Hi, Having decided to go for the -4P, I've looked at the builds in the sub-forum for it, and have a few questions.... 1. It seems to be generally considered a bad idea to have an XL engine in a hunchback, yet most of these do. I find this rather confusing, and would be interesting to see why people have chosen xl engines in this variant. 2. I'm liking the user of LL's or ppc's ( if I go ppc I'll probably go for ER despite the higher heat cost attached ). Yet it seems these are usually placed in the hunch. Is there a reason people don't place them in the arms? ( Arms seems to make sense: more aiming ability and less of a target - lose the hunch you still have 2LL's ). 3. More of a concept pitch for a mech - 2xLL's ( arms ) 3xML's (hunch) , 1x ML ( head ) biggest standard engine I can shoehorn in, DHS' , and ( hopefully) max armor. AMS is a possibility too, dependent on if I can cram enough heat sinks to handle 2 alphas and still have space. ok I'm a Noob and I'm sure it sucks as a build, I look forward to being told why though.....
My 4P is build on a classic 9*ML and STD260 loadout. I'm not a HBK specialist, but here 're my 2 cents: 1/ About the XL, the idea is that since most of your weaponry is on the hunch, you're almost useless when it's destroyed - so why not be dead and benefit from increase firepower/mobility/armor/... during the battle? Still, I'm using STD. One off the reasons is you can't pack a big engine on the hunchback anyway, and since my weaponry is not heavy I don't need XL engine. 2/ PPCs on the hunch is because of the high position: you can fire above a ridge without exposing yourself too much. 3/ Your build looks decent. Play some games and tweak the number of ML and DHS to find the good balance, but it should work.
1. Hunchbacks sometimes get hit RT first, but most everything gets cored CT right now. This is partly because snipers aim center-mass, and because LRMs and SSRMs track CT anyway. As mentioned earlier, if your torso goes, you're basically gone, as with the 4P that drops you from 9 energy hardpoints to 2.
1. Always depends on play style if you want to go fast use a xl but always run and STD engines for the survivability as your right torso will always explode (trust me). 2. If you want a ppc only include just ONE anymore overheats too easily. 3. You don't need ams if you are going to shoehorn the biggest fastest STD engine.....
