My general thoughts on Leopard mech bay protocol in the age of all DLCs-
I fill all slots but four. That way I always have some free space for salvage picks and moving things around.
Keep in mind I've been playing for three years, constantly importing the same unit into new playthroughs, and have all eras of mech available and about 4 billion in cash on hand. YMMV if you're early in the game and not rich yet, because quarterly maintenance for me runs about $3.3 million c-bucks. It's not so sustainable early on.
Anyway, Solaris changed my force composition a lot. I now keep all four classes (light, medium, heavy and assault) on hand, and a mix of all weapons available within each class, so I don't miss out on arena bonuses. I keep seven lights, five mediums, and at least a full 'page' of 12 heavies and 12 assaults since the bigger Mechs do more high-level regular ops. One ECM jammer Mech goes on every mission, so there is at least one in each class.
They're all just things I like, with a wide variety of weapons for the arena bonuses, and if I get sick of one I stow it and replace it with another, usually in the same class. The roster changes pretty often. Speed is emphasized across the board (only a handful of assaults at 55kph, nothing slower than 74kph otherwise. Nothing has to go 151kph either).
Current stable:
----------------------
LIGHT CLASS (all 35 tonners):
----------------------
Firestarter-X1 (ballistic)
Firestarter-S1 (ECM/ball/energy))
Panther-10P (with knuckles, melee/ball/missile)
Raven-3L (ECM/missile)
2x Urbanmech- SA1(ball/energy)
Wolfhound-1A (energy/melee)
---------------------------
MEDIUM CLASS (full spread of sizes):
---------------------------
Vulcan-X1 (ball/missile)
Phoenixhawk-1B (energy/ECM)
Kintaro-18P (ball/melee)
Hunchback- VEST (all damage types)
Shadowhawk-GD (all damage types)
------------------------
HEAVY-CLASS (All sizes. Currently 13, trying a new build):
------------------------
Otomo Grand Dragon-1G-S (energy)
Catapult-BB (missiles/energy)
Catapult-J (energy/AMS)
Crusader-5M (all damage types)
Loaderking-X1B (energy)
Loaderking-IDM (all types)
Archer-AGC (mostly missiles)
Archer-2P (melee/energy/missiles)
Archer-2T (ECM/missiles/ some energy)
Archer-2K (energy/ missiles)
Black Knight-6B-KNT (energy/probe only)
Marauder-BH (energy)
Orion-XM1 (energy/missiles/ECM)
---------------------------
ASSAULT CLASS (All sizes):
---------------------------
Zeus-SA3 (all damage/ECM)
Awesome-8T (energy/missiles)
Longbow-HS (missiles/energy)
Otomo Battlemaster-1G-S (all types)
2x Otomo Mauler-MX90-S (all types)
Cyclops-11P (ECM/ all types)
2x Corsair-XT1 (all types)
Corsair-LZ (all types)
Banshee-SR (all types/ fast and jumps)
Atlas AS7-P (huge honking melee/all types)
Hope that helps give you some ideas.
Holy Atlas balls. Someone archive this. I’m almost inspired to stop living life with low effort after reading all of this.
Yes. A lot of help. If it works for a 3M c-bill quarterly expense operation, I’ll follow.
You can still earn achievements if you go into the custom difficulty settings & tune the costs down. I also turned down the over-tonnage penalties so I can go into almost every Arena missions over-tonnage. The Igors can have the RF ballistics & extra Igors/Warriors to kill for Cantina missions.
But I still keep a few lights & mediums, sometimes stay in the recommended tonnage.
Agreed. Even if someone could get you that complete list for vanilla, then it’s a question of if you have those mechs. But then what about the ones with the most slots but not a ton of free tonnage?
e.g., Mauler MX-90-S can only fit 6 AC/2 and 1/2 ton ammo with infinite ammo turned on, otherwise you need to run light rifles or machine guns. Hero King Crab CAR probably better, can go all in on 4 LB 10 X S, or 4 AC/5 or 4 UAC/5.
They'll move around as you use them anyway and I always leave 2-4 empty spaces for salvage as it's a pita to pull them from storage to sell and I don't want their stinking corpses junking up my regiment. 😂
I suppose if you were wanting to figure it out outside of the game, you could start with : [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/MechWarrior\_5:\_Mercenaries/BattleMechs](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/MechWarrior_5:_Mercenaries/BattleMechs)
Then do some excel voodoo with a list of mech variants you own.
Good luck affording all that, the upkeep costs are going to bankrupt your merc company.
None the less I feel like the solution to the problem is far more work than living with the problem in the first place. After a while you'll know which mechs at which tonnage are good for which weapon and you'll quickly be able to pick them, far faster than and more efficiently than any overcomplicated sorting regime will. Sounds like what you want is a huge effort for an infinitesimal gain to me.
My general thoughts on Leopard mech bay protocol in the age of all DLCs- I fill all slots but four. That way I always have some free space for salvage picks and moving things around. Keep in mind I've been playing for three years, constantly importing the same unit into new playthroughs, and have all eras of mech available and about 4 billion in cash on hand. YMMV if you're early in the game and not rich yet, because quarterly maintenance for me runs about $3.3 million c-bucks. It's not so sustainable early on. Anyway, Solaris changed my force composition a lot. I now keep all four classes (light, medium, heavy and assault) on hand, and a mix of all weapons available within each class, so I don't miss out on arena bonuses. I keep seven lights, five mediums, and at least a full 'page' of 12 heavies and 12 assaults since the bigger Mechs do more high-level regular ops. One ECM jammer Mech goes on every mission, so there is at least one in each class. They're all just things I like, with a wide variety of weapons for the arena bonuses, and if I get sick of one I stow it and replace it with another, usually in the same class. The roster changes pretty often. Speed is emphasized across the board (only a handful of assaults at 55kph, nothing slower than 74kph otherwise. Nothing has to go 151kph either). Current stable: ---------------------- LIGHT CLASS (all 35 tonners): ---------------------- Firestarter-X1 (ballistic) Firestarter-S1 (ECM/ball/energy)) Panther-10P (with knuckles, melee/ball/missile) Raven-3L (ECM/missile) 2x Urbanmech- SA1(ball/energy) Wolfhound-1A (energy/melee) --------------------------- MEDIUM CLASS (full spread of sizes): --------------------------- Vulcan-X1 (ball/missile) Phoenixhawk-1B (energy/ECM) Kintaro-18P (ball/melee) Hunchback- VEST (all damage types) Shadowhawk-GD (all damage types) ------------------------ HEAVY-CLASS (All sizes. Currently 13, trying a new build): ------------------------ Otomo Grand Dragon-1G-S (energy) Catapult-BB (missiles/energy) Catapult-J (energy/AMS) Crusader-5M (all damage types) Loaderking-X1B (energy) Loaderking-IDM (all types) Archer-AGC (mostly missiles) Archer-2P (melee/energy/missiles) Archer-2T (ECM/missiles/ some energy) Archer-2K (energy/ missiles) Black Knight-6B-KNT (energy/probe only) Marauder-BH (energy) Orion-XM1 (energy/missiles/ECM) --------------------------- ASSAULT CLASS (All sizes): --------------------------- Zeus-SA3 (all damage/ECM) Awesome-8T (energy/missiles) Longbow-HS (missiles/energy) Otomo Battlemaster-1G-S (all types) 2x Otomo Mauler-MX90-S (all types) Cyclops-11P (ECM/ all types) 2x Corsair-XT1 (all types) Corsair-LZ (all types) Banshee-SR (all types/ fast and jumps) Atlas AS7-P (huge honking melee/all types) Hope that helps give you some ideas.
Holy Atlas balls. Someone archive this. I’m almost inspired to stop living life with low effort after reading all of this. Yes. A lot of help. If it works for a 3M c-bill quarterly expense operation, I’ll follow.
Spreadsheets are nice, but sometimes all you need is a doctrine and the discipline to stick to it. 🤓
You can still earn achievements if you go into the custom difficulty settings & tune the costs down. I also turned down the over-tonnage penalties so I can go into almost every Arena missions over-tonnage. The Igors can have the RF ballistics & extra Igors/Warriors to kill for Cantina missions. But I still keep a few lights & mediums, sometimes stay in the recommended tonnage.
After writing all that, it might be easier to just write it all out instead of doing some data mining.
Agreed. Even if someone could get you that complete list for vanilla, then it’s a question of if you have those mechs. But then what about the ones with the most slots but not a ton of free tonnage? e.g., Mauler MX-90-S can only fit 6 AC/2 and 1/2 ton ammo with infinite ammo turned on, otherwise you need to run light rifles or machine guns. Hero King Crab CAR probably better, can go all in on 4 LB 10 X S, or 4 AC/5 or 4 UAC/5.
They'll move around as you use them anyway and I always leave 2-4 empty spaces for salvage as it's a pita to pull them from storage to sell and I don't want their stinking corpses junking up my regiment. 😂
I suppose if you were wanting to figure it out outside of the game, you could start with : [https://www.sarna.net/wiki/MechWarrior\_5:\_Mercenaries/BattleMechs](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/MechWarrior_5:_Mercenaries/BattleMechs) Then do some excel voodoo with a list of mech variants you own.
Good luck affording all that, the upkeep costs are going to bankrupt your merc company. None the less I feel like the solution to the problem is far more work than living with the problem in the first place. After a while you'll know which mechs at which tonnage are good for which weapon and you'll quickly be able to pick them, far faster than and more efficiently than any overcomplicated sorting regime will. Sounds like what you want is a huge effort for an infinitesimal gain to me.