I’m excited to see the mod scene really explode with the Steam release. Though I’m not really expecting it anytime soon. Would certainly love to be wrong though.
Modding MW5 is a pain in the ass compared to Battletech. So I expect that will continue to limit the total amount of mods available even after a wider release.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
A Banshee 3s has 63 available tonnes and 6 energy hardpoints. If you put 6 ERPPC++ in those hardpoints along with 8 heat exchangers you will have a total heat usage of 48 ish. You won't have any armor. But you will have 420 damage at 690 range
So, installing MW5 I got with my Xbox game pass. Any particular tips for a newbie for this?
A few:
1. On Defense missions, (if you don't have real human pilots for lancemates) make sure you tell the AI pilots to go to a location and stay there. If you let them loosely follow you, they will wreck the buildings you're supposed to defend.
2. Always check the Detailed mechlab when doing repairs. Destroyed equipment won't repair if you just choose "Repair All" outside the detail mechlab.
3. Max out the armor on your vital bits (side/center torso, legs, weapon arm(s)...cockpit can stand a little shaving) and make sure the front/back distribution is to your liking (just remember: this ain't MWO, and enemies spawn frequently behind you, so you're gonna want more than a couple points on your back).
There are other bits of advice...but those three are, to me, vital.
Erlkönig on
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
I am not sure MW5 is for me. I am a terrible mech pilot. I ended the third mission down an autocannon and needing 100k more repairs than money I took in. (And that with a magic re-armoring mid-battle.) I tried jumping to another system out of a conflict zone to do some repairs and maybe up armor my mechs. But that system was not only in conflict but wouldn't allow any repairs at all. That info was totally opaque from the star map (at least to unskilled me.)
Will probably give it some more time, but at the moment I'm glad I fired this up on Game Pass and not for an actual cash outlay.
Do I remember earlier conversations that Lt. Freeman is a trap and can't hit the broadside of a barn?
I am not sure MW5 is for me. I am a terrible mech pilot. I ended the third mission down an autocannon and needing 100k more repairs than money I took in. (And that with a magic re-armoring mid-battle.) I tried jumping to another system out of a conflict zone to do some repairs and maybe up armor my mechs. But that system was not only in conflict but wouldn't allow any repairs at all. That info was totally opaque from the star map (at least to unskilled me.)
Will probably give it some more time, but at the moment I'm glad I fired this up on Game Pass and not for an actual cash outlay.
Do I remember earlier conversations that Lt. Freeman is a trap and can't hit the broadside of a barn?
I'm super stubborn. I was insisting on playing MW5 with a HOTAS. But I grew increasingly convinced the difficulty is tuned to the accuracy of a mouse. Especially one the story mission I got hopelessly stuck on, which stalled me out on the whole game. I forget how far in it is. Like the 4th or 5th one maybe. You blow up a bunch of enemy fuel refineries and then a squad of heavies drops on you like a brick of shit.
Maybe I just needed to gear up more, train up my AI pilots better, etc. Putting them in mechs without weapons in the arms probably would have helped a lot too since they lose those in a stiff breeze.
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
Oh really? Wonder why they had us make MW5 accounts.... Guess only for the pre-orders.
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
Oh really? Wonder why they had us make MW5 accounts.... Guess only for the pre-orders.
Yup, purely for the preorders. If you buy a new copy of MW5 through the Epic Game Store, you don't even touch PGI's website.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
Oh really? Wonder why they had us make MW5 accounts.... Guess only for the pre-orders.
Yup, purely for the preorders. If you buy a new copy of MW5 through the Epic Game Store, you don't even touch PGI's website.
Dang, now that makes me worried that they won't cross play with MS or heaven forbid Steam...
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
Oh really? Wonder why they had us make MW5 accounts.... Guess only for the pre-orders.
Yup, purely for the preorders. If you buy a new copy of MW5 through the Epic Game Store, you don't even touch PGI's website.
Dang, now that makes me worried that they won't cross play with MS or heaven forbid Steam...
I guess not surprisingly, maxing out armor seems to be helping. Trying to be mindful of keeping the right side of the Centurion twisted away/not circling targets with the right side in may also be helping.
I am open for any other newbie MW5 wisdom folks have to give, both for actual piloting/mech jockeying and any other elements of the game that come to mind.
Does the game teach you lancemate commands at some point? I did my first mission with two other mechs and nothing popped up.
I guess not surprisingly, maxing out armor seems to be helping. Trying to be mindful of keeping the right side of the Centurion twisted away/not circling targets with the right side in may also be helping.
I am open for any other newbie MW5 wisdom folks have to give, both for actual piloting/mech jockeying and any other elements of the game that come to mind.
Does the game teach you lancemate commands at some point? I did my first mission with two other mechs and nothing popped up.
Upper left corner should have your lancemate status window. Next to each lancemates' name should be an F-key. Pressing the respective F-key will bring up the lancemate command F-key choices (Attack target, Form up on me, Move here, Stop attacking). If you select "Move Here," the lancemate will go to (or at least try to get to) the location your reticle is aimed at.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
So has anybody tried playing multiplayer between the Gamepass version and Epic version? Does the Gamepass version require you to have a MW5 account to play?
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
Oh really? Wonder why they had us make MW5 accounts.... Guess only for the pre-orders.
Yup, purely for the preorders. If you buy a new copy of MW5 through the Epic Game Store, you don't even touch PGI's website.
Dang, now that makes me worried that they won't cross play with MS or heaven forbid Steam...
Getting a bit less terrible at MW5. Satisfying when things go more or less to plan. Locusts and Spiders are Angel's of destruction for how hard they are to hit!
Given my AI lancemates' fondness for bringing home mechs without arms, I've been avoiding mechs in the shops with the bulk of weapons in the arms, turning my nose up at Vindicators, Enfocers and Jagermechs that would have been nice to have.
Finishing out a tour through an industrial zone, just came across a Marauder in store with all weapons intact. Yeah, going to put my weapon arm limits aside for that.
Not sure if I'll regret it, but I don't play Battletech games to not acquire Marauders!
Getting a bit less terrible at MW5. Satisfying when things go more or less to plan. Locusts and Spiders are Angel's of destruction for how hard they are to hit!
Given my AI lancemates' fondness for bringing home mechs without arms, I've been avoiding mechs in the shops with the bulk of weapons in the arms, turning my nose up at Vindicators, Enfocers and Jagermechs that would have been nice to have.
Finishing out a tour through an industrial zone, just came across a Marauder in store with all weapons intact. Yeah, going to put my weapon arm limits aside for that.
Not sure if I'll regret it, but I don't play Battletech games to not acquire Marauders!
Marauder with the standard PPC/ML arms but swapping out the AC5 for an UAC5 puts out serious work.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Battletech: Yeah, I think I'm done with this game. I was all happy that I have an Awesome with 3 PPCs so I ran my next 3 skull mission against one lance (although I guessed it was going to be two). Held my Awesome back with my Treb lobbing 2LRM10+s and my Dragon and Catapult doing the tanking. Come up against Warhammer, Thunderbolt, Cicada, Blackjack, Catapult (PPC), Shadow Hawk, and two unknowns lobbing LRMs for days. Yeah, this is just not fun watching my Dragon and Catapult get ripped to shreds with my Awesome and Trebuchet being ripped apart by the PPCs. What makes things more annoying for me is that all three of my PPCs hit solid and there seems to be no damage at all.
Sucks since I really wanted to have fun with stompy bots but they made this game just not fun running against so much firepower and your mechs having no chance unless you run brawlers.
Also I realize that the Awesome isn't so Awesome and the Dragon is probably the worst Heavy to take into battle given it doesn't carry much firepower.
Edit: I just need to vent since I just wanted to sit down and blow up robots with my overpowered team. I'll probably try again with real try hard mechs.
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Yeah, it's hard enough you can't just drop with "whatever". Dragons pretty much suck, unfortunately. No better than a 55 ton medium and with worse initiative. The Awesome is basically a 75 ton heavy with lower initiative as well, and 3 PPCs is a lot of heat for not a lot of punch. 45*3 sucks when directed your way, but you only have 4 mechs to the opposition's 8-12+.
In addition to the Dragon being hamstrung in this game, keep in mind there is a hidden difficulty variance in missions that can adjust them up to +/- 1 skull. That 3 skull mission may have actually been up to 4 skull difficulty. Also don't forget about the Withdraw button (or your mechs' eject buttons) if you get in over your head. Sometimes it's better to pull out and take partial rewards or a rep hit than to take massive repair bills, lose mechs, or lose pilots.
As for the "no damage" from 3 ppc hits, keep an eye on those shield (and other status) icons on enemies. Between cover and Bulwark skills, they could have up to 60% damage reduction at times. Utilize Breaching Shot, use melee, reposition to shoot them from behind, pick a different target, or simply wait for them to act first to possibly move themselves out of cover to deal with those high defense enemies.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
In addition to the Dragon being hamstrung in this game, keep in mind there is a hidden difficulty variance in missions that can adjust them up to +/- 1 skull. That 3 skull mission may have actually been up to 4 skull difficulty. Also don't forget about the Withdraw button (or your mechs' eject buttons) if you get in over your head. Sometimes it's better to pull out and take partial rewards or a rep hit than to take massive repair bills, lose mechs, or lose pilots.
As for the "no damage" from 3 ppc hits, keep an eye on those shield (and other status) icons on enemies. Between cover and Bulwark skills, they could have up to 60% damage reduction at times. Utilize Breaching Shot, use melee, reposition to shoot them from behind, pick a different target, or simply wait for them to act first to possibly move themselves out of cover to deal with those high defense enemies.
Ahhh, yeah I completely forgot about status icons. I'm sure that there was damage, just not anything significant. Next time I'll check for those. Another thing, I have yet to find the stupid eject icon. I've tried looking for it and never found it. I did see the Withdraw for the first time this match.
Yeah, it's hard enough you can't just drop with "whatever". Dragons pretty much suck, unfortunately. No better than a 55 ton medium and with worse initiative. The Awesome is basically a 75 ton heavy with lower initiative as well, and 3 PPCs is a lot of heat for not a lot of punch. 45*3 sucks when directed your way, but you only have 4 mechs to the opposition's 8-12+.
Yep, I do more damage with a medium than the Dragon. I'll probably go back to my original team of 3 mediums and the Catapult if I get back to this game.
I'm tempted to purchase Game Pass to play MW5 though. See if my MWO skills are useful for something.
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
Yeah, I was excited when I got my Awesome, but the only use I've found for it is to load it up with 5*LL where it can do some decent reliable targetted damage at range. Even then, I mostly use it on Base Defense, where I don't have to spend much effort chasing the enemy and blowing off limbs to blunt an attack might play to strategic advantages.
In addition to the Dragon being hamstrung in this game, keep in mind there is a hidden difficulty variance in missions that can adjust them up to +/- 1 skull. That 3 skull mission may have actually been up to 4 skull difficulty. Also don't forget about the Withdraw button (or your mechs' eject buttons) if you get in over your head. Sometimes it's better to pull out and take partial rewards or a rep hit than to take massive repair bills, lose mechs, or lose pilots.
As for the "no damage" from 3 ppc hits, keep an eye on those shield (and other status) icons on enemies. Between cover and Bulwark skills, they could have up to 60% damage reduction at times. Utilize Breaching Shot, use melee, reposition to shoot them from behind, pick a different target, or simply wait for them to act first to possibly move themselves out of cover to deal with those high defense enemies.
Ahhh, yeah I completely forgot about status icons. I'm sure that there was damage, just not anything significant. Next time I'll check for those. Another thing, I have yet to find the stupid eject icon. I've tried looking for it and never found it. I did see the Withdraw for the first time this match.
Yeah, it's hard enough you can't just drop with "whatever". Dragons pretty much suck, unfortunately. No better than a 55 ton medium and with worse initiative. The Awesome is basically a 75 ton heavy with lower initiative as well, and 3 PPCs is a lot of heat for not a lot of punch. 45*3 sucks when directed your way, but you only have 4 mechs to the opposition's 8-12+.
Yep, I do more damage with a medium than the Dragon. I'll probably go back to my original team of 3 mediums and the Catapult if I get back to this game.
I'm tempted to purchase Game Pass to play MW5 though. See if my MWO skills are useful for something.
The eject button is inside your selected mech's black status panel in the lower right of the screen. It's just to the left of the two health bars. It's a red square with a black arrow pointing up.
And since it's an action, it can only be used when it is that pilots turn to move. Which can be a nail-biting wait when a mech is critically low on health.
It also destroys the mech's head and any equipment you have installed there, so you will occasionally contemplate whether that pilot's life is worth more than a rare piece of equipment.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
In addition to the Dragon being hamstrung in this game, keep in mind there is a hidden difficulty variance in missions that can adjust them up to +/- 1 skull. That 3 skull mission may have actually been up to 4 skull difficulty. Also don't forget about the Withdraw button (or your mechs' eject buttons) if you get in over your head. Sometimes it's better to pull out and take partial rewards or a rep hit than to take massive repair bills, lose mechs, or lose pilots.
As for the "no damage" from 3 ppc hits, keep an eye on those shield (and other status) icons on enemies. Between cover and Bulwark skills, they could have up to 60% damage reduction at times. Utilize Breaching Shot, use melee, reposition to shoot them from behind, pick a different target, or simply wait for them to act first to possibly move themselves out of cover to deal with those high defense enemies.
Ahhh, yeah I completely forgot about status icons. I'm sure that there was damage, just not anything significant. Next time I'll check for those. Another thing, I have yet to find the stupid eject icon. I've tried looking for it and never found it. I did see the Withdraw for the first time this match.
Yeah, it's hard enough you can't just drop with "whatever". Dragons pretty much suck, unfortunately. No better than a 55 ton medium and with worse initiative. The Awesome is basically a 75 ton heavy with lower initiative as well, and 3 PPCs is a lot of heat for not a lot of punch. 45*3 sucks when directed your way, but you only have 4 mechs to the opposition's 8-12+.
Yep, I do more damage with a medium than the Dragon. I'll probably go back to my original team of 3 mediums and the Catapult if I get back to this game.
I'm tempted to purchase Game Pass to play MW5 though. See if my MWO skills are useful for something.
The eject button is inside your selected mech's black status panel in the lower right of the screen. It's just to the left of the two health bars. It's a red square with a black arrow pointing up.
And since it's an action, it can only be used when it is that pilots turn to move. Which can be a nail-biting wait when a mech is critically low on health.
It also destroys the mech's head and any equipment you have installed there, so you will occasionally contemplate whether that pilot's life is worth more than a rare piece of equipment.
Oh nice thanks! I'll look for it when I play again. Figured it would only be there when it is their turn, and I don't use any equipment so that makes things easier.
My second "initial" thoughts on battletech (base) balance.
1) Jump Jets are OP. They cost wayy way too little heat.
But also they're kind of necessary to complete the game.
I legitimately do not understand how you're supposed to tank the level of fire you will receive without jump jet boosted evasion. Sometimes you're going to need to JJ plus bulwark in order to keep the tank up. I suppose the answer is "just never have an enemy get LoS on you so they can rain down LRM" and/or "only ever take indirect LRM fire" but that seems...painfully unfun.
I don't think its a mistake that every mech chassis can fit JJ even though canonically very few do. Would you rather have a Banshee with JJ or an Atlas II without? Well probably the Banshee. It will soak up more damage and actually be able to shoot while the Atlas II will just eat volley after volley until it dies.
Maybe with maxed piloting and a +3 gyro you can more reasonably "just walk" but i doubt it. And before that...
2) The only worthwhile top tier skills are Breaching Shot and Ace Pilot.
Breaching Shot is useful for everyone. Particularly LRM boats.
Ace Pilot is useful for everyone.
Bonus heat is not terribly useful. Its 6.5 heat/round is only 2 heat sinks is any build ever really fixed by 2 heat sinks? I suppose you could use this for a full energy rear torso alpha build, you could theoretically nuke up to 170 heat in a single shot with this (from 0, 30 dissipation + 90 threshold +50 bonus venting) but good luck finding 170 heat worth of weapons.. that is almost 5 PPC.
+1 initiative is not very good. The reduction in instability when you reserve is better. But you have to be a light and a light would prefer ace pilot because they will get to shoot and then bail and you will take at most 1 attack from a single light mech in return if you don't have this
3) Sensor Lock is key early and then kinda eh.
4) Weapon Balance from earlier was pretty correct. Single punch weapons are good for breaching shot. You need 61 damage for a character with breach 101 for a character without in order to one kill a head. So AC/10+ and 20 have special places in builds. There is also a special bonus early for one hit killing Locusts in their CT through cover at 40/50/66/100. If you cannot make those breakpoints then its tonnage/slot efficiency all the way. And that means eschewing everything but SRM.
The only real thing that keeps SRM's from reigning supreme is that nothing has enough missile slots to effectively fit a bunch as the game goes on. A Cyclops-Q has 7 but its DLC only and the most anything else has is 4. Which is "only" 12 tonnes of SRM for 192 to 288 (+4 dmg) damage and 48-96(+2) stability for 48 heat. And that LRMs are similarly good and occupy the same space. If you had but 10 missile slots every mech would be an SRM 60 carrier.
So non missile considerations matters only in the end game. In the early game the strength of a mech matters most on how many missile slots it has and how fast/how many jumps. Support weapons are similarly tonnage dense but similarly harder to come by. And theyre not nearly so heat efficient.
There is some space for PPC and LRM BVR shooting early(and head hunting with gauss/ER PPC is always good) but for the most part SRM is king.
Edit: i feel like the answer is probably "more vehicles and more vehicles that aren't absolute shitkickers". Vehicles that die to a single AC 5 or AC 10 shot gives mechs that have two AC 5 or an AC 10 and "some other weapons" something to do on their turn. It means that your +1 init scout can use their +1 init to go before vehicles and thin the herd. With more individual incoming shots this means that evasion in general would be weaker. Which would mean that the +1 evasion from JJ's would be less strong. It would give you things to multi-target besides "just might as well strip some evasion points off things" and it would mean that tactically holding a point would both be feasible(because 10 units would no longer just flatten whatever mech you had) and also useful.
Additionally. Barricade should not end your turn. It should be a move action. This means you do not have to choose between "shooting and gaining defense by moving" and "shooting and getting shat on"
Hard disagree here. Breaching shot is at best situationally useful. How many times do you just fire one weapon at a mech? I could see taking it on a LRM boat and that's about it. The thing is most of the time your breaching headshot won't work and you're often better off alphaing them
Ace pilot is also kinda meh IMO, it's not that common that you have a much better shot where you are than where you can move
I took +1 initiative on all my pilots. The stability gain can be a lifesaver as almost every AI mech will target a downed mech, and being able to go before all equivalent mechs is great. Instead of mechs taking turns slugging each other you can probably nuke one of theirs before they can even move, when they have no cover, no guards, no evasion, etc on the first turn, and you're all evasioned/in cover by the time they move. It also guarantees that you all move before the heaviest vehicles, so you take fewer giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 bursts to the face while killing them. Nothing worse than not killing the SRM carrier just before it moves
Of course I'm assuming you're just rolling up in the 4 heaviest mechs you can find, sitting in the trees with bulwark on everyone and not bothering with fancy things like "scouts" and "evasion tanking"
By endgame (base game) everything was SRM/MLAS with one gauss/LRM boat
"I will advance to the next clump of trees and nuke you all"
I am not sure MW5 is for me. I am a terrible mech pilot. I ended the third mission down an autocannon and needing 100k more repairs than money I took in. (And that with a magic re-armoring mid-battle.) I tried jumping to another system out of a conflict zone to do some repairs and maybe up armor my mechs. But that system was not only in conflict but wouldn't allow any repairs at all. That info was totally opaque from the star map (at least to unskilled me.)
Will probably give it some more time, but at the moment I'm glad I fired this up on Game Pass and not for an actual cash outlay.
Do I remember earlier conversations that Lt. Freeman is a trap and can't hit the broadside of a barn?
Freeman is good all the way until the end of the game where you will hire 50-60 skill pilots.
For MW5 tips in general.
1) armor costs the same to repair as structure. So if you dont have any components in a location you can skimp there if necessary. But it usually is not.
2) your mech needs a variety of weapons to deal with different targets, mechs, vtols, and tanks. Its very inefficient to let the AI shoot tanks and vtol so you need to do it.
3) vtol have the highest dmg/hp ratio followed by tanks followed by mechs by weight low to high. This is generally target priority. Exception for once you have enough damage to slaughter assaults. Then its generally “whatever is in your reticle until its dead”. Because vtol/tanks have very little Raw DPS the AI will ignore them and because they have so low HP its more efficient to kill them than attempt to order your AI lance mates to. So whatever weapon group youre using for tanks/vtol it doesnt need more damage than can one shot a tank/vtol
4) AI mechs should have a singlular engagement range. They attempt to fire all weapons and so will close heavily if mixed with short/long range weapons. Stacked single weapon types is pretty ideal. They also are very concerned with ammo/heat so make sure they have enough heat to consistently fire. Theyre also very good with high velocity weapons like PPC. The Awesome is indeed awesome in the hands of the AI.
5) you are immune to friendly fire. But your AI lancemates are not. They need more armor on their arms and and backs and weapons on their arms are less ideal.
6) 86KPH is the minimum mech speed to make use of damage avoidance skill well for the AI. AI dont need to be moving to get the benefit.
7) lasers have damage falloff but no other weapons do. If you can land that AC/20 at 1km you do full damage. SRMs start ballistic falling at their max range. LRM an be fired blind and will land exactly where you were pointing your target when you pulled the trigger. This is very useful for killing turrets
8) arm slots are a LOT better for pinpoint aiming so long as your arms are unlocked (and they should be) because theyre far more responsive to mouse movements.
In terms of weapon efficienies. Most engagements are at short range so SRM and MLAS tend to be strongest in general. PPC are almost univerally better than LPulse. As you get bigger in tonnage pinpoint damage will matter more and so regular AC will start to overtake burst AC. MPulse is also very good (MLAS can be hard to hold on the same section for the entire burn) but tends to be a bit short range/heavy.
The biggest thing you can do to get better in the early game is to learn how to peg tanks and planes with your AC/10 (2xMLAS backup for vtol) and swap the LRM for an SRM6. If you can swat tanks with your AC10 then everyting else will be shred by the SRM/AC combination.
AC/5 is king of the autocannon better even than the UAC/5. SRMs carry 50% more damage per tonne of ammo than other weapons.
Also, with regards to VTOLs: Location damage is a thing! Shooting the fuselage is far less efficient than shooting the turbine pods. On average, I think it takes 2-3 PPC shots to the fuselage to down a VTOL, vs the 1 PPC shot to the turbine to bring the same VTOL down.
Oh! And a slight addendum to the above comment on friendly fire: While it's true that your AI lancemates can't hurt you, any friends you've invited in for co-op can.
| Origin/R*SC: Ein7919 | Battle.net: Erlkonig#1448 | XBL: Lexicanum | Steam: Der Erlkönig (the umlaut is important) |
Hard disagree here. Breaching shot is at best situationally useful. How many times do you just fire one weapon at a mech? I could see taking it on a LRM boat and that's about it. The thing is most of the time your breaching headshot won't work and you're often better off alphaing them
Ace pilot is also kinda meh IMO, it's not that common that you have a much better shot where you are than where you can move
I took +1 initiative on all my pilots. The stability gain can be a lifesaver as almost every AI mech will target a downed mech, and being able to go before all equivalent mechs is great. Instead of mechs taking turns slugging each other you can probably nuke one of theirs before they can even move, when they have no cover, no guards, no evasion, etc on the first turn, and you're all evasioned/in cover by the time they move. It also guarantees that you all move before the heaviest vehicles, so you take fewer giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 bursts to the face while killing them. Nothing worse than not killing the SRM carrier just before it moves
+1 init isn't that bad in a vacuum but it comes with sensor lock. Which means you cannot get one of "sure footing" or "Bulwark" both of which are leagues better than +1 initiative. Because it doesn't matter how many giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 vehicles go when they just spray shots all over the place and don't hit you. The last time i got shot by an SRM60 i took ~20 damage. Because 4 out of 60 shots hit into 40% DR. Indeed the main problem with breaching shot is that you don't get one of Sure Footing or Bulwark. The stability gain is... OK. You can shed 1 stability pip per turn in an assault and then you can move to shed 2 more. But if you move as an assault on your turn with sure footing you will shed 2 stability pips and then gain 50% DR vs stability damage compared to not having surefooted. Which is a gain of effectively 4 pips of stability.
But that being said i end up shooting singular weapons at mechs a lot... when i have breaching shot. Because for assaults its impossible to fit enough damage into just SRM/MLAS in order to kill/disable things efficiently. You don't have the number of slots relative to tonnage. But you can fit AC/20's and PPC's. A single AC/20 may only do 100 damage for 15 tonnes. But it also weighs 15 tonnes. That is 4 SRM6 + 1 free tonne(assuming 2 SRM6 per tonne of ammo).
A King Crab as 2 ballistic, 4 energy, and 4 missile slots and after maxing its armor(well almost, assuming you leave 60 off of the rear in total for rounding) AND fitting 3 jump jets has 36 tonnes for weapons. So you fit 4 MLAS, 4 SRM6, and 18 heat sinks(96+jump usage, 84 cooling)? 292 damage? Assuming you target two enemies who have 40% DR(not uncommon) two AC/20(48+ jump usage, 30 cooling) will do 166.6* to each of them. And you will have 2-4 tonnes of weapons to spare. And that damage will be to singular locations and so more likely to knock out important components. And will do 80 total stability damage compared the 43 from the SRMs. And its a lot easier to find 2 AC/20+++ than it is to find 4 SRM6+++ and 4 MLAS++.
That is pretty much the best case scenario against breaching shot. The cyclops Q does have enough missile slots to only really use SRM... but its the only one. Everything else is stuck with fewer missile slots and similar or fewer energy slots and/or even more available tonnage with which to make use of even more big autocannons or gauss rifles or PPC or large lasers.
Ace Piloting is mainly good on mediums/lights because it lets you shoot someones butt twice in a row and then leave. But its still good for assaults since it lets them shoot and then use their movement to leave targeting range.
*Edit: In case this wasn't clear that is 166.6 effective pre DR damage.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2020
Breaching Shot would be a middling skill if you only fought mechs, but you also frequently face vehicles and mechs that don't need focused fire and/or are shielded from one-shot kills because they're pillboxed in forests. Or worse, you can kill them in one shot, but you have to alpha strike with everything that will reach and burn a ton of heat for much-reduced damage.
Even just with, say, Orions, Breaching Shot with Multi Target means you can get maximum damage against multiple targets, and generally with weapons heavy enough to one-shot vehicles and heavily damage lights or mediums. Being able to swat down three different vehicles in a single round of firing from one mech imparts a significant advantage in the action economy of the game, particularly when you're facing off against nasty heavy vehicles sporting dual AC20s or, even worse, SRM or LRM carriers. Not to mention setting those targets up for followup killshots by making them all easier to hit and cranking up their stability damage, if the first round fails to get them.
And when you start getting assaults that can carry a couple UAC weapons? Breaching shot plus Multi-Target means you can easily fuck up some damned heavy targets without wasting a ton of heat or ammo. Even without Multi Target, Breaching Shot means you can still efficiently pierce defense with alternating UAC10 or UAC20 shots. Not to mention that it makes sure any headshot Called Shot with those nice +++ damage weapons will still do max damage instead of getting blunted to the point of being a waste.
With the overwhelming abundance of cover in the game, being able to punch through ALL damage-reduction bonuses, especially on multiple targets, is a huge benefit.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited May 2020
It's almost like there may be more than one way to play the game...
Hard disagree here. Breaching shot is at best situationally useful. How many times do you just fire one weapon at a mech? I could see taking it on a LRM boat and that's about it. The thing is most of the time your breaching headshot won't work and you're often better off alphaing them
Ace pilot is also kinda meh IMO, it's not that common that you have a much better shot where you are than where you can move
I took +1 initiative on all my pilots. The stability gain can be a lifesaver as almost every AI mech will target a downed mech, and being able to go before all equivalent mechs is great. Instead of mechs taking turns slugging each other you can probably nuke one of theirs before they can even move, when they have no cover, no guards, no evasion, etc on the first turn, and you're all evasioned/in cover by the time they move. It also guarantees that you all move before the heaviest vehicles, so you take fewer giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 bursts to the face while killing them. Nothing worse than not killing the SRM carrier just before it moves
+1 init isn't that bad in a vacuum but it comes with sensor lock. Which means you cannot get one of "sure footing" or "Bulwark" both of which are leagues better than +1 initiative. Because it doesn't matter how many giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 vehicles go when they just spray shots all over the place and don't hit you. The last time i got shot by an SRM60 i took ~20 damage. Because 4 out of 60 shots hit into 40% DR. Indeed the main problem with breaching shot is that you don't get one of Sure Footing or Bulwark. The stability gain is... OK. You can shed 1 stability pip per turn in an assault and then you can move to shed 2 more. But if you move as an assault on your turn with sure footing you will shed 2 stability pips and then gain 50% DR vs stability damage compared to not having surefooted. Which is a gain of effectively 4 pips of stability.
But that being said i end up shooting singular weapons at mechs a lot... when i have breaching shot. Because for assaults its impossible to fit enough damage into just SRM/MLAS in order to kill/disable things efficiently. You don't have the number of slots relative to tonnage. But you can fit AC/20's and PPC's. A single AC/20 may only do 100 damage for 15 tonnes. But it also weighs 15 tonnes. That is 4 SRM6 + 1 free tonne(assuming 2 SRM6 per tonne of ammo).
A King Crab as 2 ballistic, 4 energy, and 4 missile slots and after maxing its armor(well almost, assuming you leave 60 off of the rear in total for rounding) AND fitting 3 jump jets has 36 tonnes for weapons. So you fit 4 MLAS, 4 SRM6, and 18 heat sinks(96+jump usage, 84 cooling)? 292 damage? Assuming you target two enemies who have 40% DR(not uncommon) two AC/20(48+ jump usage, 30 cooling) will do 166.6* to each of them. And you will have 2-4 tonnes of weapons to spare. And that damage will be to singular locations and so more likely to knock out important components. And will do 80 total stability damage compared the 43 from the SRMs. And its a lot easier to find 2 AC/20+++ than it is to find 4 SRM6+++ and 4 MLAS++.
That is pretty much the best case scenario against breaching shot. The cyclops Q does have enough missile slots to only really use SRM... but its the only one. Everything else is stuck with fewer missile slots and similar or fewer energy slots and/or even more available tonnage with which to make use of even more big autocannons or gauss rifles or PPC or large lasers.
Ace Piloting is mainly good on mediums/lights because it lets you shoot someones butt twice in a row and then leave. But its still good for assaults since it lets them shoot and then use their movement to leave targeting range.
*Edit: In case this wasn't clear that is 166.6 effective pre DR damage.
Sure footing generates one extra evasion pip, which is not very significant and the actions where you get the stability damage reduction are the ones that generate fewer evasion pips anyway. If only 4 out of 60 SRMs are hitting you are either jumping a light mech and/or are getting stupidly lucky. Besides you're clearly not taking both sure footing and bulwark on most pilots anyway
So if you don't have +++ weapons then you do 13% less damage than breaching dual ac20, and 28% less stability damage true, but if they only have 20% DR then you win on damage and are almost par on stability
If you do have +++ weapons then just the SRMs do raw 288 and 120 stability and the med lasers have so much +acc that they basically never miss so that's another guaranteed 100. Even at 40% DR this is a clear win, and the stab damage is concentrated which leads to easier knockdowns. I don't know about you but I was swimming in MLAS++ by the end of the game. SRM6+++ is rare sure, but I had more of those than AC20+++ and every SRM6 was at least ++
Breaching shot ac20 king crab is a great thing sure, but you're putting all your eggs in two baskets and assuming all opponents always have 40% DR to compete. DR can be removed, and not every enemy has 40% DR, in particular almost none will if you go first. The only real advantage is as you say, concentrated location damage, but I've found that it's easy enough to either do side attacks or knockdowns and that usually concentrates fire enough
If you use breaching shot with 2x PPC, you're paying 70 heat and 14 tons to get 100 damage and 40 stab damage, that seems a poor tradeoff IMO
All I will say is breaching shot + multi shot was amazing in my later game missle boat. A full salvo of LRM20 bypassing their defenses can do a decent amount of damage, inflict a ton of stability damage, and removes a pip of evasion so everyoen else can hit them better. I rarely didn't multishot in that thing, it was just more efficient. 2xLRM20 on one target would do less damage than 1x with breaching.
Sure footing generates one extra evasion pip, which is not very significant and the actions where you get the stability damage reduction are the ones that generate fewer evasion pips anyway. If only 4 out of 60 SRMs are hitting you are either jumping a light mech and/or are getting stupidly lucky. Besides you're clearly not taking both sure footing and bulwark on most pilots anyway
So if you don't have +++ weapons then you do 13% less damage than breaching dual ac20, and 28% less stability damage true, but if they only have 20% DR then you win on damage and are almost par on stability
If you do have +++ weapons then just the SRMs do raw 288 and 120 stability and the med lasers have so much +acc that they basically never miss so that's another guaranteed 100. Even at 40% DR this is a clear win, and the stab damage is concentrated which leads to easier knockdowns. I don't know about you but I was swimming in MLAS++ by the end of the game. SRM6+++ is rare sure, but I had more of those than AC20+++ and every SRM6 was at least ++
Breaching shot ac20 king crab is a great thing sure, but you're putting all your eggs in two baskets and assuming all opponents always have 40% DR to compete. DR can be removed, and not every enemy has 40% DR, in particular almost none will if you go first. The only real advantage is as you say, concentrated location damage, but I've found that it's easy enough to either do side attacks or knockdowns and that usually concentrates fire enough
If you use breaching shot with 2x PPC, you're paying 70 heat and 14 tons to get 100 damage and 40 stab damage, that seems a poor tradeoff IMO
I am jumping a Highlander and getting these evasion pips. +1 Evasion pip is -10% to hit. Which is HUGE. Lets say you normally generate 3 and have maxed piloting skill and a +3 gyro. This makes for -60% to hit. +1 evasion makes this -70% to hit. vs base gunnery this took to-hit from .15 to .05 a 66% reduction. Its "only" a 40% reduction on the next attack but its still very significant. By the third attack its "only" a 28.5% reduction. By the Fourth Attack its a 22.5% reduction. If the enemy has maxed gunnery skills then its still a 25% damage reduction on the first attack...Bulwark is a 25% damage reduction over not having it(33% if you don't shoot and are in the tree line). So its minimum value is almost as good as Bulwark.
If you can generate any other effective defense for any reason (long range/indirect fire as examples). +1 evasion pip is huge.
The mention of the Highlander is important because as mentioned earlier the crab is best case scenario for "not breaching shot". The Highlander has only 2 missile and 3 energy. Less than half the damage availability of the crab in missile and energy slots using SRM/MLAS. If you have the DLC then things get worse because you get access to UAC. A UAC/20 does 200 damage and 80 stability damage. It breaches to the level of an entire compliment of SRM+++ and 2 MLAS(+10 dmg).
By the end of the game i had 2(maybe 3?) +10 dmg MLAS and 4 SRM6+++ and 3 AC/20+++. If you have PPC++ (of which i had >3) you're paying 18 tonnes to get 150 damage and 150 stab damage. (ok and a boatload of heat). If you have LRM++ or +++ its 120 damage and 240 stability damage.
You're talking about knocking things down but you're doing 72 stability damage to one target while the LRM breacher is doing 80 stability damage to 3...
Edit: I had tonnes of MLAS++ but not the good MLAS++. Accuracy and Crit just isn't that valuable late game(especially on MLAS)
I'll just sit in a forest and tank everything. The only weapon in the game I'm even remotely afraid of the AI using is the 1 in a million chance I get shot in the head with an AC/20.
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Modding MW5 is a pain in the ass compared to Battletech. So I expect that will continue to limit the total amount of mods available even after a wider release.
Nice.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
A few:
1. On Defense missions, (if you don't have real human pilots for lancemates) make sure you tell the AI pilots to go to a location and stay there. If you let them loosely follow you, they will wreck the buildings you're supposed to defend.
2. Always check the Detailed mechlab when doing repairs. Destroyed equipment won't repair if you just choose "Repair All" outside the detail mechlab.
3. Max out the armor on your vital bits (side/center torso, legs, weapon arm(s)...cockpit can stand a little shaving) and make sure the front/back distribution is to your liking (just remember: this ain't MWO, and enemies spawn frequently behind you, so you're gonna want more than a couple points on your back).
There are other bits of advice...but those three are, to me, vital.
Will probably give it some more time, but at the moment I'm glad I fired this up on Game Pass and not for an actual cash outlay.
Do I remember earlier conversations that Lt. Freeman is a trap and can't hit the broadside of a barn?
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I'm super stubborn. I was insisting on playing MW5 with a HOTAS. But I grew increasingly convinced the difficulty is tuned to the accuracy of a mouse. Especially one the story mission I got hopelessly stuck on, which stalled me out on the whole game. I forget how far in it is. Like the 4th or 5th one maybe. You blow up a bunch of enemy fuel refineries and then a squad of heavies drops on you like a brick of shit.
Maybe I just needed to gear up more, train up my AI pilots better, etc. Putting them in mechs without weapons in the arms probably would have helped a lot too since they lose those in a stiff breeze.
Steam: betsuni7
Not sure about the rest (yet)...but as to the bolded, there is no MW5 account. Multiplayer in the EGS version is handled through Epic themselves.
Oh really? Wonder why they had us make MW5 accounts.... Guess only for the pre-orders.
Steam: betsuni7
Yup, purely for the preorders. If you buy a new copy of MW5 through the Epic Game Store, you don't even touch PGI's website.
Dang, now that makes me worried that they won't cross play with MS or heaven forbid Steam...
Steam: betsuni7
Morkath posted a thing in the Discord:
I am open for any other newbie MW5 wisdom folks have to give, both for actual piloting/mech jockeying and any other elements of the game that come to mind.
Does the game teach you lancemate commands at some point? I did my first mission with two other mechs and nothing popped up.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Upper left corner should have your lancemate status window. Next to each lancemates' name should be an F-key. Pressing the respective F-key will bring up the lancemate command F-key choices (Attack target, Form up on me, Move here, Stop attacking). If you select "Move Here," the lancemate will go to (or at least try to get to) the location your reticle is aimed at.
Well that blows... I was hoping to be able to play it for a $1 and co-op with you for a bit. AKA, have you help me through the sucky missions.
Steam: betsuni7
The fact that I have to say that about a PC game makes me sad in my heart’s place.
The console launcher wars have begun.
Steam: betsuni7
Given my AI lancemates' fondness for bringing home mechs without arms, I've been avoiding mechs in the shops with the bulk of weapons in the arms, turning my nose up at Vindicators, Enfocers and Jagermechs that would have been nice to have.
Finishing out a tour through an industrial zone, just came across a Marauder in store with all weapons intact. Yeah, going to put my weapon arm limits aside for that.
Not sure if I'll regret it, but I don't play Battletech games to not acquire Marauders!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Marauder with the standard PPC/ML arms but swapping out the AC5 for an UAC5 puts out serious work.
Sucks since I really wanted to have fun with stompy bots but they made this game just not fun running against so much firepower and your mechs having no chance unless you run brawlers.
Also I realize that the Awesome isn't so Awesome and the Dragon is probably the worst Heavy to take into battle given it doesn't carry much firepower.
Edit: I just need to vent since I just wanted to sit down and blow up robots with my overpowered team. I'll probably try again with real try hard mechs.
Steam: betsuni7
As for the "no damage" from 3 ppc hits, keep an eye on those shield (and other status) icons on enemies. Between cover and Bulwark skills, they could have up to 60% damage reduction at times. Utilize Breaching Shot, use melee, reposition to shoot them from behind, pick a different target, or simply wait for them to act first to possibly move themselves out of cover to deal with those high defense enemies.
Ahhh, yeah I completely forgot about status icons. I'm sure that there was damage, just not anything significant. Next time I'll check for those. Another thing, I have yet to find the stupid eject icon. I've tried looking for it and never found it. I did see the Withdraw for the first time this match.
Yep, I do more damage with a medium than the Dragon. I'll probably go back to my original team of 3 mediums and the Catapult if I get back to this game.
I'm tempted to purchase Game Pass to play MW5 though. See if my MWO skills are useful for something.
Steam: betsuni7
They have to use your mechs, in your campaign, and get no rewards or progress for theirs. It is disappointing.
The eject button is inside your selected mech's black status panel in the lower right of the screen. It's just to the left of the two health bars. It's a red square with a black arrow pointing up.
And since it's an action, it can only be used when it is that pilots turn to move. Which can be a nail-biting wait when a mech is critically low on health.
It also destroys the mech's head and any equipment you have installed there, so you will occasionally contemplate whether that pilot's life is worth more than a rare piece of equipment.
Oh nice thanks! I'll look for it when I play again. Figured it would only be there when it is their turn, and I don't use any equipment so that makes things easier.
Steam: betsuni7
Hard disagree here. Breaching shot is at best situationally useful. How many times do you just fire one weapon at a mech? I could see taking it on a LRM boat and that's about it. The thing is most of the time your breaching headshot won't work and you're often better off alphaing them
Ace pilot is also kinda meh IMO, it's not that common that you have a much better shot where you are than where you can move
I took +1 initiative on all my pilots. The stability gain can be a lifesaver as almost every AI mech will target a downed mech, and being able to go before all equivalent mechs is great. Instead of mechs taking turns slugging each other you can probably nuke one of theirs before they can even move, when they have no cover, no guards, no evasion, etc on the first turn, and you're all evasioned/in cover by the time they move. It also guarantees that you all move before the heaviest vehicles, so you take fewer giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 bursts to the face while killing them. Nothing worse than not killing the SRM carrier just before it moves
By endgame (base game) everything was SRM/MLAS with one gauss/LRM boat
"I will advance to the next clump of trees and nuke you all"
Freeman is good all the way until the end of the game where you will hire 50-60 skill pilots.
For MW5 tips in general.
1) armor costs the same to repair as structure. So if you dont have any components in a location you can skimp there if necessary. But it usually is not.
2) your mech needs a variety of weapons to deal with different targets, mechs, vtols, and tanks. Its very inefficient to let the AI shoot tanks and vtol so you need to do it.
3) vtol have the highest dmg/hp ratio followed by tanks followed by mechs by weight low to high. This is generally target priority. Exception for once you have enough damage to slaughter assaults. Then its generally “whatever is in your reticle until its dead”. Because vtol/tanks have very little Raw DPS the AI will ignore them and because they have so low HP its more efficient to kill them than attempt to order your AI lance mates to. So whatever weapon group youre using for tanks/vtol it doesnt need more damage than can one shot a tank/vtol
4) AI mechs should have a singlular engagement range. They attempt to fire all weapons and so will close heavily if mixed with short/long range weapons. Stacked single weapon types is pretty ideal. They also are very concerned with ammo/heat so make sure they have enough heat to consistently fire. Theyre also very good with high velocity weapons like PPC. The Awesome is indeed awesome in the hands of the AI.
5) you are immune to friendly fire. But your AI lancemates are not. They need more armor on their arms and and backs and weapons on their arms are less ideal.
6) 86KPH is the minimum mech speed to make use of damage avoidance skill well for the AI. AI dont need to be moving to get the benefit.
7) lasers have damage falloff but no other weapons do. If you can land that AC/20 at 1km you do full damage. SRMs start ballistic falling at their max range. LRM an be fired blind and will land exactly where you were pointing your target when you pulled the trigger. This is very useful for killing turrets
8) arm slots are a LOT better for pinpoint aiming so long as your arms are unlocked (and they should be) because theyre far more responsive to mouse movements.
In terms of weapon efficienies. Most engagements are at short range so SRM and MLAS tend to be strongest in general. PPC are almost univerally better than LPulse. As you get bigger in tonnage pinpoint damage will matter more and so regular AC will start to overtake burst AC. MPulse is also very good (MLAS can be hard to hold on the same section for the entire burn) but tends to be a bit short range/heavy.
The biggest thing you can do to get better in the early game is to learn how to peg tanks and planes with your AC/10 (2xMLAS backup for vtol) and swap the LRM for an SRM6. If you can swat tanks with your AC10 then everyting else will be shred by the SRM/AC combination.
AC/5 is king of the autocannon better even than the UAC/5. SRMs carry 50% more damage per tonne of ammo than other weapons.
@Iolo
Oh! And a slight addendum to the above comment on friendly fire: While it's true that your AI lancemates can't hurt you, any friends you've invited in for co-op can.
+1 init isn't that bad in a vacuum but it comes with sensor lock. Which means you cannot get one of "sure footing" or "Bulwark" both of which are leagues better than +1 initiative. Because it doesn't matter how many giant PPC/LRM/SRM/AC20 vehicles go when they just spray shots all over the place and don't hit you. The last time i got shot by an SRM60 i took ~20 damage. Because 4 out of 60 shots hit into 40% DR. Indeed the main problem with breaching shot is that you don't get one of Sure Footing or Bulwark. The stability gain is... OK. You can shed 1 stability pip per turn in an assault and then you can move to shed 2 more. But if you move as an assault on your turn with sure footing you will shed 2 stability pips and then gain 50% DR vs stability damage compared to not having surefooted. Which is a gain of effectively 4 pips of stability.
But that being said i end up shooting singular weapons at mechs a lot... when i have breaching shot. Because for assaults its impossible to fit enough damage into just SRM/MLAS in order to kill/disable things efficiently. You don't have the number of slots relative to tonnage. But you can fit AC/20's and PPC's. A single AC/20 may only do 100 damage for 15 tonnes. But it also weighs 15 tonnes. That is 4 SRM6 + 1 free tonne(assuming 2 SRM6 per tonne of ammo).
A King Crab as 2 ballistic, 4 energy, and 4 missile slots and after maxing its armor(well almost, assuming you leave 60 off of the rear in total for rounding) AND fitting 3 jump jets has 36 tonnes for weapons. So you fit 4 MLAS, 4 SRM6, and 18 heat sinks(96+jump usage, 84 cooling)? 292 damage? Assuming you target two enemies who have 40% DR(not uncommon) two AC/20(48+ jump usage, 30 cooling) will do 166.6* to each of them. And you will have 2-4 tonnes of weapons to spare. And that damage will be to singular locations and so more likely to knock out important components. And will do 80 total stability damage compared the 43 from the SRMs. And its a lot easier to find 2 AC/20+++ than it is to find 4 SRM6+++ and 4 MLAS++.
That is pretty much the best case scenario against breaching shot. The cyclops Q does have enough missile slots to only really use SRM... but its the only one. Everything else is stuck with fewer missile slots and similar or fewer energy slots and/or even more available tonnage with which to make use of even more big autocannons or gauss rifles or PPC or large lasers.
Ace Piloting is mainly good on mediums/lights because it lets you shoot someones butt twice in a row and then leave. But its still good for assaults since it lets them shoot and then use their movement to leave targeting range.
*Edit: In case this wasn't clear that is 166.6 effective pre DR damage.
Even just with, say, Orions, Breaching Shot with Multi Target means you can get maximum damage against multiple targets, and generally with weapons heavy enough to one-shot vehicles and heavily damage lights or mediums. Being able to swat down three different vehicles in a single round of firing from one mech imparts a significant advantage in the action economy of the game, particularly when you're facing off against nasty heavy vehicles sporting dual AC20s or, even worse, SRM or LRM carriers. Not to mention setting those targets up for followup killshots by making them all easier to hit and cranking up their stability damage, if the first round fails to get them.
And when you start getting assaults that can carry a couple UAC weapons? Breaching shot plus Multi-Target means you can easily fuck up some damned heavy targets without wasting a ton of heat or ammo. Even without Multi Target, Breaching Shot means you can still efficiently pierce defense with alternating UAC10 or UAC20 shots. Not to mention that it makes sure any headshot Called Shot with those nice +++ damage weapons will still do max damage instead of getting blunted to the point of being a waste.
With the overwhelming abundance of cover in the game, being able to punch through ALL damage-reduction bonuses, especially on multiple targets, is a huge benefit.
Sure footing generates one extra evasion pip, which is not very significant and the actions where you get the stability damage reduction are the ones that generate fewer evasion pips anyway. If only 4 out of 60 SRMs are hitting you are either jumping a light mech and/or are getting stupidly lucky. Besides you're clearly not taking both sure footing and bulwark on most pilots anyway
So if you don't have +++ weapons then you do 13% less damage than breaching dual ac20, and 28% less stability damage true, but if they only have 20% DR then you win on damage and are almost par on stability
If you do have +++ weapons then just the SRMs do raw 288 and 120 stability and the med lasers have so much +acc that they basically never miss so that's another guaranteed 100. Even at 40% DR this is a clear win, and the stab damage is concentrated which leads to easier knockdowns. I don't know about you but I was swimming in MLAS++ by the end of the game. SRM6+++ is rare sure, but I had more of those than AC20+++ and every SRM6 was at least ++
Breaching shot ac20 king crab is a great thing sure, but you're putting all your eggs in two baskets and assuming all opponents always have 40% DR to compete. DR can be removed, and not every enemy has 40% DR, in particular almost none will if you go first. The only real advantage is as you say, concentrated location damage, but I've found that it's easy enough to either do side attacks or knockdowns and that usually concentrates fire enough
If you use breaching shot with 2x PPC, you're paying 70 heat and 14 tons to get 100 damage and 40 stab damage, that seems a poor tradeoff IMO
I am jumping a Highlander and getting these evasion pips. +1 Evasion pip is -10% to hit. Which is HUGE. Lets say you normally generate 3 and have maxed piloting skill and a +3 gyro. This makes for -60% to hit. +1 evasion makes this -70% to hit. vs base gunnery this took to-hit from .15 to .05 a 66% reduction. Its "only" a 40% reduction on the next attack but its still very significant. By the third attack its "only" a 28.5% reduction. By the Fourth Attack its a 22.5% reduction. If the enemy has maxed gunnery skills then its still a 25% damage reduction on the first attack...Bulwark is a 25% damage reduction over not having it(33% if you don't shoot and are in the tree line). So its minimum value is almost as good as Bulwark.
If you can generate any other effective defense for any reason (long range/indirect fire as examples). +1 evasion pip is huge.
The mention of the Highlander is important because as mentioned earlier the crab is best case scenario for "not breaching shot". The Highlander has only 2 missile and 3 energy. Less than half the damage availability of the crab in missile and energy slots using SRM/MLAS. If you have the DLC then things get worse because you get access to UAC. A UAC/20 does 200 damage and 80 stability damage. It breaches to the level of an entire compliment of SRM+++ and 2 MLAS(+10 dmg).
By the end of the game i had 2(maybe 3?) +10 dmg MLAS and 4 SRM6+++ and 3 AC/20+++. If you have PPC++ (of which i had >3) you're paying 18 tonnes to get 150 damage and 150 stab damage. (ok and a boatload of heat). If you have LRM++ or +++ its 120 damage and 240 stability damage.
You're talking about knocking things down but you're doing 72 stability damage to one target while the LRM breacher is doing 80 stability damage to 3...
Edit: I had tonnes of MLAS++ but not the good MLAS++. Accuracy and Crit just isn't that valuable late game(especially on MLAS)