11 replies to this topic

[Bandaron]

Question: Is there a way to make all my LRMs launch together instead of in batches? I'm playing around with a stalker, and whether I fit it out with 2x lrm20 or 2x lrm15, each launcher fires in 5-shot salvos, which obviously is suboptimal for shooting at guys with AMS.

I've seen other people launching much larger salvos; are they just fitting out with a bunch of LRM-5s, or is there a toggle somewhere I'm missing?

[Eaerie]

which stalker and where are the LRM's located? in the torso? I believe the torso launchers only have 6 tubes. Check smurfy.

[Deathz Jester]

Its entirely dependent on the amount of missile tubes on the actual space the launcher is in.

Example: my Awesome {AWS-9M} Has 3 missile hard-points, 2 in the center torso and 1 in the left arm, they're all 2 tube launchers. For giggles I outfitted it once with an LRM 20 in the left arm, and as I expected it took 10 salvos of 2 missiles each for it to complete firing from the 2 tube launcher in the left arm.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

The Stalker 3H can handle LRM 20's in the arms. Which one do you have?

And here you can see the green hardpoints for the salvos per missile slot.

[FerrolupisXIII]

As these guys have stated, Launcher hardpoints have limits to the number of tubes they can handle. if a launcher is oversized they fire in bursts.

most stalkers have a tube size of 10 in the arms, and 6 on the torso. so a 20 in the arm would fire 10-10, and a 15 in the torso would fire 6-6-3.

this is not entirely a bad thing. the smaller grouping sizes means a tighter cluster per group, so more missiles hit the mech/across a smaller area. and it makes the cockpit shake much harder to deal with.

downside being launchers do not reload until they have fired all groups, so you're slowing down your fire rate, and AMS is more effective against multiple groups of smaller missiles.

as a suggestion, 2x 20 and 2x 15 is a little bit much on the stalker. you're going to be very slow and not have enough ammo, or backup weapons for when something is near you, as well as firing all 4 together is going to give you big ghost heat penalties. 4x 15 is slightly more reasonable, and i run 2x 15 2x 10 on some. leaves lots of room for ammo and backups, as well as being at least a little mobile. both those options still have ghost heat but thats always going to be a problem.

[MrBlonde42]

You can count the tubes on many mechs that have dynamic details and no missile bay doors. The stalker has bay doors on the "arms" in case you didn't know...
Smurfy's is a great place for a lot of information about the game mechanics. ex. only the 3H variant can fire an LRM20 in one volley from the arms. Every torso missile point on the stalkers are limited to 6 missiles per volley, until the launcher has finished firing.

Edited by MrBlonde42, 26 October 2013 - 01:46 PM.

[Autobot9000]

It's very simple, you're mounting launchers on your Stalkers in positions, where he has fewer missile tubes than your launcher has tubes. This forces volleys to be split and hence gives your target both a big chance to dodge some of your volley as well as making his AMS at least 2x as effective (or even 3x if your missiles launch in 3 volleys).

Generally the Stalker-3H is the only variant capable of 20 launchers and only in its arms. All other Stalker variants have a maximum of 10 missile tubes. Check smurfy to gain the info what missile hardpoint has how many tubes. Generally I would advise, if you have to mount a launcher bigger than your hardpoints support, try to maximize the benefit of fireing in 2 volleys, i.e. on a 3F mount either no LRMs or LRM10 or LRM20s, never do LRM15s.

[Bandaron]

Ahhh, I see; I had no idea there were limitations on the number of tubes per hardpoint. Thanks all. I'm fitting a Stalker 3F and had been putting the tubes in the side torsos, which would be why it was shooting in bursts of 6. I'll transfer them to the arms, where at least the 20s will fire in two bursts instead of 4.

Thanks also for the smurfy link; I'll just be bookmarking that. Good hunting to you all.

[Bront]

Bandaron, on 26 October 2013 - 09:10 PM, said:

Ahhh, I see; I had no idea there were limitations on the number of tubes per hardpoint. Thanks all. I'm fitting a Stalker 3F and had been putting the tubes in the side torsos, which would be why it was shooting in bursts of 6. I'll transfer them to the arms, where at least the 20s will fire in two bursts instead of 4.

Thanks also for the smurfy link; I'll just be bookmarking that. Good hunting to you all.

FYI, I think you'll find them more effective if you try to stay within the limit of the tube count. So, rather than going LRM20s in the arms, go LRM10s in the arms and LRM5s in the Torso. You get a single batch launch, as well as better ammo usage. When you launch in volleys, AMS will eat up the missiles. Though admittedly, an LRM20 is a nice 2 even volleys of 10 if mounted in the arms. My most effective stalker is the 5S setup with the 2 LRM10+2LRM5 setup (along with 2 LLs to offer some non-missile punch). My 5S build (I use LLs instead of ER, though that was a cost issue more than anything)

The other option is to grab the stalker 3H, which can mount LRM20s in the arms and fire them all. You can do a similar 3H build that should be about as effective (though looks like I forgot the Beagle in that one) as my 5S.

[ImperialKnight]

If you think tubes are confusing, wait till you find mechs with hardpoints of different tubes on the same location. Sometimes the game decides your LRM20 goes to the 10 tube hard point and your LRM10 goes to the 20 tube point. And no, you have no control over it.

[Victor Morson]

I think the Stalker the OP has includes a NARC Port, doesn't it?

If you put a missile launcher in a NARC port it will launch one missile at a time. This will hurt the DPS of ALL The launchers, but the most minimal impact is on the 5. I used to run a Treb with an LRM/5 in the NARC port specifically because the single-missiles are hilariously hard for AMS to bring down (in concert with other LRMs on the 'mech, I mean.)

Edited by Victor Morson, 27 October 2013 - 02:56 PM.

[RLBell]

The truly stalker* aspect of the -3H is that two LRM10's and two LRM15's produces ghost heat, but two LRM5's and two LRM20's do not produce ghost heat. Comparing the fifty tube STK-3H to other big LRM boats just adds to the admiration I have for that beast. There are mechs with bigger tube counts, but they generate more heat.

* It would be awesome, if the stalker was only 80 tons.