Strill, on 01 November 2011 - 08:39 PM, said:
Can anyone give a good explanation of why you'd use a given mech type? From my experience playing MechWarrior 4, Medium and most Light mechs were worthless.
That's going to change in MWO. Like in the table top game, it's not an arms race to the highest weight class to be the victor. Many skilled pilots can take smaller mechs and be incredibly effective, and team work has taken quite a few prideful heavy/assault mechs down for the count. Example in fiction, and still possible in game, Phelan Kell upon his first contact with the Clans, manages to disable a Clan mech (or severely impairs one) in a Wolfhound. He's taken as a bondsman because of his shown skill and ferocity, the Wolfhound is only 35 tons and he was taking on a Star of Heavy Clan mechs single handedly at that point.
Strill, on 01 November 2011 - 08:39 PM, said:
They had nowhere near enough mobility to avoid getting hit, and nowhere near enough damage to kill anything. Most of the time they'd just get killed in a single volley well before they could ever get into range. The vast majority of players used Heavy mechs, with a few Assaults. Occasionally you'd see someone piloting an Uller since it was the fastest light mech in the game and could actually avoid getting hit. Even when people did use lights though, it was usually only for contrived game types like Capture the Flag and David vs Goliath (2 assaults vs 8 (or was it 4?) lights). Any other light or medium mech, however, was way too slow to be worth using.
Again, this game is going to be designed with less range on range fighting all the time, with a lot more cover and more Urban type settings, so each weight class is going to have specific advantages, further enhanced by pilot skills and talents they obtain in their roles. Using a Heavy mech or Assault might seem like a good idea, until a lighter mech with a great deal more mobility manages to evade your raw firepower. Even if it doesn't take you down, it may help it's team take you out, and I'd probably trade the loss of a lighter mech for a big boy any day.
That's not to say you shouldn't take Heavy/Assault, as they obviously have more armor and a great deal more weaponry, and with excellent support, they become incredibly dangerous as well.
This is just a combat example, in a Scout or Electronic Warfare light or medium mech, they may be able to control certain elements of the battlefield to get the upper hand. They may not do a bunch of direct fighting, but if they keep you blind of info and lead you into an ambush or are able to spot for air strikes, they become incredibly valuable.
Many medium mechs are designed to fill either a specific role, or be versatile enough to work as an all around mech. Most are generally fast enough to avoid the bigger guns mostly, but aren't fast enough to outpace the faster light mechs. Just like any weight class, you have to find what they're good at and use them accordingly. The Centurion is a good example, it's slow for it's weight class, but packs a surprising hit and mix of weapons for it's type. Without further info on the actual combat roles, it'll be hard to tell what exactly you can boost it with, but it'd be a good makeshift long range unit, and a close range brawler if it keeps to cover and pilots get good at ducking corners versus bigger mechs.
It's all about tactics, which is what Piranha is going for with this.
Edited by Jack Gallows, 01 November 2011 - 09:52 PM.
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