10367 replies to this topic

[Koniving]

Both sides can do that, and it's usually the side with more dead players (aka the losing team) that benefits from this to even out an otherwise very uneven match. o.O;

[Robert Montjoy]

Another short question from a crumpy old Man for today...

Q: How come that so many experienced and skilled player are unwilling to take command?



Let me please explain what I mean:
I'm very new to this one Game (but not to Battletech) and even I do have over 100 Matches. So I do expect that there are quite a few Players who do have Thousands of Matches under their Belts and therefore do know each and every Map like the inside of their Pockets. They do know where possible Ambushes and Traps are do be expected and where do set up a defensive Line, when to charge and when to defend, etc-etc. All this makes a good Commander for me. Perfect would he/she be if he/she knows how to give Orders correctly, I mean without offending people and furthermore what to say at the right Time to make a good Team. Anyway in only one out of ten Games I've played there where a Commander. And almost needless to say the Performance of the Team was way better than without. I mean there are so many people around (like myself) who don't have a clue what to beginn with when the Battle starts. I don't know where the Resource Points are or the Enemy Base and the very limited Mini-Map in the Cockpit is no real help. You have to switch on the Battlegrid and look to orientate... but then you can't move and are next to helpless... I'm not satisfied.

So why do the experienced Players (regardless of Damage or Kills they maybe have made for this is no proof of beeing a good Commander) take command so rarely? It seems to me that the Engine generating a Match tries to place experienced and not so experienced Players evenly in each Team.

I would like to chat more, about Tactics and Roleplaying and Immersion in the Game World of Battletch... but I think what I do have written is already to much for this Q/A Blog for which I'm very thankfull b.t.w.
But maybe there is a Place for such philosophical Diskussions in this Forum?

Greetings
Robert

[scJazz]

The answer is PUG matches...

I could easily take command... run the company around the battlefield... re-org lances as necessary and correct.

Or... I could just pilot my mech... be the guy in front invariably... seriously even in an underpowered Catapult A1... still be the guy in front. By doing so I am already adding order to Chaos Theory and Game Theory.

If you want more organization... join up on one of the TS servers.

I hear what you are saying but there is a joyful bit of self-org that delights me in PUGs. The reverse of that is joining TS for pre-mades... which I also delight in destroying but that is a different story.

[MillerJ]

This is really helpful! Thanks!

[Denolven]

scJazz, on 04 November 2013 - 05:22 AM, said:

Have you submitted a bug report? support@mwomercs.com.

Will do that as soon as I can give them anything to work with - either a video (which I can't do myself), or a method to reproduce the issue.

[scJazz]

Denolven, on 05 November 2013 - 07:51 AM, said:

Will do that as soon as I can give them anything to work with - either a video (which I can't do myself), or a method to reproduce the issue.

I suggest you send in a bug report explaining as you have done here what happened. Maybe there is a known issue. Perhaps you will alert them to a possible issue even if you can't reproduce it right now.

[Geek Verve]

Robert Montjoy, on 04 November 2013 - 11:51 AM, said:

Another short question from a crumpy old Man for today...

Q: How come that so many experienced and skilled player are unwilling to take command?

A short answer from one grumpy old man to another...more often than not, people don't listen. So many of those "experts", while not willing to take command, are more than happy debating the proposed plan or simply ignoring it. It doesn't take much of that before deciding the only reason to grab command is to prevent some chucklehead from taking it and shuffling people around, breaking up your pre-made group, just because they think all assault mechs should be in the same lance.

[Denolven]

Robert Montjoy, on 04 November 2013 - 11:51 AM, said:

Q: How come that so many experienced and skilled player are unwilling to take command?
[...]
I would like to chat more, about Tactics and Roleplaying and Immersion in the Game World of Battletch...

There are a few things that are needed before having a commander makes sense. The main reason why there is almost no commanding in public games (PUGs) is the fact that the majority of players is not interested in teamplay and winning. The majority is either grinding the next stock mech or just having some random fun with stompy robots. Wich is perfectly fine. PUGs for casual gaming, team drops for competitive gaming. As soon as people really team up, be it in a small lance with friends, or in a 12 man drop, a leader is chosen naturally.

World of Tanks has a more appropriate name for that game mode: Random Battle. Because that's what it is, random. And therein lies an own magic, as Jazz described.

[ecued]

wheres my sock?

[DEMAX51]

Mr. Tumnus has it. Your dryer is actually a gateway to the magical land of Narnia.

Edited by DEMAX51, 06 November 2013 - 09:55 AM.

[Lochiel]

Sensors; how do they work?

What needs to happen for an enemy mech to show up on my teammates map? Do I need LoS with a target, do I need to target them, or what? What does the filled vs empty target markers mean?

Is this info someplace obvious that I missed?

Edited by C Lochiel, 06 November 2013 - 05:21 PM.

[Redshift2k5]

C Lochiel, on 06 November 2013 - 05:20 PM, said:

Sensors; how do they work?

What needs to happen for an enemy mech to show up on my teammates map? Do I need LoS with a target, do I need to target them, or what? What does the filled vs empty target markers mean?

Is this info someplace obvious that I missed?

you need line of sight to see a mech. Any mech you can see well enough to target has a hollow red triangle. Hollow red triangles are not shared with allies.

Target one of them to get a solid red triangle. This target is shared with allies. They will see it on their map as well as be able to lock-on from afar.

distance is also a factor, your sensors max out at ~650 meters which can be improved with a BAP or a sensor range module.

ECM affects these sensors in several ways, both blocking a target and blocking your ability to share info.

[Lochiel]

If I have an enemy mech targeted long enough to get their status paperdoll, then my buddy targets the same enemy does my buddy have to wait for their status? Or do they get the status directly from me? If I break LoS with my target, does the timer for target status start over when I re-acquire LoS, or is it simply paused?

If I have a BAP, does the friendly mech standing next to me benefit from it in any way?

Edited by C Lochiel, 07 November 2013 - 09:05 AM.

[Hammerfinn]

C Lochiel, on 07 November 2013 - 08:47 AM, said:

If I have an enemy mech targeted long enough to get their status paperdoll, then my buddy targets the same enemy does my buddy have to wait for their status? Or do they get the status directly from me? If a break LoS with my target, does the timer for target status start over when I re-acquire LoS, or is it simply paused?

If I have a BAP, does the friendly mech standing next to me benefit from it in any way?

Not sure about the first line of questions, but the BAP doesn't help your allies in any way other than providing ECM counter and detecting shut-down mechs within a short radius.

[Redshift2k5]

C Lochiel, on 07 November 2013 - 08:47 AM, said:

If I have an enemy mech targeted long enough to get their status paperdoll, then my buddy targets the same enemy does my buddy have to wait for their status? Or do they get the status directly from me? If a break LoS with my target, does the timer for target status start over when I re-acquire LoS, or is it simply paused?

If I have a BAP, does the friendly mech standing next to me benefit from it in any way?

I'm pretty sure the ally will collect the paper doll much, much faster if you have already targetted the enemy. BAP gives you faster target info gathering (enemy mech chassis/variant, paper doll, loadout) so in a way it helps your allies but it doesn't directly improve their info gathering

Unsure what happens to the target info gathering when you break LOS

[DEMAX51]

Redshift2k5, on 07 November 2013 - 09:07 AM, said:

Unsure what happens to the target info gathering when you break LOS

I think if you regain line-of-sight quickly (like, less than 3 seconds or so), you'll get their paper doll immediately. Not 100%, but I think that's right.

[Redshift2k5]

DEMAX51, on 07 November 2013 - 09:09 AM, said:

I think if you regain line-of-sight quickly (like, less than 3 seconds or so), you'll get their paper doll immediately. Not 100%, but I think that's right.

There is certainly a tiny window of 'retention', as well as a module that enhances this.

[DEMAX51]

Redshift2k5, on 07 November 2013 - 09:19 AM, said:

There is certainly a tiny window of 'retention', as well as a module that enhances this.

Yeah, but even after you lose them as a target (i.e. no more red targeting box around them), I think if you regain them within a few seconds it doesn't take as long to get their paper doll back. Again, could be wrong.

[Lochiel]

Thanks for the answers.

Next, about damage and damage transfer.

How does dmg on a laser work? If my laser is rated to do 5 dmg and fires for 2 seconds and I rake it across my target does it deal 5 dmg to each section, 5 dmg avg'd across each section, 5/x dmg each x seconds for 2 seconds, or what?

Let's say I have 3 weapons grouped. Each weapon does 1 dmg. I shoot the side of a mech, whose arm has 1 armor hp and 1 IS hp. Does my dmg destroy the armor, and stop? Does it continue into the IS of the arm? If the Arm is destroyed, does the remaining 1hp of dmg continue into the torso?
If I fire again, does the dmg bypass the armor of the torso as I'm now shooting into the arm hole?

Are machine guns completely useless against armored sections, or only effectively useless? (IE,do they flat out deal 0 dmg to armor?)

[Eaerie]

lasers do there damage spread out over the time of the beam. 1sec for normal and .75sec for pulse lasers. so as it scatters across mech it will do partial damage to each section it crosses. Keep in mind it is actually possible to sweep your beam across a mech to do very little/no damage. (if you are fast enough)

if you do 3 points of damage to an arm that has 1 armor and 1 is, the damage destroys the armor then carries to the IS destoying it and the reamining point travels to the appropriate side torso. once the arm is gone and damage done to the "stump" of the arm 50% of that damage carries over to the ST. this is what makes cents such good zombie mechs. an AC20 to the destroyed arm, 50% carries to the ST (10points) if the side is gone 50% of that damage carries to the CT (5points) so that AC20 round only did 25% of its damage to the CT.

I believe MG's still damage armor but MG damage is quite low (.7 i believe) so it not going to do much until the armor is gone