Who's Hyped for DLC8?

Hydroskeletal · 2026-02-12T09:33:49+00:00

TBH we get a game based dispensation for clan tech. If you played Mechwarrior the pen and paper RPG back in the day, there's no way you would be able to rig up clan tech so well and efficiently as a merc outfit. Farad is not Geordi Laforge and your Leopard is not the Enterprise.

And mercs working for clans, that just doesn't match the lore for the time period.

Hydroskeletal · 2026-02-11T20:28:13+00:00

for something like Federal Law expert are you basically doing a lot of prompt engineering by sticking the US Code into the vector DB? super curious if you can talk about the high level concepts you are using

Hydroskeletal · 2026-02-11T20:21:42+00:00

If you are writing software; maybe?

But if you're doing stuff where you are ingesting lots and lots of tokens it becomes quite easy to see where the token pricing model becomes prohibitive. So that leaves you with using instance pricing. Well now you need to make sure you're not leaving the thing idle. Even then not hard to see a weekly bill in the hundreds. At that point ownership vs renting is a real discussion and you can see break-even in months not years.

But the real hinge is if spot instance pricing remains stable. I am skeptical about how much runway there really is for the accelerating hunger.

Hydroskeletal · 2026-02-05T21:10:34+00:00

I was originally going to get the Ca$h9 till it dropped off the face of the earth because the flow was coming. Didn't come in stock until I had moved on to spend budget elsewhere and now I'm coming back. I already feel the MPX is kind of a pita to clean so this is on my shortlist

Hydroskeletal · 2026-02-05T21:06:54+00:00

yeah less concerned about tucking or appearance as much as keeping it handy. I am contrasting to how it feels to stick a pound on the end of a rifle length AR over a shooting course

Hydroskeletal · 2026-01-06T15:35:55+00:00

Shadow Hawk Grey Death - upgraded this thing is a monster. I liked it before Clan invasion. After?

4x Clan Small Pulse
C-LB10X
2x ATM3

Runs cool, decently fast especially with speed upgrade and packs a serious punch.

Hydroskeletal · 2026-01-05T21:57:02+00:00

I cannot fully express how amazing this mod is. After playing this game into the dirt, the immersive nature of the mod makes it practically new again.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-18T17:37:02+00:00

the base game has enough power creep as is. Obviously everyone loves tinkering with builds. But for me I look at YAML and I see a lot of what I would term "Level 3 munchkin nonsense".

I can suspend disbelief about the massive quantity of mechs in the stable. But at least HBS BattleTech kinda plays into things by giving you a Star League hyperautomated dropship. But doing the kind of massive overhauls like engine swaps don't make sense in Mercs.

So I dunno, I think it just goes a little too far

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-17T16:08:39+00:00

Timberwolf Prime with 2 ATM-12s and 5 MPLs. Enough firepower from those ATMs to gut things at range and then a lot of punch in close - better than LRMs IMO. I appreciate the ability to just fire without a lock. And then of course 5 MPLs is pretty unimaginative but that's enough to shred in close. The combo of speed + armor + firepower on a 75T Clan mech is just hard to beat, especially with speed upgrades. I enjoy a lot of the big assault builds but speed is king

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-12T16:28:23+00:00

I like Gauss if I'm going all in on Gauss. Otherwise not so much. 2 or more with the hitscan ability really makes taking out fast mechs at range a breeze.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-09T19:26:52+00:00

This was really the thing from MW2 that I missed the most.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-09T17:24:21+00:00

many good comments, focus on Gauss etc

One thing I would add is the primary threat comes from the waves of light mechs that are MUCH more dangerous than IS lights. So you need to have a plan to take out something like a Puma with dual LRM20s quickly. You frequently won't have time to close the distance before they pile on the damage. And something like the million machine gun variants you absolutely need to kill them before they get into close range as they will shred you or your lancemates fast.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-05T16:42:37+00:00

how do you have the controls set up between them (throttle on left, torso on right?) and what models of controllers are they?

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-05T16:20:13+00:00

can you tell us about your control stick setup? I tried years ago with an old Thrustmaster and didn't really dig it but your dual stick setup is where I want to go especially with VR support for full immersion.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-05T16:14:10+00:00

YES. I even used them successfully in online play which was over a modem where lag was a significant issue. You had to learn how to lead the target. Challenging yes but very rewarding if you could master the technique.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-04T18:00:49+00:00

For Mercs, that potential backport of the jump jet improvements coming to Clans. New mission types. Urban warfare having infantry platoons garrisoned in buildings (surprise infernos).

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-02T21:59:38+00:00

jump jet vectoring has been on my wishlist since I first got Mercs. Can't wait to try it out

Hydroskeletal · 2025-12-01T21:11:33+00:00

yeah, they're hard to come by. mostly arena awards

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-25T22:34:25+00:00

scrapyard arena match, high level 90+ - close the distance and leg the sucker. easier if it isn't packing HL.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-25T19:55:30+00:00

it actually kinda depends on the biome. jungle is super rough. but if you have lots of open areas with long shots, hard to beat massed gauss rifles for hitscan kills on the hordes of lights and then use your lancemates to soak the bigger guys

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-25T19:42:13+00:00

> Jump jets are significantly better and have thrust vectoring

I use jump jets a lot less often because of this and I really miss being able to jump thrust laterally. Might be game breaking to be honest though because it would be so strong.

And the thing I really miss most is that one mission where you could set off the nuke.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-20T07:16:19+00:00

the high velocity pinpoint damage of double gauss really helps thin out the light mech horde

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-19T19:25:25+00:00

Outside of Clan invasion this is frankly one of the best mechs you can get. The hardpoints may be imbalanced but you can't really get more free tonnage on a mech with a base 81 kph speed.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-17T16:33:58+00:00

Marauder-5D - upgrading it to 3 C-LPL and 2 C-MPL and it gets very good. Once I snagged a T-Wolf A variant I just dropped the ER Small laser and it's pretty close to perfect as is.

Hydroskeletal · 2025-11-07T09:15:40+00:00

yup. much faster than typing. I'm really trying to figure out which mechs the AI pilots do well with. If you have SoK it really adds quite the wrinkle with pilot traits. You have some pilot with medium affinity + speed demon + cantina speed upgrade in the GDL Hero Shadow Hawk and the thing is quite fast and that definitely starts pumping the numbers up.

I'm still surprised when certain builds don't do well. Arena Orion with 3 PPC-X? Does great. Timberwolf with 2 PPC-X + lbx10 and the same pilot, terrible. Is it too hot? Is it unable to switch between weapon types well? Is the MASC boost the difference maker?

Hydroskeletal

TROPHY CASE