46 replies to this topic

[El Bandito]

See here fellas. Every game has hipsters. Those people goes against the general flow and the terms "meta", "hit-box", and "min/maxing" means diddly squat to them. And an Awesome is a hipster's mech. If you are not a hipster, then you shouldn't ride that thang.

Edited by El Bandito, 11 June 2013 - 08:39 AM.

[Damocles69]

I am no hipster... and i love awesomes

[TungstenWall]

Id say the best (practical) thing to do is give the Awesome the Old-Raven hit box. Basically you would add some small strips of L/RT armor to overlap the CT, causing some of what would be pure CT Alphas to spread between to sections if they landed so much as 3 inches apart.

I would say do this with:
*Belly (stick out)- make the sides count as L/RT
*The sides of the 'plateau' that the cockpit sits on
*Make arm pads (over the L/RT) act as part of the arm hitbox.

[Anjian]

I agree they need to fix the Awesome'***** boxes, and they need to prioritize that.

[Rascula]

Fixing it would be nice, but theres plenty of us awesome pilots out there getting a ton of kills in them and will continue to play them regardless... It works very well indeed if you play to its strengths. Most importantly though is the constant mantra you must say to yourself whilst piloting.. "I am not an Atlas. I am not an Atlas. I am not an Atlas..."

[NRP]

Rascula, on 11 June 2013 - 10:35 AM, said:

It works very well indeed if you play to its strengths.

Which would be what, exactly?

I've mastered every AWS chassis, some of them many times over, and I've found the only way to be consistently successful is by "poaching" weakened or otherwise distracted enemies. And that only works if you've got other Assaults and Heavies taking the fight to the enemy. When my AWS is the only Assault on my team, it's mostly likely going to a terrible experience. Since the SRM nerf, I can't really 1v1 anything that isn't already nearly dead. It's pathetic really.

I really can't wait for the Victor. Hopefully it will be a fast Assault that isn't a complete joke.

[ICEFANG13]

Rascula, on 11 June 2013 - 10:35 AM, said:

Fixing it would be nice, but theres plenty of us awesome pilots out there getting a ton of kills in them and will continue to play them regardless... It works very well indeed if you play to its strengths. Most importantly though is the constant mantra you must say to yourself whilst piloting.. "I am not an Atlas. I am not an Atlas. I am not an Atlas..."

The Awesome 9M has a higher engine cap, and the 8Q has more energy (1 1 slot energy in the head), all Awesome's have more arm and torso twist range, which is not off set by its terrible hitbox and less armor. The Stalker-3F, the best, has just as many energy as the 8Q (minus the less effective head slot), and as many missiles as the 8R at the same time. It goes about the same speed and has very high weapon mounts. The Awesome is not good in almost any way.

[El Bandito]

Canon wise, Awesomes are not supposed to brawl. They are dedicated long range Assaults.

Too bad we have no hardpoint restrictions in MWO (work on it, PGI) and so we get PPC boating Stalkers doing the sniping. In lore, Stalkers' energy hardpoints can only fit Large Lasers BTW.

Edited by El Bandito, 11 June 2013 - 06:39 PM.

[Lightfoot]

El Bandito, on 11 June 2013 - 06:38 PM, said:

Canon wise, Awesomes are not supposed to brawl. They are dedicated long range Assaults.

Too bad we have no hardpoint restrictions in MWO (work on it, PGI) and so we get PPC boating Stalkers doing the sniping. In lore, Stalkers' energy hardpoints can only fit Large Lasers BTW.

To quote Battletech the Awesome is a "vanguard mech", which could be long range, but the Awesome gets cored easily at 700 meters, easier than any other mech, so you wouldn't use it as a long range mech. Assaults are too big to hit and fade, assaults are meant to stand and take incoming damage. Awesomes in MWO are relegated to sneaky sniper hiding behind everyone else. That's a 45-60 ton role, not an assault's role.

You also inferred the Awesome was a "hipster" mech, implying it has some unique asset, but it has none. partially the lack of DHS 2.0, partially the lack of hardpoints, mainly the size of the Center Torso hit-box means, other mechs do it better. Direct fire is better done by a Cataphract, vanguard assault is better done by a Highlander or Stalker.

What does the Awesome gain for it's weakness that other mechs don't get with no weakness? It can't run 5-6 Large Lasers, 3xERPPCs, 4x PPCs, which would be iconic Awesome "hipster" configs.

Edited by Lightfoot, 11 June 2013 - 07:10 PM.

[El Bandito]

Lightfoot, on 11 June 2013 - 07:08 PM, said:

To quote Battletech the Awesome is a "vanguard mech", which could be long range, but the Awesome gets cored easily at 700 meters, easier than any other mech, so you wouldn't use it as a long range mech. Assaults are too big to hit and fade, assaults are meant to stand and take incoming damage. Awesomes in MWO are relegated to sneaky sniper hiding behind everyone else. That's a 45-60 ton role, not an assault's role. You also inferred the Awesome was a "hipster" mech, implying it has some unique asset, but it has none. partially the lack of DHS 2.0, partially the lack of hardpoints, mainly the size of the Center Torso hit-box means, other mechs do it better. Direct fire is better done by a Cataphract, vanguard assault is better done by a Highlander or Stalker. What does the Awesome gain for it's weakness that other mechs don't get with no weakness? It can't run 5-6 Large Lasers, 3xERPPCs, 4x PPCs, which would be iconic Awesome "hipster" configs.

Read that post more carefully. I said Awesome is a hipster's mech (not hipster mech). By hipster I was refering to the pilot. You know, those guys who don't give a crap about performance, just doing their own thing for the sake of enjoyment?

Like how I was pretty much the only Streakcat pilot back when ECM was king (pre-BAP change) and most people were poptarting?

Edited by El Bandito, 11 June 2013 - 07:29 PM.

[Sephlock]

[Kiiyor]

Lightfoot, on 10 June 2013 - 07:42 PM, said:

SO....WHY DOES THE AWESOME HAVE THE LARGEST CT HIT-BOX OF ANY MECH?

Because all the other mechs need mech training wheels.

I enjoy piloting a war machine that has a gigantic, engineered-to-attract-explosions target painted on its mighty heart.

It's like playing mechanized Russian Roulette, except you spin the chamber every time you expose yourself in the slightest to enemy fire. It's like being in the battletech equivalent of house Harkonnen. There's always some fat ******* waiting to pull your plug.

In days of yore, I persisted with despairing attempts to protect myself from the hideous craters that would appear seemingly by sorcery in my mighty metal chest. I torso twisted, I ducked, dived and all the other d's, I called up my meager rear armour reserves and bade them serve at the front... Then one day, I realized I had hit rock bottom. I had been painting my mech in cunningly devised ways in an attempt to draw the deadly aim of my opponents to more attractive locations.

"That's right, Mr. Atlas, oh no, you don't want to shoot the boring, olive drab center torso, NO... BEHOLD THE BLOOD ORANGE GLORY OF MY TORSOS! GAZE IN RAPT ADORATION AT THE HIDEOUS PURPLE OF MY ARMS! YOU ARE POWERLESS TO RESI-"

ENGINE DESTROYED. FOREVER.

Now, I deal with it. I've come to accept the fallibility of my machine. I've left the previous 6 stages of grieving behind me, draped over the legion of my own corpses with perfectly concentric holes over their hearts, and it has made me stronger. It probably hasn't.

Well, at the very least, you know where the hits are going to land.

The only place they can.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Lets face it, the Awesome is just a poorly designed mech from an art standpoint. The Awesome was designed to look cool and be used in a table top game that randomly generated hits. It wasn't designed to minimize target aquisition.

Honestly the same can be said for alot of mechs. Just look at the Centurion. It is almost as tall and wide as an Atlas with especially large RT/LT hitboxes making mounting a XL engine an instant death sentence.

In fact I find the mech designs to be one of the coolest features of the game. You can have two different mechs with identical weight and hardpoint locations that will have drastic performance differences based on how they are shaped or where on the mech the arms are fitted. Basically when evaluating a mech not only do you have to look at load out but you have to actually look at how the mech is shaped to determine just how good or bad a mech will be.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, the Awesome is just a major design flop due to its CT being huge.

Edited by Viktor Drake, 11 June 2013 - 08:56 PM.

[Anjian]

The recent fixes to reduce poptarts have brought out all sorts of mechs I haven't seen a while. But one mech hasn't changed its relatively low popularity and that is the Awesome. Indeed this mech absolutely needs some torso rebalancing.

On the Centurion, if they want to reduce the size and hitboxes, they might as well fix the Zombie bug. Otherwise they would be unstoppable.

The issue about hitboxes and profiles remind me of my days in Chromehounds when at the beginning, players were crafting their mechs based on Battlemech designs (Mad Cat, etc,.) They were all, wide, humanoid, with clear torsos, beautiful to look at. But they were easy targets and died all too easily. Then players became smart, and start designing and evolving their mechs to have minumum front profiles, with weapons and shields ahead protecting the torso.

Edited by Anjian, 11 June 2013 - 11:08 PM.

[BigMekkUrDakka]

so u cant put XL380 or even bigger engine 20 DHS and dont worry about dieing from ST destroyed
yeah it feels like my CT works as magnet attracting all kinds of projectiles to it, but who makes u expose that big fat belly of yours? stay out of the harms way
and regarding "if you are only assault..." its a total BS it works even better if yours team knows what to do even in small maps, and on the big maps its a way to win, and im not referring too a bloody dishonorable way of base capture

[Lightfoot]

@BigMekkUrDakka,

I see your point. Still, when they see an Awesome going 85 kph they are just going to aim for the side torsos at the mid point or arm. The AWS-8's are all limited to ST engines since they are too slow at 300XL for it to do any good and payloads don't require an XL Engine's weight savings.

Edited by Lightfoot, 12 June 2013 - 09:07 AM.

[NRP]

BigMekkUrDakka is just in one of the 7 stages of denial Kiiyor spoke of. We've all been there.

[Kiiyor]

NRP, on 12 June 2013 - 06:03 PM, said:

BigMekkUrDakka is just in one of the 7 stages of denial Kiiyor spoke of. We've all been there.

It's a long, lonely road to acceptance. A road pockmarked with craters from LRM explosions and unexploded AC20 rounds, its gutters filled with the corpses of those who gave up around the denial stage.

[TemplarGFX]

Of course I wouldnt mind if the Center Torso was smaller, but I dont think its the humongous issue everyone says it is. Perhaps I am just lucky in my games, but I definately win more than I lose (when Im not playing with new builds at least LOL)


My Awesome stats

Mech' Matches Played Wins Losses Ratio Kills Deaths Ratio Damage Done
AWESOME AWS-8T 32 17 15 1.13 18 22 0.82 6,895 21,176 02:45:33
AWESOME AWS-8V 6 1 5 0.20 1 5 0.20 888 2,186 00:28:37
AWESOME AWS-9M 111 48 63 0.76 39 82 0.48 22,901 56,922 09:11:38

now I dont play seriously most of the time, I am always trying new builds with my awesome (god the amount of cbills ive spent) but I still have pretty good stats.

When I take my 9m out with one of my two "proven" builds, I always do a crapload of damage, and survive most games till the end.

Edited by TemplarGFX, 12 June 2013 - 07:20 PM.

[Lightfoot]

Well, when you get the Awesome going 80-87 kph the Awesome gets hard to catch and hit, but when it's going 60-65 kph they don't miss and that's where the AWS-8 series is stuck.