But time and again players deploy suicidal strategies in their games. Why?
Maybe you've just got a new mech, you've just gotten into the game, and you want to fire all your guns. You can't deal damage without having the enemy in your crosshairs, right? Or maybe that Stalker is all out of torso armor, and you think you can alpha it down easily. It makes PERFECT sense to move straight on the enemy.
Except that's not how things play out. Charging ahead your new mech maybe gets one enemy in it's crosshairs, but it gets in the crosshairs of three enemies. Guess who goes down first.
And trying to alpha the stalker, well maybe the first alpha lands on a side torso, the next one on the other, and as you've by then taken more damage than you thought you would, you get anxious and fire off a third much too quick. Then? Overheat. And you get swarmed by the Stalker's teammates. It just happens. And it's just why survival should be the first objective in most any mech fighting situations.
Now you might disagree with the above. And obviously sometimes calculated risk taking is required, that's what the game is all about. But most of the time, your survival will benefit the team much more than the few points of damage you can deal before going down in a blaze of glory.
Why?
1) Because the mere presence of any mech will make the enemies alter their plan, make them move more slow and careful, and permit you to possibly outmaneuver them.
2) Safety in numbers. An assault or a heavy mech might happily charge straight at most any lighter mech, but only a careless pilot would go solo against two. Moreover, fighting many against one doesn't just inflict more damage to the target, it'll make effective torso twisting and cover use that much tougher for the target. An outnumbered pilot is also more likely to panic and fire too quick, overheat, and get stomped. What I'm saying is that fighting many against one brings greater benefits than just the raw mass DPS.
3) The opportunities will present themselves. Most times there's no need to sneak off shoddy shots from a vulnerable position. Just moving with the team, keeping covered and cozy as possible, you'll get a good shot lined up in no time. Retreat is also a perfectly valid option, no rule anywhere dictates that MWO games have to be all about pitched sniper battles; pull back, invite the enemy to move forward from their perch positions.
It's just something I myself have been thinking about, because I'm a ****** pilot whose first instinct is to go PEWPEWPEWDAKKAPEWPEWPEW. It's why I've mostly played Atlases.
![:D](https://static.mwomercs.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/tongue.png)