17 replies to this topic

[Bedrockwarlord]

Hail Warriors!
After a long time away, I have decided to come back to MWO and try to get into it once more. However, I have a few questions about the mechlab thing/garage.
Everyone gets free trial mechs
Trial mechs can be upgraded but not saved.
How would I purchase a mech that I want to keep?
I am thinking about buying the standard Maurader pack, is this the simplest way to get a mech that you can own?

[HlynkaCG]

You can buy mechs, in-game currency by clicking on the yellow "store" tab at the top of your screen, and then selecting "battlemechs"

Whether or not you spend "real" cash on the Marauder is up to you, though personally I wouldn't unless it's a mech I know want. This game is more F2P than most and you can get pretty far without having to spend actual cash.

[Leone]

For the First 25 matches, you get bonus cbills. Also, for running through the mechwarrior academy, you get bonus cbills. You should have enough after to buy any medium mech, and almost any heavy by that point in time on cbills alone.

However, yes, should you decide to then skip the grind an early purchase of a twenty dollar mech pack gives you three mechs to grind out more in-game currency for more mechs. If you like the game, and it feels worth it to you, I like to think of that first mech pack as paying for my copy of the game at a reasonable price.

As for the ability to upgrade trials, I think of it as gateway mechs. They're just showing you what you could do had you a mech of your own, and hoping you go purchase one.

So, this is the place to ask your questions. You keep em coming, we'll bring the answers.

~Leone.

Edited by Leone, 07 December 2015 - 01:49 PM.

[Rogue Jedi]

you cannot change the loadout of a trial Mech but you can purchase those Mechs, they let you play in the Mechlab to let you see what you can do with them but as you do not own those Mechs, and therefore cannot save loadouts unless you purchase them, consider them like a hire car, you would not spend money enhancing the performance of something you have on a short term rent would you?

to purchase a Mech go to the store, and have a look, use the trial Mechs first and find one you like then look at the other variants on http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab and see how much it would cost to outfit and upgrade the Mech to the specs you want before spending anything.

after completing your first 25 matches and the training you should have enough to buy and outfit any 1 Mech (maybe 2 or 3 depending on what you choose)

there is a skill tree which improves the Mechs, it recently suffered a massive reduction but it still gives the Mechs noticeable improvements to many characteristics ^{(just in most cases substantially reduced from what it game a week ago)} to get the max upgrades you have to complete the "basic" skills on 3 variants of the same chassis, and to get an extra module slot you must complete elite skills on 3 Mechs within a weight class ^{(you will not need to worry about modules for a few months, they are useful but can cost as much as a Mech and need unlocking, which will likely take you hundreds of games)}

[Bedrockwarlord]

Ok awesome! Thanks guys! hahaha If I accidentally bought the wrong mech, is there any way to sell it?

[Rushin Roulette]

you can sell the mechs ingame.

BUT you will NOT get the same amount of Cbills you spent buying them out. Think of it liek a car. You buy a new car for the full price, but after that it is a used car no matter if you drove it or not and will also only be able to sell it accordingly at a lower rate.

The best thing for you to do in that situation is to bite the sour apple and actually try to master that wrong mech. PGI have gone to great lengths to at least try to get every mech and weapon system (Ignore the Flamer for now) to be useful in some way or role. Which mech did you accidentally buy? Maybe we can give you tips on how to play them and what to look out for.

[Rogue Jedi]

yes you can sell a Mech, just go to inventory on the home screen in game, but you only get back half of what you spent, if you sell the Mech and all items ^{(I do not recommend selling items until you have a large stockpile as they will help later)} so I would suggest keeping it, or if you have spent most of your starting bonus consider starting a new account.

[MavRCK]

Bedrockwarlord, on 07 December 2015 - 01:16 PM, said:

Hail Warriors!
After a long time away, I have decided to come back to MWO and try to get into it once more. However, I have a few questions about the mechlab thing/garage.
Everyone gets free trial mechs
Trial mechs can be upgraded but not saved.
How would I purchase a mech that I want to keep?
I am thinking about buying the standard Maurader pack, is this the simplest way to get a mech that you can own?

https://mwomercs.com/marauder

Standard pack for 20$ with 30 days premium time is an excellent value because the Marauder is a very strong / competitive mech.

[Koniving]

Bedrockwarlord, on 08 December 2015 - 06:09 AM, said:

Ok awesome! Thanks guys! hahaha If I accidentally bought the wrong mech, is there any way to sell it?

If you accidentally got the wrong mech, I think you should try to work with it before you discard it. Any mech, no matter how good or poorly equipped it may be, is better than the trial mechs... that is because everyone knows how trial mechs are set up, their strengths and weaknesses. Yet no one knows how you set your mech up. Even if you think it's awful, it is still better than a trial mech in that regard.

[Leone]

Tell you what. Lemme know what kinda of weaponry and fighting style you prefer, and what kind of mech you got, and I'll hop on over to here, and see if we can find something that'll fit your style. To be perfectly honest, I was kinda disappointed with my first mech, the shadowhawk 5M. I gave it a solid try, and then just tore out the engine and over gunned the thing and suddenly I loved it. Now granted, most folk hate running slow mechs, so that may not be the answer for you, but hence the questions.

How do you want your mech to play? We'll see if we can't breath some life into it for ya.

~Leone.

[Bedrockwarlord]

Leone, on 08 December 2015 - 10:44 AM, said:

Tell you what. Lemme know what kinda of weaponry and fighting style you prefer, and what kind of mech you got, and I'll hop on over to here, and see if we can find something that'll fit your style. To be perfectly honest, I was kinda disappointed with my first mech, the shadowhawk 5M. I gave it a solid try, and then just tore out the engine and over gunned the thing and suddenly I loved it. Now granted, most folk hate running slow mechs, so that may not be the answer for you, but hence the questions.

How do you want your mech to play? We'll see if we can't breath some life into it for ya.

~Leone.

I purchased the SCR-B. Personally, I love running with lazers because they do not run out of ammo, which is one of the reasons I chose the SCR-B. However, the first thing I noticed after buying this was Wow. this thing overheats really fast.So I want the mech to be able to focus it's fire on a target that is under fire. by my allies and get the kill.
So, here is what I did to try and fix it. I dropped the lazers and replaced them with 4 C-ER MED LASERS. Then i dropped all the armor values by about 5. Then, to prevent overheating, i added two clan double heat sinks to the left torso. However, I still am not feeling very comfortable with it. It might be because of the sensitivity though, what is your sensitivity at?

[50 50]

Hail Bedrockwarlord.

You can also assign the weapons to different groups (triggers) and also use chain fire to manage your heat.
Can't really comment on the sensitivity, you will need to find a setting that suits you.

[Tarl Cabot]

Bedrockwarlord, on 08 December 2015 - 05:03 PM, said:

I purchased the SCR-B. Personally, I love running with lazers because they do not run out of ammo, which is one of the reasons I chose the SCR-B. However, the first thing I noticed after buying this was Wow. this thing overheats really fast.So I want the mech to be able to focus it's fire on a target that is under fire. by my allies and get the kill.
So, here is what I did to try and fix it. I dropped the lazers and replaced them with 4 C-ER MED LASERS. Then i dropped all the armor values by about 5. Then, to prevent overheating, i added two clan double heat sinks to the left torso. However, I still am not feeling very comfortable with it. It might be because of the sensitivity though, what is your sensitivity at?

Mouse sensitivity? Does your mouse have a DPI selector? In game, lower right corner, settings, move mouse sensitivity to around 0.3, save and test. You can test in the testing grounds. To get to settings in Testing grounds, hit ESC key.

1st - Max armor.. put about 5-8 on Rear LT/RT/CT.

2nd - put weapons on separate tics/weapon groupings (arrow keys left/right to select weapon tic/grouping, up/down arrows to select weapon, then Right Left control key to select/unselect).

3rd learn to chain fire, select weapon grouping and hit Backspace key to turn chain fire on/off

http://mwomercs.com/...try-new-things/

[Koniving]

(Bit late because I didn't say it the first time, welcome to MWO).

Bet I got your attention.

Bedrockwarlord, on 08 December 2015 - 05:03 PM, said:

I purchased the SCR-B. Personally, I love running with lazers because they do not run out of ammo, which is one of the reasons I chose the SCR-B. However, the first thing I noticed after buying this was Wow. this thing overheats really fast.So I want the mech to be able to focus it's fire on a target that is under fire. by my allies and get the kill.
So, here is what I did to try and fix it. I dropped the lazers and replaced them with 4 C-ER MED LASERS. Then i dropped all the armor values by about 5. Then, to prevent overheating, i added two clan double heat sinks to the left torso. However, I still am not feeling very comfortable with it.

Reduce the mouse's DPI (lower number equals less sensitive). Many mice have a DPI button, find the one with the lowest speed and use that. I wouldn't mess with the ingame setting.

Now I was about to take a stock Stormcrow and recreate what you described when I immediately realized the problem. "32" front armor, 18 rear. The Stormcrow's greatest strength and greatest flaw is that the thing is a set of walking front torsos.

Reallocate the armor as follows. First number front / second number rear.
LT, CT, RT
50/2, 70/2, 50/2

This is up from stock
LT, CT, RT
34/18, 50/20,34/18

If not comfortable going that low, try "8" rear and rest to the front for each torso.

Remember to never run away. It is degrading to your honor and your fellow Clanners will mock you as a cowardly Free-Birth. That and you'd die quickly. If you must engage in a temporary re-positioning maneuver (running away) you will remove yourself from the area by way of diagonal movements while ALWAYS facing the enemy with your torso.

Now transfer 4 armor from the head to the legs. This changes head from 18 to 14, and legs from 50 each to 52 each. Your head is almost impossible to hit with the way the mech moves and how small the window is. (If necessary, reduce head armor to 12.)

----

We covered the longevity of the 'Mech. Now for your heat issue. Stock has 6 ER ML in the right hand and an Ultra-AC/20 in the left. This thing is an oven, in Battletech you could easily melt heatsinks, find yourself collapsing, even potentially dying in the cockpit from heat exposure. Then again you could only use each system "once" every 10 seconds... here you can use all systems 3 times in 10 seconds, going through 3 times the heat.

To counteract this, we must first remove your biggest source of heat. That would be the UAC/20. In this example I removed it and swapped it with a simple UAC/5 and loaded in more heatsinks.

This is another example, where I have changed the hardpoints of the LT/RT from Stormcrow Beta ( B ) to Stormcrow Delta (D) side torsos. In it, the ER MLs are all replaced with a total of 6 Small Pulse Lasers, complimented by a single machine gun (set on the same firing key). The missiles are to be set on a second firing key. Despite how it says you have a cooling efficiency of 36% up from 23%, it's actually over 50% because the Streak missiles have a slow reload time. Do not lead machine gun fire, the particle effect is a lie the MGs are hit-scan just like lasers so they work great together (and MGs generate no heat).

Finally, I have a personal favorite:

2 MPL (right arm), 1 ER PPC (right torso), 1 ER Small (CT), 1 MG (LA). Flooded with DHS. The heavy punch comes from the easy to use torso-mounted extended range particle projection cannon.

This one is my money maker. It sports twin Streak SRM-6 launchers on the LT, 1 LRM-10 on the RT. 2 ER ML RA. 1 SRM-6 on the LA (no lock, manual aim). All Actuators. 6 added heatsinks (for a total of 16).


Using your stormcrow's "Omnipod" section you can swap out limbs. The head weapon requires a specific cockpit.

Good luck.

Edit: One more thing before I forget.

Lasers are only effective if you hold the target. Pick an enemy body part, fire, and keep the beams on target for the duration that they last for best results.

Edited by Koniving, 08 December 2015 - 08:20 PM.

[Bedrockwarlord]

So, with your suggested build in the text, then I should keep the C-ER med lasers?

Koniving, on 08 December 2015 - 08:13 PM, said:

(Bit late because I didn't say it the first time, welcome to MWO).

Bet I got your attention.



Reduce the mouse's DPI (lower number equals less sensitive). Many mice have a DPI button, find the one with the lowest speed and use that. I wouldn't mess with the ingame setting.

Now I was about to take a stock Stormcrow and recreate what you described when I immediately realized the problem. "32" front armor, 18 rear. The Stormcrow's greatest strength and greatest flaw is that the thing is a set of walking front torsos.

Reallocate the armor as follows. First number front / second number rear.
LT, CT, RT
50/2, 70/2, 50/2

This is up from stock
LT, CT, RT
34/18, 50/20,34/18

If not comfortable going that low, try "8" rear and rest to the front for each torso.

Remember to never run away. It is degrading to your honor and your fellow Clanners will mock you as a cowardly Free-Birth. That and you'd die quickly. If you must engage in a temporary re-positioning maneuver (running away) you will remove yourself from the area by way of diagonal movements while ALWAYS facing the enemy with your torso.

Now transfer 4 armor from the head to the legs. This changes head from 18 to 14, and legs from 50 each to 52 each. Your head is almost impossible to hit with the way the mech moves and how small the window is. (If necessary, reduce head armor to 12.)

----

We covered the longevity of the 'Mech. Now for your heat issue. Stock has 6 ER ML in the right hand and an Ultra-AC/20 in the left. This thing is an oven, in Battletech you could easily melt heatsinks, find yourself collapsing, even potentially dying in the cockpit from heat exposure. Then again you could only use each system "once" every 10 seconds... here you can use all systems 3 times in 10 seconds, going through 3 times the heat.

To counteract this, we must first remove your biggest source of heat. That would be the UAC/20. In this example I removed it and swapped it with a simple UAC/5 and loaded in more heatsinks.

This is another example, where I have changed the hardpoints of the LT/RT from Stormcrow Beta ( B ) to Stormcrow Delta (D) side torsos. In it, the ER MLs are all replaced with a total of 6 Small Pulse Lasers, complimented by a single machine gun (set on the same firing key). The missiles are to be set on a second firing key. Despite how it says you have a cooling efficiency of 36% up from 23%, it's actually over 50% because the Streak missiles have a slow reload time. Do not lead machine gun fire, the particle effect is a lie the MGs are hit-scan just like lasers so they work great together (and MGs generate no heat).

Finally, I have a personal favorite:

2 MPL (right arm), 1 ER PPC (right torso), 1 ER Small (CT), 1 MG (LA). Flooded with DHS. The heavy punch comes from the easy to use torso-mounted extended range particle projection cannon.

This one is my money maker. It sports twin Streak SRM-6 launchers on the LT, 1 LRM-10 on the RT. 2 ER ML RA. 1 SRM-6 on the LA (no lock, manual aim). All Actuators. 6 added heatsinks (for a total of 16).


Using your stormcrow's "Omnipod" section you can swap out limbs. The head weapon requires a specific cockpit.

Good luck.

Edit: One more thing before I forget.

Lasers are only effective if you hold the target. Pick an enemy body part, fire, and keep the beams on target for the duration that they last for best results.

build in the text

[John1352]

I like 3 ER ML and a UAC 20 on one of my Stormcrows. 6 lasers is just too hot unless you swap them for small ones. Don't sell it, it is a really good mech, just the stock loadout is too hot for any medium mech.

[Koniving]

You can edit quotes to cut to specific parts of the quote.

The first build keeps the 6 ER M Lasers, replacing the autocannon with a UAC/5 (from the stock UAC/20), making up the huge difference in gained weight with additional armor and heatsinks. Your main punch comes from the 6 ER ML, and when getting toasty switch to firing the Ultra AC/5 until you get comfortably cool. This build's meant to make big holes in enemies.

The second replaces them with 6 SPL (and makes up for it with streak missiles). The cannon is replaced with an MG (and the actuators are meant to be enabled. (Second build FIXED). The streaks are your hefty punch. This rig's more suitable to hunter smaller, faster targets.

The third is designed as an all-rounder. The ER PPC in the right torso will punch damaging holes in enemies at a long range. The MPLs, ER SL and MG will deal with stuff up close.

The last design is made to kill Heavies, Mediums and Lights as a hunter. LRMs soften, Streaks harass, SRM and lasers deliver the killing blows.

[Ano]

One additional thought:

Particularly while you're learning, you may find it helpful to keep weapon groups to a minimum, as it's less to think about and fewer different systems (wth potentially different ranges, lead values and mechanics) to co-ordinate.

So for your Stormcrow, I'd consider experimenting with one ballistic and 3 or 4 ERMLs to start, firing the ballistic with one mouse button and the lasers with another.

Also, on the off chance you aren't aware of it, http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab is the place to go to experiment with different build options quickly, easily and with no danger of accidentally spending your CBills before you're ready.