Thumper is a Pew-Pew/Gunship hybrid that brings some pretty good attributes to the battlefield as a heavy support that can hold it's own against just about anything. Upside: - OK speed for a (partially) ballistic platform at 66/72 with the tweak. - Superior heat performance @ 1.46. - Well protected at 398 pts of armor and zero arm mounted weapons. Cat torsos are tough to break and make XL engine usage more viable than on some other models. - Excellent range envelope from 1625m to 0. 600m or less to touch it with the LPL's. - Fairly good AC5 ammo load at 90 rounds - so 45 shots before you run dry. - Good concentrated punch at 20/10 with group firing (2LPL's/2AC5's both in group). LPL's instead of PPC's = same damage for less heat, less range and a .25 sec longer cooldown. In addition to the heat savings, LPL's are way easier to shoot in my opinion. Downside: - No AMS / Jumpjets. - No weapon articulation as everything is in the torsos - so vertical and circling engagements may put you at a disadvantage. - Mixed energy/ballistic package means different aiming points when circling and strafing. You will have to be on the target for the LPL's and leading it with the AC's...so you need to be seriously in-tune with what you are firing and where you are firing it. As with any ballistic weapon, if you miss the shot that ammo doesn't come back...so the different aiming points take a little getting used to. General Notes: Knowing how the recycle times are going to interact is important to establishing an optimal firing chain. LPL's are at 3.25 and AC5's are at 1.7. So for sub-600m targets it generally works like this: LPL's / AC5's / AC5's / LPL's / AC5's / AC5's / LPL's ...etc... The major strength of this mech is that you can keep that chain up virtually indefinitely. The only thing left to do is hit what you're aiming at. If you can do that then either: a) you will kill the guy, or b) he will eventually shut down... followed shortly thereafter by a). Your only real competition in terms of heat endurance will be straight ballistics users or low damage energy users. Pretty much everything else is going to die or overheat if you can circle/stay with it. When I die in this it's mostly just general stupidity on my part and/or being outnumbered. A lot like the Workhorse in that regard... I haven't found many faults yet in the design that cause me to want to change anything. I have a few Thumper games recorded where I did pretty good so I'll get those linked in here ASAP... So I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys can do with it... and remember: Don't just kill 'em - THUMP 'em! Good hunting all! P.S. Here's some game footage - not the greatest quality but at least you'll get a feel for the firing chain and how it plays, etc... I did these with MSI Afterburner on its default settings so I will work on tweaking that to get some better quality vids in the future maybe: (This can run at 720p)
I picked up the CPLT-K2 to be my 3rd 'pult so I could work toward mastering them. I tried The Judge and, although a really great build, unfortunately I just couldn't get it to work for me. So looking around I came across Thumper here. Never had any LPL's so I though I would give it a spin. And this has been a really enjoyable build to run with! Had to modify it a bit as I had a XL280 laying around and didn't wanna spring for a new XL265 at the moment. Same armament, just added AMS(cause I'm a fan). This did cause definite drop in armor though. Two heat sinks less means although I run a little faster and I do run hotter so I keep chain fire the LPL's. When hot I turn solely to the AC/5's as needed. Warchanter's chain fire works really well, I just need to iron out my aiming a little on that. You can manage to fit most/all items in the torsos and head so the arms turn into nice little shields(although a little bit high). One thing I found with this build is that it is pretty effective at scaring speedy little lights off. Your quick enough that it's hard for them to out maneuver you like other heavies. You can keep them in your sights for a few shots and with the LPL's on chain fire you're guaranteed to hit'em. And it's those are hits they notice. The run off to nip at somebody else's ankles pretty quick. Overall, a really fun build. Plenty of speed to get into and out of trouble. Plenty of ammo. Plenty of bite left when the ammo runs out. Check out Warchanters posted videos, you'll see.
MeglaManiac, one basic rule is: always upgrade to endo-steel before ferro-fibrous! In the case of your build, you gain almost 2 more tons by upgrading to ES instead of FF. Also, since you have 11 free slots and an empty DHS slot in your engine, you can free the 14 more slots to also upgrade the armor if you want. => Weight for XL300, one more DHS and some armor. That being said, I really hate those mechs with all weapons in torso. (also, you both said "plenty of ammo", but 3 tons for 2 cannons feel pretty short to me)(even 4 actually)
I made something rather similar to this with 2xUACs, 2xPPCs, and an XL255 engine. Your build is faster and has more reliable weapons. I'll just have to try out both.
Yup, yours is the superior build. The mech seems to run just fine with an XL255 and an extra ton of ammo.
Epikt, that was a great improvement! Thanks for pointing that out. I knew better than doing armor over structure but was, ah...a little inebriated when I built it. That being said I should have continued on with the build from there as I had a XL300 already swapping between mechs. I added the endo and XL300 at about the same time as I got spread tweak so that was a BIG jump in speed and made this mech more deadly. Having the weapons in the torso has saved me more times than once. I lose at least one arm per match, they seem to be pretty attractive targets. Also, by keeping the weapons in the torso I am free to delegate max armor to the critical boxes on the mech. But it's mostly a preference on weapon placement. I will agree with you in regards the ammo situation, I do run out on most engagements. But I figure it's the price to pay for a build that I find deadly so much fun to pilot.
