89 replies to this topic

[CordlezToaster]

Is it just me or are Awesome Mechs just to damn easy to take out?.
It seems like the cores are made out of paper, a couple of shots and its stripped of its armour and blown up dead.

Edited by Prosperity Park, 15 June 2013 - 07:02 PM.
edited title

[Pando]

CordlezToaster, on 15 June 2013 - 02:02 AM, said:

Is it just me or are Awesome Mechs just to damn easy to take out?.
It seems like the cores are made out of paper, a couple of shots and its stripped of its armour and blown up dead.

Worst assault at the moment. Period. The only useful variant IMO is the AWS-8R and only at low elo brackets because it can run quad ALRM15s effectively with a good pilot...or quad LRM15s with more point defense and ammo with a lesser skilled pilot. I've watched a few streams from what I would consider low-elo bracket players and LRMs were very prevalent.

I'm glad I mastered them in the first month of open beta with players stuck in trial battlemechs.

Edited by Pando, 15 June 2013 - 02:26 AM.

[CordlezToaster]

Pando, on 15 June 2013 - 02:26 AM, said:

Worst assault at the moment. Period. The only useful variant IMO is the AWS-8R and only at low elo brackets because it can run quad ALRM15s effectively with a good pilot...or quad LRM15s with more point defense and ammo with a lesser skilled pilot. I've watched a few streams from what I would consider low-elo bracket players and LRMs were very prevalent.

I'm glad I mastered them in the first month of open beta with players stuck in trial battlemechs.

I get the feeling the awesome chassis should be changed into the medium class, because it is not assault.

[Alistair Winter]

The Awesome 8Q is one of my best mechs in terms of consistently doing high levels of damage and getting kills. I usually go with 3 ER PPCs. I have also tried to play with 6 large lasers for a while, but that was pretty much a coin flip between glorious victory and catastrophic failure each match.

Whether you're equipped with PPCs, large lasers or LRMs, the Awesome is a support mech. A while back, you could do very well with 4 x SRM6 on an Awesome, but those days are gone. So you need to get used to the fact that your role is to hang back and let others take damage during the first part of the match.

Unless you're running an Awesome 9M or Pretty Baby, I recommend the STD engine. The huge arms combined with the flat profile of the Awesome makes torso twisting quite effective. You can lose the whole left arm, and you'll only have lost a couple of heatsinks. If you lose the whole left torso too, you'll still do very well with 66% weapon capacity.

I should add that I almost never alpha strike with my Awesome 8Q, unless my target is nearly dead. The Awesome 8Q is not a knockout puncher like a Stalker with 4-6 PPCs. I tend to have two firing groups, my arm mounted ER PPC is mouse button 1, and my two torso mounted ER PPCs are mouse button 2. My small laser is mouse button 3, which I use mostly to insult my opponents. So ideally, I want to keep my ER PPCs firing every 2 seconds, or more, depending on how you group them.

An Awesome leading the charge is an easy target. An Awesome hiding behind an Atlas or Highlander is easily ignored.

[Divine Retribution]

They just aren't the best for brawling because of the oversized hitboxes, especially when the pilot just stares at the incoming fire instead of turning. I use an 8Q regularly (4 PPC, LL and ML in arm, XL300 and 18 DHS), and just like any other sniper build if you're having a good aim day it doesn't matter what the enemy mechs are. It doesn't matter how big or tough an adversary is if you can brain 'em from 600m.

That being said I like seeing Awesomes on my team; either the pilot knows how to use it or is so new that he/she hasn't read about how terrible they are (really good or really bad). Either way it doesn't take long to figure out. Other assaults are a big toss-up unless you recognize the pilot name.

That especially applies to the Atlas DumDum&Clueless, where you think the pilot knows what's going on so you tag along with 'em. Then you turn a corner into an enemy pack and see your DDC dumbfire LRMs at 150m and flat-out panic fire. As you try to fight off several enemy mechs, practically alone, you remember that the matchmaker will throw whoever balances out the ELO average into the group, and curse it's name. If that DDC had been an Awesome, you likely could have figured out if the pilot was any good before fire was exchanged (and not followed a dead-mech walking), because so-so pilots don't usually run 'em. If only that DDC had been an Awesome, you'd still be alive....

[Mokou]

Maybe i am not best mech pilot, but on AWS i do enough. I can't call AWS "useless", they just not regular assault. If u try ride AWS as Atlas or Highlander - u will lose.
And of course if u try tanked some atlas u can easily die, couse atlas have more armor, better hit zones and ballistic weapons.
AWS is heavy support, fast, armored heavy support. U can assault on them, but atlas make this better.

Edited by Mokou, 15 June 2013 - 08:24 AM.

[BigMekkUrDakka]

yes AWS is carp don't play them!

[Redshift2k5]

They certainly don't belong at the front of a charge. An Awesome leading a push is a dead mech, but can be effective as an LRM platform or with a PPC+SSRM2 build. You need to think of it as more of a Heavy mech than an Assault mech; What would you do with a Catapult if it had a few more tons?(the bulk of the extra 15 tons will go to armor and engine, however)

[jk781]

A wise man once said, 'there are no bad mechs, only bad pilots'.

In my opinion the Awesome is a decent mech if you play it right.

It's no frontline brawler, it's as Redshift2k5 said a supporter.

[Bata]

Another one of these... When is it going to end? The Awesome is a great mech, you are just not playing it right. I'm going to be positive and simply assume that it doesn't fit your play-style whatever it is.

[oldradagast]

Disagree on the Awesome being great.

The fact is that there's something wrong with them in the game. By definition, they should be almost as durable as a Stalker, which weighs at only 5 tons more, since in Battletech, armor limits are based totally upon chassis weight. And yet, in game, they can be punched through like cardboard cut-outs, while Stalkers function like normal assault mechs and take a terrific beating before finally falling.

The problem, as others have said, is the oversized torso hitboxes. All they need to do is shrink the center torso hitbox, pull in the side torsos, and make the arm hit boxes larger and extend up across the shoulders. This would give them a hitbox configuration matching all the other assaults in the game who have relatively small center torsos. This could be done in a day at most, and it is sad to see nothing happen on it so far.

So, it's not the Battletech stats on them that's the problem, nor is it the weapon loadout or anything else - it's the hitboxes, the one thing that has no relationship to the Battletech values and which can vary wildly between 2 mechs that would otherwise be about comparable in a battle.

Edited by oldradagast, 15 June 2013 - 05:28 AM.

[Op4blushift]

The Awesome is easily the worst assault, and I'm saying that as a guy whose mastered 3 of them. It might be damn fun and challenging for me to play, but it doesn't change the fact its got some of the worst hit-boxes in the game, which is why its so damn easy to core the CT. I mean, compare that thing to the tiny little strip that the Atlas's CT is, and you can see why its so easy to kill. Doesn't help that its at the bottom of its weight class so you'll often be matched up against Atlases and Highlanders who have more guns and more armor then you. The Stalker also does basically everything the Awesome does but better (e.g its a better PPC boat because the energy hard points are high up in the arms) and has a tiny profile compared to the huge profile of the Awesome despite being 5 tons heavier. If PGI would redo the torso model so that its skinnier it would be much more viable, but it seems pretty unlikely that they'll be willing to do that since it means re-modelling the chassis.

[Just wanna play]

i beg to differ about the awesome only being a non-frontline support mech, first off the assualt mech class itself is made up entirely of support mechs, and imo yes the awesome 8t and r are great lrm boats because of their tonnage and design, but also i feel they make great brawlers as well BECAUSE of their bad hit boxes (and decent torso twist speed for an assault), they can easily take massive amounts of punishment because how easy it is to spread out damage, and the 8t has 2 energy hard points on each arm which really helps when brawling, when in the mood for brawling i put a large pulse and a regular medium on each arm and it is a great fighter, i can reliably kill stalkers and i can also finish off bigger mechs like hgn and atlases if they are a little damaged

and lrms are viable in all elos if you run in a group, and elo is so missed up these days i dont even think it has seperate elo brackets, just one big one that cause you to have noobs if one of your players has a really high elo, and i do play with some of the best players in the game with stupid high elo (based on his stats and how elo i calculated, of course its not actually an accurate measurement in a team based game) so i know how it is "up here"

personally i feel as though they are terrible snipers since its so easy to hit the ct at long ranges and torso twisting isnt as helpful at those ranges since you sometimes cant even tell what the enemy mech is doing

Edited by Just wanna play, 15 June 2013 - 05:31 AM.

[Redshift2k5]

Awesomes can certainly make good energy boats, and unlike the slightly-heavier Stalkers they have highly mobile arms and good torso turn. You still don't want to be the first mech around the corner, too easy to focus on your broad CT.

Build and playstyle are very important considerations, but what works for you may not work for another pilot.

[Just wanna play]

Redshift2k5, on 15 June 2013 - 05:32 AM, said:

Awesomes can certainly make good energy boats, and unlike the slightly-heavier Stalkers they have highly mobile arms and good torso turn. You still don't want to be the first mech around the corner, too easy to focus on your broad CT.

Build and playstyle are very important considerations, but what works for you may not work for another pilot.

doesnt even need to be an energy boat to do well, that was just one of the many examples, also has srms

stalkers are a lot simpler to use and set-up then awesome, hence all the 6/4 ppc noobs that shoot at you from 1800m away, when was the last time you saw an awesome with an unskilled pilot? imo awesomes make great starter mechs as well


and lets not forget the overall strengths of the awesome
great torso twist, torso mounted missiles, arms, great left and right field of view, good maneuverability, can SOAK itself in damage like no other (except maybe hgn since hat has jjs), respectable 15 launcher tubes, low priority target, etc

stalker really cant touch it in a lot of these aspects, and if you say stalker is better just because it can boat more of something I WILL COME FIND YOU

Edited by Just wanna play, 15 June 2013 - 05:52 AM.

[Bata]

The Atlas' CT is a tiny strip??? What game have you dudes been playing? Have you not noticed the uber wide waist-crotch area of the Atlas. That is so easy to hit and is all CT. Not to mention the bulky head. I totally agree that superior turning rate, the large arms and ability to spread the damage through torso twisting makes Awesomes perfectly fine brawlers. Stalker's side torsos on the other hand can be hit from almost any angle. With a fast 9M you can run circles around the slower assaults and when they finally get a shot at you, you can present them with a broad arm. Even with the other models you can make a build that is sufficiently quick enough to be doing something similar. No, you cannot just stand right in front of them, staring straight at their AC/20's and ER PPC's and expect to live. Stalkers are better snipers indeed, because their weapons are higher, but that doesn't make all other snipers useless. And even if some modifications are made to the torso hit boxes you are still going to be 5-10-20 lighter than the other assaults, and still not going to be able to survive if you play an Awesome like you play the rest of them. And I keep hearing the same old things about Commando's, about Dragons. When you are playing a lighter mech you need to adjust your play in order to deal with the heavier mechs in your class. When you learn to do that you will stop believing this or that mech is useless.

[Just wanna play]

Bata, on 15 June 2013 - 05:58 AM, said:

The Atlas' CT is a tiny strip??? What game have you dudes been playing? Have you not noticed the uber wide waist-crotch area of the Atlas. That is so easy to hit and is all CT. Not to mention the bulky head. I totally agree that superior turning rate, the large arms and ability to spread the damage through torso twisting makes Awesomes perfectly fine brawlers. Stalker's side torsos on the other hand can be hit from almost any angle. With a fast 9M you can run circles around the slower assaults and when they finally get a shot at you, you can present them with a broad arm. Even with the other models you can make a build that is sufficiently quick enough to be doing something similar. No, you cannot just stand right in front of them, staring straight at their AC/20's and ER PPC's and expect to live. Stalkers are better snipers indeed, because their weapons are higher, but that doesn't make all other snipers useless. And even if some modifications are made to the torso hit boxes you are still going to be 5-10-20 lighter than the other assaults, and still not going to be able to survive if you play an Awesome like you play the rest of them. And I keep hearing the same old things about Commando's, about Dragons. When you are playing a lighter mech you need to adjust your play in order to deal with the heavier mechs in your class. When you learn to do that you will stop believing this or that mech is useless.

also just wanna point out they have 4.5-9-18 more USEABLE tons (with out endo steel)
just sayin'

[Koreanese]

Awesome has monsterous arm for shields

[oldradagast]

I think the key point isn't "Awesome's should be as tough as the Atlas" but "An Awesome should be about as viable as a Stalker"

They both are almost the same tonnage, with a 5 ton edge to the Stalker, which gives it a bit more armor.

Both use a mix of energy and missiles with no ballistics (Misery excluded.) making them fill the same role.

The Stalker has more weapon points and they are higher mounted, but the Awesome has shield arms (could be improved) and the ability to sweep targets horizontally with its arm weapons.

The Stalker has a narrow profile, but horrible torso twist, while the Awesome is wide, but can twist its torso.

Based purely on the numbers, they should be about equal, yet in game, the Awesome isn't holding its own, while Stalkers put in an appearance in almost every match. I can only assume the Awesome's large torso hitboxes are the reason for this since there's really nothing else wrong with the chassis.

Edited by oldradagast, 15 June 2013 - 08:59 AM.

[MavRCK]

Awesomes are not awesome!!!

Mav
-somethings never change

http://www.twitch.tv...avrck/c/2292506