8 replies to this topic

[Basil 2]

A couple of beginners questions:

1. How to get lock on enemy mech?
2. If I have laser, should I fire exactly aiming to the mech or use lock?
3. How to fire at targets at long distance? (using ppc or gauss for example)
4. Is there any kind of zoom or sniper aim?

[Edustaja]

1. Press R while you're within detection radius or a friendly has detected the mech
2. Aim exactly at the point you wish to hit for the duration of the beam
3. Move cursor on target and fire, Autocannons have bullet drop, PPC doesn't. Lead your target appropriately.
4. Press Z-key to toggle through the zoom levels (1x, 1,5x, 3x).

See these videos and guides:
http://mwomercs.com/...raining-grounds

F4 button toggles you into first person view witch makes aiming a lot easier.

Edited by Edustaja, 04 October 2013 - 02:17 PM.

[Koniving]

As said above.

Some additions.

• 1. Press R while you're within detection radius 750 meters or a friendly has detected the mech. Also note that there is an auto-target feature if you do not have a target. It triggers when you aim at an enemy for longer than 1 second. (It's not reliable, though).
  
• 2. Aim exactly at the point you wish to hit for the duration of the beam. Beams deal damage at intervals of 0.1 seconds or 0.2 seconds, totaling an average of 5 to 10 "detections" (or 'shots') within the time of a normal beam. Fewer for pulse lasers.
  
  • (Thus the common misconception that a laser does "hundreds of shots" is actually false; the bullet marks is a client-side only 'easy' method of trying to create a laser streak damage decal effect on the environment. The maximum number of times a laser does a hit-detection scan within any beam is '10' or once per 0.1 seconds). Leading is only required if your ping is beyond 200 ms. The longer you keep the laser on target, the more damage it does. You need to hold it for the full beam duration to do maximum damage.
• 3. Lead your target appropriately. Different weapons have different speeds. PPCs, AC/2s, and Gauss Rifles are among the fastest weapons. Anything else will require a noticeable lead. An AC/20 is the only one with a note-worthy bullet drop, the rest you will barely notice.
  
• 4. Press Z-key to toggle through the zoom levels (1x, 1,5x, 3x). If you unlock and buy an Advanced Zoom module, you'll be able to zoom in with a picture-in-picture 4th time with V.

Random tip: Combining a TAG with PPCs or Gauss is helpful in finding out if you can hit a target or not (due to various things such as invisble walls or whether or not the player is really where it shows). If the crosshair flashes red when firing the tag laser, the target can be hit. Example below from a live match.

The TAG also says "Hit this enemy with LRMs" to your allies. And thus good players will bombard whatever you target, allowing you to double-whammy the poor target.

Also below -- the first key I recommend changing is "Mouse 1" from "Fire selected group" to "Fire group 1." This way it will always fire group one even if you forget to bring your weapon group selecter back after setting up new weapon groups.

Edited by Niko Snow, 08 October 2013 - 12:11 PM.
Inappropriate Language in Video

[Ryokens leap]

Open the menu tab on bottom left of home screen and choose options. There is a list on the right side of all game functions and their corresponding keys. These can be rebound to ur custom config or joystick as u see fit.

[Sadistic Savior]

Basil 2, on 04 October 2013 - 02:01 PM, said:

A couple of beginners questions:

1. How to get lock on enemy mech?

Just target it. Only missiles should require a lock...you will see a spinning circle forming over your reticle...once it is red you have a lock.

Remember that you can re-acquire locks while missile's are in flight. So don't give up.

Quote

2. If I have laser, should I fire exactly aiming to the mech or use lock?

You only need locks for long range missiles or streak missiles.

Quote

3. How to fire at targets at long distance? (using ppc or gauss for example)

The same way as short distance. There is no difference.

You have a zoom mode available as well. Go into your options screen to see what key it is bound to. Use that key to activate it. There are 3 zoom levels.

There is a module called "advanced zoom" that will give you a 4th (and much better) zoom level. But you have to unlock it with XP, and then buy the module and equip it to a mech for it to work.

[Koniving]

Basil 2, on 04 October 2013 - 02:01 PM, said:

A quick tip: On this screen (it'll have different trial mechs the picture is old), see the options on the right? Click the orange button (dimmed here) to the left of launch to make it appear. Choose Training Grounds, and then after that, choose Testing Grounds.


For testing grounds it lets you use the mech you chose. Practice. Experiment. Enjoy. Then try playing.

Assault focuses on killing each other.
Conquest...focuses on killing each other or playing tag around bases.

[Redshift2k5]

When you see a hollow red triangle, that's a mech only you can see and/or nobody else is targetting that you can target. Pressing R to target them will turn it into a solid red triangle. You may only target one at a time even if multiple hollow red triangles are present; Pressing R again will cycle through avalable targets. Whichever mech you have targetting is one you are passing information about to your team.

If a teammate is already targetting an enemy, they will also have a solid red triangle; you can press R to lock on to their target to see the targetting info they're sharing.

It's possible for you to see an enemy but be unable ot target it; if they are outside your sensor range, or under ECM, or have sufficient cover that you only see part of their mech, you won't get the hollow red triangle to indicate you may lock to them. If an enemy ECM is nearby, this also prevents you from sharing your target data with your team; your team won't see the red triangle or the enemy's info.

Shooting lasers doesn't require a lock, just shoot the mech; but you should always target if you can because this tells you where the enemy is weak, tells you his laodout, and tells your team where he is.

Firing at long range takes some practice and a little luck; you can fire some weaons well past your base sensor range, so you can see them even fi you can't get a lock. Sometimes you need to rely on your old "mark 1s", your own vision as opposed to a target lock. Soemtimes it helps if an ally has a lock and you simply fire into the middle of the targer square.

[Basil 2]

Many thanks for so explaining answers!

What mech will be suitable for firing PPC (I love its animation!) at long range?
Can I rearm trial mech to PPC?
What is the difference between PPC and Gauss?
What about LRM? Are they useful?

Edited by Basil 2, 05 October 2013 - 03:41 AM.

[Denolven]

Basil 2, on 05 October 2013 - 03:16 AM, said:

What mech will be suitable for firing PPC (I love its animation!) at long range?
Can I rearm trial mech to PPC?
What is the difference between PPC and Gauss?
What about LRM? Are they useful?

For PPC sniping, I recommend the Blackjack BJ-3. It is relatively cheap and has it's arms very high mounted, so you can peek over a hill and snipe, whithout exposing yourself too much. Oh and it has jump jets, so you can get to all the cool positions.
If you want it even cheaper, you can try the Raven 2x, like Koniving showed in his video above.

You can play trial mechs without buying them, but you can't change their equipment (because you don't own them). However, if you get XP with a trial mech, you will keep that XP. So if you ever buy that variant, you have the XP already.

PPC:

• runs hot
  
• unlimited ammo
  
• relatively light and small

Gauss:

• very heavy and big
  
• needs ammo
  
• runs very very cool
  
• has really good bullet speed
  
• needs to charge a bit (hold mouse button, realease when the marker in your crosshair turns green)
  
• can explode if people shoot at it (only when you have no armor left)

Small and medium mechs usually can't take the Gauss because of its weight.

LRMs fly in a ballistic arc, like a catapult. so you don't need direct line of fire. If your team locks targets, you don't even need line of sight. It's a nice weapon for mid/long range support. You can shoot it to help your frontline allies until you arrive at the frontline.
Max range is 1000m, min range is 180m. Outside of that, they don't deal any damage.

Edited by Denolven, 05 October 2013 - 04:41 AM.