80 replies to this topic

[Ovion]

I'll read through this solidly once when I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard.

What I have read so far... just reminds me I need to rewatch and finish Burn Notice...

[Koniving]

Ovion, on 01 May 2014 - 03:29 PM, said:

I'll read through this solidly once when I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard.

What I have read so far... just reminds me I need to rewatch and finish Burn Notice...

It's a pretty good show, and a lot of the 'tips' there have worked in Battlefield, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor (War Fighter), DayZ, Arma, F.E.A.R., Deus Ex (Human Revolution), Half-Life, Hawken, Command and Conquer (the Red Alert series), and Starcraft as well as MWO.

Edited by Koniving, 01 May 2014 - 03:59 PM.

[Ovion]

I've seen through Season 4, and the Sam movie.
Think I started Season 5 but the rip was bad?

And yeah, a lot of the tips are fairly good.
Others would get you killed.

Regardless, it's good TV.

[IraqiWalker]

Ovion, on 01 May 2014 - 04:23 PM, said:

I've seen through Season 4, and the Sam movie.
Think I started Season 5 but the rip was bad?

And yeah, a lot of the tips are fairly good.
Others would get you killed.

Regardless, it's good TV.

Netflix

Edited by IraqiWalker, 01 May 2014 - 08:06 PM.

[Koniving]

Anyone have any new examples of the tips already shared? Situations where they may have helped? Or even ones where they may have failed you are welcome as not every tip works in every situation.

[IraqiWalker]

Koniving, on 01 May 2014 - 08:09 PM, said:

Anyone have any new examples of the tips already shared? Situations where they may have helped? Or even ones where they may have failed you are welcome as not every tip works in every situation.

Point 5: Target Priorities
This is a PUG drop btw.

Did a drop on Canyon Network, two of our lances got into the D5 grid, We ended up facing an enemy lance of heavies and assualts that was approaching from the C5 grid and they had taken the high ground, and were approaching through all three levels of the terrain, on the other hand another lance (mainly mediums with a highlander) managed to jump into the edge of the D4 C5 areas and started hitting us from those two sides. Most people started focusing down the 2 atlas and medium mechs, as they were the first targets on visual.

Our lance leader made the call to turn our focus towards the highlanders, and the Victors, and Cataphracts. The exact phrasing was: "Highlanders primary, Victors secondary, Cataphracts tertiary." we also posted that in chat, and hoped some of the PUGs would follow it (the other lance almost fully followed it). With our mechs focusing down CTs on the enemies in that order (except for the 2 mechs that had exposed STs and were either killed or disarmed that way) Halfway through our lance's rampage a new mech enters the fray (4 AC5 Cataphract), and our commander (dead at this point and spectating through one of our lancemates) immediately calls to switch that cataphract to top priority, it didn't take long for it to drop dead. Saved quite a few lives in that battle. Our lance also didn't focus on getting kills so much as we did on eliminating threats. If we took out the side torso on a highlander and it lost all weapons, we ignored it and switched to another target, to make sure our lives and ammo were better used.

We relied on the PUGs to be our shields and by god, they protected us (only two of our lancemates died, the leader, and myself). Many of them died that day. If any of you gentlemen and gentle ladies are reading this. We told your names and deeds with great honor and reverence that night.

Anyways, the match ended 12-8, and if it wasn't for the target calling, that pincer would have quite possibly annihilated our team, and lost us the game. However, target priority, especially when you have half a dozen mechs following it, saved our lives.

[Takashi Uchida]

I can give an example of bad target prioritization that I've seen a couple times, and have been guilty of myself.

When an enemy mech is completely disarmed, you need to think twice before just running out and killing it. People love getting kills. Years of video game playing have ingrained this into many of us. When people see a cored mech come up on their targetting computer with all its weapons redded out, their first instinct is "get-the-kill-get-the-kill-get-the-kill." You've probably seen this scenario: It's a 4v4 type situation, a mech is reduced to a stick (many times it's a Stalker), and people scramble to get the kill while its fully armed friend alpha strikes them over and over without receiving any return fire. The itch to do this is almost as strong as the itch to chase a Spider while the rest of the enemy team shoots at you.

Unless you think a disarmed mech is doing some valuable spotting or has an otherwise high value (ie. it's ecm is still functional), be sure to note if there are more threatening targets that can be shot at. In fact in a tight battle, a pilot in a crippled mech may try to distract you or even hinder your movement by "posting up." Anything to help swing the situation in their team's favor. A dead mech doesn't do any damage, so don't end up dead because you got greedy wanting to finish off a non combat effective mech.

Of course, this doesn't mean "let injured mechs get away." I find this tends to matter more and more with closer numbers are and less mechs remaining. If you are are confident that you can stick and move to finish off a mech, by all means do it. If you are up 10-0 rushing in to steal the kill probably won't cause your team to lose.

[Takashi Uchida]

On paint: I'm too much of a cheap ******* to spend MC and cbills on paint and camo. In fact, the first thing I did after I bought my Iyla (on sale of course) was paint it Pug Green. You almost can't tell if you're running crappy graphics!

Seeing a mech with a fresh paint job usually won't unnerve me but 3 or more mechs in identical uniforms? I instantly start to pay more attention. If I'm in a 4-man myself we will make it known that there's at least one other premade and will likely call to focus them down.

[Void Angel]

I'd suggest adding a little more about the target priorities - why exactly it is bad to try and kill that Atlas while the Jaegermech behind him really needs killed first, that sort of thing.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Suggested tip: The road less traveled.

Any typical match usually boils down to each team heading to the middle of the map, or some other predictable location. Unless you know you have the superior force, it may be advantageous to take command of your forces and plot an alternate path to your objective. This is perhaps more useful in Conquest.

Case in point. Most conquest games have only a middle, outlying extractor to fight over. Each team generally starts with one owned (exception is Alpine) and one nearby which is basically a "given" for that team. That leaves one unclaimed. The battle ususally commences there. Back in the old spawn points on Alpine, I suggested that our team (started on the open, southern side) should take theta (southernmost) and then kappa, avoiding the all-to-common slaughter (in those days) at Epsilon. The enemy force, expecting to meet in the middle, lost precious time moving south to meet us around the kappa extractor. We ended up winning the match because we followed a path that was not expected (I don't remember if we won by points or kills but a win is a win).

[Aym]

Kon, we really should emphasize that unless you're running 6 SSRM2's or 2 AC/20's, you should not use a standard engine in a Catapult if you can afford to buy an XL 260 and/or an XL 300.

Edited by Aym, 09 May 2014 - 09:15 PM.

[luxebo]

Aym, on 09 May 2014 - 09:15 PM, said:

Kon, we really should emphasize that unless you're running 6 SSRM2's or 2 AC/20's, you should not use a standard engine in a Catapult if you can afford to buy an XL 260 and/or an XL 300.

XL 265 is better than XL 260, though if you run through the Jagermechs and pick up the DD's XL 260, then it's still usable. XL 265 has the same weight as the XL 260 and is slightly faster. XL 255 isn't a bad engine either if you have ran through the Stalker (5S).

[Koniving]

Tactical tips, not building tips.
But yes the tips are briefly on hiatus I'll be renewing it soon.

[Zelumbras]

Just a little example of a Blitz working very well:

Yesterday i was pugging and leveling my new Atlas mechs and Terra Therma came up in Assault mode. As first there was the usual discussion whether to go for the crater or not. Someone typed 'lets go for the center fast and don't stop!' but when i arrived there in my slow AS7-D, i found several people hiding at the entrance - the enemy team had taken the center faster and was firing towards our entrance.
One lance immedeately broke off and went to go for a right side flank (i think it was the Alpha Lance premade) while the rest were waiting at the entrance, unsure what to do. Someone else typed 'lets stay away from the crater' but i realized that atleast four mechs were not in the usual hiding spot but had poitioned themselves well on the sides while leaving some room between them. A picture of a broken zipper came to my mind that smoothly goes from open through the slider to open with he crater pass as the slider - the perfect positioning for a fast push through a pass.
It looked like they wanted to go fast forward and were just waiting for someone to take the lead so i set my Atlas to full throttle an went ahead. At first it seemed that i had misjudged my teammates (would not have been the first time :/) but after i pushed away the enemy Centurion guarding our entrance i saw the same person as before type 'nvm^^' in chat and noticed 4-5 mechs following me.
The enemy team turned out to be more timid with most of their mechs hiding behind the crates close to the entrance on their side in the usual jump sniping position. We pushed through the crater without stopping and focused the closest mechs on each side. Two of the enemy mechs that were on the crater ring got destroyed an a few more scattered by jumping down to the sides while their main force retreated through the pass and tried to set up a deathzone.
By this time we noticed that our flanking lance would soon be in firing range to their main force so we waited a few seconds, taking potshots through the pass while trying not to cluster up too much due to the danger of arty/air strikes. As soon as the hammer got close enough on the right side, i led the anvil out against their main force. Only slowing down for a few seconds twice to let other mechs tank the incoming shots for a bit, we basically ran right through them, met our flanking lance in the middle and quickly focused down all remaining enemy mechs in a few seconds.
That match was won 12-2 in just about a little bit more time than it takes an Atlas to march from the home base to the plateau behind the central crater.

[Aym]

luxebo, on 09 May 2014 - 09:43 PM, said:

XL 265 is better than XL 260, though if you run through the Jagermechs and pick up the DD's XL 260, then it's still usable. XL 265 has the same weight as the XL 260 and is slightly faster. XL 255 isn't a bad engine either if you have ran through the Stalker (5S).

You're 100 right, and those are the reasons I have XL 260 and XL 255 in some builds, I bought those mechs and can't afford the "better" engine, much like why my poor raven and firestarters have the XL 280 from my Cataphract 3D, lol.

Koniving, on 09 May 2014 - 09:55 PM, said:

Tactical tips, not building tips.
But yes the tips are briefly on hiatus I'll be renewing it soon.

Just giving you a rash from our games bro!

[SethAbercromby]

Paint is an interesting thing to have. I tend to be pretty blind towards paint and just shoot anything that moves but I know that people that watch for paint will notice my arctic Misery or Yen-Lo-Wang, both with different effects. My Misery loves getting up close, and when someone notices it with the initial reaction of "dude must be crazy", they'll realize that I'm actually insane and will already be losing large chunks of their armor.

My Yen-Lo-Wang strikes from the second line but also loves to jump into peoples faces (yelling "Surprise!" being optional) and a white paint job has served me quite well at getting the attention I want. People tend forget the bigger fish when I'm around, which is quite hilarious to watch.

[Ovion]

SethAbercromby, on 10 May 2014 - 06:04 PM, said:

Paint is an interesting thing to have. I tend to be pretty blind towards paint and just shoot anything that moves but I know that people that watch for paint will notice my arctic Misery or Yen-Lo-Wang, both with different effects. My Misery loves getting up close, and when someone notices it with the initial reaction of "dude must be crazy", they'll realize that I'm actually insane and will already be losing large chunks of their armor.

My Yen-Lo-Wang strikes from the second line but also loves to jump into peoples faces (yelling "Surprise!" being optional) and a white paint job has served me quite well at getting the attention I want. People tend forget the bigger fish when I'm around, which is quite hilarious to watch.

A white paintjob works as reasonable camo on just over 1/3, if not up to 1/2 of the maps.

I mean, mine is whiteblue / lightblue / dark blue highlights, and on some maps I stick out like sore thumb, others I blend in pretty well.

As to a team thing.. well, I don't really have one so~

[SethAbercromby]

Ovion, on 10 May 2014 - 07:23 PM, said:

A white paintjob works as reasonable camo on just over 1/3, if not up to 1/2 of the maps.

You blend in with the background at long distance but at close range, that white is still quite noticeable, maybe even more so. I chose white because while being a pretty neutral color, it is incredibly eye-catching on a combat vehicle and that is what I aim for. I wand my Hero 'Mech to draw attention to themselves because it is fun and can help me and my team in sometimes very unintentional and hilarious ways.

Edited by SethAbercromby, 10 May 2014 - 07:48 PM.

[Koniving]

On the topic of camo..
Some of my recent ones.
In order: 4P, 4SP, 4J, 4J.

4G.

Grid Iron.


4G Founder's

Edited by Koniving, 10 May 2014 - 08:06 PM.

[SethAbercromby]

Damn, now I have to take pictures myself, but not now. It's 4 AM and I want to get some sleep in minus 2 hours.