Fix the shadow cat..

[Cpt. Clay]

Give me an option to not use a MASC in the center torso PLEASE!!!!!
In general this mech is hard to lean into a specific direction loadout wise.. Give me a left arm that has a ballistic. it's like smoke jaguar never heard of making their OMNIMECHS.. well..

OMNI?..

I get the idea, this is supposed to be a "Stealth mech"

But unfortunately the way it is kitted out, you can only effectively use it for Jayden and Liam.. :VVV... Pick 3 things or pick only missiles I guess? You can pick 3 energy weapons but you cannot carry a meaningful loadout of them, not enough slots, not enough free-weight.

3 parts can support missiles, but that is where the focusing ability ends.

I would also argue this thing is too heavy to be kitted out like a light mech :V

Viper is 5 tons lighter and superior in EVERY SINGLE CONCEIVABLE WAY except it can't have an ECM suite.

At the bare minimum if you guys would give me a different pod with nothing in it in the center torso I could at least point this towards energy in a somewhat meaningful sense.

[Clever Name]

I agree MASC is trash, especially in PGI games generally, but Shadowcat's an okay mech for early-mid game missions. It's not worth much beyond that.

I went from using the starter mechs to the Viper and Shadowcat briefly, but ultimately the Nova was more broadly useful than either. Then I graduated to the Stormcrow, skipped over the Hellbringer and the Summoner, and used Timber Wolf right up until the last 2 missions of the campaign, where I felt compelled to build a Dire Wolf sniper to succeed.

[Audio]

I found 2 good builds with the Shadowcat, both long ranged. First one I gave to Liam, which had 2xLRM 15, ECM, Active Probe and 2 S Lasers (These have great DPS for their weight). I think this is an amazing support mech for it's weight.
Second build is 2x PPC with Active Probe. Basically a beefier version of the Adder with MASC and Jump Jets. Both have .5 ton armour pods on the arms.
For a 45 ton Mech I think it's amazing.

[Cpt. Clay]

I feel what you're saying audio, the missile builds are pretty good for it.
My biggest criticism is that if I could shave the 2 tons off of the center torso from the mostly useless MASC, I could add a 3rd large energy weapon which would make it closer to an Adder. I just feel like given it's size, I should be able to add just SLIGHTLY more boom to it than an adder.. But it's full of taken up slots containing stuff I don't even want.. It's over-cooled as well honestly for the builds it can manage, it doesn't need as many heat-sinks as it has either. This is a pop-out-of-cover and shoot mech with ECM and fairly mediocre armor so that supports the too much cooling argument.

[Veritas]

like it or not, equipment like jumpjets or masc are almost always fixed equipment for an omnimech in every battletech/mechwarrior game. the real issue here is how they did armor, some builds that would be valid/legal are impossible to do because of armor taking up slots beyond what it ever should

[Cpt. Clay]

Yeah I wish I could adjust the armor more burger king style as well :(
It's fixed equipment sure but there's just no other torsos for it that is mildly upsetting.
I'm gonna try and throw the PPC build audio was talking about on Ezra and see if its even remotely satisfying.