Ideas of Mech's Modifications

[CarpeMortis]

My Atlas + jump jet DFA would like to have a word with you

True, but when I fire the AC my legs don't take damage

 

[Rhodryn]

True, but when I fire the AC my legs don't take damage

Well... that might depend... put the weapon on a Junior and you might break your legs and back firing that thing. XD

 

[Iron Legionnaire]

Personally, I think any of these would do the job better if you absolutely want an AC/20 jumping Mech:

Highlander HGN-733C
Pillager PLG-1N
Victor VTR-9B

The Victor B is even the same speed as a Hunchback, it just has less armor.

VTR-9B has 11.5t of armour...? Versus 10t for a stock HBK-4G?

I wanna like the Victor, but with the hardpoint arrangement it carries, it's just too limited as to what it can do. If you're willing to do the mods, there zero reason to take one in favour of a Zeus. Here's hoping the Stick of Hardpoint Inflation blesses it, at least a little.

 

[Exemplar Voss]

VTR-9B has 11.5t of armour...? Versus 10t for a stock HBK-4G?

I wanna like the Victor, but with the hardpoint arrangement it carries, it's just too limited as to what it can do. If you're willing to do the mods, there zero reason to take one in favour of a Zeus. Here's hoping the Stick of Hardpoint Inflation blesses it, at least a little.

I dislike the Victor pretty intensely. For an extra 30 tons and all the way into the Assault class, it just doesn't have enough over the Hunchback. The Jump Jets are nice, but not enough for a pretty mediocre assault mech. The extra punch of an assault over a medium shouldn't be an SRM4 (minus a small laser)

You can do better with a modified jagermech, even with hardpoint limits.

 

[Iron Legionnaire]

I dislike the Victor pretty intensely. For an extra 30 tons and all the way into the Assault class, it just doesn't have enough over the Hunchback. The Jump Jets are nice, but not enough for a pretty mediocre assault mech. The extra punch of an assault over a medium shouldn't be an SRM4 (minus a small laser)

You can do better with a modified jagermech, even with hardpoint limits.

I wouldn't turn up my nose at it if someone dropped it into my lap, but yeah - it's just too far on the unfortunate side of the power curve to want to go looking for it. You can also literally clone the loadout onto an Orion, pound for pound, and go a full initiative step earlier.

 

[Funkin Disher]

Hmm, where was that post I made on the old forums...

Panther: Drop PPC to LL, up SRM 4 to 6, one ton extra armor

Blackjack: Trade out the AC/2s for one AC/10, drop one ML for armor or a heatsink

Vindicator: Lose 3 heatsinks, drop PPC to LL, up LRM 5 to 15

Centurion: Drop LRM 10 for SRM 6, drop one ton of ammo to free up 3 tons for JJs, armor and/or heatsinks

Hunchback: Drop 2 heatsinks for JJs, plus half a ton of armor to swap the SL to a flamer if you feel like making a dragon

Trebuchet: Drop arm LRM 15 for SRM 4, add JJs, 2 heatsinks and a half ton of armor

Kintaro: drop one SRM 6, drop the others to 4s, up the LRM 5 to 15, drop one ton SRM ammo for heatsink if you like

Shadow Hawk: drop SRM, JJs and 2 heatsinks, swap LRM to SRM6, swap AC/5 for AC/10, add half ton armor
Shadow Hawk: drop AC and one heatsink, up SRM 2 to 4, up ML to LL, up LRM 5 to 15

Dragon: swap LRM 10 for an SRM 4, drop one ton AC and SRM ammo, up ML to LL, add one heatsink or ton of armor

Quickdraw: drop LRM10, up the SRM4 to a 6, add 2 heatsinks and 3 tons armor

Catapult: maybe drop a heatsink or two for more armor

Jagermech: drop the AC/2s for an AC/10

Thunderbolt: swap MGs for SLs, up the SRM 2 to a 4

Cataphract: drop either some heatsinks or the PPC to a LL for more armor

Grasshopper: swap LRM 5 to SRM 4

Black Knight: Drop the PPC to a ML, up the LLs to PPCs, swap the SL for a flamer, add 1.5 tons armor

Orion: drop some ammo for heatsinks
Orion: Drop AC to a 5 with one ton of ammo, drop LRMs and ammo, up SRM to a 6, up MLs to LLs, add 5 heatsinks.

Awesome: drop one PPC to a large laser, add 2 extra heatsinks

Victor: drop some ammo and/or heatsinks for armor or to up the SRM to a 6

Zeus: drop the LRM 15 for an SRM 4, up the AC/5 to a /10, drop 2 heatsinks and add 3 tons armor

Battlemaster: Drop the PPC and one ton missile ammo, up two MLs to LLs. if you like drop the SRM 6 to a 4 for an extra heatsink or armor

Stalker: drop the LRM10s to 5s, the SRM6s to 4s, up the LLs to PPCs, add 2 tons armor and 2 heatsinks

Cyclops: drop AC/20 to /10, lose two tons ammo, Swap SRM 4 and LRM 10 for two SRM 6s, add 2 heatsinks and 3 tons armor

Highlander: drop the AC/10 to a /5, swap the LRM 20 and 3 tons ammo for another SRM 6, up the MLs to LLs, add 6 heatsinks

Banshee: get a -3S

King Crab: Drop the AC/20s to /10s, up the LL to a PPC, extra ton ammo and armor

 

[Packrat]

You can make a budget Griffin out of a Panther by removing a heat sink and the jump jets, and replacing the SRM-6 with an LRM-10. The mech would require careful screening, but it would be fantastic, inexpensive fire support. Given its high degree of vulnerability, though, it may be better to keep the JJs and replace the PPC with a larger laser. This does represent a loss in range and firepower (and the EMP effect in HBS's game), but you'd have the abilities to jump out of a bad situation, defend yourself up close, and perform a DFA. Heat would also be easier to manage if you're not jumping a lot.

 

[AncientRaig]

You can make a budget Griffin out of a Panther by removing a heat sink and the jump jets, and replacing the SRM-6 with an LRM-10. The mech would require careful screening, but it would be fantastic, inexpensive fire support. Given its high degree of vulnerability, though, it may be better to keep the JJs and replace the PPC with a larger laser. This does represent a loss in range and firepower (and the EMP effect in HBS's game), but you'd have the abilities to jump out of a bad situation, defend yourself up close, and perform a DFA. Heat would also be easier to manage if you're not jumping a lot.

The only problem I see what that is that the base Griffin already struggles to fire its weapons constantly without running into heat issues. Dropping 20 tons and giving it even less heat sinks would only end up making the problem worse.

 

[ronhatch]

I wouldn't turn up my nose at it if someone dropped it into my lap, but yeah - it's just too far on the unfortunate side of the power curve to want to go looking for it. You can also literally clone the loadout onto an Orion, pound for pound, and go a full initiative step earlier.

Technically, the Victor is exactly at the sweet spot of the power curve. It is not possible for a 4/6 movement mech to have more tonnage available than an 80 ton mech.

Unfortunately for the usefulness of the Victor, while 75 ton 4/6 mechs don't have any more tonnage available, they don't have to... they match it exactly in terms of tonnage available and that's plenty good enough. With the initiative cutoff at 75, that ends up being a pretty harsh penalty for the Victor and (for that matter) the Battlemaster and Zeus.

 

[Packrat]

The only problem I see what that is that the base Griffin already struggles to fire its weapons constantly without running into heat issues. Dropping 20 tons and giving it even less heat sinks would only end up making the problem worse.

My Panther mod actually has the same number of heat sinks as the Griffin. And yeah, heat is an issue, which is why I think I like the version with the large laser more, especially since the slower Panther can't escape trouble as easily as the Griffin and the PPC version lacks jump jets.

 

[AncientRaig]

Just had an idea for a mech mod. Might require some messing around with hardpoints in the .json to get the extra energy hardpoints, but if you replace the Locust 1V's MGs and their ammo with 2 more medium lasers, you get a fairly powerful light mech and you also ditch the ammo bomb. 3 ML at 20 tons with "decent" armor and a high speed isn't much to scoff at. And since there won't be any infantry (and getting into melee with a Locust is suicidal in most cases), swapping out the MGs isn't that much of a risk.

 

[Fox the Apprentice]

[...](and getting into melee with a Locust is suicidal in most cases)[...]

We need a mission where it's our lance vs 15+ unarmed Locusts whose only choice is melee or DFA!

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

Just had an idea for a mech mod. Might require some messing around with hardpoints in the .json to get the extra energy hardpoints, but if you replace the Locust 1V's MGs and their ammo with 2 more medium lasers, you get a fairly powerful light mech and you also ditch the ammo bomb. 3 ML at 20 tons with "decent" armor and a high speed isn't much to scoff at. And since there won't be any infantry (and getting into melee with a Locust is suicidal in most cases), swapping out the MGs isn't that much of a risk.

I just tried this. I was curious if the model is actually capable of showing energy weapons and effects in the arms, which is not true for every weapon in every location on every mech. There seem to be limits, like the urbie not being able to animate any weapons in the RT, CT and Head. But for the MLs in the LCT-1Vs arms: Works fine. So it really would only be a change to the hardpointdef (or in beta just to the mechdef, because hardpoint definition seems to be needed for mechlab only if i didn't miss anything important)

 

[hewhoispale]

Does anyone know if Long Toms are available? I remember some ridiculous times using them in 1v1 lights-only MW matches.

 

[Packrat]

Does anyone know if Long Toms are available? I remember some ridiculous times using them in 1v1 lights-only MW matches.

They are not.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

They were in the beta files, but unused. And I would not expect them to be in the final release, at least not for player's use, as they are too large to mount to any 3025 mech I'm aware of. And weight 30 tons, had insane ranges (minimum range more than 1 map wide) and used no ammo. I think they were meant to be for some sort of artillery support ability that most likely was canceled with the whole "combined arms" thing.

 

[CuCulainn]

Wer already have similar thread in good ol' forum, and since we already start to get an amount of the Hard-Points on some mechs I think it could be nice to share our ideas about the changes in mechs we want to see,

Vindicator:
Downgrade PPC to Large Laser, drop 1 Heat Sink and add 3 Medium Lasers. Now we have a quiet mean mech that can either fight on a long distance (LL + LRM-5), or close distance (4 ML)

All of the Mechlab screenshots I've seen show hardpoints for exactly the weapons mounted hope that changes a bit.

 

[AncientRaig]

I just tried this. I was curious if the model is actually capable of showing energy weapons and effects in the arms, which is not true for every weapon in every location on every mech. There seem to be limits, like the urbie not being able to animate any weapons in the RT, CT and Head. But for the MLs in the LCT-1Vs arms: Works fine. So it really would only be a change to the hardpointdef (or in beta just to the mechdef, because hardpoint definition seems to be needed for mechlab only if i didn't miss anything important)

Nice. I assumed it would be since the MGs go in "support" hardpoints, which also include small lasers and the visual model for the small laser should be the same as the one for the medium. By the way, how exactly are you accessing the game still? AFAIK the Beta is unusable now and the only people with early access copies are streamers and the like.

 

[44th MAC|Bonsai]

Nice. I assumed it would be since the MGs go in "support" hardpoints, which also include small lasers and the visual model for the small laser should be the same as the one for the medium. By the way, how exactly are you accessing the game still? AFAIK the Beta is unusable now and the only people with early access copies are streamers and the like.

Yes, I suspected this, too, but wanted to try out. I backed up my files from steam before the beta went offline, so I'm still able to play it.