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

[Shitty Kitty]

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...

Repair bays basically never show up unless it's a scripted mission. In the original campaign I can think of 2 instances (maybe a couple more) where they show up - the mission where you fight off salvage claim-jumpers alongside Freeman in his Jenner and the final OC mission where you're beating down waves of ComStar mechs. They also never utilized in-mission item capture beyond one of the first missions (where you have the Javelin).

 

[Matalarata]

Yes, I can only imagine how shitty the original release must have been. MW in general benefits a lot from a freeform approach to campaigning. All things considered I'm having fun with this release, it's no MW4 but it's close enough to scratch the itch and maybe mods will even make it better than it currently is.

Still, work on the model for ~8 hours, turn it into a mobile rapeir bay and gimme the option to call it like an Airstrike. What a missed opportunity, it would have worked wonders for those multiple chained missions.

edit: I mean, it's nothing new!

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Yes, I can only imagine how shitty the original release must have been. MW in general benefits a lot from a freeform approach to campaigning. All things considered I'm having fun with this release, it's no MW4 but it's close enough to scratch the itch and maybe mods will even make it betterthan it currently is.

Still, work on the model for ~8 hours, turn it into a mobile rapeir bay and gimme the option to call it like an Airstrike. What a missed opportunity, it would have worked wonders for those multiple chained missions.

Mods drastically improve a lot of things (chiefly the AI routines, as in Vanilla AI opponents and lancemates are both absolute morons). I consider the AI mods a must, everything else is optional but highly recommended at times.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i found this https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/48?tab=description but it's abandoned and deprecated ._.

 

[someone else]

Fun things to do.
Play as a Firestarter with flamers and burn much bigger mechs than you, run behind them and they twist and turn to try to target you, laugh as they shut down.
Get the new Hero Dragon, run around with MASC with AC20BF that goes brrrrr! I gave my AI that Dragon and he did more damage than me in one mission.
Grab Gauss Rifle early from Cantina jobs, buy/salvage Hunchback that can mount it and headshot mechs with your noob cannon, you can also upgrade the Hunchback for more damage.

 

[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

Awwww! Isn't the ducking and jiving cuuuuute on this little noob! *pinches noob's cheeks* Keep it up! You might just get to mkrgrlll's level of shennanniganry.

 

[Cael]

Fun things to do.
Play as a Firestarter with flamers and burn much bigger mechs than you, run behind them and they twist and turn to try to target you, laugh as they shut down and their internal ammo explode.
Get the new Hero Dragon, run around with MASC with AC20BF that goes brrrrr! I gave my AI that Dragon and he did more damage than me in one mission.
Grab Gauss Rifle early from Cantina jobs, buy/salvage Hunchback that can mount it and headshot mechs with your noob cannon, you can also upgrade the Hunchback for more damage.

I recall MW2M's Inferno SRMs and Flamers with much fondness. Put even 2 of those things on any 'mech and it is practically a guaranteed one-shot complete disable/kill at anything within range.

 

[Matalarata]

Nigger we were getting into TT shut your mealy fucking mouth

Awwww! Isn't the ducking and jiving cuuuuute on this little noob! *pinches noob's cheeks* Keep it up! You might just get to mkrgrlll's level of shennanniganry.

Get a cockpit you two. Or a dick-cabin. Or a penishole, whatever...

 

[Cael]

Nigger we were getting into TT shut your mealy fucking mouth

Awwww! Isn't the ducking and jiving cuuuuute on this little noob! *pinches noob's cheeks* Keep it up! You might just get to mkrgrlll's level of shennanniganry.

Get a cockpit you two. Or a dick-cabin. Or a penishole, whatever...

His cockpit won't be able to handle my Gauss Rifle.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Nigger we were getting into TT shut your mealy fucking mouth

Awwww! Isn't the ducking and jiving cuuuuute on this little noob! *pinches noob's cheeks* Keep it up! You might just get to mkrgrlll's level of shennanniganry.

Get a cockpit you two. Or a dick-cabin. Or a penishole, whatever...

Dude needs to be a good little retard and gargle buckshot.

 

[someone else]

The 80s and 90s stereotypes are strong in this one.
Japanese Draconis Combine pilots screaming about honor before dying, Chinese Liao dynastic leaders come with traditional regalia.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

The 80s and 90s stereotypes are strong in this one.
Draconis Combine pilots screaming about honor before dying, Liao dynastic leaders come with traditional regalia.

Yeah that's the Battletech universe. Take every cultural trope from the 80s, turn it to 11 and then blow it away with heavy ordnance.

 

[Agesilaus]

Reminder that Capellans are the good guys in Battletech

 

[Matalarata]

Fedora Master, I finally salvaged a Warhammer, since I'm pretty starved for heavies atm I started thinkering with it. Here's how I roll:

Spoiler

Double AC2 with 600 rounds is a versatile and decently powerful ranged option. Its biggest advantage is, it forces you to learn how to aim at those pesky, far away crawlers, it's also the main AA option for the build, you need to play both angle and elevation to shot down Vtols, it's pretty fun.

Quad chem laser is a less impressive alpha strike but it's still unpleasant to receive and you can sustain the four of them cycled while remaining neutral or slighly cooling of with 3 HS. As for weapon groups, left click is cycled double AC2 for distant (or close) sniping, you have 600 rnds, be trigger happy and you won't regret it. Right click is double AC2 (uncycled) + SRM6 for mid-close range alpha strikes, beware because the SRM6 is a deceptively hot weapon. Group 3 is your cycled chem lasers, when alpha-striking you either only use balistc and missiles, or press both buttons for true alpha.
Don't fire your lasers uncycled in that case, heat buildup is not worth it. You have maxed out armor on a 61Km/h chassis, you can definitely endure more than they can, especially if you aim for weakspots.

You could remove one ton of armor or one HS (bad idea) to either get an Artemis or install something in those small energy slots, some SB small lasers or high powered dildoes, your choice. During my tests the average engagement range didn't favour any of those but ymmv.

edit: Agesilaus, yes, I'm serious! Want me to show some post battle results? It's performing pretty well.

 

[GhostCow]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

 

[Matalarata]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

A ton of chem laser ammo is more efficient than a single HS, allowing you to spam more shots in a small amount of time. It's hard to remain heat neutral otherwise, unless you go all in with 8-10 HS depending on builds. A Black Knight, for example, imho shouldn't use chems since it relies on its or PPC (or LL), so it makes sense to fill it with heat sinks and group energy weapons according to their optimal range. My proposed WH is an hybrid, using mainly its AC2 (75% of in game targets are crawlers, turrets an Vtols, AC2 shines vs those) while approaching and only supplementing with chems and SRM vs tougher targets at mid range. If I swap each Ton of chem ammo for an HS and switch to normal/pulse, it won't stay heat neutral, even when cycling.

Additionally, chems also require different ammo for differens sizes (like AC do), they are much easier to build around if you only have one type.


edit: In that build I allocated additional ammo to compensate for a greener player, you could probably swap ~1.5 tons of ammo with something else and still have enough to finish any mission, if you play decently. Chem especially, don't really need all that much...

 

[Cael]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

The main advantage of chem lasers is that they produce less heat. They were developed by Clan Hell's Horses for their vehicle fleet as a low heat sink alternative due to how vehicles interacted with energy weapons. I have never seriously considered them for 'mechs, but then again, I tend to design my 'mechs to be heavy on double heat sinks.

 

[someone else]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Laser#Chemical_Lasers

Useful for those energy boats that have too much heat and space on legs for ammo.
Their ammo explode right?

I'm having moderate success using airstrikes on dropships by aiming at the dropship so by the time the strikes land they (sort of) hit the mechs under the dropship, looks like some hit above it where the dropship used to be.

 

[someone else]

Completed the DLC (I think) and got cheese mech, it comes with UAC5.
Game is fun with a Locust running over 100k/h with dual machineguns, give it a try! I let my lancemate take the starting Centurion instead.
MGs go bepbepbep.

 

[Cael]

I don't understand why chem lasers are a thing. Isn't the whole point of lasers to not need ammo? Are the chem lasers way higher dps or better on heat or something? How do they compare to something else that uses ammo like ACs?

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Laser#Chemical_Lasers

Useful for those energy boats that have too much heat and space on legs for ammo.
Their ammo explode right?

I'm having moderate success using airstrikes on dropships by aiming at the dropship so by the time the strikes land they (sort of) hit the mechs under the dropship.

The main problem with energy weapons on vehicles isn't the power amplifiers. Those cost 10% of the weight of the weapon. The problem is the heat sinking involved. You need to sink all heat generated from energy weapons and you can't use double heat sinks on vehicles. A simple PPC will mean 10t worth of heat sinks (unless the vehicle has a fusion engine, then the first 10 is free). So, yeah, Hell's Horses went down the wrong path there.

 

[Fedora Master]

Okay, what the hell is Ryana's accent? It's driving me crazy, "Commahnda"

Urbie cockpit

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Okay, what the hell is Ryana's accent? It's driving me crazy, "Commahnda"

I've been trying to place it for a while and all I've got is "amateur VA doing an upper-crusty Brit accent". Fahad's is a painfully bad South London.

 

[someone else]

Some of you may not know this: weapons reload/cooldown starts after it finish shooting.
Well duh you say, but a non-stream SRM/LRM shoots all it's missiles immediately, a LRM20/stream takes awhile to finish shooting so a non-stream LRM20 will have much higher ROF.
The same applies to burst weapons, AC20BF takes awhile to fire but ACBF do have higher base ROF stats.
I much prefer LLaser SB than LLaser, the time to shoot is much less.
For the UAC5 this is especially bad as it takes a long time to shoot.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Some of you may not know this: weapons reload/cooldown starts after it finish shooting.
Well duh you say, but a non-stream SRM/LRM shoots all it's missiles immediately, a LRM20/stream takes awhile to finish shooting so a non-stream LRM20 will have much higher ROF.
The same applies to burst weapons, AC20BF takes awhile to fire but ACBF do have higher base ROF stats.
I much prefer LLaser SB than LLaser, the time to shoot is much less.
For the UAC5 this is especially bad as it takes a long time to shoot.

The thing about that tradeoff is that larger LRM racks are not DPS-focused weapons to begin with, and the better clustering of the larger Stream launchers makes them a LOT better at their job. LRM5s are a wash because they have pretty minimal spread on their clustering anyway, but when you go up in rack size you start to notice how like a regular LRM15/20's salvos just splash about half their missiles harmlessly around targets instead of smacking into them. Especially noticeable with VTOLs and vees. Artemis improves that some, and Stream+Artemis leads to nice, relatively tight clustering even on huge salvos which is IMMENSELY useful. The exception to all this is when you're using LRMs to saturate a Demolition target - the spread there is an ASSET, and you can pretty easily dumbfire them into a Demo target for more spread. Also, AI lancemates are too retarded to hold a lock for full missile flight time about 75 percent of the time and you'll see them waste shots repeatedly this way.

With the ACs, the "burst fire" versions are generally superior on DPS as long as you hold a target well, with 2 caveats: in Vanilla the AC2BF is objectively inferior in nearly every way to the single-fire, and the AC20BF's velocity is so shit that you will end up spreading damage like mad against anything that isn't sitting perfectly still or isn't RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

The UAC5's biggest issue tends to be the spread on rounds fired during a salvo. It can still do ungodly amounts of damage if you run it full tilt and don't get a jam, but focusing components is difficult. One of the mods I used reverted UAC5 behavior to "single shot with double tap" which made it a much more competitive weapon. The Vanilla behavior is fun (BOOMBOOMBOOM for days) but not really effective against mech opponents.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

you don't use lrm for burst fire, you use them to piss them on the enemy, you almost always chain them and at this the stream are better, easier on the heat too. when you go missiles you don't care how long it'll take, you do it to instill in your opponent as much rage as possible by making it impossible for him to aim. which clearly doesn't work in pve. missiles in pve? still nowhere useful for dps, you use them because you're lazy. nothing wrong with it, i do it myself.
single exception: if the game has an anti-alpha system in place, where you can't kill an enemy with a single click, you then can add some srm2 to the mix and fool it.