18 replies to this topic

[BigFamine]

Hello, so I am making my first mech, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to/where to equip armor....I've look everywhere...
Exactly where do I go to equip armor?


how to screenshot on windows

Edited by BigFamine, 07 July 2014 - 08:41 AM.

[NightinCrow]

press and hold the arrow between "0" and "AVL"

[Tustle]

Do you mean changing out the standard armor to say; ferro fibrous? Because by the looks of that screenshot it already appears you know about reducing the amount of armor a part of your BattleMech has...either way, if you back out of that particular section and hit the upgrades tab, you'll see the options for changing standard armor to ferro fibrous. The upgrade offers some modest defensive and weight reduction benefits at the cost of fourteen critical slots in a BattleMech.

On the other hand, if you just got that Mech' and for some unexpected reason it had no armor on it to begin with; it's that little box to the right of the equipment window. One showing you what's equipped on your mech's Left Arm? You can modify the amount of armor the Left Arm has with the arrows in the armor section.

EDIT: What Shazabi said.

Edited by Tank Man, 07 July 2014 - 08:50 AM.

[Phobic Wraith]

howdy, BigFamine - I can answer your question pretty easily, but just by saying armor you're asking possibly two questions. My guess is that you're asking how to increase the armor value on individual components. In your image, you have the left arm component selected and beneath that it says "armor." Beneath that it has a "0" an up arrow and an "AVL" when you click the up arrow next to AVL (available) you're adding armor to that component. You won't be able to add armor if you have no weight available because armor isn't weightless.

If you're talking about the armor upgrade, then it's under the upgrades tag in the mechlab.

[BigFamine]

Ahh, the arrow is what I missed, I feel like an idiot, spent like half an hour trying to figure that out....

[TheCaptainJZ]

Tank Man, on 07 July 2014 - 08:50 AM, said:

Do you mean changing out the standard armor to say; ferro fibrous? Because by the looks of that screenshot it already appears you know about reducing the amount of armor a part of your BattleMech has...either way, if you back out of that particular section and hit the upgrades tab, you'll see the options for changing standard armor to ferro fibrous. The upgrade offers some modest defensive and weight reduction benefits at the cost of fourteen critical slots in a BattleMech.

On the other hand, if you just got that Mech' and for some unexpected reason it had no armor on it to begin with; it's that little box to the right of the equipment window. One showing you what's equipped on your mech's Left Arm? You can modify the amount of armor the Left Arm has with the arrows in the armor section.

EDIT: What Shazabi said.

Ferror fiberous armor does NOT offer any defensive benefits over regular armor. It only weighs less, and the weight savings is less than you would get by putting on endo steel structure, for the same cost of 14 criticals. In other words, if you had to choose just one of the upgrades, endo steel is ALWAYS better.

[Alaskan Nobody]

BigFamine, on 07 July 2014 - 09:48 AM, said:

Ahh, the arrow is what I missed, I feel like an idiot, spent like half an hour trying to figure that out....

Happens to the best of us.

Any other problems feel free to ask.

[Mechteric]

BigFamine, on 07 July 2014 - 09:48 AM, said:

Ahh, the arrow is what I missed, I feel like an idiot, spent like half an hour trying to figure that out....

Not difficult to see how you missed it, the arrow is tiny and way off to the right side. Just another one of those UI2.0 usability issues.

[Tustle]

TheCaptainJZ, on 07 July 2014 - 10:16 AM, said:

Ferror fiberous armor does NOT offer any defensive benefits over regular armor. It only weighs less, and the weight savings is less than you would get by putting on endo steel structure, for the same cost of 14 criticals. In other words, if you had to choose just one of the upgrades, endo steel is ALWAYS better.

I think it's the weighing less thing that is -exactly- how it provides more defensive benefits; you can fit more ferro fibrous armor for the same tonnage than you can standard, IF that is the reason why you upgrade to ferro fibrous armor. So if you're at max tonnage but not max standard armor, then switch to ferro fibrous to free up the (yes it's very modest) tonnage, then use that free tonnage to add more armor...see what I'm saying?

Was also basing it off the Sarna article on Ferro-Fibrous Armor; where it says 'providing more protection per ton than standard armor (12% for Inner Sphere FF 20% for Clan FF).' Which, in hindsight, is exactly what I'm saying now. H'uh.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Tank Man, on 07 July 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:

I think it's the weighing less thing that is -exactly- how it provides more defensive benefits; you can fit more ferro fibrous armor for the same tonnage than you can standard, IF that is the reason why you upgrade to ferro fibrous armor. So if you're at max tonnage but not max standard armor, then switch to ferro fibrous to free up the (yes it's very modest) tonnage, then use that free tonnage to add more armor...see what I'm saying?

Was also basing it off the Sarna article on Ferro-Fibrous Armor; where it says 'providing more protection per ton than standard armor (12% for Inner Sphere FF 20% for Clan FF).' Which, in hindsight, is exactly what I'm saying now. H'uh.

Endo-steel is still the better deal though. Same cost, more weight saved that you can then use for more weapons or armor. If you can equip both, even better. But FF armor is always the least beneficial of the two.

[Modo44]

Regardless of the mech, the tonnage savings in MWO always point to Endo > Ferro.

[Nothing Whatsoever]

For MWO IS mechs, consider that Endo takes up 14 crit slots, and halves the weight of Internal Structure. Ferro takes armor from STD 32 units a tons to ~35.84/36 units a ton.

For a Locust that's a saving of 1 ton using Endo, and ~0.4 ton with max armor using Ferro.
An Atlas saves 5 tons with Endo, and saves about ~2.1 tons with max armor using Ferro.

So in other words, the trade off is being made between saving weight and crit slots, more than increasing Armor, which is why Endo should be considered first before investing into Ferro, if a build has crit slots to spare.

And since we don't have Repair and Rearm costs, in-universe availability issues (Endo was supposed to rare) and being able to take everything up to max armor the difference between Endo and Ferro isn't as important as it could be. Imagine if an Awesome could take more armor than a Victor, or a Kintaro having a higher armor cap than a Shadowhawk, for example?

And taking both Endo and Ferro on a build takes up 28 dynamic slots on a mech that can limit certain build options depending on the mech one is looking at, and the available tonnage, which is why a resource like smurpy's mechlab is invaluable for experimenting, and is worth mentioning.

[Tustle]

TheCaptainJZ, on 07 July 2014 - 12:35 PM, said:

Endo-steel is still the better deal though. Same cost, more weight saved that you can then use for more weapons or armor. If you can equip both, even better. But FF armor is always the least beneficial of the two.

Definitely am not disputing this! If Endo-steel isn't the first thing I upgrade to, (Doubles *cough*) then it's the second. Will certainly admit FF is an afterthought for me, mediums up. Still standing by the more protection per ton thing tho

[Modo44]

Yeah, math is hard. Please stop confusing the noobies. There are exactly zero situations in MWO that would make Ferro the first choice over Endo.

[Hastur Azargo]

Indeed, Endo always should be taken before FF. For future reference to newcomers, let's do an overview of usage of these two complementary upgrades. Both trade free slots for tonnage, so, what this means is that, since all mechs have same amount of free space, lighter mechs will run out of free tons much sooner than they'll run out of free slots.

Practically this means that most light mechs will often take both upgrades, freeing up additional weight, which they really really need; mediums and heavies will usually go with just the Endo, using up the rest of available slots for the larger amount of weapons and heatsinks they can carry, and heaviest assaults like Atlas or Banshee may take neither, since they already have so many tons available, that they'd rather fill all of their slots with additional equipment.

There are a few oddball builds, of course, like Cavalry Dragons, which, despite being 60-tons, take both upgrades, in order to equip a large engine and a few light weapons. The large engine in this case also can house many additional heatsinks inside, making slots a non-concern.

[Karamarka]

TheCaptainJZ, on 07 July 2014 - 12:35 PM, said:

Endo-steel is still the better deal though. Same cost, more weight saved that you can then use for more weapons or armor. If you can equip both, even better. But FF armor is always the least beneficial of the two.

Endo-steel is twice the c-bills tho, but that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

[Mechteric]

Karamarka, on 08 July 2014 - 01:06 AM, said:

Endo-steel is twice the c-bills tho, but that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things.

If it makes your mech perform better due to having more stuff in it, then it pays for itself quickly

[TheCaptainJZ]

CapperDeluxe, on 08 July 2014 - 09:37 AM, said:

If it makes your mech perform better due to having more stuff in it, then it pays for itself quickly

Not if you upgrade to FF, then make enough to afford endo, but don't have 28 crits available so you have to pay to downgrade FF back to standard to be able to upgrade to endo. Obviously, not worth it. Just save up for endo from the start.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Tank Man, on 07 July 2014 - 09:56 PM, said:

Still standing by the more protection per ton thing tho

While technically true, it's a misleading description.