Help students hone their geometry skills with this seventh-grade math worksheet all about creating triangles given specific information. In this two-page practice worksheet, students are given a set of conditions and are asked to draw triangles based on these conditions using a ruler and a protractor. This worksheet is a helpful way for students to explore the relationships between the side lengths and angle measures of triangles, preparing them to better understand triangle congruence in higher-level math classes. For practice determining how many triangles can be created given conditions, students can try the How Many Triangles Can Be Created? worksheet next!
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Two-way frequency tables show frequencies for two categorical, or qualitative, variables. In this eighth-grade math worksheet, learners will be given an example of a two-way frequency table and review the data found on the table. Students will then get to practice constructing two-way frequency tables given written descriptions of real-world data. This two-page worksheet is a great way to help students organize data and prepare them to interpret patterns found on two-way tables.
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Several colleges have increased enrollment and reaped financial gains from using Rize Education’s courses in high-demand fields, largely overcoming faculty concerns about loss of control.
University buys assets of publicly traded Zovio to bring management of its roughly 28,000 online students in-house, citing online program management’s “inherent conflict.” Glad you finally noticed, critics say.
Two experts discuss the digital divide (including for adjuncts), the importance of training and how to ensure online education is a force for equity, not a deterrent to it.
Instructors’ awareness and use of open educational resources and their recognition of the efficacy of digital texts rose sharply this year, an annual survey finds.
As other public institutions seek to expand their offerings for place-bound adult learners, the formal end of the homegrown eVersity offers some lessons.
What are the best building games on PC? Building games are a great way to indulge some architectural creativity, but there are so many great building games on PC to choose from. Thankfully, we have the brick and mortar necessary to put together a list of the best building games on PC with the strongest of foundations.
From compulsive free PC games to fully-fledged triple-A titles, the best PC games incorporating free-range building allow us to stake our claim on another world and bend it to our will. Whether you need a base to defend against oncoming dinosaurs in Ark: Survival Evolved or are scrabbling together rusted scrap in post-apocalypse games like Fallout 4, there are nearly as many reasons to build as there are building games. Whatever kind of building game you’re after, we’ve got the right set of blueprints for you here.
The best building games on PC in 2023 are:
Minecraft
Minecraft is the building game that captured the imaginations of millions of gamers worldwide, and established itself as the first game that comes to mind when we think of the best building games. You can even get the game to construct amazing worlds for you with the best Minecraft seeds.
But, if you have been living under a landslide of blocks, Minecraft is a sandbox game with blocky graphics and an emphasis on creativity. In an almost endless world, you can build impenetrable fortresses and cool Minecraft houses to fend off hostile Minecraft mobs in survival mode or ramp up the danger in hardcore mode. The possibilities are limitless, and that is before you expand the game with Minecraft mods and Minecraft maps, just in case your creative juices are not quite flowing.
Creative mode is where Minecraft shines as one of the best building games on PC, though. Free from the constraints that face builders of the poxy real world, in creative mode you have access to an unlimited number of blocks and items. With all limits on your creativity lifted, you can have all the fun of making more elaborate creations than you ever could with Lego, without any of the clearing up – and if you have Game Pass, it’s free too.
Trove
Trove is a free building game and sandbox MMORPG featuring countless realms and biomes. It is an open-ended adventure from Trion Worlds that lets you build to your heart’s content.
First, you need to get your cornerstone – your home base that you take from world to world – up to scratch. You can craft new weapons, creatures, and environments when you are not tricking out your home with the help of the many Trove mods and Trove console commands.
If you are going to make your cornerstone the envy of all other Trove players, you need resources and loot. Thankfully, procedurally-generated dungeons keep loot collecting a fun experience as you scamper through unique worlds and complete quests with your pals. Trove is one of the best building games on PC to play with friends.
Roblox
Roblox is still one of the most played games in the world, and that’s largely because of its mix of potential and accessibility. Rather than building objects within a pre-made game world, Roblox instead lets you build the objects, the game world, and even the game. Check out our list of the best Roblox games for some inspiration to get you started.
No Man’s Sky
Once the No Man’s Sky: Beyond Update landed, the game transformed into a fully-fledged house building game, in space. No Man’s Sky allows us to let loose our inner space architect – with help from some No Man’s Sky mods, of course.
Offered in all four game modes, you can have unlimited bases across the stars, which you can use for farming, storage, healing, shield recharge, and as a home for the NPCs you recruit across the galaxy. No Man’s Sky also received a free graphics update on PC to go along with the next-gen console upgrades.
Space is a dangerous place, so you need to ensure your home can support life. Do this by flying over the planet’s surface, using your ship’s scanner from space, or by building a signal booster. Once you have found a planet that can support your task force, you can start using your resources to build a home in a galaxy far, far away. You don’t have to be lonely in your space pad, though – get some help creating space castles from a friend in multiplayer. Just make sure you put the hoover round first.
Ark: Survival Evolved
Where base building is a bit of frivolous fun in other building games, in Ark: Survival Evolved it is all about one thing: cold, hard survival. If you are lucky enough to endure the first few moments amidst some dangerous dinos – as we did for our Ark: Survival Evolved PC review – you are going to need to whip something up sharpish to keep yourself safe. Unless you want to see only your freshly savaged corpse when you log back in.
Yes, when you log out of Ark, your body stays exactly where you left it in a perilous state of purgatory. If you have not used your survival building games know-how to put together a smartly designed base and protect yourself from the elements, prepare to see your progress swiftly eaten up. That counts for your food, farming supplies, and crafting equipment, too.
All bases require some core elements but, other than that, you can make them as ridiculous as you like. You can also get even more creative with the best Ark: Survival Evolved mods. So it is helpful if you opt for a location close to the materials you need. In ascending order of durability these materials are thatch, wood, stone, and metal. Metal, obviously, is going to be the best at staving off any would-be looters.
Rust
Like Ark, this is up there with some of the most punishing survival building games around, so make note of these Rust console commands so you’re not caught short. And, akin to Studio Wildcard’s effort, you start your adventure with nothing, cowering away from other potentially hostile players before you can find two sticks to rub together.
But once you have skilfully scavenged some supplies, you must defend them. First, you need a building plan to create a ‘twig tier’ foundation – there go your two sticks. This first tier is one of five, with the wood, stone, sheet metal, and armoured tiers increasing your protection from raiding. There are plenty of other ways to buff your base such as locks and strategic wall placement, but be wary that it will decay. Just like everything does in this kind of survival building game.
Satisfactory
Few expected the follow-up from the studio behind Goat Simulator would be an early access building game about colonising a planet by constructing elaborate automated factories. Satisfactory is essentially conveyor belt porn, encouraging you to create increasingly beautiful assembly lines that hug the abstract landscape of the alien world you now call home.
While Satisfactory is a building game at its core, you can also indulge in light combat, explore the terrain with a range of vehicles, and – thanks to four-player multiplayer – tour the genius creations of your best pals. But the best thing about Satisfactory is that you can tour your creations in first-person, marvelling at every automated vehicle, production line, and monolithic processing facility in more detail than is ever afforded by the traditional top-down view.
Fortnite
If you like Minecraft, Fortnite is also one of the best building games you can play, and is also one of our favourite co-op games for if you’re looking to build with friends. In fact, Epic Games’ founder, Tim Sweeney described it as “Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead.” It is every bit as enticing as that sounds. And that is before we get onto this survival building game’s other form as one of the best battle royale games on PC which you can be triumphant in with our Fortnite tips.
In vanilla Fortnite – which you too can master with our Fortnite Save the World guide – you and three intrepid heroes fight to reclaim your homeland after it has been ravaged by the mysterious darkness known as ‘The Storm’. That’s where the building game element comes in: you will need to construct forts and traps to ward off the remaining monsters.
Building is essential in Battle Royale, too, but this time it is essential in your survival against 99 other players. As you scavenge for gear and attempt to stay within the shrinking safe place known as the ‘Eye of the Storm’, hastily constructing fortresses can be the difference between life and death. Whether you prefer Fortnite vs. PUBG is up to personal taste, but, either way, use our Fortnite building tips to explore the nuances the game has added to this exciting genre. And, with Fortnite Creative mode, you can make your own mini-games using Epic’s powerful tools, and share them via Fortnite Island codes.
Fallout 4
In previous Fallout games, we had to be satisfied with having a great time collecting loot, collecting a cast of colourful companions, and blowing raider brains out with a massive laser. But, in Fallout 4, we have a house building game, too.
Once Preston Garvey has, once again, asked you to liberate an area on behalf of the Home Guard-esque Minutemen, you can start to use the junk burning a hole in your carry weight to deliver post-apocalyptic Boston a new lick of paint. You can choose prefabricated structures to get your base going tout suite, but the tools you have at your disposal can lead to some quite astonishing Fallout 4 settlements – with the help of some handy Fallout 4 console commands.
As the population of your burgeoning town grows it is easy to ignore the main quest and treat Fallout 4 as a de facto house building game. Inviting wandering entrepreneurs to set up shop and trade in your settlement is one of many perks you have access to as you attract more bodies; you can even set up supply lines between multiple settlements and establish yourself as a post-apocalypse property magnate. If that all sounds a bit overwhelming, have a read of our detailed Fallout 4 guides. But if you’re already a Fallout 4 building expert, check out our Fallout 76 tips to deliver you a head start on rebuilding the wastes of West Virginia.
The Sims 4
The Sims 4 is a game about taking a bunch of humans and performing horrific experiments on them – or, at least, it is for us once we’re done experimenting with all the Sims 4 sex mods. But, after you are done starving your Sims or maliciously locking them away until they pee their pants, The Sims 4 can be one of the most satisfying house building games on PC.
Perhaps your behaviour towards your much-maligned human pets – and, if you’re a true sadist, your Sims 4 Cats and Dogs, too – are making you feel guilty, so why not treat them to a tastefully designed pad with The Sims 4’s myriad building tools? Enter build mode to create anything from a trendy city pad to a resplendent mansion.
Building in The Sims 4 takes some getting used to, so it might be worth having a pen and paper to hand to properly realise your dream abode/torture chamber. Start simple by keeping your exterior to a square shape before you try something more complex. Once you have chosen a roof you can experiment with room layouts, decor, and furnishings. Then, once you have added a pool and a tricked-out sound system, even the cool kids might stop by.
Hopefully, we’ll just as much freedom – if not more – when the Sims 5 release date rolls around.
Planet Coaster
Theme parks are, obviously, great fun. We need only to picture Thorpe Park’s Nemesis Inferno for a moment to dampen our pants from nervous excitement. But Planet Coaster is a building game made with the faith that we virtual architects can do better, and one of our favourite management games, too.
Looking at the exquisite and intricate Planet Coaster creations that exist already, that faith seems to have been well placed. Using all the skills at their disposal, we have seen players create wonderful reimaginings of the Millennium Falcon and the Enterprise – surrounded by g-force-boasting shenanigans.
Planet Coaster, along with the original Rollercoaster Tycoon series, make developers Frontier Developments building game stalwarts. With the endless tools that games such as this have to offer, you will be well on the way to producing roller coasters that leave your virtual park attendees shoving their way to the front of the queue.
Cities: Skylines
Certainly one of the best city building games out there, Cities: Skylines will consume the life of any budding mayor. Whether you create a city replete with natural disasters or piles of corpses lining the street, or create a vegan utopia with the Green Cities expansion, you are bound to have fun in this city building game.
Cities: Skylines has all the tools to deliver building games experts everything they need to create wonderfully intricate cityscapes – and even more if you count the many Cities: Skylines mods. And they have done it without the always-online DRM nonsense of 2013’s SimCity.
Poly Bridge
As much a physics puzzler as it is a bridge building game, Poly Bridge makes the depths of its maths-based mechanics accessible, so you can at least have a decent stab at getting people where they need to go without plunging them into the river below.
Even if at first you do not succeed, the relaxing acoustic soundtrack and bright art style in this bridge building game will make you feel somewhat better about the watery graves you have just made for your poor passengers – as we found in our Poly Bridge review. With 24 challenges in the base version and hundreds more on Steam Workshop, Poly Bridge will keep you entertained for hours.
Planet Zoo
If you enjoy Planet Coaster’s intricately detailed building tools, but feel like your creations are wasted on ungrateful human guests, in Planet Zoo you can enjoy watching creatures great and small clambering around your thoughtfully built enclosures, albeit for the enjoyment of still ungrateful guests.
As long as you satisfy your animals’ habitat needs, avoid confronting them with plants from the wrong biome, and ensure they have a space to shelter from the weather and the public’s curious gaze, you’re free to create all sorts of magnificent palaces and immersive viewing stations to showcase your critters. You’ll even get to release the animals you’ve nurtured into the wild once they’ve grown big and strong, making this a truly satisfying building game.
The enclosures you create have a real impact on the behaviour of their inhabitants – building a pagoda too close to a fence enticed one of our little Red Pandas to make a brave leap for freedom, sending zoo visitors into a frenzy as they scrambled to get away from the menacing delinquent. As we discuss in our Planet Zoo review, there’s an incredible amount of detail to this zoo building game, and ample reward in admiring the Planet Zoo animals as they explore your creations.
Car Mechanic Simulator 2018
Real mechanics are liars: cars obviously run by magic and we will not hear anything to the contrary. Don’t tell us that that mind-boggling tangle of pipes, pistons, and cogs is anything other than sheer wizardry.
That said, Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 is a car building game that makes the construction of a vehicle intelligible to non-wizards. Once you’ve got your skills up to snuff, you can expand your vehicle repair empire. Perhaps you’ll even be good enough to repair the cars from the very best racing games.
There’s a reason why Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 is up there with the best car building games: the many, many paint jobs, sprays, and parts can turn your broken old bangers into a sexy, shining racer. What will be the first thing you do once you have a garage packed to the rafters will beautiful cars? Get snap happy in photo mode, of course.
Raft
You’re miles out at sea and all that separates you from a frenzy of sharks are a few slabs of wood. Not great, not terrible. Raft is a building game where crafting a ramshackle pontoon is your best shot at survival. Thanks to a handy hook, you’ll start by pulling in remains of barrels and other flotsam for crafting materials. If you manage to avoid getting guzzled up by a shark, your hodge-podge raft will slowly turn into a floating paradise – and our guides to areas like Varuna Point and Temperance can help you now Raft has launched out of early access.
Once you’re up and running, you can go diving for more materials to build your dream floating abode. In terms of what you can create, it may seem standard fare – shelves, rugs, chairs, and all that stuff. It’s the setting, however, and the looming sense of danger that makes it thrilling. Once your makeshift mansion is floating along the sea while the sun sets, you’ll come to admire the shark trophy plastered to your wall.
Teardown
Unlike the other games on this list, Teardown allows you to spend time creating a scene specifically with the purpose of tearing it down afterwards. Featuring a campaign that takes players on an adventure involving insurance fraud, revenge, and betrayal, Teardown gives you the tools you need to destroy everything in sight.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed when building things as the possibilities truly are endless, but the same can’t be said for blowing up buildings. If you enjoy destruction just as much as you do building, Teardown’s gameplay may be exactly what you’re looking for. While it might seem like a stretch, we’ve also included Teardown on our list of the best relaxing games, too, for the sheer satisfaction of knocking blocks down.
Valheim
Though Valheim is a survival game at heart, you still need a sturdy base to call home and to keep you safe from troll attacks and hordes of greylings. Most of your time will be taken up by crafting, fighting, and exploring Valheim’s many biomes, but players with an eye for building can appreciate the unique materials and limitations the Viking game has to offer. Surviving in the cold Norse world is already a pain, and Valheim makes things trickier by forcing you to build with structural integrity and air ventilation in mind.
While it’s nice to exercise your creativity, even the material gathering process can be therapeutic. Kick back and relax as you collect different types of wood and ore to build your perfect home complete with chests to store treasure and trophies, a roaring fire and cooking station, and even your own boar farm. Though building constraints may be off-putting, experienced players haven’t let these issues get in the way of creating homes fit for hundreds of Vikings, from a Viking Longhouse to a pleasant meadow dwelling. This Redditor managed to recreate Skyrim’s High Hrothgar, while this one spent their time building Sauron’s tower from Lord of the Rings.
That’s construction completed on this list of the best building games on PC. Why not check out the best sandbox games if you’re looking for a slightly different type of creative freedom. With that over and done with you can down tools, put your feet up, and relax.
The New Testament speaks of a large church in Jerusalem meeting together in a public space (e.g., the outer court of the temple in Acts 2:46) and in smaller groups in houses (e.g., the house of Mary, mother of Mark, in Acts 12:12). This practice must have been carried on in many cities of the Roman empire. For the most part, the church was dependent on members or supporters (patrons) who owned larger houses, providing a place for meeting. In Rome, there are indications that early Christians met in other public spaces such as warehouses or apartment buildings. Even when there were several meeting sites in a city, the Christians had the sense of being one church. They maintained unity through organization (from the second century on, beginning at different times in different places, one bishop in a city became the center of unity for orthodox Christians there) and symbolic gestures (in Rome, the eucharistic bread was sent from the bishop's church to other assemblies).
Before Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity as a legal religion in 313, corporate ownership of property by the church could be legally ambiguous. It seems that the first property owned by the Roman church were the catacombs. These were not places of meeting, however, but burial sites.
Unless claims for accurate discoveries of early Christian meeting places are confirmed, the earliest building certainly devoted to Christian use is at Dura Europos on the Euphrates River in eastern Roman Syria. It was a house that came into Christian possession and was remodeled in the 240s. Two rooms were combined to form the assembly room, and another room became a baptistery—the only room decorated with pictures. Dura was destroyed by the Sassanian Persians in 256, so the house's use as a church was short-lived.
The church's house at Dura represents an intermediate stage between meeting in members' houses or other suitable places, and constructing buildings specifically for church meetings. There are literary references to separate church buildings from the end of the second century and through the third century, but it is uncertain whether these were existing structures remodeled for church use, like the house at Dura, or new constructions. We have archaeological evidence of halls being built for church meetings at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth century. The great era of church buildings began with Constantine's patronage of the church in the fourth century. He commissioned basilicas to signal his support of the new religion and to advertise his reign.
Why did early Christians remodel or build separate structures for worship instead of continuing to use private houses or public spaces? Probably for the same reasons we do today. As the church grew, it needed to accommodate a joint assembly. Special functions, such as daily Bible teaching, baptisms, and the distribution of gifts to the poor, required readily available facilities. Special buildings also gave the church a visible sign of permanence.
Everett Ferguson is professor of church history emeritus at Abilene Christian University and a member of the Christian History advisory board.
For further reading:
L. Michael White, Building God's House in the Roman World (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990). H. W. Turner, From Temple to Meetinghouse: The Phenomenology and Theology of Places of Worship (Mouton, 1979)
Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today/Christian History & Biography magazine. Click here for reprint information on Christian History & Biography.
Even though students' grades are no worse with online teaching than with face-to-face teaching, many report that the learning process is not sufficient. In 2022, researchers from Ruhr University Bochum's Faculty of Medicine proved that the body actually reacts differently to online teaching than to face-to-face formats, specifically with a reduced physiological state of arousal. In a accurate study, the team led by Morris Gellisch and Professor Beate Brand-Saberi shows that the physiological state of arousal during teaching can be influenced by making the format interactive. The researchers from the Anatomy and Molecular Embryology research group, together with the team from the Cognitive Psychology research group, report the results in the journal Annals of Anatomy of 26 January 2023.
"From our point of view, these results are relevant both for the evaluation of previous digital teaching concepts and for the development of future formats," says Morris Gellisch. "As digital learning applications become more prominent, learning environments should be designed to be demand-driven and effective."
Physiological parameters and learning experience survey
In the previous study, the team from Bochum used hormone analyses and investigations of the activation of the autonomic nervous system to prove that the physiological state of arousal of students is greatly reduced during a digitally delivered anatomy course. For the current study, the researchers developed three different delivery modes of the course: traditional face-to-face teaching, passive online teaching and interactive online teaching. A total of 104 students took part in the study. During the course, the researchers measured the students' heart rate variability as an indicator of the activation of the autonomic nervous system, as well as the concentration of certain enzymes and hormones in their saliva. They also asked the participants about their learning experience after the course.
"The results show that it is possible to influence the physiological state of arousal of students in digital learning environments," summarises Morris Gellisch. Compared to passive online teaching, students in interactive online teaching showed increased concentrations of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva -- a sign of greater physiological arousal. In addition, a decreased heart rate variability was shown during interactive online teaching, which is a sign that the sympathetic nervous system is activated in the autonomic nervous system, and the body thus enters a state of higher readiness to perform. Measurements of the enzyme alpha-amylase in saliva confirmed the sympathetic activation. The values for interactive online teaching were comparable to those for face-to-face teaching.
Survey shows clear differences between learning conditions
In the survey on learning experience after the course, the students indicated with a significant majority that they felt more involved in the course activities and the learning materials as well as more attentive in interactive online teaching compared to passive online teaching. However, they also said they had felt more anxiety, for example, of giving wrong answers. This anxiety was more pronounced in the group that participated interactively online than in the face-to-face group.
Effective teachers consider their students at all stages of planning and instruction. Knowing how students learn, along with the roles of prior knowledge and emotions in learning and the potential needs of distinct student populations, such as underperforming and at-risk students and international students, can not only increase learning but Strengthen class community by reducing classroom incivilities, but also make your classrooms more inclusive and your teaching more compassionate.
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Introducing interconnected mesopores and macropores into microporous zeolites with the rationalized pore size at each level is an effective strategy to suppress the diffusion limitations, but remains highly challenging due to the lack of rational design principles.
Guided by the generalized Murray's Law, for the first time, researchers demonstrated the first example of boosting molecular diffusion by constructing hierarchical Murray zeolites (OMMM-ZSM-5) with highly ordered and fully interconnected macro-meso-microporous structure assembled by uniform zeolite nanocrystals. The walls of macropores are constructed from the assembly of highly uniform zeolite nanocrystals, which leads to the formation of an interconnected ordered mesoporous system.
The excellent interconnectivity of hierarchical Murray structure was confirmed by the temperature-dependent hyperpolarized 129Xe nuclear magnetic resonance. Concerning the mass transfer of bulky molecules within the highly interconnected hierarchical Murray structure of OMMM-ZSM-5, the intelligent gravimetric analysis (IGA), a macroscopic diffusion measurement, on the diffusion of 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, was performed under inert conditions.
OMMM-ZSM-5 zeolites exhibited 9.4 times larger max adsorption amounts and 9 times faster relative diffusion rate than those of conventional ZSM-5 zeolite. Regarding the intracrystalline diffusion behavior and the impact of the interconnected and rationalized macro-meso-micropores in accelerating diffusion in OMMM-ZSM-5 zeolite, the 1H pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR, a microscopic diffusion measurement, was applied.
The total diffusivity of molecules (Df-intra) in the hierarchical Murray zeolite was about 10 times higher than that of microporous zeolite ZSM-5. The above results showed that the interconnected and rationalized macro-meso-micropores in the hierarchical Murray architecture can greatly accelerate the diffusion performance.
Such excellent diffusion property makes hierarchical Murray zeolite ZSM-5 an extraordinary solid acid catalyst in the 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene 1,3,5-TIPB catalytic cracking. hierarchical Murray zeolite exhibited 2.5 times higher catalytic performance and two times less coke deposition than microporous ZSM-5. It is clear that the presence of excellent hierarchical Murray structural diffusion system provides a highly efficient catalyst, which is promising in many organic catalytic reactions involving large molecules.
The generalized Murray's Law could enable predictable and controlled production of bioinspired hierarchically porous materials with optimized structural features and highly enhanced performance.
The findings are published in the journal National Science Review.
More information: Ming-Hui Sun et al, Boosting molecular diffusion following the generalized Murray's Law by constructing hierarchical zeolites for maximized catalytic activity, National Science Review (2022). DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwac236
Citation: Accelerating molecular diffusion by constructing hierarchical Murray zeolites for maximized catalytic activity (2023, February 17) retrieved 19 February 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-02-molecular-diffusion-hierarchical-murray-zeolites.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
If you’ve spent any significant time with Harebrained Schemes’ BattleTech you’ve undoubtedly had a sense that just as much of the game takes place in the MechLab as on the field. There are interesting tactical decisions to be made certainly and BattleTech packs a lot of detail into its combat encounters. But building your lance the right way and picking the missions best suited to your lance is just as important – if not more so – than proper positioning and timing in a fight.
These mech building tips should provide you with plenty of guidance for crafting your ideal mech. There aren’t any real hard and fast rules when creating your lance because everything in BattleTech is situational. We’ll go over a few general principles to bear in mind, but it’s important to remember that these can always be superseded in certain circumstances. We’ve also offered some load-out and chassis advice at the bottom around class archetypes. Feel free to tweak at your leisure, though.
We’ll continue to update this guide as we learn more about BattleTech, but the rules below should apply to BattleTech as of the Heavy Metal expansion and the latest Patch.
Because of the way BattleTech works, there is no ideal guide for ‘Mech building. BattleTech is a game based on improvisation and adaptation: between finances, biome type, mission variety, and equipment availability, you’ll rarely – if ever – be fielding the ideal mix of ‘Mechs.
What you can do, however, is equip the ‘Mechs you have to fill useful roles on a team. As I noted at the top, there aren’t hard and fast rules about doing this, and even holding guide in hand, you’ll have to adapt these designs in order to fit your situation at any given time.
A quick beginner tip: Use the ‘Strip Armour’ button when you start putting your build together. Once you’ve got everything you want positioned on the chassis, use the ‘Max Armour’ button replace the plating up to the maximum tonnage allowed on the frame. You can fiddle with the distribution a bit, which is often a good idea because by default it will assign armour as evenly as it can.
Scout/Spotter
Suggested chassis: Raven, Commando, Locust, Jenner, Panther, Flea
The big – and possibly sole – advantage of light (20-35 ton) BattleMechs is their initiative of 4, which means they’ll go first in the turn order. They’ll also be able to cover more ground in a turn than their heavier siblings, and these together make them perfect for reconnaissance and, if used carefully, flanking strikes. Their fragility is offset by their high speed, so remember that if you aren’t moving, you’re giving up your best defense, which is evasion bonuses. Use these BattleMechs to spot enemies for your indirect fire platforms and look for opportunities to take out vehicles. You can put heavier ‘Mechs like the Cicada into this role, but you’ll lose that extra point of initiative if you go with anything beefier than a Panther.
For equipment, rangefinders are great for scouts, as they’ll deliver them an extra bit of vision that you can use to direct fire from your long-range artillery. Consider outfitting jump jets (and heat sinks), but they’re not strictly necessary. Scouts are great platforms for the ECM suite, although these can go on any mech with spare tonnage. Weapons-wise, stick to basics – a long-range autocannon or a pair of M Lasers will be plenty. Remember, you’re not going to be going head to head with these ‘Mechs.
Striker/Skirmisher
Suggested chassis: Javelin, Blackjack, Centurion, Enforcer, Wolverine, Quickdraw, Vulcan, Assassin, Phoenix Hawk
Particularly for missions where you’ll need to intercept or assassinate moving targets, you’re going to want fast-attack ‘Mechs that are outfitted with some knockdown power. The striker is that platform, and when you’re customising a chassis for this role, think high speed and high DPS. A good example here is the 1R variant of the Vindicator – the stock configuration carries a medium laser, LRM-5, and PPC, along with jump jets to quickly change positions. Ideally, you’ll want these BattleMechs to be on the quicker side and having enough firepower to be effective in the role means they have to cut back on armor.
You have your choice of weapons with strikers, but the idea is that you’ll want them at medium range for most fights. Grouped medium lasers and autocannons are good choices for strikers.
If you have Heavy Metal, consider mounting COIL beams on your strikers, which allows them to remain lethal while moving at top speed (which is what you always want your strikers to be doing).
Brawler
Suggested chassis: Vindicator, Hunchback, Kintaro, Cataphract, Orion, Stalker, Hatchetman, Crab, Warhammer
Many missions in BattleTech, particularly story missions, will focus on straight up showdowns between lances, and this is what you want brawlers for. While other roles will try to move around the periphery of the fighting, brawlers are the ‘Mechs that you’ll want dead centre, as your gunslingers. Pick chassis that have enough hardpoints to mount a lethal number of weapons and go big wherever you can: big racks of SRMs, PPCs, AC20s and medium or short-range lasers all work well on brawlers.
Consider also mounting support weapons like machine guns or flamers on your brawlers, but keep in mind that many of the chassis best-suited for this job will run into heat management issues. Install heat sinks on these bad boys if you’re using a lot of energy weapons or heading into badlands or lunar biomes.
Fire Support/Sniper
Suggested chassis: Griffin, Trebuchet, JagerMech, Awesome, Catapult, Zeus, Banshee, Cyclops, Rifleman, Archer, Marauder
As the name suggests, these ‘Mechs will be outfitted with your longest-range weapons and often relying on your scouts or skirmishers to provide vision on their targets. Larger, assault-class ‘Mechs like the Awesome and Zeus can easily be used as direct-fire snipers due to their respectable armor capabilities, build the lighter platforms around as many LRM racks as you can mount.
For your snipers, use autocannons, large lasers, and/or PPCs if the environment isn’t too hostile. Ideally, these ‘Mechs won’t be coming under a lot of direct enemy fire, so as long as you can keep them where they belong, you should be able to cut back on armour in favor of weapons and heat sinking.
Heavy Assault/Enormous Death Machine
Suggested chassis: Battlemaster, Atlas, King Crab, Annihilator, Bull Shark
Yang uses the term ‘juggernaut’ and it’s an apt one for this role – these are your biggest and baddest BattleMechs and they’re generally capable of mounting a ridiculous amount of weaponry as well as tons of armor. Once you have one, it’ll be the centrepiece of your lance, so build the rest of your team around what you plan on doing with this ‘Mech. Their main downsides are their rarity, price, and maintenance costs – on the field, they can handle just about any loadout you want.
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Save your rare, powerful salvaged weapons to outfit these beasts. Multiple PPCs, autocannons, and laser banks all work well. However, if you’re short on parts, save your long-range weapons for other ‘Mechs – these giants are best for ploughing directly toward the enemy, and short to medium-range weapons are all you’ll need as long as you have some lighter ‘Mechs on hand to handle enemy snipers, turrets, and artillery, which will focus their fires on these juggernauts.
That should be enough to get you started on ‘Mech building. BattleTech is as much about improvisation as tactics, so building your lance needs to be fluid and flexible. Just remember the old Mechwarrior saying: “Aim for the cockpit, kid – kill the meat, save the metal.”
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