is there a method

[Shake]

to the madness of customizing an ACs parts? Or do you just go "okay those legs and helmet that look cool only work with this and that so im done" then add weapons and go?

[Koros Antavo]

First you consider the theme of your build. It can be speed, firepower, armour, a cosplay of some kind, or a favourite weapon, or anything else. If you're having trouble, just pick weapons you like, and we'll start from there.

The weapons need EN output to function and legs strong enough to suport their weight, so you pick a generator and legs that fit.

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Among the legs that fit, there are several furhter consdierations to make, namely leg type, armour, and overall weight.

In the "leg type" category, there are reverse joint legs, which can jump high and far and will lengthen your quickboost, but are ususally lighter on armour; tetrapod legs, which can carry significant weight and let you fly in the air for prolonged periods of time, but are pretty heavy; tank treads, which can carry the most weight, allow you to drive like a madman, but are poor jumpers and fliers and are extremely heavy; and bipedal legs, which don't have any specail effects, but also have no drawbacks. Pick the ones you like most, or the ones that suit your theme best.

In the "weight" category, the heavier the legs are (and more broadly speaking, the whole mech is), the worse the peroformance of your boosters will be. Specifically, with more weight, quickboost take more time to recharge and propell you to smaller distances, regular and upward thrust is slower and more energy-consuming, and assault boost is slower. It is generally best to pick the lightest legs that can still carry the rest of your mech, unless you don't care much about boosting.

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When you pick the generator, it is imperative that it can support the energy drain of your mech. If it can't, the mech won't be able to move. The three key stats to worry about are Total Energy, EN output, and Recharge Time.

Total Energy is simple - it's the amount of energy you can expend at once with needing to recharge. Each generator has its own number, it no other part affects it. Your main concern with this stat is the amount of quickboosts you can perform without recharging. A stat Quickboost EN Cost will tell you how much a single quickboost will drain; divide Total Energy by Quickboost Cost, and you'll get your number. Typically a quickboost costs ~600 EN, so a 2000 EN generator will grant you 3 quickboosts, while a 4400 EN generator will let you boost 7 times!

EN output is how much energy the generator gives to your mech's systems. If Total Energy is storage, this is immediate output. If the generator is too weak to support your mech's needs, the stat will be set at 100, and you won't be able to sortie with this mech. The lowest viable velue of this stat is 1000. If your mech has 1000 EN output, it means it makes extra 1000 EN every second. If your mech has 1000 output and 2000 capacity, it will fully recharge after draining in 2 seconds. A 4400 capacity generator will take 4.4 seconds to recharge. Thus, it is best to keep this number as high as possible, so that you don't need to stand around doing nothing, waiting while your energy reserves recharge.

Recharge TIme is how long you have to wait before the generator starts recharging energy at all. When you use energy, it doesn't start recharging automatically, but with a delay. This is that delay. The smaller it is, the better, though any values under 1 second are usually more than enough for most mechs.

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Once you have your legs and generator, it's time to think about the core. Mainly, the core is responsible for the bulk of your armour, but it also significantly affects your boosters and generator. Specifically, a core modifies your EN ouptut, increasing or decreasing the amount your generator's specifications provide; it similarly modifies generator's recharge time; and it change Quickboost EN Cost and recharge time. Pick a core that suits your needs most. Do you want more enrgy for your weapons and to lessen that recharge time? Do you want to quickboost often and more effectively? Once you pick, do't forget about the core's weight - you may need to revisit your legs or other parts of your mech to ensure it is functional.

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Next up, arms. While contributing to armour, arms also influence your arms weapons' accuracy and your melee weapons' damage. The stat Firearm Specialization deals with the former, and Melee specailization governs the latter.

Firearms Specialization is a percentage multiplier to your accuracy. Normally, accuracy is the domain of FCS, but arms make their contribution too. If your FCS says you have 50% accuracy at a certain range, but your arms have 160 Firearms Specialization, it is safe to say you will rarely miss at that range. Conversely, with 75 Friearms Specialization you will basicaly never hit with anything but the Gatling guns.

Melee specializtion is a percentage modifier to your melee weapons' attack power. If your weapon says it deals 3000 damage while charged, with 150 Melee Specialization arms it will actually deal 4500 damage. Conversely, with 50 Melee Specialization, it will only deal 1500 damage.

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Next, heads. Aside from armour, their main stats are status effect recovery and scan-realted stats. Here, just pick what you like best, as anything other than armoour is not very consequential in this piece of equiplent.

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FCS is your targetting module. It determines how accurate your shots are, and it segregates by type of shot and range of fire. It has different values for close range (<130m), mid range (<260m), and long range (<400m). It also has values for missile tracking, one for single-lock and one for multi-lock. Pick an FCS which corresponds best to your playstyle. If you liek being in melee range, give priority to good close-range FCS's. If you like shooting from the middle, you need a mid-range specialist. If you like using missiles a lot, you need a missile-oriented one. Decide which things are more important to you and focus on them.

Hand weapon accuracy can be supplemented with good arms to a point, but shoulder weapon accuracy cannot. So if you want to shoot your arms weapons a lot, but also want to ahve lots of shoulder missiles, it is best to use a missile-oriented FCS and high Firearm Specialization arms.

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Boosters deal with everything boosting, and that means literally everything. There are many stats to consider. Quickboost speed, distance, rechacrge rate, EN cost. Normal thrust speed, upwrad thrust speed, upward thrust cost. Assault boost speed and cost. And melee weapon thrust and cost.

The last ones are of particular note. Low melee thrust will have you hit basically right in front of you, but high melee thrust can propell you half a kilometer to your target before you make a strike. Having high melee thrust values is very benefitial to melee-oriented builds.

However, you must also consider your weapon of choice. Laser Lance, for instance, has its own propulsion while charged, which is not affected by this stat. Pile Bunker, while charged, never moves forward even with high melee thrust. Uncharge though, both of these weapons heavily depend on the stat.

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These are the basics. There are further considerations to make, but I trust this will be more than enough for now, and you'll be able to find more intricate details on your own.

[Koros Antavo]

Is this complicated enough for you?

[OTOENJOYER]

Arms influence the targeting accuracy of you weapons and have different performances regarding recoil absorption, meaning some arms make machineguns or rapid fire weapons in general wildly inaccurate. These are important factors when building. Obviously if you go through the game as easily as you implied this is of no concern to you, but I'd advise trying different builds, maybe even weaker ones, to shake things up. Building your machine is half the fun.

[Shake]

Originally posted by Koros Antavo:

Is this complicated enough for you?

Nope. I make my AC look neat and press buttons and things go boom.

[Shake]

Seriously though, thank you to everyone who has been explaining their thoughts processes while making builds. Maybe I can make my build even better than it seems now with all the knowledge I can gather with everything everyone suggested or explained.

[vamirez]

The great thing about this customization system is that it is simple but complex, i.e. when starting out you can just go with whatever fits together, later on you will probably need to upgrade for speed or available energy/weight. And you can get through the game like that. But you can also deep dive into it and specialize or maximize for the maybe less obvious but also important stats to really make your own creation.

[opus132]

The correct answer is that you build for fashion. Duh.

[Aradner]

You pick some key things you want it to do and go from there. First imagine what you want your AC to do and start picking parts that fit that idea. Usually you start either with legs when you figured out how you want your mech to move, or if you want a weapon loadout you know you want to use then you start by filling weapons, and tweaking around for them to fit on

[魔装機神 Psybuster]

I start from the legs and booster myself, since movement type and mobility are the key to reducing damage, which is how you avoid losing money on repairs, and from there go to generator, then to the rest.

[Young Erusean Officer]

I follow a simple doctrine: FAST, FASTEST AND FASTEST.

Then I squeeze every ounce of firepower I can with what's left.

[Bobloblaw]

I typically find what weapons I like to use. In this game shotguns + heavy hitters on the shoulders. Then I find the lightest, fastest weapons platform that can support those weapons. This usually means juggling things like arms, head, core and generator around my chosen legs to make it all work out.

Of course some missions call for better range, weapons with more ammo, heavy tanky with extreme fire power etc.. so I adjust around that. I always save my "primary" config though so I can just reset to that once I'm done with the mission that needed changes to my loadout.

[charliedrex]

In case anyone didn't know (saw a post somewhere above that mentioned they think it's bugged), system recovery dictates how fast the bar for ACS Anomaly (overheating/being flamethrowered) and Electrical Discharge (stun/shock weapons, those enemies that are basically electric mines, etc.) recovers. Basically anything that adds a new bar to your HUD above your stability meter.

It's about as niche and relevant to your build as this would imply. Although idk maybe for pvp since the meta is shifting to shock builds and everyone's running around with needle guns, it might be useful, though I doubt most engagements last long enough to justify it

[D. Flame]

Start with the leg type, then the weapons, then go from there.

[MadArtillery]

Yes, choose your legs and core first, make sure to bring up the detailed stats, your main body effects a hell of a lot, speed, power output, and recharge speed. Then generator/engine to choose Energy or Explosive/Kinetic, then guns. Depending on the recoil, fire rates, weight, and/or melee capabilities then you choose arms and FCS, pick out a pretty or electronically capable head, then finally it's thrusters with likely some tweaking of final details to minmax the thruster output. Perhaps a slightly different arm or head, lower EN FCS, maybe the legs are what doesn't quite fit. that's when things get very fiddly as you toy with numbers and make sacrifices to edge everything into place

[The Snacrifice]

If you hit F in the garage it will show you expanded AC/part stats. If you hit help and choose 'Contextual help' it tells you what every stat is.

Everything after that is either style or build decision.