Does the player get to negotiate salvage rights at all?
It uses a point-System based on your reputation with the your prospective employer. The more points you have (2-4 in the early Contracts) the more you can impact the terms. So far, a point equals 2 items of Salvage (some Salvage can be multi-points Items), and increase in base pay of about 115,000 Cbills or Damage Insurance of about 172,000 Cbills (Insurance starts off at zero, unless you drop a Point into it.) Sometimes Base Pay and Insurance can be Capped, where all you can do is drop points into Salvage (I’ve had this happen already.)
When it comes to Damage, there are Repair facilities on some Missions. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM. Judging by past damage to my Centurion, I was looking at a 300-400k Repair Bill before I activated its generator and stepped inside.mnot only did it Repair Armor (not so much Internal Structure Damage or the Armor over Internal Structure Damage) but it also topped off my expendable ammunition too. All this for no cost in Cbills billed to me after the mission, which is the sweetest deal so far. : )
...Critic so far. The best sensor i have is my Mark 1 Eyeball. In the year 3015. ok.
Questions
Is there a way to get your targeting system to lock on automatically? or do you have to hit R or T if someone attacks you?
When do you guys use damage Insurance. If i understand the system right, you get 172000 as an Insurance. If you only have one mech, the damage amounts to about 60000 ( as said, i suck at it). So, taking the Insurance would make sense if you get more mechs, or?
I’ve found the 360-degree Sensor Bar in First Person View to be a lifesaver. It takes getting used to, but even on difficult Missions it can help Cue you to Slew toward your next Enemies.
That being said, “T” is invaluable in targeting your next enemy. I really can’t stress this enough. This plus you don’t have to follow your LRMs all the way to their target. “Terminal Guidance” is not necessarily needed, but there is a risk of a miss if you already move on to the next target, this risk decreases the closer to the target you’ve kept the Target Lock on. I tested this out in a flight of about 6 Rotary Wing aircraft, Targeting/Firing/and then moving on to the next Target and firing before the first flight ever hit the far away Rotary Wing Targets. This really helped nail them before they tore up my Defended Asset, but of the six, I did have to reacquainted and target one of them.
I’ve taken Insurance only once. On the mission just before I took it, I had a more than 600k Repair Bill to a 450k Pay Day... OUCH! On the contract where I had insurance, I ran into the field repair station and only ended with 90k Damage, so a good chunk of that 172k Insurance went unused.
Like all Insurance, it gives a degree of piece of mind. And for that reason alone, I’ll probably keep dropping a Point into Insurance for the foreseeable future.
On the question of MechLab Customization. By setting the bar fairly restrictively, PGI preserves for itself the option to raise this particular bar as MW5 Development continues down the road toward a post 3049 MW5-world. I am not saying that this is a certainty, but the opportunity is in place for PGI to “listen/respond it it’s customer base” and gradually introduce a number of customization options for any follow on Game/DLC.
That being said, I agree with
@smurfopax, I like MW5’s customization option set. But that should come as little surprise, I’ve been a longtime supporter of a BattleMech’s Core Identity and constrained customization options in a Unit MechLab,
which is all I’ve had access to so far. It is quite possible that with better Faction Reputation that a perk of MW5 is a Great House offering me access to one of their MechLabs where I’ll have the ability to be more...
invasive in my Mech Customization efforts. I just don’t know. I have not made it that far into MW5 yet.
But by setting the bar so restrictively, options like Reputation Based Access to better MechLbs and a MechLab-Progression as the Helm Memory Core benefits become more generally available at/approaching 3049 are both very interesting and enticing possibilities.
On the question of Pilot Progression, I like that my actions in-game drive my Skill Progression. If I really make use of my LRMs, it seems that track this and reward it accordingly. Which makes better sense than me making a living on my LRM Fires, but pumping experience into Energy Weapon Proficiency, which I might have been tempted to do if Pilot Progression was a more manual input affair.
Has anyone else been struck by the retro look of the MechWarrior Progression screen?
I don’t have a MW5 screen capture handy but here is the MW4 Mercenaries equivalent:
. 
