Speed is definitely helpful. If you're using a LLas, and it's chasing you, and at ~450 you full reverse, the faster you can go, the longer before it's in streak range.
So, had the best game I've ever had, 4 kills, almost 500 damage, XP all over the place for blowing libs off. Just crushing stuff. Then it gets to just me in my Awesome and somebody in an Atlas. Ends in a draw, so I get no XP, lol. Or, I got no XP since I was using the trial Awesome, I don't know. But I do know I liked paired weapons like that.
So, had the best game I've ever had, 4 kills, almost 500 damage, XP all over the place for blowing libs off. Just crushing stuff. Then it gets to just me in my Awesome and somebody in an Atlas. Ends in a draw, so I get no XP, lol. Or, I got no XP since I was using the trial Awesome, I don't know. But I do know I liked paired weapons like that.
Trial 'mechs award no XP. Number one reason to just buy a 'mech. Not a bad thing to grind through trials, though. Easy way to learn what kind of build you're good with.
Behold the post-DHS Dragon 1-C:
4 Medium Lasers
1 AC/10 w/ 3 tons of ammo
1 SRM 4 w/ 1 ton of ammo
1 AMS w/ 1 ton of ammo
15 Double Heat Sinks
Endo-Steel Structure
300 XL Engine
400 Armor Points
this loadout so much.
I'm trying to put this back into my Dragon and now it magically doesn't fit. I'm now two critical slots short for zero reason.
What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck?
did you remember to put two DHS in your engine?
some of these things I just don't get, Like do you literally put them in the same space as your engine?
Some engines have space for extra heat sinks that are now not used right away. The earlier versions of the game gave by default the number that came from the engine size and did not require externally placed sinks. So if you have extra spaces, planting a heat sink in the center torso in mech lab will plant those in the engine. If you had less than a certain rated engine you had to place some in the mech slots to carry at least the required ten.
Engines are required to have at least ten heat sinks, and for every 25 tons one can be placed in the engine space. So a 250 has all ten inside, a 300 has space for two more.
That help?
This is ENORMOUSLY HELPFUL. Thank you very much.
---
There are a million little things to learn about this game, and that's probably why I am digging it so much currently.
How the Damage/armor model works, how criticals work, lasers as DoT's vs weird aiming on Ballistics, streaks vs shotgun srms, lrms and locking,
mech building mech building mech building, engine/heat sinks, tactics vs cbill tactics vs mech specific xp/gxp vs the cost of repairing your mech.
---
why would anyone run regular srms, when streaks are just... better.
---
Damage and armor. There are different hit areas on the mech, head, arms, legs, left, right and center front and rear torsos. Armor covers each of those areas and has a certain number of points. Peel the armor and you have internal structure. Which also has points. The open bay doors on the catapults and centurions can let damage go internal without first stripping armor.
Criticals are working differently than table top. If you don't know how that worked then we can ignore it. The slots in the mech can contain equipment. The equipment will have ten points of structure that when damaged are destroyed.
Ammo explosions can damage a lot of internals and leftover damage will transfer to the next section, so ammo in the left torso can also destroy the center, unless case is involved. CASE will contain or blow the damage away from the center.
Lasers have to be held on the target for the duration of their attack to apply their whole damage. Pulse lasers have a shorter attack duration, but generate more heat and weigh more.
Ballistics have travel time and need to be led. There are also problems with the netcode, so lag and strangeness with that will cause problems.
Streaks and LRM both lock on and will run to the target as long as lock is held. SRMs are dumb fire, so require a little leading. Also catapults and centurions have missile bay doors that take a little time to open.
Mech building is going to depend on a number of factors. Your play style and what you can afford are the big ones.
We can cover engine types, heat sinks and other fun topics in another post if you like.
*edit* and your last question. Streaks are less missiles, but usually guaranteed damage. So if you can lock, they are eating it.
Thank you sir
I was just listing the things I had learned.
Primarily about the last bit. Streak 2 are 5 points of damage to the same location, generally center torso, almost never missing if you have any idea how to use them. srm6's are 15 points of damage spread out over a several locations, with a non-trivial chance of missing some (or even all) of the damage. Streak 2's use less ammo, heat, tonnage and slots. Streak 2's do better concentrated damage. Streak 2's almost never miss, and almost always hit the CT. Streak 2's are cheaper.
SRM6's get you better damage numbers at the end of the match I guess.
"How are you going to play Dota if your fingers and bitten off? You can't. That's how" -> Carnarvon
"You can be yodeling bear without spending a dime if you get lucky." -> reVerse
"In the grim darkness of the future, we will all be nurses catering to the whims of terrible old people." -> Hacksaw
"In fact, our whole society will be oriented around caring for one very decrepit, very old man on total life support." -> SKFM
I mean, the first time I met a non-white person was when this Vietnamese kid tried to break my legs but that was entirely fair because he was a centreback, not because he was a subhuman beast in some zoo ->yotes
:argh: Just had a match where i was lagging (more than i normally do) so it was bad enough but these hit detection changes can't come fast enough...
A Jenner shut down *right* infront of me, i stopped moving waited for a second then *fired ze lazers* it probably would've killed him but *NOPE* complete miss apparently even though i hit him dead on.
And in the file of things in this came which continue to astonish me: the number of people who have no inkling that LRMs have a minimum range.
I'm running through the Frozen City cave in my Dragon, round a corner, come almost face-to-face with two trial Awesomes. I keep right on running right in between them, feeding a salvo to each, and as I go by I'm surrounded by big fans of LRMs, as harmless as firecrackers. In that moment I smiled to myself because I knew for positively certain that I was up against scrubs and I had nothing to fear.
And in the file of things in this came which continue to astonish me: the number of people who have no inkling that LRMs have a minimum range.
I'm running through the Frozen City cave in my Dragon, round a corner, come almost face-to-face with two trial Awesomes. I keep right on running right in between them, feeding a salvo to each, and as I go by I'm surrounded by big fans of LRMs, as harmless as firecrackers. In that moment I smiled to myself because I knew for positively certain that I was up against scrubs and I had nothing to fear.
I do this on my LRM boat that has two streaks... i do it in the hopes they'll be like 'haha he has no idea what he is doing!' and not notice the streaks tearing there CT.
Man, I want to like the Dragon. I really do. I always seem to do ~pretty well~ with it, but I can't manage more than that. With the Centurion I either wind up with multiple kills and 400+ damage or I walk off the edge of the base while zoomed in and catch 800 LRMs in the face really quickly. With the Dragon I always end up with 200-400 damage dealt and my entire 'mech flashing red by the end. I just don't feel like I've got the necessary punch with the Dragon--the AC/10 is reliable and low-heat but only deals 10 damage per volley.
I'm tempted to work out a PPC build for the Dragon and see if I can't combine the two. I learned I'm not the only PAer running PPCs these days, either; we had a PPC Cat for a few games there.
Yeah, I'd like the next 'mech to be a heavy or an assault.
Mostly I'd like the next 'mech to land in my mechbay, because I am damn tired of grinding. It feels like everything takes about twice as long as it should to get.
Pretty sure it will be either a heavy or an assault. There's three lights and three mediums, and only two heavies and two assaults. So they're due for those. Probably the Cataphract or Stalker, though the Highlander would also be awesome.
And in the file of things in this came which continue to astonish me: the number of people who have no inkling that LRMs have a minimum range.
I'm running through the Frozen City cave in my Dragon, round a corner, come almost face-to-face with two trial Awesomes. I keep right on running right in between them, feeding a salvo to each, and as I go by I'm surrounded by big fans of LRMs, as harmless as firecrackers. In that moment I smiled to myself because I knew for positively certain that I was up against scrubs and I had nothing to fear.
The game never tells you these things. I mean, I just learnt this as you said this. I realised they had a minimum range, but I had no idea what it was.
Also, the Mechwarrior casual community is really, really bad so far. Everyone's a hyper aggressive dick to anyone who's new. That's not a good way to keep a game going. Obviously not you guys though.
Yeah, I'd like the next 'mech to be a heavy or an assault.
Mostly I'd like the next 'mech to land in my mechbay, because I am damn tired of grinding. It feels like everything takes about twice as long as it should to get.
Yeah, trials only get about 2/3 of what owned 'mechs get. Plus owned 'mechs can get premium bonuses, if you have premium time.
I believe the Cataphract is pretty solidly next in line for implementation. That's what it sounds like from dev posts on the MWO forums, anyway - I think it's slated to show up later this month, if I remember right.
And in the file of things in this came which continue to astonish me: the number of people who have no inkling that LRMs have a minimum range.
I'm running through the Frozen City cave in my Dragon, round a corner, come almost face-to-face with two trial Awesomes. I keep right on running right in between them, feeding a salvo to each, and as I go by I'm surrounded by big fans of LRMs, as harmless as firecrackers. In that moment I smiled to myself because I knew for positively certain that I was up against scrubs and I had nothing to fear.
The game never tells you these things. I mean, I just learnt this as you said this. I realised they had a minimum range, but I had no idea what it was.
Also, the Mechwarrior casual community is really, really bad so far. Everyone's a hyper aggressive dick to anyone who's new. That's not a good way to keep a game going. Obviously not you guys though.
The game never tells you these things. I mean, I just learnt this as you said this. I realised they had a minimum range, but I had no idea what it was.
Also, the Mechwarrior casual community is really, really bad so far. Everyone's a hyper aggressive dick to anyone who's new. That's not a good way to keep a game going. Obviously not you guys though.
I find myself using the chat to tell people LRMs have a minimum range roughly every other game. I have to admit that sometimes I am sort of a smartass about it. But honestly I have been making an effort, especially lately, to educate people about how different weapons and equipment work, etc, when I have the opportunity. I've even sent friend invites to people just because they were obviously new and seemed receptive to having things explained, though they usually go unanswered.
I believe the Cataphract is pretty solidly next in line for implementation. That's what it sounds like from dev posts on the MWO forums, anyway - I think it's slated to show up later this month, if I remember right.
Yeah, I think so. And then the Stalker in December.
Stalker is going to be so tempting. The 3H will probably going to have something like six missile hardpoints, and four laser points. The "standard" 3F will probably have 4/6. So they may just make Stalkers big catapults and give them ten hardpoints per variant.
what gets me is that Im the bad guy if I kill a mech that has shutdown.
Opening minute of the fight, we strip this hunchback of all it's weapons and it powers down. The others leave it, but I dont see a kill counter or see it fall over so I keep putting rounds into it until it pops.
It's 2-0 us and I get yelled at by the other scrubs that a ''power down'' is a surrender.
I retort back that there is no surrender for someone who still has the ability to cap.
I'll say it again so you all know my stance: There is NO surrender in a game mode that can be lost due to presence in a cap point.
There certainly wont be surrender when collision is reinstated because knocking over an enemy in a 2 v (1+walking corpse) helps your teammate.
Especially if it is an atlas against a 150kph goose.
what gets me is that Im the bad guy if I kill a mech that has shutdown.
Opening minute of the fight, we strip this hunchback of all it's weapons and it powers down. The others leave it, but I dont see a kill counter or see it fall over so I keep putting rounds into it until it pops.
It's 2-0 us and I get yelled at by the other scrubs that a ''power down'' is a surrender.
I retort back that there is no surrender for someone who still has the ability to cap.
I'll say it again so you all know my stance: There is NO surrender in a game mode that can be lost due to presence in a cap point.
There certainly wont be surrender when collision is reinstated because knocking over an enemy in a 2 v (1+walking corpse) helps your teammate.
Especially if it is an atlas against a 150kph goose.
Yeah no I basically agree. I mean, a weaponless opponent should become low priority. So, like, a Streak cat with no ears? Meh, leave him unless his CT is critical. You've got bigger fish to fry right now, and if he does try to cap, your light can just go stand on the cap point and block it. Also if you're close to capping, just leg him and go cap.
But if they're close to dead, or there's only a couple of enemies left, and you're not close to capping, go for it.
So, I've finally got the c-bills to buy a second Cat, and was thinking about going for a K2.
I don't particularly want to go gaussapult or the dual AC/20 build I saw earlier tonight, so any suggestions on what other builds could be viable?
At the moment, I'm thinking about replacing the machine guns with AC/5s and swapping the PPCs out for large lasers. Probably need to upgrade to ES and/or an XL engine to get the tonnage for large large lasers though.
Probably be a nice change from my current habit of finding somewhere out of the way and indiscriminately raining LRMs on anything that cons red and stays targeted long enough for me to get a lock.
Now I'll be able to indiscriminately rain laser and ballistic fire on anything that cons red.
What's the hard counter to streak cats? Gaussapaults? LRM boats?
Another surprisingly effective tactic is to just power down when they have a lock on you. Most streak cat pilots seem really confused by this, and many will stupidly wait for you to power back up - allowing your teammates to hit it from behind. As soon as it switches targets, power back up.
Note, this works best with few other enemy mechs around, but I've noticed most ignore shut down mechs. It's a very situational tactic, but it can be Super Effective.
What's the hard counter to streak cats? Gaussapaults? LRM boats?
Another surprisingly effective tactic is to just power down when they have a lock on you. Most streak cat pilots seem really confused by this, and many will stupidly wait for you to power back up - allowing your teammates to hit it from behind. As soon as it switches targets, power back up.
Note, this works best with few other enemy mechs around, but I've noticed most ignore shut down mechs. It's a very situational tactic, but it can be Super Effective.
And hilarious.
Earlier on caustic valley a dragon shut down to avoid lrm lock on. I parked in front of him and blew his right arm off in my laserboat 4sp before he realized his mistake.
So, I've finally got the c-bills to buy a second Cat, and was thinking about going for a K2.
I don't particularly want to go gaussapult or the dual AC/20 build I saw earlier tonight, so any suggestions on what other builds could be viable?
At the moment, I'm thinking about replacing the machine guns with AC/5s and swapping the PPCs out for large lasers. Probably need to upgrade to ES and/or an XL engine to get the tonnage for large large lasers though.
Probably be a nice change from my current habit of finding somewhere out of the way and indiscriminately raining LRMs on anything that cons red and stays targeted long enough for me to get a lock.
Now I'll be able to indiscriminately rain laser and ballistic fire on anything that cons red.
PPC's weigh 7 tons and Large lasers only weigh 5 so no problem there... you could even do a straight up swap for Large pulses although after the 'unbugging' they are probably going to be crap...
I build my K2 with four large lasers... i like it, generally needs support though because it runs hot so risk of shutdown is high but its alpha technically does more damage than a guassapult (obviously depends on if you get the full laser hit on one spot or if they move at all).
I run mine with Endo a 315 XL and the rest DHS although i haven't done the math on if it'll be better to use singles after the DHS change though so :iiam:
Man, I want to like the Dragon. I really do. I always seem to do ~pretty well~ with it, but I can't manage more than that. With the Centurion I either wind up with multiple kills and 400+ damage or I walk off the edge of the base while zoomed in and catch 800 LRMs in the face really quickly. With the Dragon I always end up with 200-400 damage dealt and my entire 'mech flashing red by the end. I just don't feel like I've got the necessary punch with the Dragon--the AC/10 is reliable and low-heat but only deals 10 damage per volley.
I'm tempted to work out a PPC build for the Dragon and see if I can't combine the two. I learned I'm not the only PAer running PPCs these days, either; we had a PPC Cat for a few games there.
I've had pretty good success the last couple of days in an ER PPC armed Centurion -AL. It's definitely not a cheap build to use, but I found that if you're good with a Gauss rifle, you're good with a PPC.
245 Standard Engine
Endo-Steel
Double Heatsinks
ER PPC
3x Small Lasers
2x Streak SRM-2, 2 tons of ammo
6x Double Heatsinks (total of 16 on chassis)
Full armor except on legs, which are at 39 points each
It goes 79.4 kph before speed efficiencies, has enough heat dissipation to sustain sniper fire, and Streaks + Small Lasers give a good close-range punch as a backup. An XL engine might help, but is a bit expensive for me right now.
Man, I want to like the Dragon. I really do. I always seem to do ~pretty well~ with it, but I can't manage more than that. With the Centurion I either wind up with multiple kills and 400+ damage or I walk off the edge of the base while zoomed in and catch 800 LRMs in the face really quickly. With the Dragon I always end up with 200-400 damage dealt and my entire 'mech flashing red by the end. I just don't feel like I've got the necessary punch with the Dragon--the AC/10 is reliable and low-heat but only deals 10 damage per volley.
I'm tempted to work out a PPC build for the Dragon and see if I can't combine the two. I learned I'm not the only PAer running PPCs these days, either; we had a PPC Cat for a few games there.
I've had pretty good success the last couple of days in an ER PPC armed Centurion -AL. It's definitely not a cheap build to use, but I found that if you're good with a Gauss rifle, you're good with a PPC.
245 Standard Engine
Endo-Steel
Double Heatsinks
ER PPC
3x Small Lasers
2x Streak SRM-2, 2 tons of ammo
6x Double Heatsinks (total of 16 on chassis)
Full armor except on legs, which are at 39 points each
It goes 79.4 kph before speed efficiencies, has enough heat dissipation to sustain sniper fire, and Streaks + Small Lasers give a good close-range punch as a backup. An XL engine might help, but is a bit expensive for me right now.
I use a dual-PPC Centurion as my main 'mech. Standard engine, standard structure, double sinks, and two PPCs. I've been waiting to mess with it further until after the double heat sink buff.
I wouldn't use ER PPCs in a team game, though--you're paying half again as much heat for no extra damage. When someone gets in under my minimum range, I mosey on over towards my teammates and let them deal with it. Meanwhile I'm pumping out far more damage than an ER PPC setup and have twice the alpha.
this evening I was quite liking the mods I made to my founders Hunchback. Upgraded to Endo Steel and took out the medium + small lasers. Added an AMS, CASE (in the section with the AMS and AC20 ammo) and a large laser in the arm opposite the AC20 (so total weapons are an AC20 + Large Laser).
Even after the ac20 gets blown off or runs out of ammo the large laser can still keep doing some decent damage. And it adds a little punch at range.
this evening I was quite liking the mods I made to my founders Hunchback. Upgraded to Endo Steel and took out the medium + small lasers. Added an AMS, CASE (in the section with the AMS and AC20 ammo) and a large laser in the arm opposite the AC20 (so total weapons are an AC20 + Large Laser).
Even after the ac20 gets blown off or runs out of ammo the large laser can still keep doing some decent damage. And it adds a little punch at range.
this evening I was quite liking the mods I made to my founders Hunchback. Upgraded to Endo Steel and took out the medium + small lasers. Added an AMS, CASE (in the section with the AMS and AC20 ammo) and a large laser in the arm opposite the AC20 (so total weapons are an AC20 + Large Laser).
Even after the ac20 gets blown off or runs out of ammo the large laser can still keep doing some decent damage. And it adds a little punch at range.
Ammo.
It goes in your legs.
Yeah, I stick my AC/20 ammo in the legs and head. It's less a matter of the minor weight savings of the half-ton CASE addition and more a matter of not losing an entire torso section and the arm on that side when the ammo goes. People don't often go for the legs, and putting it there should give you enough time to clear out a bunch of ammo so you're not in a critical situation if they do eat through your leg armor.
Speaking of which, one feature I definitely wish for is a way to specify the order in which you draw from ammo stockpiles. It would be a subtle but very valuable feature, since ballistic-oriented mechs would then be able to do things store ammo in "shield" sections with the knowledge that they could burn through that ammo before that section is exposed to internal damage.
Man, I want to like the Dragon. I really do. I always seem to do ~pretty well~ with it, but I can't manage more than that. With the Centurion I either wind up with multiple kills and 400+ damage or I walk off the edge of the base while zoomed in and catch 800 LRMs in the face really quickly. With the Dragon I always end up with 200-400 damage dealt and my entire 'mech flashing red by the end. I just don't feel like I've got the necessary punch with the Dragon--the AC/10 is reliable and low-heat but only deals 10 damage per volley.
I'm tempted to work out a PPC build for the Dragon and see if I can't combine the two. I learned I'm not the only PAer running PPCs these days, either; we had a PPC Cat for a few games there.
I've had pretty good success the last couple of days in an ER PPC armed Centurion -AL. It's definitely not a cheap build to use, but I found that if you're good with a Gauss rifle, you're good with a PPC.
245 Standard Engine
Endo-Steel
Double Heatsinks
ER PPC
3x Small Lasers
2x Streak SRM-2, 2 tons of ammo
6x Double Heatsinks (total of 16 on chassis)
Full armor except on legs, which are at 39 points each
It goes 79.4 kph before speed efficiencies, has enough heat dissipation to sustain sniper fire, and Streaks + Small Lasers give a good close-range punch as a backup. An XL engine might help, but is a bit expensive for me right now.
I use a dual-PPC Centurion as my main 'mech. Standard engine, standard structure, double sinks, and two PPCs. I've been waiting to mess with it further until after the double heat sink buff.
I wouldn't use ER PPCs in a team game, though--you're paying half again as much heat for no extra damage. When someone gets in under my minimum range, I mosey on over towards my teammates and let them deal with it. Meanwhile I'm pumping out far more damage than an ER PPC setup and have twice the alpha.
Do you run anything in there other than the PPCs? I can see that as a pure direct fire-support unit, but I think I prefer keeping short-range capabilities. Personal preferences and differing team makeups, I suppose.
Posts
Oh yeahhhh! I'll be playing Halo 4 tomorrow (at least for a little bit) as well.
Trial 'mechs award no XP. Number one reason to just buy a 'mech. Not a bad thing to grind through trials, though. Easy way to learn what kind of build you're good with.
Thank you sir
I was just listing the things I had learned.
Primarily about the last bit. Streak 2 are 5 points of damage to the same location, generally center torso, almost never missing if you have any idea how to use them. srm6's are 15 points of damage spread out over a several locations, with a non-trivial chance of missing some (or even all) of the damage. Streak 2's use less ammo, heat, tonnage and slots. Streak 2's do better concentrated damage. Streak 2's almost never miss, and almost always hit the CT. Streak 2's are cheaper.
SRM6's get you better damage numbers at the end of the match I guess.
"You can be yodeling bear without spending a dime if you get lucky." -> reVerse
"In the grim darkness of the future, we will all be nurses catering to the whims of terrible old people." -> Hacksaw
"In fact, our whole society will be oriented around caring for one very decrepit, very old man on total life support." -> SKFM
I mean, the first time I met a non-white person was when this Vietnamese kid tried to break my legs but that was entirely fair because he was a centreback, not because he was a subhuman beast in some zoo ->yotes
A Jenner shut down *right* infront of me, i stopped moving waited for a second then *fired ze lazers* it probably would've killed him but *NOPE* complete miss apparently even though i hit him dead on.
I'm running through the Frozen City cave in my Dragon, round a corner, come almost face-to-face with two trial Awesomes. I keep right on running right in between them, feeding a salvo to each, and as I go by I'm surrounded by big fans of LRMs, as harmless as firecrackers. In that moment I smiled to myself because I knew for positively certain that I was up against scrubs and I had nothing to fear.
I do this on my LRM boat that has two streaks... i do it in the hopes they'll be like 'haha he has no idea what he is doing!' and not notice the streaks tearing there CT.
I'm tempted to work out a PPC build for the Dragon and see if I can't combine the two. I learned I'm not the only PAer running PPCs these days, either; we had a PPC Cat for a few games there.
2xPPC
2xERPPC
It...didn't last long.
Mostly I'd like the next 'mech to land in my mechbay, because I am damn tired of grinding. It feels like everything takes about twice as long as it should to get.
Also, the Mechwarrior casual community is really, really bad so far. Everyone's a hyper aggressive dick to anyone who's new. That's not a good way to keep a game going. Obviously not you guys though.
Yeah, trials only get about 2/3 of what owned 'mechs get. Plus owned 'mechs can get premium bonuses, if you have premium time.
This link is in the OP.
I find myself using the chat to tell people LRMs have a minimum range roughly every other game. I have to admit that sometimes I am sort of a smartass about it. But honestly I have been making an effort, especially lately, to educate people about how different weapons and equipment work, etc, when I have the opportunity. I've even sent friend invites to people just because they were obviously new and seemed receptive to having things explained, though they usually go unanswered.
Yeah, I think so. And then the Stalker in December.
Opening minute of the fight, we strip this hunchback of all it's weapons and it powers down. The others leave it, but I dont see a kill counter or see it fall over so I keep putting rounds into it until it pops.
It's 2-0 us and I get yelled at by the other scrubs that a ''power down'' is a surrender.
I retort back that there is no surrender for someone who still has the ability to cap.
I'll say it again so you all know my stance: There is NO surrender in a game mode that can be lost due to presence in a cap point.
There certainly wont be surrender when collision is reinstated because knocking over an enemy in a 2 v (1+walking corpse) helps your teammate.
Especially if it is an atlas against a 150kph goose.
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
You and your spacemoney are going down the toilet, my powered-down friend.
Yeah no I basically agree. I mean, a weaponless opponent should become low priority. So, like, a Streak cat with no ears? Meh, leave him unless his CT is critical. You've got bigger fish to fry right now, and if he does try to cap, your light can just go stand on the cap point and block it. Also if you're close to capping, just leg him and go cap.
But if they're close to dead, or there's only a couple of enemies left, and you're not close to capping, go for it.
I don't particularly want to go gaussapult or the dual AC/20 build I saw earlier tonight, so any suggestions on what other builds could be viable?
At the moment, I'm thinking about replacing the machine guns with AC/5s and swapping the PPCs out for large lasers. Probably need to upgrade to ES and/or an XL engine to get the tonnage for large large lasers though.
Probably be a nice change from my current habit of finding somewhere out of the way and indiscriminately raining LRMs on anything that cons red and stays targeted long enough for me to get a lock.
Now I'll be able to indiscriminately rain laser and ballistic fire on anything that cons red.
The Cataphract does look useful though
For those of you talking about the DHS changes, you might want to check out my thread. I'm working hard to shed some light on the games systems.
http://penny-arcade.com/report/the-cut-article/a-long-detailed-post-on-heat-balance-in-mechwarrior-online-get-out-your-cal
Another surprisingly effective tactic is to just power down when they have a lock on you. Most streak cat pilots seem really confused by this, and many will stupidly wait for you to power back up - allowing your teammates to hit it from behind. As soon as it switches targets, power back up.
Note, this works best with few other enemy mechs around, but I've noticed most ignore shut down mechs. It's a very situational tactic, but it can be Super Effective.
And hilarious.
Earlier on caustic valley a dragon shut down to avoid lrm lock on. I parked in front of him and blew his right arm off in my laserboat 4sp before he realized his mistake.
Vs streakapults though? Fantastic
PPC's weigh 7 tons and Large lasers only weigh 5 so no problem there... you could even do a straight up swap for Large pulses although after the 'unbugging' they are probably going to be crap...
I build my K2 with four large lasers... i like it, generally needs support though because it runs hot so risk of shutdown is high but its alpha technically does more damage than a guassapult (obviously depends on if you get the full laser hit on one spot or if they move at all).
I run mine with Endo a 315 XL and the rest DHS although i haven't done the math on if it'll be better to use singles after the DHS change though so :iiam:
I've had pretty good success the last couple of days in an ER PPC armed Centurion -AL. It's definitely not a cheap build to use, but I found that if you're good with a Gauss rifle, you're good with a PPC.
245 Standard Engine
Endo-Steel
Double Heatsinks
ER PPC
3x Small Lasers
2x Streak SRM-2, 2 tons of ammo
6x Double Heatsinks (total of 16 on chassis)
Full armor except on legs, which are at 39 points each
It goes 79.4 kph before speed efficiencies, has enough heat dissipation to sustain sniper fire, and Streaks + Small Lasers give a good close-range punch as a backup. An XL engine might help, but is a bit expensive for me right now.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard
I wouldn't use ER PPCs in a team game, though--you're paying half again as much heat for no extra damage. When someone gets in under my minimum range, I mosey on over towards my teammates and let them deal with it. Meanwhile I'm pumping out far more damage than an ER PPC setup and have twice the alpha.
WHY I OUGHTA
Come on now, men in half ton space suits are only half a step from giant stompy robots.
Scifi is scifi, no matter your flavor.
Even after the ac20 gets blown off or runs out of ammo the large laser can still keep doing some decent damage. And it adds a little punch at range.
Ammo.
It goes in your legs.
Yeah, I stick my AC/20 ammo in the legs and head. It's less a matter of the minor weight savings of the half-ton CASE addition and more a matter of not losing an entire torso section and the arm on that side when the ammo goes. People don't often go for the legs, and putting it there should give you enough time to clear out a bunch of ammo so you're not in a critical situation if they do eat through your leg armor.
Speaking of which, one feature I definitely wish for is a way to specify the order in which you draw from ammo stockpiles. It would be a subtle but very valuable feature, since ballistic-oriented mechs would then be able to do things store ammo in "shield" sections with the knowledge that they could burn through that ammo before that section is exposed to internal damage.
Do you run anything in there other than the PPCs? I can see that as a pure direct fire-support unit, but I think I prefer keeping short-range capabilities. Personal preferences and differing team makeups, I suppose.
Contributing writer at Marooner's Rock
Twitch broadcasting! Currently playing through Wing Commander: Privateer
Pinny Lanyard