I see all kinds of loadouts to optimize our mechs. All are amazing and informative: a great work. Sad part of this is the vast majority of the builds are quite expensive (quite= a lot!). Of course people are aiming at the best loadout possible so it's quite obvious it will be expensive. That's fine. What i'm thinking about is how to turn a fresh buy mech into a "decent war machine" without spending a lot. It will help new players, or people that does not have loads of credits. Calling those kind of loadouts with the "Stone Broke" callsing could help to identify the cheapest build possible that turn a stock mech into something viable. I think that building an effective loadout with (let's say) less than 2 million could be challenging and fun even for the most experienced "builder" around here! This is a concept for the BlackJack: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=77&l=78e9d80f890bceff464c9ac7ac82e8beb30e8949 Cya on the Battlefield!
The problem with this approach isn't so much the weapons as it is the upgrades; Double Heat Sinks and Endo Steel alone puts you close to that 2 million cbill mark and 99% of the time DHS and Endo ARE what make a "decent war machine". Otherwise, might as well run stock.
... and some mechs you don't really want to play with Stock-Engine.. e.g. all Lights! about your suggestion: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=77&l=78e9d80f890bceff464c9ac7ac82e8beb30e8949 No, you don't really want to play the Blackjack at 65-71kph, it's so damn aweful My suggestion is to look which Mechs have Engines, which you can use in other Mechs, so you don't really need to buy extra Engines! [hr] Another idea, if you really want to stick to the Stockengine, would be to look which of the Stockweapons you can keep and which you can drop to free tonnage for lots of SHS. Activate ES and FF and you can have extra free tonnage. Load at least 20 SHS and the Cool Efficiency should be ok. e.g. for the BJ-1: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=77&l=d5aa84d520b60f22593003c534d64a4e8d8b3fef or BJ-1X: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=79&l=65f460997d18ef4feb8a164665ffdbe878c06b9d
The thing is, if you need cbills you can get it by grinding on the mech you ALREADY HAVE UPGRADED. If you are total n00b and you are running the current trial mechs they are already upgraded in various forms also. With the n00b bonus you will be able to afford a light/medium with extra cbills to fully tooled out your mech. By the time you finish leveling you should be able to afford your next light/medium mech and tool it out. After that you have a stash of weapons and what not so your next mech tooled out would be easier, just 2mill plus mech cost usually. Remember, you can grind on for xp even if you finish basic, you need those xp for the elite level.
^^ the term Enileph is talking about is called "banking XP". Just because you haven't unlocked Elite level you can still grind your XP and CBills until such a time as you do so once your mech is fully fitted you can use it as your money maker until you can afford to purchase and fully outfit the next in your line of grinding.
Lot of hints and tips to read! Thnx for the replies and the help. The "all medium" BJ is interesting as well al all other suggested builds.
If you have 1.5 million cbills, the best thing you can do is put DHS on a 'mech. In order to be viable in this game, it really seems like you need to have ~20 pts of cooling/second. It's either that, or try to strap a Gauss rifle to it.
I happened to build a mech today that would probably qualify - I think it cost 840k or so, mostly because I had to buy the ER lasers. Since SHs were crap even before the heat nerf I never much bothered with them but since the conversion is one of the most expensive single purchases I went the other way: I removed as much as possible to make room for some mmm-kay main armament and secondary lights & sounds, AMS for added protection then filled it up with SHs. It's somewhat down the line of my Trebuchet L.C.B., less armament rather than overgunning it, in order to keep it firing longer before shutdown. I only had a few matches but it performs pretty decend, especially considering that it's mostly stock with a few inexpensive upgrades. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=114&l=c2204643498dfdada1268879d280452afea5d559
The biggest problem with trying to use energy weapons is that they require so many heatsinks. Your primary weapons are one of the hottest weapons in the game. The AC/5 takes 7 HS to run cool, the ER Large Laser requires 20 (LLas needs 17). I think the player would be better off with 2xAC/5(w/ 3 tons of ammo), 2xSSRM2 (w/ 1 ton of ammo), 12HS, 400 armor. This leaves 1.5 tons for either 1 ton of AC/5 ammo w/ case, AMS, or BAP. If they run with BAP, that'd (arguably) be the most useful part of the build. The streaks are the hottest part of the build, but at--4 tons--they provide of of the best ratios of damage/heat for their tonnage. [Reserved for smurfy post]
You say less than 2mil right? Here, turn this into a missile boat. I move things around the mech, and turn it into an LRM. I actually add DHS on this, so you can actually upgrade the weapons into other builds you can find here in mechspecs when you have the cbills, or when you get weapons from other mechs you have. Basically all you need at max is Endo, the rest are just reusable weapons you move from mech to mech. The tag is great for targeting ... and that goes into increased cbills income too. I assume that this is your Phoenix mech so you won't sell it, mind as well give it something nice like DHS, and endo later on when you have the cbills. http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab#i=114&l=bdeca37bc35bf73aa497ac7b5403c4f52dc6410e
