Now this is not going to be a comprehensive guilde nor is going to go over the basics of being a OT.
If your geting your start in OT please refer to here Ordnance Technician - CM-SS13 - Wiki its not quite up to date but it good start.
Now let talk about what it means to be a practical OT.
Its all about Speed,Maxcaps and making offensive Ordnance. Franky specking a slow OT is a unhelpful OT. Many of a time the specs will never go back to Fob to restock…this isn’t because they don’t need to but that they get capped or go perm dead before they ever use up there whole stock.
So if you want your Ordnance to get used up and be useful try to get it out before the first drop.
As for mortar shell, they can be made at a later date and don’t have to made too fast. Now that being said many maps have caves that can’t be shelled and if you are too slow the ungaloids will have been pushed into them… that or the benos will be all the way to FOB and well a maxed out shell maybe fun and all but it need room to be used with out it blowing up fob.
Now what is a offensive ordnance, it as the name implies a ordnance that is used offensively. So how does one going about making them? Well for one thing you want High Explosive BUT also High incendiary but with short Duration, and smallish range.
Now you may be asking your self why do you want this combination! Well many of a time unless you hit dead on with some ordnance your not going to Instant kill a beno. As such most kills come not from the Ordnance its self but the follow up on the stunned beno.
This is why High incendiary but with short Duration and range is good. you want to set the xeno aflame to finish them off but all so do not want to stop the ungaloids from following up.
Now how do you go about make some thing like this, is by using Phosphorus and cyclonite. Why Phosphorus? its because it has highest Intensity with a small range and Duration out of the base chems!
Chlorine Trifluoride maybe better but you have to mix that and for its cost to usefulness, many a times it better just to go for Phosphorus.
Why cyclonite, and not Octogen? well frankly its too much of a pain to make… no really that why you don’t want to used it, most the time your better off just begging for refills than waiting for the Paraformaldehyde to Freeze.
ADDENDUM: Now Octogen does have practical use where it is worth taking the time to make it. You see thing that Octogen has over cyclonite that genuinely good is fall off. But for M15s and Rockets the better falloff is of dubious value, as there is only so far they be throw/fired from. Its octogen maxcaps that are usual the culprits of self fragging demos.
BUT for mortar shells Octogen is great, as you have little risk of self fragging! also saving room after maxing the limit allows for the shells to be packed full of more fire or Frag Shards. shells are also used more sparing so you can get away with making less.
Anyways most the time you can easily max out the cap on the Ordnance with cyclonite well still leaving a bit of room for the Phosphorus.
REMEMBER A FAST OT IS A BELOVED OT!!!
Of course not for the lab or medbay… they tend to find you to be a pest that’s hunger can never be filled.
NOW ON TO FEEDING THE GREAT BEAST THAT IS A FAST OT WORKSHOP!
After you get a good cookbook going and great grove. you will start to find your self running into bottlenecks. Most the time its going to be Polytrinic Acid, Ammonia, and metal.
Now you can use up your metal stacks you have but that well be eaten up quite fast depending on what you are making. The most well liked way by sweaty OT like me self to solve the metal issue is by using tables and rack as feedstock!
You see the Almayer holds a great many mats in hiding you just need to know were to look! Below the Normandy lays a storage room within it there is a crate in the south east corner of the room call storage solutions it contains 10 tables and 10 racks!
You can also find one more of this kind of crate near upper engineering. just head do south of the ladder until you find your self in maintenance. just before the ladder to head back down there will be a small side room, There you can find your prize!
In that room will also contain a PACMAN crate you can open it up to get some Phoron if you are running low. but really all the Phoron you will reasonably need can be gotten from just do west of that room on the table will be 2 stacks of 25 phoron, you can also get some more by heading back to upper engineering and going into the room next to the front desk. it will also have 2 stacks of 25 phoron.
NOW THAT YOUR PHORON AND METAL NEEDS ARE MET!
Your going to need all your poly and Ammonia, now this can be done by bugging medbay to get you refills, but frankly they will busy or just zoning out staring at the crew monitor many of a times.
As such the lab and its Researchers will be your best of friends! Now they are not always free but many of time they will have little to do and have free energy to cook you some chems. But the really imported thing they have are the Turing Dispenser, and 3 Chemical Storages.
Now if you don’t know what the Turing dispenser does it can make mix for you automatedly! of course it can only do it with base chems or chems stocks from the Chemical Storage. It can also be set to automatedly stock the Chemical Storage network with the mixed chems!
Do you see where this is going?
You can ask the Researcher to make poly or Ammonia in the turing dispenser and have it sent to the Chemical Storage network!
Than all you have to do is ask if you may take one of the Chemical Storage venders for your self. Hack it by pulsing the ID wire AND PRESTO YOU GOT NEVER ENDING POLY OR AMMONIA!
that is of course the Researcher set up the mix right mind you some times when the turing get low on power it will fail at making the chem right and you may get unclean Bach of chems.
I for one recommend 30u bottles of poly that will never get mucked up by low power!
LETS TALK ABOUT CUSTOM EXP.
Frankly there is not much to talk about from the OT end. The researchers make it and you use it that’s about it. But still there are few things to take note of let me ask you what the EXP level of Octogen and cyclonite.
FOR OCTOGEN ITS ONLY LEVEL 2, AS FOR CYCLONITE ITS ONLY LEVEL 1.5!!!
This is quite wild, as great many Researchers think that they have to make higher levels of EXP but really the key thing is not to make super powerful custom exp but a SUPER CHEAP AND FAST EXP!
Now I do hope this guide has been of use I may come back to add more on Researcher custom Fire at a Later date