51 replies to this topic

[Vechs]

" You guys go on ahead... I'll be back here... with LRMs... and also snacks "

Hi guys, Vechs here! If you enjoy this guide, please leave me a "Like" in the bottom right of this post.

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Oh man. First we have delicious Zombie Wang, and now a Fatlas? He's so fat! He waddles around and just burps up LRMs on everything. Don't worry though, he'll make you tons of money.

... and the LRMs are free.

Yes, I'm totally serious.

Fatlas is short for Founder's Atlas. But here's the thing-- this guide works for any Atlas. Your lasers might be in different spots, but who cares, that's not what this guide is about.

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Alright, now let's get down to the real business -- maximizing the C-Bill income of your Fatlas.

Mechwarrior Online allows you to choose not to repair and reload your mech. If you do this, you'll get free rudimentary repairs, and 75% of your max ammo loaded for free. This is pretty awesome, and allows certain builds to get by and be totally combat effective with cheap repairs.

Yes, that's right, if you choose to never pay for ammo again, you'll always have 75% of your max ammo. Not bad? Personally, I'll fully repair and reload for faction battles, but for random matches, I'm thinking I kinda like free ammo.

So for the Fatlas, your valuable asset is your LRM rack. Sure, your Center Torso is important, but that gets expensive to repair. Here's the deal: As an LRM boat, if enemies have killed your front line, and are in your face, most times you've lost already. A bit more health on your CT is very rarely going to make a difference.

So, just repair your Left Torso (or wherever your LRMs are). This is very, very cheap, and because your LRMs are the only reason you're on the field, it works pretty well. You're not a brawling build in the first place, and if your team has died, even a full-strength LRM boat is not really going to be able to hold out without teammates.

If your mech just happens to have the LRMs in the center torso (Jenner, Dragon, etc.) then congratulations, you can be a Zombie LRM Boat. (In this case, store the ammo in your legs and head. If either of those locations die, you're screwed anyway.)

The Build:

Fatlas (Similar builds work for any Atlas, and even other LRM-capable mechs)

2 Medium Lasers - Center Torso
2 Heat Sinks - Engine Slots

1 Medium Laser - Left Arm
1 AMS - Left Arm
5 LRM Ammo - Left Arm
1 AMS Ammo - Left Arm

1 Medium Laser - Right Arm
5 LRM Ammo - Right Arm

2 LRM20 - Left Torso
2 Heat Sinks - Left Torso

3 Heat Sinks - Right Torso

1 Heat Sink - Head
4 Heat Sinks - Left and Right Legs

Engine - 300 Standard

560 Points of Armor (Strip from legs)

Standard Everything - No fancy equipment. (DHS, FF, Endo, XL Engine, etc.)

Battle Performance:

Unlike the Zombie Wang, the Fatlas can totally carry your team. Twin LRM20 launchers means an 80 damage alpha every few seconds. This will shred enemy mechs. As an LRM boat, all you have to do is stay towards the back of your group (You are in a group, right?) and shoot.

Even if your team derps off and you don't have cover, you still ought to be able to dish out a lot more damage than other mech builds.









The Fatlas and your Bank Account:

Fully repairing and Atlas is expensive. It makes no sense to attempt to use an Atlas to make money if you're actually going to repair the thing. Just use some duct tape and welfare ammunition -- an LRM boat doesn't really need more than that to do its job. I believe this is the only way a Founders Atlas can actually make use of the cash income bonus it has. Because repairing it cripples your income.

You can have the kinds of income above while having this for your repair bill:




Or, you could be hilariously inefficient at making money and have this for your repair bill, and live maybe 3 seconds longer when your team dies and you get focused on:



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Okay Vechs, you've convinced me to be a waddling, cute, little Fatlas... now what?

To help out your team, try doing any of the following:

• Stay behind your teammates. This is LRM Boating 101. You are support. You're not Rambo, you're not a hero, you're just a walking waddling artillery turret. Your only purpose in life is to vomit LRMs en-masse onto the enemy mechs.

• Protect your Left Torso (Or other LRM location). The only reason you exist is to carry your LRM racks and LRM ammo onto the battlefield. WIthout them, you're useless. You're a big, useless fatty. That's what you are. If a scout gets to you, twist your torso to let him munch on your arms first. Get your team to help get rid of them. Even with reduced armor, you're still fairly tanky.

• Having the LRM ammo in your arms eliminates the need for CASE. If you lose one arm, oh well, you still have more ammo in the other. If you've lost both arms, the fight should have gone on long enough for you to use up most of your LRMs and cause your fair share of damage. Good job, you can die now.

• If you use up all your LRM ammo (Good job, by the way.) Then waddle out to the front lines and put your modest armor to use. Four medium lasers and reasonable heat sinks mean you can blast out 20 points of damage with good frequency. Especially if it's late in the match and the enemies are injured.

Okay, that's it for now. This is my second mech guide, so feedback is welcome! I hope it helps you, and if so, remember that little "Like" button in the bottom right.

Edited by Vechs, 01 November 2012 - 02:45 AM.

[Squarefox]

Do I understand right, that you don't repair the atlas and only get the 75% for free?

Edit: Ok, I see... Only left torso.

Edited by Squarefox, 01 November 2012 - 03:22 AM.

[Wildstorm]

Great advice!

I've also had success with a sniper build. The main armament is 2 AC-5, 2 ER Large Lasers, and a massive number of heat sinks. Add Med Pulse if you have room.

You do need line of sight to the target but chain firing the ACs doesn't draw much attention. Keep the lasers burning and duck whenever you can. This build avoids some of the more expensive ammo out there and can make money even in a loss and fully repaired.

Just keep in mind that you are not a brawler and need to stay at range against hard targets. Trade armor for heat sinks and keep those weapons going!

[Dragonsbane87]

Thanks for this build, I'm really enjoying all the extra cbills I'm pulling in. The cool part is I don't feel useless at close range with the med lasers.

[Volturnus]

These are some nice guides, Vechs, and the nice thing about this one is that you don't need to spend MC - neato.

[Denin]

Maybe its just me, but 7 free tons of ammo because you have 10 slotted tons in the mech seems a little cheesy. But still a nice guide on how to work the system.

[SquareSphere]

lol this is great, hopefully the devs don't change the "welfare repairs" in the next patch.

[Vechs]

SquareSphere, on 01 November 2012 - 12:19 PM, said:

lol this is great, hopefully the devs don't change the "welfare repairs" in the next patch.

The old beta forums are gone, but I believe the devs actually suggested that people launch without repairing everything if they're trying to make some extra money. Sorry that I can't verify that by finding the quote.

I think it was something like a thread where a guy was complaining about repair bills, and then someone from PGI staff mentioned something like "You could always launch without repair everything..."

So my impression is that this is intended within the gameplay.

... and I actually kind of enjoy it. It's become a meta-game to me, of sorts, just how cheap I can run a mech and still contribute.

Both this build and the Zombie Wang build are combat effective, and are certainly not a detriment to your team. So if we can save some money while still contributing, I say more power to us!

Edit: And this is why this specific build is about LRMs. This is how a Fatlas can be a cheapskate and still be useful. And that's a big distinction between someone who doesn't repair at all with a "normal" build and just runs into the fight as normal. Those guys are the ones who are being cheesy. The only reason I made these guides, is because these builds are useful in combat. One thing I'll never do is tell players to launch a standard build without repairing -- then you really are just leeching.

Edited by Vechs, 01 November 2012 - 12:33 PM.

[Kmieciu]

I think you might as well spend that 1500 on repairing the structure. Real men tank internals :-)

[GL Chozo4]

Quote

Yes, that's right, if you choose to never pay for ammo again, you'll always have 75% of your max ammo. Not bad?

Sounds more like a bug to me honestly or they haven't unlocked the full repair amounts for ammo yet for the sake of trialing the numbers (to make sure things working as intended). I wouldn't count too long on this lasting really.

[Tarrok]

Just wanted to chime in here regarding the Fatlas now that I've started playing again.

At first I thought this was a useless build, since I've often rushed LRM boats in my faster mechs, but having tried it to raise money for an XL engine I have to change my mind. Vechs is absolutely right about it being a powerhouse. In this case I'm using a Founder's Atlas so I'm 'only' sporting 2x LRM 20, but the amount of damage you can do is pretty crazy.

Find a spot, keep shooting until all 10 tons of ammo are gone. You can melt just about any mech. In my case, I was pugging with this particular build and it works as well as can be expected. Premades will wipe the floor with you, but that shouldn't come as a surprise.

So the point is that for straight up C-Bill farming, this is a great way to do it. I can't play this particular build very long since it does get repetitive, but it's efficient.
My best effort:

[Sergeant Rockso]

DOH! And me just having upgraded to Dbl Heat Sinks...

Be sure and name your Fatlas "Daddy Warbucks."

Brother, can you spare a dime?

[Neuromancerx]

Good stuff.

This works very well, and makes me not give a rat's buttocks if I get cleaned out by a pre-made. At the end of the day I'll still make more C-bills per match. I'm sure they'll have to nerf it at some point, because if everyone did it 24/7 the game would be awful, but I'll run it while I can.

[Vechs]

Neuromancerx, on 02 November 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

Good stuff.

This works very well, and makes me not give a rat's buttocks if I get cleaned out by a pre-made. At the end of the day I'll still make more C-bills per match. I'm sure they'll have to nerf it at some point, because if everyone did it 24/7 the game would be awful, but I'll run it while I can.

Here's the thing -- they obviously want repairs in the game for some reason. My theory is some kind of Faction VS Faction meta-game where you have a campaign of multiple matches, with a set amount of C-Bills to spend, so managing costs is just as much a part of the game as piloting is. (That sounds really fun, btw, PGI if you're reading this, I would love a persistent campaign like that. The group leaders on each side would assign money out to their group, and you'd actually have to pay attention to how much combat effectiveness you're getting out of your equipment and mechs per C-Bill spent. Maybe you can unveil this kind of mode at the same time you put the Urbanmech in the game... >.>)

Otherwise... why bother with repair bills?

Why not just always have full armor and ammo, and then reduce the money gained per round to match whatever their target player income is? That would be a lot simpler, and let PGI have total control over how fast players unlock things.

It would also save the server a small amount of CPU time, and also data storage on the repair status of every single mech for every single player in the game.

[dtgamemaster]

Nice guide Vechs.

Surprised no one has mentioned that 10 tons of ammo might be insufficient.

(10x180x0.75) / 40 = 33.75 shots in total, assuming 75% reload and 2 LRM20s Dual Firing.

Suggestion:

1) Take out 2 Heatsinks and put it into Ammo. It will make a difference in those tight/crucial battles you will encounter from time to time. This will be at the expense of lowering the DPS of your 4 medium lasers.

2) Swap one or 2 launchers for LRM-15s..tonnage savings can go into more ammo or more heatsinks. Another nice tradeoff.

Edited by dtgamemaster, 02 November 2012 - 06:34 PM.

[Vechs]

dtgamemaster, on 02 November 2012 - 06:30 PM, said:

Nice guide Vechs.

Surprised no one has mentioned that 10 tons of ammo might be insufficient.

(10x180x0.75) / 40 = 33.75 shots in total, assuming 75% reload and 2 LRM20s Dual Firing.

Suggestion:

1) Take out 2 Heatsinks and put it into Ammo. It will make a difference in those tight/crucial battles you will encounter from time to time. This will be at the expense of lowering the DPS of your 4 medium lasers.

2) Swap one or 2 launchers for LRM-15s..tonnage savings can go into more ammo or more heatsinks. Another nice tradeoff.

My recent personal build maxes the engine and drops the Medium Lasers. Don't need as many heatsinks, so I go faster and have more ammo. I find it works a bit better, but I'm unsure about recommending only using LRM20s to people, because it's helpless up close.

[CrescentCrux]

Amusingly I've made a style of fatlas just like this, but a few minor differences.

I use two LRM 15s, a Gauss Rifle, and four Medium Lasers. Max armor, 4 tons of Gauss, 6 tons of LRM, 17 heat sinks, I am using Endo Steel Frame as it lets me hold the extra few. I've been playing with around 900-1200 damage even, and I've rarely gone under 95% health in a Good team. Using the Gauss to fire beyond range of the LRMs, Missiles to soften at long and medium, and the lasers and Gauss up close I'll get a ton of Assists, parts destroyed and Every now and then I'll head shot a mech and total it without wrecking anything else.

Now When I do get blown up, or wrecked I do have a hefty pay cut, but I still find I make more money then I need to repair and rearm. I had a match I lost, yet still ended up with my team as the top EXP and money because we assisted and minimized damage done using selected shots, I lost from a core out as the last mech on my team standing and I had done over 1000 damage that game.

[Vechs]

CrescentCrux, on 03 November 2012 - 12:27 AM, said:

Amusingly I've made a style of fatlas just like this, but a few minor differences.

I use two LRM 15s, a Gauss Rifle, and four Medium Lasers. Max armor, 4 tons of Gauss, 6 tons of LRM, 17 heat sinks, I am using Endo Steel Frame as it lets me hold the extra few. I've been playing with around 900-1200 damage even, and I've rarely gone under 95% health in a Good team. Using the Gauss to fire beyond range of the LRMs, Missiles to soften at long and medium, and the lasers and Gauss up close I'll get a ton of Assists, parts destroyed and Every now and then I'll head shot a mech and total it without wrecking anything else.

Now When I do get blown up, or wrecked I do have a hefty pay cut, but I still find I make more money then I need to repair and rearm. I had a match I lost, yet still ended up with my team as the top EXP and money because we assisted and minimized damage done using selected shots, I lost from a core out as the last mech on my team standing and I had done over 1000 damage that game.

Ummmm.... the main point of this is to do 1000 damage a game and have 0 repair bills, even if you die.

[Deiphobus]

No my atlas is purely for brawling no LRMs needed

[odd bird]

I ran a similar build for a few hours now... it makes credits like crazy and dominates some matches totally. And it's actually a lot of fun to play. Thank you, Vechs!