10417 replies to this topic

[Koniving]

Brenden, on 30 December 2016 - 07:19 PM, said:

Why hasn't the Inner Sphere/Clans worked on weapons that can hit beyond 1,000meters?

Like a Hyper-Extended Large Laser (HELL) that could hit targets for 10 damage at like, 2K away.

This is not a short answer, but it is a very good answer.
Technically they have weapons that could hit beyond 1,000 meters and already have had them many of them for several hundred years. Examples and such below as well as why "we" don't have them.

Spoiler

Actual ranges of some of the following weapons:
Mech Rifle (fires like a tank cannon), up to 3,000 meters.)

Spoiler

(Note: Mech Rifles have been phasing out for a few hundred years due to their performance inferiority against modern military grade armor. Why carry a big gun that can only shoot once every 4 to 5 seconds when automatic weapons can churn out 4 somewhat smaller shots and deliver more than twice the damage your big one-shotter USED to do in half the time before reloading, which is 'almost' 4 times the damage your big one-shotter can do now for only 4 more tons? Or for the exact same tonnage and roughly the same expected accurate range, use a weapon that might have to fire 3 to 20 times but can do almost identical damage and carry enough bullets to do twice as much damage per ton of ammo.)

Autocannons (of 120mm or higher), up to 2,000 meters.
Lasers. Thereotically infinite range, however dust, smoke, particles in the air, etc. diminish them. Space is not a true void either.
MRMs cap out at a little over 900 meters.
LRMs cap out at a little over 1260 meters.
Their Large Laser caps out at 1140 meters for up to full damage.
The Gauss Rifle "could" fire at something over 1980 meters by firing directly at the target without raising elevation to counter for range.

Can you hit an ant from 1 foot away by throwing another ant?
Can you do this by hurling just an ant's leg?
This is the main issue, at such ranges targets are really small (the largest Mechs in Battletech are 14 meters, basically the 'medium mech' size in MWO), and then there's hitting tanks, helicopters, etc.

And such the problems as to why you can't in MWO are many:
One: This game doesn't actually use lore.
Two: MWO's ACs are actually Battletech Mech Rifles... not ACs... they just have some AC-like stats. ACs are giant machine guns often found on large anti-tank planes like the A-10.
Three: MWO does not support the Battletech Maxtech "Sniper" trait for pilots, which doubles the "expected accurate range" of weapons.
Four: PGI has interpreted "Expected Accurate Range" as "Range"... as BT handbooks and Sarna especially shorthand it as "range". It is literally "Expected Accurate Range for the average person." The better a person's gunnery skill, the more likely you can make hits at those ranges. You can always try hits at ranges beyond that and still potentially get full damage up until it is considered impossible for your gunnery skill. Weapons such as ACs have minimum accurate ranges not because bullets magically stop working at less than 60 meters, but because trying to aim a gun that doesn't bend or turn at a target up close -- or trying to wave around something bulky and heavy very quickly at a target to an extreme side of you and close enough to dodge, punch, etc. is very difficult. The PPc has a 90 meter minimum range not because it magically doesn't do damage but because it has a charging mechanic that slows down its power build up to keep the weapon from EXPLODING IN YOUR FACE!!!

Reasons go beyond this, of course. For example the difference between an AC/2 and an AC/20 with the same caliber (Blackjack 1's Whirlwind AC/2 at 30mm (10 shot) and Victor's Pontiac 100 AC/20 at 30mm (100 shot)) is quite simple: the AC/20 fires 10 times faster than an AC/2, 4 times faster than an AC/5, 2 times faster than an AC/10... and firing that many shells at that speed with that recoil with all the other factors such as the target moving, being aware, dodging or blocking, etc... the expected accurate range of the AC/20 is only 270 meters against targets of approximately 12 meters long OR wide OR tall.

Does this help?

Going beyond that -- consider that the IS position is having been at major wars for over 300 years after the Star League left -- which the Star League (now the Clans) left with well over 85% of all the weapons, tech, and the people who knew how to use and make them.

So read about the Succession Wars...
In the first war, no target was sacred and the Ares Convention was thrown out, so no rules or law to war. Want to massacre a school of children along the way? Go ahead, chances are the other side might be hiding weapons in there anyway.
People gone to church for sanctuary? Stomp on it on your way, fewer future enemy combatants to worry about.
Can't hold your base? BLOW IT UP!
What's that, a nuke? BOOM!
Entire planets destroyed? Collateral damage.

Second war was much the same. But less... since it was harder and harder to do.

By the third war it was a scavenger economy... Fancy computers? Well it's getting harder to do, so if you need one take it out of that piece of junk to use on this piece of junk. "Wow, is that an Apple? Quick, get me some screw drivers.. Forget the guys shooting us we need a computer!"
"Sir, we want your Grandfather's 'Mech so we can scrap it for parts to resupply the army. We will give you this newer, crappier thing fresh off a barely working factory line and a LOT of money that we just printed up. And if you don't accept our offer, we will kill you and your family and take it."

And then the fourth succession war hits just before the Clans get here.

Edited by Koniving, 02 January 2017 - 04:36 PM.

[el piromaniaco]

OMG.
Thanks for this summarization.
So g glad I never started reading this.

[Tesunie]

Rogue Jedi, on 02 January 2017 - 03:43 AM, said:

Spoiler

I know Sarna is not always 100% accurate but I doubt it would be this far out

http://www.sarna.net...las_(BattleMech)
AS7-D (C)
A Clan-tech retrofit of the AS7-D Atlas, the Atlas C replaced the older autocannon and missile launchers with a Clan standard Ultra AC/20, Swarm LRM compatible LRM-20, and Streak SRM-6 launchers; but the Inner Sphere Medium Lasers remained unchanged. Lighter Clan components allowed the Atlas C to carry 3 tons of autocannon ammunition.[15][16] BV (2.0) = 2,306

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Thunderbolt
TDR-5S (C)
A Clan technology retrofit of the original TDR-5S Thunderbolt built in 3050, the Thunderbolt C replaces only the original weaponry - all structural components are unaltered. The standard weapon systems have been replaced with a Clan Large Pulse Laser, a single torso-mounted ER Large Laser, and arm mounted ER Medium Laser and two ER Small Lasers.[15] BV (2.0) = 1,593[16]

I know there are other examples but I cannot remember which chassis

Sarna is as often right as it has been altered to match someone's argument... (sadly.) It's still a great resource, but I tend to take it with a little bit of suspicion.

I think you may have been had (though I could still be greatly wrong), and I do find it humorous that those (C) variants "just so happen" to match the same ones in the game for the Champion mechs. Considering PGI's apparent interest in many things Battletech (they really seemed to have done a lot of their homework here), I actually doubt that they would use that designation, especially not on the same exact mechs that really did have them. I find that they probably would have done some other designation for it instead, if they had known about the (C) clan upgrade designation. (Maybe I give PGI too much credit, but over the years, I've found them to be rather good about those kinds of things.)


This honestly is looking like the Crab's hand actuator argument I was once in. I own all the TROs (or at least the ones with the Crabs and a few others), and all of them say that the Crab (and King Crab as well) have Hand Actuators equipped. In MW:O, not all of them do. In Sarna, it "magically" says that none of the Crabs ever had Hand actuators. "Although lacking hand actuators..." One of the Crab pictures even shows it with not only a pincer claw, but an ACTUAL HAND on it's arm! I do believe that Crabs have hands...

I would also say, don't look at the ECM section of Sarna. It's been going back and forth between it's actual BT and TT lore based uses and effects, to those it performs in MW:O (if not even better). All depending upon who wishes to win the argument badly enough (at least at one point)...

AKA: Maybe you are right, but I just find it a little suspicious is all. It just "doesn't sound correct" to me...


Edit: Your Atlas link is broken. And your Thunderbolt isn't placed in the correct location (nor has the correct date on it). They normally list mechs in order of production year, yet the Thunderbolt 5S (C) is produced in 3050 with clan tech (which those where the very early days of the Clan invasion... They don't even have proper salvage to create a mech like that, forget about being able to produce it as an actual mech variant), and the next entree down (7M) says 3049 for it's production date... I also believe that BT designations would have not used the (parenthesis) for it's designation, but instead would have labeled it as a TDR-5S-C instead (if anything), or as the TDR-5C (but C normally stood for Capellans if I'm correct, like S stood for Steiner) maybe...

Edited by Tesunie, 02 January 2017 - 11:35 AM.

[Koniving]

Tesunie, on 02 January 2017 - 11:27 AM, said:

Sarna is as often right as it has been altered to match someone's argument... (sadly.) It's still a great resource, but I tend to take it with a little bit of suspicion.

Yeah.
"TDR-5S (C)"
on Sarna.net didn't exist in any of the last three years, bu t I saw it last week.
The "references" to its stat point to Project Phoenix 3085 Unabridged... which unless there's a recent update, that 'Mech does not exist on either of those two referenced pages.

Much like if I were to go onto Roughneck's page, I could take the link to the Loader King that PGI provided... which is a 'Mech that also does not exist... and I could make it exist.

In fact I already have a build and a plan to ask if PGI and Catalyst would mind if I "made it exist" and if they would make it canon.

For those interested..

Spoiler

The Roughneck page created by a combined effort of 1 person from Catalyst and PGI makes an interesting description about what the Roughneck was built from...despite faults like a bogus variant naming scheme [a Clan letter scheme doesn't fit and PGI doesn't seem to be aware that in the IS, the letters behind variants have actual meaning behind them... PGI just used A, B, C without any knowledge of this and numbers refer to 'generation' or massive overhauls, there is no reasoning what-so-ever for a 'second' generation Roughneck to be built in the same year, and the ONLY Roughneck build that meets the major overhaul criteria for a second gen distinction is the Hero 'Mech] or the fact that Roughneck looks like the opposite of any of this company's usual products...

The "Loader King" is supposedly an Industrial 'Mech that is built to compete with a rival company's "Power Man" cargo loader.
With this specific goal in mind, I set out to build one... acknowledging some machinist-learned traits like higher grade materials can be used in the same mold to create objects with greater strength... as such I made the Loader King 15 tons lighter than its Roughneck counterpart. Furthermore, being 50 tons fits better with the company's lore and manufacturing capabilities for the time provided by PGI for the Loader King to exist.


This 'Mech, built entirely around the lore of being able to compete with the venerable 35 ton Power Man 'Mech (which I confess is goddamn amazing), is in itself an amazing feat.
It uses fuel cells instead of gasoline which does heighten the tech requirement for fixing it, but the two have identical fuel life and identical speeds, except you can refuel the Loader King with water instead of gasoline or diesel. It also runs quieter and without exhausts.
The Loader King has 3 mounts of up to 2 tons each, allowing a total of 6 tons to be mounted to the 'Mech and hauled. The Power Man has 5 mounts in total, up to 1 ton capacity each, so while the Power Man could haul 5 different mounted items it isone ton short of the total mounted weight that the Loader King can muster.
The Power Man -- using its hands -- can haul cargo of a total of 35 tons with minimal loss in speed..
The Loader King can haul up to 50 tons in its arms with the exact same loss in speed.
(A mech can equip up to two lift hoists. Each lift hoist can allow the unit to haul up to half of its weight OR 200 tons [whichever is lower] without any loss in speed. These limits can be combined -- for example a 30-ton Industrial Mech mounting two lift hoists can carry cargo weighing up to 30 tons. When carrying cargo greater than half its tonnage, reduce the walk/cruise MP by 1, and refigure the running MP with the new walk MP * 1.5, round up.)
By default (thanks to artist Justin Kase for the insistence), the Loader King has a single armament to deal with unwanted intruders or minor threats, a small laser.
The Power Man's default model has no weaponry.

And all this competitive quality can be yours for..
1,841,531 - 1,709,460 = 132,071 Cbills more than the competition.
(The savings you have in not having to use fossil fuels will more than make up the difference!)
And we didn't even get into the fact that the Loader King can take the beating that PGI says it could.

Edited by Koniving, 02 January 2017 - 03:47 PM.

[Koniving]

Tesunie, on 02 January 2017 - 11:27 AM, said:

This honestly is looking like the Crab's hand actuator argument I was once in. I own all the TROs (or at least the ones with the Crabs and a few others), and all of them say that the Crab (and King Crab as well) have Hand Actuators equipped. In MW:O, not all of them do. In Sarna, it "magically" says that none of the Crabs ever had Hand actuators. "Although lacking hand actuators..." One of the Crab pictures even shows it with not only a pincer claw, but an ACTUAL HAND on it's arm! I do believe that Crabs have hands...

From three sources so far, (Master Unit Record), Mech Factory (a far more detailed 'Sarna') and finally Megamek, almost all Crabs have a "Hand actuator" located always in the left hand and exclusively in the left hand.

The TRO for the Crab 27 makes no notes about the hand actuators what-so-ever.

It notes the following though:
A Crab can be fielded for weeks without resupply.
It could have become the SLDF's standard medium mech if not for the Exodus (specifically it refers to the Exodus as "Kerensky and loyalists having left the Inner Sphere"
The Daiban Series K system was apparently superior to the Beagle Active Probe if the description means anything, it could identify a 'Mech's exact location in the world and any 'known' units on the planet. (Though I confess this is in reference to any 'Mech it is in contact with). It goes farther to do and I quote: "When operating behind enemy lines, the system can forecast enemy troop movements, differentiating between suspected positions and known positions, and project a clear path for arriving at any goal (nav system yay!). Though not fool proof it can give a pilot an excellent recon report prior to a patrol."
Being really difficult to maintain means they are effectively extinct by 3050 though (this is assumed based on the details of their six redundancies being "absolutely necessary" to keep it functional in combat and damaging one processor requires complete removal. Not to mention other lore about the Succession Wars.
The armor on the side torsos sucks, but is enough to survive a direct PPC blast without penetration. (This is important because unlike AC/10, PPC is FLD and hard hitting... AC/10 is huge machine gun spammery. Only FLD weapons are Gauss Rifles, PPCs, and Missiles.)
Cockpit is very well insulated from the 'Mech's engine.
Two methods of escape: If explosion is imminent, ejected through the roof via blowing the hatch and pilot lands approximately 200 meters away from the 'Mech. If no explosion, seat rotates 90 degrees and fired out the back, some 20 to 50 meters behind it in a much shorter and 'gentler' ride.


Also interesting:
Pilots tend to break the large laser in the right arm by using the claw as a club. Even if the laser isn't broken, it is often disabled until the pilot can leave his cockpit, climb down the arm and shove his head and arm into the elbow of the 'Mech to fix it.
From various descriptions within the Crab's TRO page... this 'Mech is very compact and very small.
The Large Lasers are mounted with one inside the Claw of the right arm and one on the Forearm of the left arm.

I'll come back and add stuff about the King Crab, but technically "No hands" and "Hands" are both correct. FASA has no hands or lower arms.
Catalyst -- the current owners of the franchise -- have lower arms and hands on the King Crab... and in terms of "canon" either you choose what you accept, or you go by the current owners and what they say, and therefore they have lower arms and hands.

Of interesting note: Despite the conflicts involving the Dragon...
The official canon is it has a Left Hand Actuator.
It does NOT have a Lower Right Arm Actuator.
This differentiates it from the Grand Dragon.

Edited by Koniving, 02 January 2017 - 07:26 PM.

[Jingseng]

Canon is whatever a IP Holder says it is that obsessive fans agrees it is.

Which is why made up truths can change so much =p

[Koniving]

Basically yeah. And Battletech is a game that leaves a 'LOT' of room with Variants and the like so that players can fill it in. And this occasionally changes to promote balance, too. The King Crab would have a hell of a time getting back up without "hand actuators", nor could it perform the attack where it shoots an enemy at either side of itself -- a full 180 degrees apart, without it.

Also: By forcing it to have lower arm actuators and hands, it prevents players from debunking the attacking from the rear approach used in that one book... because without lower arm actuators, the King Crab could just flip its arms and shoot enemies behind it making it damn near invincible (so long as you weren't able to knock it over).

Also without lower arm and hand actuators on the ruleset... the infamous "Hanger Queen's Bluff" would be impossible, as there'd be no blind spot to attack after rushing past its guns while it reloads.

[DavidStarr]

How does PSR work? Specifically, when I see a ▼, = or ▲ symbol on the scoreboard, is it literally -1, 0, +1, or is it a fine-grained amount?

[Tesunie]

DavidStarr, on 03 January 2017 - 12:40 AM, said:

How does PSR work? Specifically, when I see a ▼, = or ▲ symbol on the scoreboard, is it literally -1, 0, +1, or is it a fine-grained amount?

How much it changes? Trade secret. (AKA: PGI has not informed us players how far our PSR will increase or decrease, nor how much we need to go from one tier to another.)

There are steps where you may increase greater than other steps, or decrease greater than other steps, but those cut offs we are not informed about. Suffice to say, better match scores get you more than lower match scores. We don't know the specifics at all, only PGI does. I believe this was an intentional mechanic, so people will have a harder time "gaming" the system...

[BlueStrat]

DavidStarr, on 03 January 2017 - 12:40 AM, said:

How does PSR work? Specifically, when I see a ▼, = or ▲ symbol on the scoreboard, is it literally -1, 0, +1, or is it a fine-grained amount?

I have a related question.

I'm a casual player, I have a potato PC that gets ~15-20 FPS on a good day, I'm almost 60 years old with eyes and reflexes to match, I reached T3 briefly and am now back in T4 (and dropping fast, LOL!). I do love MechWarrior, been playing the various incarnations since MW2 and read every FASA MW novel I could find.

Why when playing solo QP am I facing pilots in T1/T2 and pilots who I've seen in comp vids? I thought PSR was there to make sure those of us who are less skilled/experienced aren't just "farming fodder" for elite pilots? One of my friends on Steam was going to buy me some Mech-Packs for Christmas, but I had him buy me some new tubes for my guitar amp instead. I'd like to spend money on MWO but I can't justify it just to get instagibbed nearly every match with little or nothing to show for it.

Is it just that matchmaking in solo QP throws anyone together unless the que numbers reach some magical number? If so, I'd prefer to wait a lot longer for a match or even be unable to find a match rather than just feed the PUG-farmers without getting even any fun in return, never mind very little C-bills/XP/GXP for the grind.

Should I just leave MWO alone and wait for MW5?

[Tesunie]

BlueStrat, on 03 January 2017 - 01:53 AM, said:

Should I just leave MWO alone and wait for MW5?

As far as PSR goes, it will try to place you with other players of the same exact ranking as you. The longer it takes to form a match, the farther it will look outside your PSR. In theory, you should never drop with someone outside 2 tiers of your own tier. So, T5 should never drop with T2 or T1 (and same in reverse). You are T4 currently, so you can drop with anyone who isn't a T1 pilot. In theory.

It is believe that if those parameters can't be followed, that the MM will form a group with whatever it has available to make a game "in a reasonable amount of time", though PGI announced that this should never happen (it's only speculation and rumor). So, depending upon when you are playing, and what server you are playing on at that time (for best results, select all regional servers, though it might not lead to best games play due to latency), you may find this rule ignored. I have never seen this happen myself, but I've been in T3 for a long while (which means I can drop with anyone).

As far as "dropping with T1s", this is actually fairly hard information to confirm. Tiers are not announced inside the match, so in order to know what someone's actual PSR is, you'd have to know them from the forums and they would have to have their tier showing. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But I say this because I've heard a lot of people seemingly to "always be fighting T1s when I'm a T5"... and yet they are only speculating because of how fast their team died. I'll say it again, PGI's last official announcement about MM said that a pilot should never be in a match (in QP) with another player who is 2 steps away from their own PSR. This is suppose to be a hard rule that the MM is suppose to always follow.


Part of your problem seems to be a combination of technology and physical. Your computer is either too weak to properly play the game (though 20 FPS is at least playable), or you have your graphic settings placed really high. Lower your graphic settings (especially particles) to get better results. If you already are on "lowest", consider upgrading your computer. Without knowing more about your computer specs, I can't say what may be your problem here.

As for any physical problems... Well... I can't do anything about that at all...


Overall, I'll recommend to you what I recommend to most people. I suggest you just ignore your PSR and play the game. You are like me, a casual. Don't be bothered about a PSR score that is based mostly upon your team winning. You are only 1 person out of 24 that influences a match. You can only do so much. Play to have fun. (Though, looking at the PSR isn't a bad thing, just don't focus on it is my suggestion.)

Only other thing I can possibly suggest, is asking for help on your mech builds. That is beyond the scope of this thread's purpose, so if you pursue this advice, I suggest you create a new thread for it. If you feel you have the skill, it may actually be your mech holding you back. (This is not to say your build may or may not be bad, but it may be able to be optimized a little more possibly. Obviously, I have no idea about this, as I don't know your mechs at all.)


Overall, you probably wont want to get higher than T3. Enjoy your time in the lower tiers. I've been told once you enter T2 and T1, it becomes almost all about the meta and I've been informed by some people that it's less fun to play at that level than it is the lower levels. I'll take their word for it, but I will comment that I felt my matches were more fun in T4 and I seemed to have seen more teamwork back then. Now that I'm T3 and almost T2... the matches just don't seem the same anymore. So, maybe there is merit to what those people are saying...

[DavidStarr]

Tesunie, on 03 January 2017 - 02:18 AM, said:

You are like me, a casual.

Let me guess: Tier 1 casual?

Tesunie, on 03 January 2017 - 01:41 AM, said:

There are steps where you may increase greater than other steps, or decrease greater than other steps

Ah, so I'm not imagining. Thanks.

Edited by DavidStarr, 03 January 2017 - 02:22 AM.

[BlueStrat]

Tesunie, on 03 January 2017 - 02:18 AM, said:

As far as PSR goes, it will try to place you with other players of the same exact ranking as you. The longer it takes to form a match, the farther it will look outside your PSR. In theory, you should never drop with someone outside 2 tiers of your own tier. So, T5 should never drop with T2 or T1 (and same in reverse). You are T4 currently, so you can drop with anyone who isn't a T1 pilot. In theory.

It is believe that if those parameters can't be followed, that the MM will form a group with whatever it has available to make a game "in a reasonable amount of time", though PGI announced that this should never happen (it's only speculation and rumor). So, depending upon when you are playing, and what server you are playing on at that time (for best results, select all regional servers, though it might not lead to best games play due to latency), you may find this rule ignored. I have never seen this happen myself, but I've been in T3 for a long while (which means I can drop with anyone).

As far as "dropping with T1s", this is actually fairly hard information to confirm. Tiers are not announced inside the match, so in order to know what someone's actual PSR is, you'd have to know them from the forums and they would have to have their tier showing. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But I say this because I've heard a lot of people seemingly to "always be fighting T1s when I'm a T5"... and yet they are only speculating because of how fast their team died. I'll say it again, PGI's last official announcement about MM said that a pilot should never be in a match (in QP) with another player who is 2 steps away from their own PSR. This is suppose to be a hard rule that the MM is suppose to always follow.


Part of your problem seems to be a combination of technology and physical. Your computer is either too weak to properly play the game (though 20 FPS is at least playable), or you have your graphic settings placed really high. Lower your graphic settings (especially particles) to get better results. If you already are on "lowest", consider upgrading your computer. Without knowing more about your computer specs, I can't say what may be your problem here.

As for any physical problems... Well... I can't do anything about that at all...


Overall, I'll recommend to you what I recommend to most people. I suggest you just ignore your PSR and play the game. You are like me, a casual. Don't be bothered about a PSR score that is based mostly upon your team winning. You are only 1 person out of 24 that influences a match. You can only do so much. Play to have fun. (Though, looking at the PSR isn't a bad thing, just don't focus on it is my suggestion.)

Only other thing I can possibly suggest, is asking for help on your mech builds. That is beyond the scope of this thread's purpose, so if you pursue this advice, I suggest you create a new thread for it. If you feel you have the skill, it may actually be your mech holding you back. (This is not to say your build may or may not be bad, but it may be able to be optimized a little more possibly. Obviously, I have no idea about this, as I don't know your mechs at all.)


Overall, you probably wont want to get higher than T3. Enjoy your time in the lower tiers. I've been told once you enter T2 and T1, it becomes almost all about the meta and I've been informed by some people that it's less fun to play at that level than it is the lower levels. I'll take their word for it, but I will comment that I felt my matches were more fun in T4 and I seemed to have seen more teamwork back then. Now that I'm T3 and almost T2... the matches just don't seem the same anymore. So, maybe there is merit to what those people are saying...

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

As for my PC, I do run all settings at minimum, although it does well on other games (i.e. I never go below 60 FPS on War Thunder). I've taken a lot of build advice from Metamechs and the forums and experienced players in the game and although there are a few areas/mechs I could improve (if I could earn more for better/more engines & etc by avoiding getting instagibbed by high-tier players, LOL!) I've got some decent if not stellar builds.

Having been briefly in T3 I agree with your general assessment of game-play at higher tiers. This had me curious enough that I actually wrote down some of the players' names and did a little detective work to find out their tier ranking (forums, reddit, etc) and actually did recognize one name I remembered from a competition vid someone posted on YT. This was as I was a T4/T5.

I think I'll just set MWO aside for now, maybe check in once in a while, maybe even que up if I'm really bored, but mostly just wait for MW5 unless there's some major change/improvement with PSR/MM.

Thanks again for your helpful and informative reply. Cheers!

[Audacious Aubergine]

DavidStarr, on 03 January 2017 - 12:40 AM, said:

How does PSR work?

In mysterious ways.

[BlueStrat]

DavidStarr, on 03 January 2017 - 12:40 AM, said:

How does PSR work?

Audacious Aubergine, on 03 January 2017 - 02:46 AM, said:

In mysterious ways.

Heh!

I would have replied with a (somewhat mangled) "Hitchhiker's Guide" quote; "Exactly the same way a brick flies."

Edited by BlueStrat, 03 January 2017 - 03:06 AM.

[Tesunie]

DavidStarr, on 03 January 2017 - 02:21 AM, said:

Let me guess: Tier 1 casual?

Casual, yes.
Tier 1, no (or maybe not yet?).

I shall admit that I did join my unit's small competitive division for a short time. It was good fun, but I eventually bowed out of it because it was a bit too much for me. I play this game to have fun, and though that doesn't necicarily mean that I can't be competitive, it just means I prefer a little more laid back approach. (I also love to experiment with different things. Such as weapon combos and mech chassis.)

BlueStrat, on 03 January 2017 - 02:43 AM, said:

Thanks again for your helpful and informative reply. Cheers!

MW:O is very intensive to a system. It may be your video card that can't handle it, or your processor. You are not alone with this game being "the only game I play" that has a harder time and lower frame rate.

Metamechs is not a bad thing, but I do encourage players to experiment and think for themselves. I've had meta mechs that I've tried to use, and failed at it. Yet sometimes a strange and odd build just clicks for me. So, use what you feel works best for you. This is a game, so don't be afraid to experiment a little. (Though, I will remark that the meta has developed and is there for a reason, so ignore it at your own risk.)

I am going to presume that you play around the same time you post. Those times are the lowest population times from what I know of. With this in mind, you may literally have no one else to play with. Are you seeing the same names in matches? If so, than either you just so happen to be "lucky", or those literally could be the only people on at that time. The game play is normally better at other times, such as the time of my post here (I don't know what timezone you are in to create the correct time zone difference for "prime time" populations).

Always recall that this is a game. As much as it saddens me to see someone say they don't want to play, it's a game. By all means if you aren't having fun with the game, than it may be time to set it on a shelf for a bit and try it again at a later time.

PGI is always working on trying to improve the game play and match maker. We've already gone through several different iterations of MM systems trying to get "the right one". So, come back every now and again and check things out. There is no harm in that.


As a last note for you as a general advice, finding a unit that operates the same times you may be on might be a bonus for you. I find I have a lot of fun playing the game with my unit and teaming up with them for socialization and generalized better game play. Game play is more difficult in group mode (PSR and MM have less of an effect in Group Queue), but this is a team game and playing within a functional and planned team is a lot different than "PUGing it" in the solo QP queue. Find a good casual unit and it may enhance your fun of the game. (Completely optional, of course.)

[Xaat Xuun]

BlueStrat, on 03 January 2017 - 02:43 AM, said:

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

As for my PC, I do run all settings at minimum, although it does well on other games (i.e. I never go below 60 FPS on War Thunder). I've taken a lot of build advice from Metamechs and the forums and experienced players in the game and although there are a few areas/mechs I could improve (if I could earn more for better/more engines & etc by avoiding getting instagibbed by high-tier players, LOL!) I've got some decent if not stellar builds.

Having been briefly in T3 I agree with your general assessment of game-play at higher tiers. This had me curious enough that I actually wrote down some of the players' names and did a little detective work to find out their tier ranking (forums, reddit, etc) and actually did recognize one name I remembered from a competition vid someone posted on YT. This was as I was a T4/T5.

I think I'll just set MWO aside for now, maybe check in once in a while, maybe even que up if I'm really bored, but mostly just wait for MW5 unless there's some major change/improvement with PSR/MM.

Thanks again for your helpful and informative reply. Cheers!

just want to mention, some competition players rarely play QP, and that is the only place that there is a tier level, so it is possible, they just haven't played enough QP to actually place them in a higher tier yet.
there can be other possibilities, to reflect the same thing.

just ignore the PSR and play. avoid dwelling on the Vanity what the Tier levels show and enjoy playing

[BlueStrat]

Xaat Xuun, on 03 January 2017 - 03:36 PM, said:

just want to mention, some competition players rarely play QP, and that is the only place that there is a tier level, so it is possible, they just haven't played enough QP to actually place them in a higher tier yet.
there can be other possibilities, to reflect the same thing.

just ignore the PSR and play. avoid dwelling on the Vanity what the Tier levels show and enjoy playing

That's the problem, I'm NOT enjoying playing! I'm also not making enough C-bills/XP/GXP for the grind. I don't give a rat's behind about vanity. I DO care about facing players FAR above and beyond my skill-level that wipe me out without breaking a sweat or missing a beat.

How does one improve as a player if one dies almost as soon as one encounters an enemy?

"Spawn. Boom! Dead!" What did I learn? Wait for MW5, that's what!

At least hopefully in MW5 I can select a lower difficulty while I learn, unlike here in MWO where there is no *working* system that separates players of vastly different skill & experience levels!

Edited by BlueStrat, 03 January 2017 - 05:10 PM.

[hotmatrixx]

Hi guys, complete Noob, got $100 to burn on SOMETHING. Love MW from the MW3 days; seriously gamer, $30k steam account with Years of playtime on some games. My question is pretty simple: it takes me about 50-100h in an FPS to get familiar with the basics - about 300h in Planetside 2 - so, what is the realistic playtime before I start to 'find my feet' - basically, do I bother investing the time in finding I dont like it, or do I just spend that grinding out in another game I already kinda like? Howlong before I figure out if I like/am good at MWO?

Cheers.

[Leone]

Roughly 25 matches. Do the beginning academy, Putter around in free trial mechs for 25 matches, and then decide if it's worth your time.

~Leone.