Mechwarrior Online

[Arthur_Parker]

You sure?  I've not paid that much attention but it seems to work out about the same for me, once you factor in missing repair/rearm costs.

4 matchs shown with premium time ~ 230-250k for a decent win, post patch single match decent win shown ~190k (no repair/rearm cost).

Link for details.

[Arthur_Parker]

The Kerensky lance takes the trial Dragon out for a spin.

[satael]

Those dragons were pretty funny, but replace the Kerenskys with pugs and it would be just a horrible mess 

[5150]

Just in case any of you don't know the custom camo paint jobs are not toggleable (like the free paint job given away by PC Gamer or the cockpit items) and they are a 'per mech, per fit' purchase :-(

I purchased Phranken for my Stalker last night and, thinking I could also put it on my other Mechs, changed the Stalker back to default to put it on another Mech. Not only was it not free on another Mech but I'll be charged again to put it back on my Stalker.

Shitty UI strikes again (needs a big warning) and inconsistent paint job behaviour (I've petitioned so we'll see what happens)

[Ironwood]

Yeah, one thing that really bugs me is that you have to pay for upgrades to try them out in the mech lab.  Tabbing shouldn't be a 'save' situation.

Also, Social Tools still Suck.

[Zetleft]

Well the game is finally playable again on my computer, the cbill giveaway was enough to get myself a new stalker.  Love it so far but the earned cbill nerf is huge and way overshadows the gain you get from not having to repair really bad decision there hope they look a little closer at that. 

[HaemishM]

Yeah, I think they need to up the cbill rates just a hair. Saving up for a mech or even an engine upgrade is going to be brutal.

Been trying out multiple configs of my Catapult. I didn't like the LRM/PPC/Med Laser/SRM6 version. Much prefer LgLaser/3 MedLaser/LRM15/SRM6 combo with AMS, Beagle, double heat sinks, and endosteel. Needs a better engine.

[Slayerik]

My latest creation...Hunchback LAZER BOAT...

Stuck a 255 normal engine that I raided from my Jenner in it, installed double heat sinks and endosteel structure (every crit slot filled), and 5 Medium Pulse and 1 medium laser. Took a while to tweak it to this level, and to figure out that I need to let the bigger brawlers go in first...but now that I got it down, I am flat out wrecking things. The plan is, I do about 80 kph...so I skirt around the outside of the map and flank them. Usually, the fight is taking place and I come in all gangbusters ... targeting anything that is damaged or showing that yummy rear armor. Or going way around and hammering LRM/PPC boats.

I just have to tell myself at the start..."I'm not a heavy..." over and over. I wish I woulda screenshotted the 7 kill game I got with it on night time River city. Right place at the right time in EVERY engagement...It was glorious.

My other recent build is a cataphract with Ultra Ac5, AC-5, AC-10, Medium laser and a slow ass 200 or 210 engine. Basically, fun. I took out the streaks because of fuckin ECM all day erry day.
And I still love my XL engined Gaussapult.

[Segoris]

My latest creation...Hunchback LAZER BOAT...

Stuck a 255 normal engine...installed double heat sinks and endosteel structure...5 Medium Pulse and 1 medium laser.
I just have to tell myself at the start..."I'm not a heavy..." over and over. I wish I woulda screenshotted the 7 kill game I got with it on night time River city. Right place at the right time in EVERY engagement...It was glorious.

I dig the 5 MPLas, never thought of using pulse as I always used 9MLAS (...fuck Caustic), double heat sink, endo, and an STD255. You can get up around 90kph (with speed tweak) and circle larger mechs pretty easily, and do really well if you let your larger mechs go first. Even though you can take more shots than you (and others) realize usually, just continue on with telling yourself you're not a heavy, pray for frozen city, and enjoy the endless ammo....as long as you have that right torso!

Edit - if you're still in the 80s with that engine, that means you don't have speed tweak. My best advice - skip the 4G if you're going for it. Fuck that was brutal using that thing compared to any other mech I've played so far.

[Samprimary]

Max modded out stalker with 4 large lasers and a small ice planet strapped to its back for cooling purposes: The Solution. It essentially does well in most every situation, because I'm good enough with it to swat lights and my aim is precise enough to core out all other mechs from a side torso, guaranteed everytime

Someone watched in video as I didn't miss a single microsecond of time with the lasers on an atlas's ballistic side torso. I got the side torso double component destruction (goodbye arm) before I had any heat troubles, then cored it through the side hole. The rest of its armor was barely even touched.

[Der Helm]

Max modded out stalker with 4 large lasers and a small ice planet strapped to its back for cooling purposes: The Solution.

Shopping for a new mech and this looks intriguing, can you be a bit more specific ? 

[Samprimary]

Stalker 3F (non-negotiable, it has better turning and torso radius)

Each arm: 56 armor, 2 large lasers, 2 DHS
Each side torso: 62/10 armor, 4 DHS
Center torso: 93/10 armor, 310 standard engine with 2 additional heat sinks
Each leg: 49 armor

Excepting the legs, max armor, and the equivalent of about 40 single heat sinks. The weapons are all on the arms but this has literally never been an issue (the side torso has never once not gone out well before the arm)

4LLAS has so far been the most satisfying way to play this game; the shots are not very subject to hinky netcode or guesswork in target leading; I simply pick a side torso and laser it clear through with surgical precision, 36 damage every time I fire.

Someone watched me take down an atlas this way; lasered the ballistic torso off, then kept lasering the dead side until it cored him. Not an inch of his armor anywhere else was even scratched.

This is simply just not going to happen with missiles or ballistics, it's got a very healthy range, and you can swat lights, too.

I'm still averaging about 600 damage a game, and my KDR is approaching 2.5. wow.

[Samprimary]

Ah, i almost forgot to mention. If any mech with a TERRIBLE HEAD HITBOX like a catapult or a hunchback dares hold still near you? Cut your engines, line up a perfectly still shot, and instakill them. No head in the game can really survive 36 damage.

[Merusk]

Wow, brilliant build, sam.  I don't have the Cbills for the DHS yet but just the 4ers let me kill A catapult and a catapharact before I was overwhelmed by the rest of their team. (I was the last of 2 living. Hooray for teams with no ECM)

[Der Helm]

Thanks Sam.

WTF, is there no chat function outside of /team and /all ? Not even outside of a battle ?

[HaemishM]

Sam, that's motherfucking EVIL. 

[Lantyssa]

You can do four large lasers in a Cataphract 3D build, too.  Spread between torsos and arms, but sometimes that's good.  I imagine there's an awesome chassis that'd allow it, too.

[Arthur_Parker]

Atlas RS can have 4 large lasers in arms.   Arms are a lot better than torso for Large lasers, standard engine so you live longer, a higher engine rating lets you turn faster.  Also it's worth remembering some that some mech variants have slight movement quirks like the 3F stalker which twists faster than the others I believe.

[Falconeer]

Is there a list of the known quirks so far anywhere?

[Merusk]

You can do four large lasers in a Cataphract 3D build, too.  Spread between torsos and arms, but sometimes that's good.  I imagine there's an awesome chassis that'd allow it, too.

The fun part isn't the 4 large lasers.  It's the way it cools off so damn fast with all those DHS. Firing once puts you at 35% heat, but cools off an alpha shot in ~5 seconds.  You hit max tonnage and 7 leftover slots with Sam's build, so a Cata won't do it because it's 15 tons too light.  

I could see doing it in an Atlas, but I've always found their arms to be the first thing that goes.  The arms on the Stalker are tiny things that are hard to target.. I've only had them blown-off once in the 10 matches I've played using Sam's build.  They're slow as fuck, though, with a max engine of 310.  If a raven or a couple of lights target me and begin circle strafing and I have no support I'm just fucked.

[Arthur_Parker]

I used an Atlas RS with 4 LL back in closed beta a fair bit.  Recently it's the only mech I ever considered fitting single heat sinks on instead of doubles, but it's not quite worth it.  I seem to recall doubles let you fit a larger engine and heat dissipation is virtually identical.

I drop my arms to about 42 on an atlas, but not played any for quite a while, you must be good at damage twisting Merusk, I generally lose torso slots before arms when I'd rather lose arms first.

The group I'm with take the future community warfare aspects seriously so I'm a bit careful about discussing builds, unless they are already being discussed.  But I had to figure this out myself just now so, Falconeer if you copy Objects.pak &  GameData.pak from your install directory to a new location, you can rename them to .rar, then unzip with winrar.

Directory Objects\mechs\stalker then has stk-3f.mdf & stk-5m.mdf files which can be opened in notepad.

stk-3f

MaxTorsoAngleYaw="85"
      MaxTorsoAnglePitch="20"
      
      MaxArmRotationYaw="0"
      MaxArmRotationPitch="30"

stk-5m

MaxTorsoAngleYaw="60"
      MaxTorsoAnglePitch="20"
      
      MaxArmRotationYaw="0"
      MaxArmRotationPitch="30"

Hmm, might be movement range and not speed of the twist that makes the F better, I dunno.

[Merusk]

Damage twisting, no.  Staying the hell out of brawls and trying to keep around other players so I'm not flanked, yes.  WOT taught me the value of not trying to go solo against anything, which most of the PUG players still haven't learned.   Nowadays I'm only alone if everyone else has a larger engine and leaves me behind.

[Ironwood]

Ok, I tried this Sam-Variant and it is pretty much a kill-bot.  I find that I like to get up close and personal, so lights give me grief with the relatively unprotected back, but it really does core through a lot of mechs.

Strangely, the mechlab fucked me at first by only putting on two large lasers and as a result I got laughed at and ignored;  due to that, I still managed 3 kills.  Life is strange.

[Der Helm]

Ok, I tried this Sam-Variant and it is pretty much a kill-bot.  I find that I like to get up close and personal, so lights give me grief with the relatively unprotected back, but it really does core through a lot of mechs.

Strangely, the mechlab fucked me at first by only putting on two large lasers and as a result I got laughed at and ignored;  due to that, I still managed 3 kills.  Life is strange.

I may have just sent you a friend invite.

edit: grammarz

[Ironwood]

Don't think you did.

[Surlyboi]

I played this for the first time yesterday. Was mostly useless with the trial mech but did manage to suicide gank an enemy mech for a kill. I then paired up with Slay and Silenus and got rocked a few more times, but still managed to kinda hold my own.

[Merusk]

Fuckers LOVE to run in front of you as you're coring someone out so they can score kills with their shitty ass latency and multi-ballistic rig.  I'm about to start fucking up teammates rather than come out of games with only 8-10k credits because of their idiocy.

[Zetleft]

Fitted my stalker with the 4 llasers and been racking up the kills.  I had endo structure already purchased so ended up running out of slots with 4 tons to spare after maxing out armor.  Maybe try upgrading two of those into lpulse lasers but haven't had much practice with those. 

[Lantyssa]

Pulse is better for fast brawlers, or if you've got a shaky hand like I do.  Unfortunately I like all the shitty chassis, and I won't play a 'mech just to win.

[HaemishM]

Enlighten me. What's the benefit of the pulse lasers over the regular variety? Yes, I know they pulse (DUH). I can't remember what the benefits were from the tabletop.

[Evildrider]

They gave a to-hit bonus if I remember right.  +2.

[Ironwood]

Pulse is better for fast brawlers, or if you've got a shaky hand like I do.  Unfortunately I like all the shitty chassis, and I won't play a 'mech just to win.

While I won't play a 'Mech just to win, I'm quite ok with taking someone elses nice design to test and finding out it's an utter fuck beast.

To be honest, the only chassis thus far that really floats my boat is the Cataphract.  I am seriously looking forward to the Trebuchet as well.  Who doesn't love missiles for hands ??

[Merusk]

Enlighten me. What's the benefit of the pulse lasers over the regular variety? Yes, I know they pulse (DUH). I can't remember what the benefits were from the tabletop.

Yet another place where the horrible interface fails in MWO.  I haven't a clue what they do in THIS game - better damage? Less heat? No clue!  I recall from MW2 they produced less heat because they pulsed but that was the only difference. 

[Arthur_Parker]

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

Pulse lasers are heavier than standard, run hotter, the mediums and large have less range but more damage by 1 point.

Duration, the actual time to output full damage, is 0.25 seconds shorter, which is the main positive, this helps recycle time (as recycle starts when duration is finished), also when both mechs are moving, 0.25 seconds less of a damage spread is a major plus.

It's incredibly more effective if you can shoot out one section of an enemy mech to kill them, rather than just sandpaper all their armour off and pulse lasers help with this a lot.  Quite often, it's worth holding fire until your shot is place correctly.

Due to the way double heat sinks work, you can't really constantly fire more than 4 medium pulse on a heavy/assault mech without overheating, 3 on a medium and 2 on a light mech.  So I find 4 medium pulse work well on an Atlas D, Catapult C1 etc with some srms or streaks for burst damage, maybe ballistic, but the range reduction from mediums 270m (full damage) to medium pulse 180m (full damge) means you need to position yourself well, which in turn leads to a larger engine size (standard for atlas, xl for catapults is ok as they have small side torsos).

Small pulse lasers are currently terrible and pretty much always have been (there was about a 2 week period when they were just "ok" due to a heat bug), I have yet to find a mech build with large pulses that I like, though some people like them.  Medium pulses are very good with above the limitations, mainly weight/heat/range.

[Samprimary]

I tried the sam-bot as an atlas and found it lacking

ONE: the arms on an atlas have more components, so you lose room for two double heatsinks
TWO: the arms on an atlas shoot from a much lower position, whereas stalker arms are up near the top of the mech; you can peek over the top of a ridge and send out a laser alpha with very little of your body showing
THREE: stalker arms are teeny and not very vulnerable; atlas arms are big and easily shootable
FOUR: you lose out on the 3F's bizarrely high torso range and motion, which lets you swat lights