10 replies to this topic

[Kaijin]

In Mechwarrior Online, there are currently two game modes. Assault, and Conquest. To the causal observer, it may appear Conquest is just Assault with more bases, but each mode must be played differently. If your team plays Assault on Conquest, it will lose, and visa versa.

In Assault Mode, you have the luxury to stand back and snipe, as long as you're keeping the enemy on their side of the map away from your base. In Conquest Mode, you do not have this luxury because there are 5 bases, and if the enemy team holds 3 or more of them for any length of time, your team is likely to lose the match to resource points.

Conquest Mode is arguably more about role warfare than Assault Mode is.

Fast mechs, (typically lights, but also some fast mediums) - Their role is to cap bases and to eliminate the enemy team's fast mechs who are doing the same. They are the only mechs that should be running off alone to cap.

Everyone else is Brawlers. Even LRM-boats - They stick with the Brawlers (Though arguably, Conquest Mode isn't ideal for LRMs). Their role is to tear **** up, and also to capture and hold the central base. Not as maneuverable as faster mechs, it serves no purpose for the heavy hitters to trudge to a distant cap point, Meanwhile, the enemy team has captured everything else, and by the time one has dragged their Atlas to the next nearest cap point, the enemy team is capping your last cap point. Let the fast mechs deal with the perimeter cap points. The central cap point is where the party is. You may die there, but perhaps you'll take 1 or 4 of the enemy with you, which is less enemy left to chase your team's fast mechs around with.

When the game was only 8v8, Conquest Mode usually ended with "all enemy mechs destroyed". That's rare in a well-played match now with 12v12, though it still happens if one team thinks it's playing Assault Mode, and the other team knows it's not Assault Mode.

TL;DR: Speed is of the essence, and controlling 3 or more cap points is the path to victory.
ALSO: Use 'R' to lock targets so you and your teammates know what you're up against. If you see a big blob of enemy mechs, hit 'R' repeatedly so it'll cycle and thus show your team where the blob is too.

[Bront]

Conquest gets a bad rap because it requires more coordinated team work, and that's harder to do with a PUG, and folks who like assault mechs don't like to play because they're too "slow"

Assault gets a bad rap because it's still easy to do a run around base cap.

Personally, I love conquest, even in slow mechs. It's all about positioning, anticipation, and being aware of the battle field beyond just where you are.

[Koniving]

I like the better pay that comes with assault. Conquest, you have to actively take bases to get something close to it and generally the matches take longer. At the same time they are much more forgiving to new players and lighter pilots.

That said, I have to admit conquest is more fun simply because the enemies are spread out and easier to kill.

Edited by Koniving, 13 October 2013 - 07:39 AM.

[Nehkrosis]

Do you guys think that assault will be largely forgotten when Team Deathmatch/Deathmatch comes out?

[Bront]

Koniving, on 13 October 2013 - 07:38 AM, said:

I like the better pay that comes with assault. Conquest, you have to actively take bases to get something close to it and generally the matches take longer. At the same time they are much more forgiving to new players and lighter pilots.

That said, I have to admit conquest is more fun simply because the enemies are spread out and easier to kill.

I earn more in Conquest than Assault. 15-20K on average. Check your stats and see where your earnings are. Sometimes it just feels like you earn more on Assault because of the high games, but conquest pays more when you lose and more than a quick "cap" assault game.

Nehkrosis, on 13 October 2013 - 10:13 AM, said:

Do you guys think that assault will be largely forgotten when Team Deathmatch/Deathmatch comes out?

Deathmatch isn't the next mode though, Attack/Defend is. I don't think Deathmatch has much of a place outside of private matches. Too much potential for griefing.

[Koniving]

Bront, on 13 October 2013 - 10:16 AM, said:

Deathmatch isn't the next mode though, Attack/Defend is. I don't think Deathmatch has much of a place outside of private matches. Too much potential for griefing.

Attack/Defend is much more complicated. Both are in the works, yes, but attack/defend is hugely CW reliant. Meanwhile deathmatch is largely quite simple to make. Both were mentioned in the community warfare details of the big announcement.

Deathmatch is mentioned during the CW as Skirmish mode, after 3:18.

Attack/defend missions, "Planetary assault", is an objective based one-sided offensive against a defensive team in which the outcome of 4 similar matches back to back matches with the same teams is the result of which side wins or loses, with each battle requiring a different mech from each player. Mentioned at 11:57

[Cragger]

I honestly will never play Conquest mode again. Game after game you decimate the other team, the points are near even and yet even though it is 8 to 2 or some other ridiculous odds your team manages to display the extremely low intellect of the average player in this game and stand around for 5 minutes not capturing points while you desperately try to move around and get them yourself in a slow mech as the last two fast movers on the team just keep taking and you lose all while your team standing stupidly at one point or chasing around/ looking for one more kill without realizing if you put mechs on each point they have to come to you or they lose.

If I could lock the game mode to Assault permanently and not have to remember to set it each time I log in I would.

Edited by Cragger, 15 October 2013 - 02:55 AM.

[Catalina Steiner]

This was weird. Did you ever see a tie in a conquest match?

750:750. Certainly it wasn't a tie but a loss. We lost, maybe because there is a counting system that prefers one point before another. But we had two capture points, they just one. We had eight mechs alive, they just one. But we lost. This was a punch to the gut.

Screenshot

Spoiler

Result

Spoiler

[Water Bear]

It seems like there are two major paradigms that PUGs play...whichever mode is the one where you cap 5 points.

The first is your team spreads out thinly and you cap many points quickly. Given the way PUGs usually behave, if the other team sticks together, they will hunt down the spread out components of your team instead of capping (usually). Maybe a light mech or two will go cap while the bulk gets to killing. You win if time runs out before they finish you off, often times. (Note I am not saying that any of this is an optimal way to play or win; It's just what I observe).

The other way is to be the team that does the hunting, playing like it was...whichever mode is the one where you just kill each other. Their job is of course to kill the thinly spread team before they cap out the match.

Thin on thin is a race to get caps, with lots of seemingly random encounters between the two teams -- if a big blob from one team finds a smaller blob from the other, they eat it (unless the small blob runs).

When two teams that stick together fight it's just...that game mode where you kill each other, only with lights capping some blinky things. Often times light packs win these games by getting a 4-1 or 3-2 cap lead that the victors of the big fight can't uncap since they're often slow and wounded.

Honestly, I like the cap point stuff, even if you get the team-that-sticks-together hunting down the team-that-spreads-out thing more often than anything else.

[LiGhtningFF13]

Catalina Steiner, on 26 July 2014 - 08:21 PM, said:

This was weird. Did you ever see a tie in a conquest match?

750:750. Certainly it wasn't a tie but a loss. We lost, maybe because there is a counting system that prefers one point before another. But we had two capture points, they just one. We had eight mechs alive, they just one. But we lost. This was a punch to the gut.

Screenshot

Spoiler

Result

Spoiler

Lol, this is really weird! Never had that kind of result in a conquest match. But to be honest I always stay where my main group/team is located. Always a save way to suvive a bit longer during all kind of modes.

[Poon Star]

I've noticed in the Conquest game mode it is nothing more than capture points. Players don't even get credit for solo capping a point or anything relevant to that aspect. I still see mechs that just dish out good dmg kill/assists get way more match score than the players that try hard to cap and keep the match balanced. If it's just me then let me know.