Mech Building 101

[Acehigh]

I know alot of us have mech warrior 4, but I don't know how many of us have actually played it online. Here's some tips for setting up your mechs so you don't get killed alot and have a frustrating gaming session. I'll break it down into chassis, weapons, and armor.

CHASSIS

For online play everyone will have to use a chassis that's in the same weight class. This is different from xvt and xwa because each class has a few mechs to chose from. And example of this is for Assault Class mechs most people like the Daishi and the Mad Cat MK II. Both of these mechs carry alot of firepower and are both 100 tons. There are other chassis in the Assault Class that range from 80-100 Tons. What it comes down to is your personal likes and the style of fighting you wish to do. (I'll hit that later) When creating your mechs it's good to configure at least one mech from each weight class.

WEAPONS

Any weapon in red is an energy weapon. Lasers and flame throwers are the main choices here. The most important thing to remember is that energy weapons create the most heat. So you'll need plenty of heat sinks. It's possible to carry a large amount of energy weapons and not overheat, but you also need alot of heat sinks. These are the easiest weapons to use because all you have to do is wait for the reticle to turn red and fire. Your going to score a hit. Anything you see in yellow is a ballistic weapon. These are your cannons and machine gun banks. Capable of doing great damage, these weapons are a good force to recon with on the battle field. But be ware, they can and will run out of ammo. To avoid ammo shortages simply save a ton or two to use for more ammo. These weapons are tricky to get used to. You have to lead your shots Anything you see in green are missle banks. They go from short to long range. Some of them have radar lock and some do not. Which ever you choose is up to you. Just remember if your radar is off, your missles won't lock.

ARMOR

Ok there are three types of armor to choose from in the game. Ferro Fibrous, Reflective, and Reactive. Let me give you a run down of what each type is and does.
Reflective: This armor is best suited against energy weapons. Instead of searing through, the shots will bounce off. Hence the name lol

Reactive: This is best suited against ballistics. The armor will actually pock when hit and rebound to help deflect a bit of the blast. You'll still get damaged, but not as badly as with another kind of armor.

Ferro Fibrous: Supposed to be a light weight cross of reactive and reflective. Doesn't really help you against anything. I don't reccomend using this at all. you'll die very quickly.

TACTICS:

Now that you know what your using and how it works it's time to put that knowledge to use. A smart mech warrior is the one who can set his mech up with firepower, armor, and heat sinks. Believe me this sounds easier than it really is. The first thing to remember here is to always strip the weapons off first thing when your creating a new chassis. This will give you an idea of how much tonnage you'll have to play with. Second, always use reactive or reflective armor. After selecting your armor go back to the weapons page and study where your mechs weapons are placed. Now head back to the armor page and max out all areas containing a weapon, the center torso, and the head. CT=engine, Head=cockpit You can leave the legs at 50% armor. Most honorable pilots won't shoot the legs for this reason.

Now that you have your armor set it's time to look at the chassis. Always make sure that you have AMS, or LAMS. This is a missle defense system. Anything else you choose for the chassis is up to you, but most are a waste of tonnage, except for heat sinks. Now decide what type of warrior you wish to be. An infighter, or a sniper. Here's the difference. Snipers try to do as much damage as they can from long range, while infighters like upclose and personal combat. Whatever style you choose, make sure your weapons match what you wish to accomplish. All of the weapons have a range number. The higher the number, the longer the distance the weapon will fire. If your a sniper you'll want all long range weapons. Infighters want all short range weapons. What I reccomend when getting weapons systems is mix and match the types of weapons. Every weapons has a recycle time. And you can't fire it again until it recycles. I've found that teaming ballistics and energy works very well. Or teaming one kind of weapons with missles. There are some snipers out there that only load up on missles the missleboaters are what they are called. Don't think this is a good strategy for beginners. Missles take some skill to fire accurately.

**Most online players will run their mechs with the radar off. This means you can't see them until your really close (within 250 M) on radar. You can pick them up with visual scanning but this takes practice. Just remember when the reticle turns red, pull that trigger baby!

**Never take a stock mech into battle

**Need to make a note that in most online games the long tom, and thunderbolt are illegal, unless agreed to be used by all participants.

**Games are played either in the msn gaming zone or on the internal mech warrior server. I propose that rbl players meet up on the zone. It's just easier and more familiar to work with.

**Almost forgot, you can also upload small graphical files into the game. I don't remember the technical name for the file, but you can input a picture that shows up as a logo decal on your mech. All of my mechs have logo's that a friend of mine from back in the DG days made for me. Remember that was an Imperial unit lol. One is a grey shield with the white Imperial Navy logo in the center. The other is a red shield, again with the Imperial Navy Logo in the center, but in the center of the Imperial Logo is a black dragon. Kind of resembles what I have as my pilot pic on the hawk roster. That was my Tau Squadron logo hehehehe. Enjoy mates!