So you've got your shiny new battlemech, and have fought a few battles in it. You've got some of the basic efficiencies, and you've made enough c-bills back from matches to begin to twerk it out. So where do you go now, and what do you do with all those tons of mech meat? This entry is for those of you new to the Inner Sphere, to help you decide how to better plan what to do with all those battlemechs you have.
So, before we get to specifics lets talk about the basics. For one, you know you are going to have to skill up at least three mechs of the same chassis. So, having weighed those options you may have concluded (as I have) that it's not really a good idea to sell any mech - ever. Yet, what do you do with those three Highlanders with a near exact weapon loadout that you are swapping modules between? Well sirs, I'm here to tell you that you can vary your play experience by selecting roles for your mechs before you start twerking!
The first thing to do when planning to buy a mech is to decide which three variants you want to buy. Decide this before you buy the first one. Trust me.
In order to decide which of the variants of a particular chassis to buy, you need to decide how you want to run that particular mech. Stock loadouts are cool - but later we'll be talking about changing weapons loadouts and equipment. For now just bear in mind that you can strip that mech, so the real items you'll be looking at is that variants' hardpoint arrangement.
We've talked about it before, but now it's time to start talking about the role of the individual battlemech. By deciding what mission you'll undertake during the game while building your mech you can solve a lot of issues before they begin. What follows is a short list of what makes up a specific mech type, and each of these will be visited in depth in future entries. Though there are many schools of thought, for our purposes the following data is considered to be from the LCC's field manual:
- Recon
- Spots Targets for friendly team mates, spies on the enemy and captures objectives.
- Medium or Light Fast Mech (90+ kph)
- Light Weapon Loadout
- Electronic Equipment
- Hunter-Killer
- Preys on the same or smaller weight class in preference to other targets.
- Needs enough speed to catch it's prey.
- Sports many low heat / damage weapons to continuously fire.
- Fire Support
- Performs support for friendly lances from 200 to 500m.
- Mounts a long range fire support weapon system.
- Includes PPC, LRM, Gauss Rifle and some Autocannon builds.
- Usually has some sort of vulnerability to account for weapons such as low armor or speed.
- Close Support
- Performs support for friendly mechs in close order.
- Mounts short range weapon systems with high firepower.
- Mid-Range to Heavy Armor to survive return fire.
- Front Line
- Engages enemy directly.
- Maximum or close to maximum allowed armor.
- Can mount both long and short ranged weapon systems.
In another article I mentioned another mech designation, but Point Guard mechs will be considered to fall into another category rather than meriting it's own. This designation has more meaning in Battletech, less so in MWO so we'll just stick with those five.
So, now the meat of this already long-winded post: what you can do to the mech itself. You have a few choices, but you should know you're not really making any changes to the mech with less than 2 million c-bills. The upgrade choices you make from the standard chassis are limited, but you can get any of the following systems to shave tonnage off your build. However, though they save tonnage, they all take a large number of critical slots (free slots). You'll have to balance tonnage, slots and hardpoints to get a build that you are confortable with.
- Ferro-Fibrous Armor
- 12% more Armor (per ton) than standard armor, but takes up 14 critical slots.
- Maximum possible armor does not change.
- Endo-Steel Internal Structure
- Most mechs start with standard internal structure, which weighs 10% of the chassis' max tonnage and takes no critical slots.
- Endo-Steel Internal Structure weighs only 5% of the max tonnage, but takes up 14 critical slots.
- It costs 10,000 c-bills x the max tonnage of the mech to convert.
- On a Hunchback, Endo-Steel shaves 2.5 tons off the weight and costs 500,000 c-bills.
- Extralight Engine
- To get the projected speed of a battlemech, compute: (Engine Power / Tonnage) x 16.2 = Mech Speed.
- An XL engine costs three times as much as a standard engine and uses 12 critical slots instead of the 6 a standard engine costs.
- XL Engines weigh half as much as the standard engine of the same rating.
- Double Heat Sinks
- Heat Sinks increase maximum heat threshold by 1 and cools it by 0.1 heat / second. It takes 1 critical slot.
- Double Heat sinks added to a mech are 140% more efficient than standard heat sinks and takes 3 critical slots. That is, they cool by .14 heat / second and increase the threshold by 1.4.
- For these reasons and more, if you are looking to maximize your efficiency you need an engine rating of 250 or higher.
So the essence of the process is this: once you've decided on a mech you like, choose the chassis you will collect based on the roles you want those mechs to undertake. From there, you have an idea of what systems you'll want to mount and can begin to switch components out with a clarity of purpose. With this in mind, there's no reason to sell off mechs if they have a battlefield role you enjoy using them in.
I'll speak for a moment about each of these options and how I use them. I don't believe anything that people say about "optimum builds" - for me, each machine must be calibrated to it's pilot. Each mech and their pilot have a special relationship that no one can really impose arbitrarily designed builds upon. So, I use myself as the example.
I find ferro-fibrous armor to only be useful when there's a slight amount of tonnage left and I'm not at maximum armor. However, front line or close support mechs looking to maximize their armor should consider this first. It is probably always going to be the cheapest of the upgrades, however.
Endo-steel is a staple on the medium mechs I like to use, where the 5% tonnage it grants can be put to good use. However, on larger mechs it might be a better idea to use some other systems since it grants a comparatively smaller chunk of tonnage and will take up a great number of slots you are going to need for other equipment. On medium or smaller mechs however this is one of the best upgrades.
Extralight engines are mandatory for light or medium recon mechs, but heavy and assault mechs should probably look elsewhere for tonnage. It takes up more critical slots, and puts engine slots in your left and right torso. That means that if your left or right torso takes an engine critical, you're down - rather than just the center torso on a standard engine. Also, they cost more than many smaller mechs do, so plot accordingly.
Use double heat sinks only if you have the room. They take up a LOT of space, even if they are only 1 ton. In many cases, you'll be able to fit more standard heat sinks than double heat sinks on a build and arrive at a higher heat efficiency - but that depends on your other equipment. If you're not sporting too many large weapon systems or upgrades, this might be the best item for the tonnage. However, it's also very expensive.
That's it for now. Hopefully you've taken something away from this, even if it's just that mechs have designations and can be designed for specific roles. More than that, hopefully this will get you to plan out your mech bays better, and maybe you birthed a new idea for one of those mechs you think you (almost) want to sell.
No comments:
Post a Comment