13 replies to this topic

[Nighthawk GT]

I am getting frustrated to the point where I may just give up on this game.

It feels over and over again like my weapons are useless and my armor is tinfoil. In one match I had a K2 with 4 large lasers. I came over a hill and there was an atlas there, facing to the right and shooting at some allies.

I stood there spamming him with the large lasers for almost a full minute before he realized I was there and turned to shoot me. Mind you i'd been drilling him repeatedly and he wasnt' dead. he turns at me and two volleys later I go down. My "you're dead now" page tells me I did 402 damage. The only thing I shot that map was the atlas. wth?

Another match an enemy raven was afk. I was in a stalker with 2 er PPCs. It took 18 hits before the raven died. When i'm IN a raven, i die almost immediately when something shoots me.

Over and over again I plow jenners (the game tells me I'm hitting them b/c my reticle turns red); but they take a beating that would make an atlas cringe and don't die. And invariably, their 4 medium lasers rips down my heavy or assault mech before they die.

Seriously what the heck is going on. I average a 22-28 ping on most maps, I have a fast PC, but it feels like my weapons are toys and I have barely any armor.

[Monky]

Are you aiming for specific sections of the enemy, or just wherever? it's entirely possible to spray all around an Atlas and do nothing effective to it. I don't assume that's the case, but it would have to be without some exaggeration or faulty remembering of events.

[Kitane]

I'd say you are spreading your damage to multiple components, especially against lights.

Fast small mechs might appear more durable than Atlas, because they have multiple components packed in a small target area...shift your aim few pixels to the side and the damage will be applied against different armor value. Large mechs are much easier to hit in specific locations. That's why people aim for legs, it's easier to hit them and the damage is more consistent (one leg - one hit zone)

And don't ever stop in Catapult, that mech is ridiculously easy to headshot in 1-2 alphas.

[Nighthawk GT]

regarding that atlas situation, I wasn't moving, and he wasn't moving. All my shots went into the exact same point - and he didn't die. He shoots me twice and down I go. it wasn't a headshot either, my CT was black.

I try to leg the lights but they just seem to tiptoe through it and laugh my weapons off. Of course, if i'm IN a light, something so much as sees me one of my legs just falls right off.

Just got out of a match where I was pretty close to a raven that was tangling with another mech on my side. I shot it SIX times in the legs with 4 large lasers, saw the crosshair go red each time and saw its legs glow - but its leg didn't blow out until the other mech shot it with an autocannon.

Edited by Nighthawk GT, 03 May 2013 - 05:39 PM.

[Lootee]

I remember reading damage transfer from a destroyed component was only 50%. So if you were shooting say his left arm until it fell off, and then shooting his left torso until that blew up and kept shooting the left torso the CT would only take half that damage. Atlases have a ton of CT armor + internals and double that if you're transferring dmg through a side torso.

Legs are even worse. Blow off a leg and keep shooting it and half damage will transfer to the side torso. When the side torso goes 25% of your dmg will hit the center torso if you keep hitting the destroyed leg.

You could easily dump 300 pts of dmg into the same spot and if they don't have an XL engine you won't kill them.

Edited by PanchoTortilla, 03 May 2013 - 06:15 PM.

[One Medic Army]

Nighthawk GT, on 03 May 2013 - 05:30 PM, said:

regarding that atlas situation, I wasn't moving, and he wasn't moving. All my shots went into the exact same point - and he didn't die. He shoots me twice and down I go. it wasn't a headshot either, my CT was black.

I try to leg the lights but they just seem to tiptoe through it and laugh my weapons off. Of course, if i'm IN a light, something so much as sees me one of my legs just falls right off.

Just got out of a match where I was pretty close to a raven that was tangling with another mech on my side. I shot it SIX times in the legs with 4 large lasers, saw the crosshair go red each time and saw its legs glow - but its leg didn't blow out until the other mech shot it with an autocannon.

Just to confirm, but you are keeping your lasers on the leg for the full 1second beam duration?
The reticule will go red even if you just sweep your laser over a mech, but your damage is determined by how long the beam is hitting the target, and if it's not hitting the same spot the damage will spread.

[Nighthawk GT]

I'm trying to.. depending on how the light moves of course. I'd say that i'm getting at least half the burn time on target with a circling light.. 100% of the burn on slower mechs most of the time.

The only thing I can think of at this point is that i'm getting punished for having a low ping.. every incoming hit registers but not everything I send out does.

Either that or this is turning into "use an autocannon or suck" since the heat is so far out of whack.

[Team Leader]

Heck dude, I don't understand either. Sorry about this. I honestly wish I could help but there's no way to tell what's going on without a video or something, I don't know.

Edited by Team Leader, 03 May 2013 - 06:39 PM.

[Tex1013]

yeah, I'll agree with what several others have said. Lasers are not your best gauge of damage, as the continuous fire cycle means you run the risk of spreading each volley of damage across multiple locations, allowing your target to absorb tremendous amounts of damage without scoring a kill.

Mind you, Lasers are excellent weapons - but you really need to practice not hitting your target with the targeting reticle, but being able to move the targeting reticule across the target during the fire cycle so that you continue to pour your laser fire into the same location on the target, and that's not an early skill for most people.

Pulse lasers are a good middle ground - you still need to hit your target ,and now at considerably shorter ranges for more heat, but as their fire cycle is considerably shorter, you *tend* to get better overall accuracy out of them, because you have to hold the laser on the same target location for less time (it's a fraction of a second shorter, but that fraction makes a difference for some people)

The other option is to go the other direction, and pick up the larger ballistics (ac20's and gauss rifles) - It's usually a lot harder to hit with these, having to account for travel time for the round, but you'll do a TON more damage into whatever location you hit - This, I think, will be your best option to practice hitting the *same* location on a target mech over and over again with a high damage weapon.

The K2 is well known for managing a decent dual ac20 build, although I understand it's fairly vulnerable, which won't address your survival issues, but might still be good practice for dealing damage.

As for *taking* damage - this is a harder issue to deal with, but again, as mentioned above, one of the major keys to survival in MWO, is to force spreading damage across your entire body. The most basic tactic, is "torso rotation" - this means, when you've taken some decent damage to your right arm/right torso, you turn so that now your enemy is primarily to your left side, and start making him hit your leftarm/left torso - keep rotating this back and forth (and often, in the process of switching left/right, you'll end up taking damage to your CT, which also works) and nearly double your overall survivability

also, ESPECIALLY in a cat - spend as little time as possible facing directly into your enemy. Way I hear it, Cat's cockpit is a fairly easy to hit target...

that's all I've got initially - see if that helps

[Kaspirikay]

Well, the only consistent thing is you.



Huehuehueuhueheueh

[Nighthawk GT]

I'm running a stalker as well with two ER-PPCs. I believe these are treated like ballistics and do all their damage in one shot to one location. Even with them though, I've put ridiculous amounts of fire into things and they don't go into internals - but I take two hits from one and i'm red. Perhaps i'm getting hit by some guy boating 4 of them and it only looks like one is hitting me but... I dunno. That AFK raven that took 14 ER ppcs to the body before it died made me wonder if PPCs are even worth using anymore.

(And no it wasn't min range, he was about 700 m out and they are ERs)

Edited by Nighthawk GT, 03 May 2013 - 07:00 PM.

[One Medic Army]

My only suggestion is to pay attention to the damage readout on the upper right to see where (and if) your damage is registering.

[Silentium]

I pilot jenners, and I try very hard to spread damage. Any competent pilot will do the same, so it will seem like you aren't hurting them. The thing about jenners though is this: they are like little dragons, taking a crap ton of damage to the CT. It sounds counter intuitive, but shooting center mass on a jenner is more likely to kill them faster, if only because all your buddies have been getting hits there too. I almost never get legged anymore, but damn does my ct take.a.beating.

poeple like to leg lights, because it is like pulling the wings off of a fly and they have heavy rage. It is not a one size fits all tactic.

[NKAc Street]

Host crap rewind.