15 replies to this topic

[BigBig]

I am a new player to the game and have been experimenting with different chassis and builds. In the loadout tab after buying a gun i am able to take it off and have it stored in my upgrades. Now i just played around with the artemis. I decided to try a different build and took it off. Now i Have no artemis. Does this mean you have to pay for an artmeis every time you want to swtich builds?

[Damon Howe]

Unfortunately, I don't play with artemis enough to know. XD

[Dan Nashe]

Short Answer: Yes, you have to pay to put it on, pay to take it off, and pay again to put it on again. Rinse, repeat.


It works just like Endo Steel and Ferro Fibrous that way.
Remember nothing stays unless you click save, so you can fiddle around.
Also, build everything on smurfys first, might save you a little bit of effort/money/experimenting:
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/
Just click on a mech and get building, to limit wasted money.

WARNING: there was a recent command chair or announcement that said they are changing the way artemis works.
My UNDERSTANDING is that you will have versions of launchers with and without artemis, and you have to pay for the upgrade in order to use launchers with artemis (so you'll end up spending less money to upgrade your firing system to artemis than you do now, but you'll pay a lot more for artemis equipped launchers.).
But just a warning that it will change, and I might be wrong about how it will work - someone else will have to find the thread for you, or you can track it down yourself, sorry!

[luxebo]

Yup, upgrades are sorta a money drain. I hope they change that and at least allow selling/less price to them. Use smurfy (http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab) to help with making mechs as well.

Edit: Ninja'd me DanNashe

Edited by luxebo, 01 January 2014 - 09:49 PM.

[RLBell]

The terrible truth of the upgrades, as opposed to the equipment, is that it is a lot like changing the clutchplate on a front wheel drive car. It costs c-bills to put it in and it costs c-bills to take it out. I do not know if putting artemis back into a mech that already had it is cheaper than installing it the first time, and I am reluctant to perform the experiment.

My advice is not to put artemis on a mech; unless, you are not going to remove it. Artemis is helpful for mechs with many missile launchers.

Ferro-fibrous armor is annoying, because the mechs that gain the most from it (heavies and assaults) need the crits more than the tonnage. I still put it on many light, as I often need that half ton. Explore possible builds on smurfy, before committing to ferro-fibrous armor. My quad AC/2 Jagermech has both ferro-fibrous armor and endo-steel, so it is severely limited in possible configurations.

Endo-steel is very useful on lights and mediums, less useful on heavy mechs and debatable on assaults. Generally speaking, if a mech needs a lot of heatsinks, it cannot use endo-steel. A mech that needs a lot of ammo may also not be able to make use of endo-steel. Check builds on smurfy, before committing.

Double heatsinks are a no-brainer, except in the singular case of some light mechs, particularly the Locust. If the engine is rated less than 250, there will need to be extra heat sinks mounted (with a 190 rating cap, Locusts need at least three additional heatsinks). If they are DHS, they will each take up three crit slots. With endo-steel and ferro-fibrous armor, plus an XL engine, there may not be enough space for double heat sinks. The locust with only a single energy hard point and four machine guns cannot generate enough heat to over tax ten single heat sinks. There may be others.

[luxebo]

Hey BigBig, saw you today in-game with a very slow Raven. I suggest getting XL on the Raven and getting two more Ravens (I think you had 2X, but I killed you, so get 3L and 4X). Get DHS, Endo, Ferro, an XL 275 and an XL 295, and that should set you well with Ravens. I instead of getting XL 275 got my XL 210 because of cost, and I left out DHS on many of my mechs because of cost once again, though DHS is always helpful. On a Raven, I suggest that you don't get Atermis, not enough room unless with ssrms to take advantage of streak glitch. Hope I helped with the Ravens.

[TheCaptainJZ]

RLBell, on 01 January 2014 - 10:01 PM, said:

Ferro-fibrous armor is annoying, because the mechs that gain the most from it (heavies and assaults) need the crits more than the tonnage. I still put it on many light, as I often need that half ton. Explore possible builds on smurfy, before committing to ferro-fibrous armor. My quad AC/2 Jagermech has both ferro-fibrous armor and endo-steel, so it is severely limited in possible configurations.

Endo-steel is very useful on lights and mediums, less useful on heavy mechs and debatable on assaults. Generally speaking, if a mech needs a lot of heatsinks, it cannot use endo-steel. A mech that needs a lot of ammo may also not be able to make use of endo-steel. Check builds on smurfy, before committing.

It sounds like you think FF armor is better than endo steel in heavies and assaults? FF armor is NEVER better than endo steel on any mech! You will ALWAYS save more tonnage with Endo Steel. FF armor does NOT offer more protection, just less weight, but Endo steel gives you greater weight savings while using standard armor.

I don't own any assaults but I can imagine certain builds cannot take advantage of even endo steel because they need the crit space for weapons and heat sinks (esp doubles).

[TheCaptainJZ]

BigBig, on 01 January 2014 - 07:33 PM, said:

I am a new player to the game and have been experimenting with different chassis and builds. In the loadout tab after buying a gun i am able to take it off and have it stored in my upgrades. Now i just played around with the artemis. I decided to try a different build and took it off. Now i Have no artemis. Does this mean you have to pay for an artmeis every time you want to swtich builds?

I'm 99% sure that upgrades and downgrades always cost money every single time. Endo steel is usually a benefit (maybe not all assaults can use it. Ferro fiberous armor is rarely worthwhile (only use it on lights and only after upgrading to an XL engine, equipping endo steel, adding all your weapons, maxing armor, etc. THEN, see if you can use it.
Artimus is the one you have to be careful of. If you equip it, you are committed to it unless you pay to take it off. It adds an extra ton and crit slot to every missile launcher on your mech (except streaks which aren't supposed to be affected by it, but due to a bug, benefit from a faster lockon time without the extra ton or crit slot)! So use it wisely.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 02 January 2014 - 01:29 AM.

[Victor Morson]

TheCaptainJZ, on 02 January 2014 - 01:29 AM, said:

I'm 99% sure that upgrades and downgrades always cost money every single time. Endo steel is usually a benefit (maybe not all assaults can use it. Ferro fiberous armor is rarely worthwhile (only use it on lights and only after upgrading to an XL engine, equipping endo steel, adding all your weapons, maxing armor, etc. THEN, see if you can use it.
Artimus is the one you have to be careful of. If you equip it, you are committed to it unless you pay to take it off. It adds an extra ton and crit slot to every missile launcher on your mech (except streaks which aren't supposed to be affected by it, but due to a bug, benefit from a faster lockon time without the extra ton or crit slot)! So use it wisely.

Artemis is something you want on every mech that runs missiles, pure and simple. Artemis has an unlisted advantage that works with Streaks, too, so it's always a good thing to equip when possible.

Endosteel is another must have - if you don't have Endosteel on your 'mech, your design is bad. Period. There's no exceptions.

Ferro gets a lot more specialized, OP, and is one of those things that actually IS painful to remove/re-add. While many new players (or pugs) dismiss it as worthless - it is inferior to Endo - it's extremely good on a handful of designs that stack Endo + Ferro. This can make a huge difference on more than a couple 'mechs. (i.e. the Cent 9A 3x SRM6 setup relies on Endo + Ferro.)

Double Heatsinks return to the must have category - literally the only build that's ever been better off with SHS is a horribly gimmicky 3x Gauss Ilya. That's it. DHS is good on everything.

TheCaptainJZ, on 02 January 2014 - 01:24 AM, said:

It sounds like you think FF armor is better than endo steel in heavies and assaults? FF armor is NEVER better than endo steel on any mech! You will ALWAYS save more tonnage with Endo Steel. FF armor does NOT offer more protection, just less weight, but Endo steel gives you greater weight savings while using standard armor.

I don't own any assaults but I can imagine certain builds cannot take advantage of even endo steel because they need the crit space for weapons and heat sinks (esp doubles).

This is also correct. The wording misleads people all the time; it makes the armor lighter and not stronger.

Ferro is something you add on top of endo, never instead of endo.

[Redshift2k5]

A future planned update would change it so ou only need to pay once for Artemis instead of paying to add/remove it every time. Hasn't happened yet and can't happen until they finish the new UI.

[BigBig]

I thank you all for the quick and accurate response to my question. I am running the inferior raven, because i have decided i like lights and wish to make the raven one of my "main" mechs. I am working on unlocking the elite skills. Now, can any one point me in the direction of a new player friendly guild/clan? I would like to get better at the game and have so many questions.

[luxebo]

There is teamspeak, though I don't really use that with my friends (I use either in-game chat cause were lazy or Skype for anything serious, and then we usually take not so serious mechs). Search around the forums, you should be able to take a look.

The Raven 3L is the one Raven that isn't gimped. While Raven 2X and 4X have some niche qualities (aka walking AC20 jumper, or slow sniping sharpshooter), they aren't very useful without a large engine. For these two mechs, I suggest to ignore missiles completely unless you want to troll with LRMs on a Raven, and even then 3L is better. Also, remove Narc straight away, as that is useless, while tag and ecm is good for locking ssrms (also benefiting from atermis, and the only thing benefiting from atermis). XL engines I suggest 275 (best got with Shadow Hawk), XL 295 (good for 3L and BJ-1X), XL 255 (good for Spiders), or XL 210 (you have it once bought 3L). Hope I helped.

[Victor Morson]

BigBig, on 02 January 2014 - 10:01 AM, said:

I thank you all for the quick and accurate response to my question. I am running the inferior raven, because i have decided i like lights and wish to make the raven one of my "main" mechs. I am working on unlocking the elite skills. Now, can any one point me in the direction of a new player friendly guild/clan? I would like to get better at the game and have so many questions.

The 3L is the best of the Ravens. However, it's strongest niche - using 2 ER Large Lasers + ECM - is pretty difficult to play sometimes and operates like no other light. In fact, it's best if you focus almost exclusively on larger 'mechs with this setup, as you'll be badly outclassed in light vs light battles.

The idea is that you stay in the main body providing ECM coverage, while constantly pouring those ER Larges onto whatever the snipers are shooting - by continually moving and fading, you become a very hard target to deal with (An unlockable Raven darting around at range), cover your team with ECM, etc.

Again it takes some practice but if you're eliting Ravens, this is probably a skill you'll want to learn.

PS: If you want an anti-light light next, pick up the Jenner.

[luxebo]

I also suggest a 3xmed laser 2xssrms or 2xmed laser 2xssrms 1xtag as a supporter to missile boats or a light hunter. It's still not bad of light hunter. Oh, and ECM is really your lifeline, know when and how to use it.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

And Artemis will be different in the future: http://mwomercs.com/...ork-to-artemis/

[sneeking]

yea I just took the hit for downgrading to standard armour and adding Artemus for the second time to my a1c. if I mess with it again in this current environment I think id just buy a second a1 for cbills ( probably should of this time )

on a lighter note victor will be happy to know my lrm boat now sports beagle artemus, though to cram it in with 8t of ammo and 2xjj the engine department suffered.