30 replies to this topic

[LordMelvin]

Mobility is always a good thing, but situation awareness is needed to make the most of it. It doesn't help if you are always maneuvering if doing so puts you in front of the gausswhale firing line. By that same note, if your team is getting shelled by artillery and LRMs it may be time to find a better position.

A lot of PUGs have the mentality that if they get to the "usual" spots on the map (The hill on Alpine, the dropship on frozen city, etc) then they'll automatically win the game. The problem is that once they get there, they won't budge even as dire whales literally dig their grave around them with gauss and ppc.

[Sandtiger]

HimseIf, on 30 October 2014 - 10:36 PM, said:

What bugs me is when they hide behind a rock from LRMs and then a trial blackjack walks up behind them and snipers them all to death with a medium laser and they lose 12-0. Trial blackjack every time. Must love his deathstar achievement.
Moving can be good!

Hey, you leave my BJ of doomy, doom, doom alone! =p I must say though. The black jack is only as good as the pilot running it. You can have a dire wolf loaded to the max with weapons, and good heat dissipation, and get more use out of an AFK player if the pilot can't shoot straight ~Grins.

[Jerry Beard]

The idea manauver warefare is to not hit the enemy where it is strongest but to find a weak point and exploit tha. Usally on a flank. To have that happen you first have to find the enemy then you need to fix him into position, once he is fixed and into a fight you can execute a flanking manauver with your lighter mobile units. Sounds easy but in pug matches it is almost impossible because such types of warfare require communication. Just moving for the sake of moving is never a good idea period. Until the game gets a good voice feature that allows everyone to communicate effectively it always falls to a slugging match with the deathballing tactice usually winning. When you have 12 players with 12 different agendas on the same team coordinated movement of any kind is impossible. To have a game with no voice comms available is the reason you get folks sitting around and hiding. To me and I play other MMO's the thing that lacks is a voice chat function which would help tremendously. Until then one can only hope that his teammates when pugging have some idea of SA and can coordinate on what they are seeing which is usually not the case..

[Shatterpoint]

If you're pugging then slap the common sense out your mouth right now, it'll kill the game for you quick.

Pug IQ is average IQ divided by number of members.
You're dealing with individuals equal to your average hamster/moderately smart cat..no major intellect, will occasionally dodge lethal hazard if not eating or licking themselves inappropriately.

[Kmieciu]

Jerry Beard, on 20 November 2014 - 11:11 AM, said:

The idea manauver warefare is to not hit the enemy where it is strongest but to find a weak point and exploit tha. Usally on a flank. To have that happen you first have to find the enemy then you need to fix him into position, once he is fixed and into a fight you can execute a flanking manauver with your lighter mobile units.

There are times when both teams realize that moving and sticking together is the best tactic and the game turns into a "merry-go-round" around the twin rocks (canyon network), the caldera (caustic) or the citadel (river city). One group is chasing the other and the one with slower mechs looses :-)
It sounds stupid but it's actually quite an adrenaline rush ...

Edited by Kmieciu, 21 November 2014 - 02:32 AM.

[Jerry Beard]

Kmieciu, on 21 November 2014 - 02:30 AM, said:

There are times when both teams realize that moving and sticking together is the best tactic and the game turns into a "merry-go-round" around the twin rocks (canyon network), the caldera (caustic) or the citadel (river city). One group is chasing the other and the one with slower mechs looses :-)
It sounds stupid but it's actually quite an adrenaline rush ...

I agree it happens but more as an after thought most times. The lack of being able to communicate usually tends to drive PUG matches into wild free for alls. Such is the way the game is. Most folks go in with the idea of grabbing kills and points with little or no thought as to having any kind of team work. I have very low kill counts but I have hi assist counts. I try my best to work for the team. That being said if they would put a voice channel that is usable in the game they would create a much better environment to enable teamwork during public matches which I think is what is lacking in the game...

[Jon Gotham]

zudukai, on 24 October 2014 - 06:29 PM, said:

speed is always the answer; out pace, out position, out preform. isolate and remove, pressure and pretend. always know your ground and never overcommit.

Intelligent thinking right here, advocating camping should be a punishable offence!

[Zelumbras]

Got to agree with RustyBolts: moving is not the answer, playing according to the situation is - and that often but not always involves moving.

I've seen way too many matches in which either team simply abandoned a 400t assault lance, simply because they spawned 'on the wrong side' and would then proceed to run in a circle around the map like beheaded chicken. Sometimes you even see assault pilots getting insulted because they were to noob to follow the proverbial 2xERLL RVN-3L to the best and only worthy position on the map at around 25 seconds into the match.
While some players may deliberately run away early on so they can later scavange easy kills from all the worn down enemy mechs after the own team died, this won't work to win a match if everyone does it (or rather: tries to do).
Instead you should gauge the situation and act accordingly. There are always multiple options and depending on the map, game mode and lance positioning at the start they each have different opportunity costs.

That being said, i highly support a mobile and pressure oriented gameplay and try to encourage my fellow pugs to do so too but not at the cost of leaving ~45% of our teams total tonnage behind from the start. Fast decisions are what counts, not deciding on a predetermined approach before the match even begins.

[Jon Gotham]

I think some of you are misconstruing what some of us mean by "moving."

[zortesh]

What about mixed strategy?

Camp until enemy splits, then rush the smaller of the two forces.

The thing about pugs is they have the tend top tunnel vision on the first red they see and move towards it, irregardless of what it is or the actual situation...

You can use this to your advantage, by the timely dropping of a uav or narc you can get people moving in the same direction, narc especially as it like throwing a bucket full of catnip and fishguts over someone in the herding cats metaphor, they see a solid red dorrito on there map and screen for 30 full seconds, no way they ignore that or resist its alluring pull.

Especially useful as people tend to completely ignore enemy positions called in chat, but a uav lighting up 8 red squares will get immediate attention.

[puckRfactor]

Yosharian, on 12 November 2014 - 11:46 AM, said:

Except when your 'move' strategy leaves behind a lance of Dire Wolves & Atlases to die horribly

"Omfg stupid Dire Wolf why aren't you keeping up with our 80kph push strategy?"

catch 22 it is