MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries by Piranha Games - now on Steam and GOG

[Shitty Kitty]

Huh I shot all my LRM ammo and then noticed I got more ammo later, must be that salvage package picked up, they also gives ammo? I noticed it didn't give any loot only cash.

After the mission? Rearm is automatic and costs nothing after a mission, once you've allocated ammo it's there until it gets destroyed or removed (unless they changed that in the DLC).

 

[someone else]

Huh I shot all my LRM ammo and then noticed I got more ammo later, must be that salvage package picked up, they also gives ammo? I noticed it didn't give any loot only cash.

After the mission? Rearm is automatic and costs nothing after a mission, once you've allocated ammo it's there until it gets destroyed or removed (unless they changed that in the DLC).

During the mission.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Huh I shot all my LRM ammo and then noticed I got more ammo later, must be that salvage package picked up, they also gives ammo? I noticed it didn't give any loot only cash.

After the mission? Rearm is automatic and costs nothing after a mission, once you've allocated ammo it's there until it gets destroyed or removed (unless they changed that in the DLC).

During the mission.

Huh, guess they added resupply without using a repair/rearm station. Would be kind of odd.

 

[Matalarata]

Huh I shot all my LRM ammo and then noticed I got more ammo later, must be that salvage package picked up, they also gives ammo? I noticed it didn't give any loot only cash.

There was someone on Steam stating the same, I never noticed it in-game. Has anyone found a repair station, mobile or otherwise, during mission? There's one you use in a mandatory mission at the beginning, I've never used another one since then...

 

[Cael]

You keep talking like a custom player. If you're running stocks on TT like a decent human being you're not guaranteed to get some optimized SSRM truck in unit comp and frankly optimized customs are boring. If you can't handle the challenge involved in working within normal rules and risking loss you're a fucking pussy. It isn't hard to make an optimized monster, and there are plenty of optimized stocks post Clan Invasion. The AC20 is fine if you aren't an absolute mouth breather who needs to shoot something every damned turn with it and you don't do something patently absurd like use a Hunchback-4G to charge across an open field without screening fire. Part of the game is learning to use something besides twinked customs.

When an assblasted noob screams about people playing with custom 'mechs in a MW thread...

 

[Fedora Master]

Ironically, the more I play the less I like the game. It sure looks nice but the AI is FUCKING RETARDED it's unbelievable. Especially your lance mates are completely useless, while enemies will unerringly focus fire and the player. Always on the arms, too, so putting any sort of decent weapon in an arm just means you WILL lose it.

 

[Cael]

Ironically, the more I play the less I like the game. It sure looks nice but the AI is FUCKING RETARDED it's unbelievable. Especially your lance mates are completely useless, while enemies will unerringly focus fire and the player. Always at the arms, too, so putting any sort of decent weapon in an arm just means you WILL lose it.

Makes me wonder if that bug in MW2 is still around. Your left arm always goes off first :D :D :D

 

[Matalarata]

It sure looks nice but the AI is FUCKING RETARDED it's unbelievable. Especially your lance mates are completely useless

I must say... my impression is the opposite. Sure, they are frickin' bots, you can't expect them to perform spectacularly but, they stick around the place when I order a Nav point, they even get back after defeating any approaching threat. They are completely braindead if you have them form on you, you'll need to constantly press F1/F2 otherwise they tend to wander off.
Also NEVER have the whole lance take file behind you if on the opposite side of a defense target, they'll just smash through the base. Keep 'em either deployed on a specific side or give them targets and they perform adequately.

while enemies will unerringly focus fire and the player. Always on the arms, too, so putting any sort of decent weapon in an arm just means you WILL lose it.

I'm currently piloting a SRM boat Shadowhawk and I consistently get less damage on me than my other lancemates on Med or LR Heavies. I don't mean to sound rude but, learn to manage your range. That harmless-looking urbie? It's still armed with an AC20 and has shitload of armor, for its tonnage. Snipe it from afar and it's harmless. Ditto for those heavy tanks, they look puny but actually sport some heavy AC, a single large hardpoint worth of damage can seriously fuck you up. Arms are notoriously weak spots, give 'em extra armor and learn to love your torso weaponry. Do note that both enemies and AI lancemates tend to focus on the most valuable and heaviest of weapon hardpoints, plan accordingly.

Edit: someone else, can confirm. Some battlefield salvage also gives you back a small amount of proper ammunition, got 5 ammo for my AC5 when I picked up a package containing an AC2.

 

[Fedora Master]

I've given up on long range engagements because the game is going to drop mechs and tanks within your minimum range no matter what.

 

[Matalarata]

Unless you talk about enemy dropship deployment during mission, I never had the game spawn something in front or even near me. Do note that you get radar pings and missile locks from your allies, but only if either you or them can trace a direct LoS to the target, once it disappears decay time starts. Small units are apt at sneaking around your back but that's the game working as intended.

Unfortunately I have no way of giving you proof but I assure you it's quite noticeable in-game, if you know what to look for. Are you running any mod, per chance?

 

[Fedora Master]

Just as an example, here's the result of a regular story mission I just did:

The AI was clearly too retarded to even shoot down tanks or helos.

 

[Matalarata]

Ok, I get that, but consider you're also piloting a Centurion. Do you expect frickin Jenners and Javellins to pull out something spectacular? I must say tho, I never had my lance leave the field so fucked up
Last mission I did, I almost got out with 0 armor loss, but then a panther decided to ruin my day. I'll take a screenshot next time I have a chance.

edit: get a firestarter as a substitute for that Javelin, great damage avoidance chassis still able to pack a punch. Remove stock flamers and give it a full Laz0rs array, obv.

 

[Fedora Master]

I've found the lance AI to be pretty good with Jenners actually, certainly moreso than with bigger mechs. And even a Jenner can kill a bunch of medium tanks.

e:

Here's an example of a Warhammer I just got from a story mission and how I would set it up. Maybe I'm doing something wrong with my mech loadouts?

 

[Matalarata]

So, this was probably my hardest mission so far. Difficulty ~47 iirc, I was 15T under tonnage and I killed about 100K additional enemies, before leaving. Far from my best performance, I got badly mauled by a Charger + Trebuchet combo, while my lance was more or less deployed on the other side of the objective.
As you can see, even if I clearly did the majority of damage, they are pretty good if you give them specific target (aka killstealing). Don't mind the Dragon, it's... highly experimental... also, it's there to somewhat inflate tonnage and soak damage (which it miserably failed at doing).

Spoiler

This mission was an outlier though, I killed 10 or so 'mechs, hence all dat damage (and salvage, a pity for the heavies)

Spoiler

And here's my firestarter setup, In case you're interested:

Spoiler

Here's an example of a Warhammer I just got from a story mission and how I would set it up.

I lack a Warhammer to experiment with atm, generally speaking though, choose a favourite engagement range (L, M, R ) and go all in. I find that med range favours armor, SRM and AC, long Range favours missiles (if you use sensors correctly) and PPC/LL, close range favors energy weapons and speed.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I wouldn't lead from the front with that Warhammer setup.

 

[Fedora Master]

I just closely observed my lance mate AI and you're right, telling them to sit in a specific spot makes them much more reliable.

e: Lasers aren't considered long range weapons? The M variant at least seems to work well at almost any range. I figured lasers are more of a universal weapon?

 

[Shitty Kitty]

You keep talking like a custom player. If you're running stocks on TT like a decent human being you're not guaranteed to get some optimized SSRM truck in unit comp and frankly optimized customs are boring. If you can't handle the challenge involved in working within normal rules and risking loss you're a fucking pussy. It isn't hard to make an optimized monster, and there are plenty of optimized stocks post Clan Invasion. The AC20 is fine if you aren't an absolute mouth breather who needs to shoot something every damned turn with it and you don't do something patently absurd like use a Hunchback-4G to charge across an open field without screening fire. Part of the game is learning to use something besides twinked customs.

When an assblasted noob screams about people playing with custom 'mechs in a MW thread...

Nigger we were getting into TT shut your mealy fucking mouth

I just closely observed my lance mate AI and you're right, telling them to sit in a specific spot makes them much more reliable.

e: Lasers aren't considered long range weapons? The M variant at least seems to work well at almost any range. I figured lasers are more of a universal weapon?

Medium lasers have a max optimum range of 270m, more for high tier Medium Lasers. In that range they will do full damage on a burn. After that range damage drops off until I think somewhere around 400m or so at which point a Medium Laser burn does no damage. Meanwhile the Large Laser has a max optimum of 450m. If you're playing the long range game bigger lasers are better and getting an ER Large is ideal.

 

[Fedora Master]

Okay that Warhammer setup made me intimately familiar with the emergency heat shutdown.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Okay that Warhammer setup made me intimately familiar with the emergency heat shutdown.

I would drop the MGs and MG ammo unless you're demolishing buildings and use the tonnage for sinks or armor. Switching the Medium Pulses back to regular Mediums for more sinks/armor would be a good idea too.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

always cycle large heat producing weapons, these games make them produce even more if used at once.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Huh I shot all my LRM ammo and then noticed I got more ammo later, must be that salvage package picked up, they also gives ammo? I noticed it didn't give any loot only cash.

There was someone on Steam stating the same, I never noticed it in-game. Has anyone found a repair station, mobile or otherwise, during mission? There's one you use in a mandatory mission at the beginning, I've never used another one since then...

Yes when u guys get the salvage boxes during missions it will repair bits of and rearm the mech

 

[Cael]

You keep talking like a custom player. If you're running stocks on TT like a decent human being you're not guaranteed to get some optimized SSRM truck in unit comp and frankly optimized customs are boring. If you can't handle the challenge involved in working within normal rules and risking loss you're a fucking pussy. It isn't hard to make an optimized monster, and there are plenty of optimized stocks post Clan Invasion. The AC20 is fine if you aren't an absolute mouth breather who needs to shoot something every damned turn with it and you don't do something patently absurd like use a Hunchback-4G to charge across an open field without screening fire. Part of the game is learning to use something besides twinked customs.

When an assblasted noob screams about people playing with custom 'mechs in a MW thread...

Nigger we were getting into TT shut your mealy fucking mouth

Yes, yes, yes. You are one of those noob tools who screech about wizards being OP non-stop in DnD.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

You keep talking like a custom player. If you're running stocks on TT like a decent human being you're not guaranteed to get some optimized SSRM truck in unit comp and frankly optimized customs are boring. If you can't handle the challenge involved in working within normal rules and risking loss you're a fucking pussy. It isn't hard to make an optimized monster, and there are plenty of optimized stocks post Clan Invasion. The AC20 is fine if you aren't an absolute mouth breather who needs to shoot something every damned turn with it and you don't do something patently absurd like use a Hunchback-4G to charge across an open field without screening fire. Part of the game is learning to use something besides twinked customs.

When an assblasted noob screams about people playing with custom 'mechs in a MW thread...

Nigger we were getting into TT shut your mealy fucking mouth

Yes, yes, yes. You are one of those noob tools who screech about wizards being OP non-stop in DnD.

We're not talking D&D here you bitch-ass. Keep seething about being called out for being a munchkin.

Huh I shot all my LRM ammo and then noticed I got more ammo later, must be that salvage package picked up, they also gives ammo? I noticed it didn't give any loot only cash.

There was someone on Steam stating the same, I never noticed it in-game. Has anyone found a repair station, mobile or otherwise, during mission? There's one you use in a mandatory mission at the beginning, I've never used another one since then...

Yes when u guys get the salvage boxes during missions it will repair bits of and rearm the mech

Unless they drastically ramped up mission difficulty for the DLC I'm not sure why that's necessary, I think the only mission type where I'd actually run ammo bins dry was Warzone and it was fairly rare for me to need repairs once I had a full lance rolling. Do the salvage boxes repair lancemate mechs?

always cycle large heat producing weapons, these games make them produce even more if used at once.

Usually unless you're badly undersinked you can manage by shunting things into different firing groups (like putting the PPCs in Group 1, the Medium Pulses and possibly the Small Lasers in Group 2, the SRM in Group 3 and then putting the PPCs in Group 4 set to chainfire so you're not expending a ton of heat/weapon cooldown just to knock down a chopper at long range - one PPC shot will destroy those and some other things just fine). The upside to MGs is that they produce no heat, so if you want to keep them you can group them with the Medium Pulses/Small Lasers. Also it is usually a good idea to put arm-mounted weapons in their own group, as arm-mounted weapons will have a much greater arc of aim than torso-mounted and if you are doing something like aiming up outside of the torso weapons' arc with a bunch of Medium Lasers on arms and torso the arm-mounted MLs will hit where the arm weapon pipper is while the torso MLs will shoot below that, wasting heat/cooldown to basically do nothing of worth. Also, for this reason longer-ranged weaponry actually does well in torso slots because at longer range, the angle of your torso is usually sufficient to get them on target whereas once the chopper's already on top of you something like a Medium Laser in an arm will reach them easily and the improved arc will let you aim upwards to smack them.

 

[Matalarata]

Do the salvage boxes repair lancemate mechs?

Nope, but it's not such a big deal really. You need to find a salvage containing the right kind of weapon and it's like 10% of a full Ton of ammo or something like that. It's a nice addon that can make salvage hunting more interesting, it's so inconsequential I wouldn't be surprised if they integrated this ages ago and people notice only now, with the influx of new players.

What leaves me completely flabbergasted is, they have a functioning repair bay as part of the introductory mission, but I found no other instance of in-mission repair until now...

 

[someone else]

Airstrikes fun, took out a Stalker since they are so slow, trying to airstrike a full lance when they hop off a dropship like at the end of some of those Beachhead missions.