Justin Kell, on 04 January 2017 - 02:06 PM, said:
I haven't done much at all in the way of customizing mechs. Other than adding the large lasers to the ACH-Prime and that was because someone told me to.
I want to learn how to do this myself. Right now I'm using a stock Hunchback IIC-A Here's the loadout from Smurfy
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b#i=367&l=stock
I'd like to have a better chance at spotting the enemy before I walk into them. I'd like this to be a mid/close range fighter (unless that's a bad idea with this mech) and maximize my survivability. I'd love to hear not only your ideas but how you walk through the process of deciding what to do with a mech after you've played with it a bit.
OK! Here we go:
The first thing you want to do when you're modifying a chassis is to look at its hardpoints (and quirks) to see what it can be good at. Don't feel like you need to use all the hardpoints or quirks, but try to figure out what you want to do with the 'mech. The answer to that question should
never be, "a little bit of everything," by the way - but that's a more complex subject. Suffice to say that you want to pick one thing to start with, and do that. We're going with short-ranged stomping power: UAC/40 for the win!
Next, max out the armor, and then pare it down to the nearest half ton (we're doing this in Smurfy, so you've got a tool for that under "tools.") We can shave it down more later if we want the tonnage. Once we've done that, we put in the guns - in our case, dual UAC/20s and two ER Mediums for non-ammo backup (I know it's just stock, but we'll assume we built it for the sake of illustration.) Now, here's where it gets a little technical - I don't like to pick my engine right away, but I do like to put in a placeholder so I don't accidentally run out of slots to fit an engine. In our example, we just slapped in a low-rated XL200 because we had it in the 'mech bay. We know two UAC/20s will produce a LOT of heat quickly, too, so we slap in a few heat sinks in order to help cool off, plug in some ammo... aaand we're out of tons. Actually, we have to shave a good amount of armor off of the arms, and we can only afford one ton of ammo for each gun. Assuming we have no jams, that's enough for a whole 12 seconds of glorious Autocannon combat and then we're down to two ER Mediums for the rest of the match.
We
can get round this by ditching the two Heat Sinks we're not actually required to bring, as well as the jump jets. That brings us down to where we can afford 7 total tons of ammunition, which should be an acceptable level of combat endurance - but the build is still critically slow for a Medium. The speed is barely faster than many Atlas builds, and since the 'mech's engine also affects its torso twist speed, our ability to defend ourselves against fast Mediums and Lights will be limited. We'll need to stick with our slower teammates as much as we can, and if it comes time to make a run for it, we're hosed. Also, since the Heat Scale penalties for firing two UAC/20s at a time are pretty severe, we'll need to stagger fire and
still be pretty hot.
So what we have here is probably a
failed build; we can still put it on the field and see what happens, - but it's not likely to be pretty. Especially if you're new, lower-tier players just don't know how to deal with something that hits as hard as some Assaults, even if it can't sustain it. Yet we're so slow and clunky that we'll become an easy kill when that very firepower makes us a priority target. By and large, it's not a build destined for greatness - and we wanted midrange combat, too.
Thus, we can explore the options!
The critical flaw in our first build was the insistence on UAC/20s. They're just too big, taking up a
huge proportion of our tonnage, and short-range only. But Autocannons are what this variant
does, so we're keeping those - dropping down to two UAC/10s. Add in ammo (3 tons a launcher) and removing the extra heat sinks/
ferro-fibrous armor, boost up that leg armor, and we're in business. Plug in jump jets because mobility is good, and we've got a
pretty mean build. The ER Lasers supplement the UAC/10s in sustained combat (when someone is coming for our cookies instead of peeking around corners or over hills,) and you can harass with the UAC/10s literally until the ammo runs dry.
To recap the method:
- first, decide what you want to do
- then, max your armor and put ECM on if the chassis can carry it
- throw in a placeholder engine and put in guns
- add ammo and secondary equipment
- up the engine to a speed you want, and adjust secondary equipment (like heat sinks, targeting computers, etc) as needed.
- Check the Weapon Lab to make sure you're not overheating in 10 seconds of full combat
- Test and make adjustments as needed
This is the general outline for "how to build 'Mechs" in MWO. It's a guide, not a requirement, but you can see the principles of what you're doing.
PS: Also, be wary of putting too
much armor on your rear torsos. Generally as much armor as possible needs to be shifted front to deal with threats you can see and mitigate. Shift armor back if you're getting killed from behind too much, but don't go higher than 7-8 CT with a Medium. Always analyze and adjust your builds as needed to keep up with the changing pace of the battlefield - and your own developing skills.
Edit: screwed up the final build by forgetting to re-add Ferro-Fibrous Armor. Build and advice corrected.
Edited by Void Angel, 05 January 2017 - 05:50 PM.
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