MechBuilder V1.3.1
Halfway august and the new patch broke the parsing. It is fixed now so download the latest version.
MechBuilder V1.3.0
The latest patch (last of July), brought in some changes to heat calculations (see patch notes or explanation on the forum for details). These are now put into the program as well, so your heat calculations should match what is happening in game (you can now see why a 6PPC alpha strike is a BAD IDEA).
There are several ways in which the program works with the penalty system. On the mech layout screen, it will show a warning once you have a configuration of weapons that (when fired all at the same time) will trigger the penalty system.
In the analysis, the penalty is more finegrained. So it only triggers if you fire weapons within 0.5 seconds. If you put weapons to chain fire, the interval is now 0.5 seconds, so you wont trigger the penalty.
Finally, in the weapon list window (so not the popup when configuring a mech, but in the menu -> GameData -> Weapons, or just press ALT + W), weapons that have the penalty system configured will show this. If there is a group, it means that everything within the group counts together, those without a group name, will only use the number of that specific weapon. So AC/20 penalty will only trigger on AC/20 firing, while the penalty for PPCs will use both normal and ER PPCs.
MechBuilder V1.2.3
This is a quick fix for the import problems after the latest game patch (2013-03-19 (not a copy/paste from the line below :) ). In this patch they have added the new consumable coolant flush (amongst other things), it caused some problems as being an unexpected type of module. For now I just made sure the program can read the files again, but unknown modules are skipped for now. I'll add coolant flush properly later on, but I want to do it correct, and also add optional use of it in the firefight simulator. So you can see what the effect of it will be, if it does any real use.
MechBuilder V1.2.1
This is a quick fix for the import problems after the latest game patch (2013-02-19 patch).
MechBuilder V1.2.0
Incremental change to the MechBuilder. Two larger changes are:
- Improved analysis
- Check for Updates
The check for updates should be self explainatory, but the new
analysis now looks like this:
There are a few buttons at the top. These allow you to configure and prioritize weapongroups, or even set chainfire. Currently a default of 0.4 sec delay is used when firing chainfired weapons. You can also disable weapons completely. This allows you to focus on a specific weapons group, keeping other weapons for 'just in case'.
There are some more changes: simple undo/redo. It wont undo
everythying, but adding/removing components can be undone/redone.
You can swap left/right side in the mech layout. Since the game uses
a different view it was sometimes confusing to copy a layout. Now
you can just swap the layout around as you want. Extended the
information when adding a weapon and also in the summary (showing
the number of salvo's for ammo based weapons). There are some more
small improvements you can find on your own.
MechBuilder V1.1.0
Besides some fixes (mostly ArtemisIV related), also some new features. Added ability to export to text. You can now customize component colors. I've changed them a tiny bit, but if you wish, you can change them as much as you want. There is a defaults button to return to the default colors.Added 2 buttons for quickly changing the armor: remove all and distribute x tons. The distribute will first remove all armor, then start allocating using the following sequence:
18 to head
Divide remaining pool by 7. Each torso part (except head) gets 1 fraction. Any remaing is returned to the pool.
If there is still armor left in the pool, distribute directly, starting with the center torso, left/right torso, left/right legs and finally left/right arms.
Put a bit more information in the mech list, it now shows the minimum/maximum engine rating.
MechBuilder V1.0.3 hotpatch
A quick patch to solve several problems: An exception when you press cancel in the file dialog shown when you use Open BattleMech. Fixed a crash on import if you used different local settings (more specifically: using a comma as decimal symbol in your local settings would cause the crash.
Also changed theming a bit so the readability of selected items is better (more changes in the future).
Did a quick first implementation of overheating a mech. It is in the FirePower Analysis and shows when a mech overheats, and how long it takes before the heat is reduced to normal levels. This is for now expiremental and can be disabled. There will be more options added in the future with regards to heat management, but that will take some time.
Also added a commandline setting to allow for more information when there is a problem with importing gamedata. If the problem occurred 2 seconds after the game was patched, I'll probably have the same issue, but if in the future there are some configurations where people cant import the gamedata while I can, in those cases the extra option comes in handy. This was already put to good use in localizing the crash mentioned above with the decimal symbol.
MechBuilder V1.0.0 released
Initial release of the MechBuilder for MechWarrior Online, download it from here or here, or look at the downloads page.
This program allows you to configure a mech and then analyse the firepower. It requires the .NET 4 Client profile which should install automatically if you dont have it yet. If it does not, you can go to microsoft here for an installer.
Configuring a mech looks like this:
You got an overview of the whole mech: all torso parts are visible. There are separate tabs for weapons (mechlab), armor and you can even set the pilot tree to your actual level. The + buttons allow you to quickly duplicate the item: so adding several tons of ammo is a matter of pressing the + button a few times. The - will delete the item.
The down arrow gives a full list of components/ammo/weapons you can add to a specific hardpoint. Only weapons available for the hardpoint type are shown: so if you have a balistic slot, you wont see energy/missile. Depending on weight/available slots not all weapons might be enabled to add to a particular location.
On the right you can customize your upgrades with endo steel / double heatsinks / etc. Also there is a list of statistics for the mech to give some quick information.
Once you think you have a nice layout, you can press the fire power analysis (Alt+F) and the following screen pops up
For a simulated time interval (10 seconds by default) it shows the damage your mech does at several distances. Note that the distance scale is not linear.
The calculation is using minimum, long and maximum range. At range below minimum range a weapon does no damage at all (think LRM < 180 meters), from minimum to long range, the weapon does full damage. Between long and max range, there is a linear scale that starts at full damage and goes to 0 damage at Max Range.
Below the graphs there is also the weapon firing data, which weapon fired at what time. This uses the pilot skills you might have configured. So if you unlocked the FastFire perks, the firing times will be decreased accordingly.