On chainfiring -
As a veteran, there are certain weapons that just work better, in my opinion, when chainfired. AC/2s, for instance, are far more intimitating when you're constantly plinking at a target mech over 'burst firing' something that isn't going to do a lot of damage anyway. It's intimidating, getting rattled around by a constant stream of fire, constant impact sound effects, and constant explosions.
Similarly, I like to chainfire streak missile launchers - the constant hammering drives pilots to make terrible mistakes, and (on the clan side) multiple incoming clouds of missiles are somehow far more intimidating than one large cloud.
That's something oft-overlooked: yes, there are mechanical aspects to the game, but the human aspect is as if not more important than the mechanics. If I'm making your reticle shake, giving you constant explosions against your chassis, and having you ensure lots of banging, rattling, and damage noises and indicators.. you're going to react far differently than if I just laser you all at once.
It can be lovely just to split your alpha into two parts - just when they think it's over, the other half engages, and they've got to deal with that, too. Remember, if you keep someone constantly twisting, they've never got a chance to return fire...
4
36 replies to this topic
#22
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- Bridesmaid
- 5,100 posts
Member
Posted 24 August 2015 - 06:52 AM
IraqiWalker, on 24 August 2015 - 03:57 AM, said:
Another reason we try to steer new players away from meta builds, and meta mechs early on, is the fact that they don't really teach you much about piloting. Those builds are very forgiving of mistakes, and will make up for your lack of skill, without you noticing it. So you don't grow as a pilot as quickly as you would, if you were in a good starter mech, that was not an absolute monster.
meta mechs are forgiving of mistakes, but meta builds... not so much
the classic meta gauss vomit needs from you both to be quite precise with gauss shots and to manage the heat well, and also you should charge the gauss in time to shoot it with med lasers.....
#23
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- Civil Servant
- 5,154 posts
Member
Posted 24 August 2015 - 06:52 AM
#6 & #7 can actually be wrong at times but you have to really know the Mechs to know when that is.
#24
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- FP Veteran - Beta 1
- 9,682 posts
Member
- LocationCalifornia
Posted 24 August 2015 - 06:55 AM
bad arcade kitty, on 24 August 2015 - 06:52 AM, said:
meta mechs are forgiving of mistakes, but meta builds... not so much
the classic meta gauss vomit needs from you both to be quite precise with gauss shots and to manage the heat well, and also you should charge the gauss in time to shoot it with med lasers.....
I stand corrected.
#26
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- Survivor
- 1,688 posts
Member
- LocationDeath to Aladeen Cafe
Posted 24 August 2015 - 09:02 AM
^^^ I can dig it!
Okay, moving on then. (Note: Not familiar with all the forum tags, what they do, how best to use them, etc. Perhaps someone more fluent in that can catch me on [QQ]'s teamspeak one day and clue me in?)
*When scouting (Damn the numbers):
-YOUR JOB is to provide information. INFORMATION! Opinions are cool, bruh, but save 'em for the after-action review (AAR). When moving to contact, or IN contact, keep it concise. Try to think in terms of what your teammates are up to, what they're wondering, what they'd most need to know about what you see.
US Army used to have the SALUTE (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) report. Maybe a little much info, and not so concise (Who cares if it's 228th or Lords or BSK, and how do you KNOW in-game?). Equipment can be made simpler, in our case, and Unit is irrelevant for the most part. Size: HOW MANY OF THEM? Activity: WHAT ARE THEY DOING RIGHT NOW? Location: WHERE ARE THEY RIGHT MEOW? Equipment: WHICH TYPES OF MECHS ARE THEY IN, and WHAT DO MY SENSORS SAY THOSE MECHS ARE CARRYING? Witness the birth of the SALE report! That's what your pals need to know.
Example: "Three assaults, D6, moving to D5, Foxtrot is AC/20 Atlas." Something like that.
Example 2: "One scout, ECM ER Large Spider, Hilltop in G9, observing."
Order of information doesn't matter as much as getting it all in there, preferably in a single sentence. BRIEF. Brevity is a good word for all voice comms. Keep it short and to the point. HIGH INFORMATION DENSITY. Speak clearly (accents are, of course, natural and understood to be the case for a great many players--we simply must learn to live in a global society), and understand that there's a natural pause before a voice response. Don't break up your report. Give it all at once, quickly but clearly, and give at least two seconds for a response before continuing.
If you're using only text to report, you MIGHT consider getting a mic. Or just keep it even simpler, so you can get your paws back on the controls.
But I stand by SALE as the de facto standard in MWO.
Targeting enemy mechs is great and all, and we'll all see the red dorito (thanks to whomever said that in game last night, in discussion of thermal on HPG Manifold--I never heard that term before, but I love it!) over the enemies that your sensors see. BUT, if all you do is cycle through all of those targets quickly, we'll never see what's what. It takes a second or two to get target info. So cycle through once, for effect, and then settle on one. If you've got time, give that one at least several seconds so your pals can see what he's toting. If you see the incoming missile icon over him, hold that target as long as you can. Also...
DO NOT GET SPOTTED. More advanced topic for later, but stay as out-of-sight as you can while still maintaining line-of-sight to the enemy.
-ECM is nice, but it's also a giveaway. Story time. A couple nights ago, I dropped with some [QQ] buds. We had a drop on Forest Colony. Came down to me (in a ACH) and one other pilot, versus an enemy DireWhale stripped in the CT. I had to duck out to cool down, and the Whale took out my ally. DAMN! Then, the Whale gives me the greatest gift. Rather than put his back against a cliff and wait me out, he heads out into the water, back to me! So, I go running after the Whale. BEFORE closing to w/in 240 meters, I switched ECM to COUNTER. (I loved this kill more than life itself, but that's for another day. I GOT LUCKY, too.) WHY?
Ever been jammed by ECM? You know it right away. Minimap says LOW SIGNAL. Target boxes and their red doritos start flickering. No missile locks. Etc. There's no hiding it. As a light pilot, especially a SCOUT, keeping your position a secret is the best protection you have from the enemy's fire. Hint: Friendly ECMs don't jam you, only the enemy ones. So, if you're being jammed by an ECM, you KNOW there's an enemy within ECM range of you.
IF in an ECM mech while scouting, and you NEED to close within 250 meters of the enemy, determine if he has ECM mechs in the area where you're approaching. If not, a simple switch to COUNTER should keep you hidden (as long as you also stay out of LOS). If so, you're going to be found out. I say again, THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE THERE, THEY WILL FIND YOU, AND THEY WILL PEPPER YOU WITH HOT PPC HATRED UNTIL YOU DIE AND BURN! I'd avoid that scenario.
Also, back to keymapping, if you're flying ECM, keep the ECM mode toggle somewhere easy to reach and be ready to use it. Pay attention to what mode your ECM is in. Both modes can be VERY useful.
Oh, and PPCs shut down ECM for a few seconds if they hit. So you know.
-A scout is only useful as long as the enemy is not in LOS (line of sight, dude) for his team. Once they ARE, your job is pretty much done. You can keep watch for enemy repositioning behind cover, or for a straggler wandering off to try to flank your pals, or whatever. But your effectiveness wanes quickly once you have troops in contact (TIC). At this point, though, having a fast and relatively fresh mech, in a position well off of the axis of engagement, is a fair advantage in itself. Again, the tendency is to chase the squirrel. This is where you can BE the squirrel, at the perfect moment, to draw the enemy's attention away from your team while they crest that hill in a massive, victorious push, granting them a brief break in the enemy's fire at that critical moment in the push, and assuring them of the greatest opportunity for victory. Also, doing this will get you gutted. Ask my KDR. Worth it for the win? Maybe. I just barely survived one of these on Caustic Valley yesterday. We started on the side opposite the lake, the enemy (WTF, man?) pushed the crater and stalled inside the rim (insta-death, usually--it's HOT in there), then rolled off the non-lake side. I had run down the alley on our far right, around the enemy's back, and was spotting for LRMs (SO undetect, MUCH stealth). At some point, I announced our 2-to-1 overmatch and my intent to do something stupid, so I ran my ACH right through the middle, past a bunch with a SCR as its lightest mech, back to my pals. I lived. Hell, let's cool down and do it again! SOW CHAOS! CRY HAVOC! There I went. Wound up overheating in the middle of four enemy mechs, all of whom had a grudge now. Lucky me, my team killed off all four in the time it took to get my mech restarted. They pushed, God bless them those magnificent b*****ds... Chaos. It's what's for breakfast.
Okay, moving on then. (Note: Not familiar with all the forum tags, what they do, how best to use them, etc. Perhaps someone more fluent in that can catch me on [QQ]'s teamspeak one day and clue me in?)
*When scouting (Damn the numbers):
-YOUR JOB is to provide information. INFORMATION! Opinions are cool, bruh, but save 'em for the after-action review (AAR). When moving to contact, or IN contact, keep it concise. Try to think in terms of what your teammates are up to, what they're wondering, what they'd most need to know about what you see.
US Army used to have the SALUTE (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) report. Maybe a little much info, and not so concise (Who cares if it's 228th or Lords or BSK, and how do you KNOW in-game?). Equipment can be made simpler, in our case, and Unit is irrelevant for the most part. Size: HOW MANY OF THEM? Activity: WHAT ARE THEY DOING RIGHT NOW? Location: WHERE ARE THEY RIGHT MEOW? Equipment: WHICH TYPES OF MECHS ARE THEY IN, and WHAT DO MY SENSORS SAY THOSE MECHS ARE CARRYING? Witness the birth of the SALE report! That's what your pals need to know.
Example: "Three assaults, D6, moving to D5, Foxtrot is AC/20 Atlas." Something like that.
Example 2: "One scout, ECM ER Large Spider, Hilltop in G9, observing."
Order of information doesn't matter as much as getting it all in there, preferably in a single sentence. BRIEF. Brevity is a good word for all voice comms. Keep it short and to the point. HIGH INFORMATION DENSITY. Speak clearly (accents are, of course, natural and understood to be the case for a great many players--we simply must learn to live in a global society), and understand that there's a natural pause before a voice response. Don't break up your report. Give it all at once, quickly but clearly, and give at least two seconds for a response before continuing.
If you're using only text to report, you MIGHT consider getting a mic. Or just keep it even simpler, so you can get your paws back on the controls.
But I stand by SALE as the de facto standard in MWO.
Targeting enemy mechs is great and all, and we'll all see the red dorito (thanks to whomever said that in game last night, in discussion of thermal on HPG Manifold--I never heard that term before, but I love it!) over the enemies that your sensors see. BUT, if all you do is cycle through all of those targets quickly, we'll never see what's what. It takes a second or two to get target info. So cycle through once, for effect, and then settle on one. If you've got time, give that one at least several seconds so your pals can see what he's toting. If you see the incoming missile icon over him, hold that target as long as you can. Also...
DO NOT GET SPOTTED. More advanced topic for later, but stay as out-of-sight as you can while still maintaining line-of-sight to the enemy.
-ECM is nice, but it's also a giveaway. Story time. A couple nights ago, I dropped with some [QQ] buds. We had a drop on Forest Colony. Came down to me (in a ACH) and one other pilot, versus an enemy DireWhale stripped in the CT. I had to duck out to cool down, and the Whale took out my ally. DAMN! Then, the Whale gives me the greatest gift. Rather than put his back against a cliff and wait me out, he heads out into the water, back to me! So, I go running after the Whale. BEFORE closing to w/in 240 meters, I switched ECM to COUNTER. (I loved this kill more than life itself, but that's for another day. I GOT LUCKY, too.) WHY?
Ever been jammed by ECM? You know it right away. Minimap says LOW SIGNAL. Target boxes and their red doritos start flickering. No missile locks. Etc. There's no hiding it. As a light pilot, especially a SCOUT, keeping your position a secret is the best protection you have from the enemy's fire. Hint: Friendly ECMs don't jam you, only the enemy ones. So, if you're being jammed by an ECM, you KNOW there's an enemy within ECM range of you.
IF in an ECM mech while scouting, and you NEED to close within 250 meters of the enemy, determine if he has ECM mechs in the area where you're approaching. If not, a simple switch to COUNTER should keep you hidden (as long as you also stay out of LOS). If so, you're going to be found out. I say again, THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE THERE, THEY WILL FIND YOU, AND THEY WILL PEPPER YOU WITH HOT PPC HATRED UNTIL YOU DIE AND BURN! I'd avoid that scenario.
Also, back to keymapping, if you're flying ECM, keep the ECM mode toggle somewhere easy to reach and be ready to use it. Pay attention to what mode your ECM is in. Both modes can be VERY useful.
Oh, and PPCs shut down ECM for a few seconds if they hit. So you know.
-A scout is only useful as long as the enemy is not in LOS (line of sight, dude) for his team. Once they ARE, your job is pretty much done. You can keep watch for enemy repositioning behind cover, or for a straggler wandering off to try to flank your pals, or whatever. But your effectiveness wanes quickly once you have troops in contact (TIC). At this point, though, having a fast and relatively fresh mech, in a position well off of the axis of engagement, is a fair advantage in itself. Again, the tendency is to chase the squirrel. This is where you can BE the squirrel, at the perfect moment, to draw the enemy's attention away from your team while they crest that hill in a massive, victorious push, granting them a brief break in the enemy's fire at that critical moment in the push, and assuring them of the greatest opportunity for victory. Also, doing this will get you gutted. Ask my KDR. Worth it for the win? Maybe. I just barely survived one of these on Caustic Valley yesterday. We started on the side opposite the lake, the enemy (WTF, man?) pushed the crater and stalled inside the rim (insta-death, usually--it's HOT in there), then rolled off the non-lake side. I had run down the alley on our far right, around the enemy's back, and was spotting for LRMs (SO undetect, MUCH stealth). At some point, I announced our 2-to-1 overmatch and my intent to do something stupid, so I ran my ACH right through the middle, past a bunch with a SCR as its lightest mech, back to my pals. I lived. Hell, let's cool down and do it again! SOW CHAOS! CRY HAVOC! There I went. Wound up overheating in the middle of four enemy mechs, all of whom had a grudge now. Lucky me, my team killed off all four in the time it took to get my mech restarted. They pushed, God bless them those magnificent b*****ds... Chaos. It's what's for breakfast.
#27
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- Elite Founder
- 1,384 posts
Member
Posted 24 August 2015 - 09:30 AM
TheRAbbi, on 24 August 2015 - 09:02 AM, said:
^^^ I can dig it!
Okay, moving on then. (Note: Not familiar with all the forum tags, what they do, how best to use them, etc. Perhaps someone more fluent in that can catch me on [QQ]'s teamspeak one day and clue me in?)
*When scouting (Damn the numbers):
-YOUR JOB is to provide information. INFORMATION! Opinions are cool, bruh, but save 'em for the after-action review (AAR). When moving to contact, or IN contact, keep it concise. Try to think in terms of what your teammates are up to, what they're wondering, what they'd most need to know about what you see.
US Army used to have the SALUTE (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) report. Maybe a little much info, and not so concise (Who cares if it's 228th or Lords or BSK, and how do you KNOW in-game?). Equipment can be made simpler, in our case, and Unit is irrelevant for the most part. Size: HOW MANY OF THEM? Activity: WHAT ARE THEY DOING RIGHT NOW? Location: WHERE ARE THEY RIGHT MEOW? Equipment: WHICH TYPES OF MECHS ARE THEY IN, and WHAT DO MY SENSORS SAY THOSE MECHS ARE CARRYING? Witness the birth of the SALE report! That's what your pals need to know.
Example: "Three assaults, D6, moving to D5, Foxtrot is AC/20 Atlas." Something like that.
Example 2: "One scout, ECM ER Large Spider, Hilltop in G9, observing."
Order of information doesn't matter as much as getting it all in there, preferably in a single sentence. BRIEF. Brevity is a good word for all voice comms. Keep it short and to the point. HIGH INFORMATION DENSITY. Speak clearly (accents are, of course, natural and understood to be the case for a great many players--we simply must learn to live in a global society), and understand that there's a natural pause before a voice response. Don't break up your report. Give it all at once, quickly but clearly, and give at least two seconds for a response before continuing.
If you're using only text to report, you MIGHT consider getting a mic. Or just keep it even simpler, so you can get your paws back on the controls.
But I stand by SALE as the de facto standard in MWO.
Targeting enemy mechs is great and all, and we'll all see the red dorito (thanks to whomever said that in game last night, in discussion of thermal on HPG Manifold--I never heard that term before, but I love it!) over the enemies that your sensors see. BUT, if all you do is cycle through all of those targets quickly, we'll never see what's what. It takes a second or two to get target info. So cycle through once, for effect, and then settle on one. If you've got time, give that one at least several seconds so your pals can see what he's toting. If you see the incoming missile icon over him, hold that target as long as you can. Also...
DO NOT GET SPOTTED. More advanced topic for later, but stay as out-of-sight as you can while still maintaining line-of-sight to the enemy.
-ECM is nice, but it's also a giveaway. Story time. A couple nights ago, I dropped with some [QQ] buds. We had a drop on Forest Colony. Came down to me (in a ACH) and one other pilot, versus an enemy DireWhale stripped in the CT. I had to duck out to cool down, and the Whale took out my ally. DAMN! Then, the Whale gives me the greatest gift. Rather than put his back against a cliff and wait me out, he heads out into the water, back to me! So, I go running after the Whale. BEFORE closing to w/in 240 meters, I switched ECM to COUNTER. (I loved this kill more than life itself, but that's for another day. I GOT LUCKY, too.) WHY?
Ever been jammed by ECM? You know it right away. Minimap says LOW SIGNAL. Target boxes and their red doritos start flickering. No missile locks. Etc. There's no hiding it. As a light pilot, especially a SCOUT, keeping your position a secret is the best protection you have from the enemy's fire. Hint: Friendly ECMs don't jam you, only the enemy ones. So, if you're being jammed by an ECM, you KNOW there's an enemy within ECM range of you.
IF in an ECM mech while scouting, and you NEED to close within 250 meters of the enemy, determine if he has ECM mechs in the area where you're approaching. If not, a simple switch to COUNTER should keep you hidden (as long as you also stay out of LOS). If so, you're going to be found out. I say again, THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE THERE, THEY WILL FIND YOU, AND THEY WILL PEPPER YOU WITH HOT PPC HATRED UNTIL YOU DIE AND BURN! I'd avoid that scenario.
Also, back to keymapping, if you're flying ECM, keep the ECM mode toggle somewhere easy to reach and be ready to use it. Pay attention to what mode your ECM is in. Both modes can be VERY useful.
Oh, and PPCs shut down ECM for a few seconds if they hit. So you know.
-A scout is only useful as long as the enemy is not in LOS (line of sight, dude) for his team. Once they ARE, your job is pretty much done. You can keep watch for enemy repositioning behind cover, or for a straggler wandering off to try to flank your pals, or whatever. But your effectiveness wanes quickly once you have troops in contact (TIC). At this point, though, having a fast and relatively fresh mech, in a position well off of the axis of engagement, is a fair advantage in itself. Again, the tendency is to chase the squirrel. This is where you can BE the squirrel, at the perfect moment, to draw the enemy's attention away from your team while they crest that hill in a massive, victorious push, granting them a brief break in the enemy's fire at that critical moment in the push, and assuring them of the greatest opportunity for victory. Also, doing this will get you gutted. Ask my KDR. Worth it for the win? Maybe. I just barely survived one of these on Caustic Valley yesterday. We started on the side opposite the lake, the enemy (WTF, man?) pushed the crater and stalled inside the rim (insta-death, usually--it's HOT in there), then rolled off the non-lake side. I had run down the alley on our far right, around the enemy's back, and was spotting for LRMs (SO undetect, MUCH stealth). At some point, I announced our 2-to-1 overmatch and my intent to do something stupid, so I ran my ACH right through the middle, past a bunch with a SCR as its lightest mech, back to my pals. I lived. Hell, let's cool down and do it again! SOW CHAOS! CRY HAVOC! There I went. Wound up overheating in the middle of four enemy mechs, all of whom had a grudge now. Lucky me, my team killed off all four in the time it took to get my mech restarted. They pushed, God bless them those magnificent b*****ds... Chaos. It's what's for breakfast.
Okay, moving on then. (Note: Not familiar with all the forum tags, what they do, how best to use them, etc. Perhaps someone more fluent in that can catch me on [QQ]'s teamspeak one day and clue me in?)
*When scouting (Damn the numbers):
-YOUR JOB is to provide information. INFORMATION! Opinions are cool, bruh, but save 'em for the after-action review (AAR). When moving to contact, or IN contact, keep it concise. Try to think in terms of what your teammates are up to, what they're wondering, what they'd most need to know about what you see.
US Army used to have the SALUTE (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) report. Maybe a little much info, and not so concise (Who cares if it's 228th or Lords or BSK, and how do you KNOW in-game?). Equipment can be made simpler, in our case, and Unit is irrelevant for the most part. Size: HOW MANY OF THEM? Activity: WHAT ARE THEY DOING RIGHT NOW? Location: WHERE ARE THEY RIGHT MEOW? Equipment: WHICH TYPES OF MECHS ARE THEY IN, and WHAT DO MY SENSORS SAY THOSE MECHS ARE CARRYING? Witness the birth of the SALE report! That's what your pals need to know.
Example: "Three assaults, D6, moving to D5, Foxtrot is AC/20 Atlas." Something like that.
Example 2: "One scout, ECM ER Large Spider, Hilltop in G9, observing."
Order of information doesn't matter as much as getting it all in there, preferably in a single sentence. BRIEF. Brevity is a good word for all voice comms. Keep it short and to the point. HIGH INFORMATION DENSITY. Speak clearly (accents are, of course, natural and understood to be the case for a great many players--we simply must learn to live in a global society), and understand that there's a natural pause before a voice response. Don't break up your report. Give it all at once, quickly but clearly, and give at least two seconds for a response before continuing.
If you're using only text to report, you MIGHT consider getting a mic. Or just keep it even simpler, so you can get your paws back on the controls.
But I stand by SALE as the de facto standard in MWO.
Targeting enemy mechs is great and all, and we'll all see the red dorito (thanks to whomever said that in game last night, in discussion of thermal on HPG Manifold--I never heard that term before, but I love it!) over the enemies that your sensors see. BUT, if all you do is cycle through all of those targets quickly, we'll never see what's what. It takes a second or two to get target info. So cycle through once, for effect, and then settle on one. If you've got time, give that one at least several seconds so your pals can see what he's toting. If you see the incoming missile icon over him, hold that target as long as you can. Also...
DO NOT GET SPOTTED. More advanced topic for later, but stay as out-of-sight as you can while still maintaining line-of-sight to the enemy.
-ECM is nice, but it's also a giveaway. Story time. A couple nights ago, I dropped with some [QQ] buds. We had a drop on Forest Colony. Came down to me (in a ACH) and one other pilot, versus an enemy DireWhale stripped in the CT. I had to duck out to cool down, and the Whale took out my ally. DAMN! Then, the Whale gives me the greatest gift. Rather than put his back against a cliff and wait me out, he heads out into the water, back to me! So, I go running after the Whale. BEFORE closing to w/in 240 meters, I switched ECM to COUNTER. (I loved this kill more than life itself, but that's for another day. I GOT LUCKY, too.) WHY?
Ever been jammed by ECM? You know it right away. Minimap says LOW SIGNAL. Target boxes and their red doritos start flickering. No missile locks. Etc. There's no hiding it. As a light pilot, especially a SCOUT, keeping your position a secret is the best protection you have from the enemy's fire. Hint: Friendly ECMs don't jam you, only the enemy ones. So, if you're being jammed by an ECM, you KNOW there's an enemy within ECM range of you.
IF in an ECM mech while scouting, and you NEED to close within 250 meters of the enemy, determine if he has ECM mechs in the area where you're approaching. If not, a simple switch to COUNTER should keep you hidden (as long as you also stay out of LOS). If so, you're going to be found out. I say again, THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE THERE, THEY WILL FIND YOU, AND THEY WILL PEPPER YOU WITH HOT PPC HATRED UNTIL YOU DIE AND BURN! I'd avoid that scenario.
Also, back to keymapping, if you're flying ECM, keep the ECM mode toggle somewhere easy to reach and be ready to use it. Pay attention to what mode your ECM is in. Both modes can be VERY useful.
Oh, and PPCs shut down ECM for a few seconds if they hit. So you know.
-A scout is only useful as long as the enemy is not in LOS (line of sight, dude) for his team. Once they ARE, your job is pretty much done. You can keep watch for enemy repositioning behind cover, or for a straggler wandering off to try to flank your pals, or whatever. But your effectiveness wanes quickly once you have troops in contact (TIC). At this point, though, having a fast and relatively fresh mech, in a position well off of the axis of engagement, is a fair advantage in itself. Again, the tendency is to chase the squirrel. This is where you can BE the squirrel, at the perfect moment, to draw the enemy's attention away from your team while they crest that hill in a massive, victorious push, granting them a brief break in the enemy's fire at that critical moment in the push, and assuring them of the greatest opportunity for victory. Also, doing this will get you gutted. Ask my KDR. Worth it for the win? Maybe. I just barely survived one of these on Caustic Valley yesterday. We started on the side opposite the lake, the enemy (WTF, man?) pushed the crater and stalled inside the rim (insta-death, usually--it's HOT in there), then rolled off the non-lake side. I had run down the alley on our far right, around the enemy's back, and was spotting for LRMs (SO undetect, MUCH stealth). At some point, I announced our 2-to-1 overmatch and my intent to do something stupid, so I ran my ACH right through the middle, past a bunch with a SCR as its lightest mech, back to my pals. I lived. Hell, let's cool down and do it again! SOW CHAOS! CRY HAVOC! There I went. Wound up overheating in the middle of four enemy mechs, all of whom had a grudge now. Lucky me, my team killed off all four in the time it took to get my mech restarted. They pushed, God bless them those magnificent b*****ds... Chaos. It's what's for breakfast.
Also, it might be good that as you add additional post, you use the Edit button append it to your OP. That way we dont have to search all over multiple pages for info. Its all right in the OP, OP :-)
#28
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- Survivor
- 1,688 posts
Member
- LocationDeath to Aladeen Cafe
Posted 24 August 2015 - 03:04 PM
I'll get on it tonight or tomorrow, then.
#29
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- FP Veteran - Beta 1
- 9,682 posts
Member
- LocationCalifornia
Posted 24 August 2015 - 07:21 PM
TheRAbbi, on 24 August 2015 - 03:04 PM, said:
I'll get on it tonight or tomorrow, then.
if you just place the hr code I posted you will get this line below this sentence.
Notice how it splits the post up? It can give people an easier time when reading a long post.
here are the important ones to remember, with examples in spoilers below them:
[hr]
Big line to split the post
Spoiler
[img] url of picture [/img]
Puts a picture in your post
Spoiler
[media] youtube video link[/media]
Puts videos into your post
Spoiler
[spoiler] stuff [/spoiler]
Hides stuff in a spoiler. Useful when you have a tangent that isn't as important to the discussion, but worth knowing if someone wants extra info on a subject.
[url= put a url in here]put what you want the title to be[/url]
Spoiler
#30
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- Survivor
- 1,688 posts
Member
- LocationDeath to Aladeen Cafe
Posted 24 August 2015 - 07:35 PM
Awesome! I just got home from work a little bit ago, so I'm JUST NOW getting to it. I'll go edit the original post a bit, then.
I see this is a LOT like using the old skool HTML tags, and I kinda figured that, but I just didn't know the tags peculiar to this forum. Muchas gracias, IraqiWalker!
I see this is a LOT like using the old skool HTML tags, and I kinda figured that, but I just didn't know the tags peculiar to this forum. Muchas gracias, IraqiWalker!
Edited by TheRAbbi, 24 August 2015 - 08:12 PM.
#31
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- FP Veteran - Beta 1
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Posted 24 August 2015 - 07:58 PM
TheRAbbi, on 24 August 2015 - 07:35 PM, said:
Awesome! I just got home from work a little bit ago, so I'm JUST NOT getting to it. I'll go edit the original post a bit, then.
I see this is a LOT like using the old skool HTML tags, and I kinda figured that, but I just didn't know the tags peculiar to this forum. Muchas gracias, IraqiWalker!
I see this is a LOT like using the old skool HTML tags, and I kinda figured that, but I just didn't know the tags peculiar to this forum. Muchas gracias, IraqiWalker!
My pleasure. They are very similar to HTML, just use "[]"i instead of "<>"
#32
Posted 24 August 2015 - 08:55 PM
TheRAbbi, on 23 August 2015 - 11:10 AM, said:
1.) Know and stick to your role. If you're in a Locust, then going toe-to-toe with an Atlas (even if it IS almost cored and down to one ML) is not likely to end well for you. Likewise...
- Not necessarily true; some of the best locust pilots are aggressive and will/can take on mechs with a lot more armor and weaponry than a cored Atlas with 1 ML.. ..similarly I take out my Huginn and quite happily will hustle 3/4 mechs at a time. Sometimes this goes bad real quick, but take 4 enemy mechs out of play can bring more to the table for your team.. ..just a personal opinion
2.) DO NOT chase the squirrel! Unless you are a squirrel hunter, of course. If you're new, then you're NOT a squirrel hunter. At most, shoot off something heavy at the little guy to remind him that you are higher on the food chain, and let your team's lights and hunters deal with the nuisance. MANY a heavy mech pilot has been lured to his death by the siren song of the squishy little Commando. Squirrels are not your monkeys, and hunting them is NOT your circus. Most likely.
100% YES. You chase the squirrel, you turn your back on the enemy and you give them a free ride - exactly the tactic I mentioned above!! Players also do this to lure in mechs, knowing that they have 3/4 mechs waiting to assist around the corner.. ..like said point below!
4.) Dying isn't the worst thing that can happen.
Amen.
6.) I say again, STAY OUT OF FRIENDLY LANES OF FIRE! For the love of Kerensky, dudes, do NOT Step out in front of a friendly that's firing at an enemy (or even appears to be lining up the shot).
JUST TO REITERATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS...
6.A.) Related to 6.) above, DO NOT butt-hump other mechs.
AND THIS!!! Quickest way to get a team mate killed when they NEED the space to back off from enemy fire.
You don't brawl in a Locust
Again... ...I kinda have to disagree a bit here. It's situational, sometimes brawling is the best thing you can do if you are good at it.. ..but it requires a lot of situational awareness both on part of your team and where the enemy is. Lolcusts, Cheetahs and Huggins make the best small brawlers.. ..their size, speed and pew pew woosh make them pretty nasty.
- Not necessarily true; some of the best locust pilots are aggressive and will/can take on mechs with a lot more armor and weaponry than a cored Atlas with 1 ML.. ..similarly I take out my Huginn and quite happily will hustle 3/4 mechs at a time. Sometimes this goes bad real quick, but take 4 enemy mechs out of play can bring more to the table for your team.. ..just a personal opinion
2.) DO NOT chase the squirrel! Unless you are a squirrel hunter, of course. If you're new, then you're NOT a squirrel hunter. At most, shoot off something heavy at the little guy to remind him that you are higher on the food chain, and let your team's lights and hunters deal with the nuisance. MANY a heavy mech pilot has been lured to his death by the siren song of the squishy little Commando. Squirrels are not your monkeys, and hunting them is NOT your circus. Most likely.
100% YES. You chase the squirrel, you turn your back on the enemy and you give them a free ride - exactly the tactic I mentioned above!! Players also do this to lure in mechs, knowing that they have 3/4 mechs waiting to assist around the corner.. ..like said point below!
4.) Dying isn't the worst thing that can happen.
Amen.
6.) I say again, STAY OUT OF FRIENDLY LANES OF FIRE! For the love of Kerensky, dudes, do NOT Step out in front of a friendly that's firing at an enemy (or even appears to be lining up the shot).
JUST TO REITERATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS...
6.A.) Related to 6.) above, DO NOT butt-hump other mechs.
AND THIS!!! Quickest way to get a team mate killed when they NEED the space to back off from enemy fire.
You don't brawl in a Locust
Again... ...I kinda have to disagree a bit here. It's situational, sometimes brawling is the best thing you can do if you are good at it.. ..but it requires a lot of situational awareness both on part of your team and where the enemy is. Lolcusts, Cheetahs and Huggins make the best small brawlers.. ..their size, speed and pew pew woosh make them pretty nasty.
As a Lolcust/Raven-lunatic I had to have a few words
But irrespective of personal opinion on that specific topic, you put up a good guide
#33
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- 2,021 posts
Member
- LocationGermantown, MD
Posted 24 August 2015 - 09:15 PM
As a new player, I think the most important thing you can do is stay alive for as long as possible. The longer a newbie is alive in game, the more experience he gets. And I'm not talking game xp, I mean real experience.
Don't be a hider, but don't be too aggressive either.
My first 25 matches as a cadet I tried to perfect the Leroy Jenkins rush in a light mech. I learned nothing and maybe spent a total of 10 mins in game spread over 25 drops. Waste of time and energy.
The 2nd most important thing a newbie can do is SPECTATE SPECTATE SPECTATE! When you do die, do not disconnect to grab another mech for another drop. Instead, cycle through your team mates and watch what they are doing. You will learn faster by experiencing their mistakes and successes.
Don't be a hider, but don't be too aggressive either.
My first 25 matches as a cadet I tried to perfect the Leroy Jenkins rush in a light mech. I learned nothing and maybe spent a total of 10 mins in game spread over 25 drops. Waste of time and energy.
The 2nd most important thing a newbie can do is SPECTATE SPECTATE SPECTATE! When you do die, do not disconnect to grab another mech for another drop. Instead, cycle through your team mates and watch what they are doing. You will learn faster by experiencing their mistakes and successes.
Edited by Fenrisulvyn, 24 August 2015 - 09:26 PM.
#34
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- Survivor
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Posted 24 August 2015 - 09:24 PM
Fenrisulvyn, I'm gonna add that right now. GREAT POINT!
#35
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- Elite Founder
- 1,384 posts
Member
Posted 25 August 2015 - 04:47 AM
TheRAbbi, on 24 August 2015 - 03:04 PM, said:
I'll get on it tonight or tomorrow, then.
Good work on the Cleanup on your OP. :-) Not that you need my approval or anything LOL.
#36
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- Star Commander
- 66 posts
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- LocationOn your six, duct tape at the ready
Posted 25 August 2015 - 06:52 AM
TheRAbbi, on 23 August 2015 - 11:10 AM, said:
NEWB MECHWARRIORS OF THE GALAXY, HEAR ME!
I suck at this game. Still enjoy the crap out of it, though. But name your rookie mistake, and I've made it (maybe even in the last week). I'm here today to name a few things you should or shouldn't do, in order to be a little more useful to your team while you learn your way around the game. This is based on me sucking at some of these things, and at least having sucked badly at others before. In no special order then:
1.) Know and stick to your role. If you're in a Locust, then going toe-to-toe with an Atlas (even if it IS almost cored and down to one ML) is not likely to end well for you. Likewise...
2.) DO NOT chase the squirrel! Unless you are a squirrel hunter, of course. If you're new, then you're NOT a squirrel hunter. At most, shoot off something heavy at the little guy to remind him that you are higher on the food chain, and let your team's lights and hunters deal with the nuisance. MANY a heavy mech pilot has been lured to his death by the siren song of the squishy little Commando. Squirrels are not your monkeys, and hunting them is NOT your circus. Most likely.
3.) KNOW YOUR ROLE! So, if you ARE in a light mech, then maybe running the squirrel off from your pals IS your business. That is, if you're timid like me and not immediately running out to BE the squirrel. In that case, make yourself useful and run him off. BE CAREFUL with squirrel hunting, though. A favorite tactic of squirrels is to lure an unsuspecting HBK or CN9 into the midst of a pack of 3-4 squirrels, behind 2 forms of cover and at least 600 meters off from the nearest support. Can you say, "Death Sentence"?
4.) Dying isn't the worst thing that can happen.
5.) Being a vulture is good enough for you right now. It's nice to throw down and contribute directly to the brawl, but there's a LOT to be learned before you can do that without looking foolish (like me). So, look at enemy mechs for those that are damaged badly (internals in CT or LEGS are orange-red) and join in the focused-fire beatdown on those guys. If an enemy mech has only like 3% of its armor left, but has a weapon that can hit your friendlies, he's at least somewhat combat effective. If he's dead, he can have all the armor he wants--more salvage, more C-Bill payout for the victory. Be a VULTURE. For now, Take shots when you can, take damage never, stick to the pack, and stay OUT of friendly lanes of fire!
6.) I say again, STAY OUT OF FRIENDLY LANES OF FIRE! For the love of Kerensky, dudes, do NOT Step out in front of a friendly that's firing at an enemy (or even appears to be lining up the shot). Team damage, whether intentional or not, costs you in this game. And whether the shot hits that DireWhale right in the cockpit, or it hits that friendly Arctic Cheetah in the back and shreds his engine in one shot, it still cost a round of ammunition that your pal CAN NOT get back. Or it costs heat, that he now has to dissipate before he can try to line up another shot. CONCEPT: Firing LINES. Mechs are arranged in BREADTH, not necessarily DEPTH, and focus their fires on a group of enemy mechs from (effectively) multiple angles and ranges.
6.A.) Related to 6.) above, DO NOT butt-hump other mechs. If the mech in front of you rounds a corner or crests a ridge, and immediately spots an enemy Steiner recon lance (MW joke- four Atlases), he's gonna go full-throttle reverse ten times in ten. That's 100% of the time, for the mathematically challenged. If you're keeping a tight 20 meter interval, then you and the mech in front of you will collide. THIS CAUSES DAMAGE TO BOTH OF YOU! Being in a squishy light mech, and winding up losing half of your already-weak leg armor to a collision with a friendly before you ever even SEE the enemy, is pretty frustrating. (NOTE: I've done this before, probably many times, and to my former allies, I apologize PROFUSELY for this.) Keep a good interval. An interval that you can close to being shoulder-to-shoulder in about 3 seconds. And always know which way you go if the mech in front of you comes to a sudden halt (left? right? back home to mama?).
6.B.) Also related, stay aware of your Jump Jet capability. If you've got 'em, remember that they are a VERY valuable maneuver tool, and one that has saved my mech more times than I care to remember (most recently, against a Whale in a Cheeter, BARELY scraping out the last kill 1v1 by leapfrogging him, a kill of which I am rather proud). Don't land on your buddies, as this will damage you both (but landing a jump on an enemy mech's head is pretty awesome, especially if it results in a kill, which I've never yet pulled off). They can be tapped to tighten your turning radius. They can get you out of sticky situations in a hurry. Learn 'em.
7.) Unless you're playing an LRM boat, DO NOT shoot over your friendlies' heads. This goes along with the above, in picking fire lanes. The guy in front MAY also have JJs, or he MAY be coming up a hill, or you MAY be coming DOWN a hill, etc. Friendlies don't appreciate having their back armor stripped by other friendlies. Murphy's Laws of Combat say, among other things, that there is no such thing as 'friendly fire'. That's SO true.
8.) KNOW YOUR F***ING ROLE! I can't stress this enough. Here are the common ones for newb mechwarriors, by mech weight class:
-Light: Scouting, Squirrel chaser
-Medium: Squirrel chaser, Brawler
-Heavy: Fire support, Brawler
-Assault: Any kind of fighting it chooses to do, which does not require SPEED
9.) Know your maps. Testing Grounds is free. Ammo spent there costs nothing. Consumables used there are replaced for free. Nothing there affects your KDR or W/L. So go nuts. EVERY map in the real game, 12-man or CW, is available in Testing Grounds. USE IT. Smurfy has a good tool with all the maps and their spawns (including turrets, generators, etc. for CW maps) for different game modes. Reference the Smurfy map, drop into Testing Grounds on that map, and run around for an hour. Find all the best routes from spawn-to-spawn for your PUG maps. Figure out if you CAN vault the gate in your mech, and how best to attach the generators while exposing yourself to the least area of defenders' position. Have an idea of what you're doing before you ever enter the drop for real. Also...
10.) KNOW YOUR F***ING MECH! How many aplhas can you fire with that 6x cSPL ACH you're driving, before it overheats? On Alpine Peaks? On Caustic Valley or Mordor (Terra Therma, for the uninitiated)? How about while jumping a lot (which you probably should be doing if you're going to alpha more than once)? Figure out what you can get away with, heat-wise. Go into mechlab and pull out all your extra heat sinks, then try the hot maps again. WHY? Because heat sinks can be damaged in a fight, and you want to know and recognize when you're down a sink or two, and know what that does to your firing limits for heat. THAT'S WHY!
11.) CONFIGURE YOUR CONTROLS ACCORDING TO YOU, not according to someone in another country that you've never visited, whom you will never meet, and about whom you know ALMOST nothing at all. ;-)
12.) (I know there has been some other good advice that deserves a number, but no one GAVE any of it a number, so here we go!) EVERYTHING ADDS HEAT! Three general groups of activities (SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!) you should be aware of:
You can figure all this out in the Testing Grounds, by the way.
13.) LEARN YOUR MECH'S HANDLING, YO! Look, great race car drivers don't just hop in a new, different car, and go hauling tail around the track, setting records and dropping panties. They spend a TON of time practicing in that car, CAREFULLY, learning everything there is to know about it, having their crew tweak this and that to get it JUST RIGHT. A tiny bit more spark advance here, a little less spring rate there, over and over and over until the car is as ideally suited to the driver as possible. One size does NOT fit all. So, be glad you don't have to do all the work tweaking the actuators' timing in a 100-ton death machine. You just have to learn what it CAN and CANNOT do.
And back to the first reply...
14.) CONFIGURE YOUR CONTROLS! You need this to all be intuitive for you. Not for ME, not for anyone else, but for YOU. Whatever that means, do it. If you want the spacebar to fire an alpha strike, then go customize that key binding and make it happen. Don't ever use MASC? Then don't feel bad for leaving MASC unbound. You don't NEED it, per se.
15.) KNOW THE MECHS! Where are the weapon hardpoints on a given mech? What's the difference between a LCT-3M and -3S? Which weapons are likely to be WHERE in that mech? What's the max armor for a given location on a mech? How big are the hitboxes (hint: on the JM6, they're ENORMOUS)?
16.) When scouting (Damn the numbers):
-YOUR JOB is to provide information. INFORMATION! Opinions are cool, bruh, but save 'em for the after-action review (AAR). When moving to contact, or IN contact, keep it concise. Try to think in terms of what your teammates are up to, what they're wondering, what they'd most need to know about what you see.
17.) Thanks to Fenrisulvyn (forgive if I misspelled, I'll edit it) for this one! SPECTATE LIKE A MU' FU'!
Other experienced MWO players will no doubt add their own advice, pick apart my own, question the validity of my existence, condemn my mother, ridicule my tiny e-peen, and so on. It is the way of the internet. As with ANY advice you've ever read online, take it with a grain of salt. And know that for every well-intended poster, there will be at least ten trolls. I don't make the rules.
Corollary to the above, there will ALWAYS be helpful souls around, too, to shepherd us. MANY THANKS TO THEM! Special shout out to IraqiWalker for laying down the basic tags for formatting the post. It should be a bit more concise and readable now. I'm trying now to keep just a few sentences out front, and the rest under a spoiler tag, in order to keep this from scrolling your browsers into oblivion.
ALSO, and this is VERY important, this is intended for the new player. If you have 300 matches under your belt, you've MASTERED a mech, you were around in closed beta, etc., this is probably not going to be much help to you. Feel free to read anyhow, offer feedback, add your own suggestions to the new players, and especially, if you're a new player, to ask for further explanation of anything that doesn't seem right to you. PLEASE! Believe it or not, that type of information exchange is what internet forums were originally envisioned to facilitate! (Crazy talk, I know.)
Much love, all!
Now, GO FORTH and be less newb-like!
I suck at this game. Still enjoy the crap out of it, though. But name your rookie mistake, and I've made it (maybe even in the last week). I'm here today to name a few things you should or shouldn't do, in order to be a little more useful to your team while you learn your way around the game. This is based on me sucking at some of these things, and at least having sucked badly at others before. In no special order then:
1.) Know and stick to your role. If you're in a Locust, then going toe-to-toe with an Atlas (even if it IS almost cored and down to one ML) is not likely to end well for you. Likewise...
2.) DO NOT chase the squirrel! Unless you are a squirrel hunter, of course. If you're new, then you're NOT a squirrel hunter. At most, shoot off something heavy at the little guy to remind him that you are higher on the food chain, and let your team's lights and hunters deal with the nuisance. MANY a heavy mech pilot has been lured to his death by the siren song of the squishy little Commando. Squirrels are not your monkeys, and hunting them is NOT your circus. Most likely.
3.) KNOW YOUR ROLE! So, if you ARE in a light mech, then maybe running the squirrel off from your pals IS your business. That is, if you're timid like me and not immediately running out to BE the squirrel. In that case, make yourself useful and run him off. BE CAREFUL with squirrel hunting, though. A favorite tactic of squirrels is to lure an unsuspecting HBK or CN9 into the midst of a pack of 3-4 squirrels, behind 2 forms of cover and at least 600 meters off from the nearest support. Can you say, "Death Sentence"?
4.) Dying isn't the worst thing that can happen.
Spoiler
5.) Being a vulture is good enough for you right now. It's nice to throw down and contribute directly to the brawl, but there's a LOT to be learned before you can do that without looking foolish (like me). So, look at enemy mechs for those that are damaged badly (internals in CT or LEGS are orange-red) and join in the focused-fire beatdown on those guys. If an enemy mech has only like 3% of its armor left, but has a weapon that can hit your friendlies, he's at least somewhat combat effective. If he's dead, he can have all the armor he wants--more salvage, more C-Bill payout for the victory. Be a VULTURE. For now, Take shots when you can, take damage never, stick to the pack, and stay OUT of friendly lanes of fire!
6.) I say again, STAY OUT OF FRIENDLY LANES OF FIRE! For the love of Kerensky, dudes, do NOT Step out in front of a friendly that's firing at an enemy (or even appears to be lining up the shot). Team damage, whether intentional or not, costs you in this game. And whether the shot hits that DireWhale right in the cockpit, or it hits that friendly Arctic Cheetah in the back and shreds his engine in one shot, it still cost a round of ammunition that your pal CAN NOT get back. Or it costs heat, that he now has to dissipate before he can try to line up another shot. CONCEPT: Firing LINES. Mechs are arranged in BREADTH, not necessarily DEPTH, and focus their fires on a group of enemy mechs from (effectively) multiple angles and ranges.
6.A.) Related to 6.) above, DO NOT butt-hump other mechs. If the mech in front of you rounds a corner or crests a ridge, and immediately spots an enemy Steiner recon lance (MW joke- four Atlases), he's gonna go full-throttle reverse ten times in ten. That's 100% of the time, for the mathematically challenged. If you're keeping a tight 20 meter interval, then you and the mech in front of you will collide. THIS CAUSES DAMAGE TO BOTH OF YOU! Being in a squishy light mech, and winding up losing half of your already-weak leg armor to a collision with a friendly before you ever even SEE the enemy, is pretty frustrating. (NOTE: I've done this before, probably many times, and to my former allies, I apologize PROFUSELY for this.) Keep a good interval. An interval that you can close to being shoulder-to-shoulder in about 3 seconds. And always know which way you go if the mech in front of you comes to a sudden halt (left? right? back home to mama?).
6.B.) Also related, stay aware of your Jump Jet capability. If you've got 'em, remember that they are a VERY valuable maneuver tool, and one that has saved my mech more times than I care to remember (most recently, against a Whale in a Cheeter, BARELY scraping out the last kill 1v1 by leapfrogging him, a kill of which I am rather proud). Don't land on your buddies, as this will damage you both (but landing a jump on an enemy mech's head is pretty awesome, especially if it results in a kill, which I've never yet pulled off). They can be tapped to tighten your turning radius. They can get you out of sticky situations in a hurry. Learn 'em.
7.) Unless you're playing an LRM boat, DO NOT shoot over your friendlies' heads. This goes along with the above, in picking fire lanes. The guy in front MAY also have JJs, or he MAY be coming up a hill, or you MAY be coming DOWN a hill, etc. Friendlies don't appreciate having their back armor stripped by other friendlies. Murphy's Laws of Combat say, among other things, that there is no such thing as 'friendly fire'. That's SO true.
8.) KNOW YOUR F***ING ROLE! I can't stress this enough. Here are the common ones for newb mechwarriors, by mech weight class:
-Light: Scouting, Squirrel chaser
-Medium: Squirrel chaser, Brawler
-Heavy: Fire support, Brawler
-Assault: Any kind of fighting it chooses to do, which does not require SPEED
Spoiler
9.) Know your maps. Testing Grounds is free. Ammo spent there costs nothing. Consumables used there are replaced for free. Nothing there affects your KDR or W/L. So go nuts. EVERY map in the real game, 12-man or CW, is available in Testing Grounds. USE IT. Smurfy has a good tool with all the maps and their spawns (including turrets, generators, etc. for CW maps) for different game modes. Reference the Smurfy map, drop into Testing Grounds on that map, and run around for an hour. Find all the best routes from spawn-to-spawn for your PUG maps. Figure out if you CAN vault the gate in your mech, and how best to attach the generators while exposing yourself to the least area of defenders' position. Have an idea of what you're doing before you ever enter the drop for real. Also...
10.) KNOW YOUR F***ING MECH! How many aplhas can you fire with that 6x cSPL ACH you're driving, before it overheats? On Alpine Peaks? On Caustic Valley or Mordor (Terra Therma, for the uninitiated)? How about while jumping a lot (which you probably should be doing if you're going to alpha more than once)? Figure out what you can get away with, heat-wise. Go into mechlab and pull out all your extra heat sinks, then try the hot maps again. WHY? Because heat sinks can be damaged in a fight, and you want to know and recognize when you're down a sink or two, and know what that does to your firing limits for heat. THAT'S WHY!
Spoiler
11.) CONFIGURE YOUR CONTROLS ACCORDING TO YOU, not according to someone in another country that you've never visited, whom you will never meet, and about whom you know ALMOST nothing at all. ;-)
12.) (I know there has been some other good advice that deserves a number, but no one GAVE any of it a number, so here we go!) EVERYTHING ADDS HEAT! Three general groups of activities (SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!) you should be aware of:
Spoiler
You can figure all this out in the Testing Grounds, by the way.
13.) LEARN YOUR MECH'S HANDLING, YO! Look, great race car drivers don't just hop in a new, different car, and go hauling tail around the track, setting records and dropping panties. They spend a TON of time practicing in that car, CAREFULLY, learning everything there is to know about it, having their crew tweak this and that to get it JUST RIGHT. A tiny bit more spark advance here, a little less spring rate there, over and over and over until the car is as ideally suited to the driver as possible. One size does NOT fit all. So, be glad you don't have to do all the work tweaking the actuators' timing in a 100-ton death machine. You just have to learn what it CAN and CANNOT do.
Spoiler
And back to the first reply...
14.) CONFIGURE YOUR CONTROLS! You need this to all be intuitive for you. Not for ME, not for anyone else, but for YOU. Whatever that means, do it. If you want the spacebar to fire an alpha strike, then go customize that key binding and make it happen. Don't ever use MASC? Then don't feel bad for leaving MASC unbound. You don't NEED it, per se.
Spoiler
15.) KNOW THE MECHS! Where are the weapon hardpoints on a given mech? What's the difference between a LCT-3M and -3S? Which weapons are likely to be WHERE in that mech? What's the max armor for a given location on a mech? How big are the hitboxes (hint: on the JM6, they're ENORMOUS)?
Spoiler
16.) When scouting (
-YOUR JOB is to provide information. INFORMATION! Opinions are cool, bruh, but save 'em for the after-action review (AAR). When moving to contact, or IN contact, keep it concise. Try to think in terms of what your teammates are up to, what they're wondering, what they'd most need to know about what you see.
Spoiler
17.) Thanks to Fenrisulvyn (forgive if I misspelled, I'll edit it) for this one! SPECTATE LIKE A MU' FU'!
Spoiler
Other experienced MWO players will no doubt add their own advice, pick apart my own, question the validity of my existence, condemn my mother, ridicule my tiny e-peen, and so on. It is the way of the internet. As with ANY advice you've ever read online, take it with a grain of salt. And know that for every well-intended poster, there will be at least ten trolls. I don't make the rules.
Corollary to the above, there will ALWAYS be helpful souls around, too, to shepherd us. MANY THANKS TO THEM! Special shout out to IraqiWalker for laying down the basic tags for formatting the post. It should be a bit more concise and readable now. I'm trying now to keep just a few sentences out front, and the rest under a spoiler tag, in order to keep this from scrolling your browsers into oblivion.
ALSO, and this is VERY important, this is intended for the new player. If you have 300 matches under your belt, you've MASTERED a mech, you were around in closed beta, etc., this is probably not going to be much help to you. Feel free to read anyhow, offer feedback, add your own suggestions to the new players, and especially, if you're a new player, to ask for further explanation of anything that doesn't seem right to you. PLEASE! Believe it or not, that type of information exchange is what internet forums were originally envisioned to facilitate! (Crazy talk, I know.)
Much love, all!
Now, GO FORTH and be less newb-like!
Thank you. That is all.
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