Mechwarrior Online (MWO) Free to Play "done right"

[Acert93]

I know the Flamers heat up opposing mechs, not sure of the other weapons. And I thought I remembered past MW games where getting hit frequently and damaged caused heat problems.

BTW here are the rules on heat. Took me a while to get right:


1. Heat Dissipation

a. Standard Heatsink (SHS):

i. All SHS dissipate 0.1 points heat per second.

b. Double Heatsink (DHS):

i. Engine DHS dissipate 0.2 points heat per second. The extra HS slots offerred in larger engines are counted as chassis heatsinks, NOT engine heatsinks.

ii. Non-engine (chassis) DHS dissipate 0.14 points heat per second.

c. These rules do not include various Mech and Pilot Tree efficencies.


2. Heat Capacity.

a. Each mech has 30 capacity.

b. Every mech must deploy with 10 Heatsinks (min. 40 capacity with SHS). This can be a combination of engine and chassis heatsinks.

c. Every SHS add 1.0 capacity.

d. Every engine-DHS adds 2.0 capacity. e.g. An engine with 6 engine heatsinks, with DHS enabled, will add 12.0 capacity. An engine with 10 heatsinks, with DHS enabled, will add 20.0 capacity.

e. Every chassis-DHS adds 1.4 capacity. The extra heatsink slots provided with larger engines are counted as chassis heat sinks. e.g. An engine with 6 engine heatsinks, with DHS enabled, will add 12.0 capacity (6 DHS x 2.0). Adding the 4 additional DHS to reach the 10 required to deploy adds 5.6 capacity (1.4 x 4 DHS). This mech has a capacity of 47.6 heat (30.0 base + 12.0 for 6 engine DHS + 5.6 for 4 chassis DHS).

f. These rules do not include various Mech and Pilot Tree efficiency.


EDIT: The next time I take my BlackJack out I am going to try Medium Pulse Lasers. 4 Pulse do basically the same heat and damage as 5 MLas but weigh 3 more tons. So why go with them when you can add in 3 MLas? Basically due to heat capacity, 6 MLas is pushing it and 8 will alpha out fast. So while the MPulse have less range and lower Alpha they also have a much smaller fire time (.65 seconds) meaning more focused fire. 5.56 HPS 3.34 dissipation for 4 MPulse (28 sec to overheat). whereas 8xMLas is 8 hps and 3.06 dissipation (12s to overheat). 6xMLas is 20 sec (6 hps). It may not work out. The 8MLas rig where you fire 6 regularly and 2 when heat is tight--and only 8 when needing a knock out alpha--is a nice Medium Mech. But I am wondering with more fire time and more concentrated fire, but lower alpha, may be a better trade. We will see!

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Wait, being in water doesn't increase the effectiveness of any submerged heatsinks as they did in past games? Or is there just no water on MWO maps?

Regards,
SB

 

[Acert93]

Gauss+2x ER PPC yum Or Quad AC/2. I like my JM6-DD 2 x Gauss but I am trying out the 2x ER PPC but my I really am covetting is the 2xGauss 2x PPC Cataphrak. I am just a billion Cbills short

 

[Acert93]

Wait, being in water doesn't increase the effectiveness of any submerged heatsinks as they did in past games? Or is there just no water on MWO maps?

Regards,
SB

The environment does impact your heat. I am not sure if having HS in your legs while walking through water dissipated faster; walking in lava does raise your temp though. Good question!

 

[NRP]

Up until recently, my favorite ride was a Gauss+2 PPC Dragon Slayer (hero Victor). But since they increased the PPC's base heat, it's not what it used to be.

I haven't been playing as much lately. 12v12 isn't as fun as I thought it would be.

 

[Acert93]

NRP: The truth is I started to play so you quit

That said I agree about the PPCs--a lot of heat. I rolled back to 2x Gauss and I am rolling today

The thing with 12v12 is I think you really need to play with other people or pick a strategy that does NOT put you at the tip of the "spear". And I have ONLY been playing Conquest to avoid LRM.

Nrp, if you want, I will start leaving Steam on if you want to play together. I am finally good enough that on days like today I am averaging 500+ dmg and getting 1-4 kills a game. I still have clunker games but overall I feel like I know what I am doing.

Steam: acert93

I believe Steam has voice chat now?

 

[Acert93]

If someone gets a chance I would love to roll in a 2 or 3 man squad with 2xGauss rigs (Jagers or Cataphracts). I have some great rounds today, even a 6 kill 9 assist 826 dmg round. Even just having someone in voice to com about positions and pesky lights would be nice. I tried rolling with an ECM Spider but without a teammate the TAG isn't worth it.

Anyways, the biggest problem I am having with my Jager rig is 40% of the time I run out of ammo.

 

[NRP]

I've got a dual Gauss Jag, but I think my favorite ballistic mechs are:

Ilya Muromets with 3 UAC/5s + 2 MLs (8T ammo because my aim is crap)
Yen Low Wang with an AC/20 + 2 MLs (107 kph!!)
Jag DD with 2 AC/20s (but I don't play this much)

You're right about not being the tip of the spear. There are now 4 more enemies to focus fire on you if you get out of position. I like charging though. It's really fun when 2-3 teammates follow. No one usually does though.

 

[Acert93]

Jag DD with 2 AC/20s (but I don't play this much)

With the 24 pt (!) heat penalty for Alpha there is a big penalty there.

That said could you imagine TWO guys doing wingman in AC/20 Jags? We should try that sometime! Imagine the River or Snow map haha

Better yet would be an entire LANCE of 2xAC/20 boats. #1 is you could flank in Conquest, cap a flag, do a visual on the skirmish line, and then ala Gladiator rush the flank with focus fire. Pubs would get crushed as 4x focus fire from these Jags would just be crazy. In 4 seconds of focus fire that would be 320 damage -- crazy! Or if that is a little two brash maybe have one or two Gauss giving cover, e.g. 2 Jag-20s and 2 Jag-Gauss, Jag-20s rush the flank while the Jag-Gauss give cover support and move in. It would be hilarious if the Jag-20s just ran though focus fired but never turned--just burned through the flank. If the opponents turned to follow the Gauss would get free shots to the back. If they fell back they would be pelted away.

Why are we not all grouping up to do this stuff? Heck, I wouldn't mind being a Spider TAGging for some Stalker or Cat missile boats :smile:

 

[NRP]

An AC/20 doesn't lie.

 

[orangpelupa]

I want to play mwo again but I have burned my money to light with dual ppc and xl engine :/

Almost never got kills but got 5-6 assist most of the time. I just keep sniping lol.

 

[Acert93]

How many Cbills do you have?

What mechs do you own? Engines?

 

[Acert93]

Some engine data. I posted this on Ars.

I have been plotting out future engine purchases and here is a summary of what I am seeing thus far on engine limits--although I have not taken into consideration weight. Certain sizes -- 235, 255, [strike]295[/strike], 300, 360 -- seem to be sweet spots in terms of performance class and number of mechs supporting. e.g.[strike] While the 300 and 315 are faster than a 295 the supports more mechs. So if money was tight and you wanted an XL engine in the 280-330 range the 295 would be the best bet to fit the most mechs. If you don't want an engine that big for Medium or Light models then the 300 or 315 may be a better choice.[/strike] Anyways, the XL engines are very expensive so I filtered the engine sizes to avoid costly spending errors. The cliff notes (and sure to need corrections):

170 fits every mech except 2
180 fits every mech except 2
210 fits every mech except 1
235 fits every mech except 2
255 fits every Heavy & Assault, Most Medium, Some Light
295 fits every Assault, every Heavy except 1, half of Medium, a couple Light
300 fits all Assault, every Heavy except 1
315 fits all Heavy except 1
360 fits Assault Atlas, Victor, Battlemaster; some Awesome; fits all Medium Quickdraw, Shadowhawk, Dragon; most Kintaro; select Trebuchet, Centurion


Details...

170
Every Mech
Exception: Highlander (min. 180), Atlas (min. 200)

180
Every Mech
Exception: Locust (max. 170), Atlass (min. 200)

210
Every Mech except Locust

235
Every Mech
Exception: Locust, Commando (max. 210)

255
Every Heavy, Assault; Most Medium; Some Light
Exception: Locust (max. 170), Commando (max. 210), 2 models of Ravens (RVN-2x/4x max. 245; 3L max. 295) and 3 Blackjack models (BJ-1/DC/3 max. 235; 1x max. 295)

295
Lights: Fits all Jenners and Raven RVN-3L;
Does not fit Locust, Commando, Spider, Raven 2x/4x (fits 3L)
Heavies: All except Cataphact CTF-4X
Assaults: All

300
Assault: Largest that fits all Assault
Heavy: All Heavies (except Cataphract CTF-4X)

315
Heavy: Largest that fits all Heavies (except Cataphract CTF-4X)

340
Light: None
Medium: Some. Fits all Cicada, Centurion CN9-AL, Trebuchet TBT-3C, all Kintaro except Golden Boy
Heavy: Most. Does not fit Catapults and Jagermechs (fits Firebrand), and Cataphract CTF-4X (fits other models)
Assault: Some. Fits Awesome AWS-9M/Pretty Baby, all Victors, no Stalkers, no Highlanders, all Atlases, Shadowhawk SHD-2H, Battlemaster BLR-1G

---

As pointed out moving up from 295 to 300 you lose two variants:

* Raven RVN-3L
* Blackjack BJ-1X

Much of what you could do with a Raven you could do with a Jenner (which takes 300) and the odd fast Blackjack could probably be accomplished with a Cidada.

The benefit of the 300 is you get an extra Heatsink in the engine so you save a slot.

As you guys pointed out there is also a fairly large grouping of mechs that peak in the 300-325 range. The gap between 300 and 325 is pretty small so the 300 can service most of these builds well.

* Jenners all take up to 300
* Stalker all take up to 310
* Catapult all take up to 315
* Jagermech all take up to 315 (Firebrand 340)
* Thunderbolt take up to 315
* Trebuchet all take up to 325 (3C up to 390)
* Highlander all up to 325 (Heavy Metal 330)



TLDR: If you are going to buy XL engines (or even normal engines) target the following if you are looking for engines that work in the most models:

235
255
300
360

These 4 engines will fit nearly every mech in the game, often right around the peak engine performance for the mech, and are flexible enough to be swapped in and out of many models.

 

[Acert93]

NRP, Orange, and Co.:

Is there a night where you would want to be available after 6pm PST or sometime on a weekend?

 

[orangpelupa]

What's that on GMT? Very limited Internet to do googling time converter lol

today I'm back from out of town so can play (if not too tired).

I'm free on weekend any hours.

 

[orangpelupa]

ookay, 6 PM PST are 9 AM GMT+7 for me (i hope i convert it correct). Im adding you acert as soon as i finish updating steam.

added as friend. you the one that played
TF2
6.1 hrs on record
last played on 5 Jul 2013

?

thanks

 

[Acert93]

Yes, that is me.

 

[NRP]

I'm in Lake Tahoe for the rest of this week. I am usually available after 6 PM on weekdays though.

 

[orangpelupa]

ugh im going to out of town again tomorrow but by weekend i should be still availale

what time we are going to play on weekend?

 

[Acert93]

Probably off and on. The kids keep me busy But if we want to set a time, e.g. 7pm PST Saturday night I can pencil it in?