Stokes52, on 04 May 2013 - 01:37 PM, said:
I've been playing Mechwarrior games for years now. Mechwarrior games are complicated, sometimes counter-intuitive, and have a steep learning curve, but they are also dang fun.
I have some friends that I would like to introduce to the the game, and I'm looking for videos or picture guides of good quality that will give a good basic overall introduction to Mechwarrior and MW:O.
I'm looking for a guide that shows the basic things that every pilot needs to know, without being 40 minutes long, like:
- Pros and cons of the different weapon cateogories: missile, ballistic, and energy weapons in terms of heat, range, and size.
- Explanation of how mechs are broken into sections and the different ways to kill an enemy mech
- How heat effects a mech
- Basic tips for mech customization (managing critical slots, tonnage)
- Basic movement stuff (torso twist explanation, arm movement explanation, etc)
- Anything else a noob absolutely needs to know on his first drop.
If there are any great multimedia beginners guides out there that are under 10-15 minutes, share them! I want to get my friends hooked on this game.
Official:
http://mwomercs.com/...raining-grounds
My thoughts:
1. Missiles:
Pros: LRMs don't need direct line of sight. LRMs and Streak SRMs lock on. Mostly low heat. Can upgrade with Artimus. Missiles spread out some so some might hit target. SRMs don't rely on a lock so they are unaffected by ECM.
Cons: Can loose weapon lock and then missiles won't hit target. Lock on missiles are negated by ECM. Requires ammo. Ammo can explode in your mech if hit and kill you or damage you. Low damage per missile.
Heat: Relatively low.
Range: Depends on missile. Either short or long. Check out exact stats in mechlab
Size: typically 2-3 slots but you have to include a lot of ammo too.
Ballistics:
Pros: Direct fire, applies a good amount of damage all at once to one location. Some ballistics are very powerful. Some ballistics can fire very fast. Sound fx are great. Most are medium to long range.
Cons: Ammo dependent. Takes up a lot of critical slots. Missing a shot is more costly especially with the gauss rifle or AC20. Have to line up shots more. There is a travel time to target so you have to lead targets a little.
Heat: Usually moderate. Some ballistics generate a lot of heat over time. Some generate little.
Range: Pretty much all ranges available. Mostly medium to long.
Size: Mostly large.
Energy:
Pros: Don't need ammo so the weapon will always work. Damage over time means you can tweak your aim as you fire. It won't do full damage, but it will do some. Decent recycle times. Good damage potential. The medium laser is sort of your "de facto" weapon of them all.
Cons: Generates lots of heat so you have to add more heat sinks. Need steady aim to do full damage. Damage likely will be applied over multiple sections of enemy mech, making it possibly harder to kill. PPCs however work like ballistics.
Heat: Usually moderate to high
Range: All ranges available
Size: Small. 3 slots max, but you usually need to add heat sinks.
2. Each mech has the following 8 sections: Head, Center Torso (CT), Left Torso (LT), Right Torso (RT), Right Arm, Left Arm, Right Leg, Left Leg. To kill a mech, you need to destroy either the cockpit (the head), both legs, or the engine (always contained in the CT but if the mech has an XL engine, destoying either side torso also kills the engine because part of it is in the sides as well as the CT).
3. Firing weapons generates heat. Some more than others. You must keep your mech's heat below 100% or it will shutdown from overheating. It will automatically start back up once your heat level falls below 100%. Moving also generates some heat. In addition, some maps are hotter than others. Your heat sinks will dissipate heat over time. If you are about to overheat, you can override the shutdown with "O." If you go over 100% though, your mech will start damaging itself internally until components start exploding. "P" will manually power up/down. Overheating during a fire fight makes you a sitting duck so stop shooting so quickly!
4. There is a lot that can be said here. You can store different components in each mech section. There are always some parts that are just part of the mech and can't be moved. You must have an engine in the center torso. There are standard engines and XL engines. XL engines take up an additional 3 slots in both side torsos. Weapon selection is limited by hardpoints. For example, an arm might have 2 energy hardpoints. That means you can put 0, 1, or 2 energy weapons in there. The weapons can be any size of that type, so in a ballistic slot, a machine gun is as valid as a gauss rifle (assuming enough space is not reserved for something else). Heatsinks can go anywhere they can fit.
If you have Ferro Fibrous (FF) armor or Endo Steel (ES) internal structure, these take up a total of 14 critical slots each. These are assigned automatically and are floating. That means, as long as you have more than 14 available slots on the mech, they can be moved around. Just drag components onto them and they will move elsewhere.
Armor is also allocated per body section in another tab. Usually, you want max or near max armor for survivability. Armor points are limited for each component. You can have no armor on a section and it will still have internal structure. Internal structure has a certain amount of health points and to destroy a section, you not only have to destoy all the armor, but all the structure health too. Back to armor--There are 3 extra sections of your mech: Rear LT, Rear RT, and Rear CT. The max armor points for each of the torsos is shared between both the front and the back, so if you have a max of 30 points for the center torso, you can allocate 15/15 front/back, 25/5 or some other combination.
5. Basic movement. I'm not going over the controls but your mech accelerates and decelerates. Some are fast, some are slow. Your legs move independently of your torso and upper body. You can be facing north and turn and shoot something to the east. How many degrees off center your torso can turn from your legs varies by mech chassis. It might be approx. 90 degrees. Your arms also move independently of your torso. The guns on your mech's hands can aim higher or lower than weapons mounted in the torso sections. Arm mounted weapons can also move and aim faster. The circle targeting reticle on the hud goes with any weapons on your arms. The plus targeting reticle represents your torso mounted weapons. Some mechs have arms than can move side to side independently of your torso. Others are fixed in the horizonal direction. There is a checkbox in the options to enable the separate targeting (default is to have them locked together). When locked together, arms loose any extra range of motion they otherwise would have.
6. There really is a lot of material to cover. You can drop into the training grounds first. Use the gear next to the big Launch button to select it. You can set up your controls here by pressing esc to get to the menu. You can change them on the fly. Learn how to move your mech. On the hud, you will see two lines in a triangle facing away from your mech. That is the view you have from your cockpit. The dotted line with arrow shows you which way your feet are facing. You have to practice walking with the ASDW keys and turning your view with the mouse. Once you get it down, you will feel like a pro! You can also shoot the dummy mechs located in the training map.
In the game, if you loose or die a lot, don't worry. It's just because you're inexperienced and this game takes awhile to learn how to control it well, but it is fun! I suggest you try out a medium mech first. Light mechs may be too fast to control. Assult mechs go nowhere fast. A heavy mech may also work well.
Edit: minor corrections
Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 05 May 2013 - 01:12 AM.
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Maybe a hint creepy. 
