Quickdraw

[Ozymandious]

I know this has probably been pounded to death on the old forums, but, I was recently trying and failing to use a quickdraw and for to wondering what's the point of this mech. Couldn't a medium do its job better and cheeper. What am I missing. As I know my tactical skills are only slightly greater than those of an uncooked turnip I thought I would reach out to the community and ask "how do you get the QuickDraw to do good?"

 

[Juodas Varnas]

Couldn't a medium do its job better and cheeper. What am I missing.

You're not really missing much, if you ask me.
That's kind of the thing with 60 tonners - 55 tonners usually can do their job better (in HBS Battletech it's even more prominent due to the initiative system).

Quickdraw is probably best at bullying smaller mechs or using its jump jets to get behind targets for a nasty blow before jumping away to try to cool off.

 

[Faenaris]

This is something that I also would love to hear some tips and tricks about. The Quickdraw seems like a fragile, yet mobile gun platform. At least, when I use it. Do you use it as a flanker? Cavalry support?

 

[Ozymandious]

I just tend to use it to stop enemy ordinance from damaging the ground. But then the quickdraw explodes and tears up the lawn anyway. Pretty sure I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Juodas Varnas]

I just tend to use it to stop enemy ordinance from damaging the ground. But then the quickdraw explodes and tears up the lawn anyway.

 

[Mojo Amok]

The math on the Quickdraw's construction works out badly for it - specifically, in that it pays more than the 55-ton mechs for its speed. Then, like all 40-60-80 ton mechs, it gets penalized in the initiative system we have to where an Urban Mech can activate two full phases before it, despite having paid almost nothing for its engines.

And at least at one point, the Quickdraw also had a melee malus applied against it compared to what you'd expect from the weight.

Other than that, it's great.

Overall I really like the translation of the systems, but that some mechs are winners and some are losers is not my favorite part and the Quickdraw is just one example. For example, look at how much the Battlemaster and Zeus are paying to move one additional hex per turn compared to the Awesome (which is worse than the poor deal they were getting in TT based on the rebalancing of the movement curve that HBS did). Well, I say 'look'....actually I'm going from memory as I didn't back up the Beta files; but it's a bad deal for them.

 

[Cyttorak001]

It actually used to be even worse. TRO fluff mentioned something about weak ankle joints, so the devs gave it a penalty to melee. While on the one hand we appreciated the attention to detail, in this case the 'Mech already started with a couple of strikes against it (high price, low armor, not much range) and it didn't need to have its melee nerfed as well. We complained and they changed it largely back to where it should've been. It won't actually be a terrible headhunter once you get it into the Mechlab.

 

[Mojo Amok]

This is something that I also would love to hear some tips and tricks about.

Mod the game files.

 

[jss78]

The BT construction rules really work against the Quickdraw. Compared to 55 tonner, you jump jets weigh twice as much, and your engine 3.5 tons more, just to get to same mobility. Of course there's always a premium on speed, but hitting that jump jet threshold doesn't help.

All that said, IMO they're perfectly fine generalist 'mechs -- you just have to ignore that designation "heavy", and take them for what they are.

 

[Silver Fox]

I use it as a screen for my other fast-ish mechs to get to flanking positions when possible.

 

[Ozymandious]

So what would you say the best role for the mech is? Its loadout says brawler to me but it brawls like a sickly goldfish.

 

[Packrat]

Short of taking it to the mechlab? The Quickdraw is a serviceable harasser and skirmisher platform, good against light mechs and lower-end mediums against which it has good armor and firepower with the mobility to keep up, and decent against 3/5 assaults with its ability to get behind them and unleash an attack that can devastate their rear armor, then easily disengage. Where it has problems is against 50-55 ton mediums, fellow heavies, and 4/6 assaults, which are usually much better at something that the Quickdraw is merely decent at, while the Quickdraw lacks any strengths of its own to leverage against them.

 

[Ozymandious]

Well that explains why it always goes boom when I take it to an even fight. Its built to hunt lights duh. Thank you for the insight, and the back attack would be good too if I can get it close enough before it explodes. Cover is the quickdraws friend.

 

[Cyttorak001]

So what would you say the best role for the mech is? Its loadout says brawler to me but it brawls like a sickly goldfish.

If you don't take it to the MechLab, its best role is probably as point defense for your snipers. Its LRM 10 can add a tiny bit of fire support to the effort, but its job is to backstab anyone who gets too close.
If you take it to the MechLab, ditch the LRM 10 completely and use the tonnage for armor and maybe a heatsink or two. Then the QKD is a brawler.

 

[Galaga Galaxian]

The Quickdraw may not be the best mech ever, but I bet most of us will happily use it during the merc campaign if we manage to salvage one together.

 

[Cyttorak001]

The Quickdraw may not be the best mech ever, but I bet most of us will happily use it during the merc campaign if we manage to salvage one together.

Not necessarily. Whatever its job is, it probably has to do it pretty well or else the cost of running it will bankrupt you. The problem with brawlers is that they're guaranteed to be soaking up damage. Sometimes snipers are able to kill the enemy before they are in danger, and in that case are much cheaper to run.

 

[Galaga Galaxian]

Yeah, but when you're building one out of salvage, you're free to add in extra armor since its starts out a bare chassis with no guns/sinks/etc

 

[Mojo Amok]

The tragedy is that it actually looks really nice.

With so few mechs in the game, I really don't like having clunkers. I'll probably mod my JSON files to make it 4/6 to free up some tonnage (considering that it already has a late activation). Then, I'll either drop the overpriced Jump Jets in the JSON files or just do that in the Mechlab when I get one.

Alternatively, I could just completely ditch it and instead use the model as a Crusader, which is one of my absolute favorites (both Aesthetically and then for the Pew-Pew loadout). It says a lot about how nice the Quickdraw looks that I'd use it as a Crusader.

 

[Juodas Varnas]

The tragedy is that it actually looks really nice.
With so few mechs in the game, I really don't like having clunkers. I'll probably mod my JSON files to make it 4/6 to free up some tonnage (considering that it already has a late activation). Then, I'll either drop the overpriced Jump Jets in the JSON files or just do that in the Mechlab when I get one.

Alternatively, I could just completely ditch it and instead use the model as a Crusader, which is one of my absolute favorites (both Aesthetically and then for the Pew-Pew loadout). It says a lot about how nice the Quickdraw looks that I'd use it as a Crusader.

I, for one, am not a big fan of the way Quickdraw's in-game model looks, but that's probably because of how much better the Concept art looked.
So much more sleek and dynamic, while the in-game model is very chunky (especially the arms)

 

[HBS_InspectorHound]

The Quickdraw may not be the best mech ever, but I bet most of us will happily use it during the merc campaign if we manage to salvage one together.

THIS! When I’m staring at the Timeline and my next Financial Report is coming up BEFORE my favorite Mechs are expected to be done being repaired... and that damn ‘Bankruptcy’ warning is mocking me from the sidebar. Well, dammit, I’m gonna field whatever 4 Mechs are fit for duty. I love it!
(Side note: come on, Brian! git gud!)