Gameplay

Rough and tumble

'Mech combat is slow, deliberate and calculated. Half the battle is won or lost before you even get on the battlefield. You have to be very careful when you select what 'Mech to use and what weapons to equip.

If you pick something ammunition-dependent, odds are you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. Lots of damage, good range, a high re-fire rate, and sometimes even weight-efficiency... as long as you don't run out of ammo. If you spend all your ammunition on that wave of Mad Cats and suddenly find yourself armed with two dinky medium pulse lasers against a swarm of Uziels, you made a Bad Decision™. Either you spent too many resources destroying the first wave, or you made yourself too ammunition-reliant during the planning phase.

Muahahahaha

Here's bad news

On the other hand, lasers and PPCs are great - as long as you can dissipate the heat. For a long fight, nothing's better than energy weapons. You won't take your foes down as quickly, but you will be able to take them all down (assuming you survive their counterattacks long enough) without having to worry about using up all of your ammunition.

In BattleTech, long range weapons are generally used best for just that - long range. They tend to be inefficient up close. The extra weight and extra heat (for energy weapons) or lesser damage or slower rate of fire (for ballistics) are strong hindrances when you finally get down and dirty in close range combat.

Is that an awesome light or what?

Lots of these buggers around

OK, so I plan... how?

We mentioned in our preview that the 'Mechs in MW4 aren't true OmniMechs. To understand why this is a major issue, you have to know what an OmniMech is. The OmniMech is a clan invention - it's a kind of 'Mech that is very customizable. You have a weight limit and a space limit. There are a certain number of slots (counting your space limit) on any given part of your 'Mech. Some are automatically used for engines, arm actuators, leg actuators, and gyros. The rest are yours to do with as you please. You can pop in lasers, gauss rifles, ammunition and heatsinks wherever you like. Obviously, this is very advantageous, since you can tailor any 'Mech to any situation.

The Inner Sphere, however, didn't have OmniMechs until the clan war. You could only fit certain parts in certain areas. Autocannons went here, lasers here, missiles here. Unfortunately, even though the Clan war is long over and the Inner Sphere now has access to OmniMechs, Mechwarrior 4 doesn't use them.

You are stuck with having pre-defined slots for certain weapon kinds. This is rather limiting on your 'Mech designing capabilities. There is one advantage: the graphics don't look messed up. Your 'Mechs won't have lasers coming out of missile packs, missiles coming out of laser arms and tiny NARC beacons in giant auto-cannons. It is, however, still important to collect other 'Mech equipment. You just have to make sure that you have the specialized shot space. In MW4, a 100 ton Atlas and a 100 ton Daishi can't have all the same equipment. Yes, all weapons are inter-changeable, but the slots on the two 'Mechs can't have exactly the same load-out. A Daishi has many more energy and missile slots than an Atlas, but the Atlas can carry more ballistic weapons.

You've got to see how they JUMP hills - Dukes of Hazzard style!	That's right, come over the hill
Chummmm...p	He's going airborne in a sec