MechWarrior Online

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

The LBX's greater spread doesn't feel all that beneficial vs. its lack of knockdown power. (At least book LBXs could interchange solid and cluster ammunition.)

[One_Medic_Army]

I find it still to be handy, it's like an SRM6 that does less damage, but costs less heat.
There is the downside of it being so much larger as a weapon though.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

I did some trial 'Mech grinding and made enough to buy this thing:

Code: Select all

Type/Model:    Dragon DRG-AC
Mass:          60 tons

Equipment:                                 Crits    Mass
Int. Struct.:  99 pts Standard               0      6.00
Engine:        240 Fusion                    6     11.50
   Walking MP:   4
   Running MP:   6
   Jumping MP:   0
Heat Sinks:     14 Single                    5      4.00
 (Heat Sink Loc: 5 RT)
Gyro:                                        4      3.00
Cockpit, Life Supt., Sensors:                5      3.00
Actuators: L: Sh+UA+LA+H    R: Sh+UA+LA     15       .00
Armor Factor:  168 pts Standard              0     10.50

                          Internal    Armor
                          Structure   Value
   Head:                      3          9      
   Center Torso:             20         27      
   Center Torso (Rear):                 12      
   L/R Side Torso:           14      16/18      
   L/R Side Torso (Rear):              8/8      
   L/R Arm:                  10      14/20      
   L/R Leg:                  14      18/18      

Weapons and Equipment    Loc  Heat  Ammo   Crits    Mass
--------------------------------------------------------
3 Autocannon/2s          RA      3  135      6     21.00
  (Ammo Locations: 3 RT)
1 Small Laser            LA      1           1       .50
CASE Equipment:          RT                  1       .50
--------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS:                          4          43     60.00
Crits & Tons Left:                          35       .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost:        4,545,680 C-Bills
Battle Value 2:    937 (old BV = 805)

Yep, the right side armor is thicker than on the left. Heat efficiency is only 1 in MWO. It would be ludicrous to use this in the boardgame.

[One_Medic_Army]

After some testing last night, I can reliably say that mounting an Ultra AC/5 on a raven is funny, but god help you up close.
The pt-blank firing characteristics of arm-mounter ballistic weapons is terrible in this game currently.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

I saw a Raven armed only with an LB10 ....

[One_Medic_Army]

That's just bad, until LB10-X can fire slug ammo you need another weapons system to punch through armor before use.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

It was amusing as a spectator novelty act; the guy had managed to outlive the rest of us and I tuned in just as he ran out of ammo. Then it got silly.

The 3x AC/2 Dragon isn't doing spectacularly for me, but that's probably because I tend to be the guy who ends up wandering into the center of the enemy assault 'Mech advance without wanting to. Though I did score a minor victory in one game when my team of random pubbers ran into a solid team of "Yes we are recruiting" players. I got lost in Frozen City and was thus, after a little while, the only player left in my team. I came trundling back to base in time to fight a Raven, a Jenner, a Hunchback, and an Awesome. While I'm getting shredded by this the player who had initially said "Yes we are recruiting" said "How do you like our team?" I had by now fire-linked the ACs and was shooting at whatever might die first; right after he said that I backshot the guy's Raven and it blew up. I ate 3 PPCs about a second after that and the round ended, so I didn't get to see if there were any snappy comebacks to my last-second heroics.

It turned out that I had scored the only kill for my team, too.

Other horrors: Saw an Awesome with 2x LRM-20, 2x LRM-15, and probably about 8 tons of ammo. Saw an Atlas with 2x AMS and 3 tons of AMS ammo per gun.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

Somebody wishes they had double heat sinks.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

While in tabletop something like the Baboon is quite practical, in MWO it's rather much failing to exploit the possibilities of being able to move that fast.

Now, a 90+ KPH medium 'Mech with LRMs would be pretty darn annoying to kill.

I tried putting 2 LRM-5s in my Jenner and felt pretty silly the entire game.

My Jenner did end up with a 295XL engine, 2x Streak-2, TAG, AMS, a small laser, and max armor. I don't want to fight, but if I have to get into a running battle with another scout they're going to have missile locks to deal with.

The jump jets are still almost all installed. I think I lost one in the Mech Lab somewhere. Jump range is still independent of the number of JJs installed, right? Even so, I'm thinking ahead.

[Edited: Briefly. It turns out that running at 130+ KPH and having torso-mounted missile weapons means that it's really difficult to hold on long enough for a lock. Which is why most scouts use lasers after all, but I wanted to give it a whirl... So what I'm using now has AMS, TAG... and a large laser.]

[Clay Pigeon]

You only need 1 JJ. Put it in your cockpit.

[One_Medic_Army]

[Edited: Briefly. It turns out that running at 130+ KPH and having torso-mounted missile weapons means that it's really difficult to hold on long enough for a lock. Which is why most scouts use lasers after all, but I wanted to give it a whirl... So what I'm using now has AMS, TAG... and a large laser.]

The actual issue isn't that the Jenner has torso mounts, the issue is that the Jenner is missing horizontal traverse on it's arms.
The lock-on reticule follows your arm targeting cursor, rather than your torso one, regardless of where the LRMs/SSRMs are mounted.
This means that Commandos have a much easier time achieving and maintaining lock.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

On the one hand, I kinda think that people should have a way of safely experimenting with builds before getting locked into a match, blowing up, and screwing over their team.

On the other hand, don't be an idiot and put 6 PPCs on an Awesome. Or 6 LRM-15s on a Catapult. Etc.

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

Spend all day grinding for cash, buy an Atlas, 'Mech has both armor bug and drops with no ammunition. (I didn't do anything at all to it in the 'Mech lab.) Armor will not repair.

Sell 'Mech at an 8 million C-Bill loss.

Decide to wait for patch/reset and not to buy anything else in the meantime.

Well, at least I got XP today... that I'll also lose on open beta. So it goes.

[One_Medic_Army]

Ouch
I've heard speculation that it's actually the mechbay slot that's bugged, have all of your bugged mechs been in the same slot?

[Flaming Cheese Wheel]

One thing I've noticed about some of the groups in the TS channels... they're filled with cranky older tabletop players like I used to know.

Heck, I'm a cranky older tabletop player.

There was a random kid who had to be told not to blather about irrelevant topics while we were actively engaged. I was okay with that.

Some of these guys are a bit too self-satisfied, though.

And I wouldn't be a female in open comms in this game without voice changing. It's Mechwarrior: The Sausage Fest.