27 replies to this topic

[Marik Steele]

I just had a round where a teammate suggested setting up an ambush, so I tried to hide by powering down the mech. A friendly (<name removed per suggestion by another forum member that mentioning him is a violation of the TOS>) came up and alpha-struck me in the face. Before I could finish powering back up, he did another alpha strike to the face and I was destroyed. Shortly after he was disconnected (either manually out of guilt or automatically as punishment, I can't tell).

If there's no hint that I was a friendly, I can hardly blame him. Makes me wonder what I would've thought about the shut-down-mech if I was in his shoes. What's the indication (if any) that a shut-down mech is a friendly?

Edited by Marik Steele, 02 March 2013 - 06:05 PM.

[Sterlo]

+1

[darkkterror]

There is no indication that a shut down Mech is friendly. You simply see a Mech. You get no targeting info at all.

[TheGreatNoNo]

Indeed. But BAP does detect powered down mechs, but I have never used it myself since it weights 1.5 tons and takes up a crit and is rarely of any use, so I do not know the extent of the info it gives.

[Koniving]

This is why you will see 4-man and 8-man premades using color coded 'Mechs. This helps to keep mistakes from happening. Sharing your plan with your team through text is also a good idea if playing with pugs.

Note: Disconnect may be out of guilt or an issue with the game. Or possibly to avoid the 'fee'. It is very expensive to kill a team mate.

Edited by Koniving, 24 February 2013 - 02:07 PM.

[CmdrPoopyPants]

The game doesn't kick you for team killing.. And I was in a simlar situation as yours, I shut down to drop an LRM lock I had.. a teammate rounded the corner and started opening up on me and I powered up.. I had no problem with the first few shots because I was powered down.. but after I was fully -and saw his friendly tag-, he kept shooting and shooting.. so, I blew him up. I don't know if he was intentionally trying to ******* up, if his HUD was broken, or what, but I was fully up and there was no excuse for him to not notice I was a teammate. Moral of that story is, don't intentionally fire on teamates when they're in splat cats.. you'll likely regret it.

Oh, and Koniving, I doubt dropping after a TK saves you from the penalty. In fact, it makes things worse because if you're not dead, you only get rewarded (and punished) for what you did up to when you dropped. If he was dead, then the punishment would be lessened from greater rewards from a full match.. or living to the end and getting more rewards to offset the penalties that way. But dropping to avoid them? ... that -better not- work.. lol

[Redshift2k5]

Thisi s one of the facets of realism that are in-game due to the sim-like environment. They intentionally obscure which team a powered down mech is on, you can wait for them to power up or you can communicate with your team.

[CmdrPoopyPants]

Redshift2k5, on 24 February 2013 - 03:09 PM, said:

Thisi s one of the facets of realism that are in-game due to the sim-like environment. They intentionally obscure which team a powered down mech is on, you can wait for them to power up or you can communicate with your team.

Rule of thumb for me is, if I see it go down and -know- it's an enemy, I blast it till it falls over.. but if I stumble on a mech that's down, I just wait till it comes up.. It's not worth risking blowing up a teammate that you kind of need to win. If it's down and won't come up, I check the roster and see how many of my team is alive, and count up my blue triangles.. if they match, that mech dies.. but I've only had to do that once for someone that was hiding..

[Iseul]

Koniving, on 24 February 2013 - 02:06 PM, said:

This is why you will see 4-man and 8-man premades using color coded 'Mechs. This helps to keep mistakes from happening. Sharing your plan with your team through text is also a good idea if playing with pugs.

Note: Disconnect may be out of guilt or an issue with the game. Or possibly to avoid the 'fee'. It is very expensive to kill a team mate.

As Koni mentioned. We run with color coded mechs.

Need to ask. What do you mean the Fee is expensive? I mistakenly killed a team mate in crossfire once. I believe the fee was 10,000 cbills?

[Marik Steele]

Redshift2k5, on 24 February 2013 - 03:09 PM, said:

Thisi s one of the facets of realism that are in-game due to the sim-like environment. They intentionally obscure which team a powered down mech is on, you can wait for them to power up or you can communicate with your team.

Part of me understands this. And likes it. The other part of me recognizes that although I wasn't so frustrated with the other player (like I said, I can forgive a mistake with an easily-seen cause) I *was* frustrated by the fact that my mech's destruction plus his disconnection meant our team was down 2 mechs within a minute of match start, and my favorite mech back at the main menu was then locked away "in a match" for a good while afterwards with that much lower a chance of any match-winner-rewards as a consolation prize.

[Koniving]

Iseul, on 24 February 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

As Koni mentioned. We run with color coded mechs.

Need to ask. What do you mean the Fee is expensive? I mistakenly killed a team mate in crossfire once. I believe the fee was 10,000 cbills?

That's quite a hit to newer players that don't have premium or to anyone trying to save up to get a new mech. It isn't so bad when the fault is with you. However when I'm hit with it, it's because some light decided to run in front of me while I'm engaged with someone. They're so fragile.

Bang, bang, bang, (OMG I wanna steal your ki--) BOOM!

Oops. "You're fined 10,000 cbills and you're a horrible person!"

Ah crap.

Edited by Koniving, 24 February 2013 - 04:09 PM.

[CmdrPoopyPants]

Koniving, on 24 February 2013 - 04:08 PM, said:

Bang, bang, bang, (OMG I wanna steal your ki--) BOOM!

Oops. "You're fined 10,000 cbills and you're a horrible person!"

Ah crap.

It's worse when you're LRM boating and you don't realize until after the match that you got a TK.. Note to brawlers.. when you see that commet icon pop up on what you're standing next to.. move.

[JediPanther]

Last time I had a tk due to ff the penalty was a high amount of cb and a negative 150 xp showing up on the tk count as -150xp which depending on the match is all or most of the xp. If you just got rolled by pugs/group that's even worse since a losing match is just 100 xp. That doesn't really matter. What really matters is if they reported you to pgi as a tk'er and there is no way to find out unless pgi does something to you which has never happened to me so far as I try to just stick to playing this awesome game and do whatever I can to avoid the ban hammer.

[Watchit]

From what I've heard/read the occasional TK'er isn't punished beyond the cbill and xp fine. It's mostly based on a repeat offender, early match, reported often kinda thing. In fact sometimes TK'ing is unavoidable like in the OP's case, and there's nothing wrong with that.

In fact one time I was shooting into a brawl, and while I did kill the enemy mech, I also killed my teammate who was fighting him. That was just the price of being careless.

[Deathlike]

If the mech that is shutdown is unique and not a member of your team... it would be safe. However, that would require you to kinda memorize what mechs are on your team (7 for now, 11 in the near future).

[Ranulf Magnusson]

Oh my , TK...

I drive a lightweight, so the chances are Im the Target, not the Killer.
So what ?

Of course, being shot at on a regular basis is all daily work to a MW, and I`d hate to lie around spectating all the time...
(oops, I do, but thats my job :-)

I suspect we all will see less TK as time goes by.
MWO stresses Teamplay as Part of the Game , and sooner or later even the worst Powergaming little Brat with poppas K K tends to realise where the best chances for laddering are.
So there will always be a few hardcore Slashplayers ?

Good. Fair gaime... we`ll TAG them. Sooner or later everything gets even...

Edited by Ranulf Magnusson, 26 February 2013 - 10:34 PM.

[Anony Mouse]

Does hitting the Q button help with this?

[Watchit]

Anony Mouse, on 26 February 2013 - 11:57 PM, said:

Does hitting the Q button help with this?

Nope, that only brings up the names and mechs of friendly units on your radar, and shut down mech's are not.

[Syllogy]

Beagle Active Probe can identify nearby shutdown mechs.

[Broceratops]

alpha them in the face and if there is a lot of complaining in chat afterwards it was a friendly mech