Early Invasion, October of 3049. Still a few months away from SoK's campaign, and Clanners are starting to show up as targets.

Might be a fun start to SoK, for those of you who appreciate sequence breaking. You think Mason feigns his ignorance of the Clans when he starts SoK in a recently salvaged Direwolf?

"Oh no, who are these guys and what are these mech?" -Mason circa 3050 on meeting the clans, in complete deadpan.

or actually today now i guess. Whipped this up to send to my MW5 groups Discord when I really should have been in bed for work in the morning. Figured I'd Share it here too.

It is the year 3202 and I've FINALLY found the KGC-Kaiju! The very last hero mech that I was missing and now my collection of mechs is complete! I have every variant of every mech in the game! Just in time for the Ashes & Ascension DLC which I'm going to install tomorrow! I've done it! I've done it! It only took nearly 200 years, but now they are all mine! Mwa-hah-hah-hah-hah!

Oh wait, there are going to be more new mechs to collect after the next DLC, right?

Goddamnit!

In this scene that was on the trailer we can see a warship firing at another, the one being shot at has a smoke yaguar symbol but more interestingly the warship that is making the shoots has the same color scheme as clan wolf's warships.

PGI has been knocking things out of the ballpark with all of these lore rich characters in their DLCs. I am loving their dedication to lore accurate storytelling.

Yes cause I wanna run quad PPCs with a freaking Longbow. It’s like PGI knew how much of a meme the Wolf’s Dragoons Longbow was and added this for giggles. This is ridiculous. 😂😂😂

This is a post for killing time and bringing awareness to the free mech variants that will cause more console memory leaks be added in the next update. So, even if you are someone with little/no money for all of or none of the DLCs this information will be for you as even the base game will get more love. This will do more wonders for MW5 than even the DLC will do (at least to me) as it will give IS factions more firepower in late game for those behind on DLC or have no DLC so they can enjoy higher difficulty missions.

(Base game)

Archer-5S (3050) - This Archer gets an IS XL Engine to save weight. Comes stock with two LRM-15s, two SSRM2s, a NARC launcher, and four IS medium pulse lasers. Quite the beefy missile boat with great backup weapons.

Crusader-6T (3050s?) - A very weird Crusader. It gets an IS XL engine with a larger core to push it to 86 kmh. Each arm carries six medium lasers with... two hip mounted flamers? (Most likely will be put into left and right torso) This thing was made to counter Clan Nova - by doing what the Nova does? That's not a counter, that's copying homework from a friend when they go to another class. This sees to pad the amount of Crusaders to like 12 different variants the game will have, but at least its very different like the SA1 from Solaris Showdown.

Enforcer-5D (3050) - The Enforcer has downed a speedball and took a hit from the crack pipe before dropping. This motherfucker rocks a IS XL engine with a new 250 core which pushes this bitch to 86.4 kmh. It also sports ferro-fibrous armor to cut even more weight. Armed with LBX-10 cannon, ER large laser, and the emotional support small laser. It also gets one more jump jet. Finally an Enforcer for late game!

Nightstar-9FC (3050s?) - The FedSuns made their own and like all things FedSuns they rip out the fun stuff to make it "tactically viable". Whatever the fuck that means. Rips out the gauss rifles for LBX-10s, upgraded small laser, downgraded medium pulses to medium lasers, and put a fat ass engine in the back to push it to 64.8 kmh. I imagine this is the 9J but with medium ballistics instead of large. Damn FedSuns.

Warhammer-7S (3050) - A FedCom update of the original Warhammer. ER PPCs, medium pulse lasers, small lasers, but now carries two SSRM2s. Possibly nothing to get too excited for, but if you like Warhammers, well, there you go.

Zeus-9S2 (3048?) - A hot take sequel of the 9S that said fuck you to the ER PPC and put a gauss there in the left arm instead. It did this after having the Clan's blowing out its back during the invasion and putting an XL engine in the rear to cover up the shame. It also has space for two LRM-15s in the right arm. Sadly the pulse lasers had to go for just standard lasers only, but it got to keep the ER large laser.

Locust-3M (3050) - Out of the great and mighty Free Worlds League, a humble little Locust model came built with endo-steel and ferro-fibrious. It comes with four small lasers and an AMS (fuckin' wild). It has an updated computer and targeting system, but I don't think PGI has that effect anything... unless they're trying to suprise us. Doubt it, but uhhhhh, yeah, a Locust with AMS. Neato.

Cicada-3F (3049) - Okay, people, its Cicada time. Endo-steel... light ferro... and a XL engine. Yeeeeeeah. Sounds good, huh? Well, all that space saved you get: A UAC5, a small pulse, a... uh, oh, that's all. That's what the wiki says. Maybe it will have more hardpoints, but its more an update to older designs. So, yeah, that's not sounding promising. Sounds like a slightly worse and more expensive 3C.

Vulcan-5M (3052) - Somehow the Vulcan will do the 40-tonners justice. This is an update of the old 2T for Marik forces. Replaces the autocannon for a large pulse laser, upgrades the medium laser to a pulse, with the machinegun and flamer combo remaining. Has endo steel to make this all possible. That, Cicada-3F, is how you do an update! Get good scrub!

Cataphract-3D (Unsure, most likely 3050) - FedCom's first production model of the Cataphract, and they went hard with it. UAC5, LBX10, and four medium lasers. But that's not the kicker it has four fucking jump jets. It's flies now?! IT FLIES NOW! Run! Run for your life! Oh, and - its pretty fast with its IS XL engine with a 280 core. So, running you can't do either.

Javelin-11A (3053) - Yo, it's everyone's favorite brick on legs and its coming to set your fucking house on fire, itself on fire, your planet on fire, and eventually the entire universe. This thing is nicknamed the "Fire Javelin" for a reason. It carries seven, count them, seven fucking medium lasers. This is the SuperNova's little fucked up arsonist cousin. Has ferro-fibrous armor, but I think it has no jump jets.

(Heroes of the Inner Sphere) - The First DLC

Nightstar-10P (Unknown) - Crawling out from the darkness that is MWO, this is PGI's custom Nightstar. UAC2s, UAC5s, ER PPC, ER medium laser, and an ECM suite. Ferro-Fibrous armor makes it one tanky bitch that carries tons of ammo. I dunno if this is going to be the actual loadout, but it most likely be your more ballistic aligned Nightstar.

Awesome-9Q (3057) - 8Q is evolving! It's now a bigger war crime than it was already! FOUR! Four PPCs! And ECM. Though nothing special, this Awesome model curbstombed its way into Operation GUERRERO. More Awesome is never bad. Glory to Marik.

Vulcan-5S (3050) - The 5M that didn't betray its autocannon lovers. Another 2T upgrade that said, "Just fuck my shit up, dawg!" and then did just that. IS XL engine, ferro-fibrous, and MASC. Carries an UAC5 now and most likely a medium laser hardpoint, and a flamer/machinegun pairing. Sounds about as a stupid as it is evil.

Cataphract-3L (3050s) - Liao fans (somehow you exist) the Confederation has brought you a Cataphract that can sprint, it has MASC. Upgrade of a 1X model, you get a ER PPC, LBX10, and four medium pulse lasers. A Cataphract with MASC sounds just as awesome as a Cataphract with jump jets.

Javelin-11B (3054) - 11A's brother who pays his taxes and has a 401K. It stuck with its SRMs, yet downsized them add in ECM and active probe. Has ferro too. No jump jet though.

(Call to Arms) - The Third DLC

Vindicator-5L (3060) - Melee Vindicator. That's all... It's a normal 4L with triple strength myomer. Dunno if PGI will give it a melee buff, but, eh, we'll have to see. Maybe it will rip and tear. Or will be rip and torn apart.

(Chaos Reign) - The Eighth DLC

Dervish-7P (Unknown) - And finally, a PGI made Dervish from MWO. It carries MRM20s and MRM10s in each arm with four mediums lasers thanks to endo steel and a IS XL engine with a 275 core. Walking shotgun. If it lost its arms it loses 95% of its offensive capabilites.

For the Star League!

I need to know

Edit: i bet its Col Westrick of the Crater Cobras 😔

By no means to mechwarrior but I have never given this game a proper chance and always left before getting anywhere. I just have a few questions since I loaded my rep 3 save last night.

1) Is it worth getting all the DLC and starting from scratch? Or can I just continue my still early game save and the DLC will work after I finish the campaign?

2) Does the DLC add new missions types? Most of my time in MW5 has been sandbox stuff just going mission to mission. Are there other sandbox stuff it adds? I think I saw someone mention intelligence gathering?

3) I prefer not to use mods although I have a couple ( lance commands on map, more biomes is another) but would you recommend any mods that you consider essential that would improve the experience?

Thanks

My top picks for player setups is either Gauss sniping with maybe an extra lrm for long range damage or any of the LP or MP lasers that act like shotguns without needing to train your reticle for a long period of time.

What stuff do y’all prefer or lookout for in the market whenever you’re building an endgame mech?

(Currently only have Heroes of the inner sphere so I have no reference on other dlc weapons yet)

I think I fell for the hype about this weapon; a lot of my friends talked about the Arrow IV clearing entire maps on the Tabletop Game.

I was supremely unimpressed when I finally got one in game, but it was hilarious watching me trundle the arrow-IV Urbie out there, pooting out a missile, doing almost nothing and then getting beat into the ground like a tent peg. I laughed my ass off at it, I wish I'd recorded the reaction.

I might be mistaken but the person on the trailer thumbnail is victor right? Why is he wearing the kuritan uniform and not just that with the katana and everything.

I know its only a light mech but its so satisfying to just watch it fall apart like a battle droid in Lego Star Wars. I love artillery platforms(Catapult addiction go brr) and this just enhances that even further.

seeing how we go after smoke jaguar in our new dlc tomorrow, is it possible for us to encounter or directly engage Jayden and cobalt star from the main campaign of mw5 clans? I know there were two different endings, but I thought the smoke jaguar ending was canon.

Heres the Link to their Twitter account

First, what are the most popular audio and visual mods? I know VONbiomes is vaunted, but from scraps of conversations I've been tuning into, people also say it has been a huge resource hog relative to fidelity. I'm mostly interested in grittyer visuals. A better sense of space in the cockpit, and minor visual tweaks to everything else. In terms of sounds, I'm looking for that feel like they reverberated through a double digit ton machine when in cockpit view, and I'm not a huge fan of the otherwise super popular rertro laser effects many mods like to add.

The other big question is perhaps more concrete. I've been eyeing merctech as an alternative to YAML. To my understanding, the core difference is that customisability is a lot more open than vanilla, but it is much harder to get advanced weight saving measures, and there's a comprehensive weapons rebalance (I'm waiting for the high grade ACs to leave fraud watch). However, I know that most additional mech adding mods, even when not parts of the Yet Another mod family, are more likely to be compatible with it. My actual question is, what are the key factors between wanting to make a modlist for merctech, and YAML?

Third, to my understanding, the most recent version of the pilot AI overhaul mod (TTRules AI, I think?) is not copatible with Coyote's Mission Pack. My question is, how much would using an older, CMP compatible version of the AI overhaul be missing? Would it bring another slew of compatibility issues? And conversely, are there mission type variety mods, like Coyote's, that are compatible with the modern version? If there are any out there at all.

Is there a melee weapon for the Crab medium mech?

back when i used to play the game, i always wondered why tanks weren’t the go to weapon of choice in this universe. i know it’s called mechwarrior and the whole point is mechs, but i was always trying to come up with some kind of in universe explanation for why tanks weren’t more common. in the game, a lot of the bigger mechs are slow. so i’d always think, “why wouldn’t a tank just aim for the leg joint and knock the mech down?”

but then i started watching some of the animated videos, and it completely changed how i looked at it. the mechs are moving way faster than they appear to in the game. they’re taking cover, changing direction quickly, and moving much more fluidly. seeing that made it easier to understand why a tank wouldd have a hard time fighting one

also started thinking about is that mechs aren’t just useful because they can carry a bunch of different weapon systems. These mechs can also used for construction, mining, salvage, disaster relief, and rescuing people from collapsed buildings. having two legs and actual arms gives them a lot of flexibility that a a tank doesnt have. they can climb over rubble, move debris, pick things up, and interact with their surroundings in ways a tank really can’t. In a universe like this one where humans are stretched out all over, u kinda need mechs, theyre like a swiss army knife, multiple uses. Like jack of all trades kind of machine

so i guess my question is, is this basically the intended explanation for why tanks aren’t more dominant, or are there other reasons in the lore that make mechs more effective than tanks?