OBT Forum
General BattleTech => General Discussion => Topic started by: Ice Hellion on March 08, 2016, 03:37:33 PM
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Which one would be more common for vehicles?
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Depends on the time period and faction IMO. The Clans and I'd argue the Terran Hegemony have a high tech base which makes Fusion Engines common. The Houses however go ICE heavy during the tech depravation that is the Succession War and I'd imagine the Periphery which is always 'backwards' is a ICE rich environment. Fuel Cells seem to be a middle level that appeared in force in the 21st century. You'll notice during the Clan Invasion era the Successor States started to deploy Fuel Cell vehicles as they restored their tech base. I'd suspect Fuel Cell Engines were popular late in the First Succession War to the end of the Second Succession War when Fusion Engines became more scarce.
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Fuel cell engines are better but ICE are more common I think that Fuel Cell engines have added a nice middle option between fusion and ICE and by rights as Takiro noted the better the tech at the time the more common they should be
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Fuel cells are Word Processors or Beepers of Engines. A short term middle ground between the long lasting Typewriter or Landline Phones to the ultra advanced Laptop or Mobile Phone. You blink and then they were gone.
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Combat Fuel Cells have always been avaliable, but were rarely used. Ice would be the most common, if only by ease of manufacture, though Cell Engines would be more popular in polluted atmospheres (naturally or artificially) pre Jihad.
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I like fuel cells as they give you a free heat sink. This good enough that you can mount that small laser for anti-PBI work rather than the ammo dependent MG
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Thanks for the answers.
I know that Fuel-Cell are better but it seems like ICE are much more common, so I will head this way.