Lasers, Flamers, SRM, and LRM launchers. For game balance these don't decrease as the platoon's numbers go down, they can make their full attack until they are completely wiped out. While most of these weapons are very short ranged the flexibility of platoons means mechs will be getting attacked in unpredictable angles and in numbers much greater than mech based platforms.

Mobility Varants: Foot (standard configuration, most numerous of any variety for a given mission), Jump (move like jump jets at further distances, giving them better evasion and positioning, but less common) Motorized (much faster over open terrain, but more likely to be exposed and vulnerable) Mechanized (Foot infantry that spawn from existing APCs)Xenoplanetary (Infantry in space suits, present in martian and lunar biomes)

[Ninjasquirrel]

Agree with hard to hit and hard to detect but infantry on foot definitely can't move faster than a battlemech, especially through stuff like forests/rough terrain etc. They're all pretty much going to have to be motorized for them to be viable in this game. Jump jets? Did inner sphere infantry use them? I thought they were for battle armor infantry only.

Stacking up is cool but I think after a certain number they should take more damage from being clumped up.

I think if infantry is in this game their best use would be for spotting. Well, I guess if its available to us then ai must have it too, calling in LRM strikes on you while you're searching for that 1 hidden platoon spotting for them. Might get kinda annoying actually, unless they come out with a unit specifically used to find infantry (probably another infantry unit, or a firestarter with a bunch of flamers).

[Mistfox]

They did but Jump platoons only used 21 men instead of the 28 men of normal platoons. The Monitor class ship carried a squad of jump troops. They also can't carry support weapons like SRMs.

[Wantoomany]

Jump infantry is a thing.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Infantry

But even with that mobility, its only 3 hexes of movement. Even an Atlas could run them down.

[Tiberius]

I'd love to see infantry in the game.

Make them so you can't pick them up on sensors - visuals only, so they can get some suprise shots off. I don't think stacking units in a hex would work within the game design.

How would the initiative work with infantry, and how much would it slow things down having many of these fragile units moving around? Because if there is something this game doesn't need, its slowing down

[Panfilo]

Well my idea for them was garrisons like when you have to grab a VIP or item; have the zone crawling with defending infantry you have to clear out along with a time limit and these missions become more challenging. No longer a simple smash N grab you have to use more finesse and might have to make due with less salvage.

Jump infantry and anti mech infantry would be the main danger. Sure one platoon isn't much of a threat to even a light mech but when they're crawling over your assault mech like ants while you are getting shot up by 5 other platoons and can't brace or benefit from cover it starts to become a problem.

It also gives you some incentive to take antipetsonnel weapons. Maybe even have light mechs specifically better at detecting infantry too, so sending in a Firestarter or Locust to clear out some buildings quickly would be more efficient than some heavy mech impotently stomping around. There's also a lot of neutral buildings you can shoot at but don't really do much otherwise.

[Mistfox]

It's just a timewaster, infantry. PBIs can't do ♥♥♥♥ and the only thing they CAN do is make you chase them if you're bored. One jump and swarming infantry dies.

They'll just slow the game down with excess units and turn time. I'll rather they put in more vehicles.

[Panfilo]

As far as initiative it would make a lot of sense to have them always able to go first unless they choose to reserve. This means they can potentially dart out of hiding, swarm a mech and destabilize it with SRM fire, with the hopes other lighter mechs topple the target.

Having it bog the game down by needing 12 platoons to resolve their actions would get tedious but one thing that could help with that is having stacked infantry all fire simultaneously in a stack which consolidates actions a bit.

[Nine-ball]

There certainly could be infantry in this game, but I wouldn't hold my breath for them to be around any time soon. There would be a number of problems trying to incorporate them into the engine, not the least of which is scaling.

The battlemechs and tanks we have now are impossibly huge, many times their normal size, compared to the terrain around them. This is done so you can easily identify weight classes, and so the game doesn't expend undue power rendering detailed structures. Couldn't say what the artists for the cutscenes were thinking, a Battlemech is not a Jaeger, it is not hundreds of feet tall. Maybe that was a stylistic choice, a good-looking stylistic choice, but an inaccurate one.

Anyway, infantry would have to be giants, which would probably cross suspension of disbelief and make the scale problem more apparent. Additional programming would be needed to create the unique ways in which infantry acts, thousands of lines of code, all of which would have to be interwoven into what we've got now.

What do we have now? A kickstarter game with a very limited team, working for a company that needs to build up capital more than anything else. I can hardly see putting infantry in the game at this stage as being a wise use of limited resources. They could be put into an expansion, or more likely, a sequel, but not really feasible now for anyone but the modders. Maybe.

Originally posted by Ninjasquirrel:

Jump jets? Did inner sphere infantry use them? I thought they were for battle armor infantry only. .

You bet. Jump infantry were fairly rare in the Inner Sphere, exceeedingly common in tabletop games, and you can read about them here - http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Infantry It even even has a picture of one.

[Panfilo]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

It's just a timewaster, infantry. PBIs can't do ♥♥♥♥ and the only thing they CAN do is make you chase them if you're bored. One jump and swarming infantry dies.

They'll just slow the game down with excess units and turn time. I'll rather they put in more vehicles.

Infantry can take LRMs and they could make it so swarming infantry stick on the mech until they get brushed off. We're not married to the tabletop rules here- we can tweak them in a way to make stuff like infantry interesting and relevant to this game.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Panfilo:

As far as initiative it would make a lot of sense to have them always able to go first unless they choose to reserve. This means they can potentially dart out of hiding, swarm a mech and destabilize it with SRM fire, with the hopes other lighter mechs topple the target.

Having it bog the game down by needing 12 platoons to resolve their actions would get tedious but one thing that could help with that is having stacked infantry all fire simultaneously in a stack which consolidates actions a bit.

You're going to break the game with all your tweaking. lol
If it bugs you that much, go create your 'infantry' from the vehicles template in json. 27 armor 1 IS speed 3, 1 SRM2.

[Nine-ball]

You're going to break the game with all your tweaking. lol
If it bugs you that much, go create your 'infantry' from the vehicles template in json. 27 armor 1 IS speed 3, 1 SRM.

It's not that big of a tweak to tabletop, infantry could tote field guns and missile launchers around in TT. They couldn't do it very quickly, but they could do it.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Panfilo:

Infantry can take LRMs and they could make it so swarming infantry stick on the mech until they get brushed off. We're not married to the tabletop rules here- we can tweak them in a way to make stuff like infantry interesting and relevant to this game.

Want to see my AC/20 infantry? lol.
Pan, sometimes you need to think of the consequences before doing things. I know you like to shoot before you look, I even recall your 'suggestion' of 'put hovercraft in game so vehicles can use water hexes' when the game already has Kanga jump tanks and vehicles use water hexes already regardless of type, but it really seems like you have a preset idea of what you want this game to be, then try to force everything into your mold. It doesn't work.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by Nine-ball:

You're going to break the game with all your tweaking. lol
If it bugs you that much, go create your 'infantry' from the vehicles template in json. 27 armor 1 IS speed 3, 1 SRM.

It's not that big of a tweak to tabletop, infantry could tote field guns and missile launchers around in TT. They couldn't do it very quickly, but they could do it.

Mod them in then. Treat them like a vehicle.
vehiclechassisdef_template.json

[Ninjasquirrel]

Originally posted by Nine-ball:

You bet. Jump infantry were fairly rare in the Inner Sphere, exceeedingly common in tabletop games, and you can read about them here - http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Infantry It even even has a picture of one.

Thanks Wantoomany and Nine-ball, good read. I played TT in the early 90's so it's been awhile hehe.

[Panfilo]

Infantry platoons had more than just an SRM2. Their armament could be balanced around their low speed, difficulty to kill quickly, and ambush potential. We all know an SRM carrier is dangerous if it gets a shot off, but fortunately they are pretty fragile and easy to detect. 5 platoons of SRM infantry, all holed up in woods and buildings and likely only revealed when they start unloading on you? Too bad you didn't scout the region out with a light mech to flush them out first!