15 replies to this topic

[Noobmaster5000]

Hello fellow Mechwarriors, I am Noobmaster5000, I have played all CD-based MechWarrior games constantly for over 15 years, and am very excited to finally have the chance to fight other real merc pilots!!! ( Fighting the Ai gets boring after dropping Direwolfs and atlas with a Puma and kitfoxes like files) Sadly, as this is my first time online how do I get the game to run? do I need to patch it before running?

[Redshift2k5]

Welcome aboard! Please feel free to bombard our new player help section with questions, we're her to help.

There's a big download now button on the upper right of the website, and that has a big download button. Run that in install the patcher, and open the patcher and hit the big blue patch button to begin downloading the game. It's about 2.8 gigs so that will take some time depending on your connection.

[Johnny Marek Summers]

Couple things to remember.

Your first 25 matches will have inflated earnings so you can buy a mech. SAVE all your C-bills until you get a really really big pot say about 12 to 15 million C-bills.

Cash in the bank, come to forums and post you want a mech and describe your playstyle. There are many here who will love to advise a new player to a good mech.

MWO may play a bit different than the games you are used to. We have had vets of other games be a little disoriented when they first started.

You cannot be Clan, yet. Clans are coming... someday.

You are buying stock mechs, and they are not that good. Running a mech as soon as you get it will probably give you a BAD experience. Oh, and BEFORE you spend anything on upgrades, either come to the forums first and ask or go to Smurfy or some other website that will allow you to experiment with your build without spending anything.

You will need three different variants of a single chassis. This means if you like the Stalker, you will need three different makes like the 3F, 5M, and 5S for example. (I don't know Stalkers, these are not suggestions) You need to "level up" three by using the experience you gain on them. Don't worry about this yet, just keep in mind you will need to buy three of something in order to get the most out of the mech.

Hope this helps. Good luck, Mechwarrior.

[scJazz]

Johnny Marek Summers, on 28 August 2013 - 09:05 AM, said:

Your first 25 matches will have inflated earnings so you can buy a mech. SAVE all your C-bills until you get a really really big pot say about 12 to 15 million C-bills.

Cash in the bank, come to forums and post you want a mech and describe your playstyle. There are many here who will love to advise a new player to a good mech.

Repeating for effect!
There is no penalty for NOT SPENDING CBills!
There is a huge penalty for screwing up this first and most important decision! Namely, a desire to ram your head into a wall repeatedly for making your New Player time even more painful then it needed to be!

We will help you make that first purchase count and be lots of fun! We are very good at that

[Aym]

I smell a troll pointing out PGI's awful new user experience...

[Noobmaster5000]

So when I buy a mech will I be able to edit it?

And what's this about exp?

[Johnny Marek Summers]

He just said that he wants to get into the game. No complaints. I was just trying to give him some info so that he doesn't make critical errors and prevent him from coming to the forums to complain.

If you mean me, my computer isn't good enough to play the game. I can get on the forums, just not play. Duo-core with 4 GB and an old graphics card.

[Aym]

Johnny I meant Noobster, since his first post was in ATD 45 asking how to install/patch...

Ok, when you buy a mech you will be able to "edit" it to a degree, it'll work a lot like this mechlab mockup that most of us use to theorycraft MWO mechs.
http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/mechlab

[Johnny Marek Summers]

Yes, you will be able to change it as much as your in-game pocket book will bear. It's just that people here on the forums will give a good idea as to what works best with the metagame and other factors. Smurfy will give you things like missile tube counts and total up how much it will cost you without having to pay anything.

XP comes in two forms. When you use a mech you earn Mech xp which is what you need to unlock/pay for pilot skills which will allow that mech to perform better. However you will need to unlock all the basic skills on the three variants I mentioned in my earlier post in order to get the elite level skills. You also will earn GXP (either General or Global xp) which you could use to help unlock pilot skills, BUT is far better to be saved so you can get modules. You should probably wait on modules they are hideously, insanely expensive in terms of GXP AND C-bills.

[Metafox]

A couple of things to add: Each variant of each mech has its own mech XP pool, but you have only one GXP pool and it can be applied to any variant of any mech (as well as modules). You earn GXP as a small percentage of your mech XP earnings. Also, you can spend MC (real money) to convert mech XP to GXP. If you're interested in converting XP, PGI has an XP conversion sale every now and then.

[Prezimonto]

Good advice in this thread from experienced players.

Play your first 25 matches, earn your cash, and then buy a set of mechs you'll be willing to commit to.

What that means:
try each trial mech (there will be 4 and if you're lucky they'll change to another 4 while you're playing your first 25 games so you'll get to try 8 mechs).

Some will be terrible because this game makes stock builds (and single heat sinks) something to be gotten rid of immediately.
Some will be decent, and you'll still not like them because they're not your play style.

Do, finish watching each match to it's completion. Pay attention to what mechs are being played, how they move, and what kinds of loadouts work.

Unlike any previous mechwarrior title light mechs are actually pretty good in the right hands. In fact any mech can be pretty good in the rights hands and given the right situation. Much of the game is figuring out HOW you want to play and then HOW to create that type of a fight in more matches than not.

Which is why: play your first 25 games, get an idea for what mechs and builds you might like, ask on the forums if you want some help.

Finally, I know you want to get right to modding your mech in a mech bay. You'll get there, you need to buy one with cbills first though. And has been noted that's a commitment as you'll likely want 3 variants (3 types of jenner, or 3 types of Catapult) to be able to learn all the pilot skills... and that's expensive.

Be aware: most mechs do not come with upgrades.
Double Heat Sinks are required to be competitive and will cost 1.5million cbills on top of the mech cost.
Endo Steel is required on all but some Assault mech builds and it will cost 0.5 to ~1million cbills on all but the smallest mechs.
Ferro Fibrous armor is often called for on the smallest mech (in addition to the above) to free up more space and will cost similar to Endo Steel.
XL engines are also required on most light mech builds that are truely effective, these run 3 million to 6 million depending on size.
So while a light mech looks cheap at around 3 million you can triple that before you have a GOOD light mech.

This is why we suggest waiting and conserving that early bonus:
your first 25 matches should net around 10 million cbills or more if you're pretty good. That enough to buy and trick out maybe 2 light mechs or 2 medium mechs, maybe mostly trick out 2 heavies, or MAYBE buy 1 assault.

After those matches you'll earn MAYBE 2 to 3 million cbills in 25 matches, unless you buy premium time or invest real money in a hero mech variant.... meaning it will be a LONG time before you can afford more mechs.

If you're jonesing to see what you can do with various mech chassis check out smurfy:
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...echlab#modified

best to plan a build, get some forum folks to take a look and help optimize it before you spend that hard won loot.

[Johnny Marek Summers]

Oh yes, the Training Grounds. If you find that you are having trouble with moving in your mech. Go to the Training Grounds in game (I believe it's the button with a little mech outline next to the launch button).

You can pick out which map you want to use and run around in it. This way you can learn the maps. Get used to your weapons.
Select your weapon groups. Turn off 3rd person. Figure out that Throttle Decay and Arm Lock are BAD. So you don't have to look like a noob on the battlefield.

Note: Pilot skills do not work in the Training Grounds so you won't really notice any differences there.

[qki]

since you know the basics of battletech, there's no point going over them.

MWO is a pretty faithful representation of the rules, with some minor tweaks like damage. Armor values are doubled, to prevent players with dual AC20s just one shotting everything with a well-aimed shot to the torso.

The mech handles differently to MW3 and MW4, so spend some time in the testing grounds to get a feel for it.

Trial mechs are provided "as is", but once you buy something, you can customize it. The only limitations are the battletech construction rules, and the MWO hardpoint system (limiting what weapons, and where you can put on your mech).


Unlike the standalone mechwarrior games, where the endgame was all about the biggest mechs and biggest guns, you can roll with a light or a medium and be an important, integral part of the company. Hell - i've seen light mechs come out with 6 kills - that's half the opposing team, though mostly it means they got the last hit in (but with 600 damage done they topped many assault mechs as well).

If anything, i'd recommend staying away from the slow, cumbersome assault mechs until you get some practice, since positioning is crucial, and assault mechs are very unforgiving in this regard.

[Joe Kid]

Johnny Marek Summers, on 28 August 2013 - 09:05 AM, said:

This means if you like the Stalker, you will need three different makes like the 3F, 5M, and 5S for example. (I don't know Stalkers, these are not suggestions) You need to "level up" three by using the experience you gain on them. Don't worry about this yet, just keep in mind you will need to buy three of something in order to get the most out of the mech.

Hope this helps. Good luck, Mechwarrior.

Well you just chose the only three Stalkers that can be bought with CB worth having! I declare them the best suggestions. So I guess you do kind of know Stalkers. :-)

[Mycrus]

If I would start over, I buy something like ilya and then a few days of premium.

Then my cadet bonus will stack together with premium and with hero mech bonus for an even bigger starting kit of dough..

[Dalziel Hasek Davion]

Joe Kid, on 28 August 2013 - 06:33 PM, said:

Well you just chose the only three Stalkers that can be bought with CB worth having! I declare them the best suggestions. So I guess you do kind of know Stalkers. :-)

What - no love for the 3H? 50 missiles in one salvo... it's a powerful LRM platform. I'd place it above the 5S.

However - you're right about the 4N.