122 replies to this topic

[Sephlock]

I'm thinking in particular of the Awesome, which hasn't lived up to its name or its reputation for quite some time now...

Quote

Technicron Manufacturing began production of the Awesome in 2665 to replace the STR-2C Striker. What they produced not only replaced the aging Striker, it became one of the more feared BattleMechs of all time. The Awesome is built around its impressive all energy based arsenal and heavy armor making it a highly independent and powerful assault 'Mech. Rugged and reliable, the Awesome is traditionally used in a vanguard role when penetrating enemy defenses. The Awesome's massive firepower also lends it to defensive actions, acting as a mobile turret when necessary. Because of its reliance on PPCs, the Awesome is able to act independently for extended periods of time. This trait is also useful in siege situations where the 'Mech can keep up a constant barrage, allowing it to win battles of attrition through bleeding an enemy dry.[

The role of the Awesome is supposed to be ppc support.

Does ANYONE know anybody who uses them for that purpose?



... anyone?

I used to, back in the early days (with single heat sinks no less! And I hiked 10 miles in the snow to get there and back, uphill both ways!)...

But even if they nerfed the slots on the Stalker, the Awesome would still be poopy for that role- the Catapult K2 would be so much better...


Maybe if we got the 9Q a little early...

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AWS-9Q - A basic upgrade introduced in 3057[6] for the 8Q and 9M Awesome, the heat sinks are upgraded to double heat sinks and are reduced to nineteen. The saved weight is used to add a fourth PPC to the 'Mech as well as a Guardian ECM Suite. BV (1.0) = 1,623[3][11], BV (2.0) = 1,875[12]

[Circles End]

apart from the ECM that's pretty much how I roll in my Awesome, except only with 3 PPC's and the largest engine the game will allow me.

[PaladinXIII]

I think the reason Awesomes aren't seen as much right now is that their original role is overshadowed by metagame and mech customization which allows the Stalker to be much better than an Awesome than was originally intended.

Here is the description of the Stalker, courtesy of Sarna:

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"The 'Mech is built mounting weapons with overlapping ranges of fire that allow it to increase the amount of damage it can deal to an enemy 'Mech as it closes to shorter range. The Stalker is also commonly used to penetrate enemy lines and attack enemy hard points relying on its thick armor for protection."

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"The Stalker's weapons assortment is built to increase damage as it closes with its target. The Stalker's long range weapons are two Jackson B5c LRM-10launchers. These provide the Stalker with its longest-range punch and allow it to give indirect fire support when needed. At shorter range the Stalker next brings its two Magna Mk III Large Lasers to bear on its target. For close ranges, the Stalker carries four Magna Mk II Medium Lasers. Finally, it mounts two Thunderstroke SRM-6 launchers which enable it to take advantage of any weak spots in the enemy’s armor."

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"The Stalker's largest problem lies in its heat management. It originally used a special computer to make the best use of its weaponry with regards to the heat it would generate. Unfortunately this program is now lost and a MechWarrior should stagger fire of its weapons to avoid overheating problems."

As you may have noted, it doesn't say anywhere about the Stalker being a walking PPC cannon...

Because of mech customization, a lack of balance in current weapons, no penalties for overheating, and current metagame geared towards fast-high damaging alphas, the Stalker has taken over the role that the Awesome had. I hate to say this but most players playing by meta view taking the Awesome as a 5-ton disadvantage since the Stalker can carry 4-6 PPCs along with additional armor and heat sinks. Hopefully, as the game progresses and changes are made, the Awesome can take its role back as the PPC support and the Stalker can go back to being the slow-moving, creeping death build. As a Stalker pilot I miss the stagger fire that I had to use on my variants which not only allowed me to fire from different distances but gave me a challenge as well.

This can be applied to other mechs as well, right now there are certain mechs or variants that are just better than any other weight type available because of what the game demands right now. Boating and specialization is the name of the game right now, the builds that can pack the most lasers and do the most damage are rewarded the most while mechs that try to balance and blend their weapons are meager or decent at best. Until this area is fixed the Awesome's only role is to collect dust.

[Zerberus]

Yes, I want to be able to mount the arms and AC/20 or Gauss in my Atlas inverted, so as to give mself a valid reason to use the (already dangerous as hell for anybody doing it and thereby = stupid /noobish) tactic of peeking my head and arms over the ridge to get shot at instead of walking around it to tear the other team apart at close range.

The whole point of different mechs and weapons is different tactics.

Edited by Zerberus, 30 April 2013 - 08:45 AM.

[kuangmk11]

The Awesome just came into its own really. PPCs are better than ever now. I have been using it for PPC support (9M 3PPC, 3ML max engine and 8Q 3PPC 1LL, 1MPulse). I do agree that all 'mechs with humanoid arms are at a disadvantage when ridge peeking and not being able to fire over friendlys. I don't think the stalker does PPC boat better. Any more than 3 PPCs is inefficient. Even with 3 I fire into shutdown more than I like.

[Imagine Dragons]

I suppose this will be balanced out with the gyro mechanic... humanoid mechs have better balance and the such...

[DeadlyNerd]

And this is where, oh so rejected, hard point sizes come in. Only awesomes should be able to boat PPCs, yet with the current HP system everyone can do what the awesome does, only better.

Tbh all mechs with low slung weapons(except maybe K2) have heavy armaments as those low slung weapons. It was probably supposed to be a way of balancing out each mech but apparently PGI never went further from mech model aim restrictions.

Edited by DeadlyNerd, 30 April 2013 - 10:34 AM.

[MustrumRidcully]

It could be part of the "quirks" package these mechs come with. Low-Slung weapons? Get a better torso twist range and speed!
This would force these mechs more into a brawler role, I suppose, which isn't what all the chassis were designed for, but at least it's something.

[Josh Davion]

Last year I posted about size-restricted hardpoints to mitigate the bogus configs of certain mech chassis that have a total disregard for BT and actual physics. Large, Medium, and Small. Simple right? Hold on. Small is 1 Critical; Medium is 5 Criticals or Less(except for Beam which would be 2 Criticals due to the PPC being a Large Beam weapon and being 3 Criticals); and Large Hardpoints being 10 or Less.

HBK-4G Current
3 Ballistic (RT)
3 Beam (RA, LA, H)

HBK-4G Proposed
1 Large Ballistic (RT)
1 Medium Ballistic (RT)
1 Small Ballistic (RT)
1 Small Beam (H)
2 Medium Beam (RA, LA)

Catapult-K2 Current
2 Ballistic (LT, RT)
4 Beam (LT, RT, LA, RA)

Catapult K-2 Proposed
2 Medium Ballistic (LT, RT)
2 Large Beam (LA, RA)
2 Medium Beam (LT, RT)

Such as this were implemented the Stalker would have ZERO large hardpoints due to its compacted weapon locations.

[Yokaiko]

If they ever manage melee, the disadvantage in fire support would be nicely balanced by smashing other mechs in the face if you have arm actuators.

[Deathlike]

I would be onboard the Awesome express if the 9Q was released.

You can build a number of the Stalker energy builds on the 8Q (and some of the other Awesome variants) with a slower engine and slightly less DHS... whether that is viable or not to you is another story...

[Yokaiko]

Deathlike, on 30 April 2013 - 01:02 PM, said:

I would be onboard the Awesome express if the 9Q was released.

You can build a number of the Stalker energy builds on the 8Q (and some of the other Awesome variants) with a slower engine and slightly less DHS... whether that is viable or not to you is another story...

9Q

PPC boat with ECM

[Sephlock]

I agree that the Stalker contributed to the problem, and a lot of great points were brought up, but IMHO the Awesome was already on its way out due to the engine speed nerf and srm nerfage (prior to the latest round of srm nerfage). More the former than the latter, but still...

The Awesome NEEDED that speed for darting around corners and firing, then darting its big wide self back behind cover.

[Kommisar]

I do remarkably well in my tricked out 9M. Might be my favorite assault mech.

3 ERPPCs, packed heatsinks, a nice big engine that gets me just above 70kph, and I have stacked the lvl 2 Sensor Module with BAP and target ID module to give me a bit of an edge at sniping. Roughly 1200m Sensor range turned out to be better than I imagined. And if you are wounded, I can find out quick and take care of that problem for you.

I use the speed and better climbing ability to my advantage over the Stalkers (and other assaults) I run into. Yes, the Awesome does climb better! And a flanking, PPC blasting assault mech is always fun at parties. Oh, and those little light mechs... much easier to deal with than in my Stalker. Most good light pilots will choose to harass a Stalker over an Awesome most days.

The Awesome's advantages take pilot skills and tactics to use. It's much easier to just load up the extra firepower, line up and pull the trigger. Hence, Stalker is way more popular.

[Deathlike]

Yokaiko, on 30 April 2013 - 01:03 PM, said:

4 PPC boat with ECM

Fixed for great justice.

[PaladinXIII]

Josh Davion, on 30 April 2013 - 12:19 PM, said:

Last year I posted about size-restricted hardpoints to mitigate the bogus configs of certain mech chassis that have a total disregard for BT and actual physics. Large, Medium, and Small. Simple right? Hold on. Small is 1 Critical; Medium is 5 Criticals or Less(except for Beam which would be 2 Criticals due to the PPC being a Large Beam weapon and being 3 Criticals); and Large Hardpoints being 10 or Less...

...Such as this were implemented the Stalker would have ZERO large hardpoints due to its compacted weapon locations.

This restructure would remove quite a few customizations that players could make, thus limiting some creativity, I personally, am on the fence on the issue, but to play the devil's advocate I have ask: How many players would be willing to give up/sacrifice creativity in order to make others "play nice"?

[oldradagast]

Many mechs with high-mounted weapons lack all the arm actuators, so they can't track targets as well. Examples include: Catapults, Stalkers, and Jagermechs.

Now, is that enough of an advantage? Hard to say - the less humanoid mechs (such as those listed above) tend to have hardpoints better set up for boating weapons, which is all the rage these days, which may contribute to why they work out better in many matches.

[Sephlock]

I guess they could give the Awesome and other Humanoid mechs much higher acceleration and deceleration...

[Sephlock]

I had gameplay in mind, not physics.

[shabowie]

Mechs with arm actuators should raise their arms to fire over obstacles. Also mechs with arms should be able to mantle (climb over obstacles) and punch.

What's the point of humanoid robots and humanoid arm actuators if they aren't useful to engage in humanoid actions?

Edited by shabowie, 30 April 2013 - 04:46 PM.