16 replies to this topic

[trrprrprr]

Hello. Ive had very bad experience for in this game and would suggest new players to play it(if only youre about to buy premium acc/mechs... or youre pretty happy with sadom....


3 shots in the head from almost 1000meters and death from just a few shots in back while in heavy/assault mechs. 150+ km/h speeding robots that deal same amount of damage. Thats all what you will get as a new player, cos theres no real match making system and im really not sure, if this game already dont have some cheats too...



Sure, sure.... im crying, theres nothing that i did say, just l2p....

[Koggz]

I don't think you are crying, this game has a very steep learning curve. I am actually excited as a new player that you have voiced you view. I hope that the developers look at this feedback and change something because I can understand where you are coming from. I have played since closed beta and know all the issues you talk about and how to deal with most of them and I still find them maddening, hard to imagine it from someone who is just learning! Thanks for the feedback, and stick with it, ask lots of questions!

[Hellboy561]

The best thing for new players to do is get on these forums and give as much feedback as they can to how the game isn't "working as intended" like PGI believe.

No matter what people say we all want you to stay and join us in the ranks of Mechwarriors, i hope that you get past the learning curve and i look forward to seeing you on the battlefield.

Also, as a new player, how are you finding the throttle decay and arm lock? a help or a hinderence?

[Royalewithcheese]

It does seem like you die really quickly when you're getting into the game. Based on my own starting experience, my top three pieces of advice are:

• Stick with your team. Shoot what they shoot.
  
• Get out of the beyond-terrible trial mechs ASAP. They have bad heat management and usually have bad armor, bad weapons, and bad design in general. Get into something like a Raven 3-L, a Hunchback/Centurion, a Catapult K2, or an Atlas (whatever you can afford and whatever weight class you prefer) - there are a bunch of "what should I pick for my first real robot?" threads you can check out. You can also start your own!
  
• Don't stick your head up. If you're the only target, the entire enemy team is going to be shooting at you.

[Koniving]

If you're new and having issues.. Say you need to learn some tactics, unsure of what roles a certain mech could potentially play, need to see tactics and gameplay, etc.. I advise looking at my posts to this thread.

It starts out with a player asking for advice on picking a mech. From there I give him the advice I have, and then he asks other questions. Examples: "How to kill an Atlas." "Prefer streaks or SRMs, and why?" "How come I can't lock on certain targets." "What are the roles of the game and how are they played?" 3 pages of questions that every new pilot asks, and answers to them all. Lots of video examples, and references to other threads where things such as tactics, how to play as various mechs, and even a reference of basic to advanced controls.

Examples of things to learn: How to target and attack two enemies at once (most useful for assaults). Why the Ravens 2x and 4x seem so different in comparison to the 3-L. Why it is sometimes better to use smaller launchers instead of bigger ones (SRM 4 over 6. Twin LRM 5s instead of 1 LRM-10). How to unlock your arms from your torso. The list goes on.

(General fact: When a battlemech is completely taken out of its intended element and used in another light, it's bound to 'suck' unless you're really good. Example: Dragon as a toe-to-toe brawler. Raven 2x [a combat escort mech] used in the same role of a Raven 3-L [hit and run, harassment fighter].)

If you're totally new and don't know jack about what's going on in terms of lore/story or just interested in seeing if there's more than what you've heard, try the 3 videos here. The first two are long versions but cut short of the current year. The third is an abridged (shortened) version that goes to the current year and a little beyond. While these were made before MWO, these videos use the canon lore that MWO is trying to follow.

Edited by Koniving, 01 April 2013 - 09:16 AM.

[trrprrprr]

Wow.... i would lie, if i was waiting for so nice and helpful replys. Last games where i had posted some stuff in same manner, ive got eaten alive on top of all that got no real ansers only few posts about my bad english


So yea, thank you so much for so good replys! At first this game is VERY(x100) confusing and hard as ive never played any other (robot) game, but as i know, mech warriors have a long history?!

So first thing that was very confusing was 5-6 same type robots, a bit different armor and damage(as i understand that damage is calculated from weapons that mech have at that point?)

So in the end i kinda picked up mech with most spots as they would help me modify mech more?! And at the moment i kinda tend to play light mechs as they do almost the same damage as assoults/heavys but are alot more fun to play.... i almost fell asleep controling that 46km/h assault mech and when it gets to close combat theres no way to turn fast enough to be able to hit even heavy mechs. At the moment i had one battle where i did like 250dmg on my comando 2D - i had 2x smr6's, then i changed to one smr6 and one large pulse laser but at this point im getting like 20-50dmg per battle.... maby its bad matchmaking with way too heavy mechs, prolly cos im still very noobish and confused about how this game works lol. But still, i really cant explain why, but it feels so wrong in this game.

I play "WOT", there whole upgrading/leveling system is alot simpler. targeting/damaging simpler, i even can see if i really did some damage or just rickohet/bounce. In this game nothing. Like yesterday i was attacking catapult mech, he was fighting with other mech and i jump in to help, unloaded like 10 med lasers x2, plus plenty of pulse laser shots PLUS he got shot alot from my teammate. So in the end he kills my teammate (i keep shooting him) he just turns around and puts me to ground in few shots... end up thinking what the hell happened, was it lag, was it glich, does he had some uber armor on back of the mech ir just 100% resist to laser attacks?! This game need more animations to see did i even get past his armor, how much, did i damage some part or his mech and so on.


Anyways, i didnt think i would give another shot to this game, but was wrong. So will use my com 2D to get enough money for some heavy/med mech as they look the best option for damage/armor/mobility



Thank you all, im sure ill have plenty of questions soon enough as i really fail to get it why theres so many same type mechs as they looks +- the same

[trrprrprr]

Hellboy561, on 01 April 2013 - 03:16 AM, said:

The best thing for new players to do is get on these forums and give as much feedback as they can to how the game isn't "working as intended" like PGI believe.

No matter what people say we all want you to stay and join us in the ranks of Mechwarriors, i hope that you get past the learning curve and i look forward to seeing you on the battlefield.

Also, as a new player, how are you finding the throttle decay and arm lock? a help or a hinderence?

Not sure what you mean by: how are you finding the throttle decay and arm lock? a help or a hinderence? never seen anything like that and dont know how to do that... plus ive seen that you can shut down your mech too, but dont know how to that either...

[Koniving]

trrprrprr, on 02 April 2013 - 12:44 AM, said:

Thank you all, im sure ill have plenty of questions soon enough as i really fail to get it why theres so many same type mechs as they looks +- the same.

In general, people don't like to help you during a game because when we do, we wind up being killed while typing. That's what the forums are for. However if you ask for help after someone has already died on your team, they may help you since they are dead..and therefore can't die while typing.

For your Commando 2-D, I recommend that you take a moment to equip an "ECM" under the engine / heatsink section of the mechlab (found at the bottom below the XL engines) . This will help you even more by jamming enemies at close range, and making you almost untargetable at long range.

While I'm at it, the difference between STD and XL engines is this:

• An STD or Standard Engine is heavy but small. It only takes up space in the center (middle) torso. They have to destroy your center torso or head to kill you.
  
• An XL or Extra Large Engine is light but very wide. The engine takes up space in your center, left and right torsos. You can die by losing your head, chest (center torso), or shoulders (left or right torsos).
  
• STD, you're heavy but harder to kill. XL you're light but easier to kill.

Losing both legs is also a death. So protect those legs.



----------------

Mechs that look the same but are not.

Mechs are sorted by two things: "Chassis" and "Variant." It is very important to not get these two very different words confused.

Chassis is a type of mech and a basic design. Examples: Hunchback. Commando. Jagermech. Atlas. Catapult. Etc.

Variant is a variation of the basic design. Using Commandos for this example:

• The Commando 3A has 2 missiles and 2 energy slots. 1 missile is in the chest and has 6 tubes. The second missile is in the right arm and has 6 tubes. It then has a laser on either arm.
  
• The Commando 1B has 1 missile and 2 energy slots. The missile is in the chest and only has 2 tubes. Two energy are in the right arm. One energy is in the left arm.
  
• The Commando 1D has 2 energy and 2 missiles. Both missiles are in the chest with 6 tubes. Both energy are in the right arm. (With this one, if you lose your right arm you lose all of your energy weapons).
  
• Commando 2D has 3 missiles, 1 energy and one ECM. One missile is in the chest with 6 tubes. Two missiles are on the right arm with 4 tubes. One energy is on the left arm. The ECM can be placed in the torso, arms or legs.
  
• The Death's Knell has 4 energy. 2 on each arm.

Each variant has many different limitations. Some can torso twist more than others. Some accelerate faster. Some can't carry missiles. Some can carry ballistics. Some can carry extra large weapons (AC-20 for example), and some cannot even though they have the required ballistic slot.

I will list some specific examples of differences in variants. The Cataphract, a heavy direct-fire support battlemech, can usually hold up to a 340-rated engine. However 1 specific variant the Cataphract 4x can only have up to a 255-rated engine. Another variant, the Cataphract 3D, can jump.

Ravens are a very important thing to study on. People assume because Ravens are light mechs, they should be treated like scouts. This is not true. The Ravens 2x and 4x are combat escorts for command lances (any group of slow, heavy mechs), as well as artillery (for now LRM [Long Range Missile]) spotters. They are very poor scouts due to the limitation of the 245 engine. However the Raven 3-L can have up to a 295 engine and is much faster. With its ECM, it is supposed to either cloak allies, or run up to enemy LRM mechs and jam them so that they cannot lock on to allies. People use the Raven 3-L as a hit-and-run harassment mech.

trrprrprr, on 02 April 2013 - 04:39 AM, said:

Not sure what you mean by: how are you finding the throttle decay and arm lock? a help or a hinderence? never seen anything like that and dont know how to do that... plus ive seen that you can shut down your mech too, but dont know how to that either...

In the Options, there are settings called ArmLock and Throttle Decay.
You can click on pictures to make them bigger.


Located near the bottom, above the "Reset Options" key.
When "Throttle Decay" is Checked, you will go full speed when you press W and stop when you let go of it. You can use the numberpad keys 1 through 0 to set cruise speeds.

When Throttle Decay is Not Checked, tapping W will increase your speed incrementally. Letting go will let it 'cruise' at that speed. Press X to stop, or S to slow down. When going in reverse, it will be W to slow down and S to go faster.

Players who have been here were here before the new Throttle Decay which is meant to make first person shooter players feel at home. Many of us prefer to have it off so we have cruise control under one finger, instead of having it spread across two hands.

ArmLock gives you that "familiar" first person shooter feel by making both of your crosshairs act like one. You actually have two crosshairs. Torso "+" and Arms "o". If Armlock is off, you can use Left CTRL to control your arms independently of your body. This is how some people can shoot you without turning their body to you. This is also handy for larger mechs. It allows them to use their arms to block shots.

Smart Atlas, Cataphract, and even Awesome pilots will throw the arm(s) in the way of an incoming AC-20, Gauss or PPC round to save damage to their torso when they are low on health. This cannot be done with Armlock on. Really good Atlas pilots can fight two enemies at the same time, simultaneously pelting a large enemy with cannons and missiles while scaring off lights with arm-mounted lasers.

While you are here, I highly recommend that you change "Left Mouse Button" from "Fire Selected Group" to "Fire Group 1." This way when you set up your weapons you won't accidentally prevent yourself from using your first group.

------------

This brings me to the next important thing.

Setting up your weapons.

The following 3 images were taken today specifically for this tutorial.

In this image, "Armlock" is off. Hence my + crosshair and my o crosshair are able to point in two different directions.

Perhaps one of the most important things learn. When you change your weapons in the mech bay, you need to fix your weapon groups.

On the bottom right you will see a list of weapons and a lot of numbers.

Weapons next to the "o" are your arm weapons. Here, the AC/10s and the Machine Guns are on my arms.
Weapons next to the "+" are your torso weapons. The Flamers are on my torso.

The "1 2 3 4 5 6" are the weapon groups.
The blue numbers are the groups that the weapon is in. For example the machine guns are in group 4. The AC/10s are in group 2.
Boxed numbers are chainfire's "next fire." Chainfire fires each group one at a time, going down the list. Chainfire can be started by pressing Backspace.

As you can see I have my flamers chainfired in separate groups. Chainfire fires one at a time, reducing the total heat generated at once, but at the cost of not being able to fire them at the same time.

Here's how to set your groups:

• Use the up and down arrow keys to select a weapon to change.
  
• Use the left and right arrow keys to select a group to put that weapon in.
  
• Use the Right CTRL key to Toggle "On" (Blue) or "Off" (Black).
  
• Remember to always go back to group one.

​"Range"
In that same picture, notice how the weapon names are green, black and yellow?

Very important.
Green means "I am in range, can do full damage."
Yellow means "I can hit, but will deal reduced damage."
Black means "I can't reach the target. I will not be able to damage it."

--------------

Targeting

Press R to actively target an enemy. This will allow you and your allies to lock onto the enemy to fire missiles. This will tell your team where the enemy is. This will give you data on the enemy's armor and weapons.
In this image, the ArmLock is turned on with the Shift Toggle, allowing me to try and focus my fire.

The red brackets [ ] lets you know the enemy is targeted. There is a damage model up there, we refer to it as the "Paper Doll." It has inner (Internals) and outer (Armor) health for every component (body part). Brown is unhurt / 100%. Yellow is 99-75%. Orange is 75-50%. Dark orange to soft red is 50 to 25%. Cherry red is 25% to 1%. Black is 0% / Destroyed.

"Flashing" means that section just got hit / damaged. In this image his right leg (our left), center torso, left torso (our right) and left arm (our right) are flashing. I am simultaneously hitting all of these sections.

Only my right torso is flashing. Everything he is shooting is only hitting my right torso. This is one of the two meanings of the phrase "focus fire." (The other is to concentrate everyone's attacks on one enemy at a time).
--------------
I hope this helps you. Remember when you need help, ask the forum and not the players in game. I was here before there were any tutorial videos, so I know a bit of what its like.

As for the fight... This is how it turned out.



(I was saying "That's a low" because the previous two times I ran this build last night I went 535 damage with 1 kills and 2 assists and 315 damage with 5 kills, zero assists respectively.)

(Also, since English is not your first language, remember the forum has threads for many languages. If your language can be found, I would ask for help in your native language so you can feel the most comfortable in doing so.)

Edited by Koniving, 02 April 2013 - 10:47 AM.

[Splinters]

There are Options selection in the "Menu" at the mechbay that allow you to change the throttle decay and arm lock so that you don't have to hold the "w" key to keep going forward and so your arms and torso's can move as separate targetting reticles. It was introduced in a recent patch. Players who are used to the old style don't seem to like it, but PGI included it to help newer players with targetting.

Shutdown = p
Override shutdown = o (if you go over 100% heat, and override it will damage internals)
Toggling interior lights = . (helpful if you don't use heat vision in River City Night)
Toggling missle doors for Catapults and Stalkers = /

Other commands people don't use enough:
immediate stop = x (faster than letting go of the throttle)
max acceleration = 0 (number 0 on keypad)

Hope that helps!

-S

[trrprrprr]

Thank you very much for this great info! After all this info i kinda start to do better damage. As a com-2D i use 3x cannons, that shoots 2x guided missiles each, my power is only 9, but i do alot more damage than using some lasers or srm6's (cos these almost never hit) while my small guided missiles hit almost every time.

But now after this arm/torso aiming, ill need to hit training grounds as it opens up whole new level of fighting.

Thank you!

[Aym]

Those cannons are Streak SRM 2's, or SSRM2's, and are great on that commando. Glad to see your experience is improving!

[Koniving]

Aym, on 03 April 2013 - 02:20 AM, said:

Those cannons are Streak SRM 2's, or SSRM2's, and are great on that commando. Glad to see your experience is improving!

Streaks. He said they are guided.

[Aym]

Koniving, on 03 April 2013 - 07:22 AM, said:

Streaks. He said they are guided.

Kon you've done great work with your responses here and elsewhere. All mechwarrior fans, myself included, are in your debt for the work you've done to help new players.
That said, I did say Stream SRM 2's, I think that's accurate :-D

[Koniving]

Aym, on 03 April 2013 - 09:13 AM, said:

Kon you've done great work with your responses here and elsewhere. All mechwarrior fans, myself included, are in your debt for the work you've done to help new players.
That said, I did say Stream SRM 2's, I think that's accurate :-D

Heh. Quite right. Sorry I misread "Streak or SRM-2s" rather than "SSRM-2s" Just woke up when I wrote that after being up til 6 in the morning.

I do thank you though. Always great to be appreciated. ; I'm actually working on some lore-infused videos for MWO as a way of introducing chassis and their variants to players. (My most recent input on it.) At the moment I'm thinking of the information being provided as "Threat Analysis" briefings to aspiring pilots in training in either an academy or more at home with the Zhizhu Mercenary Corporation. Still digging through female voice actresses trying to find a good field commander voice. The American ones I asked so far all sound younger than they are. Waiting on samples from a pair of British girls I asked.

Because of Zhizhu's ties with Liao, I thought of asking some former Chinese ESL students to try out but team reviews said that even the more proficient ones might be too hard to understand. Sad face, since it would have been very in keeping with Zhizhu's fanon lore.

Also been trying to find a way to do tutorials as if you're a pilot being trained rather than the 4th wall breaking version NGNG has done. However it may be better to just do a more elaborate, perhaps better organized set of tutorials. In the mean time what do you think of the in-lore explanation for mech / pilot trees? First draft.

[Giant Bob]

true i'm a veteran of MW on Nintendo, and beyond. but there's no need to nerf the game. thankfully, any skill learned can be applied to almost any mech or map. it's a wonderful world of hurt for those who wish to ante up.

[Aym]

Koniving, on 03 April 2013 - 10:38 AM, said:

Heh. Quite right. Sorry I misread "Streak or SRM-2s" rather than "SSRM-2s" Just woke up when I wrote that after being up til 6 in the morning.

I do thank you though. Always great to be appreciated. ; I'm actually working on some lore-infused videos for MWO as a way of introducing chassis and their variants to players. (My most recent input on it.) At the moment I'm thinking of the information being provided as "Threat Analysis" briefings to aspiring pilots in training in either an academy or more at home with the Zhizhu Mercenary Corporation. Still digging through female voice actresses trying to find a good field commander voice. The American ones I asked so far all sound younger than they are. Waiting on samples from a pair of British girls I asked.

Because of Zhizhu's ties with Liao, I thought of asking some former Chinese ESL students to try out but team reviews said that even the more proficient ones might be too hard to understand. Sad face, since it would have been very in keeping with Zhizhu's fanon lore.

Also been trying to find a way to do tutorials as if you're a pilot being trained rather than the 4th wall breaking version NGNG has done. However it may be better to just do a more elaborate, perhaps better organized set of tutorials. In the mean time what do you think of the in-lore explanation for mech / pilot trees? First draft.

I always thought of it as a pilot getting comfortable with a specific mech and learnig to "push the envelope," and once you're familiar with the weight class you can more quickly master other mechs w/in the class but you still need some broad based experience to figure out the various tricks/quirks of the chassis. At least that's what I came up with when I realized you only needed 3 of ONE chassis to Elite before you could unlock Master for any Elite finished mech of that weight class.
Have you contacted B B about voice acting in your tutorials?

[Koniving]

Aym, on 04 April 2013 - 01:57 AM, said:

Have you contacted B B about voice acting in your tutorials?

Our Computer Betty's voice actress? Well, honestly no. She's the paid sort of voice. Just because I manage to get all the hero mechs doesn't mean I actually make money. Besides it'd be an on-going project with every 'Mech that comes out (not to mention the trouble of catching up).

The thought of having a computer voice (like Betty) to give technical readouts had crossed my mind, but then I started to skeleton-map the pilot model for some of the unnamed Red Versus Blue-style skits that I and Zhizhu have been working on for a 3D-animated series like Critical Hits and All Systems Nominal ^1. With that, I started to work on a briefing room. Before I knew it I was trying to convert the Hulu girl's head to make a female briefing commander. Hence the threat analysis briefing idea being given by a female commanding officer.^2 Though now I stumbled on a different issue. Model quality.

Footnotes
^1(Hey, I wanna get in on the action! With enough subscribers I can get a machinima partnership and supplement the cost of getting hero mechs and mech bays. It isn't cheap.)
^2(Chose a woman because let's face it, right now no one else has a female-speaker for a tutorial on MWO and a woman's voice commands attention.)