[Rebel_816]

Originally Posted by General Muffinmann

i havent gotten a hang of the DHS and endo steel. hell i dont mess with any of that equipment other than CASE and AMS.

at least go for endo steel. it saves a lot of weight. and its not very expensive. it really helps fitting a big gun and enough ammo for example, or more heatsinks if your a laser boat. i usually use it to fit in ams or case as well, and maybe a little more armor if i need it.

FF armor isnt really worth it. doesnt save as much weight as endo, kind of a waste of slots.

DHS for example...takes my quad large laser cataphract to a 1.36 on the heat effeciency...which is easily manageable, even if i alpha a lot. with normal heat sinks it'd be like .80 lol.

[Rebel_816]

Originally Posted by iPaintYou

I might do something similar to this next. I've been wanting something fast with a lot of firepower. Right now my CTF is way too slow. I could put an XL engine in it and get much better speed but I don't like the idea of losing either side of my torso and dying. I'm trying to figure out how I can replace two of the AC/5s with UAC/5s as well. I've seen people do it but can't figure out how to make it work. I'm always too heavy.

i run std 280's in my cataprhacts. puts me around 65km/h. did you get the 4x version? in that one really no matter what you do its gonna be slow if your going with the 4x ballistic route. you definately dont want an XL in one, your side torsos are a huge target. my leg armor is like 31/60 too, kinda low for a heavy..but i havent had issues for it. not many aim for your legs since your torso is so easy to hit.

[iPaintYou]

I've been toying with it today. I ended up putting an XL engine in it. Here's what my build looks like:

CTF-4X
-Four AC/5s
-Four tons of ammo w/ CASE on each side of torso
-Two medium lasers
-XL 255
-AMS
-Endo Steel
-DHS

I usually fight up close with multiple heavy and assault mechs so I figured if I'm in a situation where either side of my torso is getting shot off, I'm done for either way. I think my speed is a little over 60 now but I'll have to check when I get back. The only problems I've had so far are with small mechs and I ran out of ammo once but we won the game within a minute of that happening. As of now though, I'm happy with it. I love tearing through mechs like the Atlas or Awesome. They come at me thinking they'll take me down easily and end up getting run over.

[gamesondemand]

Case does nothing for your side torsos since you have an xl engine. Might as well stick the ammo in the legs, don't close with the enemy, sit back and shoot from a distance, you have quite possibly the most annoying build, and it excels at sitting back and harassing the **** out of other mechs before they can close in. Drop the xl, you'll just die faster.

[iPaintYou]

This was my first mech build. I'm new to the game (only 50ish matches under my belt) so I anticipated that I would make some mistakes. I guess I don't understand how CASE works like I thought I did. Why won't it work in my current configuration? I understand that my engine overflows into my side torso now but I thought CASE helped reduce the effect of ammo detonation in those areas. Also, the XL engine helped me save tonnage while gaining a considerable amount of speed. I'll see if I can work a standard engine back in though. But yea, I sit back just as often as I'm fighting close quarters. I love just pelting mechs that are occupied by my team. They fall quick.

EDIT: I think I get it now. CASE only prevents explosions from affecting adjacent sections. If I lose either side of my torso, I lose that part of the engine and therefore the whole mech, correct?

[gamesondemand]

Yea.

[Rebel_816]

yes, case will keep the ammo explosion from damaging the rest of your mech. if your side torso is gone, your engine is gone, regardless of case. on my phract' i never seem to get shot in the legs, its pretty safe to put ammo there. on my yen lo it seems like people always aim for my legs...guess they think my ammo is there or it has no armor. for things like i always put case if i can.

also this interwebs mechlab thing is awesome. lets you try loadouts without spending c-bills to buy things and realise it didnt work.

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab

[iPaintYou]

I'll have to use that mechlab website in the future. Thanks. Here's what I ended up with:

CTF-4X:
-Four AC/5s
-Four tons of ammo stored in the legs
-Endo Steel
-DHS
-AMS
-STD 225 w/ a DHS in the right torso

I'm about to play my first game with the new setup. It's speed it 52 KPH which is only slightly less than I was running. But now it's harder to take down this mech since it has a standard engine.

Another question, how are you running 280s in your Cataphracts. Even stripped down, the largest engine I could get to show up was a 255 I think. Is this because I'm using Endo Steel? I think it mentioned that it took up slots.

[gamesondemand]

Might be different variants which allow higher end engines?

[iPaintYou]

Yea, that could be. Doesn't really matter though. I can't support anything heavier anyways. I'm going to start saving for a new build again.

[Rebel_816]

...all the rest come stock with 280's.

the game window shows what you can currently fit, or afford. if you only have the tonnage for a 255, it wont let you drop anything bigger in till you take stuff off.

on my 4x large laser i dont even use the ballistic slots. moar heat sinks.

also, invite me turds.

[iPaintYou]

If you guys are playing and have room for another, invite ThatCreamyKid.

[Rebel_816]

done.

[iPaintYou]

I've only ever used vent and skype for PC games. I'll install TeamSpeak now. What's the info for the server?

EDIT: I'm back on. Send me another invite when your game is over.

[Rebel_816]

i think mustang posted the info for the NGNS teamspeak on the last page. were on it now.

[gamesondemand]

I was on for a bit, but I kept getting mowed down in my 4x. I miss my lag shield lol

[iPaintYou]

Anyone that plays MWO, hop on the TeamSpeak mentioned on the last page. If you join DropShip Marik, there are a ton of people all dropping at once creating random teams. It's a good time so far.

[gamesondemand]

Mass drop was actually pretty fun.

[iPaintYou]

Agreed. I'll probably be on tomorrow at some point. No classes. If anyone wants to play, just post here and I'll hop on. Good playing with you guys.

[Rebel_816]

i didnt get in one of the mass-drop games.

[iPaintYou]

I wonder how often they do that. I'd play one again. I think everyone in my game was part of the mass-drop. We had way more than 8 people in our bay.