out of game design tools?

[Pagan Nova]

I know there's Li Song Mechlab and one other that's browser based, but are both of these useful? are they up to date as much as possible? I thought I ran into an "incorrect slot" issue once with one of them, but i don't recall which, or what mech, or anything.

or is there another option I should use? I want to work on a mech idea out of game.

[salamatmahal]

I feel like grimmechs is pretty great. I think it's missing the listing for the -10% spread quirk for the dervish 6M, but I haven't noticed anything else that isn't pretty much perfect.

[The Fifth Horseman]

There are two others that are browser based, Smurfy and MechDB. They're almost up to date, with the gotcha that Smurfy doesn't include the MW5 preorder variants while MechDB doesn't have the Dervish quirks.

Originally posted by salamatmahal:

I feel like grimmechs is pretty great. I think it's missing the listing for the -10% spread quirk for the dervish 6M, but I haven't noticed anything else that isn't pretty much perfect.

Grimmechs doesn't have its' own design tool, it's relying on MechDB.

[Pagan Nova]

Smurfy sounds like a good pick then. I didn't do the pre-order thing, so that literally doesn't affect me.

thanks, both of ya

[Ishan451]

Both Smurfy[mwo.smurfy-net.de] and MechDB[mech.nav-alpha.com] have their advantages and disadvantages. MechDB is a bit better at dealing with omnimechs, because of the way Quirks are represented. Smurfy is putting the quirks into a seperate list and doesn't display them, so its a bit annoying to piece together which omnipod does what. MechDB also gives you the ability to export the ingame code so you can import them into your mechloadout in the game.

Smurfy on the other hand gives you DPS and HPS (heat per second) details in the actual weapon overview making comparing weapons much easier. It also has a nice list where you can enter armor values manually and don't need to use those stupid up and down buttons. To me its the superior "forum discussion" builder... because you can export links vial forum code and such. Its a little less convient for importing and exporting builds.

And quite frankly i use both sites.

Originally posted by salamatmahal:

I feel like grimmechs is pretty great

Not really. Don't get me wrong, those are some pretty competitive builds they have on there but they are for the braindead. Its where people go to grab a build to import it without actually understanding what they are doing. Its one of the main reasons why we have so many bad builds out there.. because people just go grab some build somewhere, where they are told its competitive, and that is about it. Asking on forums for builds, even if you might not get the most minmaxed builds out there, will result in a mech much more closely aligned with your playstyle as you get to have imput on it... as well as hopefully input from multiple players why your choices are bad or wouldn't work as well.

And my favorite example is the Hellbringer build. I can't deal with that screwed up competitive build they have on there. It just does not work for me. And i will be so conceited to say that if i can't make it work, with my understanding of the game mechanics, then i am sure there are many more newbies out there that go grab that build in the expectation that it will work for them and be a detriment to their team, because it simply does not. All insisting of it being competitive, because people that actually play in 12 man teams, on headsets, that cover each others weaknesses make it work well... are great and all... but chances are its not going to be the experience for the vast majority of players out there.

That is not a dis on grimmech, mind you, the builds are some of the most competitive you can get... but that does not mean they are the most competitive for the individual pilot. And just mindlessly copy and pasting builds isn't going to make anyone a better pilot or understand what they are doing in the mechbay.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by Pagan Nova:

Smurfy sounds like a good pick then. I didn't do the pre-order thing, so that literally doesn't affect me.

thanks, both of ya

Smurfy doesn't have the C-Bill versions of those mechs either, mind you.