12 replies to this topic

[Britbaldie]

Hi Guys n Gals,

I have been away from MW Online for a couple of years, ran off and played some other online games in the mean time and decided to do a few different things IRL also.

So I have returned to the fold (be gentle ) and I am wondering what the best way to get back into the game is?
I am in no rush to go diving feet first into the game play (though the ultimate goal is to play as a competetive player), so my thoughts at the moment are finding out which mechs I prefer, go play in the testing grounds and get use to heat management, manouverability and any pro's and con's of the mechs I want to play.

Being an old fart (been playing MW games for like nearly 30 years), mainly computer based but have had a few table top battles, it brings back some good memories, especially from what Alpha looked like to now, I will probably be asking quite a few questions to you more experienced players

For now, I will try to get my head around everything from customisation, trial mechs, mechs i have in my hanger and upgrades.

Looking forward to fight beside you guys

[bayoucowboy]

I would recommend doing PUG drops in the public queue. Maybe even with an alt account. While this may be frustrating at times, player skill level seems to increase from public -> group -> community warfare.

The trial mechs are much better than they used to be - and will let you tryout the clan mechs.

Make sure to review the mech quirks that are listed - I think can be found if you "mouse over/hover over" in the mech lab, or read one of the PDF's that are in the forums (but be careful - many quirk revisions have been made)

Make sure to pick a group/clan before you take a contract in CW - you don't want to have to break your individual contract if the group is contracted with another faction

Finally, if you do decide to spend $$ and don't have a lot of mechs, there are lots of value packs out there - previous/current mech packs purchased on the website and other mech packs for specific chassis in the in-game store. Contrary to the old advice that Premium Time and mech bays are the only "good" cash purchases, some of these packs seem to be nicely discounted.

Welcome Back!

[Nothing Whatsoever]

Cool, welcome back, and if you thinking about dropping into Community Warfare, one question to keep in mind is if you are gonna be Clan or Inner Sphere? You can select a Faction in the Factions tab and I recommend getting a shorter contract for now, not Permanent Loyalty unless you are absolutely sure of your choice.

Not sure if you stopped before Modules and Consumables got implemented, that's one thing to take a look at. You need GXP to unlock them under the Skills tab, and then you can mount them in the Mechlab when you are configuring a particular mech.

So generally to back into the groove of things drop into a few solo matches with a mech you did well in before and see how you fare.

It should be like riding a bicycle and take a bit, to knock some rust off, and then you can come back here if you have any specific questions we can answer after.

[Koniving]

Welcome back.

First and foremost, a lot of things have changed. Some for the better, some not so much. I'll try to cover a list of things you'd have as initial reactions:

• Buying/selling mechs can be done in two places:
  
  • The "Store" which, doesn't show you much but is where you have to go for bundle deals.
    
  • The mechlab. Change the filter from Owned to Purchasable. Use "Mech details" to get information on mechs.
    
  • The hardpoint counters for body parts will not show the total of hardpoints, it counts how many are empty.
• Third person is HARD MODE. Not only is there a giant beacon telling people exactly where you are, it locks your arm movement and gives you a crosshair that reacts to every movement you make (where the first person crosshair is literally as if you are 'gliding' through space, unaffected by things such as your entire mech being tilted back at 45 degrees and such).
  
• Falling hurts, A LOT! Don't do it.
  
• Red smoke on the ground is bad, stay away from it.
  
• Bases on assault mode now have turrets. Their range is normally 450 meters, however turrets and mechs share targeting, and the LRM turrets can attack out to 1,000 meters when feeding off of a mech's target.
  
• AMS is virtually mandatory. It shoots down SRMs/streaks beyond 200 meters, takes down chunks of LRMs, and you can toggle it on and off with "~". You also get 2,000 rounds per ton now!
  
• ECM is now Hercules mode, which is to say it's short of Zeus (god) mode but still not brought down to something mere mortals can contend with unless using special gear. (BAP, PPCs, TAG, NARC, Artemis, UAV; basically everything ECM is supposed to counter is what you need to counter ECM).
  
• Inner Sphere SRMs are more powerful and reload faster than streaks. But streaks almost never miss. -- Clan streaks take forever to reload but they have longer range.
  
• Gauss isn't nearly as fragile as it once was.
  
• Gauss Rifle has a charge up. You must hold the button to charge and release to fire; release too soon and it won't fire. Release too late and it won't fire.
  
• Ghost heat is this big plan to stop/reduce boating. It doesn't work very well but the old twin AC/20 build can shutdown to nearly explode in 3 firings if you 'push it'. You can get around ghost heat by putting a space of 0.5 seconds between the weapons that trigger it.
  
• You can sell mechs and parts under "Home" then "Inventory." You can also find the testing grounds, training grounds, and other features under Home.

On Clan mechs:

• Clan mechs are underpowered -- EXCEPT, they outrange you. They're hotter, they focus heavily on DPS, their laser beams take longer (so spread that damage!), and their autocannons spit in bursts of lighter damage rounds.
  
• Clan mechs have forward-favorable hitboxes. With few exceptions, most of them have frontal hitboxes larger than the original Awesome's center torso. Huge and easy to hit -- and any Clan mech with a brain has put all that armor forward. Back shots should score easy victories. Also note they have considerably larger cockpit hitboxes (except Hellbringer; that thing is a Dot. Literally a dot; not worth trying).
  
• In general it's better to take out a Clan mech's arms and legs than it is to go for their bodies. For a lot of them their arms carry most of the firepower. And it doesn't matter how fast a mech is when it's limping on one leg.
  
• Clan BAP is inferior to IS BAP in only one way. Clan BAP must be locked onto the ECM mech it wants to counter and the counter to enemy ECM is lost immediately if the target is lost or changed. IS BAP counters whatever ECM is closest regardless of what the player is doing.
  
• The only intelligent way to kill a Stormcrow is through legging; the way it runs makes most beam weaponry useless (due to effortlessly spreading fire across its hitboxes as it gallops). Go for the leg, fry the other leg. Anything else is a risk to yourself and your team. Don't waste time on this otherwise inferior enemy, or you'll be praising how 'great' this easily killed tincan is. -- Disclaimer, it's only easily killed by legging, in any other method this thing makes Atlases look like they are made out of melting butter).
  
• Clan ECM getting you down? Left side of most ECM mechs. Kitfoxes have it on the right arm.

Community Warfare.

• For quick matches, target planets with attackers/defenders close to but not quite at multiples of 12.
  
  • Example: 10 / 9. This match will kick off in about a minute to three. 23 / 24 This match will kick off in 10 seconds or less of you joining it, unless you get in too late.
    
  • Bad example: 53 / 29 (there's gonna be a lot of waiting here...) 0/15 (There's gonna be a lot of waiting unless you're bringing at least 8 friends with you).
• These battles are slightly more objective oriented, and feature a sequential spawn via dropship. With few exceptions the typical battle is going to run between 20 and 30 minutes.
  
• Third person cannot be used in CW.
  
• Whatever mech you have last clicked on in your dropdeck is the mech you will start with. You can change this at any time during the initial countdown (before the map loads) by clicking on the mech you want to start with.

Good luck.

[Deathz Jester]

I uhhhh.. What he ^ said.... Lol


Welcome (back) sir. I would say the key thing is to have fun and remember its a game. And never hesitate to ask questions.

[Chaosity]

A few links that you may or may not want to add to you Favorites list.

The basics. You may be beyond this, but: How to Play MWO

You mentioned working towards competitive play.
Try Competitive Mech Guide and MetaMechs Tier Lists and Guides

User tested and rated builds: MechSpecs

And the tried and true mech building site: Smurfy's

[Britbaldie]

Thanks for the great welcome guys
Koniving, excellent write up there, i shall digest and its already given me a nice look at what i can do in the mech lab, plus a good guide on the equipment I need, unfortunately I only have 7 mechs at the moment (4 founders plus another Atlas, a King crab and a Centurion), may give the Hunchback a run out, seems quite a nice mech until you run out of ac20 ammo!

Not sure on where to go with the factions yet, something I need to look at, im probably a bit of a Davion tbh (swear at me now if you want ) but I wont make the decision lightly and I need to find out more about the CW.

Thanks again guys

[Koniving]

Oh -- almost forgot.

Quirks are in. Lots of IS mechs are buffed to super-buffed to some degree or another. An AC/20 on a HBK-4G won't work the same as an AC/20 on a HBK-4H or a Centurion CN9-AH / Yen Lo Wang.

You can hover over a mech's icon in the mechlab to get a list of its quirks.

[Chaosity]

Koniving, on 05 March 2015 - 06:37 PM, said:

Quirks are in. Lots of IS mechs are buffed to super-buffed to some degree or another. An AC/20 on a HBK-4G won't work the same as an AC/20 on a HBK-4H or a Centurion CN9-AH / Yen Lo Wang.

You can hover over a mech's icon in the mechlab to get a list of its quirks.

And for mechs that you do not own you can do the same in the STORE. Open STORE, click BATTLEMECHS (and a weight class if you desire). Next click on the mech chassis your are interested in looking at. As in the mechlab you can hover over a variant and get a list of its quirks, hard point counts, and more. This may help in your buying decisions. And finally, if you want the hard point locations, armor layout, etc. in a stock build (what you are considering buying) check it out in Smurfy's.

Edited by Chaosity, 05 March 2015 - 08:03 PM.

[TheCaptainJZ]

Hunchbacks are a good place to start, and you already own one.

[Kmieciu]

Start with the medium mechs. You really need to know the maps to fully utilize the Assault mechs. Atlas is still powerful, but not very noob-friendly. Hunchback hits hard and is cheap to upgrade (recommend STD250 engine). Jenner and Cent-AH need an expensive XL engine to fully unlock their potential.

[Rogue Jedi]

Britbaldie, on 05 March 2015 - 06:10 PM, said:

Thanks for the great welcome guys
Koniving, excellent write up there, i shall digest and its already given me a nice look at what i can do in the mech lab, plus a good guide on the equipment I need, unfortunately I only have 7 mechs at the moment (4 founders plus another Atlas, a King crab and a Centurion), may give the Hunchback a run out, seems quite a nice mech until you run out of ac20 ammo!

Not sure on where to go with the factions yet, something I need to look at, im probably a bit of a Davion tbh (swear at me now if you want ) but I wont make the decision lightly and I need to find out more about the CW.

Thanks again guys

With the Hunchback, you will likely want to change to Double Heat Sinks and Endo Steel internals, then put in a larger engine, a 250+ engine will make the Mech handle a lot better and comes with the advantage of 10 full Double Heat Sinks.
The first 10 in (fixed) engine DHS have twice the heat disipation of standard Heat Sinks, any outside the engine or past the fixed 10 inside the engine only disipate 1.4 times the heat of a single Heat Sink, DHS are almost always worthwile (despite the 1.5 milion cost). The only exceptions are Mechs built arround Gauss Rifles with only 1 or 2 Small or Medium lasers as backup weapons or Assualt Mechs mounting 35+ single Heat Sinks (for cooling dificualt to replicate with DHS due to critical slot limits).

Edited by Rogue Jedi, 06 March 2015 - 03:10 AM.

[Mavqie]

If you PUG drop in community warfare wear a thick skin as some players can be quite abusive on mic or in game chat if they start to lose (just something i noticed seems to be getting worse recently)

you can add me to your friends list if you need someone to join with or casual play