97 replies to this topic

[Pilotreborn]

As the title says, what is a viable build with 2 LRM-20, and still have enough ammo to **** people up at distance without running out and having solid armor.

[bpphantom]

Something's gotta give. You can drop the secondary weapons and hope to stay out of close range, drop the jump jets and sacrifice the maneuverability that would have kept you out of short range, or some other method. That's the beauty of 'mech design: balancing everything somehow.

[Pilotreborn]

bpphantom, on 13 July 2012 - 07:40 AM, said:

Something's gotta give. You can drop the secondary weapons and hope to stay out of close range, drop the jump jets and sacrifice the maneuverability that would have kept you out of short range, or some other method. That's the beauty of 'mech design: balancing everything somehow.

I dont mind dropping the jump jets or taking away some of the lasers. Id preferably like to not lose all other weapons. But 2 LRM-20's will reign in some serious damage from afar.

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

Pilotreborn, on 13 July 2012 - 07:37 AM, said:

As the title says, what is a viable build with 2 LRM-20, and still have enough ammo to **** people up at distance without running out and having solid armor.

I'm going to try and fit 2 lrm 20 and 2 medium pulse but i'm not sure yet. I may drop jumpjets and play it like I intend to drive my stalker, just with more focus on the fire support end

Edited by Battlecruiser, 13 July 2012 - 07:44 AM.

[WardenWolf]

Switch to an XL engine - you shouldn't be taking a lot of hits anyways. Upgrade to LRM20s, go for 4 tons of ammo (12 shots per launcher), add Case, drop to 2 medium lasers.

[bpphantom]

True and the newer models do that, there's at least one Catapult with dual LRM-20's. Something to look at depending on how it works is to use 2x LRM-15's w/Artemis. I vaguely recall some mathematical discussions over the TT game that indicated 15's w/Artemis were better than 20's without.

[Spleenslitta]

Is your only objective to increase the LRM's launched per salve by 25%? How about a more ambitious configuration.
A Catapult that has the speed to keep itself at ideal ranges at all times unless confronted with a fast mech.....Now that's a big ambition.

[Reported for Inappropriate Name]

Spleenslitta, on 13 July 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

Is your only objective to increase the LRM's launched per salve by 25%? How about a more ambitious configuration.
A Catapult that has the speed to keep itself at ideal ranges at all times unless confronted with a fast mech.....Now that's a big ambition.

I heard from a little birdy that pulse lasers are great at smashing lights but are bad at long term engagements.

speed with a few medium pulse would sort out any aggressors that can catch you i would think

[Tezkat]

Basically, upgrading to LRM-20s and adding another ton of ammo per launcher takes an extra 8 tons, which has to come from somewhere.

If you drop the jump jets and fiddle with the laser loadout a little (pulse lasers are easier on crits), you can manage 2 LRM-20s and 4+ tons of CASE ammo with FF armour and Endo-Steel. Crits get really tight with both of those. Or you could just take the plunge into an XL engine.

[Pilotreborn]

Tezkat, on 13 July 2012 - 07:54 AM, said:

Basically, upgrading to LRM-20s and adding another ton of ammo per launcher takes an extra 8 tons, which has to come from somewhere.

If you drop the jump jets and fiddle with the laser loadout a little (pulse lasers are easier on crits), you can manage 2 LRM-20s and 4+ tons of CASE ammo with FF armour and Endo-Steel. Crits get really tight with both of those. Or you could just take the plunge into an XL engine.

what do you mean by easier on crits and by crits get really tight?

[Arikiel]

If this were tabletop I'd actually go for 4 LRM 10s rather then 2 LRM 20s. They've got the same weight, range, etc but you get more chances to roll to hit. If you want to stay out of direct combat and maximize your role as a missile boat go with XL engines. I generally try to avoid them but in this case the extra speed and weight freed up would justify their use.

[bpphantom]

I need to reinstall HMP on my laptop and start jigging around with designs again. :/

[OJ191]

I'm actually tempted to run a pure fire support, quad LRM20 build. But if your team fails to protect you, you get ****** with no way to unfuck yourself.

And if you want more than 1 ton of ammo per launcher you have to run slow and light on armour (32/54 kph walk/run and 3/8/9/12/9/8/2/3/2/8/8 for H/LA/LT/CT/RT/RA/LT®/CT®/RT®/LL/RL)

Edited by OJ191, 13 July 2012 - 08:08 AM.

[Jason1138]

if you just drop the lasers totally and make it all LRMs and armor, dropping the jump jets too, then you get a workable build in other mechwarrior games. the only question is how ammo is gonna work here

[Arikiel]

For a basic official variant check out the CPLT-C4. It upgrades it's missiles to 2 LRM 20s by downgrading it's lasers to 2 SL and stripping out the 5 extra heat sinks it doesn't need anymore.

[Tovran]

I am thinking
- upgraing to an XL engine of the same weight
- 4 tons of ammo
- rip off 2 of the jump jets
- downgrade to 4 small lasers
- then your choice of a 2.5 tons I think it is (more ammo, heatsinks or armour)

Cata should lend itself well to some of the other weight saving upgrades down the line too, as you are rarely in trouble for crit space. If you don't lke JJs you still get another 2 tons. Downgrading to an XL 250 would give you an extra ton too I think.

[WardenWolf]

OJ191, on 13 July 2012 - 08:01 AM, said:

I'm actually tempted to run a pure fire support, quad LRM20 build. But if your team fails to protect you, you get ****** with no way to unfuck yourself.

What mech are you thinking - Stalker?

[Tezkat]

Pilotreborn, on 13 July 2012 - 07:56 AM, said:

what do you mean by easier on crits and by crits get really tight?

You have 3 resources at your disposal when building a mech:
Weight
Critical Space
Harpoints (new in MWO)

Weight represents the tonnage limit. Everything has to fit into the 65 tons available on a Catapult.

Critical Space is the same on every mech: 12 spots per body part (6 in the head and legs).

Hardpoints are new in MWO and dictate how many of what kind of weapons you can place on each location.


The more advanced armours and internal structures each allow you to shave several tons off your designs at an enormous cost in critical space (14 crit spaces taken up by each). When using both, you have very little free space left for weapons and equipment.

Edited by Tezkat, 13 July 2012 - 08:10 AM.

[SkyDragon]

bpphantom, on 13 July 2012 - 07:46 AM, said:

True and the newer models do that, there's at least one Catapult with dual LRM-20's. Something to look at depending on how it works is to use 2x LRM-15's w/Artemis. I vaguely recall some mathematical discussions over the TT game that indicated 15's w/Artemis were better than 20's without.

Interesting... does this have to do with Rate of Fire and lock on speed timing?

Edit: I just noticed you wrote the 20's without, in MW4 it was possible to have dual 20's with Artemis... For that game it seemed like a good choice for lance mates.

Edited by SkyDragon, 13 July 2012 - 08:15 AM.

[Mu]

Not too keen on going to LRM20s. I mean, if I'm going to be spamming missiles from far away the whole match, ideally I'd be surviving at least until I ran out of ammo. Which means that in the end I'd put out the same amount of damage with 2 LRM10s as I would with 2 LRM20s, unless everyone has AMS. I'll figure it out after I've actually had a chance to play.

Anyways the devs have stated that they want endo steel to be in the game at launch. It might not be for august 7th or open beta, and we aren't sure how they are going to implement it, but that'd be one method of doing it. XL engine is another. Personally I'd rather switch to pulse lasers and more heatsinks if I managed to free up tonnage.

And yeah they did mention Artemis IV would eventually be in too, so that might be another good option.

http://mwomercs.com/...-devs-1-answer/