140 replies to this topic

[GerryP]

Awesome guide. Do PPC still build up heat on impact? It used to be like that in the MW old games, but that was not mentioned on the guide.

[Ningyo]

Excellent guide, really professionally done.

For your next pass some very minor possible changes. (and I might be wrong on some of these)

---on page 15 you say "mechbays or premium accounts" I believe in the game this is always referred to as premium time, though have not bought any so am not sure what its called at the buying stage?

---not sure if its worth changing, but on page 17 you did not mention maximum engine size as a limiting factor. The three you listed are more major in most ways, but this is definitely a fourth limitation.

---on page 19 I never saw a mention of engine heat sinks having 2.0 heat dissipation for double heatsinks, this is worth 6 more heat dissipation over the 1.4 rate on many engines so is a very significant bonus. (Oh see you mention this at the end of the engine section, think this should be primarily mentioned in the heatsink section though.)

---it might be good to note in the section on lasers and pulse lasers that heat does not start dissipating until after you finish firing. Many people do not realize this and it makes them far less heat efficient than they appear. (haven't used flamers since last patch so uncertain, but believe they have this same issue)
EDITED LATER "seems I might be wrong on this too, its seems most accurate to say their heat is handled strangely"

---not sure if it should be noted under ultra autocannons, but when they unjam after 4 seconds it fires the jammed round, this can still hit another mech (friendly or enemy so be careful on here you point your jammed weapon) Also this counts as a fire so if you fire again right after they unjam it can jam again on the first shot.

---machineguns. while this is said to be a crit seeking weapon and it does do extra crit damage, it is still one of the worst weapons for destroying critical components. This is because it has such low damage per shot it will evenly spread its critical damage across all components in that location, making it rarely destroy any. By far the best weapons for destroying criticals are ones that do 10 or more damage in a single fire as these will always destroy a component if they get a critical hit. (This is poor design by PGI mostly in my opinion) (AH see you covered this in criticals.)

---NARC does not stack with Artemis at least in descriptions, haven't tested this personally, but may wish to mention it Also a minor clarification it is destroyed by 35 damage to the mech it is on, not to itself.

---AMS will destroy 0-3 streak missiles it depends on range and timing at which the missiles are fired. A new player will be playing against mostly lower skill brackets though, and these players will often not have all there mech piloting skills yet which makes for slower turning and wider circles for the lights that normally use these. So at that level of play 1-2 streaks is most common.

---Jumpjets, Might want to note that these can allow for very fast turning, as beginning players often have trouble with lights circling them faster than they can turn.

---Critcals to ammo, I have heard though not personally tested that there is a 15% chance of it exploding when destroyed. I don't know if this is true or not but many people believe so. I noticed this was not mentioned and your guide seems to say it always explodes?
EDIT: "Rashhaverak: When a critical hit is landed on ammo, why is the chance for an ammo explosion only 10%?
A: Like most arbitrary values, this feels right currently. And like all arbitrary numbers, we tweak them occasionally to meet the design goals." from this weeks ask the devs lol

PS: Started this after reading first third. I did not remove comments even if later sections covered them as I feel it is still worth considering as some people won't read the entire thing, These are everything I could possibly find wrong with it,

AND OMG AWESOME GUIDE. This is really really well done, better than many professionally done guides that comes with games.

Edited by Ningyo, 02 July 2013 - 12:08 PM.

[Zanathan]

It's been said before but not enough IMO - mad props to you Wadde for such an awesome guide. It helped a few of my mates get into it easier without me having to hand hold them too much.

[WaddeHaddeDudeda]

Nope.
PPCs actually don't add heat to your target anymore.
No clue if they will change that at one day - but currently there are so many (more important) construction sites anyway.

Also thanks for your kind words guys!

Plus an even bigger thanks to you Ningyo. I'll give your points a shot (some, not all though) the next time I'm updating the guide. I haven't known for instance that there is only a 10 % chance that ammo explodes once it gets destroyed.
As for the DHS explanation: I get your point, but most likely will leave as is since my ultimate goal was to unravel everything slowly from the top to the bottom, so people can fluently read the same way, without stumbling upon something in the upper half of the guide which will be explained in the bottom half the very first time. For an absolute newbie it might be a case of "TMI" if they've never heard about HS, SHS and DHS in general, then get infos about how they work and ultimately getting finished with even more data and numbers.

But again: some very good points and I'll let you know which one I'll make use of the next time I find some time to do some updates. ^^

[PinkyAndTheBrain]

Thanks for the guide Wadde. Really helped me a ton with learning the ropes of piloting my Mech.

[Enigmos]

Good guide. I'd like to recommend a couple of tips, having made 3,148 kills (and 3,213 deaths) and 2,672 wins (and 2,352 losses) I'm seeing quite a few new pilots in drops, and many of them along with some vets make some bad mistakes.

1. Don't watch LRM missiles incoming. Watching them screaming down on you is in a way beautiful, but it directly exposes your cockpit where most mechs have least armor.

2. If you have LRM incoming try and evade them by getting out of the LRM boat's sight, hopefully losing missile-lock. Best if you also move laterally, to the side rather than directly away, because missiles that don't hit something move along the ground for a ways, directly away from the launcher.

3. If you cannot evade the missiles turn your side to them so they damage something, anything other than your face.

4. If you have a mech targeted and there is a missile boat pilot on your team try and hold that target lock as long as you can (without committing virtual suicide) because it takes time for his targeting to resolve in a firing solution. If you lose lock he will waste any missiles he fired and you will have that much less damaged an opponent to face.

Edited by OriginalTibs, 06 July 2013 - 07:19 AM.

[Sloejack]

Where are the instructions or guides for accessing the store? Seems ridiculous that after looking all over the client, and searching the various beginners guides that I can't even find how to spend MC which would seem like a pretty important thing you'd want people to understand and do.

[Dauphni]

OriginalTibs, on 06 July 2013 - 07:18 AM, said:

4. If you have a mech targeted and there is a missile boat pilot on your team try and hold that target lock as long as you can (without committing virtual suicide) because it takes time for his targeting to resolve in a firing solution. If you lose lock he will waste any missiles he fired and you will have that much less damaged an opponent to face.

This is especially important if you're actually trying to help instead of just running around aimlessly. It seems like the amount of people who know how to properly spot is vanishingly small. At the very least, keep a steady lock until you see the missile icon pop up on your target.

[Reod Daie]

So I'm fluent in Spanish. Would it be helpful to create a Spanish version of this material?

[Alaskan Nobody]

Reod Daie, on 16 July 2013 - 10:46 AM, said:

So I'm fluent in Spanish. Would it be helpful to create a Spanish version of this material?

Cannot think of why it would not.... >.>
Unless there is literally no Spanish speaking players -or those Spanish speakers are already familiar enough not to need it, but I cannot imagine that (assuming either of those to be true) it stays that way....

[WaddeHaddeDudeda]

Reod Daie, on 16 July 2013 - 10:46 AM, said:

So I'm fluent in Spanish. Would it be helpful to create a Spanish version of this material?

If you want to give it a spin.
We can hash out the details via PM. Just be aware: it's actually A LOT work.


EDIT:
Speaking of it: I'll throw in a revised version by the end of july.
Want to wait how the heat-penalty plays out (and probably gets changed) and then especially revamp the "my first mech" chapter.
So stay tuned!

Edited by WaddeHaddeDudeda, 16 July 2013 - 12:39 PM.

[KruczoCzarny]

I have nothing new to add about this guide (it's a fantastic work, really!), I just want to say that I was born after 1985 (to be concrete - 1988) and I was reading a lot of manuals and I still enjoy reading them ;P

So if you could be so kind, put there something more about 1990

[juxstapo]

<-- not a happy camper.

I read your guide start to finish, then promptly went and lost a game.

and another,

and another.

So I reread it. Five Times! And I am still losing every game!

To have everyone calling it such an "excellent" guide, why am I not winning?

Oh, and I deposited that $2000 in your paypal like you said, when will my hero mechs be here?

And seriously, when are you going to get those bugs fixed?

[Nimhlo]

In the My First Mech section page 40, it gives good mech designs, but where do i allocate the armor to? I know what areas need armor the most, but i cant make out the order of the armor for the mechs.

[KnightVision]

Why does my browser block download of the file, telling me it's unsafe?

[The Vagrant Imp]

Super duper awesome (in content and construction) guide, thanks so much. I haven't dabbled in BT / MW for ages and it was a great refresher as well as helping pick up those things that become second nature in MW:O after a short time.

The file is being marked as suspicious / unsafe on Rapidshare because of its listing on various malware sites (the site, not the document) - in particular whichever one MS Internet Explorer uses (SafeScreen I think?). I've flagged it as a safe file but that site is used to distribute so much dodgy stuff (as well as legit stuff) that it probably won't make much of a difference. That's why people are hesitant or unable to access it, in any case.

Edited by The Vagrant Imp, 15 August 2013 - 11:15 PM.

[WaddeHaddeDudeda]

Nimhlo, on 12 August 2013 - 05:08 PM, said:

In the My First Mech section page 40, it gives good mech designs, but where do i allocate the armor to? I know what areas need armor the most, but i cant make out the order of the armor for the mechs.

You gotta figure it out by yourself.
Do you need a complete breakdown? If so, I'll post it here.

If you just want a nudge into the right direction: torsos always max, while ~10ish points on the rear, rest to the front (except for lights -> slightly more rear armour).
Head can be stripped to ~12ish without problems, with the exception of the catapult (always use FULL head armour).
Legs CAN usually be gimped down a bit too. As for arms: if the arms are huge and can be used as a shield: armour them as much as you can. If they're small and no weapons are palced into them you can easily strip some of the armour too.

Hope this helps for now (as a quick solution)!


An updated version of the guide will be uploaded soon! (some of the suggested mech-configs are outdated by now due to numerous game changes)

KnightVision, on 13 August 2013 - 05:27 PM, said:

Why does my browser block download of the file, telling me it's unsafe?

Because of this:

The Vagrant Imp, on 15 August 2013 - 11:14 PM, said:

The file is being marked as suspicious / unsafe on Rapidshare because of its listing on various malware sites (the site, not the document) - in particular whichever one MS Internet Explorer uses (SafeScreen I think?). I've flagged it as a safe file but that site is used to distribute so much dodgy stuff (as well as legit stuff) that it probably won't make much of a difference. That's why people are hesitant or unable to access it, in any case.

If you have the chance, try another browser (MS IE = the most used and favourite browser in the whole world...to download other browsers ).

As stated: the document (and also the site) is safe, but people also load up every piece of crap on rapidshare (malware), so MS flagged it "bad".

Also thanks for the compliments!

Edited by WaddeHaddeDudeda, 18 August 2013 - 12:58 PM.

[scJazz]

Add a this isn't BAD comment at the beginning of OP plz!

[LAxalife]

Very nice guide, thank you for putting in the effort to bring ppl up to speed faster. I hope you have time to update it in the future as the game develops.

[PlatypusKnight]

Hi,

I just started playing MWO, but I am a BT and Mechwarrior fan from long ago. I was truly amazed at the absolute lack of any clear guidelines on how to get started, how time and gameplay worked, or a starting point with either front end or in game content for this MMO. In a market that competes with other large, established MMO, the lack of polish on the basics, of how to get into and enjoy a game that has such a rich potential, I almost didn' t come back.

I just wanted to say ' Thank You' for the nice beginner's guide. This should have been the first page of the developer's website, and the fact that it is not speaks volumes about where and why this game falls flat. The current format, even in beta, should have a better foundation, should be easier for newbie players to stay alive in, and have a better and more varied amount of gameplay for a product that goes 'live' in a little more than a month.

From what I have read so far on the forums, a large amount of the work that should be the responsibility of the software developer, publisher, and their employees, has fallen onto the shoulders of an passionate group of Battletech fans who are paying for the dubious honor of making more money for a software company.