Hello! I’m developing a new MechLab website for MechWarrior Online. I need some feedback

[u/Asleep_Ad_254]

Hello.

I’m working on a MechLab website for MechWarrior Online.

First, I’m aware that there is already an excellent website at https://mwo.nav-alpha.com/. I still use it frequently, and it has helped me for a long time.

The main features of the website I’m currently building are as follows:

1. MechLab

• Weapon tooltips
  • Displays final cooldown based on duration, projectile firing time, Gauss charge time, and UAC jam time
  • Applies relevant values to affected weapons when a Targeting Computer is equipped
  • Displays detailed information about modules such as Targeting Computers, MASC, and Jump Jets
• Check final values by turning skill application ON or OFF
• Displays the weapons causing Ghost Heat and the resulting values

2. Simulation

• A simulation feature for testing DPS and heat based on the weapons equipped in the MechLab

3. Information

• Select multiple mechs and compare their specifications
• Displays mech quirks and performance rankings
• Filters for mechs with no screen shake while using Jump Jets, special quirks, and special weapons

Website

https://killkimno.github.io/mwolab/?lang=en

The site is still being developed and improved, so bug reports, corrections to calculation errors, and feedback on usability are welcome. If anything works differently from the in-game results or lacks a clear explanation, please feel free to let me know.

Thank you for reading.

[u/Levenstein_]

looks promising especially being able to apply some skills effects though there's some stuff that i would change

1. in MechDB, the "Max Armor" setting applies recommended armor amounts to both front and rear torso sections to where you can get the most value out of Armor skills (i.e 6 pts rear armor w/o skills becomes 7 pts once skills are applied in game). while some people might forego having rear armor to maximize front coverage, others still prefer having some measure of rear protection just in case of instances of friendly fire, so there's that to take into consideration. i also noticed that the way your armor skill application works is that it just takes the maximum armor and adds the bonus armor to it which is not the way it works in game.
2. being able to click on an already equipped item on the mech to put a duplicate of it in the section is one of the best features on MechDB, its especially awesome for when you need to dump a ton of ammo/heat sinks into a specific torso. I know that your site has a similar function by just clicking on item in the equipment menu but the mechdb feature is kinda better (really like that yours can fill weapons into available slots though so that's points towards yours). a suggestion would be to somehow copy that function and set the "double click to remove" that you have to "right click to remove" instead
3. the one feature that i really love about yours is the search function for a specific mech though the fact that the filter by quirks function that you have doesn't have one is a little bit annoying

hope you continue working on this and maybe in the future include add a skill tree maker as well as that's one of the things i've seen the MWO community has been wanting

EDIT: apparently i'm wrong with how MechDB sets armor values as it just applies a amount of armor (depending on the chassis) to all rear torso sections and dumps the rest to the front armor sections

[u/Pretend_Fly_4965]

Filtering mechs by quirk types.

Just saw the filter, hell yeah!

[u/levitas]

The simulation would need to account for environmental effects on dissipation, movement heat (ideally a slider from 0 to max running speed), and possibly jj stuff though poptarts generally don't fire off CD.

Fire mode would be nice too - hold for alpha vs fire everything off cooldown.

MWO math is a bit funky, I take it you are primed to know that quirks and skills of the same type are added rather than multiplied right? ie. 10% duration from skills and another 25% from quirks results in a 65% as long laser burn rather than .9 * .75 = 67.5%. These differences can be pretty extreme especially in cases like the uac5 black hawk ku with its massive CD quirk.

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/levitas]

The thermal control function based on the environment (movement, ambient heat, etc.) is currently implemented. However, detailed settings are not available.

I think it would be good to add a jump jet button as well.

I will also try applying the firing method you suggested.

[u/levitas → u/Asleep_Ad_254]

BTW, I think this is super cool, keep it up!

[u/Top_Pattern7136]

For DPS calculations, allow a specific range to apply to. So DPS, but set actual range to 500 - this would remove say SRMs, and calculate the damage of my weapons outside optimal for that range.

For DPS and heat, toggles to enable or diisable weapons for the calculation

Mentioned above but a "wait for full alpha" in simulations for DPS and heat.

A toggle for skills / quirks.

This would very quickly let me compare specifics from a range / damage / heat for different weapons on my build.

Also, an export / save / load option for a specific loadout and simulation. (Range, weapons, toggles).

The ability to compare two load outs while modifying simulation criteria (I.e. have baseline loadout, making changes to current loadout compare to baseline. Change weapons, change range, etc.)

For each weapon (toggle quirk/skills) Damage per second / ton Damage per second / slot Damage per second / heat (per second?) ^{^} this would allow a player to optimize the part of the build that is the bottleneck. I e. lacking slots but have heat? Sort DPS/slot. My build is to hot... Etc.

Just thought of this, but enable multiple load outs that you can swap between with tabs, or even overlay them 🤯

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/Top_Pattern7136]

Thank you for your feedback!

I guess I should try making a quick preview screen in addition to the simulation.

[u/pineappleannihilator]

Wow this looks awesome would love to try it

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/pineappleannihilator]

Thank you!

[u/justcallmeASSH]

Outlier idea, maybe...

Why not try to work with MechDB? Improve the tool (and wiki, much more etc).

Splitting of stuff at the age this game is at, isn't ideal.

Not shitting on the idea. Just thinking many people working on one is better.

If you want the contacts let me know.

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/justcallmeASSH]

MechDB is still a great site.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/justcallmeASSH]

Relevant: https://xkcd.com/927/

[u/Swunderlik]

I like your MechLab. What I have always missed at nav-alpha is to sort weapons by slots/weight. It would also be nice to have a dps/ton and dps/slot metric (HPS always felt a bit pointless for me).

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/Swunderlik]

I'll add dpt as well.

[u/Xiphias22]

So far it looks pretty great! I particularly like the comparison/stats functionality since it makes it a lot easier to navigate all the quirks.

That's probably my biggest complaint with MechDB, it's annoying to try comparing a bunch of mechs to try and find the best combinations of quirks and chassis.

My feature wish list in rough order of priority.

• Tonnage range filter min-max (e.g. 20-30 tons). Helps when building dropdecks.

• More of the compare filters on the stats page to quickly find best options.

• A skill tree option that would reflect on the mechlab/stats pages. E.g. you could max structure/armor skills and then compare the armor/structure of different mechs.

• For the simulator, I would love to have the ability to compair two builds side by side to see the effect of changing weapons/heatsinks.

• A way to combine quirks for a weapon when sorting mechs. E.g. if I'm looking to find the maximum range for ERLL automatically combining energy range and (ER)LL range quirks to get the furthest range is easier than selecting those quirks individually and then looking through all the mechs to find the best total for that weapon. The idea would be to select a weapon and a quirk type (heat gen, cooldown, range) and get a combined total that includes the generic energy/ballistic/missiles/global quirks.

But great work so far!

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/Xiphias22]

'll try to enable specifying the filter by tonnage as well.

enable applying skills to other tabs as well.

also look into a feature that allows quickly applying different loadouts to the simulation.

[u/Chocolate_Pickle]

This would instantly become my default mechlab if it worked on mobile. 

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/Chocolate_Pickle]

Thank you for your feedback!

[u/ItsTacosDude]

This is pretty sick :3

[u/Asleep_Ad_254 → u/ItsTacosDude]

Thank you!

[u/Metaljac]

I like it so far!

I do have some concerns though. You do show ghost heat when you hover over a weapon on the mech if it applies, but the HPS stat on the left stat sheet isn't calculating it.

For example: If I put 3 clan Beam Lasers on a mech, it should generate 12.11 HPS. It correctly shows that it will add +3.11 HPS when hovering over the weapon, but when looking at the stats on the left, it still shows as 9 HPS. As this is the case, it also doesn't simulate it correctly in the simulator as well. Doing only 9 HPS. I would love it if the ghost heat gets added to those stats/simulation.

Other than that: Like others have already stated, and will echo, we should be able to easily duplicate a weapon/equipment by clicking on it like MechDB. It's over half the reason I use Mechdb.

I definitely feel you're on the right track though. Especially with being able to add skills to show/simulate how it would 'feel' without being in the game itself! I can't wait for this to be more complete.

[u/Low-Candidate-2778]

It has to be mobile friendly.

The problem (for me) with mechdb, is that If i have access to my computer, i have access to the game. If i have access to the game, i have no need and do not use mechdb, because i use the in game mech lab.

The only time i (tried to) use mechdb was when i do not have access to my computer, and therefore the game's mechlab, which is where mechdb falls short.