5
If you’re thinking that the PPC’s 3 critical slots must be filled with 3 medium lasers, then no, you don’t have to do that."Lets say I take an Awesome, normally with 3 PPCs, 1 small laser. Then I modify it to its maximum theoreitcaly extent, that is to say 10 medium lasers. Will this be possible, or could the hardpoint system further restrict so there's a maximum number of smaller weapons that could replace a larger one to help prevent crazy boating? –CapperDeluxe
David Said :[DAVID] The hardpoint system will be related to how many weapons are in the default loadout, and not how many slots those weapons take up.
So which is it? Is a single weapon hardpoint regardless of the crit count, per replaced weapon per location? OR does the Crits of a weapon type define its hardpoint total. A PPC has 3 Crits... Can it be removed and replaced by 3 Medium Lasers? OR *ONLY 1 Medium Laser.
Who's more right? Paul or David?
So the anser was as follows and confirmed as "nearly dead on" by Garth
"1. There is a critical slot system. For example, the arm has 12 critical slots, of which 3 are taken by the actuators and the shoulder joint, leaving 9 free critical slots. If I recall Mechwarrior 2 Mercs correctly, the side torsos have 12 free critical slots each, the centre torso and legs have 2 each and the head has one free critical slot. This is without Endo Steel, Ferro Fibrous, XL engines etc.
2. There is a COMPLETELY SEPARATE hardpoint system. For example, the Swayback has at least 2 energy hardpoints in each arm, and at least 1 ballistics hardpoint in the right torso.
Let me stress that the hardpoint system is COMPLETELY SEPARATE from the critical slot system.
Now, we look at weapons. All weapons take up exactly one hardpoint each, but the number of critical slots it takes up varies. PPCs will take up 3 critical slots. If I recall correctly, Gauss rifles take up 8 critical slots, in their prototype form (the later forms can't enter the game yet due to the timeframe). Medium lasers take up 1 slot each, and large lasers take up 2 slots each.
So for example...
If your right arm has, say, 9 free critical slots, but possesses 4 energy hardpoints you can:
1. Mount 3 PPCs.
2. Mount 4 Large Lasers.
3. Mount 4 Medium Lasers.
+ Subject to weight limitations of course.
You can't mount a 4th PPC because even though you have enough beam hardpoints, you do not have enough free critical slots. You cannot mount beyond 4 medium lasers, or even add a small laser to an arm with 4 Large Lasers, because you've run out of beam hardpoints, even though you have critical slots left.
To complicate matters, if your 9 critical arm has 1 ballistic and 2 beam hardpoints you can mount:
1. 1 Prototype Gauss Rifle(8), 1 Medium Laser(1) (out of criticals to add more)
2. 1 PPC(3), 1 Large Laser(2) and an AC/5(4) (Out of critical slots to add more)
3. 2 PPC(3), an AC/2(1) and 2 heat sinks.
In other words, weapons are limited on loading on 'Mechs by three factors:
1. Weight. Exceed total weight allowable, you can't mount it.
2. Critical slots. No funny business on mounting 2 prototype Gauss rifles on the same arm.
3. Hardpoints. No mounting of 9 medium lasers on the same arm, unlike what was the case in MechWarrior II Mercs.
And weapons are limited on firing by 'Mechs by three factors:
1. Heat dissipation. - Load more heat sinks, or use less energy weapons to overcome.
2. Total ammunition. - Load more ammunition to overcome.
3. Recharge/reload time. - Load more weapons to overcome.
The confusion here is likely because MechWarrior 4 combined the weapon type and critical slots into a single "critical slot type" system. But MWO will have a system where weapon types are considered separately from critical slots. The MWO MechLab is NOT a MW4 MechLab.
**EDIT BELOW THIS LINE**
The current MechLab system deals with the following problems from previous games:
1. Boating
There are too many free criticals, and no restriction on how to allocate them other than firing restrictions and weight restrictions, in MW2-type MechLabs. Therefore, we had an issue with boating, where people could happily load an obscene number of medium lasers and heat sinks into the head, centre torso, legs and side torsos. Boating is not possible in this MechLab iteration because of the hardpoint limitation. So, if you could only mount 2 energy weapons in that arm, and had enough tonnage, you would rather mount two PPCs than 2 Medium lasers, from a firepower point of view, where if you had only critical slot limitations, many people would rather mount 6 Medium lasers instead.
2. Identical 'Mechs
Also, by allocating type hardpoints accordingly, it keeps 'Mechs differentiated. Nobody could use a Catapult as a Gausszilla in MWO because it only possesses Beam and Missile hardpoints. Without a weapon type limitation, the 'Mech with the greatest free tonnage of its tonnage class is The Best Mech of its class (since it can mount the greatest amount of armour/heat sinks/weapons/ammo), which would be annoying since we would see only a few 'Mechs in action. With this in, if you want to use missiles a lot, you have to use a Catapult, or Archer, or Jenner. It gives the 'Mechs character - indeed, a mix of weapons capabilities is in itself a character, for example in the case of Centurions, which can mount a little bit of every kind of weapon. This can prove to be tactically useful as well. For example, you will know that if you spot an enemy lance full of Catapults and one Commando, that if you don't kill the Commando quick, he'll probably NARC you and you end up demolished by a missile rain. And if you spot an Awesome, he'll only have beam weapons, so you should send your flamer squad after him to prevent him from ever daring to fire.
An example of this The Best Mech problem in previous games lies especially with the Timber Wolf, though this timeframe doesn't include its entry... yet. Now Urbie lovers have a bit of a spot in the sun... since there's likely few other Light mechs which can mount ballistics - most Lights have only beam and missile hardpoints.
3. OmniMechs
Omni hardpoints will give certain 'Mechs flexibility to mount weapons of any type in that slot, giving them a distinct tactical advantage separate from the advantage of them usually possessing more advanced technology by the way of engine/armour types. However, there's no need to necessarily use Omni hardpoints, if the loadout you have in mind is achievable by a 'Mech with the correct mix of hardpoints.
4. Equipment
You'll have a reason to mount advanced equipment over simply weapons, because you may run out of weapons hardpoints and still have free tonnage and critical slots. On 'Mechs like the Battlemaster and Raven, the devs may want to intentionally limit the number of hardpoints available so that they'll be used in the role they were meant to be used in, rather than being abused as combat heavy Mechs.
===
For its inception it is pure conjecture at this point, but I believe the devs will be looking at every single SARNA variant, and creating hardpoints such that 'Mechs will possess the minimum number of hardpoints necessary such that every single official variant can be created ingame. They may even set these variants as presets which players can review to get a feel of what the 'Mech was intended to do. MW4 had the problem of having too many typed criticals, allowing people to make MLAS boats out of Nova Cats, Sunders and projectile boats out of Daishis. By heavily restricting hardpoints, players will be forced to customise within a narrow acceptable margin that still allows room for creativity, but not so much that boating can be done, and not so much so that capable commanders can still guess at what a given enemy 'Mech will intend to do."
Plagiarized for ease of use.
Edited by Vexgrave Lars, 18 April 2012 - 11:32 AM.
