Centurion's Left Arm - useless armor?

[Snoopkirby]

Is it useful to not reduce if not outright remove armor on the Centurion's left arm?
It seems that all it does is act as a buffer for Left Torso by proxy of being in the way.

[Valen]

Well, That could be a issue.. It does have some purpose. If Damage Transfer works the way it is suppose to - then any excess damage to the arm would be transferred inwards.

I myself never remove all the armor on a spot like that - I would leave at least half - but thats me. In the end, I do not think it is going to be a real issue anyways - once your skill increases and your Team ranks up.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

That's the point of the CN9's LA, yes.

There's no real melee system so its canonical use of punching or using a 5t hatchet in melee means that it's there to add whatever armor you can afford the tonnage for.

[Maddermax]

You can definitely strip some armour, but stripping too much means you’ll lose the arm more often, and that means higher repair costs and longer repair times. It also opens you up to getting more side torso damage after the arm falls off.

[Nobody]

/Sigh

The arm has a shield drawn on it for a reason.
When you are not shooting at the enemy?
Twist that arm toward them.
USE that shield.
AS a shield.

Makes the CN9 family tougher than most other mechs near it's weight, as it has extra armor it can afford to lose.
Between that and the pair of CT mounted lasers?
CN9 can keep fighting even when it is down to just one leg, the cockpit, and the CT.
(Note: CN9-AH gives up the above in exchange for a Heavy Ballistic mount)

[The Bone Doctor]

Originally posted by Snoopkirby:

Is it useful to not reduce if not outright remove armor on the Centurion's left arm?
It seems that all it does is act as a buffer for Left Torso by proxy of being in the way.

Any component that is fully armored which does not mount any important stuff is called a "shield" arm/side in Mech Warrior and should be used as such. Shields are never useless, especially when the other side of your mech holds lots of high-tier weaponry and rare equipment that is expensive to replace.

[cyäegha]

of course, there is something to be said for shaving armor off of arms that aren't housing anything useful if it means being able to free tonneage for something more useful, or if the arm geometry on a 'mech is utterly useless for shielding

it becomes a counterbalance between 'is that 24 points of armor on my empty arm more important than uprating an LL to an LPL', for example, and when the best defense is deleting the enemy faster... i'd say it's at least something to take into consideration

it is also worth noting that being able to effectively roll damage over every hitbox is a much more valuable skill than blindly relying on deadsiding, especially with (YAML/MWO) XL engines
that shield arm is a good way of teaching somebody the basics about twisting, but getting 'gud' at twisting takes more than rigid adherence to the notion of 'X has shield arm, use shield arm', especially on chassis' that don't even have viable shield arms, or ones that have the majority of their armament spread across two arms; such a 'mech, like a jaegermech or a rifleman, doesn't have shield arms

hypothetically, if he is using something like YAML and YAW to do snub PPFLD, a toasty yen-lo-wang could probably be better served shaving its left arm to squeeze in another dub

[Maahes]

Or you could just follow my build philosophy:

1. Open Details on mech.
2. Strip mech.
3. Hammer "Max Armor" button. Twice, just to be sure.
4. Fiddle with the armor to get the Front/Rear balance you want, and maybe subtract a few points if you are really close to the ton or half-ton mark. (So. if I were at, say, 50.18 tons, I'd go ahead and subtract 6 points from various locations to get to an even 50).
5. Add weapons, heat sinks, ammo.
6. Profit.

Shaving off armor on an empty location (like the Centy's arm) saves you, what? 1 entire ton? Why the ♥♥♥♥ would you do that, when that extra armor can literally be used as a shield to keep repairs and internal damage to a minimum? To add an extra heat sink, Medium Laser, or ton of ammo?

Find that ton somewhere else. Max your armor. ESPECIALLY on anything the AI might EVER pilot.

[cyäegha]

Originally posted by Maahes:

Or you could just follow my build philosophy

the implication that i don't know how to make a functioning build is cute, but unwarranted

Originally posted by Maahes:

Shaving off armor on an empty location (like the Centy's arm) saves you, what? 1 entire ton? Why the ♥♥♥♥ would you do that, when that extra armor can literally be used as a shield to keep repairs and internal damage to a minimum?

perhaps for the reasons i've already stated that you didn't read?
deadsiding doesn't keep repair costs down, it literally costs you more replacing blown out LA/LT components than learning how to spread damage across all of your armor facings equally
hypothetically, let's say we were talking MWO instead of MW5; if you just sit there with your left arm extended in front of you the entire time, a competent player is just going to shoot you in the scrotum, which is considered the CT
you deadsiders seemingly haven't yet mastered the art of turning your legs to avoid that very scenario, so you're going to eat ♥♥♥♥ in that scenario

discussions about 'mech builds are like a shibboleth that reveals people like you who really hate min-maxing but are too chickenshit to say that, so you hide it underneath a smug, self-serving veneer that belongs in 1984

but considering your vehement hate-boner for clans, the anti min-max 'my way or the highway' sentiment doesn't come as a major surprise to me

[laurin.schafhausen]

Noo do not do that, it is a Centurion, the AC is your Gladius and the arm is the Scutum. Fire and turn is the basic move with an centurion.

[Rodrigo]

It's not useless omg, it literally looks like a shield, and you'll notice a tendency of enemies shooting it as priority, once ite gone the rest of your mech become a bigger targets. You can even actively use it as a shield by torso twisting. You can spare half a ton but don't 1 armor it.

[Maahes]

Originally posted by cyäegha:

Originally posted by Maahes:

Or you could just follow my build philosophy

the implication that i don't know how to make a functioning build is cute, but unwarranted

Originally posted by Maahes:

Shaving off armor on an empty location (like the Centy's arm) saves you, what? 1 entire ton? Why the ♥♥♥♥ would you do that, when that extra armor can literally be used as a shield to keep repairs and internal damage to a minimum?

perhaps for the reasons i've already stated that you didn't read?
deadsiding doesn't keep repair costs down, it literally costs you more replacing blown out LA/LT components than learning how to spread damage across all of your armor facings equally
hypothetically, let's say we were talking MWO instead of MW5; if you just sit there with your left arm extended in front of you the entire time, a competent player is just going to shoot you in the scrotum, which is considered the CT
you deadsiders seemingly haven't yet mastered the art of turning your legs to avoid that very scenario, so you're going to eat ♥♥♥♥ in that scenario

discussions about 'mech builds are like a shibboleth that reveals people like you who really hate min-maxing but are too chickenshit to say that, so you hide it underneath a smug, self-serving veneer that belongs in 1984

but considering your vehement hate-boner for clans, the anti min-max 'my way or the highway' sentiment doesn't come as a major surprise to me

You're adorable with your outrage. At no point, literally no point, was I addressing you in any way. I simply gave an opinion on a different philosophy regarding basic mech building. For this game. In specific. For the reason that the game's AI is dumb as a sack of hammers, and unless you run into one of the few mechs with a non-BF high-caliber AC, you're going to be sandpapered to death by said BF, missile salvos, and lasers streaking across your mech. Having maximum armor helps to ensure minimal internal damage in such an environment, whereas limiting armor in a specific location (like the Centy
's LA) practically ensures it, and let's the damage start eating into the torsos faster.

You don't need to "learn" to spread damage across your mech evenly. The AI does it for you 95% of the time. Torso-twisting an empty arm towards them doesn't help much when that's the case, with them firing wildly in your direction and flailing damage all over you like a bad bukkake flick. Deadsiding is all but useless here. Having max armor is not.

And no one hates min/maxing. It;s literally the entire point of the mechlab. Take off useless components, put on useful ones, as the person doing it sees fit. I'm certainly not the one with the smug, self-serving veneer here. Or not reading what others have written.

Congratulations on your obscure word usage. I'm sure you're very proud of yourself. Perhaps even as proud as you are of your "l33t skillz" at a game where none of that really matters. Why don't you take all of that "expertise" back to MWO and share it with other like-minded "professionals?"

One thing in your useless dribble of a post was accurate. I have a raging hate boner for the Clans, for reasons I've stated plainly in other threads. If we were in court, and you showed me the doll, I could point out all the bad places the Clans touched me back in the early 90's. The only answer to "When is Clan tech acceptable" besides "never," is simply "in a game where that's all there is." I.e. most of the other MW games.

[Eternal President Uncle Slam]

The next mech warrior game really needs to add melee attacks. I want to grab those stupid locusts by the leg and chuck them across the battlefield.

[Nobody]

Originally posted by cyäegha:

perhaps for the reasons i've already stated that you didn't read?
deadsiding doesn't keep repair costs down, it literally costs you more replacing blown out LA/LT components than learning how to spread damage across all of your armor facings equally

On the other hand....
Stripping it of armor means it is more likely (by that same logic) to BE blown off...

We never suggested ONLY using that side to take damage.
Just using it to protect the other side.

Or... did you not bother reading what we wrote?

[Maahes]

Originally posted by Nobody:

Originally posted by cyäegha:

perhaps for the reasons i've already stated that you didn't read?
deadsiding doesn't keep repair costs down, it literally costs you more replacing blown out LA/LT components than learning how to spread damage across all of your armor facings equally

On the other hand....
Stripping it of armor means it is more likely (by that same logic) to BE blown off...

We never suggested ONLY using that side to take damage.
Just using it to protect the other side.

Or... did you not bother reading what we wrote?

Of course they didn't read what anyone else wrote. If they did that, how could they strut in, post nonsense, and feel superior?

How does the saying go? Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what happens, they'll strut around, ♥♥♥♥ on the board, and act like they won. It is the internet, after all.

[Nobody]

Well, every advantage brings a disadvantage, or you don't have game balance.
Whether the CN9 family's empty arm is an advantage or a disadvantage...or both, depends on how you approach it.

Personally, I have found it more an advantage than otherwise, but I can also see why others would rather have some more weaponry.... even if it was simply a small laser or similar.