23 replies to this topic

[Luke Garrad]

So I'm kinda new to mech warrior, played mw4 a while ago, got the hang of the basics and all. I'm also at a vet level so I got $40 of in game credit to spend on my mech and on a mech. So which do I pick. I'm a beginner and also I need to know what weapons I should put on this mech to give me a good chance out there. :3

I like to go long range but also would like a all around advantage.

Edited by Luke Garrad, 23 July 2012 - 02:41 PM.

[Rushyo]

Quote

So which do I pick.

We'd need to know something about you and your style to give some suggestions. You do have style, yes?

Quote

I'm a beginner and also I need to know what weapons I should put on this mech to give me a good chance out there. :3

We don't know how the in-game mechanics will work yet as, alas, those who are in the beta are bound by an NDA. However we do have the finest theorycrafters this side of Tharkhad (and some really bad ones too!). I'm sure they'll sort you out with a deluge of stats.

Edited by Rushyo, 23 July 2012 - 02:43 PM.

[Belorion]

A good medium will save you some c-bills for things other than just the one chassis, and will still afford the opportunity to fill lots of rolls. The only Medium we can be sure will be in the game is the Hunchback.

[Luke Garrad]

What about how much Armour I put on mech?

[Risnd34th]

good question, first....

You mentioned being long ranged, but able to encounter close ranged combat, if the situation arises.

So pretty much a balanced mech, correct?

I'd go with a medium based template, and mess with your guns as you go along, Gause Rifles/Pulse Rifles are energy based weapons, they do considerable amounts of damage close and long range, but accumulate mass amounts of HEAT.

Missles/Ballistics are there own kind of weapon, they produce heat but not as much therefor can be spammed, I'd like to maybe run some lasers to heat up there armor disabling it, then follow up some some ballistics to finish them off, nothing missiles cant destory

[DireWolf307]

Just looking at the mech list, if you are an all-rounder player, there are chassis (provided we get all the variants listed on their tech readouts for the given period) that fill that role in every weight class. But I would say on a purely theorycrafted basis that your typical all-rounder is going to want to use a Hunchback of whatever variant looks the best for their playing style. Just based on the TT stats, the Hunchback is a pretty good workhorse that can fit whatever need necessary, and with a medium your speed/armor ratio is easy to get used to.

[Chillybill]

Agree with Rushyo about that but you were worrying about your in game cash, you shouldn't worry because you should start the game with the mech you chose when you purchased your founders pack as well as enough C-bill to buy a second mech when your ready and by that time hopefully you will have crunched out enough C-bills to buy yet another, save you in game cash as long as you can for some cool stuff later on

Good Luck

[SyberSmoke]

Belorion, on 23 July 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

A good medium will save you some c-bills for things other than just the one chassis, and will still afford the opportunity to fill lots of rolls. The only Medium we can be sure will be in the game is the Hunchback.

Four medium mechs have been confirmed, Centurian, Hunchback, Trebuchet, and Cicida.
All mechs that are currently confirmed can be found here.

As for what would be best, you need to answer if you like:
Small and Fast Scouting and Harassment?
Well armored and in the heat of battle?
In the distance lobbing Shells and Missiles on unsuspecting foes?

Choose one of those and we can help you with a mech that is best.

Luke Garrad, on 23 July 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

What about how much Armour I put on mech?

The amount of armor you can fit on a mech depends on the mechs weight. Light mechs (25-35 tons) can of coarse fit less armor then an assault (80-100 tons).

Edited by SyberSmoke, 23 July 2012 - 02:53 PM.

[Risnd34th]

Also, im not an expert either, but any game that has mechanics like mech warrior takes a LOOONNGG time figuring out the PERFECT load out.

It took me over 2 months to find good set up in Armored Core 4, you want to master your 1v1's, then you want to work on your speed on your mech, start decreasing armor, take more risks, then you need to work on your piloting skills this is most crucial, I could give you best set up IN GAME, but if you cannot pilot it, its pretty much a shame to have it.

So, make a medium based mech, mess with his guns while watching your heat, once you figure out the game, start changing things up finding out what your good up agianst, close/long ranged, who knows you might like to be more of a sniper and sit back and just reign hell down on your opponents, or maybe you will like to get up close and personal and just decimate stuff, either way it doesnt matter as long as your contributing to the team.

Once you get how to play the game correctly, then thats when I'd have to tell you to really start experimenting it may take weeks of trials to figure out what set up works the way you like to play the most.

See you on the field!

[Boarneges]

Risnd34th, on 23 July 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

good question, first....

You mentioned being long ranged, but able to encounter close ranged combat, if the situation arises.

So pretty much a balanced mech, correct?

I'd go with a medium based template, and mess with your guns as you go along, Gause Rifles/Pulse Rifles are energy based weapons, they do considerable amounts of damage close and long range, but accumulate mass amounts of HEAT.

Missles/Ballistics are there own kind of weapon, they produce heat but not as much therefor can be spammed, I'd like to maybe run some lasers to heat up there armor disabling it, then follow up some some ballistics to finish them off, nothing missiles cant destory

The gauss rifle's a ballistic weapon, produces practically no heat.

[Chillybill]

Belorion, on 23 July 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

A good medium will save you some c-bills for things other than just the one chassis, and will still afford the opportunity to fill lots of rolls. The only Medium we can be sure will be in the game is the Hunchback.

wrong, the mediums that have been confirmed in the game are CDA-2A Cicada

CN9-A Centurion

CN9-D Centurion

HBK-4G Hunchback

HBK-4J Hunchback

HBK-4P Hunchback

HBK-4SP Hunchback

TBT-5N Trebuchet

[Soviet Alex]

@Luke Garrad: Firstly, watch the light, medium, heavy & assault breakdown videos in the media / videos section. Those give you a broad overview of each category. Start thinking about how you'd like to play.

Secondly, concerning the Founders' mechs. The Hunchback & Catapult are both very moddable chassis. The Cat's advantage is its jump jets, but it's heavier which may affect matchmaking down the line. Also, later in the game you'll see the advantage of levelling up multiple variants of the same chassis, & both the Hunchback and Catapult have a range of great variants that can be extensively modified.

Hope that helps.

[Jakob Knight]

Luke Garrad, on 23 July 2012 - 02:41 PM, said:

So I'm kinda new to mech warrior, played mw4 a while ago, got the hang of the basics and all. I'm also at a vet level so I got $40 of in game credit to spend on my mech and on a mech. So which do I pick. I'm a beginner and also I need to know what weapons I should put on this mech to give me a good chance out there. :3

I like to go long range but also would like a all around advantage.

I see you are an Veteran Founder, so you will not receive a Founder's mech at start. That means you will be selecting a mech from all those available and using your in-game c-bills to purchase it. I'm making this distinction as it seems some who have posted here seem to think you are asking about Founder's mech selection.

Here is a webpage I thought was rather helpful in understanding -some- of the mechs that will be in the game....

http://www.mwowiki.o...Confirmed_Mechs

Note that the data for the mechs seems mostly right, except that the Atlas is listed as having 13 heat sinks, but in reality has 20. Thus there may be other errors in data, but you'll get a general idea of the mechs and their capabilities here.

As to your stated preferences, you state you like Ranged with the ability to handle in-close as well. You have to understand that you can't have everything in a mech...If you want the ability to have good weapons at both range and close-in, you have to sacrifice armor and/or speed to get it. I would recommend the Dragon based on your statements, but you might also look at the Trebuchet. Both mechs are good all-arounders with excellent speed, though I would recommend the Dragon if you don't want to be doing fire-support missions...it has enough armor to take combat and enough ammo to stay in the fight for a bit. The only place the Dragon lags is in hitting power, though some variants correct this a bit.

And as for how much armor to put on a mech, that is very situational. A mech like the Dragon mounts a decent level of armor, but it is also built for speed. That means the weapons loadout is a bit lighter than other Heavy mechs. A mech intended for scouting might sacrifice much of that armor for speed, as the pilot doesn't intend to be in combat very much and needs the speed to keep from being caught. A mech that is intended to meet the enemy and stop them in their tracks, however, needs as much armor as it can get and the firepower to do the job, so they have to sacrifice speed and accept that it will take them longer to get places. In general, the Dragon is a good starting point to understand what would be considered 'average' armor for a combat unit intending to deal with whatever it might encounter.

Hope this helps as well.

Edited by Jakob Knight, 23 July 2012 - 03:36 PM.

[Shadowscythe]

I think I will post what I usually post when people start comparing mechs

If you take out info we have no idea about (other than actual videos in action), like specifics;
torso twist speed, (lighter torsos turn faster)
module slots,
accelerate/stopping speeds,
turning radius, and others...

Then you take out some of the personal preferences;
Appearence,
how big of a target your mech is (if that matters to you),
if you like normal humanoid legs or reverse joint (chicken legs),
mechs with hands (no use for hands right now that we know of) or weapon stumps (which can't aim off the to side as well in MWO, Dev said in a Q&A),
and some others


Pretty much comes down to Hardpoints, and Max speed-Max armor/tonnage for weapons sliding scale.

Which ALSO involves some personal preferences because some people don't like being slow, others don't like balistics and so on.
Some like a mech with jump jets (me), other people don't care about them.

• MAX SPEED--------------------------------------------------------------MAX ARMOR-tonnage for weapons
  
• <----------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
  
• Light___________medium______________heavy____________assault

A light can never carry the same amount of exact same armor type that a class heavier than it can

An assault will never get up to max speeds that a light can get up to or even a medium for that matter.

Other side of it is Even if you take your 35ton jenner down to the speed of an Atlas (3/5) you would have 23 tons of free space. and a max armor value of 119..the Atlas has 60 tons left and max armor value of 307.


The following numbers are ONLY internal structure and engine...They are also MAX speeds. not the speed they are going to go by default.... example...the default hunchback is 4/6....The below is also assuming that you can't buy partial engine upgrades, like changing from 31kph to 32KPH

BEFORE XL engines (skipping mech tonnages that aren't confirmed to be in game) And no ferro armor or endo structure

• Tonnage, name, MAX speed--tonnage to spare______stats after engine downgrade
  
• 
  
• 25ton Commando 11/17--1_____10/15--4
  
• 30ton Spider 10/15--2______9/14--6.5
  
• 35ton Raven, Jenner 9/14--3______8/12--9.5
  
• 40ton Cicada 8/12--6.5______7/11--14
  
• 50ton Hunchback, Centurion, Trebuchet 7/11--8.5______6/9--20
  
• 60ton Dragon 6/9--14_____5/8--29
  
• 65ton Catapult, Jagermech 6/9--5.5_____5/8--28
  
• 70ton Cataphract 5/8--26.5____4/6--41
  
• 80ton Awesome 5/8--12.5____4/6--42.5
  
• 85ton Stalker 4/6--42.5_____3/5--57.5
  
• 100ton Atlas 4/6--30.5_____3/5--60

(copied from my old post, might do the newer mech releases later)


Sorry if not all those number are exact. AND they could even be different since the devs might have tweaked some.
Those are BEFORE XL engine....all the speeds will be higher MAX with a XL engine

I decided to make an XL version of the Tonnage, Max speed--tonnage left over chart

• 
  
• Tonnage, name, MAX speed-tonnage to spare_______after engine downgrade
  
• 
  
• 25ton Commando 14/21--.5______13/20--3.5______12/18--7
  
• 30ton Spider 12/18--3.5______11/17--7.5
  
• 35ton Raven, Jenner 11/17--2.5______10/15--9.5
  
• 40ton Cicada 10/15--2.5______9/14--12.5______8/12--17.5
  
• 50ton Hunchback, Centurion, Trebuchet 8/12--11.5______7/11--23______6/9--29.5
  
• 60ton Dragon 6/9--30.5______5/8--38.5
  
• 65ton Catapult, Jagermech 6/9--28.5______5/8--39.5
  
• 70ton Cataphract 5/8--41______4/6--49
  
• 80ton Awesome 5/8--38.5______4/6--53.5
  
• 85ton Stalker 4/6--56______3/5--64
  
• 100ton Atlas 4/6--56.5_____3/5--74.5

(entered more speeds so the speed data overlapped a little bit)

This is before weapons and armor.

This is also before Endo steel and Ferro armor...but at this point most of the mech are actually limited by the 400 engine rating instead of tonnage

Anyway. hope this also gives people an idea of how fast some of the smaller mechs can get and how slow those assaults will always be


BUT at a point people will forgo personal preferance for "what definately works best"...So it will also be up to the devs to maintain a form of balance...
Obviously the only way to have "near perfect" balance (other than skill) is for there to be only 1 mech chassis, with 1 weapon in the entire game, on a flat lakebed, in a perfect circle, and I wouldn't play that game

BattleTech TableTop speed------KPH MAX

• 3/5------54
  
• 4/6------64.8
  
• 5/8------86.4
  
• 6/9 -----97.2
  
• 7/11 ---118.8
  
• 8/12----129.6
  
• 9/14----151.2

Yes I know, wall of text. but LOTS of info

Edited by Shadowscythe, 23 July 2012 - 04:28 PM.

[EmperorMyrf]

It seems you're desiring a very balanced mech. I feel that the Centurion's prime variant (CN9-A) would be a good "all rounder" for you.

Its default loadout includes the LRM-10, an AC/10, and 2 medium lasers. This would allow you to hit anything at any range, and get a good feel for each weapon type, as you'll have at least one of each in there. And as you get a feel for the game, you can make the adjustments you'd like and get more familiar with other weapons as well.

If it's available as a starter mech, it's certainly the one I'm going to pick, and for the same reasons (aside from founders, of course).

[trycksh0t]

Not knowing exactly which 10 chassis will be in at launch makes things difficult, but I agree with sentiments of choosing the Centurion CN9-A. It is a solid trooper 'Mech that can do a bit of everything. It isn't terribly fast, so no worries about killing yourself by running off a cliff, packs a solid punch able to cover a nice engagement range, and is armored enough to be fairly forgiving.

[BarHaid]

I'd recommend the Centurion also. If it's too slow for you, take the Dragon. Use your Veteran C-bills to upgrade the AC-5 to an Ultra AC-5, and you have the same overall damage output.

[kojdog]

trycksh0t, on 23 July 2012 - 04:16 PM, said:

Not knowing exactly which 10 chassis will be in at launch makes things difficult, but I agree with sentiments of choosing the Centurion CN9-A. It is a solid trooper 'Mech that can do a bit of everything. It isn't terribly fast, so no worries about killing yourself by running off a cliff, packs a solid punch able to cover a nice engagement range, and is armored enough to be fairly forgiving.

Agreed... with the lack of other info I think he just described a basic Centurion.

[Drake Brimstone]

You want a Madcat, just keep complaining till you get one, I'm sure it will work.

... Sorry, had to do it, and supprised nobody said it already. Actualy, I don't even want a Madcat LOL

[Skaptimus]

I don't know, despite the atlas being a power house, i prefer to have some movement too. the hunchback seems like a pretty good fit because it is well armored especially for a medium mech, and it has movement speed that might be slower in the medium department but compared to assault classes it would be able to run circles around 'em

as for a mech i want to see in the game, i would LOVE to have my nova cat back... That was my favorite mech in Mw4