I have a Catapult and have some MC left and want a new mech. Don't like the little fast ones and prefer the 'chicken-leg' ones so is the Stalker good and with what weapons?

There is a 3F, 3H, 4N an 5M. The 5S is too expensive.

Have fun.
My favorite mech. Almost an Atlas, but not the big walking target an Atlas is (everyone guns for the Atlas) and more accurate other than the RS atlast.
Engine is a 300 for decent speed and heat sinks (double).
This is the basic set up. You can play with it and try ppc's, but this first one is what I've settled on as my go-to mech.
Set 2 large lasers on each side. Pair up the left in one group, right in one group, firing 2 at a time VERY accurately. Much better than firing from opposite sides of the mech and often not hitting the same panel on the target. I've run this with an SRM6, but 2 SRM4's put out a couple more missiles and in a tight group.




My other I keep for when I want more SRM's, has more firepower over all, more armor, but the other is the one I stick to now:



You might also look at the Awesome-8T. You can put 2 PPC or 2 LL on an arm like the Atlas RS and have a LOT of armor on it. Pretty quick and maneuverable with a good engine too.
The Awesome has the best cockpit of them for the best view, if you free look. The Atlas is the worst.

Thanks, got the 5M and running as standard for now as I don't know how to take off weapons and add new ones. Do the ones I take off get destroyed? Is there a tutorial for doing this anywhere?

Go to Loadout to change up weapons etc.
Whatever you take off goes to your overall inventory, so you can then use it on any mech. You can also strip down a mech you own to use parts on another. You can sell weapons and engines though, you just have to do it yourself. Can't sell armor, ammo or heatsinks. All of the possible weapons etc for the location you're outfitting will be on the right with a 0 for inventory to begin with. If you own some that aren't already on a mech, you'll see 1, 2, 3 whatever over there.

Watch your heat management. With the larger mechs you do much less bobbing and weaving and a lot more constant firing. IMO, good heat management is better than a huge list of weapons. I try to get as close to 1.4 as possible for the Assaults and Heavies.
Nice that you got the one that comes with double heatsinks, that save about 1.5mil.

How do I take weapons off? If I try to buy a new one it tells me 'not enough slots, too heavy' etc. There is only a SELL option not a REMOVE one.

In loadout, go to the panel you want to work on and either double click on the weapon/component and it goes to inventory, or drag it over.

You can just drag weapons and equipment you don't want off the mech back to the mechlab stores, it will be saved in your inventory for use next time or by another mech.

I never sell anything though I probably should as I've amassed 18 ML somehow...

Here's a good video that explains it:

Great thanks, I've got it now

But, how do I see my inventory?

Right now, which is a little irritating, you can only see the portion of your inventory that is applicable to the section of the mech you've got selected. Arms can only see arm related weapons/components, torso shows engines and whatever else. Probably helps avoid confusion in building, but I'd like to have an option to "see all" sometimes when I'm pinching pennies or selling. My mechs live paycheck to paycheck. LOL

Do we pay for repairs to mechs? I know this did happen but I can't see anywhere that says it is after a battle.

We used to for a while during closed beta, but nowadays we don't pay for repairs and reload, after each match you just make money and get all the mechs repaired and ammo refilled automatically.

Not any more. Much better now. Ammo is taken care of too.

Edit...oops too slow!

I don't care for the Stalker myself... or really any assault mech. They're just too big and slow. Tactically speaking they give you limited mobility and repositioning so once you commit to an action there is no turning back.

However, I do on occasion fear them--especially the 6x PPC ones or the 5xSRM 6 ones. Thankfully I drive mostly fast Medium/Heavy mechs that can outmaneuver them. I used to drive a lot of light mechs but... well, the Raven 3L killed all the fun with light mechs and I don't exactly like stooping that low using streaks and ECM.

I'd rather run a Catapult any day versus a Stalker. They just don't fit how I play. The torso twist in them is particularly terrible.

It's a big difference for sure, and you have to move with more deliberation and planning, less reflex. With a good engine and perks, you can get it moving ok, or not nearly as bad as an atlas, but when I get in my Cataphract or even Awesome, the weight loss feels really good. When I switched to using the throttle from my HOTAS stick, it helped a lot, making it easier to control lower speeds.
Still, I can't argue with results, it just fits my play style better. My main complaint is not having arms for the faster left/right targeting, although it's still good shooting high and low. Having the weapons mounted high on the torso like that makes up for it in some situations, since I can fire over buildings where at Atlas or most mechs are just shooting the building itself from low mounted guns. And peaking over a ridge exposes less of the body...if you can get it to stop climbing at the right place. LOL

One of the nice things about this game, hop in a mech that suits your play-style (or mood at the time), lots of fun for all.

So no repairing super-expensive XLs anymore?

Sweet... I got scout!

You see fewer people on losing teams running off to hide and shut down to save money now. That was lame.

How come I cannot put a 300 engine in my Stalker? Even with the engine taken out and all weapons stripped it is still red in the selection panel.

Yeah initially I was against them removing the R&R costs as that was a key part of what I enjoyed with MW2 Mercs (salvage), but I have to admit I was wrong, MWO is much better now that you don't have to worry about R&R or the lame behaviors that was causing for people (disco farming), also it has made using the XL engines much better, they already carry the higher penalty of making the mech easier to core via the side torsos, but at least now we don't also have the humongous repair penalties.

If you've been away from MWO for a while it is worth coming back to check it out, I stopped playing for a couple of months due to some of the closed beta quirks but came back about a month ago and have really been enjoying it now, and especially the last few days with ELO I've been getting some pretty decent matches.

Usually if you try to drop the engine in there it will tell you why not, could be not enough weight or slots or C-Bills...

Take out the old engine, then save. Then go back to loadout and put it in. It's a bug to be worked out, happens sometimes.

I usually plan my build first (unless it is an easy change) to avoid buying the 'wrong thing'.

http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

I have run a few matches in the free jenner and cicada, today and yesterday. The spider looks good too.

Lemme do some research and get a few matches under my belt. I'll team up with you guys just like the old days!

Does the Commando with 3 missile hardpoints have ECM. I'm thinking about a scout as well...maybe a splat-mmando.

S

I'm pretty sure I've chased a Commando with ECM, so I think one of them does.

omg love that!

**loses himself in the music, the moment he wants it, he never lets it go**

Yup, and if you register an account, you can save all your mech's in the 'mechbay'.

Great resource, nice thing is they have it setup to parse the data out of the game files, so it is kept very up to date.

Put on 4 large lasers and 2xSRM6 and just got 5 kills, 1 assist and last mech standing Those LL's slice off weapons lol

Told you you'd have fun with it!

I saw a stalker with 6LLs, that thing was a beast. The guy knew how to manage his heat and killed 5 after we'd all died.