How do you manage armor when creating titans?

[Bap]

I never know when to choose wich armor type and the quantity needed. Could you help me?

[Thorgrim]

Well, usually people start by reading all the documentation available, including the factory online help. That'll give you an idea of each armor type's strengths and weaknesses. Then you should take a look at the database, and check average armor for each weight class. Then you experiment in the construction desk.
There's no formula set in stone for this, just basic guidelines. You have to adjust them to your playing style.
Basic factors are available weight and slots. Keep an eye on heat dissipation factor too.

[whitefirefox]

armor the body parts according to there to hit % (like head can have a little less because of its -50% to hit) and play around with vicenium and dullaroy sometimes you can get more out of vicenium and other times more from dullaroy but remember the armor DOES take up slots and weight! so if your gonna make a walking slab of armor like korgmiester does your gonna have to use fewer/lighter/smaller guns or none at all (that is if you want to do about 6 to 10 damage a hit) or you could go with lighter armor and more weaponry that would work well for ranged gun boats (missles, energy weapons, ac4s (ac7s?)) or if you wanna get rid of a pilot and make it look like an "accident" you can put in an A class engine and no armor what-so-ever course Hetz would probably be more than happy to help you with getting rid of a pilot

[tarendelcymir]

The way I used to do it (back when I could actually play and stuff...) was to start with armor first, fill it to the maximum right from the start, then play with it from there. If I could a good set of weapons and equipment in without reducing the armor, great, that's what I'd do. If I really wanted something, but couldn't fit it, I'd start reducing armor in certain areas. I always kept my head armor at max. possible and always dullaroy, because I did I a lot of fighting with Hetzer, whom we all know is a headhunter.

Also keep in mind what Iceman always points out - it's often possible to remove a millimeter or two from a location without reducing the total APs. That mill. can then be added somewhere else that needs the armor more, or left off for the small amount of weight it frees up.

In the end, though, it's all a matter of preference. Some people like lightly armored titans with tons of weapons, others prefer huge masses of armor with a few guns tacked on. And some, of course, take the middle route.

[GROND]

Am to a Headhunter..............(long pause filled with much head-scratching) uhh.........Not am Headhunter..............To Not a Headhunter..............(sighs heavily and shuffles slowly back into lair).

ps: (with this talk of mammal sacrificing and all I find it amusing that no one has ever asked me exactly what I use the heads that I take for).

[Lobsteve]

no one has ever asked me exactly what I use the heads that I take for

I always assumed it was for stew. I mean, what else are heads good for? Sure you can stick them on poles and line your front walk way, but that just encourages the door-to-door salesmen...for some reason, I can't quite figure out why, maybe they're not all that bright...so that can't be it. But a good stew, with maybe a few biscuits on the side, now that makes sense.

Lobsteve.

[Bap]

Thanks a lot for your advices.
BTW whats your technique to pop heads off?
I use an AC or GC and a pretty good scanner.

[Lobsteve]

Well, there's a short answer and a long answer, and I don't remember the short one.

Fighting with teams: Best way to do it with two or more titans on your team is to, as always, soften them up with missiles, and if you're just going for the head LRMs are probably better just because of the larger number of missiles you can pack. If you fire enough of them plenty will hit the head, enough to get it yellow anyways. Then send in your favorite titan with an AC20, or tesla bolt. You need to get to the same hex as the target for an effective called shot anyways, so you can scan on the way in.

In Duels: Clearly you don't have the option of softening the target up, so you have to do it yourself. Forget the missiles, if you have them in big enough numbers you probably won't have room for the head-disabling-punch needed. Instead pick a titan with a decent number of weps, there are some with 6+ AC4s which should work great because of their versatility for a distance and close in. Here the key is getting into the same hex again, scan on the way in, go for the charge because if the target falls you have an easier job, you want your full arsenal available, then call head shots until the darned thing comes off.

Realistically though, ripping the head off the target is one of those things that should either happen by luck or after the target is already down. Mainly because the head is just so hard to hit and there's no point in wasting shots on it when there's so many better ways of disabling a titan.

Lobsteve.

[Thorgrim]

Originally posted by tarendelcymir
Also keep in mind what Iceman always points out - it's often possible to remove a millimeter or two from a location without reducing the total APs. That mill. can then be added somewhere else that needs the armor more, or left off for the small amount of weight it frees up.

Generally you can improve LOT armor by 1 or 2 APs, since it's the smallest location. I've even managed to improve flares or life support in the database only by shaving off these useless mms. They do count towards the titan's cost, and armor repairs.
If no such advantage can be found, take a look at the titan's speed and jump time. Maybe the weight saved is enough to decrease BMT or increase jump time by 1.

[CrushU]

I put weapons and systems on first, then armor. I try to leave at least 2 slots for armor on all locations though. I try to get ~10 armor/part for recon, going up by ~5 for each class, ending at ~40 for Assault... I use MAX armor for head, all the time.

When Im done that way, I check the pinboard, if I got red armor, I sacrifice systems, I sometimes sacrifice weapons. I TRY to get it into green armor, (which I think is Total APs/Tons > 5+) but I have limits, unlike people like say, korg.

[whitefirefox]

lol lets not bring korg into this his things aren't even titans those things are walking walls with some small guns poking out

and on armoring i usually do do systems/weapons first as well but hey how cares? korg probably does it in reverse and kicks all our asses in the sheer amount of armor her can posssibly fit on a light area lol

ah well thats my 2 bits

[stalker2150]

Well, since the beginning when I started playing TOS, I found it quite annoying whenI lost a jock after spening 30 hours getting him Medium chassiss access.

So, I did a little snooping.......maybe you vets know this by now, but for Heavy Metal it may be what he's looking for....

1. Look in your TOS directory on your hard drive, e.g. c:\games\Titans Of Steel\. There is a directory named "DATA" ...go there!

2. Now, once there, look for a file named e.g "Team1", or maybe "Team2" ... basically, whatever team your Jocks are in, that file will be there. COPY and PASTE that particular file some where else like in another folder... e.g. my jock is in the first team that appears in the HQ moduile, Team Blue (??? or Team Blue Red Green Yellow Pink......), so I COPY the file named Team1

3. Then I create a folder in my game directory called "Backup". So the directory structure looks something like this e.g. "C:\Games\Titans of Steel\Data\Backup"

3. Now PASTE that team file in Backup (or whereever else you may want to save it. Make sure that "Team1" is still exists in the original DATA folder, besides the copy you've just made)

And Voila! You have just insured the future of your squishy little ex-con Jock, ....unless a hard drive crash conveneintly occurs.

Some may consider this "cheating" (for some odd reason.....), I consider it saving my time.

Why recruit another team just to watch them melt during some freak engine explosion, or some unfortunate ammo explosion, or some opponent who wants to kill your Jocks intentionally..... If you lose, or your jocks die, just delete the original Team1 (or whatever team) file in the DATA folder, then COPY the duplicate file from the backup folder and PASTE into the DATA folder. Rename that file to "Team1" or "Team2" or whatever, if you have to.

BTW, I usually put a modest amount of equipment in my Titan, and then start installing armor. Try to leave at 2 slots free everywhere so you can get SOME armor in there.

Newbie TIP: Use Dullory if you are low on slots and have relatively lots of weight to spare (or don't...). Use Vicenium if you have extra free slots and are running out of weight. Go through every single body part with both armor types until you get the most out of your limited slots and/or weight.

[tarendelcymir]

I don't think it's cheating. In fact, I seem to recall someone telling me to do that same thing, all that time ago when I first started playing ToS. It may even have been Larkin.

[PrinceCorrin]

I recomend it. Highly. In fact, do it after every battle. And drink. Heavily.

[Hetz]

You will find that, if you play the game enough, that all of your standard cheats will get boring and the only thing that proves to be really satisfying is to work a team up from scratch vs an AI set 2 levels up taking your lumps as they come.

But, then again, I'm drain-bamaged.

[whitefirefox]

what did you loose your grip on the axe and it came around and hit ya in the head hetz?