Aaah, Titan building, my favourite part of the game. The stasfaction of sweating over a brilliant design in the factory is merely validated by seeing it suceed in the field.
Perhaps the fact that I am an awful strategist, plagued by terrible luck in the battlefield has something to do with this. If a design suceeds with me at the helm, it is
good!
There is one operative word in titan design:
Weight
Saving Weight = More Armour = Not dying when the CPU opponents pull off 5 incredibly fluckey crital hits in a row.
Start with weapons. Your titan is there for the purpose of turning other titans into itty bitty bits, weapons are what do this.
One mistake I made as a newbie was underestimating how incredibly cool HtH weapons are. Quite frankly nothing matches twin chainsaws, pound-for-pound in terms of sheer, unadulterated mayhem!
And they don't even require a computer, which saves weight!
Melle weapons aren't everything, though (that would make this game into Roboforge, after all
) Energy weapons
do not save you slots! Well, they do in the arms, but more space is taken up by a bigger engine and heat regs.
The bigger your heat reg, the more likely that it'll get damaged by a flukey shot, and that you will be ejecting to escape the impending meltdown.
Cannon weapons are nice, they produce less heat, require less energy (smaller engine = less weight) although they do take up a few more slots in the arms for ammo.
The solution, either whack a few in the LT/RT/CT or get a kickarse Close Combat skill so that by the time you run out of ammo, you will have got close enough to whale on his *** and finish him off.
Running out of ammo happens surprisingly rarely with Cannon weapons...unless the **** opponent scores a critical ammo hit.
That doesn't happen often, they're more likely to suffer 3 pilot-damaging headshots in a row (Yes, this happens to me with monotonous regularity.)
However, energy weapons aren't totally useless. Among other things, they're faster than cannons. When it comes to energy weapons, there are really only two that are worth the time of day to me: The Large Laser and the Black Ray Gun.
The Large Laser is the most average bloody weapon in existence. Good range, good accuracy, good heat.
The Black Ray Gun is so **** nice when it works. There is no satisfaction quite like repeatedly knocking over an enemy melee titan so that it never even manages to get close enough to scratch you.
The Small Laser and Pulse Laser are a waste of bloody time. Neither could hit the broad side of a barn to save your life.
What's more, a small laser will actually end up generating more heat than a Large one, despite its pissy damage and abominable accuracy. This is because it fires quickly.
Likewise, machine guns have some sort of usefulness that evades me. Oh yeah, they do double damage at close range, but big, fat hairy deal compared to a chainsaw!
Also, the Autocannon 20 has appaling accuracy. When it does hit, it is devastating, but I guarantee you that a pair of Autocannon 4's blazing away steadily will end up doing twice as much total damage.
Missiles again are another weapon I do not fully understand. They take up ungodly amounts of space, and rather than doing devastating pinpoint damage they will slowly and steadily turn enemy armour into swiss cheese. If that's your thing, go for it. However big damage = enemy falling over = enemy on ground = you kicking it's sorry, helpless arse.
So pardon me if I do not loudly extol the virtues of missiles at street corners.
Anyway, I think that's enough about weapons. By bigoted opinon being Chainsaws and Autocannons 4 & 7 ought to be your mainstay.
Now, other systems:
Life Support. Get the cheapest one and bung it somewhere out of the way. If there's some benefit to having a good one, I don't know about it.
Shields. Largely a waste of bloody time, except in Melee titans. A melee titan is vulnerable while it's charging an opponent. But keep in mind if any of your titans has a shield, then none of your opponents will have energy weapons. **** the AI cheats like hell!
Even a small shield can be a worthwhile investment, but it will require a sacrifice in terms of weapons potential, because these buggers are
heavy.
Heat Regs: The bare minimum you will need to do is add up how much heat all your weapons will generate if being fired constantly.
Heat / Reload Time * The Number of the weapon you have. Repeat for each type of weapon.
Also add whatever heat the shield generates per turn.
I said this is the bare minimum because heat is generated also by moving about, being caught in a burning forest, and also by the shields if you've got any.
When playing against the computer, the mystical heat faeries will also transport some of your opponent's heat to you. Either that, or they will magically guide enemy weapons to hit your heat regs with uncanny accuracy.
Engine: I think the official documentation details this quite clearly. There's nothing I need to add. If your powerplant gets hit, you're almost always screwed anyway, so there's not alot of point in getting a bigger one than you need to.
If you followed my advice and went easy on the energy weapons, you'll only need a little one anyway.
Scanners: To my knowwledge, scanning an enemy is the only source of precious OXP. Thus if you have a crap scanner, you'll never be able to scan the enemy in time and thus never increase your attributes and end up getting creamed. Also, you need active scans to make called shots. Called shots are nice, there's nothing like the feeling of decapitating your opponent.
Target Computers: If you only have melee weapons, you don't need one of these. Period.
If you do, you need a good one. A 10% to hit bonus doesn't sound like much, but there's a big difference between a 25% to hit chance and a 35% to hit chance.
Flares: They suck, but they do not use power. But unless you have a good Defensive skill they really amount to little more than paiting a giant 'Kick Me' sign on your titan.
ECM: These are nice. Sure, they screw with guided missiles but these are good for two reasons. #1: They stop enemy scans, keep them guessing, I say! #2: The threat level lets you know how many people are currently trying to kill you. They draw power, though, which means you need a bigger engine, that's bad.
Jump Ports: IMO, installing these is like begging the computer to botch your piloting rolls at a vital moment, as you helplessly watch your prone titan get ground into the dust. They are nice on Melee titans, because you can pick a slower(lighter) frame and still have enough mobility to catch up with your enemy without getting bothered by pesky things like rivers and terrain.
Armour: Type 1 Armour (Millenia) is the most useless crud in existence, end of story.
Armour 2 (Titanium) is vaguely useful for situations where you're low on slots. But it's about as effective as strapping tinfoil across your titan, protection-wise.
Armour 3 (Vicenium) is IMO the best by a country mile. Weight is almost always the limiting factor with armour, and this stuff is the lightest. It is very bulky, so you need to leave 2 or 3 slots free to get half decent protection.
Armour 4 (Duralloy) sometimes offers you better protection, especially in smaller areas like the head. But it's heavy, so most of the time it will offer you less protection overall.
An armour index of 5-6 will make you a sitting duck.
6-7 is the very least to offer you a half-decent chance of surviving the battle in one piece.
7-8 is what you want to go for. Although it will leave you lightly armed, it's worth it for the fact that a lucky shot is not going to put you out of commission.
And seeing that the computer oppnents are about as lucky as Kate Winslet's boyfriend, that's definately an important thing indeed.
Well, I hope you find that enlightening. I think I need to go offline now as my computer is getting almost as cranky as I am due to to heat...bloody Australian summers!