For those who treat this game like Pokemon...

Lol, bad man.

 

Not sure I understand this. By the time you level a mech fully through master, you've almost earned enough money for a new mech/outfitting at that point. Rinse/Repeat. Sure, XL's cost more so you'll have to play extra games for that, but Standards are pretty cheap.

I do swap modules because that's just entirely too much money to add on a per mech basis.

 

Modules, XL engines, and bigger mechs cost money. Trying out a new build that requires a new XL engine? Even more.

 

As I finish elite/mastering a mech, I tend to leave my favorite build on it. Engines and modules are the only things I swap and I am gearing up to buying 4 sets of my favorite modules and engines (I already have 3-4 of each size up to 325, after that, more like one each) for CW anyways.

I don't mind swapping for general play, sometimes I prepp three-four different mechs, other times I just prepp one as I want it.

 

I have approximately 70 mechs, and I'd say at least 50 are ready to drop, except for the modules.
Most are IS lights and mediums, lots of XL engines there, and indeed it costs a lot of money. But I'm playing for a long time (since the closed beta, august 2012) and I'm playing "a lot" (though less than some, I'm pretty sure), so it makes a lot of c-bill on the long run.
The modules are the limiting factor at the moment, the clan mechs left me very short on c-bills (I don't even have enough to buy 3 Mad Cats tomorrow, snif). I have some "old" modules in multiple, but I only have one item of the new weapon modules. So I swap each time I change mech.
I plan to get multiple modules for the weapons I use a lot (MLas, AC/20, SRM4,...) for the community warfare decks of 4, but I don't think I'll ever get modules ready on all my mechs.

 

I have 100+ Mechs and most of them are mastered and well, as long as i don't pilot those again, because i still focus on unmastered mechs, they are stripped, so that i can use the stuff for my unmastered ones. It takes maybe 5 Minutes to reload some good old configs, if necessary. So no problem at all for me.

 

I switch modules and engines all the time, when possible. My Ember and 3L share the same engine, and I never rebuy the expensive modules. I need a lot of mechs still

 

Having almost 120 Mechs in my Hangar is a real pain in the ass... just form the logistical pint of view.
Every Mech has it's own equipment and is drop-ready on the double.
I don't swap engines and other stuff at all with one exception: Modules.
As I used to play in a league, I have almost every important module up to three times (e.g Radar Deprivation), so I can fit three Mechs at a time, w/o having to leave the lobby in order to re-equip modules.

Running so many Mechs requires some logistical effort. I have a xls-sheet with all my Mechs, their level status, loadout, performance (stats), modules required/installed..... So I don't need to remember everything....

 

You don't want to do that son. The weapon modules in combination with the coming IS quirks are a power-up you don't wanna miss.
Check out Sean Lang's Youtube entries on this matter, it's a real eye-opener.

 

it would be easier if UI 2.0 weren't such a mess. Dropping in group queues is a PITA because people swap modules and engines all the time whichis fine but thanks to UI2.0 it takes forever

 

Holy *bleeep*! You bought engines for all of those builds, damn! I'm up to 119 mechs and I could probably equip twenty mechs with engines (a lot more if I go for smaller sizes then the build requires).

That's a lot of CBills you have earned, grind respect! You must be above 1 billion CBills in total earnings.

If I started selling surplus equipment I could probably equip a lot of them but I'm reluctant to do that, often find surplus to be reused as build experiments.

 

It always took ages. The time under UI 1 was getting horrendous with the 150 or so mechs I had when we changed. Any database/programmers that can clue me in as to why it takes so long to save/access?

 

Since I don't know the exact reason, I'll just go with the default: Because you touch yourself at night.

 

"strip Mech" -> all modules..
My favourite UI2.0 combo... Some mechs are missing XL engines which I swap around but all mechs are armed and outfitted. Except Modules.

 

Could be worse..... check the number of mechs on my screenshot and then think about all mine being drop ready (excluding modules)....

Modules are definitely my weak point as I only have a handful with more than one and still have plenty of gaps among the weapons. At the moment I'm filling them as I earn GXP but I'm not in a hurry as I want plenty of GXP and C-Bills ready for CW 2 in December. At least I have 3 Radar modules.

 

Sadly I run at under 5 hrs sleep a night so sleep like a corpse.

 

I have around a 3-4 mech ready and going for each IS class.
I swap out the engines and modules for the rest of them, but are otherwise ready to go in terms of weapons and equipments.
The big red bad on the mech also helps since I don't have to look through all them mech to find the one I am suing.

As for clan mechs, other than modules they are ready to go, except for a few that I would not use, then the head omnipod is taken out so I don't have to fo through them.

Currently, 2 clan mech is on my running list and have modules equipped.

 

A corpse that touches itself!!!

 

Well.. yes. For a light this almost means a 10mio c-bills investemt (Price of the Mech itself, Weaponry, Endo/FF/DHS and of course the XL) , so yes... it means a lot of grinding. But it's like someone already posted... while you are leveling a machine you enough c-bills for the next one.
JUst this weekend I got enough c-bills to buy two Banshees (18Mio C-Bills) and the respective weaponry (ok, I had most of it in store) as well as new engines to make them feasible. So technically I spent over 20 Mio this weekend and I am again at 6 Mio...... C-Bil grinding is no problem at all.
IF you have to redesign your Mechs all the time.... that's what melts your c-bills away.
Be careful at what you choose as your first config, tweak it a little if need be and keep it like that. Saves you a lot of money.

But to answer yout initial question: Yupp, e-v-e-r-y Mech has it's own engine.

 

*confused* Was this aimed at me as I have 236 mechs fully fitted for drops... I just don't have 236 x every module....