10296 replies to this topic

[Wideside]

Hi, guys. Been plaing this game for about 80 hours but never got in FP. It looked too complicated for me. But a few days ago I decided to try. I became a freelancer and got in one battle. It went better than I expected, so I wanted to try more. I saw the thing about loyalty points and mercs points and decided to become a merc. Didn't know which merc unit to join so I created my own for me and my friend so we could earn some merc points. I took a contract with tasty bonus of 30% with house Liao, i guess and since then I can't find a game in the FP. I see some attacks are going on, but there are no players. Neither in scout nor in invasion. Attack's been up for 2 days already, I tried to join it in different time of the day but still can't get any players with me. So, does being in a unit affects this all somehow? Does unit size matter(there are only 2 of us in it)? Or I just need to find the good time of the day to join? I live in UTC+7, if that matters.
P.S. And why I can't create topics? What do I need to do to be able to?
P.P.S. Sorry for bad english.

Edited by Wideside, 06 December 2016 - 02:04 AM.

[Rogue Jedi]

The way faction play works is there have to be enough players to form a match (4 on each side for scouting, 12 on one side for invasion, if after 10 minutes no enemies show up in invasion you get to complete the objectives with no Mechs to get in your way)

The reason Liao would be offering the bonus is they are low on players and need help.

You want to be looking for contested world's along the Clan/IS borger, as a Liao Merc wou can assist any IS would in its defense against Clan attack

The way being in a larger unit helps is getting you the numbers to kick off an attack, if you have 1 player on a world trying to attack other players may take a look and think no thanks that drop will take forever to form, whereas if you have 6+ or better yet a full 12 the match will form much faster.

If you do decide to join a unit make sure they are active when you will want to play, and I would also advise talking to members to see if it is likely to be a good fit

[Wideside]

Rogue Jedi, thank you. And what about this thingy in the right side of the screen, where available activities(atacking and defending) are shown? With queues and stuff? They don't matter and I can go atack any clan border planet or what? I thought it's the main thing that can get you to battle, but I rarely can see any players there.
I created a unit just to have some merc points while playing as a freelancer mostly. It's not gonna work, is it?

Rogue Jedi, on 06 December 2016 - 10:04 AM, said:

if after 10 minutes no enemies show up in invasion you get to complete the objectives with no Mechs to get in your way

Do I need the whole 4/12 players on my side and none on the other to make this happen or people can invade in less groups?

[p4r4g0n]

@Wideside

Wait till the new FP queue system is released on Dec 13. Should make it easier to find matches.

[Tesunie]

Wideside, on 06 December 2016 - 09:45 PM, said:

Rogue Jedi, thank you. And what about this thingy in the right side of the screen, where available activities(atacking and defending) are shown? With queues and stuff? They don't matter and I can go atack any clan border planet or what? I thought it's the main thing that can get you to battle, but I rarely can see any players there.
I created a unit just to have some merc points while playing as a freelancer mostly. It's not gonna work, is it?


Do I need the whole 4/12 players on my side and none on the other to make this happen or people can invade in less groups?

As far as your first question, the top right tab on your FP screen should show planets that are available for you to attack or defend. Each planet should have numbers indicating how many players are actively playing on/queued on that world. For scouting mode, you must find 3 other people (besides yourself) dropping on that world. Once a 4 man group has been formed, it will start to find opponents for that match. If none are found after a group is formed, than it will declare an uncontested victory. Same goes for Invastion game modes, except you need 12 players as a group. These groups do not have to be premade, as the MM will form them from partial groups (so you don't need to find 11 other players manually and then drop, you can just select the world and queue up).

If there are not enough players to form a group, than no matches will be formed at all. A group of 3 players could wait forever on a single scouting mission queue for a world, if no other single player decided to join in to finish the group.


AKA: There are three phases of Match Making (MM for short):
Phase 1- Pre-group building. This is where players are placed first while you wait for a full team to be created. A full 4/12 man premade group skips this phase completely. This phase has no time limit, and will wait until it can create a full group. If you need to, you can always cancel out of this step at any time.

Phase 2- This is where you sit after you have a full team created (via manual premaking it yourself, or random with other players already queued on that world). You will wait at most 10 minutes. If no opposing team is formed within that time, you will have an uncontested victory. If there is already an enemy team created, it will skip this part and move to phase 3. Once you have made it to this stage, you can not back out of the queue. You will be required to wait till either a match is formed, or a "ghost drop" happens (which is what uncontested victories are called by the player base).

Phase 3- Once an opposing team is formed, it will activate another queue time which lasts 1 minute. This is your final chance to make any changes to your drop deck before you are launched into the match. It will now show what map you are dropping with, so you can select a drop deck to match if you wish to do so.


As far as the difference between being a free lancer or a merc (or a loyalist), you will want to be a merc (or loyalist) if you wish to actually earn points towards the FP achievements (which has some reasonably nice prizes).For the record, creating your own merc group probably was a good decision on this part. It will be far more helpful to you than being a free lancer.

If you want to try and drop where the action is, find worlds where there are numbers of players already dropping. You can also always wait for the alerts like when you were a free lancer to find planets in need of more numbers, so you haven't really lost all that much by having a merc contract active. It does limit your choices of planets you can aid though.

As for FP in general, it's not an overly active place at the moment. Most people don't seem to play it unless there is an event going on at the time, or they are in a unit that has dedicated time towards it and has the numbers to create matches on their own. Finding a match in FP can be a challenge, and some times there may litterally be no one playing FP at the moment...

Edit: Mind was typing faster than my hands.. So I missed a few... words...

Edited by Tesunie, 06 December 2016 - 10:25 PM.

[semiosphere]

Hi!

I am new to this game, but not to BattleTech/ MechWarrior Games.

I am looking for a guide for beginners, which doesn't explain the different mech types or what a gauss cannon is or overheating, but which explains the tactics in the game and how I should behave in a multiplayer game. The guides and tutorials I found only explain the basics and controls or how to target an enemy (most of it you learn in the academy in the game, so I don't get the point of making a video of it). But when I started my first multiplayer game I was completely overwhelmed about what to DO because it is so different to Single Player MechWarrior games (back in the day). So I am looking for a tactics/strategy guide which explains how to fit into the group.

[Nerokar]

https://mwomercs.com...des-strategies/
Here you can find a lot of pinned guides.
The best in my Opinion is this:
tactics-101-comics

Edited by Nerokar, 08 December 2016 - 03:49 AM.

[p4r4g0n]

Did you read through this entire thread which has a wealth of information already.

Other sources -

https://mwomercs.com...ew-player-help/
https://mwomercs.com...des-strategies/

I realize they are not optimally organized but apart from a vet actually walking you through in-game, it is the best source of information a new player is likely to get. Feel free to post questions on specific issues here if you have any.

Edited by p4r4g0n, 08 December 2016 - 01:48 PM.

[Strelok]

Premium Time: Can you turn it off when not in use?

[Koniving]

Strelok, on 10 December 2016 - 08:34 AM, said:

Premium Time: Can you turn it off when not in use?

Sadly, no. I'm sorry.

I advise getting it when you know you can make the most of it.
This said: When you get premium time from website sources (instead of in game sources), they usually 'bank', which means that they do not activate until you tell it to... and the website -- on your profile page -- has an option to activate 30 days (or any number up to 30 days when you hit the button but don't have 30 days) at a time. Handy when you're someone who has been here a while...

...as without buying any premium time in the entire time I have played this game, I've accrued over 2 years worth.

Free premium time on occasion and those that come with pre-orders and events (also free but you gotta 'earn' them through play)... I think it more than makes up for the issue of not being able to deactivate premium time.

Also:
Welcome to MWO. If you have any more questions feel free to ask (even create a dedicated thread for yourself if you like so you can have a one stop shop for your answers), and although it is dated, see my post on the first page (the 2nd post overall), I know I need to update the pictures and in a few days a bit of the info, but otherwise all of that "FAQ" is still very valid and useful.

Edited by Koniving, 10 December 2016 - 10:26 AM.

[BodakOfSseth]

Does Ballistic velocity quirks help machine guns? do any ballistic quirks help MGs?

[Tesunie]

ScottAleric, on 10 December 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

Does Ballistic velocity quirks help machine guns? do any ballistic quirks help MGs?

No, they do not. MGs don't have any velocity. They are (last I knew), a hit scan weapon. What this means is they travel like lasers. Ignore the graphics on this one for the most part.

As far as I know, it would have to be MG specific quirks to have any effect.

Edited by Tesunie, 10 December 2016 - 03:11 PM.

[Tier5 Kerensky]

ScottAleric, on 10 December 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

Does Ballistic velocity quirks help machine guns? do any ballistic quirks help MGs?

Yes they do. You can see it on mechlab. Select a weapon and in it's starts you can see what quirks apply to it and how much. Or highlight if it's equiped.

For non-owned clan omnimechs sometimes the quirks from changed omnipods don't correctly apply, sometimes they do. Haven't seen it happen for owned mechs.

However the velocity of MGs is kinda irrelevent. They have very high spread and very short distance. You don't lead MGs anyway.

While looking at it, although MGs don't have displayed cooldown, the cooldown quirk still applies to them. As well as range and heat generation.

[Tesunie]

Teer Kerensky, on 10 December 2016 - 04:30 PM, said:

(MG) heat generation.

Small note: MGs don't produce heat.

[Ximenett]

Any tip for get people for my unit???

[Rogue Jedi]

Ximenett, on 11 December 2016 - 09:54 AM, said:

Any tip for get people for my unit???

first things first, if your unit does not already have a website make one

make a post in the House Marik subforum in the faction play innner sphere setion of the MWO forums advertising your unit, including a link to your units website, explain the tone of your unit and why people should want to drop with your unit.
you can post in that thread as often as you want provided you are posting something new.
you can use the text chat to advertise your unit once per game, more than that and you will get into trouble
put a link to your units website in your forum signiture, do not make forum posts only advertising your unit, that is not allowed.

[Ximenett]

Rogue Jedi, on 11 December 2016 - 10:17 AM, said:

first things first, if your unit does not already have a website make one

make a post in the House Marik subforum in the faction play innner sphere setion of the MWO forums advertising your unit, including a link to your units website, explain the tone of your unit and why people should want to drop with your unit.
you can post in that thread as often as you want provided you are posting something new.
you can use the text chat to advertise your unit once per game, more than that and you will get into trouble
put a link to your units website in your forum signiture, do not make forum posts only advertising your unit, that is not allowed.

There is another question: how to make a website for free???? I never did one before -.-

[Rogue Jedi]

Ximenett, on 11 December 2016 - 10:20 AM, said:

There is another question: how to make a website for free???? I never did one before -.-

I am know there are many others out there but https://www.enjin.com is the one most MWO units seem to use, it allows you to setup your own site for free, but naturaly you get more options if you pay, and it is rather easy to use, there are tutorials on youtube for everything you are likely to need

[Ximenett]

Ok because the ammount of responsability of the unit and the website i have disbanded the unit. Now another question.

I want to join to an existing unit but i'm deserting from my actual faction. This means that before i break the contract period i can't join to another unit/faction???? Or will be automatically set up after join a new unit????

That's all,sorry for the amount of questions.

[IraqiWalker]

Ximenett, on 11 December 2016 - 12:49 PM, said:

Ok because the ammount of responsability of the unit and the website i have disbanded the unit. Now another question.

I want to join to an existing unit but i'm deserting from my actual faction. This means that before i break the contract period i can't join to another unit/faction???? Or will be automatically set up after join a new unit????

That's all,sorry for the amount of questions.

Ask as many questions as you want. Only dumb question is the one not asked.

You can break the contract, however, that will penalize you iirc, and you won't be able to join a unit for a few days. After that you can join any unit you want.

So either wait until you finish your contract, or break it now, take the penalty, and swap factions sooner.