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MechWarrior Online - News and Information Thread

Discobird

Member
Why would they remove FPS counter just so they can rework it?

http://www.reddit.com/r/mwo/comments/1gld5h/june_18th_patch_notes/calbeyn

My guess as to the reason that they pulled fps/pos is that Mish, myself and other coders like us are able to use the (x, y, z) coordinate information given by this readout to establish exact memory locations where mech position is stored. This, and reading out this information is the basic premmis behind the memory scraping tool that Mish hacked up a while back.

Suppose one were to sync drop 8man teams, and have everyone read off their spawn (x, y, z) tripple. This uniquely locates in RAM the position information for every mech on the field under the current 8man game model and is all the information one would need to build an aimbot. Need I go on?

Mish an I never took that second step, but we sure as hell knew how to and with the aimbot rumors flying around I'm sure that several other teams have. It's not like this sort of memory hacking is hard at all given a modicum of background in systems programming.

Without this "known value" tripple to look for building an aimbot from scratch becomes much harder as it requires one to reverse engineer much of the game itself rather than simply take a ram dump and search for these known values, massively increasing the skill level required for one to construct an aimbot or other cheats from scratch and freeing PGI to take defensive measures such as randomizing their memory layout to defeat existing aimbots.

I don't know why they couldn't just remove the location portion and leave the FPS counter in but oh well.
 

Llyranor

Member
I'm enjoying the Quickdraw. I find not to be high-damage builds, but they're actually surprisingly survivable in prolonged brawls. Got the 4H first. Decided to go standard engine and go brawling/'zombie' mode. STD300, endo, FF, DHS, 1 JJ.
L arm 1 medlas
L torso art4+art6
R arm 1 LL
R torso 2 medlas

One thing that's weird is if you put the srm4 first and then the srm6, the 6 comes in a sidelauncher that only has 5 slots. But if you put the srm6 first, it comes in a 6launcher, and the 4 comes in a 5launcher. But, in-game it reverts back to sticking the srm6 in the 5launcher.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Bought QKD-4H, equip it, test it, play one match... and get my first team kill of this summer.
/facepalm

The cockpit feels a bit cramped but otherwise the mech feels pretty good based on one game.
 

Llyranor

Member
How are the hitboxes on the Quickdraw?

Er, they're ok. People have been hitting the side torsos frequently, as well as the CT. Putting an XL on this thing might be risky, though I guess it'd work on a longer-range build.

I've finished a few fights missing a leg and a side torso :D

Maaaan, I'm really enjoying brawling in this thing. It combines the fun elements of the dragon (speed and armor) and treb (weapon loadout, JJ), and even better it works with a standard engine for great survivability.

Oh yeah, people really like to go for the Quick's legs. I downgraded my srm6 to a 4 and just pumped up the armor.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
One thing that's weird is if you put the srm4 first and then the srm6, the 6 comes in a sidelauncher that only has 5 slots. But if you put the srm6 first, it comes in a 6launcher, and the 4 comes in a 5launcher. But, in-game it reverts back to sticking the srm6 in the 5launcher.

According to PGI this is an 'artistic' choice.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
Yeah, now that they're seperating out hardpoints like this they really need to give the player the option to pick which one they use. Maybe with UI 2.0.
 

Woorloog

Banned
I have a feeling i need an XL engine to free up some weight for Quickdraw... Can't afford one though. And the mech can be quite sturdy with Standard, as long as i play carefully.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
Yeah, haven't tried it yet, but I'm dubious of the Quickdraw being a suitable XL platform due to its large STs. I mean, at that point I'd sooner just take a Dragon and have a Ballistic slot to make use of, which can actually utilise the extra weight properly vs say, two PPCs which are going to overheat you really fast for only 5 more damage per salvo without being able to fit enough heatsinks to really make it worthwhile.

I'm actually not yet convined by PPCs on the QD in general since they don't fit that well with its skirmishing role.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Yeah, haven't tried it yet, but I'm dubious of the Quickdraw being a suitable XL platform due to its large STs. I mean, at that point I'd sooner just take a Dragon and have a Ballistic slot to make use of, which can actually utilise the extra weight properly vs say, two PPCs which are going to overheat you really fast for only 5 more damage per salvo without being able to fit enough heatsinks to really make it worthwhile.

I'm actually not yet convined by PPCs on the QD in general since they don't fit that well with its skirmishing role.

I don't use PPCs :)
Pure brawler builds for me, SRMs and Medium (Pulse) lasers. Perhaps an LRM for softening enemies, and getting some assists.
But still i feel i need extra tonnage, for ammo mostly, BAP, AMS. EDIT extra DHS too. And most especially extra speed.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
I don't use PPCs :)

Then don't use an XL, extra ranged firepower is pretty much the only reason you should at medium weight or above. The equipment/ammo you gain is worthless vs the decreased longevity, particually at brawling ranges and harrassing LRMs are pretty much a complete waste of tonnage (a pretty large waste at that, you'd be better off using that same tonnage to replace an MPL with an LL).
 

Woorloog

Banned
Then don't use an XL, extra ranged firepower is pretty much the only reason you should at medium weight or above. The equipment/ammo you gain is worthless vs the decreased longevity, particually at brawling ranges and harrassing LRMs are pretty much a complete waste of tonnage (a pretty large waste at that, you'd be better off using that same tonnage to replace an MPL with an LL).

I need extra speed, 81KPH is not enough really (it is just fine for a firesupport Blackjack but not for a brawler, especially one size of a Quickdraw). Upgrading to higher rated standard engine is not an option unless i strip of everything from my mech. I'm talking about getting at least 10KPH extra speed, before speed tweak.

Extra ammo and equipment would be worth it, i think, even ignoring extra speed. Ideally i'd equip my SRMs with Artemis, and a ton or two extra ammo, along with a couple of DHS at least. And upgrade my Medium Lasers to Pulse versions (the shorter duration and extra damage help me a lot, jerky framerate makes holding the beam steady difficult) since i noticed i cannot carry them at the moment.
Extra Jump Jets would be nice too.

This is ignoring the extra vulnerability, of course, which i haven't been able to test myself yet (and i see some people claiming XL is safe in Quickdraw, others claim it is not but no clear majority either way). I could test the mech with an XL by taking my Catapult's XL engine, but since it is only 260, my Quickdraw would be so slow it would make testing nigh-impossible.

The LRM is for getting assists from long range more than for actual damage. Trying to get every C-bill i can from each match, never have enough... That said, i won't need it if i can close-in to weapon range faster.

EDIT this is what i'm thinking about, QKD-4H. Not final though. EDIT without Artemis, i'd have an extra DHS and two Jump Jets.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
I need extra speed, 81KPH is not enough really (it is just fine for a firesupport Blackjack but not for a brawler, especially one size of a Quickdraw). Upgrading to higher rated standard engine is not an option unless i strip of everything from my mech. I'm talking about getting at least 10KPH extra speed, before speed tweak.

81 is fine for a Brawler and the build you posted only brings you up to 87 anyway while killing your ability to deflect damage with your sides (pretty important for a brawler huh). The point is that if you're going to use an XL on a QD then you might as well be using a Dragon which is better for that in every way save jumpjets. Hell, a treb can get the same firepower on it too if you don't care about survivability, which seems like the case if you're putting an XL on a QD because an 8% speed boost isn't going to help when you can be one-shotted by an alpha mech and can't use your sides to keep you in the fight, even in a crippled state.

I mean, if you want to skirmish rather than brawl in a QD then fine, but in that case you need some longer range weapons (like LLs), at which point the weight saving from the XL actually makes sense since you're 'paying' for range on the lasers and the survivability matters less because you don't have to get into peoples faces (though you do have that option, and would have more firepower when you did than your current XL build does).

Also, if you're trying to save money, buying an arguable XL engine is a bit 'huh?' in the first place. If you want to actually make money, play in an orginised team with mechs that are proven to work, the increased win rate will do your farming for you so that you don't need to piss around with questionable tertiary weapons with the goal of getting kill assists rather than really helping.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Oops, wrong engine, didn't think that build through. Needs some retooling. 330 would be better, 8KPH faster than 300, and then speed tweak later on. Or 340, though i'll have to sacrifice one DHS. Or i could get rid of the AMS and upgrade the engine to 350...
Anyway, 81KPH is definitely not fine for me.

Not actually sure if what i do is brawling in proper sense. It is more like killing my enemy before they can hurt me... Non-standard (as in, something-else-than-heavy-hitter-weapons) glass-cannoning? Only, i do it up close, not at range. Don't like sniping. Long range firesupport is all right but alpha sniping? Meh. Hate playing the standard meta (which is almost purely sniping in my experience. Horribly boring. PGI claimed to avoid that with more urban maps, but that ended up being bullshit).
EDIT if i could, i'd wield two hatchets and go beat the crap out my enemies in melee. Hell, punches would be enough.

I've died mostly from CT shots though, lost my side torsos only twice (the first time i also lost all my weapons, even CT SRM4...) even when spreading damage across my mech. I reckon i could stay relatively long in the game even with an XL. And if i start losing my side torso weapons, i'm going to be useless anyway, since most of my firepower is packed in them.
Unfortunately testing this is going to be tough since i cannot afford an XL yet, and i'm not sure i'd have any use for a XL 330-350 otherwise.

PPCs and skirmishing: Not going to use QKD-4H/G for that (i'll reserve them for "brawling"), but 5K? Might work: Twin PPCs, SRM4, 2xML and 2xSL (ie mini-Warhammer) EDIT this is just a concept i saw somewhere, looking at it in Smurfy's, it ain't good, gotta swap the lasers to something else.
EDIT here's a better version of that 5K: QKD-5K. SPLS are for close defense. Arguably Medium Lasers could be better... but having something else for a change is fun.
EDIT i'm afraid i won't be hitting anything with those PPCs though. Have bad experiences with them.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
Not actually sure if what i do is brawling in proper sense. It is more like killing my enemy before they can hurt me... Non-standard (as in, something-else-than-heavy-hitter-weapons) glass-cannoning? Only, i do it up close, not at range.

Sounds exactly like brawling, you've made a slightly upgunned Hunchback 4SP and you're using it at close range to damage people while manovering around their lines of fire, the thing is, if you die in a heavy brawl without having lost at least one of your torsos first then you're playing the build sub-optimally, particually since half the point of brawling is in forcing hostile mechs to target you while your fire support mechs tear them a new one. Otherwise you're having to rely on their own lack of situational awareness since the standard QD is in the sad middle ground of not being fast enough to chase down lighter skirmishers and not being strong enough to take on heavier brawlers, while having no weapons to engage either at a safe range.

With that top build you have to play to the strength of a QD that can run down mediums and prioritise doing that while flanking anything larger while it's distracted because you're really not a linefighter with an XL engine inside ML range (which brings me back to 'might as well be using a Dragon').

With the second build you've got a nice fire support mini-awesome mech (watch out though, QDs get legged and you've got low armour there). Personally I'd drop the SRM4 for extra HSs since one on its own isn't worth much, and while I know you love your symmetry the second JJ is wasted tonnage, drop that alone and you can fix up your legs.
For SPLs I need to test if the buff actually made them worth a crap vs MLs.

Of course, this is all based on my own ELO which is high enough that people tend to automatically know when you have an XL and are skilled enough to target it. You can probably get away with it much better down the foodchain (which isn't me saying that you're bad, just that you play less and solo so it's likely that you're in a lower ELO bracket).
 

Woorloog

Banned
Definitely in a low ELO bracket. I don't play often, and yes, always solo (never got around adding people here to my friend list).

I think my builds, the way i play the game would work much better if this game had proper role warfare, bigger matches, and much more even distribution of mech weight-classes in matches.
You noted that the previous build can run down mediums... I reckon the build could be called a "Medium-Hunter", a job it could do well since it has more armor but similar maneuverability and slightly more firepower. I think that my builds end up being good at very specialized roles in theory, but in practice they're sub-par. SRMs for example, should be good crit-weapons in theory, so these Quickdraws would make good mechs for exploiting breached armor, only critting is kinda pointless at the moment.
(Reminds me of Warhammer's canon description, which states that the mech is "designed to destroy or severely damage a mech of its weight-class or lower".)

EDIT i don't need more than one ton armor per leg, if people shoot me in the legs, upping it to 40 or so won't help me. Luckily they don't shoot my legs. Usually.
At least... until the game proves me wrong.
EDIT also, i don't think i have to worry about fighting heavy brawlers. I never see 'em in my games, unless JagerBomb counts.

I could, of course, play the usual meta... but where's the fun in that?

(Unfortunate that my mouse doesn't have more buttons, i'd swap one Medium Laser for a Flamer for blinding my enemies... Most certainly something most wouldn't expect, and probably infuriating)

Also, it occurred to me that i'd love to see a Mechwarrior MOBA: Players have Mechs, creeps are infantry and tanks. Would make anti-infantry weapons useful, along with various roles being really important. EDIT and yes, i'm talking about a first person Mech simulator MOBA. Don't see why it wouldn't work. Perhaps it wouldn't be a MOBA strictly speaking, since it wouldn't be like an RTS but the basic idea should work.
 

Llyranor

Member
Man, really love brawling in the quickdraw. Fighting in a prolonged brawl, maneuvering and flanking with the speed and JJ, staying in the fight despite having mech parts blown off here and there (while still retaining some damage potential given how spread out the weapon loadout is). I can't attest to its ultimate efficacy yet, but it's definitely an incredibly FUN mech, totally fits my playstyle. I think 80-100kph usually hits my sweet spot.

From the other variants, I'll test out the viability of the XL. For the 4G I'm trying out the 4LL adaptation from my Flame (300XL). 18 instead of 19dhs, but with the benefit of the JJ. On the swaydraw, I'll test a faster build, XL350 (94kph) 20 DHS 1erppc 5 medlas, though I feel like it might need some adjusting.
 

Discobird

Member
For some reason people have immediately grasped that it's a good idea to leg Quickdraws thanks to their narrowish CTs, but this thinking hasn't caught on when it comes to Cents yet. Still see Cents survive way longer than they should because people try to hit their tiny CTs and end up wasting damage on both side torsos instead of just legging them.

Stalkers are really vulnerable to legging too, and resistant to coring, but since they often snipe with their high mounted arms their legs are often out of view so it makes sense that they don't get legged as often.

For SPLs I need to test if the buff actually made them worth a crap vs MLs.

They are pretty good now. I ran with a 6x SPLAS Jenner last night and had good results. They now have 13% better damage/heat ratio than MLASes, which doesn't sound like much, but since their raw DPS is also about the same as MLASes that translates to a straight sustained DPS advantage on paper.

In practice the short range is a big problem. In my Jenner it's hard to stay within 90m of a bigger target without slowing down. The small pulses are less suited for hit and run and better suited for hugging isolated targets or targets in a brawl if no one's focusing you (which, admittedly, most people won't do when they see red lasers coming from you). You are totally helpless against anything with a lot of streaks, even moreso than if you had medium lasers. This is probably less of an issue for larger laser boats like the Blackjack 1X or Hunchback 4P, but then you're significantly slower and it's harder to close within 90m of people without getting chunked.

The biggest advantage of the small pulses is in dueling other lights where the halved beam duration and better heat efficiency make a huge difference. Way easier to leg another light with 6 small pulses than 6 mediums. So the way I've been playing my small pulse Jenner is to hunt lights that overextend into our lines and otherwise wait for the bigger mechs to start brawling at REALLY close range before I engage.

I might try a mix of mediums and small pulses next just to see if that's better than 6 of either.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
EDIT i don't need more than one ton armor per leg, if people shoot me in the legs, upping it to 40 or so won't help me. Luckily they don't shoot my legs. Usually.

54, half a ton is almost 20 points of armour, and the point isn't so much that it's harder to leg you, it's that people don't try to after accidently hitting you in the leg with a guass and seeing the armour turn red. If you're not finding it a problem then it doesn't matter, of course, but 35 is under what I would consider safe for a mech that relies on speed.

EDIT:

For some reason people have immediately grasped that it's a good idea to leg Quickdraws thanks to their narrowish CTs

There we go.

They are pretty good now. I ran with a 6x SPLAS Jenner last night and had good results. They now have 13% better damage/heat ratio than MLASes, which doesn't sound like much, but since their raw DPS is also about the same as MLASes that translates to a straight sustained DPS advantage on paper.

I'm going to have to give this a try, might be worth rebuying a Jenner F just for that.
 

Discobird

Member
I'm going to have to give this a try, might be worth rebuying a Jenner F just for that.

Unless PGI's heat changes totally fuck them over, Jenner Fs will be the best lights bar none after Streaks get nerfed to target side torsos as well as CT.

Actually I think they're already the best lights but I could see arguments for the Jenner D and Raven 3L being at the same tier right now. Certainly everything else besides those three is significantly worse (Spider 5D used to be up there but the JJ shake mauled it).
 

Nickiepoo

Member
Yeah, I sold my F to free up my slot since I had my founders D and back when I hardcored Jenners (pre-ECM) the streaks made them the god of lights. A laser focused light is something I've missed anyway so that seems like something neat to fill in the time after the QDs are mastered in two weeks or so.
 

Llyranor

Member
For the record, I've been legged as a Qdraw with MAX leg armor, and there have been a few games already where I finish with no leg armor on one or both sides (or just missing a leg!).
 

Lime

Member
Been out of the game for a while now, I simply don't have the time to play a multiplayer game without much progress. I like the support they're giving the game and it's cool to see the usual suspects in this thread talk about builds, variants, and so on :lol

Anyway, this might interest the singleplayer-oriented Mechwarrior fans: A friend of mine tweeted this to Russ Bullock yesterday and he replied with this:

kickstartermechwarrioenqtj.png


Take it as you will.
 

Woorloog

Banned
There we go.

Low skill bracket, people are stupid :)

EDIT Duh, people started legging. Though i'm convinced it is half-accidental.
And Quickdraw makes a great zombie. In this one match, i lose my right torso, and thus 3/4ths of my lasers. Then i lose my left torso, losing 2/3rds of my SRM4s. Ah, no matter, i still have one SRM4... and... boom! There goes one Jenner, presumably from a CT crit.
Perhaps i'll keep the Standard, since XLs are so expensive, i'd rather get another Quickdraw variant ASAP.
This is what i cooked up for 5K: QKD-5K
Posted the previous version with an XL earlier, this one will last longer.

Also, it is very stupid one Jump Jet is more than enough for most maneuvering and climbing situations. There is practically no advantage of having multiple ones... they need to make the fuel amount and recharge speed scale with JJs, and even more than that, canyon walls should be really unclimbable without JJs.
 

Llyranor

Member
I've been pondering lately that maybe an energy system would actually help balance out this game. As it is, it's a complete wreck, hence all the nicknames the game gets. Before PPC boating was popular, it was streakcats, or splatcats, or boomcats (which have come full circle with the jager). It feels as though an energy could help put an end to that.

I'm not a game designer, so the numbers may be a little off. I'm not sure about the total number yet, but let's say a PPC generates 8 points of energy. So if you shoot 1 --> 8 pts; 2 --> 16 pts, etc. But, instead of a linear progression (5 ppcs = 40, 6 ppcs = 48) which doesn't really penalize high alpha build, you could implement an energy penalty for increasing numbers of ppcs fired at the same time.

Here's an example for PPCs
1 = 8
2 = 16
3 = 24
4 = 32 + 10 penalty = 42 energy
5 = 40 + 10 + 10 = 60 energy
6 = 48 + 10 + 10 + 20 (so that it's more costly the higher number of ppcs you have) = 88

Thoughts?
 

Nickiepoo

Member
Low skill bracket, people are stupid :)

EDIT Duh, people started legging. Though i'm convinced it is half-accidental.
And Quickdraw makes a great zombie. In this one match, i lose my right torso, and thus 3/4ths of my lasers. Then i lose my left torso, losing 2/3rds of my SRM4s. Ah, no matter, i still have one SRM4... and... boom! There goes one Jenner, presumably from a CT crit.
Perhaps i'll keep the Standard, since XLs are so expensive, i'd rather get another Quickdraw variant ASAP.
This is what i cooked up for 5K: QKD-5K
Posted the previous version with an XL earlier, this one will last longer.

Also, it is very stupid one Jump Jet is more than enough for most maneuvering and climbing situations. There is practically no advantage of having multiple ones... they need to make the fuel amount and recharge speed scale with JJs, and even more than that, canyon walls should be really unclimbable without JJs.

Personally I find a single streak to be not worth the tonnage since you're unlikely to get through even a single ton of ammo in a match and it's very spread and unreliable damage. You could replace it with two extra SPLs (which would give you a decent backup punch for when things get in range) but that's just niggling the secondary functions of what looks like a pretty solid mech.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Personally I find a single streak to be not worth the tonnage since you're unlikely to get through even a single ton of ammo in a match and it's very spread and unreliable damage. You could replace it with two extra SPLs (which would give you a decent backup punch for when things get in range) But that's just niggling the secondary functions of what looks like a pretty solid mech.

Would prefer to have some weapon in the center torso should i lose everything else, one last spit in the face of an enemy. SRM4 would be slightly better (and would use up the ammo faster) but i have to sacrifice half a ton of armor (from legs probably, i still lose my arms more often than legs, of course evenly taking it is another possibility). Sacrificing a DHS is another possibility but not a very good one, i think.

Too bad the mech doesn't have two CT missile hardpoints, 2xSRM4 would be wonderful for a zombie mech.
 

PSYGN

Member
It'd be cool if the lasers actually sliced the skinny pine trees as the mech strafed. I don't even know if that would be realistic or not; just a thought as I watched through some gameplay.
 

El'Kharn

Member
Not getting much love from the Quickdraw. QKD 4h Running 1 erppc 3mlas and 3 streaks with an anti missile system. also running a 295xl in it. having some success but not as much as i'd like to....cant settle on a non xl fit tho
 

Nickiepoo

Member
I'm really starting to think that more so than most mechs, the success of a 'standard' Quickdraw (mixed lasers and SRMs) is much more to do with the overall skill of the pilot than the build itself. 'but Nick, isn't that the case with most mechs!' well no, because of the dangerous middle ground that the QD sits in, not heavy enough to bring super armour and weapons, not light enough to easily kite away from a showdown, situational awareness and the ability to spread damage all around your own body while sniping off individual hostile components makes it really demanding on the Pilot.

The games when I've done best in this thing (which has been getting pretty regular) are the games where I've been left standing with 25-30% left on my mech status, missing a leg, a torso, all of my armour and having dished out 300-400 damage. It's a literal ship-of-the-line, first in to draw the firepower and fast enough to force the hostile team to move and turn to keep firing on you while your allies tear them up unharrassed.

Doing all that while keeping yourself safe is about as close to the line as you can stomp and it's proving quite the rush.
 

El'Kharn

Member
I'm really starting to think that more so than most mechs, the success of a 'standard' Quickdraw (mixed lasers and SRMs) is much more to do with the overall skill of the pilot than the build itself. 'but Nick, isn't that the case with most mechs!' well no, because of the dangerous middle ground that the QD sits in, not heavy enough to bring super armour and weapons, not light enough to easily kite away from a showdown, situational awareness and the ability to spread damage all around your own body while sniping off individual hostile components makes it really demanding on the Pilot.

The games when I've done best in this thing (which has been getting pretty regular) are the games where I've been left standing with 25-30% left on my mech status, missing a leg, a torso, all of my armour and having dished out 300-400 damage. It's a literal ship-of-the-line, first in to draw the firepower and fast enough to force the hostile team to move and turn to keep firing on you while your allies tear them up unharrassed.

Doing all that while keeping yourself safe is about as close to the line as you can stomp and it's proving quite the rush.

I think i've been over fitting it. started mixing a standard 300 engine on a 5K with 2med pulse,4 med las and a streak or srm4 launcher depending but only with 1 ton of ammo.
I'm begining to have more fun now that i know what not to do with it.
 

Orayn

Member
It'd be cool if the lasers actually sliced the skinny pine trees as the mech strafed. I don't even know if that would be realistic or not; just a thought as I watched through some gameplay.

Yeah, trees aren't destructible yet. That's probably coming with the full release near the end of the summer.
 

teepo

Member
a hot fix came out earlier today to address the bugged srm's:

http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/123395-june-20th-10am-pdt-ping-hotfix/


in the three games i played running my 4H that's equipped with 4x ML, 2x SRM6+A and a SRM4+A, i managed to get at least three kills per match which is a massive improvement from how i was previously performing. srm's don't seem to have problems with hit detection anymore but they still need a slight buff in damage to give them that extra punch which it so desperately needs.
 

Discobird

Member
Played some more 6x small pulse Jenner last night, goddamn that build is fun. Here's what I'm running. 15 DHS, 1 JJ, 300XL.

Love the heat efficiency and the 0.5s beam duration on the small pulses. Especially the heat efficiency. With all mech efficiencies unlocked, the build above can safely fire an alpha without shutting down at 79% heat. It only takes 4.6 seconds to cool down from 100% to 79% on a heat-neutral map. By contrast the 6x medium laser Jenner needs to cool down to 65% before you can alpha, which takes up to 7.7 seconds on a heat-neutral map. Bottom line is you spend a lot more time pewpewing and less time cooling down with the small pulses.

The half beam duration also makes it somewhat better at killing legs or side torsos than the 6x medium laser Jenner (it's not a huge difference versus slow mechs but you can feel it versus fast ones). Six small pulses are like a really short range hitscan AC20 with infinite ammo and a 2.75s cooldown.

On the downside, the 90m range is a huge drawback that forces you to take greater risks to do damage, but (a) it's really fun to knifefight so who cares and (b) people tend to ignore me even harder than when I carry 6x medium lasers, so it balances out. I've seen some other 6x small pulse Jenners in my games and I expect it to catch on. I'll probably continue to use medium lasers on my Jenner D though since that mech has better heat management.
 

Llyranor

Member
Okay, pulse lasers are good now. The fast beam duration is great. Makes hit-and-run tactics more effective.

Stripped off the ERPPC from the spider and put in 3 mpl + extra DHS. Pretty effective at harassing (destroys back armor!) and hunting down weakened mechs.

Made some adjustments to the jenner-D. 4 spl 2 ssrm 1t ammo BAP 1 JJ XL295 (it was that or keeping the XL300 and stripping half a ton of armor).

Might try running some lpl's on my 9M awesome, maybe. EDIT: Heh, seems effective. I fitted one on a treb too - prelim results are satisfactory.

They don't seem OP, are heavier, are more heat-intensive. But it seems PGI has made them not-useless. Looks like there's a role for them now.
 

Nickiepoo

Member
Okay, pulse lasers are good now. The fast beam duration is great. Makes hit-and-run tactics more effective.

Stripped off the ERPPC from the spider and put in 3 mpl + extra DHS. Pretty effective at harassing (destroys back armor!) and hunting down weakened mechs.

Made some adjustments to the jenner-D. 4 spl 2 ssrm 1t ammo BAP 1 JJ XL295 (it was that or keeping the XL300 and stripping half a ton of armor).

Might try running some lpl's on my 9M awesome, maybe. EDIT: Heh, seems effective. I fitted one on a treb too - prelim results are satisfactory.

They don't seem OP, are heavier, are more heat-intensive. But it seems PGI has made them not-useless. Looks like there's a role for them now.

MPLs haven't changed at all, SPLs are much better now but LPLs are worse in terms of their damage vs heat, particually given that they're also shorter ranged than the other energy weapons of similar range. It more sounds like you just haven't used pulse lasers that much.

But having said that, sticking LPLs on the hit-and-run Treb and Spider (I always found the ERPPC a bit too hard to use on that thing and was going to replace it with an ERLarge next time I used it) could be a good idea.
For the awesome? Nah, PLs are for shoot-and-scoot mechs.
 

Discobird

Member
Small pulses are in a really good spot right now. Medium and large pulses aren't terrible but they could use some work and if you take a look at the stats of each pulse laser relative to its normal counterpart it's easy to see why:

Code:
                         Weight         DPS    Damage/heat  Range   Beam duration
                                                ratio

Small Pulse vs Small     +0.5 (+100%)   +24%   -6%           - 0%    -33%
Medium Pulse vs Medium   +1.0 (+100%)   +28%   -4%           -33%    -25%
Large Pulse vs Large     +2.0 (+40%)    +25%   -3%           -33%    -25%

Take a look at the range and beam duration columns. I'm not suggesting that medium and large pulses should have zero range penalty, since smaller beam duration is a relatively bigger benefit at longer ranges than shorter ones (it's harder to hold the beam steady on a precise spot from farther away). But I would like to see PGI reduce the range penalty on medium and large pulses from -33% to, say, -20% (maybe even -15% on the larges) and also cut their beam duration down to 0.66s instead of 0.75s and see where things end up. I suspect they would be in really good shape then.

The bigger problem with large pulses right now is why would you take one over a PPC?... but when PPCs get nerfed that should be less of an issue.
 

Fireye

Member
There was a touching story and response on the MWO forums, regarding a 5 year old girl who liked to play MWO with her dad. I say liked, because she unfortunately passed away. PGI committed to making a Sarah themed Mech variant, with all proceeds going towards a cancer charity.

That mech is supposed to drop today, and PGI was kind enough to include the skins for the mech in their June18th update:




It's a pretty awesome skin, and I had a lot of fun going through the process of getting the jenner mesh out of the MWO game files, into 3dsmax, and properly skinned. Pretty sure I'll buy in on this.
 

dionysus

Yaldog
More Jenner variants is good, a nice gesture to a grieving Dad is good, and money to charity is good. Well done PGI. What are the designs on the skin? I see a bullseye, a unicorn, and some stars. Can't make out the others.

Edit. And a Teddie Bear on the thigh?
 

Fireye

Member
More Jenner variants is good, a nice gesture to a grieving Dad is good, and money to charity is good. Well done PGI. What are the designs on the skin? I see a bullseye, a unicorn, and some stars. Can't make out the others.

Edit. And a Teddie Bear on the thight?

Hearts, puzzle pieces, bullseye, a flower, peace sign, and a bunch of others. Follow the image links to see a full (4k) sized render.


Looks like PGI pulled the plans to release the JR7-D(S) special mech today. Too bad :(
https://twitter.com/pgi_thegarth/status/349584295339364352 said:
@Druidika No patch today - next patch is the 2nd :)
 
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