7 replies to this topic

[Warspawn]

Hey hey!

Just starting off playing again...trying a few trial mechs and saving for my first big purchase and I had a quick question:

Why use CASE when running an XL engine? Aren't you TARFU'd anyways if your ammo goes up near XL slots?

Thanks!

~War~

Edited by Warspawn, 22 March 2016 - 02:12 PM.

[AmazingOnionMan]

CASE can be a lifesaver for clan-mechs. For IS, it is completely and utterly useless (unless you run a STD-engine).
If PGI adds logistics to the game, it might become slightly useful by acting as it did in the TT: an ammo explosion would still leave you a wreck, but a salvagable wreck.

[Roland09]

If you are talking about IS mechs: Yes, you are right. When ammo in a CASE - equipped torso goes boom and you have an XL engine, your mech will go down. In that regard, CASE is a waste of tonnage and a slot. Why is it installed in the first place? Because of lore, from the tabletop game. The corresponding 3050 variant of the mech in question wil have CASE installed, so does the mech in MWO. In the tabletop game, it could be argued that CASE will help the pilot survive an ammo explosion, because he could eject to safety before the reactor went down.

Clan omni mechs, of course, will come with CASE equipped for free, and Clan XL engines as well, and will survive an ammo explosion in that side torso.

[Warspawn]

Thanks Onion & Roland! Was looking at the CTF series and saw some of the build threads taking CASE with their AC/XL engine builds

I'll re-visit this if I decide to play more with clan gear....

Edited by Warspawn, 22 March 2016 - 02:44 PM.

[Koniving]

Warspawn, on 22 March 2016 - 02:43 PM, said:

Thanks Onion & Roland! Was looking at the CTF series and saw some of the build threads taking CASE with their AC/XL engine builds

I'll re-visit this if I decide to play more with clan gear....

I'll give you the long and short of this. (NOTE: There's been a fix here sometime between 2013 and now; Smurfy says this is no longer the case. Heh. Get it? Case?)

In MWO, CASE can also act as a very cheap, very safe 'crit roll buffer' to soak damage there instead of on your weapons or heatsinks -- if for some reason protecting the heatsinks is important or for some crazy reason like not having enough slots to 'buffer' with DHS (or reason to have DHS added into the slots). Each has 10 health and can soak damage in place of your weapons.

It's far safer than 'buffering' your crits with say, half tons of ammunition that might explode on you. Sure, if ammo did explode you're dead regardless. CASE as per its original purpose in Battletech is worthless in MWO because if the ST goes, you die with that XL engine.

3 CASE in one ST might be 1.5 tons for 3 slots of protection, but that's 10 hp per slot for a total of 30 health to soak damage away from your weapons and important equipment.
1 DHS has real benefits for your heat and protects 3 slots for 1 ton, but it only has 10 HP total to protect your weapons with.

--------

Now in source material, any mech with an XL engine automatically had CASE for two reasons: The first, it saved a LOT of money as in the case of the Atlas AS7-K, the XL engine itself is 12,000,000 cbills and the mech with the engine is over 26,000,000 cbills. Fixing 1 to 3 slots on an engine? Pretty cheap. Replacing the engine and the mech because of mass engine failure or something silly like some ammunition explosion? Ungodly.

The other, less important reason to most armies is it would keep the pilot alive -- unlike not having CASE.

Edited by Koniving, 22 March 2016 - 03:30 PM.

[Warspawn]

...on a side note....

I used to play table-top, and of course the stand-alone games. Loved reading the old Battletech novels (Graydeath Legion comes to mind). Hell, I even played the original Battletech Online on GeNie (yes, that old). Any of ya'll have favorite lore reading/novels?

[Roland09]

Koniving: Not sure CASE can actually be critted in MWO; at least in the tabletop game, you could not place a critical hit on a CASE slot. You would just re-roll until you hit a slot that could take a critical hit. So, no actual anti-crit protection gained from equipping CASE (in MWO, installing 0.5 tons of Gauss ammo would serve the purpose of crit-buffering much better than CASE).

[Koniving]

Roland09, on 22 March 2016 - 03:12 PM, said:

Koniving: Not sure CASE can actually be critted in MWO; at least in the tabletop game, you could not place a critical hit on a CASE slot. You would just re-roll until you hit a slot that could take a critical hit. So, no actual anti-crit protection gained from equipping CASE (in MWO, installing 0.5 tons of Gauss ammo would serve the purpose of crit-buffering much better than CASE).

As I'm sure you're well aware, PGI's developers haven't 'read' too deeply into the source material.
CASE can be crit (at least as of 2013, the last big test on it) and you can still stuff in multiple CASE.

Was going to say Smurfy lists it as having 10 health, but evidently Smurfy does not do this anymore; it states 0 health.

This benefit may actually be lost, now. Curious. I didn't use it much myself lately but I used to.

Warspawn, on 22 March 2016 - 03:03 PM, said:

...on a side note....

I used to play table-top, and of course the stand-alone games. Loved reading the old Battletech novels (Graydeath Legion comes to mind). Hell, I even played the original Battletech Online on GeNie (yes, that old). Any of ya'll have favorite lore reading/novels?

Storms of Fate -- King Crab.
Warrior En Guard -- Urbanmech.

I'm quite particular to William H. Keith Jr.'s work, as well as the scenarios often found in the source books.

Then again nothing prepares you for...

DINOSAURS EATING BATTLEMECHS! O_O!