14 replies to this topic

[Hunka Junk]

Inspired by Wintersdark in Likeuntogod's thread:

Quote

When you buy a new mech, the first thing you should do is max armor, and that should be the last thing you consider lowering.

I didn't know this, and I'm sure there are a lot of other newer people in the same boat (hopefu.lly not a LRMboat ).

So what else, if anything, should you do when you buy a new mech?

I know fer sure that, maybe not first but very early on, you need to figure out what engine it's going to have.

What else?

Edited by Hunka Junk, 27 July 2016 - 06:57 PM.

[Spike Brave]

Get the double heat sink upgrade. Not all mechs come with that either.

[Rogue Jedi]

These days the vast majority of my Mechs come from preorder packs and I have a huge stockpile of spare weapons and equipment.

If I was planning to buy a Mech which is already ingame before I get the new Mech I will usually visit Smurfy and play arround with possible loadouts until I find something I am happy with, I usually start with choosing an engine and maxing armour, and (assuming it is not an Omnimech) make sure Endo Steel and double heat sinks are installed, then I will have a play to determine what weapons I want, after finding an acceptable weapon loadout I will add other equipment, when I am happy with the Smurfy build I will check the price to make sure I can afford to assemble it, assuming I can I would then buy the Mech, put together the build and then paint the Mech, I leave stock Mechs the basic green, everything I have customised is painted.

I hope that helps

[SnagaDance]

And after you've done these things you should take the mech into some games.

First victory: you give the mech a paintjob to get rid of that drab green
Second victory: it gets a standing cockpit item
Third victory: it gets a hanging cockpit item
Fourth victory: it gets a regular mounted cockpit item

If the mech shows sufficient promise in subsequent matches the mounted cockpit item may be upgraded to a warhorn.

Wiat...am I the only one who does something like this?

(and yeah, with all challenges and such I have a huge amount of cockpit items that I've earned and in stock)

[mailin]

Actually BEFORE you buy a mech, you should save yourself a ton of frustration and maybe c-bills and build it here.

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

On the right side near the top of the page is how much the mech costs, as equipped.

And I paint all of my mechs right away.

Edited by mailin, 28 July 2016 - 03:01 AM.

[Jaguaar]

mailin is correct. You can also go to the store in game and build the mech as you would like before purchasing. This will, at the very least, give you an idea as to what you would like to run on it.
I usually go through the variants and see if i can fit a mech into my playstyle in the mechlab.

[Boulangerie]

Double heat sinks is almost always a required upgrade. The only exceptions, to me, are dual gauss builds.

Maxing out the armor is a great idea, although you can get away with shaving a few points off Head slot, and sometimes the legs (especially for energy boats and non-jumpers). But I'd only do this if you are close to freeing up an extra ton/half-ton of weight, and can use that weight to upgrade to another engine or add a Heat sink or another ton of ammo.

Once you've played around with the mech, you can decide to strip armor off of a dead side arm, or keep it on. Remember that some playstyles lend themselves to benefitting from that armor still. If your mech is more DPS, stripping armor of an arm without weapons gives you more benefit than stripping armor off a shield arm.

Another tweak is how much rear armor to use. In general, I run 7-9 armor on most of my mechs in the rear. This is because the vast majority of the time you will be engaging enemies in front of you. If you die to rear core, take a point off the front and add it to the rear afterwards. If you find yourself being cored in front more and more often before losing rear armor, do the opposite.

Finally, don't lock yourself into a specific build if it's causing you problems and you don't like the play style. This game is about customization, however remember that it can take a few games to settle into a build, so don't write it off right away if you have a bad game.

[Ingga Raokai]

Hunka Junk, on 27 July 2016 - 06:55 PM, said:

...
So what else, if anything, should you do when you buy a new mech?
...

Rogue Jedi, on 27 July 2016 - 10:01 PM, said:

... I will usually visit Smurfy and play arround with possible loadouts ...

mailin, on 28 July 2016 - 02:58 AM, said:

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

Speaking of Smurfy, I remember that the cost of clan's XL not counted.
For example, buy a mech of IIC > swap weapons and engine in smurfy > login > BLAM > tried to swap the engine > DAMN > cost another 4 million.

Just re-check everything before pressing that "purchase"/"save" button.
(Correct me if I'm wrong, cz I don't have IIC, but I saw in smurfy all c-XL cost -1)

I'm going optimist that smurfy will get fixed in the future (unless if it did and I missed it, then ignore what I said above.

[mailin]

Ingga Raokai, on 28 July 2016 - 06:24 AM, said:

Speaking of Smurfy, I remember that the cost of clan's XL not counted.
For example, buy a mech of IIC > swap weapons and engine in smurfy > login > BLAM > tried to swap the engine > DAMN > cost another 4 million.

Just re-check everything before pressing that "purchase"/"save" button.
(Correct me if I'm wrong, cz I don't have IIC, but I saw in smurfy all c-XL cost -1)

I'm going optimist that smurfy will get fixed in the future (unless if it did and I missed it, then ignore what I said above.

Clan omnimechs have engines that cannot be changed in MWO. IICs however, I believe the engines can be changed, but I could be wrong because I don't any IICs.

[Metus regem]

Hunka Junk, on 27 July 2016 - 06:55 PM, said:

Inspired by Wintersdark in Likeuntogod's thread:



I didn't know this, and I'm sure there are a lot of other newer people in the same boat (hopefu.lly not a LRMboat ).

So what else, if anything, should you do when you buy a new mech?

I know fer sure that, maybe not first but very early on, you need to figure out what engine it's going to have.

What else?

As others have said http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab is a fantastic place to start. That being said, I run every mech I buy in stock configurations for around 5 to 10 matchs to try and get a good feel for the mech, before I make any changes to it (aside from DHS, if it doesn't already have DHS.)

mailin, on 28 July 2016 - 08:14 AM, said:

Clan omnimechs have engines that cannot be changed in MWO. IICs however, I believe the engines can be changed, but I could be wrong because I don't any IICs.

No you're right, the IIC's can have their engines, structure, heat sink and armour types changed, since they are Battle-mechs not Omni-mechs.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

New mech advice: resist the temptation to take a new mech out if it is not built yet. Especially if one of the upgrades you still need is dbl heatsinks

[Metus regem]

Boogie138, on 28 July 2016 - 10:35 AM, said:

New mech advice: resist the temptation to take a new mech out if it is not built yet. Especially if one of the upgrades you still need is dbl heatsinks

Debatable, I make it a point to run new mechs in stock mode (excluding DHS, as it it mandatory) for 5-10 matches to get a good feel for the mech, then tune it from there.

[TercieI]

mailin, on 28 July 2016 - 02:58 AM, said:

Actually BEFORE you buy a mech, you should save yourself a ton of frustration and maybe c-bills and build it here.

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

On the right side near the top of the page is how much the mech costs, as equipped.

And I paint all of my mechs right away.

So much this. I pre-build any mech, but the first part of pre-building is DHS/ES/max armor and then we get started.

[TooDumbToQuit]

I think PGI should allow you to "RENT A MECH". And I'm not kidding.

For 300,000 C-Bills you can rent one for 72 hours or 30 matches, whichever comes first. (or something like this)

You can make whatever changes you want, but at the end of your time, you have to buy it or "POOF", it goes back into the store.

[Zombie Gandhi]

When I buy a new mech (which isn't too often), I'm usually looking for it to fill a particular role or use. All the better if it can be tuned to be something of a hybrid (Warhammer, for instance, can be built for fire support, or brawling).

I would also look over the entire mech line you're considering. If you're looking to Master it out, you'll be needing a total of three of that mech's line. Depending on what use you want it to fulfill, and your play style, different mechs may be easier, or harder, to skill up. Just because one of the mechs may suit your wants, doesn't mean the rest will. This can be frustrating, if they're designed for a style of play that you're not well in, or even desire to play.

Once your mechs are chosen, I save up for Double Heat Sinks (pretty much mandatory in my opinion), and Endo Steel. I don't know if this still holds true, but back when I seriously played, if you could choose only between Endo, and Ferro, you always went Endo. Some builds may allow for both, but it's usually one or the other.

I also recall the adage of how a mech doesn't truly begin to show itself, until you have the Basic skill tree done, and then REALLY show itself, when it's Elite. So, sometimes it takes a little patience to get the mech feeling as you want.