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[doctorcdcs]

Well, I'm updating my client, but it's been so long since I last played that I'm afraid that I'm going to get my ass kicked. All I remember having is my founders Atlas and some C-bills (can't remember how much). Hopefully I don't come across those a-holes that were mentioned earlier.

 

[Giolon]

One more thing in the update: the first wave of Sarah's Mechs are going out on Friday.

 

[Lime]

Well, I'm updating my client, but it's been so long since I last played that I'm afraid that I'm going to get my ass kicked. All I remember having is my founders Atlas and some C-bills (can't remember how much). Hopefully I don't come across those a-holes that were mentioned earlier.

I was out of the game for almost half a year and got back into the game after finishing up my studies and work. It only took a couple of matches to get back into the flow again, so you should be good. Just be aware of any nerfs of your current Mech loadouts that might have happened in the meantime.

 

[ColonelSkills]

Do the folks in this thread play with any sort of regularity or on any specific dates?

I wouldn't mind playing with people instead of the awful PUGs I've been running with lately.

 

[Discobird]

I play irregularly due to work but feel free to add me. My in game name is Discobird. Helps if you have teamspeak since a bunch of us use the comstar NA server

 

[teepo]

Do the folks in this thread play with any sort of regularity or on any specific dates?

I wouldn't mind playing with people who are capable of some sort of logical thought.

i play regularly but since community warfare has been pushed back even further, i've been devoting most of my gaming time on other titles so that i wont be burnt out once it's released.

i've been having you on my friends list since the early days of the closed beta but come to think of it, i don't think i've ever seen you logged on.

 

[ColonelSkills]

i play regularly but since community warfare has been pushed back even further, i've been devoting most of my gaming time on other titles so that i wont be burnt out once it's released.

i've been having you on my friends list since the early days of the closed beta but come to think of it, i don't think i've ever seen you logged on.

I took a hiatus earlier this year, and have been getting back from occasional, casual play into a more consistent play-schedule only lately. Either that or maybe our work schedules are wildly different.

I'm central time and tend to be early evening/late afternoon. I can adjust a bit either way, but work has kept me pretty swamped. I totally understand if that's mega early for some folks and it might not work. Hell, the only reason I'm posting this late is because I'm having trouble catching some Zs.

I'll install teamspeak this weekend and see what I can bring up.

And yeah, similarly, I think I've seen maybe two gaffers on at all during my available time, so it might simply be a timezone/scheduling thing.

 

[doctorcdcs]

I was out of the game for almost half a year and got back into the game after finishing up my studies and work. It only took a couple of matches to get back into the flow again, so you should be good. Just be aware of any nerfs of your current Mech loadouts that might have happened in the meantime.

Well, I playing a match (accidentally; I was trying to load up proving grounds and it took me to an assault match), and the other team went to cap instead of fighting us and we lost. haha

 

[king picollo]

I wouldn't mind playing with Gaffers, game name is same as here, in the UK though so don't know what everyone's timezone is and i wouldn't say i'm any good

Would people be interested in being able to pick your mech during Matchmaking once you know what the map is?

I want to be a lightmech more to do the capping on the big maps, but i'm worried i'd get killed in the smaller maps because you have to fight more and will struggle against the assualts and heavies.

 

[ColonelSkills]

I wouldn't mind playing with Gaffers, game name is same as here, in the UK though so don't know what everyone's timezone is and i wouldn't say i'm any good

Added you in case we cross paths. Timezones will create issues but hey, y'never know on a Saturday or something. Name is Colonel Skills.

I want to be a lightmech more to do the capping on the big maps, but i'm worried i'd get killed in the smaller maps because you have to fight more and will struggle against the assualts and heavies.

Lights can hold their own if you out pilot the assaults. If the heavy stops and is trying to twist/turn to face you, close the distance between you two, cut the throttle and try to stay just outside of his firing arc, or dance behind him for rear CT shots if you can. Heavies will tend to plant their ass and try to get you to run in circles across their threat zone as you pick at them. Don't let them, and realize that acceleration is just as good as top speed when it comes to dancing with them.

----------

As an aside, had nothing to spend my 10M C-Bills on.

Bought a Spider 5D, threw an XL 255 in it, and built it around a fucking ERPPC.

This is the most hilarious troll build of ALL TIME holy shit in a hat. No one pays attention to the spider because "oh he probably is loaded with 4MGs or 2 MLs or something".

And then they get cockpunched from a kilometer away and can't chase after it for shit thanks to the ECM and the JJs.

I just got done with a match where I, no joke, broke 600 damage, killed an atlas, a cataphract, and just about took out a catapult before an enemy jenner broke off and capped our base before I could finish him.

Holy shit I haven't laughed this hard in AGES.

 

[Discobird]

----------

As an aside, had nothing to spend my 10M C-Bills on.

Bought a Spider 5D, threw an XL 255 in it, and built it around a fucking ERPPC.

This is the most hilarious troll build of ALL TIME holy shit in a hat. No one pays attention to the spider because "oh he probably is loaded with 4MGs or 2 MLs or something".

And then they get cockpunched from a kilometer away and can't chase after it for shit thanks to the ECM and the JJs.

I just got done with a match where I, no joke, broke 600 damage, killed an atlas, a cataphract, and just about took out a catapult before an enemy jenner broke off and capped our base before I could finish him.

Holy shit I haven't laughed this hard in AGES.

If you like 5Ds you might enjoy this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSyFXQpytQU&list=FL0OzERBQUgLYRDW91F2KuNA

 

[ColonelSkills]

Yeah, these builds are incredibly viable for something that seems like just troll town. It's very fun to bomb around in.

 

[king picollo]

That is crazy, can't believe how much punishment they take.

 

[Discobird]

Spider hitboxes seem pretty buggy, they are noticeably harder to hit and take less damage than other lights. The difference in survivability between a Spider and, say, a Commando (which has a similar profile) is night and day.

What looks like a solid hit from 6 medium lasers does like 5 damage to a moving Spider, from my experience.

Funny thing is that despite being near immortal they're still not great mechs

 

[PjotrStroganov]

Dat MW2 soundtrack!

 

[Rommel]

A member should create a separate thread about Sarah's Jenner

http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/128347-sarahs-mech-charity-initiative-in-the-news/page__st__20

 

[teepo]

ASK THE DEVS - 43 - ANSWERS!


even though they've flipped flopped between exploring the idea of tonnage limits to out right dismissing it in the past, it's still promising that they're reconsidering it -- i especially like the idea of having both a min and max.

Another thing we are looking at (as you may have heard recently), is tonnage restrictions on teams. Each team will have a minimum and maximum tonnage that their total team weight will have to adhere to. This makes Mediums and Lights highly beneficial as it allows heavier Heavies and Assaults to be fielded. The great thing about tonnage limits is that it prevents an entire team to consist of all Heavies/Assaults.

here's the latest on dropship/lobby mode

Question from sdfvnre: What is the timeline for adding new game modes, like Dropship?

Dropship has taken on the role of the pre-match lobby system that is on the horizon. Players will be able to bring up 4 (planned 4 for now, might have more) Mechs of a chosen weight class. Since the match has already been paired with the two teams involved, you would then be able to choose your ‘cool running Mech’ for the hot maps and your ‘more heat dependant Mech’ for the cooler maps. Further down the road we really want to give players the ability to choose cross weight class Mechs to bring on their dropship. That is a far stretch goal at the moment, but will always remain on the table for implementation pending time and resources.

and as with any ask dev thread, it gives us some valuable insight on Paul Inouye's level of incompetence

There are no current plans to change the heat threshold towards TT values. Are we hard set against it? No, just at the moment there’s no need to do this. Playing with a higher rate of cooling makes a lot more builds become heat neutral. A lot of heat neutral builds results in mid-range damage applied at a constant rate over time. This mechanism would be highly exploited by those with knowledge of building efficient heat neutral Mechs.

:facepalm

 

[Woorloog]

:facepalm

Why the fuck? Doesn't the TT offer a good range of potential mech builds (ignoring how lack of hardpoints makes optimization really easy...)
Giving us ability to make heat neutral mechs would expand the metagame, offer more viable playstyles, no?

 

[teepo]

because according to paul, knowing how to build a mech is op.

 

[Discobird]

I like how they say the advantage of taking lights and mediums is that your teammates can bring other, implicitly better mechs

Also if there's one thing we can't have in this game it's constant mid-range DPS apparently (??)

 

[teepo]

I like how they say the advantage of taking lights and mediums is that your teammates can bring other, implicitly better mechs

Also if there's one thing we can't have in this game it's constant mid-range DPS apparently (??)

i've always found this to be the ideal scenario: a team sacrificing tonnage so they can have those eighty or so extra tons to give room for that one lucky player to drop with a final boss type assault mech. it only seems logical given how the game scales between mech classes/tonnage and especially since that scale was taken directly from the TT, giving lights and mediums more of a natural disadvantage with no tonnage limits in place. not to mention that in the battletech universe, heavies and assaults were rather rare.


and not allowing for constant mid-range dps possibly explains why medium lasers - or lasers in general - run so fucking hot.

 

[Discobird]

Lights and mediums don't need any more natural disadvantage than they already have tbh--the game should be fun for everyone to play not just the lucky few big guys. That's one area I think PGI shouldn't look to the lore, no one wants to play as the shitty light mech that gets thrown around by the assaults even if they also get the opportunity to play assault once in a while.

 

[Giolon]

Lights and mediums don't need any more natural disadvantage than they already have tbh--the game should be fun for everyone to play not just the lucky few big guys. That's one area I think PGI shouldn't look to the lore, no one wants to play as the shitty light mech that gets thrown around by the assaults even if they also get the opportunity to play assault once in a while.

I've actually been having the most fun lately driving Light and Medium mechs. That Hunchback 4SP I posted a few pages back is the most fun I've had in this game pretty much since closed beta - and I've got a 2.10 K/D ratio with it. It's one of the few mechs I can say that I'm not afraid to go up against just about anyone in (a Stalker or a Victor will give me pause, but I'll still be happy to tango, and probably come out on top, albeit missing half a torso).

I also had an amazingly great time while leveling my Raven 2X w/ this build: 245XL Eng, 2xML, 1xLL, 1xSRM6. That left-arm "shield" counts for quite a lot if you use it right.

 

[Discobird]

Oh yeah--I also have the most fun piloting lights and mediums right now, just saying that that probably wouldn't be the case if the gap between lights and assaults was exaggerated like in the lore.

I've never been able to successfully use a "shield arm" on Ravens, the arm is pretty small and everything hits my legs anyway

 

[king picollo]

Slightly concerned i've seen a glimpse of the future.

Met a lance of guys 3 times on the trot, all Catapults, all rocking Short range missiles.

They were pretty devastating in a group and they seemed to be able to fire continuously for long periods of time.

Useless at range but lethal up close.

 

[Woorloog]

Slightly concerned i've seen a glimpse of the future.

Met a lance of guys 3 times on the trot, all Catapults, all rocking Short range missiles.

They were pretty devastating in a group and they seemed to be able to fire continuously for long periods of time.

Useless at range but lethal up close.

Catapult has a huge head and wide CT, keeping them at right range depending on their armament makes killing them rather easy. Also disarming them, those ears are easy to hit.
Sure, they're good if well equipped but by no means invincible, nor OP in anyway.
Long endurance means they have a lot of ammo, and that is likely stored in legs (which are also probably "under" armored). Any close combatant is crippled by a loss of a leg, remember that. Legging is surprisingly rare in MWO, in my experience, despite being favored tactic in Mechwarrior 4 (and Living Legends, don't recall clearly though, never played much of it).

All mechs are better if used by a group who communicates, i once saw a pair of Commandos working well together, wreaking havoc, more so than a pair of random players could do.
If your team gets decimated by a small group coordinating... well, a deserved loss, i think. Though as always, a matchmaking system that matches groups (or a group+randoms) vs (only) randoms is flawed.

 

[Lime]

Anyone have any screenshots or information on the third person view mode?

 

[teepo]

 

[ColonelSkills]

Ugh.

There needs to be a detriment to using that or first person people will be at a non-trivial disadvantage

 

[SUBZERO-08]

When you use it there's a glowing red drone that hovers over your 'Mech, making it really easy to see from across the map. Aiming in third-person mode is also kind of janky currently since you lose most arm movement. The loss of use of BattleGrid when in third-person also gives them a disadvantage.

Overall, it's a better implementation than I expected, however I'm going to be exclusively playing on Hardcore (FPV-only) mode since I don't believe in mixing and matching view modes.

 

[ColonelSkills]

When you use it there's a glowing red drone that hovers over your 'Mech, making it really easy to see from across the map. Aiming in third-person mode is also kind of janky currently since you lose most arm movement. The loss of use of BattleGrid when in third-person also gives them a disadvantage.

Overall, it's a better implementation than I expected, however I'm going to be exclusively playing on Hardcore (FPV-only) mode since I don't believe in mixing and matching view modes.

I didn't know about the red drone thing, but can you explain further regarding arm movement?

Is arm-lock forced during it? There was a patch that enabled that by default for no reason whatsoever a little while ago too, just making sure it's not, y'know. That crap again.

Battlegrid's loss is probably the most significant, but pairing someone who can see around corners who is chatting with someone who still has grid access is potentially problematic.

The red drone thing though is at least a positive.

I agree, when the option is presented I will do FPV only.

 

[SUBZERO-08]

I didn't know about the red drone thing, but can you explain further regarding arm movement?

Is arm-lock forced during it? There was a patch that enabled that by default for no reason whatsoever a little while ago too, just making sure it's not, y'know. That crap again.

Battlegrid's loss is probably the most significant, but pairing someone who can see around corners who is chatting with someone who still has grid access is potentially problematic.

The red drone thing though is at least a positive.

I agree, when the option is presented I will do FPV only.

Arm lock isn't completely forced, but the arm usage is extremely limited. Say in a JagerMech, you can't use that huge range of vertical motion. It's locked to like within 2cm or something of the main reticle. The arm motion worked fine when in FPV (and didn't have arm-lock) but not in third person, so it seems that it's intentional rather than a setting.

 

[ColonelSkills]

That is...a much better solution than I anticipated, then. I retract my previous worry.

It seems limited enough that it's not potentially as BS as I was worrying about. Thank you for the impressions.

 

[Lime]

Thanks for the screenshot, teepo. Is the camera rotational? Does it have X and Y axes?

Btw, new Battlemech announced:

 

[Giolon]

wtf is a Kintaro?

All of these mechs are starting to look the same.

I can already barely tell a Victor, Highlander, and Trebuchet apart at a distance.

 

[BattleMonkey]

While I liked the redesigns, they are going to run into a problem with lot of these mech looking way too similar. Too much blocky realistic look when the original designs had so many curves.

This is what a Kintaro is supposed to look like: http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Kintaro

 

[ColonelSkills]

It's more the era they are choosing to pull from. Lots of similar bipeds to choose from.

I'd love to see Alex's take on a Bushwacker or a Bandersnatch or an Uziel or something.

 

[Woorloog]

Just re-design Marauder for some variety. You can keep it blocky, it will be distinctive due to being a chickenMech (which are rarer anyway, though usually much more iconic and recognizable).

 

[king picollo]

Is First Person View and Third Person View going to be easily switched between or in the menus?

Is it better to chain fire or fire everything at once?

I usually chain fire between two weapon groups but last night i was generally firing everything at once and getting more kills.

Also i like the new map. Having the heat spike as you go through lava is pretty cool.

 

[ColonelSkills]

When you say chain fire do you mean chain fire mode within a weapon group, (each trigger pull fires a different weapon in a group) or do you mean alternating between firing entire weapon groups (fire group one, then group 2, then group one, etc)

Firing all weapons you've got at the same time is called "alpha striking" or just "alpha".

Chain fire is good for heat management, alphas are good for high pinpoint damage. What's better at any given moment depends on context, situation, weapon type, and a handful of other factors.

What are you running? You will tend to get more kills if you take advantage of the situation and do high alphas against damaged targets. But if you're a good shot and in appropriate situations (chasing high speed targets, etc,) chain fire can be very useful.

 

[king picollo]

The second one, firing group one, then group two, then group one etc.

I seem to do a fair bit of damage that way but get more kills alphaing.

 

[BattleMonkey]

It's more the era they are choosing to pull from. Lots of similar bipeds to choose from.

I'd love to see Alex's take on a Bushwacker or a Bandersnatch or an Uziel or something.

Has nothing to do with era, it's how Alex is doing the designs. The original designs had tons of visual identity and variety, which is sadly not translating well for Alex since he refuses to use any curved surfaces.

 

[ColonelSkills]

I'd go so far as to say some of them do.

Official art for things like the Clint, Enforcer, Vindicator, and so on are quite similar. Biped. Humanoid. Slightly different head. Right arm dominated by a particular weapon. All mediums. All Succession Wars or earlier.

Unless you mean the designs for the particular 'mechs as chosen to be included in MWO. In which case I'll agree to some extent. The Kintaro in particular has lost a lot of it's unique elements. I was referencing more the pool of mechs they seem to be choosing from.

The lack of curved surfaces is hurting some of the mech's visual identity, but it's keeping everything in a similar aesthetic and modernizing away from some early cheese, too. I just want to see something NOT humanoid chosen again. The Raven, Locust, and Cicada look excellent in MWO.

 

[SUBZERO-08]

Is First Person View and Third Person View going to be easily switched between or in the menus?

Is it better to chain fire or fire everything at once?

I usually chain fire between two weapon groups but last night i was generally firing everything at once and getting more kills.

Also i like the new map. Having the heat spike as you go through lava is pretty cool.

You switch between first person view and third person view by pushing the F4 button.

However, it's not in the live server yet. It was just tested for a couple 2 hour periods yesterday.

 

[CTLance]

I bought one of those Sarah mechs (heard about it on the Star Citizen Forums). I downloaded the client and spent an extremely short amount of time with the game before I had to go again - and holy shitballs is the site and game newcomer-unfriendly (first impressions and all).

You get some (community?) videos on how to select the tutorial mechs and the utmost rudimentary concept of the controls, then you're told to try out the "offline" mode, and that's pretty much it. Putting aside the missing atmosphere, there's still so much unexplained after the basic tutorial. No intro to the currencies, real time aspect, universe, pilot skills, factions (houses), mech/hangar system (including modifying equipment etc), premium features (don't they want my money?), gameplay mechanics, hell, they don't even tell you how to buy any friggen additional mechs or what happens if one explodes on the battlefield... This is still a teensy bit unpolished and pretty terrifying for a Newb like me. Having to hunt down that info by myself is a bit annoying.

Also, soooo many things to keep an eye on. Jump jets, heat, ammo, chassis versus cockpit movement, two independent targeting brackets, a gazillion hotkeys, sorting weapons into sets as part of the mech UI, etc pp. Very nice ...but also scary.

Anyway.

Can't play this weekend, but am looking forward to exploding in style with/against the rest of y'all. Right now I'm still pretty sure the stationary mechs in the offline/test mode pose a significant threat to me.

Main reason so far is getting used to the controls. Joystick and mouse seems like a workable combo, but my brain somehow refuses to cooperate.

At least I can walk in a straight line and pewpew stuff now. Stationary stuff. I would love it if the test mechs at least tried to shoot back so I could hone my movement skills. My first couple of "real" multiplayer games will be a hot mess.

Also, not being able to jump without equipment is sooooo weird. And awesome. And weird.

 

[ColonelSkills]

Stay off any joysticks and stick to a KB/M combo for now.

Post specific questions and I'll help with what I can.

 

[king picollo]

If i sell a mech after doing all the experience tree, do i keep the unlocks. Trying to upgrade my mechs within the 4 mech limit.

 

[Discobird]

If i sell a mech after doing all the experience tree, do i keep the unlocks. Trying to upgrade my mechs within the 4 mech limit.

Yes, but you can't level it up any further (even if you spend GXP) until you buy the mech again. So don't sell a mech until you have the elite efficiencies unlocked for it.

 

[king picollo]

Thanks that's what i though.

Just debating whether to upgrade the mechs i won't be keeping, given that i do even worse than usual with them as standard. Makes getting the necessary xp a bit of a grind.

 

[Llyranor]

Heh, a Kurita mech, huh?

So, 55ton laser/missile mech with a default speed of 86kph. I can make use of that.

Is it better to chain fire or fire everything at once?

I usually chain fire between two weapon groups but last night i was generally firing everything at once and getting more kills.

Also i like the new map. Having the heat spike as you go through lava is pretty cool.

Depends on the situation. In general, you'll deal more DPS over time if you manage your heat better, in which case not alpha'ing will benefit you. That being said, when an opportunity occurs where a good alpha will kill or maim a mech properly, go for it.

You have 6 weapon groups. Use them wisely. As a hypothetical example, you could have one group cycle through your arm lasers, while another fires all lasers from one arm, and another does the same for the other arm (handy for a quick pop-and-shoot) if you're just exposing one side of your mech), another group could fire all lasers at once (or you could press 2 buttons). You could a group for SSRMS (or maybe not since they suck nowadays!), but cycled so that you give screen shake periodically instead of all at once, while another is a full SSRM alpha for you have a small window of opportunity for when a light runs past you. You could have one last group be a real alpha and fire all your lasers/missiles. Customize your weapon groups based on what your mech has.