9 replies to this topic

[Rosh87]

Hello forum friends !

I was just looking over the various Supernova mech variants (I already have a Broiler I got during one of the Hero sales, several months ago, as I do quite well with Clan UAC-20's, and am particularly deadly with the Double UAC-20 setup on my Hunchback. Seeing that Broiler had the same excellent Quirk / feature, only in Assault form - with more armor and ammo capacity, made me eager to pick it up, back then).

----

Anyways... I was glancing over the other Laser Boat variants, and observed something really weird, that made me do a double-take. Perhaps I am just blind to something really obvious, but I wanted to at least ask this of the community, to see...

What I noticed was that while both the Supernova-B and Supernova-C have 8-Energy Hardpoints...the "B" is gifted with +10 Structure bonuses to both Side Torsos and Legs, and the Central Torso... and both Arms get a +8 Armor bonus !

The C ? It gets NOTHING. No bonus quirks / enhancements of any kind, despite having (theoretically) a similar firepower potential to the B (both having 8 Energy slots).

=======

The ONLY thing I could think of (just as I was typing this up here), was that maybe the variation in Hardpoint Positions between the B and C was enough for PGI to give one several boosts in terms of Quirks, while the other got Zero ?

* specifically, the C has 4 Energy Hardpoints in the left and right torsos (2 each) - which allow for a close mounting just below the Cockpit Level. BUT...the B still has a CT mount that is only slightly below the "side torso" ones that the C has...and the B also has a unique Head Mount, that is actually higher up than any other possible mounting on either mech variant.

When you look at it in that sense, the C has "at best" 2 more 'slightly higher' Energy Hardpoints (or 3 if you are being really strict / technical). Is that enough to give it zero quirks, when the B gets those others ?

==================

Lastly - all that aside, which of the possible "laser boat" setups / variations is considered the most viable ? I've heard you can do a 6-ER Large Laser setup on several of them - but, again, is there one of them that stands out over the others, in such a role ? Thanks for any perspective you can provide. I always enjoy considering Mech Setups and such - with the veterans

[Horseman]

Consider ERPPC boating. You can only do one of them in a high mount on the B, but four on the C.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Hardpoints sometimes determine what quirks the mech gets but it is quite..... nevermind the word. I'm saying that 'cause there are mechs with a single energy hardpoint in the Head and have a energy quirk like Cooldown or Heat.

Anyway, for the ERLL setup, Clan mechs can't fire more than 2 LL at the same time unlike the IS mechs. So, you'll need 3 different weapon groups to fire in a staggered manner. The best ERLL mech is the Virago with 4 ERLL 'cause with the 8 omnipod bonus, you get ER laser range and heat reduction. The hardpoints are high enough and you can get away with alpha striking 4 ERLL and rack up 90% heat and hit targets beyond 1300m to land a killing blow while the optimal range reaches nearly 1000m with a large TC.

The Supernova has the tonnage but I found the Marauder IIC to be a very decent ERLL mech. Sure it doesn't have any quirks but it isn't wide and big from the front like the Supernova. 6 ERLL is very toasty even for LR poking and I was given a very nice STD engine build by Vxheous (sorry for butchering your name) for the Marauder IIC with 5 ERLL. It runs cool and is very good. I don't have the game on this system so I can't post that exact build but it is close to this MAD-IIC. I'm sure if he sees this, he'll fix it properly. You can switch to a bigger XL engine but with the STD, you can do zombie mech 'cause there are still 2 ERLL in the CT just under the cockpit.

You can still run the Supernova, don't get me wrong. The 6 ERLL can be done even on a Novacat. But I found the Supernova to be too bulky.

[justcallme A S H]

Simple reason. Energy hardpoint location.

C has excellent ones. The others do not.

[Dee Eight]

Hardpoint locations and numbers... the A gets no quirks because it has four missile hardpoints (a lot of clan mechs with a lot of missile hardpoints have minimal quirks to compensate for their having superior missile systems), the 1 and B both have 8 energy hardpoints but the 1 has them all in the arms has six in the arms, 1 head (which can only take a handful of laser models) and 1 in the CT that can take anything other than the heavy large laser. The 2 has 4 arm hardpoints, 2 CT and 1 head. Both the 2 and B lend themselves to zombie mech builds with standard engines. The C has four high torso energy hardpoints.

When the kodiaks first released, the 1 and 5 (which had 11 and 13 energy hardpoints respectively) got zero quirks while all the others picked up defensive structure quirks. None of them had weapon quirks of any kind (the supernova 1 has an ER laser duration quirk). They lost all their defensive quirks and agility in the great nerf herding of 2016 but recently the kodiak 4 got missile quirks (although it only has 2 missile hardpoints).

[Sjorpha]

4 very high Energy is enough for PPC boating, ERLL sniping or I suppose 4 LPLs. Because of this the C is the strongest energy variant even with 0 quirks.

[Dee Eight]

Sjorpha, on 15 October 2019 - 05:51 AM, said:

4 very high Energy is enough for PPC boating, ERLL sniping or I suppose 4 LPLs. Because of this the C is the strongest energy variant even with 0 quirks.

And the other four in the arms work well with pulse lasers to discourage lights at your feet.

[Rosh87]

FRAGTAST1C, on 15 October 2019 - 12:22 AM, said:

Hardpoints sometimes determine what quirks the mech gets but it is quite..... nevermind the word. I'm saying that 'cause there are mechs with a single energy hardpoint in the Head and have a energy quirk like Cooldown or Heat.

Anyway, for the ERLL setup, Clan mechs can't fire more than 2 LL at the same time unlike the IS mechs. So, you'll need 3 different weapon groups to fire in a staggered manner. The best ERLL mech is the Virago with 4 ERLL 'cause with the 8 omnipod bonus, you get ER laser range and heat reduction. The hardpoints are high enough and you can get away with alpha striking 4 ERLL and rack up 90% heat and hit targets beyond 1300m to land a killing blow while the optimal range reaches nearly 1000m with a large TC.

The Supernova has the tonnage but I found the Marauder IIC to be a very decent ERLL mech. Sure it doesn't have any quirks but it isn't wide and big from the front like the Supernova. 6 ERLL is very toasty even for LR poking and I was given a very nice STD engine build by Vxheous (sorry for butchering your name) for the Marauder IIC with 5 ERLL. It runs cool and is very good. I don't have the game on this system so I can't post that exact build but it is close to this MAD-IIC. I'm sure if he sees this, he'll fix it properly. You can switch to a bigger XL engine but with the STD, you can do zombie mech 'cause there are still 2 ERLL in the CT just under the cockpit.

You can still run the Supernova, don't get me wrong. The 6 ERLL can be done even on a Novacat. But I found the Supernova to be too bulky.

Excellent thoughts / feedback - from everyone ! thank you for this good perspective. I do own a Virago, but typically do the ECM + 2 HLL + Heavy Mediums (or ER-Mediums) combination. Never thought about doing Quad ER-Large Lasers...that sounds great for pin-point fire (in rare instances) - but your staggered idea seems great too. I'll give it a run in my next battles. Currently I've been on a mild Streak Boat jam, after never using them before (I got a Mad-Dog Revenant from the Loyalty bonus / gift, or during the Hero sale - I forget which, and have found it's quite well known for SRM-Bomber / Streak Boat / or even LRM duty - though I dislike LURMS and waited till I hit Tier-1 to even run them for the first time, and even then - I've used them in maybe 20 battles... they just seem very low damage for me, at the end of the battles, compared to what I can do with MRM's, SRM-Bomber setups, or even Clan ATM's on mechs like Huntsman or Night Gyr).

------

I'll probably pick up the Laser Boat Supernova the next time they go on sale though, and give some of the configurations you've all mentioned here, a go with that chassis ! (Sounds like the C- is the winner, even with the 'non quirk' status)

Edited by Rosh87, 16 October 2019 - 09:12 PM.

[FRAGTAST1C]

Rosh87, on 16 October 2019 - 09:04 PM, said:

Never thought about doing Quad ER-Large Lasers...that sounds great for pin-point fire (in rare instances) - but your staggered idea seems great too.

I use Scroll UP and Down mouse function to cycle through the weapon groups. For e.g., if I'm on weapon group 1 and I scroll down, I can cycle sideways through weapon group 2, 3, etc., I have set X as the Chainfire toggle button. The way I've setup my Marauder IIC with 5 ERLL is LMB to fire 2 ERLL in the LT, RMB to fire 2 ERLL in the CT and 1 in the RT, one of the side mouse buttons to fire ONLY the RT ERLL. I can cycle through the weapon groups to set chainfire ON/OFF without needing more trigger buttons on the mouse. So, I can fire the LT ERLLs and take the ghost heat by firing all 3 ERLL with RMB when in a pinch and then toggle ON chainfire on RMB to chainfire the 3 ERLL (2 from CT and 1 from RT).

I do that for my SRM bombers as well.

[Groutknoll]

stock snv b vs snv c load out snv c wins
https://www.4eye-lab...59e7510f8f77772

change loadouts with smurfy, load mech(s), play with variables, rerun simulation many times ... may be better fun than QP matches