16 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

Sat. May 12, 3049: Considered by many to be one of the finest assault ’Mechs ever built, TM & IBU unveiled the upgraded AWS-9M Awesome.

[CoffiNail]

This Inner Sphere News is full of Awesome

[Suskis]

I would hardly consider it an upgrade, range aside. It sports a lot of unneeded stuff, produces a lot more heat and the XL engine makes it much more fragile.

[Felicitatem Parco]

The real "upgrade" comes from the fact that it now has double heatsinks and some short-range weapons that are more heat-efficient than PPCs, so it can defend itself at point-blanke without cooking the pilot. I do lament the eXtra gLass engine, though.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 12 May 2012 - 08:14 AM.

[Adridos]

As far as I know, the Battlemaster is considered the best assault in that era.

[Soran Pryde]

To me the true upgrade to the Awesome is the AWS-9Q.

Double HS + 4 PPC + ECM to screw up all that funky Artemis IV/NARC/C3 = FULL OF WIN

the 9M is a joke on the sheer virtue of that XL engine. Takes away the zombie-ness the 8Q was well-known for, even for an assault mech

[Haakon Valravn]

It seems strange to me that the easiest weight-saving upgrade, mounting FF armor, is one of the less commonly done. Instead, they go and extensively reengineer the whole thing to use a bulkier engine or endo-skeleton or both.

[Fresh Meat]

But does it still have a pooper scooper arm? That's what makes it so Awesome.

Edited by Fresh_Meat, 12 May 2012 - 09:03 AM.

[Jaime Wolfe]

I am Commander Wolfe, and this is my favorite post on this forum.

[Ramien]

Haakon Valravn, on 12 May 2012 - 08:49 AM, said:

It seems strange to me that the easiest weight-saving upgrade, mounting FF armor, is one of the less commonly done. Instead, they go and extensively reengineer the whole thing to use a bulkier engine or endo-skeleton or both.

FF armor is actually the least useful of the upgrades in the IS. It eats up 14 critical slots, much more than the XL engine and equal to endo steel, in exchange for getting 2 extra armor points per ton. That means for every 4.5 tons you replace, you save half a ton. An Atlas has 19 tons of standard armor. Replace it with FF and you would be spending between 17 and 17.5 tons, depending of if you wanted to go a little over or a little under, and that's if you could find the critical slots for it.

For comparison, an Endo Steel replacement would use the same number of critical slots but free up 5 tons of weight. An XL engine would free up 9 tons for six slots (and some added vulnerability, so put some of that freed up weight into boosting side torso armor!)

They're the easiest to perform after market in TT perhaps, but that's about its only virtue.

[Kenyon Burguess]

add all the numbers and letters u want. its still 20 tons short of being a great mech.

[Belial]

Geist Null, on 12 May 2012 - 06:57 PM, said:

add all the numbers and letters u want. its still 20 tons short of being a great mech.

Your flag shows Marik, yet you speak like a Steiner.

[Soran Pryde]

Nah he's just being a typical disloyal Marik.....

If this was made in the DCMS, they will fill it with those infamous Lord's Light 2 ER PPC that Panther pilots were throwing away in droves.....

[Youngblood]

It's surprising how well this variant does in practice, compared to what duelists and Standard Engine Cultists believe.

The ERPPCs have the longest reach in the game for the Inner Sphere for this era. They lack a minimum range, so they have no problems hole-punching even when getting rushed into a brawl. The increased speed over the old -8Q allows it to back more easily away from advancing battle lines (in TT this is huge because it can still acquire a Movement Modifier after turning once), and the Medium Pulse Laser + Streak SRM-2 combo is decent at slowing down support vehicles that attempt to rush in to harry the 'Mech.

It's a great support 'Mech, it just needs a lot more room to maneuver (TT players read: more mapsheets) to get the most out of its loadout. A fire-sink it is not, however (why would you want to get hit, especially if you can hit them where they can't reach you?), so please do not try to judge it along the same lines that faux-bunker Standard Fusion 'Mechs are judged by.

[Name140704]

The mother of Awesome progressions is revealed on Mother's Day. She's a classy new gal, and you'll need to treat her right. What would 80's/90's legend Mr.T have to say?

[Haakon Valravn]

Ramien, on 12 May 2012 - 10:42 AM, said:

FF armor is actually the least useful of the upgrades in the IS. It eats up 14 critical slots, much more than the XL engine and equal to endo steel, in exchange for getting 2 extra armor points per ton. That means for every 4.5 tons you replace, you save half a ton. An Atlas has 19 tons of standard armor. Replace it with FF and you would be spending between 17 and 17.5 tons, depending of if you wanted to go a little over or a little under, and that's if you could find the critical slots for it.

For comparison, an Endo Steel replacement would use the same number of critical slots but free up 5 tons of weight. An XL engine would free up 9 tons for six slots (and some added vulnerability, so put some of that freed up weight into boosting side torso armor!)

They're the easiest to perform after market in TT perhaps, but that's about its only virtue.

I appreciate that you can see larger gains with ES and XL bits. I'm just saying, in universe it would be a lot easier and cheaper to rip off the old armor and strap on some new armor. The only instance, in universe, that I am aware of, though, are the Royal versions of the Marauder (MAD-1R and -2R, the latter also uses DHS and ER PPCs, IIRC).

Edit: I suppose, although FF does need to be manufactured in zero-G conditions, if memory serves, that swapping for FF might be easy enough to do in a standard MechBay, since it is just swapping armor for armor. You'd just have to order it to fit and then wait for it to show up. And therefore, the reason why so many factory variants go for the extensive re-engineering, is simply because of how much more difficult (and much, much more expensive) it would be to do after the 'Mech is built. A bit like buying a 2005 V8 Mustang and trying to make it into a 2013 Shelby Mustang. It would be easier to just buy the new Shelby, but you wouldn't have an especially difficult time putting the bits on to make the old one look more like the new one.

Edited by Haakon Valravn, 13 May 2012 - 08:34 AM.

[Chuckie]

We wants it ! We NEEDS it ! Must have the Precious