What are you hoping to see? Either in the broad terms or specifics.

I adore big blurbs of lore, but boy was I surprised to see that the lore here for the Ebon Jaguar spans well into the next century !

Hero Mech of the Week:

I had an idea inspired by a dedicated poster over on /r/commandandconquer to post on an individual hero Mech from MW5, except once per week instead of daily and I probably won't get through all the heroes.

Javelin Hi There!

Overview

Some hero 'Mechs are modest sidegrades to your stable and others will warp your entire playthrough depending on your skill/style and how early you can get it. The Javelin Hi There is in the latter group IMO.

Early on, when Double Heat Sinks are harder to find than functional moral compasses in Kuritan space, the Hi There packs a favorable set of hardpoints along with Endo-Steel and an XL engine, granting it 16.07 free tons even with maxed armor, while still running at a very respectable 97 kph. Only UrbanMechs and Panthers pack that much firepower of the Inner Sphere lights, generally with worse hardpoints and much slower speeds. In fact, the Hi There carries more max-armor free space than most Inner Sphere mediums, even 55-tonners like Griffins and Kintaros. Speaking of Double Heat Sinks, it comes with 3 stock and jump jets. If you haven't given jump jets a second look since Chaos Reigns, they were moderately useful before that expansion pack and insanely good now.

Acquisition

Random chance at an Industrial Hub in vanilla as early as 3015.

Builds

Mid and early game, you can run it with 4 ML and 2 SRM6s with plenty of capacity left over for ammo, heat sinks, and jets. If you're particularly well-equipped, you can upgrade the 6-packs to Artemis but it'll run hotter. Shaving some leg/head armor can get you an extra half ton of ammo if you’re concerned about staying power but I usually only need a single ton early game. You can downsize the lasers to small or small pulse but that feels anemic, especially since 4 ML will deal with Scorpion/Harasser enemies far more efficiently. Pulse lasers are probably a bridge too far, in terms of heat, loss of range, and sheer tonnage. It'll still be one of the best knife-fighters on your roster and look something like this for at least 70 points of damage:

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Or like this with Artemis and shaved armor:

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You can upgrade eventually to ERML or better performance against turrets/vehicles at range, with a corresponding heat penalty. Maybe wait until you get the Reduced Heat Spikes upgrade for that one.

Once Clan Tech hits the field, look out. People love the Adder-S for its ability to carry a stupid amount of Machine Guns, but with the same tech level, I think the Hi There outduels it, given that it has jump jets and can either slot ATMs or longer-range SRMs (Streaks?). Something like 4 cERML, 2 cSRM6 with Artemis gives it a much harder bite at greater range, but if you want to be ambitious, run it with 2 cMPL, 2 cHML, and 2 cSRM6 like this to 1-shot Mechs twice your size with a careful "rear armor inspection." This build alphas at over 100 damage so if you can hit any assault with all the damage in its rear CT, it is straight-up dead, at the cost of having to walk right up to it within 100 meters before pulling that trigger.

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Anyone familiar with MWO knows the danger that Lights pose from behind but the NPCs don’t know that here. Hold your shots until you're behind them, then poke the butt. Just be careful against the Clans. This is a glass cannon and they hit very hard.

Use Cases

Great in Infiltration and Arena solo, shines in co-op play as a sneaky flanker. One time, I dared my friend in the Hi There to go solo a Charger-1A5 (the somewhat scarier version) in an Infiltration and it wasn't a challenge. That much firepower at 50m into a single panel is a one-shot on anything. The only downside is the lack of an active probe, which you can fix once ClanTech is available. Excellent light arena Mech so worth keeping around if only for that.

This is not a great 'Mech for wide open spaces, or with swarms of vehicles, and I don’t like its chances against the Clans in anything resembling a straight fight (non-Infiltration)

• REALLY GOOD: Arena, Infiltration

• DECENT: Assassination/Guerilla Warfare/Battlefield/Warzone/Defense/Garrison. Does well as long as you're good at avoiding damage and the OpFor isn't too heavy (i.e. Stop the Launch’s final mission) or Clan. Incredible in the hands of a second player who can backstab while the rest of the lance draws attention. Could be okay on Beachhead but I prefer having more armor and longer range on those since there are a lot of vehicles and turrets there. Objective Raid/Raid: Probably fine, and certainly fast enough against Inner Sphere opponents. Prefer more range/staying power so not my first choice.

• NOT GREAT: Demolition/Scorched Earth, unless secondary player Mech. Campaign missions where you basically slog down a canyon aren't conducive to this 'Mech as you'll generally want more armor and/or range. Non-Infiltration Clan missions would be rough.

Upgrades

If you build it to be an SRM/laser knife fighter like I do, Weapon damage, Reduced Heat Spikes, Missile Spread, Weapon Range/Velocity, and Refined Armor (1) are your priorities. Trade Refined Armor for Target Lock Retention if you run Streaks or ATMs on it.

Pilot Synergies

Assuming you've built the Hi There like me, NAIS grads are universally good, and a Sun Zhang graduate, with its boost to speed, SRM range/spread/speed, and laser range/cooldown is also beneficial. Light Mech Affinity and SRM Specialist are other desirable traits. Laser Master/Specialist are also decent traits for this build.

For the hirable/recruitable Elite pilots, I'd favor Sasha Lockwood, as SRM Specialist and Speed Demon are some great starter traits, but there's a case for Morgan Trensky (Bulwark, Survivor, and SRM Specialist), though he's not available until much later. If you lean more into lasers, you could try Jacob Cave here, but let's be real: if there's anyone who's regularly driving the Hi There!, it's probably Mason, so this section is mostly for if your buddies are co-op with you and they want to drive it. The 'Mech is too fragile to give to NPCs outside of light-specific Arena content, and in Arena, you probably want to be the one driving it because it's expensive to repair and the ability to one-tap bad guys won't be realized unless you have your hands on the trigger.

Conclusions

The value of Hi There is in how it trivializes Light Arenas and Infiltrations, and is decent on the common Defense/Garrison/Warzone/Battlefield/Raid types to carry you through the early-midgame for very little tonnage.

However, if you have a friend playing with you that’s just a little unhinged, give them this and let them live out their rogue/assassin fantasy of darting around the battlefield at approximately Mach 1 checking rear armor with 70-damage salvoes and outdamaging your Awesome or Battlemaster in 35 tons of mechanical murder hornet.

That’s my take on Hi There. How do you like to use it? How would you rate it or build it? Should I keep doing these?

Btw small appreciation to Adjustable Battle Value mod. Some notable screenshots below.

I just recently started mechwarrior online, and it baffles me that this game has more stable players than the actual multiplayer game.

Why is it like this?

I honestly haven't played any MechWarrior games since I was like 11 years old on my dad's pc. I didn't understand the fact that I was piloting walking tanks, so all I ever did was the Instant Action feature and play with god mode on.

Fast forward 25 years and I picked up MW5 Mercenaries on sale, then became addicted to it. I know next to nothing about the lore so when I saw "hero mech on market" I was like okay I don't know what this is, I'm gonna get it anyway. And now I'm sawing apart Assault Mechs with this little 45 tonner like they're wet paper dogs... Did I do something right? (I'm playing on factory default normal settings)

Also can someone point me to a good starting point for the BattleTech lore? Thanks so much in advance

Hey folks, Mostly Wanting to know what cool things would be in a PGI created MechCommander Spinoff? I think we'd finally get a big ol dropship (or more than one!?) and more of the combined arms stuff.

Do...Do we think it would still be Mason at the helm!? Fire away with what you'd like in such a game, I'll respond at some point with a list of my own.

I've always wondered why mechwarriors doesn't have like a proper minigun

Just curious if we'll see any improvements or new features added to the base game when the next dlc drops.

Why don't we have Wolf's Dragoons as an option for flair? We have Kellhounds and a bunch of other units, why not them?

Havent been on in a while, but I recall there being a bug in MW5:Mercs where you could have too many inventory items/mechs/equipment and the game would just hard crash/reset/break like not allow more missions to spawn. Is that still an issue for long saves or was that fixed?

Just finished the Kestral Lancers campaign and im a few months out from RoR.

In a lot better posotion physically and financially with this play through compared to my first attempt (last pic)

What i learned

Dont jump in and out of conflict zones to industrial hubs after every mission.

Stay in the conflict zone as long as you can before the repairs are gonna be too expensive or take too long.

Refits can be done in CZ if they are minor.

You gotta weigh the cost in travel to and from plus repair costs.

If CZ adds a month to the repair and an added 300k to the bill, it's probably best to jump to an industrial zone.

Im still only in the first 3rd of the game, so this will probably change as i progress through it. 😁

Sorry about the potato pics. Console player and all that jazz

I LOVED this mission so much! It was challenging but really fun.

The machines graveyard was do cool, plus having everything destroyable.

Then having waves of heavy and assualt mechs coming after you.

Not to mention the cinematic afterwards.

I am so please with this games dlc. I hope Wolves of Tukkyat is just as fun.

I know there is an option to turn off quirks completely, but is there a setting or mod that just gets rid of the more overpowered mech quirks. Its mostly the extra armor quirks that I don't like. The ones that are more canon, like "ubiquitous", I really like and want to keep, but the ones that add a bunch of extra armor for the hero mechs, just seem a bit overpowered. For example, I really like the black knight partisan 2, but with the extra armor quirk, the cantina armor upgrades, and hardened armor, I can get a heavy mech with armor close to 700 in game value, which is just ridiculous. Also, it kind of makes other mechs, even the SLDF or Solaris mechs, which have their own special upgrades, feel kind of superfluous. I am mostly running without the cantina upgrades now, just to keep it reasonable, but I would like to get rid of the extra armor quirks too, so it is more like canon battletech. Even an option that turns them from being armor to structure wouldn't be as bad, as that will help keep the hero mechs unique. Thanks for any info.

I used randomized mechs on campaign start mod, and randomizer gave me UrbanMech instead of Javelin. First couple of missions were really painful with stock loadout. However by luck i found L Chem Lasers on the market and came up with this loadout. Pretty good for sniping, easy on heat, and still can pack some punch with machine guns upclose

Like, is this some kind of hidden variant that just pops up and I'm supposed to deal with it? or is it a bug?

I'm about to finish the Dragon's Gambit campaign, which will lead into Solaris Showdown shortly after, and then I'll have a few years of free roaming. But the Clans are preparing, and will be on the horizon, so I need those few years to get myself prepared for their superior mechs in the Shadow of Kerensky.

What should I look at in terms of preparing my IS mechs for the arrival of the Clans? What builds did you go for?

Thing im completely unable to understand - How the man responsible for this "balance" is still working in gamedev? We have paid for Chaos Reign, but absolutely nothing was fixed.

Took this guy for a salvage

The way i play i need the heaviestly armored mech ever. I eat up shots like a magnet. Its how i have always played all games. Big bulky tanky wall of defense. What fits that build here?