93 replies to this topic

[Pjwned]

TheTrueQuarian, on 08 September 2017 - 04:08 AM, said:

The only mech i have right now is a locust with eveything but an XL engine. I feel like im doing what im sopposed to be doing, spotting, poking with my laser, and trying to finish stripped mechs with my MGs but i usually end up doing no damage and then getting instagibbed by the person i was trying to kill.

If you're using a locust with machine guns then that means you're either using the LCT-1V or the LCT-3V, both of which are less than impressive mechs even if you're a veteran player let alone a new player.

Honestly you would probably be better off using a LCT-3S loaded with rocket launchers and a medium laser without even necessarily needing to buy a better engine right away, and that's not a good build even with some actual optimizations, but at least you could probably get some kills that way so if you want to try something else that should also have the benefit of being pretty cheap then maybe consider that build (or something like it) linked there.

Edited by Pjwned, 08 September 2017 - 03:36 PM.

[BrunoSSace]

IS are cheaper once you own all the engines sizes you need. But to start it is super expensive. Since now you need Xl, Light and Standard engines for certain builds. Then you need too buy the mech upgrades and that is where you spend your money. But I enjoy making IS mechs work more since you can change engines and I feel make the mech as fast or as slow as you like. Witch makes every build unique and unpredictable. Unlike Clans that have a fixed engine.

[MechWarrior5152251]

Clan is almost the same price when you factor in XL and double heat sinks. In fact they are cheaper if you can buy them on sale since double heat sink upgrade is never on sale.

[InspectorG]

Its like renting an empty apartment vs a fully furnished apartment.

[qS Sachiel]

Don't listen to the page 2 people. Mad Dog is not a mech for masochists. It's a mech for sadists.

I'm more of a clan player, so i'll only really list clan mechs to consider:

MadDog - A/Prime/H variants: put C variant arms on both sides, make sure each torso can carry 3x missile weapons. Load it with Srm6 + artemis & ammo. pop in a coolshot and off you go to collect teeth.

Stormcrow: don't have too much experience with this, but I know that both the missile and laser hardpoints have good application. I thoroughly enjoyed playing the trial mechs. Can't recommend a variant though.

Nova: probably a little more skill involved because you mount most of your weapons in your arms (so need to twist well). It's basically a laser boat. Requires good heat management.

Hellbringer: Great laser boat, good for mid / long range and can mount ECM. it's expensive but pays its self back fast. You'll need to invest most of your early points in cool run & heat gen/ cap to see an out of the box performance. That's looking at around 14mil CB+, and from there i'd recommend swapping out some of the pods depending if you want close range or long range for the quirk bonuses.

Unfortunately, to achieve these you're looking at 12mil+. However, as already stated, the majority of clan mechs, barring your weapon preference & omnipod changes relevant to mounting those weapons, come ready to go out of the box. You don't need to upgrade endo steel, FF, DHS or engine (although you are shoehorned by engine size, locked JJ etc...)

[Lucifaust]

Considering clans don't fiddle with engine sizes, they save cbills that way. IS are much cheaper but have more customizing options which invariably lead to people spending cbills until they find a build they like. All in all, it balances out.

[Snazzy Dragon]

Even clam battlemechs, which you need upgrades and new engines for, are cheaper to toy around with because they come with larger engines (mostly) and more guns like quad lrm 20+A or somesuch you can sell to make up the difference

With IS mechs it's like, "Hello, here's a ferro fibrous single heat sink lrm 5 streak 2 small laser medium laser std 230 kintaro! endo steel not included see your local mech pack distributor for details"

[The Lighthouse]

Clan mechs are almost always cheaper than IS mechs. When the mech goes sale, you are basically getting discount for all of essential mech upgrades (double heatsinks, endo, etc) while you don't get sale for those upgrade cost for IS mechs.

[MadRover]

qS Sachiel, on 08 September 2017 - 06:27 PM, said:

Don't listen to the page 2 people. Mad Dog is not a mech for masochists. It's a mech for sadists.

Its not for new people though. You have to be a masochist to brawl with it proper. Also, don't use C arms. Use the Prime arms.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Paigan, on 08 September 2017 - 01:51 AM, said:

Imagine if you return with one of them to the Migrant Fleet ;-). Valueable stuff.

Also:
This game SH*Ts money over players like crazy.
You can hardly lose money at all, you get relatively large amounts per single match, you have regular events that give millions over millions for simple tasks.

I, for example, have a 9 digit amount of cash that I have absolutely no idea what to spend it on because the game offers too few reasonable possibilities to spend it (IF you're not locked in primitive caveman collector drives). Others have 10 digits or maybe even more.
Easiest game economy I have ever seen.
How people can complain about it is beyond me.

Because lots of us are locked into primitive caveman collector drives. I have around 160 mechs. I have my eye on at least 2-3 more I would like to buy some time in the near future but am only sitting on 29 million at the movement. At 4.5 million C-bills to skill up each mech I need to invest 720,000,000 C-bills before outfiting cost. I was was to buy each of those 160 mechs with C-bill if we count an average of 10 million per mech, that is another 1,600,000,000 C-bills. Then there is experimentation costs, lets set those at about 2 million per mech give or take so another 320,000,000 C-bills. Now we are up to a total of 2.64 BILLION C-bills. Per my stats I am averaging 182k C-bills per match so I would only have to play 14,505 matches to acquire that much C-bills. I have play 4,335 matches, the rest I have made up with cash purchases, Ok I did get quite a few SP from the coversion so realistically I can reduce the C-bill cost by about 400 million but that still brings my C-bill need to over 2.2 billion if I hadn't been willing to spend crazy amounts of cash on this game buying 2/3 of my current collection for real money.

The point is, how can people NOT complain about the economy??? Also just because I like to collect mechs and vary what I play, what makes that a less valid playstyle than someone who only cares about playing 3 mechs total? The economy has to fit ALL players, not just those who own less than a dozen mechs and have billions stashed with 500 mechs to spend it on but refuse to.

[Dogstar]

Viktor Drake, on 08 September 2017 - 09:52 PM, said:

The point is, how can people NOT complain about the economy??? Also just because I like to collect mechs and vary what I play, what makes that a less valid playstyle than someone who only cares about playing 3 mechs total? The economy has to fit ALL players, not just those who own less than a dozen mechs and have billions stashed with 500 mechs to spend it on but refuse to.

Well said. Fortunately the game seems well propped up by mech collectors but even so we have to worry about player numbers.

[Lykaon]

TheTrueQuarian, on 08 September 2017 - 04:08 AM, said:

The only mech i have right now is a locust with eveything but an XL engine. I feel like im doing what im sopposed to be doing, spotting, poking with my laser, and trying to finish stripped mechs with my MGs but i usually end up doing no damage and then getting instagibbed by the person i was trying to kill.

So here is what to do to earn with a basic Locust.

You want to try for lance formation bonus by remaining close to your lancemates early on in the match.

Be fairly aggressive with getting enemy mechs in sight (preferably from a safe distance) for the scouting bonuses.

Try to attack from the "wings" of the enemy formations for flanking bonuses and always hit and run for the obviously named...hit and run bonuses.

Also attempt to put at least a tiny bit of damage on any target you can reach for the assists bonuses.

You can also get proximity protection bonuses for engaging targets that are engaging your team while within proximity to the team mate being engaged.

Also ALWAYS lock your targets to get the damage level data on the target paperdoll. Knowing where the enemy has open armor always helps with targeting to gain the component destroyed bonuses for destroying mech body parts.

A Locust before it's fully kitted out and maxed out on skills should be played conservativley. Do not try to "solo" anything that isn't a stiff breeze from dead alread,Do not over exstend yourself and realize that sometimes being seen in a possition of a potential threat may be enough to exert influance on the match even if you can not actually exert a serious threat.

Edited by Lykaon, 09 September 2017 - 12:39 AM.

[VXJaeger]

Well. IS mechs can be "cheap" to buy, but you need to multiply their price by factor 1.5-1.7 to get real cost of buying AND making them useful.

[qS Sachiel]

MadRover, on 08 September 2017 - 09:31 PM, said:

Its not for new people though. You have to be a masochist to brawl with it proper. Also, don't use C arms. Use the Prime arms.

C is only one with armour quirks?

[Escef]

qS Sachiel, on 09 September 2017 - 08:01 AM, said:

C is only one with armour quirks?

Yes, but the C arms only have a single ballistic hardpoint each. Some of us like to have energy backup weapons for when the ammo runs out. My SplatDog is 6xSRM6, 4xERML, 6 tons of ammo, +7 sinks, and max armor. Those energy weapons let me engage from outside SRM range if I need to, and have the added benefit of never running out of ammo.

[MischiefSC]

If you're dropping with a good team in FW the money flows like wine.

If you're a newbie or a pug, the money is super tight - especially with the skill tree.

A T3 (most newbies after cadet) is dropping with T2s but can't use consumables if they want to earn money. At 50k a drop you need about 13 or 14 million to get a good Clan heavy and skill it up.

With time loading and such that's about 60 hours of playtime as 12 total minutes/match average.

So 60 hours for 1 mech? Lol nope.

If you're a T1 dropping with a good team you're getting about 1 million every 30 minutes in FW and you probably have premium time going. So 6 hours, give or take, for the same value.

So a newbie/pug/free player is paying 10x as much time as us vets are for the same value. That's impacting poor new player retention.

Yet they won't want to change that because the real issue is that the game richly rewards you for spending real money. What it really needs to do is dial up base pay a bit and premium + hero a bit dialed down.... but that's unlikely to happen.

[James Argent]

For a splat-Dog you can run both C arms. For a streak-Dog you run one C omnipod, on your non-TAG arm. It needs no armor on top of the bonus, though you usually wind up with one point to spare for it if you want completely symmetrical armor on the rest. The other arm MUST have a L-TAG in it (and full armor).

For neither of the builds are true energy/ballistic weapons advisable, 'backup' or otherwise. The tonnage is better spent adding enough ammo to last the entire match. Your arms are going to be shot off way earlier than you can get your tonnage's worth out of any weapons you put in them. This is particular to the MDD because the potential payload for the torsos is so much more valuable than that of the arms. Any arm loadout big enough to make the arms worthwhile is not going to be a splat/streak-Dog.

Edited by James Argent, 09 September 2017 - 10:26 AM.

[Escef]

James Argent, on 09 September 2017 - 10:25 AM, said:

For a splat-Dog you can run both C arms. For a streak-Dog you run one C omnipod, on your non-TAG arm. It needs no armor on top of the bonus, though you usually wind up with one point to spare for it if you want completely symmetrical armor on the rest. The other arm MUST have a L-TAG in it (and full armor).

For neither of the builds are true energy/ballistic weapons advisable, 'backup' or otherwise. The tonnage is better spent adding enough ammo to last the entire match. Your arms are going to be shot off way earlier than you can get your tonnage's worth out of any weapons you put in them. This is particular to the MDD because the potential payload for the torsos is so much more valuable than that of the arms. Any arm loadout big enough to make the arms worthwhile is not going to be a splat/streak-Dog.

Gonna have to disagree with this. 6 tons of ammo is plenty for most games; hell, I've broken 1k damage with 6 tons of SRM ammo an 4xERML. As for a Streak Dog, I have one piece of advice: don't do it. Yes, it's good for poops'n'giggles, but Streaks are tonnage hungry and hot. You just will NOT have the tonnage to run adequate ammo and cooling.

[James Argent]

I've had 1200+ damage games in my streak-Dog, because empty arms mean I can bring enough ammo.

[MischiefSC]

A streak dog is good for damage farming, bad for win/loss.