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

[Shitty Kitty]

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.

A common tactic in MWO was to chainfire LRM5s on a target constantly to annoy the everloving shit out of them/chase them into cover with "INCOMING MISSILE" warnings, and to soft-counter AMS/LAMS as LRM5 salvos had more HP per missile and would make opponents waste AMS ammo like crazy or get their LAMS cranking so hard their heat would redline and they'd basically be incapable of doing anything.

In MW5M LRMs are for softening targets at range, demolition and smacking around vees/VTOLs.

 

[Matalarata]

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.

Yep. But I feel this was the same even in previous MW chapters, I always valued AC2 much more than AC2BF. Try one of my guilty pleasures: take an humble Jagermech, with all its downfalls, wonky hitbox, weak arms and other general shortcomings. Rip those AC2BF, install 4xAC2 and...


BANGBANGBANGBANGTargetDestroyedBANGBANGTargetDestroyedBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGTargetDestroyedBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG... You get the gist of it.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

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.

Yep. But I feel this was the same even in previous MW chapters, I always valued AC2 much more than AC2BF. Try one of my guilty pleasures: take an humble Jagermech, with all its downfalls, wonky hitbox, weak arms and other general shortcomings. Rip those AC2BF, install 4xAC2 and...


BANGBANGBANGBANGTargetDestroyedBANGBANGTargetDestroyedBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGTargetDestroyedBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG... You get the gist of it.

At one point the JagerMech-DD with 6 AC2s set to chainfire was positively meta in MWO (it tended to dominate its Solaris division too after S7 dropped). At first it was because 6 AC2s on chainfire created an insane amount of cockpit shake/noise and made it nearly impossible for a target to do anything. They toned that down heavily and then people realized that at range the DPS was actually pretty insane, and to this end the Annihilator-2A with 6 AC2s is one of the strongest IS assaults at range last I knew. No "ghost heat" bullshit on a grouping of 6 AC2s either, so you can just alpha from 750m+ out and as long as your aim is good you just open people up like tuna cans.

 

[Matalarata]

Ah, never played MWO, but I remember back in the days of MW III a lot of people in the chat where spamming WTF? Because, apparently very few people had tried to mass them and the rate of fire and range made it look like it was some sort of sekrit weapon. Good to see some things never change!


Here I find a BJ armed with 2xAC2 and 4xMedChems to be one of the highest performers, based on a damage/tonnage ratio. A pity for the slow speed but I seriously prefer it over the average Hunchback, lighter and dangerous at all ranges.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Ah, never played MWO, but I remember back in the days of MW III a lot of people in the chat where spamming WTF? Because, apparently very few people had tried to mass them and the rate of fire and range made it look like it was some sort of sekrit weapon. Good to see some things never change!


Here I find a BJ armed with 2xAC2 and 4xMedChems to be one of the highest performers, based on a damage/tonnage ratio. A pity for the slow speed but I seriously prefer it over the average Hunchback, lighter and dangerous at all ranges.

There aren't too many occasions where going faster than 64kph is a big deal, I find. Can be very fun, and sometimes the best way to run a Demo/Raid mission is to do something like take the Cicada hero (the X5, which tops out at about 133kph stock) or the Blackjack hero (tops out at 86kph stock) and run it solo. The Blackjack hero is nuts for Demo missions - 6 MGs with 2t of ammo, a couple Small Pulses or Flamers and something like an ERPPC or Large Pulse in the CT. Run/jump in, shred shit and kill just enough stuff to clear an egress - and never stop moving. The X5 is insanely good for solo Raid runs - put Medium Lasers and a couple SRM2s or SRM4s on it with a couple tons of ammo, floor it to the targets, smash and dash. Works best with high Evasion skill, I was solo clearing Raids in late-game Kurita turf with the X5.

 

[Matalarata]

There aren't too many occasions where going faster than 64kph is a big deal, I find.

I disagree! My Shadowhawk 2D with 12xSRM + AC5 can definitely use the extra ~21kmph. Massed short range missiles listed range is a newb trap, you need to be much closer for the whole salvo to connect. It's my quick version of the Hunchback, extemely opportunistic playstyle, loads of fun.

I'm also constantly pleasantly surprised by AI Lancemate handling of my Locust 1M armed with SRM and a Chem, they regularly finish missions with little or sometimes no damage and constantly pull off 250-350 damage (the record is ~420 iirc). For 20 AI-piloted tons, that's a steal!

 

[Shitty Kitty]

There aren't too many occasions where going faster than 64kph is a big deal, I find.

I disagree! My Shadowhawk 2D with 12xSRM + AC5 can definitely use the extra ~21kmph. Massed short range missiles listed range is a newb trap, you need to be much closer for the whole salvo to connect. It's my quick version of the Hunchback, extemely opportunistic playstyle, loads of fun.

I'm also constantly pleasantly surprised by AI Lancemate handling of my Locust 1M armed with SRM and a Chem, they regularly finish missions with little or sometimes no damage and constantly pull off 250-350 damage (the record is ~420 iirc). For 20 AI-piloted tons, that's a steal!

The likely reason for that is they're not drawing a lot of attention - enemy AI will prioritize/reprioritize based on who's laying down a lot of hurt. Like, if you roll in a Kintaro-18 stuffed to the gills with SRMs you will very quickly become enemies' favorite person ever - you'll see entire lances shift focus from whatever they were shooting at to you in a hurry. This can actually make your job a LOT easier at times if you focus on builds that don't have monstrous alphas, as your teammates will do enough lump damage to prevent you from drawing all the aggro even as you're hammering enemies to bits over time.

Another interesting thing about enemy AI (in Vanilla anyway) is that they can actually see discrete armor values. If you take that Centurion and shave down the empty left arm to 16/32 to round off tonnage, and all your other components have full armor, the AI will focus that nearly-useless arm (this makes the Cent pretty solid and makes having an expensive weapon in the right arm very workable, actually). Your HUD damage display modes don't even give you HTAL readouts on enemies in Vanilla - enemies get something better than HTAL, but they're so retarded they make poor use of it. I've seen situations where one arm had 25 armor and the other had 26, making them look more or less identical on paperdoll and nearly identical with HTAL, and the enemy AI goes after the one with 25. This is also very likely why AI prioritizes arms in the first place, as arms are the component with the lowest armor value max barring the head and AI rarely if ever seems to deliberately aim for the head. Just to verify this suspicion, I actually tried running with legs dropped to just below arm max value, and AI started trying to leg me.

 

[Matalarata]

he likely reason for that is they're not drawing a lot of attention - enemy AI will prioritize/reprioritize based on who's laying down a lot of hurt.

Bruh... it's literally my highest DPS 'mech atm. The AI will always focus on the player, unless another target is on their sight, and you can easily steal aggro just by passing briefly in front of their previous target, you can do that with a Locust. I always pilot the thing (SH) myself, the AI is too braindead to understand proper hit & run and ambushes.

Like, if you roll in a Kintaro-18 stuffed to the gills with SRMs you will very quickly become enemies' favorite person ever

Well, imho that's the wrong mech to play hit and run SRM boat. Those extra 20kmph make a load of difference when lining shots or running for the cover of an hill. AC5 gives you a solid mid-long range option, since it still one shots Vtols and two shots the heaviest crawlers, on a Kintaro you'd be forced to sacrifice a slot for LRM or rely on lancemates for distant targets, which is perfectly doable if you like to play that way but I like my platform a bit more versatile, I can post my loadout if you wish to try it yourself but it's pretty easy:

AC5, SRM4x3 (you could use a SRM6 but I prefer to carry more ammo), double sb small lasers for convenient deforestation (remember, the true 'mechwarrior pollutes, defiles and generally hates nature), a single Double HS, one ton and half of AC5 ammo, one and half of SRM, 2 tons JJ. Rest is armor, nothing fancy.

You get a sturdy platform, marginally slower than a P.Hawk but capable of hitting much harder. You need no fancy Artemis in order to hit with a full salvo because you're fast enough to catch on any target and stick those pumped up torsoes up their asses, when playing this guy, I always lock arms movement for better torso control and use the arms as shields, I don't really care if the small laz0rs are shaved off. It never happened but that's the idea.
It probably wouldn't work in MWO but here, vs AI? Lol! MW Merc is all about fun crazy builds and one-trick ponies, I love how the gameplay radically changes from one platform to the other. Although I still painfully remember, back in the old days of mercs, when we could mount Longtom artillery on Madcats, good times...

If you take that Centurion and shave down the empty left arm to 16/32 to round off tonnage, and all your other components have full armor, the AI will focus that nearly-useless arm (this makes the Cent pretty solid and makes having an expensive weapon in the right arm very workable, actually).

Interesting, how about front and rear? Can it also differentiate between those locations? I've read some people suggesting reducing some specific rear slots to 2 and load everything else on the front, on some chassis. Iirc it was about the Hunchback RT but I could be wrong and it could be an outlier

 

[Shitty Kitty]

he likely reason for that is they're not drawing a lot of attention - enemy AI will prioritize/reprioritize based on who's laying down a lot of hurt.

Bruh... it's literally my highest DPS 'mech atm. The AI will always focus on the player, unless another target is on their sight, and you can easily steal aggro just by passing briefly in front of their previous target, you can do that with a Locust. I always pilot the thing (SH) myself, the AI is too braindead to understand proper hit & run and ambushes.

Like, if you roll in a Kintaro-18 stuffed to the gills with SRMs you will very quickly become enemies' favorite person ever

Well, imho that's the wrong mech to play hit and run SRM boat. Those extra 20kmph make a load of difference when lining shots or running for the cover of an hill. AC5 gives you a solid mid-long range option, since it still one shots Vtols and two shots the heaviest crawlers, on a Kintaro you'd be forced to sacrifice a slot for LRM or rely on lancemates for distant targets, which is perfectly doable if you like to play that way but I like my platform a bit more versatile, I can post my loadout if you wish to try it yourself but it's pretty easy:

AC5, SRM4x3 (you could use a SRM6 but I prefer to carry more ammo), double sb small lasers for convenient deforestation (remember, the true 'mechwarrior pollutes, defiles and generally hates nature), a single Double HS, one ton and half of AC5 ammo, one and half of SRM, 2 tons JJ. Rest is armor, nothing fancy.

You get a sturdy platform, marginally slower than a P.Hawk but capable of hitting much harder. You need no fancy Artemis in order to hit with a full salvo because you're fast enough to catch on any target and stick those pumped up torsoes up their asses, when playing this guy, I always lock arms movement for better torso control and use the arms as shields, I don't really care if the small laz0rs are shaved off. It never happened but that's the idea.
It probably wouldn't work in MWO but here, vs AI? Lol! MW Merc is all about fun crazy builds and one-trick ponies, I love how the gameplay radically changes from one platform to the other. Although I still painfully remember, back in the old days of mercs, when we could mount Longtom artillery on Madcats, good times...

If you take that Centurion and shave down the empty left arm to 16/32 to round off tonnage, and all your other components have full armor, the AI will focus that nearly-useless arm (this makes the Cent pretty solid and makes having an expensive weapon in the right arm very workable, actually).

Interesting, how about front and rear? Can it also differentiate between those locations? I've read some people suggesting reducing some specific rear slots to 2 and load everything else on the front, on some chassis. Iirc it was about the Hunchback RT but I could be wrong and it could be an outlier

If they're suggesting reducing rear armor on Hunchback RT to 2 it's because the MW5M Hunchie has the same odd hitbox quirk of the MWO Hunchback - its rear RT hitbox is fucking TINY and the front hitbox actually goes damn near all the way down the back of the RT. I might try running with low frontal and high rear armor to see if AI tries to find frontal firing solutions even when my back is to them, that's something I didn't think about. I noticed in passing that AI seems to be bad at exploiting rear arc unless they spawn at your back, but I have a strong habit of keeping targets in my frontal arc whenever humanly possible. Also, the Kintaro-18 has the same movement profile as the Shadowhawks (with the exception of the Kintaro hero, Golden Boy - that one is ~64 kph or so) but it doesn't have JJ capacity. It's actually pretty good at getting where enemies do not want it to be, and the Shawk's AC capacity is nice for general-duty but the Kintaro's ability to mount absolutely CRAZY amounts of SRMs makes it rather good at getting into a distracted enemy's rear arc and utterly delete-buttoning him at point blank with a ~50 point SRM salvo. It can and WILL one-shot a lot of lights, mediums and some heavies especially if you get nice clustering on the salvo, and a number of assaults will likely find themselves missing most of their torso-mounted stuff after that, if they're not dead outright.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

sick of this basic bitch (after all, once you learn to skip beachthing missions, which would be cool in multiplayer on much bigger maps but are a nightmare with the braindead ais following you, everything else feels the same) i tried going back to roguetech mod for battletech. a world of new features waited for me, stuff so cool and awaited like vehicles and real electronic warfare and lots of gadgets and this and that and it took 15 minutes to load a mission, only to crash because 8gb ram and 15 of virtual memory weren't enough.

 

[Cael]

Ah, never played MWO, but I remember back in the days of MW III a lot of people in the chat where spamming WTF? Because, apparently very few people had tried to mass them and the rate of fire and range made it look like it was some sort of sekrit weapon. Good to see some things never change!


Here I find a BJ armed with 2xAC2 and 4xMedChems to be one of the highest performers, based on a damage/tonnage ratio. A pity for the slow speed but I seriously prefer it over the average Hunchback, lighter and dangerous at all ranges.

MW2 has that Daishi with the 6 AC5 in the Solaris arena that will make you cry at long range with chain fire.

For all the crying of noobs about laser boats, it was the AC boats that was a pain in the ass to fight against. That said, twin LB20-X to the face in MW4 basically is game over, granted you were allowed to get there with a 'mech heavy enough to carry such a thing (again, the dividing line between noob and veteran).

 

[Cael]

sick of this basic bitch (after all, once you learn to skip beachthing missions, which would be cool in multiplayer on much bigger maps but are a nightmare with the braindead ais following you, everything else feels the same) i tried going back to roguetech mod for battletech. a world of new features waited for me, stuff so cool and awaited like vehicles and real electronic warfare and lots of gadgets and this and that and it took 15 minutes to load a mission, only to crash because 8gb ram and 15 of virtual memory weren't enough.

Ah, yes. The HBS game that is nothing to do with BTech other than the name, but a lot to do with trannies, pronouns and a fetish for Spanish names.

 

[someone else]

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.

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.

Yeah I know, that is one of the advantage of LRM stream.
What's the name of the mod for UAC5 and does it still work with DLC?
I've tried some mods before DLC maybe I've used it too.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

twin LB20-X to the face in MW4 basically is game over, granted you were allowed to get there with a 'mech heavy enough to carry such a thing (again, the dividing line between noob and veteran).

killed so many with my uberuller and the OWeNS.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

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.

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.

Yeah I know, that is one of the advantage of LRM stream.
What's the name of the mod for UAC5 and does it still work with DLC?
I've tried some mods before DLC maybe I've used it too.

The mods likely haven't caught up to the DLC yet but I think the changes to a lot of weapon behavior came from Yet Another Mech/Yet Another Weapon mods.

Regarding the shitty default HUD, hopefully NavidA1 updates his 3D HUD for the DLC.


It's so goddamn nice.

Ah, never played MWO, but I remember back in the days of MW III a lot of people in the chat where spamming WTF? Because, apparently very few people had tried to mass them and the rate of fire and range made it look like it was some sort of sekrit weapon. Good to see some things never change!


Here I find a BJ armed with 2xAC2 and 4xMedChems to be one of the highest performers, based on a damage/tonnage ratio. A pity for the slow speed but I seriously prefer it over the average Hunchback, lighter and dangerous at all ranges.

MW2 has that Daishi with the 6 AC5 in the Solaris arena that will make you cry at long range with chain fire.

For all the crying of noobs about laser boats, it was the AC boats that was a pain in the ass to fight against. That said, twin LB20-X to the face in MW4 basically is game over, granted you were allowed to get there with a 'mech heavy enough to carry such a thing (again, the dividing line between noob and veteran).

I did it, constantly, on highest difficulty. I absolutely facefucked the Solaris Championship in MW4M with a HGauss Hunchback, the ONLY legit threat was the Vulture with the Arrow IV/Cluster setup who I made sure to put down first thing. I served MW2M's Solaris its own ass on a platter with a Flashman. You can stop looking like a mental defective any time now.

 

[Cael]

I did it, constantly, on highest difficulty. I absolutely facefucked the Solaris Championship in MW4M with a HGauss Hunchback, the ONLY legit threat was the Vulture with the Arrow IV/Cluster setup who I made sure to put down first thing. I served MW2M's Solaris its own ass on a platter with a Flashman. You can stop looking like a mental defective any time now.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha! HGauss Hunchback, says the hypocritical noob who screams bloody murder at non-stock units. Dear Lord, you are an adorable one, ain'tcha?

 

[Shitty Kitty]

I did it, constantly, on highest difficulty. I absolutely facefucked the Solaris Championship in MW4M with a HGauss Hunchback, the ONLY legit threat was the Vulture with the Arrow IV/Cluster setup who I made sure to put down first thing. I served MW2M's Solaris its own ass on a platter with a Flashman. You can stop looking like a mental defective any time now.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha! HGauss Hunchback, says the hypocritical noob who screams bloody murder at non-stock units. Dear Lord, you are an adorable one, ain'tcha?

TT = stock. You roll customs on TT, of all places. TT is not MechWarrior, and I could dunk on you either place with stocks anyway.

You are a mendacious bitch. Neck yourself forthwith.

 

[Cael]

I did it, constantly, on highest difficulty. I absolutely facefucked the Solaris Championship in MW4M with a HGauss Hunchback, the ONLY legit threat was the Vulture with the Arrow IV/Cluster setup who I made sure to put down first thing. I served MW2M's Solaris its own ass on a platter with a Flashman. You can stop looking like a mental defective any time now.

Bwahahahahahahahahaha! HGauss Hunchback, says the hypocritical noob who screams bloody murder at non-stock units. Dear Lord, you are an adorable one, ain'tcha?

TT = stock. You roll customs on TT, of all places. TT is not MechWarrior, and I could dunk on you either place with stocks anyway.

You are a mendacious bitch. Neck yourself forthwith.

Ah, right.

"You can't custom in TT because I am a fucking idiot and can't do it by hand! But where all the calcs and stuff are done by the computer, of course you can custom!"
- noob retard
"This is why letting noobs playing classic games is always a mistake."
- veteran player

 

[Matalarata]

 

[Cael]

No one wants to get near those 4 flamers :D :D :D

 

[Matalarata]

No one wants to get near those 4 flamers :D :D :D

I was disappointed by flamers frankly, they mainly cause damage and the effect on heat is negligible. Dat thing is filled with SB small laz0rs, usually does quite a bit of damage but that was the wrong map for him, too many fliers. Why do I have to pay for reparashun though? Damaged feelings?

 

[Cael]

No one wants to get near those 4 flamers :D :D :D

I was disappointed by flamers frankly, they mainly cause damage and the effect on heat is negligible. Dat thing is filled with SB small laz0rs, usually does quite a bit of damage but that was the wrong map for him, too many fliers. Why do I have to pay for reparashun though? Damaged feelings?

I wouldn't be too surprised if it is. You forget who made the thing.

 

[someone else]

No one wants to get near those 4 flamers :D :D :D

I was disappointed by flamers frankly, they mainly cause damage and the effect on heat is negligible. Dat thing is filled with SB small laz0rs, usually does quite a bit of damage but that was the wrong map for him, too many fliers. Why do I have to pay for reparashun though? Damaged feelings?

I've been using flamers to personally shut down and kill mechs, just delimb a hunchback.
Don't have a Firestarter so I use a Jenner with only 4 flamers.

 

[Matalarata]

Firestarter

K' I'll give this guy a try! edit: Undecided Between that 2nd HS or another ton of JJ, we'll see...

Spoiler

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Fedora Master]

After playing some more (a lot more) I must say: The game isn't really the best, but it certainly is endearing. The buttrock soundtrack, the weird VOs... It all fits perfectly somehow.