22 replies to this topic

[Colin Thrase]

Good evening

I wanted to post some info for those players considering standard PPCs on their builds. I frequently hear a couple of incorrect assertions about PPCs during games (often by those arm-chair experts who died first during the match, or by players who include a capital 'X' or two within their name), and while I usually don't pay it much attention, earlier today I saw another player reply with 'I didn't know that'. I'd rather not have other players misinformed.

1. PPCs don't do any damage under 90 (I've been told this by several spectators over the past couple of months).

Incorrect. I have been able to confirm that PPCs do damage under 90, however they do reduced damage. I have gone 1 on 1 with a commando who sneaked around behind me, both of us starting at 100%, and managed to take him down using only PPCs with every shot under 90m. I would advise careful pacing of shots in order not to overheat; otherwise he'll target your cockpit while you're shut down. Expect to lose a fair amount of armor. I find many light pilots use the 'circle your opponent' strategy, and this works in your favor. Hit full reverse on your throttle and rotate with him. Keep target pointer about 1.5cm ahead of him (adjust for your monitor size). If all he does is circle, you'll find the sweet spot soon enough. Aim at legs. After he's legged, you can aim pretty well at center of mass. 2nd option - walk backwards down a hillside - you'll slide and gain distance quickly, so you may be able to get a higher-damage shot before he follows you down the hill.

2. PPCs don't do damage over 540 (their listed range), or do 'almost no damage'. (also told by spectators)

Incorrect. I can confirm damage at least up to 1,000. I suspect the actual range to be 1,080, since the would be double the listed range, but so far no opponent has been courteous enough to hold still at 1,080 to confirm. When I say confirmed damage, I mean cross-hairs turn red (indicating hit), paper-doll flashes (indicating location), and depending on circumstance, 'component destroyed' or 'has killed' results.

I'm not a fantastic player (my tournament rank is currently 406 on assault class, and 100% of those matches were with the same PPC build), but I have still picked up a few things over time and I'd like to offer some tips for snipers:

* Get a mouse with +/- buttons next to the scroll wheel. These adjust your sensitivity. Press '-' until it's as slow moving as possible. This will help your aim.

* Targeting ('R') is great for your companions, but after a recent software patch the game now tells your opponent when they're targeted. I now find that players get behind cover when they realize they are targeted, and hence you don't get your shot in. I suggest a full salvo of your PPC and other long range weapons prior to hitting 'R' - that way they don't dodge your first shot.

* Focus fire is generally the best strategy while on a team, but if you're a sniper, try to land a shot on any enemy mech within line of site as they come in to view. Every one of them that ducks behind a building is one less that's shooting at your or your buddies (and therefore it prevents them from using the 'focus fire' strategy against your team). Just keep in mind that you're now their #1 target when they peek out again, so you may need to watch more closely for them. Call out locations to your team mates, since you can't target them once they're behind cover.

* Check this link for hit box locations. I hadn't realized this resource was out there until recently, but it's helped my kill ratios immensely. Also keep in mind your target's likely weapon locations. With some mechs the weapons are spread out, so you're better off going for center of mass. With others, they're "right-heavy", so aim at the right torso and they won't be a threat anymore.

* Target precedence: Sometimes I find myself against 2 snipers, but you can still come out ahead. Switch to thermal view so that you can determine which one is running cool. That's the guy with ammo-fed weapons, and he's likely to have the higher rate of fire. Take him out first since he's likely to have more DPS. Don't forget to give the other guy a shot now and then, just to keep him under cover.

* When I spectate, I often suspect there are other players who either don't know how to map weapons groups, or haven't given much thought to it. You can configure weapon groups with the arrow keys (to select a weapon) and right-ctrl key (to turn it on/off in that group). If you're a sniper, I recommend setting your left-mouse as group 1/left hand weapons, right-mouse as group 2/right hand weapons, with both left and right buttons on chain fire (press backspace on that weapon group). If you have 2 PPCs on each arm, that means you can pace your shots one at a time, and when you're peeking around corners it's intuitive which mouse button to use (since one arm can shoot and the other will just hit the building). Set mouse 3 to be your alpha strike button.

* Yes, ER PPCs have longer range, but the damage is similar, and they generate more heat so you'll have to pace your shots more slowly. I used to use ER PPCs, but found the extra range wasn't necessary (rarely did I need to shoot beyond 1,000, and once I made a team kill because the red/blue triangles don't even show past 1,000 range and I didn't realize he was friendly). Granted, they don't have minimum range like regular PPCs do, but if my opponent is within 90, I'd rather keep up a steady pace of PPC fire so that I can adjust my aim and keep their cockpit shaking, than a slower pace with ER PPCs with higher likelihood of overheating.

I know, TL:DR, but I'm hoping it's informative for those patient enough to read it. If that doesn't describe you, then you probably aren't a sniper anyway.

[Vapor Trail]

Max range is double optimum range for PPCs, same for all energy weapons. So you are correct.

[Xenois Shalashaska]

I caused damage to a player at 1700m with Ultra ac5. but beyond effective recommended ranges. the damage is a chicken scratch.

[Lynx7725]

The thing about effective range is that you can still inflict damage beyond that, but it drops off until zero when it goes beyond the max range.

So, a PPC is 540/1080, an ER PPC is 810/1620. So at 550~800m, the ER PPC is doing more damage than a PPC, and that engagement range is (1) possible in non-Alpine maps, and (2) common in Alpine and likely upcoming big maps. Beyond 800, ER PPC is still doing more damage.

I've personally sniped a Trebuchet on Alpine with an ER PPC and scored 4 damage (the only 4 damage I did the entire match; first Alpine fight and won by base cap), so such engagements at that range is not only likely, but likely common on Alpine. Upcoming maps are known to be big, so the longer range will become more useful as we go along.

[SpiralRazor]

Frankly, your spectators sound rtarded. Why do you even bother to listen to them anyway? 90% of the people playing have no idea what anything does anyway.

[Alex Rahkena]

I found it a good read

[DrSecretStache]

I remember in one game, I was in a COM with a erppc wailing on an enemy heavy, and some guy was saying "hey, you do know that those have a minimum range, right?" It took me a couple times of saying that "erppcs don't" to get him to say "REALLY?"

Thank you OP. it worries me when people play uninformed of game mechanics.

[Dr Killinger]

The amount of times I've been yelled at because "PPCs do no damage below 90m" is infuriating.

Edited by Dr Killinger, 24 February 2013 - 10:40 PM.

[MustrumRidcully]

Vapor Trail, on 24 February 2013 - 09:21 PM, said:

Max range is double optimum range for PPCs, same for all energy weapons. So you are correct.

Though at 1080, the damage should indeed be 0. If there are really only targets beyond 540 to 1000m, it makes sense firing PPCs, unless you are trying to be sneaky. If you shoot at enemies, you disable ECM these days (I really need to get on an ECM mech and see how that feels), and even regular enemies will get a bit nervous if they see PPC fire getting closer or hitting them. (And if your paper doll flashes ,you don't know if it was because of a 0.04 damage MG shot or a 20 damage AC/20 shot at first.)

[Colin Thrase]

SpiralRazor, on 24 February 2013 - 09:48 PM, said:

Frankly, your spectators sound rtarded. Why do you even bother to listen to them anyway? 90% of the people playing have no idea what anything does anyway.

I can't help it - I'm always watching chat. I like to answer questions new players post in chat. This post is really just an attempt to improve on that 90%, if in fact it's that bad, since I figure it will have a larger audience than the 15 other players in a standard match.

[Kaspirikay]

I keep saying they need to seperate live chat from dead chat.

[Tickdoff Tank]

Kaspirikay, on 25 February 2013 - 04:33 PM, said:

I keep saying they need to seperate live chat from dead chat.

And give yet another advantage to people on voice chat that would be denied to those who aren't?

[Kyone Akashi]

Nicely written, OP. Much is common sense, but other things are helpful advice I've not heard before (including the hitbox link).

I've recently switched to a CN9-AL with a PPC - tried the ER PPC first, but found it running too hot. The normal cannon is perfectly sufficient, and I find it great fun to use.

So, domo arigato for posting this guide.

[Kaspirikay]

Tickdoff Tank, on 25 February 2013 - 04:36 PM, said:

And give yet another advantage to people on voice chat that would be denied to those who aren't?

How is it an advantage if you can only spectate your own teammates?

[MustrumRidcully]

Kaspirikay, on 25 February 2013 - 04:41 PM, said:

How is it an advantage if you can only spectate your own teammates?

The difference is:
People with voice chat spectate their team mates and can chat with them via voice chat.
People with ingame text chat only spectate their team mates and can't tell them anything.

So no special "dead man" chat, please. The spectation limitations are reasonable. But there is no need to limit ingame text chat here. In fact, I'd go even so far that in a game without respawns, having at least the option to play helpful ghost is something not just to keep you busy, it also allows to make the loss of a team member not quite as serious. A game without respawns will make recovering from losses and turning a battle around always very difficult.

Of course, in the average PUG match, you can't expect much to gain...

[armyof1]

As a frequent user of PPCs on my Dragon I also get these team texts that tell me I'm wasting heat shooting PPCs that won't do anything under 90m. But I think a lof of that is due to a misleading description where it says it has a minimum range of 90m, when it reality it goes under the optimum range when under 90m. When I read the description the first time I also thought it meant PPC would do zero damage under 90m, it's only later when reading in forums and looking at weapon DPS diagrams at smurfy I realized that wasn't true at all. That is something the devs need to address so even players only going by the in-game mechlab can understand how the PPCs work.

[xRatas]

Anyway, there is no point using PPCs under 90m, if you're able to move further.

I often see PPC mechs to charge in and do suboptimal damage, when they could easily keep 90m+ to their target.

While my x is not capital, I do inform people about the issue, when I see it. Although I never say they do no damage, I say you could do more damage. Anyway, most likely I once tried to help you, while spectating. At least I recall watching two-part pilot name kurita K2 with PPCs to fight some assault from 50 meters, when he could have easily widen the cap to 90m.

[Ralgas]

must say i still prefer my er's as a sniper for 2 reasons.

1) still doing over 75% of effective dam @1000m. This means that anyone short of another sniper really has to duck when los targeting me (one of the roles i enjoy is as lrm suppression from their max range!!). the dmg drop off from effective to max is linear btw based on range of target

2) clutch brawling does happen. Had a match where i was forced to engage a conquest 4v2 battle on top of our base to win. Managed to score all 4 kills and only 1 shot was take >90m. Getting range would have meant letting them cap win

[Zrave]

PPCs do linearly decreasing damage from 540 to 1080 meters. So at 810 meters it hits for 5, while an ERPPC would hit for 10.

The same applies from 90 to 0 meters, so at 45 meters a PPC hits for 5.

If you're a good sniper that can hit at extreme distances, the ERPPC is amazing, especially on the Alpine map.

[Satan n stuff]

Xenois Shalashaska, on 24 February 2013 - 09:31 PM, said:

I caused damage to a player at 1700m with Ultra ac5. but beyond effective recommended ranges. the damage is a chicken scratch.

The max range of ballistic weapons is triple the listed effective range. ( For missiles the max range is the same as the optimal range. )

anyway it's nice to see someone who actually gets his facts right, you wouldn't believe the amount of nonsense you hear and see on ts, ingame chat and the forums, makes you wonder if certain people have even played the game.