u/ClayEndfield

I am eagerly awaiting news on the upcoming DLC, news which has yet to release as of posting this. Been trying to plan out my mech roster around the upcoming variants we do know about. I am making a slight assumption about 2 of the upcoming mechs, in regard to their hardpoint size. I'm a bit of an Energy Enthusiast, so forgive my somewhat biased approach to mech design.

1.) Blood Asp A. ECM, JJs, and 4x ER-PPCs. Fairly safe bet; it comes stock with 4 Large Energy Hardpoints bare minimum. A better a Warhawk, if you will.

2.) Supernova-1. 6x Heavy Large Lasers, JJs, and as many DHS as I can cram in. First assumption is that the SNV-1 is gonna have 6x Large Energy Hardpoints. I think this is a safe call, as it would really struggle to distinguish itself from literally every other Clan mech if it wasn't a 6x Large Energy Hardpoint model. Especially in light of...

3.) Stone Rhino-2. 8x ER-LLs, AMS, JJs. Slight assumption here too. I'm assuming the Heavy Small Lasers are mounted in Medium Energy for a similar reason I make the assumption about the SNV-1's hardpoint size. It's gonna need a slight bump to compete with Direwolves and Kodiaks.

4.) Stone Rhino-6. 14-15 MPLs. No sense trying to fix something that ain't broke. Dunno if the Cockpit mounted ER-SL is mounted in a Medium Energy Hardpoint, but regardless this machine will be the ultimate wub-wub boat.

Whatcha y'all planning to put together?

EDIT: Wrong Blood Asp Variant.

The three at the top of my list are the Awesome-9Q, Banshee-5S, and Rifleman-5D. All fall within the timeline, all are from base game chassis; so hopefully they make the cut.

Which free update variants are you hoping make the cut?

While it's fun to theorycraft campaign ideas and publish new chassis wishlists for the upcoming DLC, I don't see many publicizing their want of patches, fixes, and changes to come with the update.

Lord knows, I'm waiting for details on an Academy/Pilot trait overhaul, fixing hitbox issues on mechs like the Executioner and Bushwacker, AI improvements, and maybe getting some kind of fix or even a bandaid for all the enemies spawning beneath the ground or in buildings/rocks.

What are y'alls hopes for DLC 9 when it comes to patches and improvements?

I know the whole universal 2.0 Base Heat Dissipation for Integrated DHS is a sore subject, especially when it comes to early game balance... But Good God, it's really telling how impactful it is when the only IS mech in my late game roster is a Sunder. There's a lot of IS mechs that could step up to the Clanner Dominated plate, if only they shared the equivalent 5 free tons of DHS as the Clan Counterparts.

The Mauler, the King Crab, the Bullshark, the Awesome, the Charger, the Haramoto-Chi, the Zeus, the Battlemaster, the Bushwacker, the Marauder, the Black Knight, the Stalker, the Archer, the Catapult, the Trebuchet, Shadowhawk, Griffin, Kintaro, Flea, Panther, Spider... All of these beloved classics have variants that come equipped with DHS; most of these variants lack any other considerable advantages like XL engines or Endo, Ferro, or some combo of the three.

All of them made even more inferior by their lack of Heat Dissipation that should by the standards established by SoK be around a competitive 2.0 Dissipation.

I've heard the arguments against Universal Heat Dissipation; I know a lot of it comes from sentiment. I know a lot of people won't let a silly thing like Heat Dissipation come between them and their favorite mech.

I'm not one of you. Whereas your sentiment prevails and overcomes the disparity, my sentiment is one of frustration and disappointment that my favorite IS mechs got done dirty.

I'd love to run a Stalker-3FB from 3015 all the way to the heat death of the universe, but every time I take stock of its attributes and compare it to it's Clan tech colleagues, I get a sour taste in my mouth; it's already slower than most Clan mechs; it lacks the weight saving technologies of XL and Endo.

Why can it not have a 2.0 bass Heat Dissipation? How, in light of all the other glaring concessions the Stalker-3FB already succumbs to, must it be deprived of the one thing that could make it reasonably comparable? Especially when it's already been established that internal DHS can net a 2.0 Dissipation by PGI's standards?

What about the Marauder? What about the Mauler? What about the handful of mechs that could compete with Clan firepower if not their speed, if only they had the heat dissipation required to run clan tech proper.

I've seen the builds. I've seen Annihilators and Mad-IIs and King Crabs loaded with Clan tech. I've heard the claims that they're as good as a Clan mech.

Then I go a copy paste those same builds onto a Direwolf, and guess what?

It does it better, because it's got double the base Heat Dissipation; because it has JJs, or ECM, or higher hardpoints locations; because it has enough spare tonnage and heat efficiency to add another 4 ER-MLs to build.

I'm a little tired of the cope. I'm weary of the excuses and frail justifications. If the early game balance is an issue, then keep the dissipation at 1.0 on these mechs until 3040. Then flip the helm memory core switch, and let us run IS mechs that can at least match the firepower of the clans.

I'm feeling increasingly restrained to clan mechs in late game, and it's frustrating to put away my IS favorites because something came along that does everything it does, but faster, cooler, and with more free tonnage/omnislots.

There's a solution to this problem; why don't we implement it?

NAIS lists both "Ballistics" and "Missile" weapons as being affected by the offensive buffs; However, the Ballistic Buff does not apply to gauss, and I seriously doubt NAIS does anything for AIV.

But I cannot figure out if the Ballistic Buff is exclusively for "Standard Auto-cannons" or if it provides a buff for all AC style weapons.

And the missile buff is potentially even more vague, as it apparently impacts all "Missiles", which would imply both ATMs and AIV, but given the almost complete absence of Pilot Traits for those weapons, I'm inclined to believe that NAIS has no impact on ATMs or AIV.

Concrete answers would appreciated, as I've no shortage of speculation, but nothing factual to work with.

I'm playing Vanilla on PC, scrubbed my inventory of T0-T5 (sparing only viable T5 weapons; Melee, X-PPCs, infernos, MRMs, X-Pulse, Rifles, LACs, etc, etc), sold off every mech in cold storage from before 3049, and I still can't host a coop game.

I do have a considerable number of Clan weapons, as in 100 each of LPLs, ER-PPCs, ER-LLs, SRM-6, 200-250 apiece of MGs/ER-Laser/Pulse Lasers, and anywhere from 30-80 of pretty much everything else from AIV, ATMs, UACs, LBX, Artemis SRMs/LRMs, HMGs, and LMGs, Heavy Lasers, etc, etc. Would the individual numbers of weapons contribute to the Too much stuff bug, or does 100 ER-LLs suck up the same amount of data as 1 ER-LL?

About the only thing I've found that can reverse the issue is mass firing of Pilots; unfortunately, I have a couple dozen optimized pilots, and I'm VERY much unwilling to dispose of literal days of save-scumming to resolve the issue.

Is there some mod/community patch that fixes this issue, or is firing off my pilots the only thing I can do?

What sucks up the most data, and what can I prioritize to limit the amount of pilots I have to fire?

Started up a fresh play through of TR Morrowind; made an Enchanter style character with high Mercantile and Enchant; wanted to spam Soul Trap weapons to generate revenue (no creeper/mudcrab; I went heavy on Mercantile for a reason).

Ended up making enough money to start Enchanting a set of my own gear; wanted to keep it low impact effects for balancing reasons (Maxed the Difficulty slider/numerous difficulty mods); ended up going for Feather Effect on Low Weight/High Enchant Value Items. Was able to build an entire set (minus the belt and weapon) with 1-max capacity feather constant effect. Surprisingly fun and effective without absolutely ruining combat balance.

This is what I've come with: Full Exquisite Clothes (minus gloves/Boots); Molecrab Gauntlets, Cuirass, and Boots; Imperial Newtscale Pauldrons and Greaves; Cephalopod Helm, and Daedric Towershield.

Everything combined weighs less than 100 lbs; bug the combined total feather effect adds up to 430+ Feather, meaning so long as I keep my character's carry weight total below 300, I can keep my Encumbrance at 0 and maintain max run speed and jump height.

While my defenses are poor (about 20 AC total at 40 Light/Heavy Armor), my movement is completely unimpaired by my equipment, right down to my minor Arsenal of weapons and enchanted items.

Best of all, I don't feel overpowered. I use a Halberd as my main weapon, and the movement speed combined with the weapon range allows me to pull off the classic poke and back-step combo unique to Morrowind. Which is fun, because if I screw up and get hit, I'm probably dead; but if I time and space it right, I'm pretty much immortal in melee.

What other fun combinations have y'all cooked up to keep the game balanced but fun?

With LUA finally coming to OpenMW, are there any mods planned or out that introduces playable monsters to Morrowind? I'm aware of the massive amount of race mods that add playable monster races; but beyond running around with the appearance of a 6th House creature, there's no actual monster gameplay attached to it.

I'm looking for something akin to modernized Open MW compatible mod, like Cortex's old Vampire Embrace, or Sablegirl's Werewolf mods, or Venombyte's Lichcraft. Hell, I'd love to play a modernized version of Great House Dagoth.

Is anyone making in depth playable monster mods anymore? Necrocraft is the closest I've found to a modern monster mod, but it's incompatible with OpenMW and practical Necromancy is so lackluster compared to Lichcraft.