RF Greywolf, on 25 May 2013 - 07:10 AM, said:
Thanks all for the vids/links and all the advice. I am adding a link to my Cent build, The Spartan. I have had decent success with this build now that I am getting used to the controls. I use it to support the scouts and flank the enemy team. I know most people have told me NOT to use the Centurion-AL and never throw a XL engine in one, but I do like how the mech runs. It's damage output is not great but it has good range and "harrassment" options. I have a tendancy to spread my fire out amongst the enemy team, which is probably why I don't get many kills and a decent amount of assists. Once again, any advice is helpful and I'm going to try to FRAPS and post some of my games so you can see my technique.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...d9da5cd17b89984
RFGreywolf
Actually that's not far off from what the Centurion is designed for in lore. Though it's actually meant to escort the Trebuchets. Both Trebs and Centurions provide great support to lighter mechs.
I'm going to teach you about what it means to "pad" your ammo to make it safe.
First: There is a huge risk in putting ammo within the side torsos without proper padding. This is a concept that most people don't really look into.
Why pad? What does it do?
Every weapon has a chance of causing Critical Component Damage. Some, like machine guns and LB-10s, are exceptionally awesome at doing this. Others, like lasers, really suck at the task. Every time you take a hit after you lose your armor, there's a chance the weapon will deal damage to internal components. This excludes actuators at the moment.^1 With your build, there's only one weapon and one ton of ammo in the left torso. Any shot that hits has a 2 in 3 chance of damaging your weapon and a 1 in 3 chance of damaging your ammo. Basically that means you've got a 1 in 3 chance of being blown up by every shot going to your left torso. The chances are better for the right because of the double heatsink.
^1Actuators and such are disabled because in closed beta people cried "bug!" every time their aim got thrown off due to arm actuator damage or jerking to one side without intentionally turning due to leg actuator damage. Those with gyro damage experienced incredible ease of being knocked over just from weapons fire. There wasn't a Betty to tell them what was happening. Finally PGI just did some patch and it was all gone.
What is padding? To pad is to create additional things that the random chance crit damage can hurt instead of your ammunition. This can be any component such as heatsinks, Gauss Ammo (it's just chunks of metal), additional ammo, weapons, etc.
Checked out your build.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...8304cccf93bb580
I squeezed in an extra ton of LRM ammo and then "padded" your ammo safely in the left side torso for the sake of showing you the concept of padding your crits.
Notice how there are now 8 slots consumed in your left torso, and these 8 slots lead to five different critical components? The less important ones -- the heatsink and the LRM-10 -- will take the brunt of any damage that comes in. Mostly the heatsink. This protects your ammo and reduces their likelihood of detonation. In this scenario, 5 out of 8 times you'll lose that side torso and your life before your ammo explodes. There's a 3 in 8 chance of ammo explosion and that's with an extra ton of LRM ammo!
To pad them even better trade that extra ton of LRM ammo for an extra DHS in that same side torso to reduce the chances of ammo explosion to 1 in 9 as shown here.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...864c5badd34353c
This assumes the AMS ammo is moved to the head.
There's only one issue with combining a fast mech with ammo in the legs. The most you can fit into a leg is two slots of ammo. Know what that means? Every shot that does crit damage, crits your ammunition. That's a 2 out of 2, or 1 to 1 chance that ammo will be destroyed. When ammo is destroyed, that's a 10% chance it explodes. 20% of explosion is very high. That doubles when the leg is destroyed... which in turn will cause your side torso to explode.
I learned that one the hard way. Yes, having ammo in your legs is safer than having one or two loose tons in your torso. But even safer than that is having your ammo padded with other, larger targets to soak up the damage.
Edited by Koniving, 25 May 2013 - 09:51 AM.
1
I tend to use unorthadox builds and tactics, most of which gets me in trouble with other players telling me I'm stupid. I die alot but usually rack up 2-3 assits every game. I am eager to learn the techiques used in this variant of the game and would love to have a group to drop with. I have Teamspeak and Skype, play in the evenings Eastern time and can follow orders well.
... as Bopop said watch Koreaneases vids. take care
