41 replies to this topic

[BillyM]

Sadly, it is just your playstyle.

...lights are exceptional money-makers if used as a harasser/spotter.

--billyM

[Geek Verve]

LauLiao, on 31 October 2013 - 03:43 PM, said:

Isn't 25K the absolute minimum for just showing up, regardless of any damage, win or lose?

Correct, which leads me to believe the OP is concentrating far too much on capping. I'm glad they don't offer any more in the way of rewards for a cap. Conquest is the only game mode that should reward it.

mailin, on 31 October 2013 - 05:20 PM, said:

I only play capwarrior for two reasons: 1) To disrupt and separate the enemy. (In this case I wait to begin capping until our brawlers have engaged and I get off cap as soon I realize more than one enemy is returning to base.) 2) To win when all else fails. Otherwise, yeah, I HATE capwarrior.

But what do you do if none of their mechs show up to run you off? Right. You play the game in the exact manner you claim to hate. It's one thing to express contempt for the boring and unproductive tactics others employ, but quite another to feel that way about the way you play, yourself. You can either be part of the problem or part of the solution, not both.

To the OP, it's all about play style. There are ways that light pilots can rack up the C-Bills. First and foremost, don't play scared, but play smart. As others have said, try to "touch 'em all" and get as many kill assists as you can. You can do that without exposing yourself too much. As others have said, pay attention to the target info and target the weakest parts of the enemy mechs. Above all, don't play like your primary job is to cap (except in Conquest, of course), especially if you're wanting to earn C-Bills.

Edited by Geek Verve, 01 November 2013 - 07:50 AM.

[Buckminster]

And to the OP - what mech and loadout do you have? Knowing what's available to you will let us give you more specific examples.

[Hammerhai]

One single tip: What made all the difference for me in the play style of the Jenners. Hit and fade, but I was running away from the fight for far too long. I now usually do 80-120k on a good game. 190 is just a little beyond me

1.Typically you already want to turn back toward the fight in the close maps at about one and a half grid squares from the action.
2. Set up from a different angle. Dont just zoom in and out in the same lane. You want 45 degrees and 90 degrees passes through a gridsquare.

3. This means you drill, yes drill in the training grounds on setting up another pass quickly.

I did not do that, and my grind was terribad as a a result. I dont think I earned more than you do at the moment.

Hope this helps.
Other: You may want to look at spiders or Jenners as a second light, if you have not done so, rather than grind a heavy in a light. Jenners have the alpha strike of a dragon. Which does not say much for the dragon ....
Other good cheap mechs: Hunchback 4 SP, but fwiw. Ask Koniving about that one.
The good old Zombie Cent, I think it is the 9 AL.
If you stay with lights farm assists. You want to be shooting 4 to 5 enemy mechs a game or more for those assists while still trying to concentrate damage.

[Koniving]

You could try using a fighting light.

Some examples. As these are all video examples I've put them in a spoiler. Every rig here is a combat type that either solo or in a group attacks mechs of equal or almost always much larger size.

Spoiler

Spider.

Up until the second match is good, and so is from 4:47 onward (there's some time lost wanting to avoid the attention of a 6 PPC sniper).

MG Spider


For Ravens
4X

2X

3-L


Commando
Command Troll

Ninjamando

Death's Knell


For Jenners I don't play them that often, but this rig still works very well.

Edited by Koniving, 01 November 2013 - 09:24 AM.

[ShinVector]

kuloch, on 31 October 2013 - 02:02 PM, said:

So I got a light 'mech with my cadet bonus (and free premium day bonus), because I wanted to start with a play style of being highly mobile, harassing the enemy, and capping effectively. I started playing MWO on release day (wasn't in beta), and I've played 5 previous Mechwarrior games.

Roughly 100 matches later (after about 2 months, as I can play only casually), I only have about 5M cbills saved toward my next 'mech. I typically get 25k to 50k cbills per match. I find that the only way to significantly increase my cbill intake is to mostly forget capping and throw out all the damage I can muster. That isn't much.

It's frustrating that, despite there being a stat for capture assists, I almost never get credit for it - even if I'm capping from start to finish, and even if I"m the only one capping. I can make 6 caps in a game, and the Capture Assist counter at the end will only say 0 or 1 (based on the its mood?). So the game punishes me for helping my team win in a way other than doing damage.

In order to save up for a decent heavy or assault 'mech to put out significant damage, I have to either save up cbills for another 2 to 4 months or scrap this account and create another to get the cadet bonus again.

This system seems broken. Or is it just me?

Win or lose... Some assault pilot is going to a jerk and shift the blame to light mechs for whatever reason.

If you want to earn money in a light mech, like what people said.. you have to be a fighting light.
Jenner are the best at this especially the Jenner F for racking high damage and kills... Maybe the Death Knell with full upgrades could do better as a money maker.

[Macbrea]

Commando-2D is a far betting mech then the Death Knell for farming c-bills. Even with the mech bonus.

[The Lost Boy]

Corison, on 01 November 2013 - 05:57 AM, said:

To be honest, this game is heavily biased in FAVOR of lights. Just not in the reward system.

Lights were never meant to stand up to heavier mechs in combat, both in lore and TT they are SCOUTS and only engage heavier units when given no choice, or with greater numbers. They simply packed neither the firepower or armor to stand up in a fight. Most lights would only last a single round against a heavier opponent in Table Top. Unlike MWO were they have super powers to help them both avoid getting hit and avoid taking full damage.

MWO has just given them super power, since there is no real role for them in this type of games. The map size, match time, and player numbers simply do not allow them to do their job. A lights job is done hours before the first shot is ever fired.

Not really true. They are scouts and in TT used as such. The super powers they have in TT also, it just seems less apparent, because of the laughable weapons they have in TT. Machine guns in TT are really only good against infantry, but are quite effective on an agile mech in MWO. In TT no mechwarrior worth his salt would let a large mech get a bead on him, they spot, harass, bob and weave and try to be as annoying as possible while not getting smacked around. In TT they stay at longer ranges and use speed to shoot you in the back, or jump around in and out of cover taking good shots when possible. They have a role and its nearly identical to TT. Just be glad they dont have the Panther in MWO. A jumping 35 ton light mech with a PPC thats usually aimed at the back of your head.

[Pjwned]

One big problem is that as a new player you have a number of factors going against you, all of which I had to deal with myself and they all made me rather frustrated.

Probably the biggest thing is that, with the exception of champion and hero mechs, almost every single stock mech is atrociously bad. This results in needing to grind out a ton of matches (with crappy equipment) in order to get a suitable build going, and with light mechs in particular you really need an XL engine to go fast enough and have enough tonnage for equipment, but unfortunately the XL engines cost several million c-bills. On top of that, if you want optimal performance for your mech you need to grind enough matches to get elite effiencies, which is a huge hassle, and then after all that you surely want a useful module or 2 such as seismic sensors; too bad that's also a huge grind to get enough GXP to unlock, let alone have enough left over money to buy it. I still don't have advanced seismic sensors unlocked by the way.

Anyways, if your situation is anything like mine was, a big part of the problem is simply not having a mech that's outfitted properly, and getting to that point is a frustrating, grindy process. However, if you don't mind dropping some real money on the game, the Jenner-F[C] is an excellent light mech on top of having a small boost to XP (and c-bills?) earned in matches. Personally I didn't buy it, but you might find it worthwhile as a starting point and it's one of the cheapest mechs you can buy while still being very solid. Otherwise, you can try to make a build of your own with those c-bills you saved up; for reference, here's how I run my light mech: http://mwo.smurfy-ne...7d677293f90c06c. You can of course change things up but I've had a number of very successful matches using this build and I think it's a good reference.

Edited by Pjwned, 01 November 2013 - 12:43 PM.

[Rizzwind]

LauLiao, on 31 October 2013 - 03:43 PM, said:

Isn't 25K the absolute minimum for just showing up, regardless of any damage, win or lose?

On a lose damage only counts when something dies so yes 25k for a light mech in a bad game is standard. Sad for the new players getting rolled over by sync drops.


I did 50 games in my LCT-3M won all but 12. Best game only paid 62k.

[DEMAX51]

Pjwned, on 01 November 2013 - 12:35 PM, said:

the Jenner-F[C] is an excellent light mech on top of having a small boost to XP (and c-bills?)

Not c-bills, only 10% to XP.

[mailin]

Geek Verve, on 01 November 2013 - 07:48 AM, said:

Correct, which leads me to believe the OP is concentrating far too much on capping. I'm glad they don't offer any more in the way of rewards for a cap. Conquest is the only game mode that should reward it.


But what do you do if none of their mechs show up to run you off? Right. You play the game in the exact manner you claim to hate. It's one thing to express contempt for the boring and unproductive tactics others employ, but quite another to feel that way about the way you play, yourself. You can either be part of the problem or part of the solution, not both.

Actually, if no one shows up, I will take it down to 90% and then get off and engage. If and only if, I feel there is no other way to win do I cap it all the way. The advantage of taking it down to 90% is that if we need to, any of our team members can limp over to the cap and possibly snatch a victory out of the jaws of defeat.

[aniviron]

kuloch, on 31 October 2013 - 02:02 PM, said:

So I got a light 'mech with my cadet bonus (and free premium day bonus), because I wanted to start with a play style of being highly mobile, harassing the enemy, and capping effectively. I started playing MWO on release day (wasn't in beta), and I've played 5 previous Mechwarrior games.

Roughly 100 matches later (after about 2 months, as I can play only casually), I only have about 5M cbills saved toward my next 'mech. I typically get 25k to 50k cbills per match. I find that the only way to significantly increase my cbill intake is to mostly forget capping and throw out all the damage I can muster. That isn't much.

It's frustrating that, despite there being a stat for capture assists, I almost never get credit for it - even if I'm capping from start to finish, and even if I"m the only one capping. I can make 6 caps in a game, and the Capture Assist counter at the end will only say 0 or 1 (based on the its mood?). So the game punishes me for helping my team win in a way other than doing damage.

In order to save up for a decent heavy or assault 'mech to put out significant damage, I have to either save up cbills for another 2 to 4 months or scrap this account and create another to get the cadet bonus again.

This system seems broken. Or is it just me?

It's not just you. The game was supposed to have role warfare aspects, i.e. scouting, signal/electronic warfare, brawling, sniping, your name it. Really though, that didn't work out so well, and the only role that matters much is "damage dealer;" and as such, that's about all that gets rewarded by the game as well. You're going to have a hard time getting cbills and xp in a light mech, no two ways about it- there are some that can do very well in lights, but they tend to be the exception instead of the rule, and the low numbers of players in lights reflects this.

And about the cap assists thing: that just gives you a flat amount of XP based on whether or not you ever touched a cap point once during the whole match, and you only get it if your team wins by capping instead of killing, even if you're one point away from winning when the last enemy bites it. Given how it works, it's just as likely to get it in an atlas as a jenner, so don't count on that xp.

[Krivvan]

Assists and saviour kills pay the most. As a light, focus on those and you can make more than any other class.

[Wispsy]

Just make a new account and buy a highlander or stalker or something. Your life will be much easier.

[Tahribator]

I'd suggest you to damage as many enemy mechs as possible as a light. Of course, you should cap as well, but in the middle of the game, join the brawl and try to put a few ML beams on different mechs. The game rewards you handsomely for assists and if you're lucky you will get a saviour kill which gives a respectable C-Bill bonus.

[Alaskan Nobody]

mailin, on 02 November 2013 - 04:31 AM, said:

Actually, if no one shows up, I will take it down to 90% and then get off and engage. If and only if, I feel there is no other way to win do I cap it all the way. The advantage of taking it down to 90% is that if we need to, any of our team members can limp over to the cap and possibly snatch a victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Krivvan, on 02 November 2013 - 05:14 AM, said:

Assists and saviour kills pay the most. As a light, focus on those and you can make more than any other class.

Tahribator, on 02 November 2013 - 07:43 AM, said:

I'd suggest you to damage as many enemy mechs as possible as a light. Of course, you should cap as well, but in the middle of the game, join the brawl and try to put a few ML beams on different mechs. The game rewards you handsomely for assists and if you're lucky you will get a saviour kill which gives a respectable C-Bill bonus.

On the same line as all of these, I play my lights (Locust and Commando) by starting to bug their base, then when it gets low and/or fails to distract them, returning and joining the fight.

That gives my (P) locust some time away from the fight, for my allies to whittle the enemies armor down to the point my 4MG are actually useful

I either wind up joining the fight in a timely manor, earning multiple assists and/or kills, or die horribly when the enemy return to defend their base (if they brought someone faster/stronger than me) or when the enemy wipes my team in my absence.

[Geek Verve]

mailin, on 02 November 2013 - 04:31 AM, said:

Actually, if no one shows up, I will take it down to 90% and then get off and engage. If and only if, I feel there is no other way to win do I cap it all the way. The advantage of taking it down to 90% is that if we need to, any of our team members can limp over to the cap and possibly snatch a victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Fair enough. Wouldn't mind discussing it further, but I'd rather not derail this particular thread more than I already have.

[Aegic]

I dont really have this issue even with the 3 LCT variants.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

Unfortunately if you wanna earn bank in a light you need to do assault mode and focus on getting as many kill assists as possible.