9 replies to this topic

[iofhua]

I read in another thread that a mech can survive loss of a torso with a light engine?

How does that work?
I understand that with a standard engine you can lose a torso because it doesn't take up torso slots. I also understand that an XL engine takes up torso slots, so if you lose a torso, your engine blows up.

But a light engine takes up torso slots too, it just takes up 2 torso slots in each torso instead of 3 slots like an XL does. Does an engine need to take 3 slots of damage before it blows up or something?

[Roughneck45]

Standard engine - destroy ct
XL - destroy ct or either side torso
Light and Clan XL - destroy ct or both side torsos. You'll lose speed and cooling efficiency after losing a single side torso.

Edited by Roughneck45, 26 October 2017 - 05:10 AM.

[Bakaneko]

All engines continue operating after loss of two slots, but with greatly reduced power output and cooling capacity. In MWO engines does not receive critical hits, so engine slots do get destroyed only with destruction of component they reside.

[Roughneck45]

Bakaneko, on 26 October 2017 - 05:26 AM, said:

All engines continue operating after loss of two slots, but with greatly reduced power output and cooling capacity. In MWO engines does not receive critical hits, so engine slots do get destroyed only with destruction of component they reside.

Engine slots are irrelevant for gameplay purposes.

XL and Standard engines function at full capacity until destruction.

Light and Clan XL performance decreases after losing a side torso, destruction after the center torso or both side torsos are lost.

[Koniving]

iofhua, on 26 October 2017 - 04:58 AM, said:

I read in another thread that a mech can survive loss of a torso with a light engine?

How does that work?
I understand that with a standard engine you can lose a torso because it doesn't take up torso slots. I also understand that an XL engine takes up torso slots, so if you lose a torso, your engine blows up.

But a light engine takes up torso slots too, it just takes up 2 torso slots in each torso instead of 3 slots like an XL does. Does an engine need to take 3 slots of damage before it blows up or something?

The how, and the why as per the rules of Battletech tabletop.

All engines are considered destroyed if they lose any 3 slots due to critical hits.
STD engines are only in the center torso, so they are only destroyed with the CT in MWO.
Light Engine and Clan XL engine only have 2 slots in each torso.
Therefore in MWO, it can survive a side torso lost.
The IS XL engine, a rediscovered copy of an old Star League design from 300+ years ago that had long been lost to the annuls of history and technological advantage witchhunts (not actual wittchhunts but basically the desire of each faction to wipe out individual advantages the other ones have), has 3 slots in each side torso.
As such, by the rule of 3 slots destroyed equals non-functional/destroyed engine, you die by side torso with an IS XL.

In the source material and other games with it that feature critical hits and more importantly through-armor critical hits, it is possible to disable/destroy the engine without destroying any torsos, greatly improving the overall balance between engine types since any non-standard engine is significantly more fragile than the STD engines. MWO doesn't feature through armor critical hits nor does it feature engine disable/destruction without torso loss (even though the engines have a functioning health of 15 for the old repair and rearm system, the death of the engine itself does nothing in MWO.)

[The Basilisk]

Aside from the TT rules source like Kon explained, the fictional tech background is pretty simple.

Mech engines are high pressure/ high heat compact plasma fusion engines that require massive magnetic shields and cooling to function.

XL engines do the same like standart version by using lighter but less dense material therefore requiring a more voluminous shielding to absorp the engines radiation and waste heat.
Light engines where developed by the IS after the clan invasion in an efford to copy the more compact clan engines but without the needed material tech the engine saves only half the weight a clan made XL engine does.

Long storry short as Kon said any engine shielding will give up after taking 3 crits aka loosing three slots of their shielding.
In Battletech the engine will now do an emergency shut down to avoide a catastrophic reactor breach....in most cases that is enough to avoide the complete destruction of the mech... but sometimes this does not work in TT and there is a chance that the superheated engine plasma floods into the reactors coolant circuits causing a violent explosion.

Edited by The Basilisk, 26 October 2017 - 09:05 AM.

[The Cyberserker]

iofhua, on 26 October 2017 - 04:58 AM, said:

I read in another thread that a mech can survive loss of a torso with a light engine?

How does that work?
I understand that with a standard engine you can lose a torso because it doesn't take up torso slots. I also understand that an XL engine takes up torso slots, so if you lose a torso, your engine blows up.

But a light engine takes up torso slots too, it just takes up 2 torso slots in each torso instead of 3 slots like an XL does. Does an engine need to take 3 slots of damage before it blows up or something?

For IS obviously: A standard engine doesn't take up crit slots and doesn't care what body parts you lose, but it weighs the most. A light engine is basically a heavier clan XL. It takes up 2 crit slots in each side torso. You lose heatsinks and speed if you lose a side torso and you die if you lose both side torsos. They're in the middle on weight. Finally, XL engines are the lightest, but use 3 crit slots in each side torso and will kill you if you lose a side torso.

[FEK315]

Using the most direct description can you answer the following questions about the XL, Clan XL, Light and Standard engines as they pertain to MWO 2020.


1. Can you give 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages to each engine ?

2. When would you use each engine? Example- one is faster but more vulnerable. Another frees up weapon slots, another takes more heat sinks....

3. Can you list 2 build scenarios for each?

4. Can you suggest your most used engine and why you picked it?

Your challenge is to help me to explain this to my wife with as few meta explanations as possible.

She wants to be able to explain my MWO habit at the Thanks Giving dinner table
...And no I am not joking.

Thank you in advance. FEK315...OUT!

[Gagis]

This thread is 3 years old. Good manners would be to create a new thread.

Please.

Edited by Gagis, 25 November 2020 - 08:25 PM.

[FEK315]

Gagis, thank you for breaking the 3rd wall, your brevity and informing me I am chewing with my mouth open.