27 replies to this topic

[Marmon Rzohr]

Of all the things they are plannig to do for new players the trial mechs seem like an easy thing to fix.
They could offer special mechs instead of the basic chassis variants. Call them recruit mechs or whatever. Make a few effective variants for each class, and done.

Nothing flashy. Just some basics. Atlas DDC with an ac20, srms and ML, a hunch 4sp with a better engine and endo, a fast jenner with lasers, and K2 with Ppcs and LLs. Something along those lines. People will still want their own mechs just as bad, but the gameis more
user friendly.


It will also give new players a better idea of how to build proper mechs.
At least it should work IMHO

[Shifty Eyes]

YueFei, on 11 August 2013 - 11:48 PM, said:

The damage numbers can be misleading. If I'm the one who does 1 point of damage into the severely damaged side-torso of an enemy Atlas that teammates already opened up, and thus destroy the shoulder, all equipment/weapons within, and remove the attached arm and all the goodies in the arm as well, I get credit for that and that one shot can easily count as having done 100+ damage.
[...]

This must be the reason I have been occasionally landing 700+ damage with quad MGs recently

To the OP, kudos. The MWO community is honestly worlds better than most other competitive games I've played. There's always the occasional @$$hole that QQs the whole match, I think that's unavoidable.

I did so badly for so long, I'm pretty sure my elo is unrecoverable, but I still love to play this game! I'd encourage new players to stick with it and continue learning. I've had such great experiences with this game.

[Liquid Leopard]

Marmon Rzohr, on 13 August 2013 - 07:45 AM, said:

Of all the things they are plannig to do for new players the trial mechs seem like an easy thing to fix.
They could offer special mechs instead of the basic chassis variants. Call them recruit mechs or whatever. Make a few effective variants for each class, and done.

Nothing flashy. Just some basics. Atlas DDC with an ac20, srms and ML, a hunch 4sp with a better engine and endo, a fast jenner with lasers, and K2 with Ppcs and LLs. Something along those lines. People will still want their own mechs just as bad, but the game is more user friendly.

It will also give new players a better idea of how to build proper mechs.
At least it should work IMHO

Come to think of it, I read in a paperback Technical Readout (3050) that the Crockett was originally a training mech. http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Crockett
Slow, but it had a weapon of each type, it was heavily armored, and had jump jets. I think that's a good way for a newbie to learn: Give them a mech with a variety of weapons and equipment, and make it last as long as possible in the fight.

Each set of trial mechs has one mech that sucks less than the others, and it's not necessarily the "champion" mech. The champion mechs seem to be designed by experienced players, with the thinking of "What do I want to do with this chassis?" Not "What did I need when I first started 6 months ago?"

Currently, the VTR-9K is my favorite trial mech. Imagine that was rearranged with AMS and max armor. If there had to be something cheap about it, it could retain the stock engine, and not spoil the newbie with the extra capacity of an XL engine.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ccd5f3834cb0b70
^ With this build, the trainee could take a few hits, the ammo would last most of the match, and it wouldn't overheat at the drop of a hat. They also get to see how TAG affects missile locks. So, this many LRMs won't hit very hard...

The "training mech" doesn't have to make the trainee a threat on the field, but rather be a good tool for learning, and not drag down the team like trial mechs often do.

Something else that I think would help: If someone in a trial mech could get tips or error messages when they do something silly. For example, "LRM maximum range is 1000m". Or, "Maintain TAG contact or missiles may not hit" (I could have used that one. TAG wasn't self-explanatory.) When you buy your own mech, these messages go away.

[Marmon Rzohr]

The training messages and hints sounds like a good idea.
PGI said (i think it was Ask the devs 43 or 44) that they're looking to make tutourials of some kind before launch.
Perhaps they intend to include stuff like that. At least as videos on the website. Tag, NARC, ECM and LRMs in general could do with an intro.

[Gunny D]

Just started playing my self recently, Got Rocked still getting Rocked and probably will continue to get Rocked for a while. Yes, you do get thrown into the Deep End and it is a sink or swim game, But it makes it all that much sweeter when you get a kill or set a new personal high score. I have met up with some pretty cool players (Deaths Hand Brigade), we do drops together and they invited me into their team speak which makes playing ALOT easier. Maybe I am just fortunate, but I am happy with the game so far.

[FEK315]

YEah bro that is the only way to learn, school of hard knocks! Besides I will be out there dying along with you so misery loves company. Thus call us the Misery Company

[Navy Sixes]

Marmon Rzohr, on 13 August 2013 - 03:42 PM, said:

Perhaps they intend to include stuff like that. At least as videos on the website.

I hope it's more than this. There are already libraries worth of MWO footage on youtube; much of it described as "how to..." More people should check some of this stuff out; a lot of it is pretty good. But that's really not going to save a lot of new players from getting stomped, getting frustrated, and getting out.

The thing is, you log into a new game, you don't want to sit down and watch videos for a half an hour. You want to play. So if they're going to do a tutorial, it needs to be interactive and engaging. Personally, I think the best tutorial PGI could put together by launch (No offense PGI, you guys are doing well, but I've come to not expect too much) is a separate solo PUG for players on their first 25 drops. That way everyone a new player is fighting is also using a trial mech and making those rookie mistakes along side them. If they could get "advice bubbles" as mentioned above, that would be awesome.

[Johnny Marek Summers]

Too bad PGI didn't fund and help Kon develop the mech intro videos that he was working on. Those could have been pretty cool to have at launch.

It would have been neat to have intro to a light mech video followed by a short tutorial mish with tips on how to pilot that mech, go on to a medium mech intro video followed by a tutorial mish, then the heavies, followed by an assault. The tutorial missions could go over the basics of scouting, capping (with a warning that cap without ANY conflict will tick off your dropmates), and of course brawling and long range combat.

After the introduction to the mechs there would be a tutorial to the Mech Bay, where the cadet will have a small budget (they don't keep this) to modify a mech (can run through the light, medium, heavy, and assault chassis again) after which they will launch into a couple of missions (first a hot map, then a cold one) for each weight class.

On to the pilot tree tutorial. Depending on how many missions the cadet has gone through (could be a lot if each subject had a mission attached) they could have a lot of xp on certain chassis which you can show them and have them unlock a basic efficiencyl. And of course it's followed by a mission to show them how that affects the mech in question. Of course given the costs of unlocking the only one you could is cool run. Maybe they won't actually earn enough so you'll have to make the numbers up in the tutorial.

Finally they get a choice of mech which they will modify in the Mech Bay after which they will launch into the first of a two-part "graduation excercise." First a conquest mission on a random map, then an assault mission on a random map. At the end, the cadet gets 8 million c-bills to buy and mod a mech.

I think this would work, but then I have never played the game. What do you guys think?