14 replies to this topic

[Frostiken]

This is sort of an annoying issue in MWLL, namely that you cannot split ammo.

I haven't heard anything about this, hopefully it's an easy answer, but basically, if I have two LRM-20s but only buy one ton of LRM-20 ammo, does this mean I only get one LRM-20 with 6 shots, or do I get two LRM-20s with 3 shots?

This became a problem on mechs with odd number of tons left for ammo. Personally I think splitting the ammo is fine. While it might not be completely canon, I think all ammo should behave as if it's feeding from a hopper. The reason they have to 'reload' between shots is they're drawing ammo out of the hopper. Each 'ton' of ammo is a single binload, but there's no limits in how many weapons it can feed to.

In this way, if you put your LRM-20 ammo in your left torso but your LRM-20 is in the right, even if it's your only ton, when you start playing you still have 100 missiles in your left torso, since only 20 are actually in the launcher...

[CoffiNail]

So like MW2 did it? I like that method and agree.

[xMarshallx]

MPBT behaved the same way, and I do agree is well, I enjoyed it. Not sure of how the in mechanics will be here, but very good question and it isn't one I have thought of.

[Kobold]

It is completely CBT canon to share ammo between weapons. It is common for a unit to have, for example, multiple SRM2 or MGs, but only one ton of ammo.

[Frostiken]

Kobold, on 08 June 2012 - 09:37 AM, said:

It is completely CBT canon to share ammo between weapons. It is common for a unit to have, for example, multiple SRM2 or MGs, but only one ton of ammo.

It is? What the hell was I thinking of? I guess you're right now that I'm thinking of it.

Still, it's a valid question since it's something that Mechwarrior is very spotty on.

[grimzod]

Normal for ammo to share between all functional weapons that us said ammo. And your ammo can be in any slot in the mech that is available as shown in the mechlab video. I did not see if you can have half tons of MG ammo though - did not see that in the demo video of mechlab.

[Fiyabwal]

Frostiken, on 08 June 2012 - 09:24 AM, said:

This is sort of an annoying issue in MWLL, namely that you cannot split ammo.

I haven't heard anything about this, hopefully it's an easy answer, but basically, if I have two LRM-20s but only buy one ton of LRM-20 ammo, does this mean I only get one LRM-20 with 6 shots, or do I get two LRM-20s with 3 shots?

Think of it this way. we have ammo belts now, so it wouldn't be to hard to implement a loading system/ belt feeder into a laucher/cannon, the hunchback (if i saw correctly) had 2 tonnes of ammo in the chest across from the cannon.

if you need visuals just think of the ACU's from the MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS the ammo boxes were stored at the back but all it took was a belt to connect them to the guns.

* then again if you mean if having 2 cannons/launchers and one gets destroyed would the ammo be transferable. from what i remember it required a special system installed to do a transfer from where the ammo was connected (it might have been the CASE) but I think CASE was just to prevent chain detonations.

Edited by Fiyabwal, 08 June 2012 - 05:15 PM.

[Warskull]

I would guess yes, loot at the mechlab video.



The system looks far closer to that of MW2 or MW3 with some hard point limitations, plus there doesn't seem to be any step where you assign ammo (or an interface where you can.)

[Frostiken]

Warskull, on 08 June 2012 - 05:20 PM, said:

The system looks far closer to that of MW2 or MW3 with some hard point limitations, plus there doesn't seem to be any step where you assign ammo (or an interface where you can.)

Well the problem came about not because you're feeding ammo from a place, but because some of the games treated ammo as a 'magazine', and the reloading action as something taking place in the launcher itself.

Example: An AC/20 should be capable of sustained fire. The pause between shots is the cannon cycling its action and loading a new shell. However, what you could see was that you had loaded 4 tons of ammo in the left torso. One ton would then get 'loaded' into the AC/20, leaving 3 tons in the left torso, and you would see 5 shots in the weapon. You could fire 5 shots, but after firing the 5th there would be a much longer 'reloading' time and another ton would get loaded into the magazine.

Just remove that extraneous 'reloading', let ammo just feed directly from a globally-shared pool.

[Frostiken]

Hey, I just realized that this is in-game. Looks like ammo is fed from a common pool.



Two LRM-15s both say 240 shots. Firing both drains 30 from each counter, indicating a common pool.

Yay!

[grimzod]

It is quite clear ammo is pooled (mech lab video).

[Frostiken]

grimzod, on 09 June 2012 - 04:58 AM, said:

It is quite clear ammo is pooled (mech lab video).

It's not "quite clear" because you don't understand what the original point even was. I even provided an example, so I'm not sure how people are still confused about this. It has nothing to do with where ammo is stored and everything to do with how ammo is pulled from the stores to feed multiple weapons that use the same ammo type.

Seeing as how in the mechlab video at no point does he have more than one ballistic weapon that uses a common kind of ammo, no, it is not 'quite clear'.

Since you still don't understand, in MWLL you bought ammo in ton packs, but these packs were loaded as a whole 'unit' into a single weapon.

If you had two LRM-20s, they come with a pack of 180 missiles (8 shots) pre-loaded. When you fire the missiles, they count down their internal magazine, with a 'reload' between each shot. Let's say you bought a SINGLE ton of extra LRM ammo. When you empty both of your LRM-20s, this pack of ammo will then get loaded into only a single LRM launcher, leaving the other empty and useless, rather than splitting it into a half-ton pack for each, with only 4 shots each.

In MW4, if I remember right, it worked even worse, you had to pick per-missile weapon how much extra ammo that launcher and that one alone had loaded by way of little arrows next to it, so a lost weapon or a weapon you didn't use very much would / could still have lots of useless ammo inside it that isn't feeding another weapon that could / should use the same ammo but cannot, because ammo wasn't shared and drawn from a common pool.

I'm not trying to describe M-theory here or something.

Edited by Frostiken, 09 June 2012 - 05:36 AM.

[Ratzap]

As it should be. TT rules are that you can feed any single weapon type from any ammo hopper of that type. So a pair of SRM2s can share a single ton stashed whereever. Additionally you could declare at the start of a match how much of each kind of ammo you took with you, we commonly didn't take 200 MG rounds as that was kinda suicidal

Also whilst playing if you were worried about an ammo bin being exposed, say your RT is almost open, you could declare an ammo drop at the start of movement. At the end of the movement phase all remaining ammo from the hopper(s) you chose fell out the back of your mech - any hits on that location during the fire phase set it off. So dumping ammo was not something you do unless you're sure nothing will be behind you

[wanderer]

Frostiken, on 08 June 2012 - 09:24 AM, said:

This is sort of an annoying issue in MWLL, namely that you cannot split ammo.

I haven't heard anything about this, hopefully it's an easy answer, but basically, if I have two LRM-20s but only buy one ton of LRM-20 ammo, does this mean I only get one LRM-20 with 6 shots, or do I get two LRM-20s with 3 shots?

This became a problem on mechs with odd number of tons left for ammo. Personally I think splitting the ammo is fine. While it might not be completely canon, I think all ammo should behave as if it's feeding from a hopper. The reason they have to 'reload' between shots is they're drawing ammo out of the hopper. Each 'ton' of ammo is a single binload, but there's no limits in how many weapons it can feed to.

In this way, if you put your LRM-20 ammo in your left torso but your LRM-20 is in the right, even if it's your only ton, when you start playing you still have 100 missiles in your left torso, since only 20 are actually in the launcher...

Ammo is useful to all weapons of the same type -and- size. So if you have, say three AC/5's and two tons of ammo- all three guns are drawing off that 40-round reserve. On the other hand, mounting two SRM-6 racks and an SRM 4 means the two 6's will draw off what ammo you allocated for them, but the 4-rack will need it's own separate ammo to be useful.

[GrizzlyViking]

grimzod, on 08 June 2012 - 12:32 PM, said:

Normal for ammo to share between all functional weapons that us said ammo. And your ammo can be in any slot in the mech that is available as shown in the mechlab video. I did not see if you can have half tons of MG ammo though - did not see that in the demo video of mechlab.

...and it is not that uncommon for the same type of ammo to be stored in more than one location for a particular weapon.

Edited by GrizzlyViking, 09 June 2012 - 06:02 AM.