I appreciate the various replies
for the several people that have recommended I join the free TS channel - I already have - check out the #13 post and you'll see
So, my current impressions as of today
Not much has changed, obviously, in the 12 or so hours since my last post - but I did forget to mention that I bought my first cataphract...and I haven't covered the mech design process that I've experienced, so here it is
#1 - so, a few days ago, actually, I decided, after having figured out the basics of gameplay, to start working with mech design. This is one of my favorite features of every mechwarrior game - custom building mechs to match my own playstyle, custom building mechs to fill particular specialized roles in combat, be it recon/scout, heavy assault, mobile hit-and-fade assault, long-range artillery (which I almost never build myself as I hate LRM's, but I recognize the importance of filling that role in a multi-role lance)
the current interface is NOT very accommodating to mech design. What I mean by that is, while all the tools are there, there isn't really decent room for experimentation - loadout is separate from upgrades, which means I *have* to commit to the cost/space requirements of endo steel or double heatsinks before I can go back and experiment with different loadouts.
Also, changes HAVE to be locked in, and items in most cases have to be purchased before you can experiment with placement, weight, etc - and you can't purchase items for a chassis if they would bring that chassis overweight, even if you just want to have them in an "inventory" of some kind so that you can pull them later.
(it's possible that you *can*, but the menu implies that items can't be purchased at all if the current chassis is filled up weight-wise, and I haven't tried to press the issue)
for those that are about to mention
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/ , this has indeed become an important resource to designing my mechs without the hassle of spending money I can barely afford to test out possible loadout changes.
Anyway, for my first mech, I bought a jenner - It's a design I'm LONG familiar with, I've always kinda liked it, and there was a 6-energy weapon mount version which really speaks to my personal preferences (I prefer direct fire weapons, especially the ammo-less ones)
Just about everyone I've met since then has told me that I bought just about the worst possible mech I could buy. No one really likes the Jenner, and although I can perform passably well in it, it appears that the chassis itself is so depressingly outclassed by other current light-mechs, that I couldn't have picked a worse first mech to experiment with - still, Bruce (Jenner, get it?
) isn't all that bad with 6 med las, jj's and dbl heatsinks, although I can't really KILL anything well with it, I can still put out respectable damage for an inferior mech design.
But, once I burned cash for my Jenner, it turned out, the money stopped rolling in. That Cadet bonus is really handy early on, but the expense of buying mechs AND then tricking them out with more current gear, it turns out that Cadet bonus is really basically good for any ONE mech. After that, the grind begins.
So, on the advice of some friends, I built a second account, pushed some games with some friends on the TS speaker, and bought myself a Hunchback 4-sp. It's really quite nice - but again, I went with a heavy laser loadout (and a pair of streak 2's, which I'll probably roll back to srm 6's soon when I get back to it) - without a doubt, it performed better, and, quite frankly, better than I would have expected. And again, I could pretty much buy and trick out that ONE mech, and then had to start the mission-by-mission grind.
Now, after 6 or 7 days of playing MWO, I'm beginning to feel, that my long-beloved lasers are...not performing the way I would like them to. I'm used to the heat issues, so that part doesn't suprise or bother me much, but the damage is just NOT sufficiently reliable. Other people are doing far better damage with far more direct weaponry, and I'm starting to lose a little faith in my otherwise beloved lasers.
So, I did some looking around, theorizing that I might have better output if I could get some larger damage, direct-fire weapons - larger AC's, ppc's, gauss - but, I'm short on funds (already bought that jenner on one account, the Hunch on the other) - so, I search around, and find the Cataphract 1-x. It's got an ac10, 4 med lasers (hello my beloved lasers) and a ppc (awww...my childhood friend
)
it's slow, it's chunky, it's not much beloved by the community, but it's not all that ragingly maligned either (at least, not that I've read, but I coulda missed it) So I huffed and I puffed, and last night, picked up my stock cataphract 1-x.
And that's the real issue here - the combat performance of any chassis here varies wildly. Depends heavily on upgrades like dble heatsinks, the few extra tons from Endo-steel structures (not so much the FF armor which noone seems to like), the XL engines if you're feeling risky, the ultra ac's and the ER's and the Pulses...
With money as limited as it is, which in and of itself wouldn't necessarily be bad, it's really frustratingly difficult to really experiment with multiple mech chassis. I get 4 trial mechs, which isn't bad, but isn't great, as it doesn't allow one to customize to one's personal playstyle - you can more or less count on one mech of your choice with the cadet bonus and a little elbow grease, and after that, the grindy-mcgrindalot begins.
I wouldn't mind so much, but one VERY IMPORTANT FEATURE of Mechwarrior in general, is mech design - I really feel it's a key element of the game, and of the world, that sets it apart from other sci-fi war-worlds or mech-blasters, and the current iteration of the menu and of the gameplay progress makes it very hard to experiment with builds, and loadouts.
For one thing, I think it would be nice if the resale value of mechs was much higher - This way, you'd have one slowly growing pool of c-bills that you could exchange for one mech, and then for another - this way I could build my jenner, find out it doesn't work so well (at least with the current game mechanics), trade it in for *mostly* value, push a few more missions, buy myself a different light mech with little loss in cash, and try out a different loadout. May turn out I'd go back to my jenner after finding out that I preferred that playstyle, again with only a *little* loss in cash - this way I could afford to experiment - as it is, I'm currently pretty much stuck with this jenner, Cataphract, and Hunchy - and will be for quite awhile, unless c-bill rewards change, as I'm going to spend a considerable amount of time playing just to trick them out with different gear and internals, to say nothing of buying a catapult or atlas and seeing what life is like in one of those.
anyway, just an observation on mech design, some of it's current limitations, and why it's important not to have quite so many limitations on such a vital and integral part of the game design and flavor.
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Tex1013, on 22 January 2013 - 12:59 AM, said:
