116 replies to this topic

[luxebo]

I've got my HD Radeon 7770 now and I've done quite a large amount of damage now. However, the game is so freaking different from all the other games I've played. So far the trial mechs suck quite a lot, with the Raven being decently powerful but extremely slow (very very very slow.) 81 is just terrible for a Raven. Cicada is mainly a sniper scout, but the machine guns are terrible and I've actually died from overheating. Seriously, after like two shots it basically shuts down, but I think a few modifications could help it become a popup sniper (but its a trial mech). Catapult I need to figure out how to play with the missles, too many of them results in ammo explosion and general weakness in it. The only mech that I really like is the Victor, and even it's a bit underpowered for it's weight (I recall the MW4 Mercs stock mech variant has 1 Heavy Guass 1 Guass 2 Med Psl Lasers and 2 SRM4s.) The Victor is actually not bad armor wise though, sadly this game armor is not really too much of a benefit with even Atlas getting toasted by small shots. I recall in MW4 Mercs that Atlas can do decent tanking, so yup, giant difference here. I need a little help with the trial mechs, though I know how to play my already bought Hunchback laser boat. I feel so much better with that badass 7770 graphics card and I have to thank you guys.

Edit: Also, can you guys tell me what to do on certain maps? Like when I'm in the Hunchie and I get stuck in a caustic valley game, what do I do then, etc. Once again I need help on the trial mechs, only really I know how to play the Victor, everything else I'm not very good at. Also, is my Hunchie (laser boat variant with removal of small laser and nothing else) ok? Lastly, is there going to be a 3rd person view at all in the future? I did hear that the game-makers say that 3rd person would be OP, even though I would much prefer that over the 1st person view (I occasionally bump into random stuff I can't see and I would play better than I do now; my damage is about 50-200 which isn't too bad as before I did about 0-20). Thanks a lot guys.

Edited by luxebo, 11 August 2013 - 04:51 PM.

[Heketon]

Hunchback 4P and hot maps
For mechs with large numbers of energy weapons, I split up the weapons into manageable groups. The two arm lasers go in group one because I'll need the movement that comes with arm mounts. Group two and six (Left Control) get three of the torso lasers each. Group five, being a harder key press for me (Left Shift) gets the nuclear option. Some people have had success with using six small lasers in the right torso. I've stayed away from that model because I know I'm a button masher.

(Speaking of nuclear options, I have seen video of a seven large laser HBK-4P, pre heat patch eep!)

Trial Mechs
Ugh. Yeah. Finding a good mech for that fits your game style can be difficult since the trials only change once a month. I've bought, tried, and hated Commandos, Cataphracts, and Dragons. It can be hard to go through the mechs without blowing all of your C-Bills on frustrating contraptions.

Third Person View
It's coming. See this post for the reasons why it is going to happen. There is a public test server that is occasionally online on Thursdays. See the Public Test forum for scheduling and program details.

Two other good places for information are smurfy's and Mechspecs.com. Come on back when you have another question and enjoy the game.

[luxebo]

A couple more questions, is there a way to group weapons in the mechlab like in older mechwarrior games or is it only groupable in the game? I don't like the small laser config due to low range, though I may want to try 7/8/9 large lasers, sounds fun, similar to Supernova with 8 of whatever laser (Large Continuous Beam Lasers, Large X-Pulse Lasers, Large Lasers, Large Pulse Lasers, Clan/ER versions of Lasers, Light PPC, or Heavy Medium Lasers.) Also pretty similar to Daishi with 3 CLBX 20 and 2 CLBX 10, Annihilator with 4 Clan Guass, or Longbow with 6 CLRM 20s.

Didn't realize that Trial Mechs only change each month, guess that I'll have to use my own mechs for grinding C-Bills. 3rd person view is something I prefer; I think I can still do better that way, even with a drone on my mech's head and no tacmap/minimap. I guess what I'll have to do is get better at 1st person view just in case every time I look at the tacmap I can still fight back properly. Thanks for the help Heketon.

[Heketon]

Group your weapons in the Testing Grounds (Mode Select) That way you can select a hot map and see how hot 6ML and 6LL can get.

Anytime, luxebo.

[Ertur]

Throw $10 bucks towards cancer research and get a decent Jenner. You can trick it out for Cbills if you want, but it is perfectly usable out of the box. If you decide you like Jenners, they are at least fairly cheap to buy -- but upgrading them can get pricy. I think I spent over 10,000,000 cbills on a Jenner K all told. I didn't use the engine swap ploy on it though. XL engines are not cheap at all.
STEEEEEEP learning curve on a Jenner, though.

[Johnny Marek Summers]

Sarah's mech looks really good, however you should remember to add the jj back into the mech.

As for the Jenner K, you could swap the engine from Sarah's mech, I'd also take the BAP off Sarah's mech to add to the K as well to help out the SRM 4 you have in it. You will still have to get Endo, ferro, and DHS upgrades.

The Jenner F, well you could again use the engine from Sarah's mech. And add 2 Medium Lasers (from either of the other two Jenners) or just buy some small lasers if you are worried about heat. And of course you'd also have to get the other upgrades as well.

Of course... Sarah's mech has that 10% XP bonus. You could use it to earn all the XP you'd ever need to level up Jenners. Buy an F put the XP on it and start unlocking all the basics, buy a K unlock all the basics. And since you have actually been using Sarah's mech you'd have all the basics unlocked already. You would then unlock the elites. Do the same and you can max out elite on the F and K. You can then master Sarah's mech and you wouldn't have to spend c-bills on the F and K beyond the initial cost to buy them.

Just remember that doing it that way would deprive you of the actual experience of piloting those variants. It's just that if you are c-bill poor and you do want to master Sarah's mech. It is a viable way of doing it.

[luxebo]

I was thinking of Jenner before, but I think I would want to purchase something Heavy or Assault because I like heavier mechs. Then again tanking (edited) is difficult in this game. (Stuff like Atlas can't take too many hits compared to before. I used to like rolling in a freaking Behemoth or Kodiak with 25-30 tons of armor.) I think I'll go for Hunchbacks first, then other mechs after getting at least Elite. Thing is that I'm sorta cheap so I'll also use trial mechs, and I need to get used to MW3 missles again, LRMs are tons different from MW4. (For the trial Catapult)

Edited by luxebo, 12 August 2013 - 10:17 AM.

[scJazz]

luxebo, on 12 August 2013 - 09:50 AM, said:

Then again tanking isn't possible in this game.

Stalker and Centurion would like to have a word with you

In the sense of MMO Tanking though... no. In the sense of extremely durable mechs with evil hit boxes requiring insane amounts of abuse to kill... yeah... Centurions and Stalkers would like to have a chat

[Heketon]

scJazz, on 12 August 2013 - 10:03 AM, said:

In the sense of MMO Tanking though... no. In the sense of extremely durable mechs with evil hit boxes requiring insane amounts of abuse to kill... yeah... Centurions and Stalkers would like to have a chat

The side torsos of each and every one of my Stalkers would like to join that conversation. Once they get another layer of welds, patches, Bondo, and duct tape put on. Still, as easy as it seems for those barge-sized side torsos to go, It's tough to get through to the creamy center inside.

The first mechs I mastered were Jenners. It was fairly difficult to grind through the master level due to the sheer level of noobish piloting skills I had at the time. I then worked with Hunchbacks and now Stalkers. Nothing made me appreciate the Sarah's Jenner more when I got it than the experience of waddling about in a 53 kph Stalker.

[luxebo]

Just bought another Hunchie, the LRM variant. I felt like I needed a decent LRM mech once I figured out I was actually firing my SRMs on the Catapult in group one and LRMs group two . I learned the general aspect on both of the other scout mechs so I should be good to go for now, thanks guys.

[ecued]

turn your settings to low to start and hit f9, this will give you your frame rate. if you are running below 24fps, then you got problems. i noticed that c3 is a big drain on my game resources, anywhere from 30-50%. ts doesn't seem to be as bad, but haven't looked at it that closely yet. if fps is not your problem, try downloading and running the repair tool. its got a link somewhere in the forums, just search repair tool. if that doesn't work, try fooling with your settings on your graphics card, turn them to performance. i run my game at bare minimum specs, it still looks good and is more condusive to smooth play.

turn your settings to low to start and hit f9, this will give you your frame rate. if you are running below 24fps, then you got problems. i noticed that c3 is a big drain on my game resources, anywhere from 30-50%. ts doesn't seem to be as bad, but haven't looked at it that closely yet. if fps is not your problem, try downloading and running the repair tool. its got a link somewhere in the forums, just search repair tool. if that doesn't work, try fooling with your settings on your graphics card, turn them to performance. i run my game at bare minimum specs, it still looks good and is more condusive to smooth play.

[luxebo]

Just found out that the trial Catapult has jump jets but only on one leg, and that Victor has jump jets that say 4/6. Why would they do that? Also, what does half of the stuff you gain C-bills and gxp/mxp for mean, as in Cap assist, spotting assist, savior kills, etc?

[Ertur]

luxebo, on 14 August 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

Just found out that the trial Catapult has jump jets but only on one leg, and that Victor has jump jets that say 4/6. Why would they do that? Also, what does half of the stuff you gain C-bills and gxp/mxp for mean, as in Cap assist, spotting assist, savior kills, etc?

The trial mechs stink.
Cap assist means you helped capture a point (enemy base in an assault match, or one of the waypoints in conquest).
Spotting assist means you saw an enemy and kept it on radar long enough for an LRM boat to shoot at it.
Not sure what savior kills are, I think it's if you kill someone who is shooting at someone else. I've gotten savior kills on people without killing them, though, so it is probably broken a bit.

[luxebo]

Thanks Ertur, I do realize that trial mechs suck, but when I reread the jump jets, I think that I realize now that it means how many jumps on the mech. (0/4 means equipable but no jumps, while 4/6 means a few on the Victor, right?) Also, it seems like you get kill assist during battle after death and trial mechs are sorta an extra boost for C-bills and xp, noticed that I have a few thousand on certain mechs that I never had/bought. Can someone clarify here?

[Unnatural Growth]

I believe "savior kill" is when you put damage onto an enemy mech that has hit one of your team mates with a critical damage hit. Whether you deliver the "killing blow" or not is irrelevant, you assisted in the kill that saved a team mate.

Something like that anyway.

Spotting assist means you targeted an enemy mech that no one else had targeted (their triangle was just an outline, not solid red), and while you target locked, another team mate of yours hit it with something, missiles, energy weapon or ballistic. I don't believe it has to be just a missile hit.

[WANTED]

Most trial mechs blow. This month is really bad. I would definitely start getting XP for any mechs you bought. Like your hunchie. By now you sound like you know what you like and don't like mech wise so start getting mechs that fit your style.

This game is not what I remember from older mechwarrior battletech days. It moves pretty quick once the battle heats up. Map awareness like all games is key here. Also each mech is so different in handling and weapon convergence that it can take awhile to really get use to it. I still suck in some of my mechs.

If you want to win and get kills just put 2 ERR PPC and 1 Gauss on what you can then.... Bam, Kills, Win and damage galore. I hate those builds but they are the flavor of the month right now.

[luxebo]

@oldorgandonor Thanks for help on the terminology.

@WANTED I think the Victor isn't bad (had a few decent games with it) and Catapult is good in the right hands (so many tons of LRMs and SRMs), though I don't like the ammo overdose, and Cicada and Raven are mainly support light mechs. Cicada I once killed a Stalker and got about 7 kill assists, but in my opinion, they are too experimental. Some games you can do very very well but others you die the first moment you attempt to snipe. My two Hunchbacks already are halfway through all the basic special abilities in the pilot lab or whatever you want to call them. I agree with your opinion on the game, totally different from MW4 Mercs. Maps and mechs, I know general aspect on most of them, but I need to learn still. And nuclear/one shot one kill builds, I like them sometimes but it doesn't have much flavor. Thanks for your help.

[Genewen]

OldOrgandonor, on 14 August 2013 - 02:38 PM, said:

I believe "savior kill" is when you put damage onto an enemy mech that has hit one of your team mates with a critical damage hit. Whether you deliver the "killing blow" or not is irrelevant, you assisted in the kill that saved a team mate.

If that enemy has recently hit anyone on your team who had exposed internals anywhere on his mech, and you contribute to killing the enemy, it is a savior kill. And it counts on a "per friendly" basis - so if said enemy has hit three of your teammates with exposed internals, you get three savior kills.

Quote

Spotting assist means you targeted an enemy mech that no one else had targeted (their triangle was just an outline, not solid red), and while you target locked, another team mate of yours hit it with something, missiles, energy weapon or ballistic. I don't believe it has to be just a missile hit.

Nope, only missiles count. And you do not have to be the only one targeting it - what counts is that you had it directly targeted and the teammate who fired the missiles did not. Whether ten other teammates had it targeted as well does not matter - they will also get a spotting assist.

[Johnny Marek Summers]

The 4/6 jump jets on the Victor means that the mech is capable of having 6 jump jets but only has 4 of them. I believe that that the number of jump jets affects the speed of the jump (there is a Spider out there that is capable of having 12 jump jets). I could be wrong.

C-bills is the in-game currency. You need this to buy mechs, equipment, and modules. MC is bought with real money and is needed to buy certain things Hero mechs, MECH BAYS, decent colors and patterns for your mechs, some consumables. You can play the game without buying MC, but it will be harder for some things like owning lots of mechs.

MXP is mech experience. You earn this on the chassis you have played (Victor, Hunchback, etc.). You use it in the Pilot Lab to unlock pilot efficiencies which improves how your mech operates. Just remember you need the basic pilot efficiencies unlocked on three different variants of a chassis in order to unlock the next level. And you need to finish out the elite level on three mechs of the same weight class in order to be able to master a mech. So basically if you unlock all four elite skills on three hunchbacks you will be able to master any one of them. Oh and once you have gotten all your elite skills unlocked, the bonuses on your basic skills double. This is what I was alluding to when I was mentioning what you could do with Sarah's Jenner. And it is a pretty good deal since Sarah's Jenner comes with its own mech bay. You won't be able to sell the mech or use that bay for any other mech, but you will always have it.

GXP is general experience. You can use this on any mech you own, however, it is usually and best used to unlock modules. Modules gives a mech extra bonuses and are pretty expensive. Once you unlock it you still need to buy it with c-bills, so you might want to wait on that.

You earn MXP on every mech you have used. You just cannot use it until you have bought it and have it in your mech bay.

[JakeEDogge]

Understand the sentiment exactly. LRMs seem to be rediculously over-powered making brawlers useless, even if my Stalker gets in close its pretty much trashed already and then gets cored in maybe 5 seconds. I'm not sure if it's me that sucks or the game. Maybe I'm just spoiled having played WoT for so long but there is so much missing from the game in my opinion. If I quit out of a game before it ends I have no idea what the result is. I have no way of finding out how well I've been doing. And, because I don't use sticky throttle if I try typing a message my mech stops. Not a fan, not sure why I'm continuing to play and having spent millions on my Stalker I find I don't like it. Just freaking awsome.