These are significant enough to warrant their own section. That, and I kinda ran outta space when I tried to shove them in the last one. Whoops.
- Endo-Steel Structureis an upgrade to a ‘mech’s internal structure (as described before, itself having inherent weight), halving the amount of weight taken thus.This comes at the cost of using up “critical slots” (“crits”), which are those boxes you see on the Detailed menu of the Mechlab. Now, these can be distributed anywhere on the chassis crits, with no penalty or advantage to where they are, and similarly to most other MW games it just does so ‘intelligently’ around the stuff you fit. I BELIEVE it’s the case (can’t be 100% sure) that there is no loadout for any ‘mech that would be sufficiently bulky to take up all these crits (weapons still take crits, if invisibly, as I recall), and thus run into a conflict; however, if I’m incorrect, this means that in very specific situations, a ‘mech with this (and probably also FF and XLE) might run into an invalid configuration error.TL;DR reduces tonnage consumed by structure, therefore giving you more tonnage to use to mount stuff.
- Ferro-Fibrous Armoronly applies to the weight of armor, so a ‘mech with FF and one without will both weight exactly the same when stripped of all armor, all else being equal. It offers a 12% reduction on the weight of armor, which translates into less tonnage being consumed per tick/point of armor you add.Similarly to ES, it has a volume penalty distributed among any free crits, but also similarly to ES, I’m not convinced a configuration exists within the hardpoint system that would violate it.TL;DR reduces tonnage consumed by armor points, meaning that you can shove in more armor using less weight that you can instead use for other stuff.
- eXtra Light Engines (XLE)is a specific type of engine that has identical performance to one of the same ‘rating’ (XL300 vs standard 300 will provide the same max speed on a ‘mech as a product of their tonnage) while weighing half as much as the same. Just like ES and FF, this is basically a free upgrade. Now, XLEs SPECIFICALLY, I can offer a word of fitting advice: They DO consume specific crits in the side torsos, which gives you less room to mount, say, DHSs (since Inner Sphere DHSs consume 3 crits each, this makes STs the go-to place to shove them in lieu of risking them on the arms), especially if you have bulky ST weapons. You can see this in the Mechlab, even though it doesn’t “draw” the XLE crits — look at the Detailed view of a ‘mech with a standard engine, then do the same for one with an XLE. You’ll notice the side torsos both have fewer crits free for fitting.Unlike other BT/MW properties, though, in MW5 [Inner Sphere] XLEs do not lead to a kill when a ST is taken out. Tested this myself.Since the single greatest detriment/drawback to XLEs was taken out, it’s thus a pretty no-brainer upgrade, provided you aren’t running an energy boat with ST-mounted weapons that needs lots of DHSs to stay cool.TL;DR XLEs are half the weight as the standard engines they ‘replace’, but actually come with a tangible penalty to mounting space (vs tonnage). May be slightly more situational than either of ES or FF.
Struck through the bits about volume/crits. Just tested, this game does NOT observe any sort of rules about crits.
In the associated picture, this Champion (a -1NB, with both ES and FF) is super-illegal (besides the tonnage, of course), as the equipment mounted in the STs consume 13 and 15 crits, respectively, even though even without an XLE (which a Champion 1NB doesn’t have) a torso component only has 12 crits available. Also, the sum total of crits consumed by the components pictured is 30 by the DHSs, 12 by the SHSs, 10 by the AC/20, and 3 by the PPC, adding up to 55 crits consumed. ‘Mechs have 78 slots total. Subtracting the 55 used, that leaves 23 — which would, BY ITSELF, be illegal, nevermind that the engine and co*ckpit systems also consume crits.
So don’t worry about all that stuff about crits/volume, tonnage is all that matters.Oh, and the XLE engine thing, losing those crits still hurts as described for DHS-stuffing.
So essentially, these last three columns should be about the most significant factor in deciding whether to buy a ‘mech (I might end up moving them, to be honest, to the front of the spreadsheet). Tonnage is one of the premiums in this game, and having more of it is almost ALWAYS a good thing.
One thing of note, fitting with their TT implementation, these components areMUCH MORE EXPENSIVE TO FIX.If you so much as scrape the paint of a ‘mech with Ferro, you’ll feel it in your pocketbook; and if you start taking structural damage with Endo or an XLE, the check’s gonna be a doozy when it comes.
It’s, for the most part, a no-brainer to get these, BUT I say that with the assumption that you’ve made a decent chunk of money by the point you’re hunting Lostech. Just be aware that while they let you field more powerful ‘mechs, in a general sense, it WILL be multiplicatively more expensive than standard tech. Risk vs reward and all that.
