20 replies to this topic

[Barrowton]

Hey guys just wondering i want to go down atlas, or missleboat path, i am new, but why does it seem like i have to purchase MC if i am not mistaken this is f2p but is it?

[Alaskan Nobody]

Koniving, on 02 October 2013 - 10:25 AM, said:

I usually don't have questions that I can't answer myself, but I can think of a few good ones that are commonly asked.

Q: "Why does it look like mechs can only be bought with real money?"
A: "When you first select Buy Mech, they list the 'premium' mechs which are regular mechs with experience bonuses or hero mechs with cbill bonuses and unique looks and hardpoints available for also known as 'Real Money'.



On the right hand are 5 mech icons. The star means premium. L is light, M is medium, H is heavy, and A is assault. The price is the in-game price.

From the Short Question Short answer topic: page1

[Durant Carlyle]

You can purchase with C-Bills, or with MC. Just click the Buy CB button to purchase with C-Bills.

The Boar's Head is the one Atlas that you can only purchase with MC. It's a special version called a Hero 'Mech, and earns an extra 30% bonus to C-Bills every match you use it.

[Koniving]

An Atlas is a steep mech to go to right off the bat. The cheapest one, the Atlas RS, is an okay mech. Slightly more expensive is the Atlas D which has a good balance of ballistics, energy and missiles.

This website is called Smurfy. You'll love it. In the upper right it tells you the price of the mech. It is currently set to the stock loadout of the Atlas D.
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ab#i=16&l=stock

As you can see that is rather high in the price range. Bare minimum upgrades (slightly more ammo, added AMS, double heatsink upgrade) and whee! Jumps well over 3 million. Also remember the rapid income you're receiving at the end of the match (second page) is temporary. It is part of a cadet bonus to help you get on your feet.

Since you're also looking at a missile boat route, may we suggest either a Kintaro or Shadowhawk to begin with? The Kintaro is more agile on the ground with greater arm and torso twist ranges but is limited to missiles and energy weapons. The Shadowhawk can leap and can use all 3 weapon types (energy, ballistic, missiles). Both have essentially the same maximum armor potential, and the same weight limits. Try building them using the Smurfy link I provided. See what you might want to try?

Some image info on them.

Kintaro.

Spoiler

Cockpit view (at fov 100 -- note the default is 60).


Arm range (note: Missile locks rely on the arm crosshair 'o' position.) Left.

Arm Range right.


Using tricks like arm-based locking can help you shoot around buildings and obstacles. It is also good for raining down missiles without exposing weak sides of your body (like my center torso).

Note that when it comes to overwhelming missile strikes, currently the Kintaros reign supreme in the 55 ton category, with most launchers being able to go up to 20 tubes.

Now that's a strong-arm!

Shadowhawk.

Spoiler

Cockpit view: FOV 100.


Arm range left. Compare the distance from the '+' crosshair the 'o' crosshair can reach versus the Kintaro. Pretty limited here, right? Thankfully most of the Shadowhawks weapons are on the body anyway.


Arm range right.


If anyone is foolish enough to tell you that small pulse lasers can't kill, shoot them in the face. In this case I killed the Atlas by shooting his arm. It triggered an ammo explosion, detonating his side torso and then his gut.


Shadowhawks are limited to 10 tubes as a maximum for any individual launcher. On the SD2, which has the most launchers of the Shadowhawks, one of the launchers maxes out at 5 tubes. The other 3 max out at 10.

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2013 - 10:05 PM.

[Barrowton]

thanks guys, yes i know there premium but why cant i buy any assault mechs, its all showing red and no cb button to buy
oh i found the suggested tanks you were saying, and i can purchase it soon,

also guys where do i find this boat mech, lol i am only going of youtube, basically i am a sniper kind of dude, but i love using lots and lots of missles, i was watching a guy on youtube and he just kept pumping out a tone of missles, apparently it was atlas, but i have watched others play atlas and they dont have all them missles so bit confused

[WonderSparks]

One thing you want to keep in mind is that anyone piloting an Atlas who is boating missiles (like LRMs) has probably spent a lot of CB on upgrades, including the purchase of the required launchers and ammo. You won't find a stock Atlas (bought fresh from the shop) that carries those weapons, except for the Champion Atlas with 2 LRM 15's.

[Koniving]

Well, boating missiles isn't hard.

I suppose I should define what a 'boat' is. It's any battlemech that carries a "boatload" of one particular type of weapon. For example, missiles. Thus a missile boat is a battlemech that carries a boatload of missiles. A PPC boat is a battlemech that carries a boatload of PPCs.

Virtually any mech with 2 or more hardpoints for missiles can do it. Some examples include the ROFLpult and ROFLwalker -- note that these are NOT good ideas to make, just lots of fun.

Vids below.

ROFLpult (LRM 90 Catapult A1). Very fragile glass launcher. Includes a how to build it video, which may help you in seeing how to use the mechlab to change the mech's loadout.

Spoiler

Action: At 2:35 the missiles get primed.

How to make:

ROFLwalker, LRM-75 Stalker, accompanied by the LRM-100 Stalker. Very well armored, very well loaded with ammo, but lacks a close range defense due to wanting to focus on even more ammo.

Spoiler

---------
The following are pretty decent designs that I would recommend.

Now, for a much more realistic build: Koniving's Missilelander, a Highlander 733 armed with LRMs, a medium laser, tag laser (to better concentrate missiles) and an AC/2. This mech of mine serves in very serious functions.

Spoiler

Kintaro. Specifically the Golden Boy. Unlike my regular Kintaros, the Golden Boy uses lots of very tiny LRM launchers for their high re-fire rate. This video is by Lordred and records me from the exterior.

Spoiler

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2013 - 10:30 PM.

[Koniving]

Barrowton, on 14 December 2013 - 09:43 PM, said:

thanks guys, yes i know there premium but why cant i buy any assault mechs

Note the bottom right. "Not enough cbills."
Got to have enough money to buy it.

Click the robot icon with the "A" on it on the far right. Then scroll down below the hero mechs to regular ones with cbill prices.

Edited by Koniving, 14 December 2013 - 10:35 PM.

[Barrowton]

cheers guys, so i have 6 million, credits this game seems difficult as in upgrading and stuff,
i was thinking of the awesome, but as u guys said i need alot of upgrades, so do i start with a ******* mech or something? like this kintaro? and just load him with missles ?

[Barrowton]

so i am having troubles finding this golden boy to purchase in the M tab it only shows the kintaro 18 19 20? is 20 the golden boy? oh nm its a premium ill just get the 20

Edited by Barrowton, 14 December 2013 - 11:10 PM.

[Barrowton]

sorry guys for the posts but its the only way i can learn, i usually pick things up quick but this seems a little overwelming
so Kon, i bought the kintaro, but after seeing that catapult video thats the mech i was falling inlove with before i DLd the game

should have watched it before i bought kin 20 , anyways in that video it did not show how to build it

[dragnier1]

Don't worry about it, takes a while to learn most stuff. You can learn more by looking at "short question, short answers" and the link provided in the first post of "beginners guide to mwo".

Kintaro is not a bad mech, it packs a punch just like the catapult and it has arms, which makes it easier to lock on targets. Just remember to remove arm lock in your options menu.

Just remember lrms do no damage above 1000m and below 180m. The weapons lock will make the missiles follow the target as long as you maintain it, once the weapons lock is lost it heads to the target's last known position (unless you regain the lock). Lrms can also be fired without weapons lock (we call it dumb fire).

[talbs]

thanks

[Redshift2k5]

Barrowton, on 14 December 2013 - 11:01 PM, said:

cheers guys, so i have 6 million, credits this game seems difficult as in upgrading and stuff,
i was thinking of the awesome, but as u guys said i need alot of upgrades, so do i start with a ******* mech or something? like this kintaro? and just load him with missles ?

you don't have to start with a **** mech. smaller mechs are not worse mechs, and something like a Shadowhawk is much cheaper than an Assault but still a highly effective machine. Assaults have the most armor & weapons, but they're also slow, clumsy, huge, and easy for the enemy to focus on and kill. Assaults are not the best mechs, just the biggest.

If you are still collecting your Cadet bonus (have not played all of your first 25 matches) I strongly reccomend you collect the free 1 day of premium time, activate it, and use it to improve your earnings immediately!

Redshift2k5, on 08 December 2013 - 02:36 AM, said:

To reiterate the advice you were already given:

For your first 25 matches you get a bonus per match caled a "Cadet Bonus" (this is listed on your match earnings page at the end of each match)

To maximize this free bonus, you should combine it with the +1 free day of Premium Time every player can collect.

• Visit the download page
  
• Click the download button (doesn't matter if you have already downloaded it previously)
  
• Examine the bottom of the page for several new images (if you use script blockers you may need to turn them off for a minute or you may need to update java)
  
• The one on the left will grant one day of premium time to your account
  
• Login to the game and hit the Activate button down on the bottom of the mechlab
  
• Play a bunch of games over the next 24 hours to get bonus

[Koniving]

I went to bed, had to work. But lemme catch up.

Redshift2k5, on 15 December 2013 - 06:01 AM, said:

you don't have to start with a **** mech.

He was referring to the need to upgrade from the start.

Barrowton, on 14 December 2013 - 11:01 PM, said:

cheers guys, so i have 6 million, credits this game seems difficult as in upgrading and stuff,
i was thinking of the awesome, but as u guys said i need alot of upgrades, so do i start with a ******* mech or something? like this kintaro? and just load him with missles ?

The main "upgrade" that is almost absolutely required is double heatsinks. The way the game is set up unless you have like an Atlas, single heatsinks will almost always be inferior to "double" heatsinks. (Note that it's only double if it came with the engine, with a 250 being the minimum required to get the maximum 'double' cooling and double threshold. Anything you tack on personally is "1.4" instead of '2.0.") Complicated, I know. Just remember "250 engine or higher" and that's all you really need to recall.

The upgrade to double heatsinks (faster cooling) is 1,500,000 . Some mechs come with this. Most mechs you have to upgrade. (Later on there may become a reason not to upgrade, but that's an "if" and "when" repair and rearm comes back. Minimum 6 months, realistic, December 2014.)

Barrowton, on 14 December 2013 - 11:06 PM, said:

so i am having troubles finding this golden boy to purchase in the M tab it only shows the kintaro 18 19 20? is 20 the golden boy? oh nm its a premium ill just get the 20

Most "hero" mechs are glorified mixes of two or more regular mechs. The Golden Boy is a cross between Kintaros 18 and 19, but is limited in speed in exchange for it's faster/greater twist ranges. The Kintaro 20 is what I used in most of the screenshots I had. While you can't mount a lot of small launchers you could easily mount big launchers.

This is my personal KTO-20 build. I like small lasers because they fire again quick and are virtually cold. I have them linked to the same firing group as my Streak launcher. The two LRM-10s are chosen over a single LRM-20 mainly because they fire faster. If you're going to use Artemis targeting control software (makes better / tighter missile fire) then switch to a single LRM-20 for weight/slot savings.

Here's how to assign weapon groups.

Barrowton, on 14 December 2013 - 11:17 PM, said:

sorry guys for the posts but its the only way i can learn, i usually pick things up quick but this seems a little overwelming
so Kon, i bought the kintaro, but after seeing that catapult video thats the mech i was falling inlove with before i DLd the game

should have watched it before i bought kin 20 , anyways in that video it did not show how to build it

The second video is the one that starts out showing how to build it (well actually it starts "I'm going insane, insane, insane" while showing one of my Kintaros and a bit of a head bobbing experiment, and then it shows how to build the Catapult. As I'm explaining it, the Catapult gets speech bubbles saying things like "I'm fragile," and "I'm NOT fat!")

Relinking how to build it here. But aside from using it to learn how to build a mech, I would not advise you to use that particular catapult design. It's a skill building mech for advanced players. A "challenge" of sorts for the veterans of closed and early open betas.

Don't worry you can easily move on to a Catapult eventually. It isn't that much more to get them started, and if you use my Kintaro design, that XL 280 engine can easily be shifted into a Catapult later on (the engine is almost required as a minimum for catapults anyway).

Good luck out there.

[mualmoli]

Atlas-(C) 200 Engine with 4 ER Large Lasers and an AC/20. I think it costs around 13 million C-Bills. It's a wonderful buy.

[Barrowton]

thank you guys, you are very kind indeed, so i am going to copy your build kon on the kt20 ,
may i ask you, what kind of damage is a newby suppose to be doing, i am a fairly competitive person so id like to know how much damage i should aim for, and when its time to move on to my next mech,

could you help me out with some small goals to accomplish,
also i come from world of tanks and the piloting is somewhat the same except much slower here which is confusing and since your in first person way way harder, but i am getting the hang of peeking boom,

[Koniving]

New players tend to vary. This recent one was with newbies following my commands earlier this night. At this sort of hour ELO (the match making system) goes out the window and so lots of skill levels get mixed. My lance was loaded with new players. I had one leg and though I lost my lance members, I wound up avenging my fallen comrades by killing two enemies and nearly killing a third after losing the leg.

Spoiler

3 on my team, 2 on the other team.


My score and earnings -- premium time (came with the overlord package) + hero mech bonus for 80% more cbills)


I didn't record much more than the last few seconds of the match. But this shows the state I was in with the two kills I had just made before hitting record.

Less than 100 is standard for someone just starting. Between 150 and 300 is fairly average for a new player. 150 to 300 + kills is pretty good, so is 400+ damage with or without kills (as it means they really fought).

I confess high damage without kills means you either did a lot of support, LRM fire, or simply can't aim. Low damage with lots of kills means you probably stole every shot after letting your teammates do all the work. So really you just can't win.

A solid goal is 100 damage per kill, and 50 to 150 per assist if you want the best of both worlds. Otherwise take whichever you can do best with and roll with it. You definitely want a very high assist number, both financially and in terms of personal achievement (as it means you did 'something' to as many enemies as possible). My scores album; note I only upload noteworthy scores (not always good scores but ones of merit; such as with joke builds or with a mech deemed as worthless yet gets something fairly amazing. Example, this one with "the worst Cataphract" using 4 machine guns (the second worst gun in the entire game) and 2 MPL (probably the most unpopular laser of all). Even manage to land one arm in the ground, one foot still planted like I can still get up and fight).

The "BLG" scores are with a Battlemaster. The scores I uploaded of it are also of a missile boat variety. The scores are super high, but that's because it is an 85 ton battlemech with lots of ammo and large launchers.

If it says anything,this was with only 2 LRM-15s. Thunderbolts will be available for cbills Tuesday.

Spoiler

My own Kintaro averages between 200 and 600 damage, with about 3 kills being typical.
Here, you're slower due to the starting engine. You'll find yourself fairly faster once the engine changes or gets higher. Also be sure to go into the Pilot lab and start unlocking things for your Kintaro (choose Pilot lab, Mech trees, Medium Mechs, Kintaro, KTO 20).

Pilot Lab. (Remember to use Mech XP. Save the GXP, it's hard to earn and required for modules).


If it helps, my typical match in virtually any mech is 1-5 kills and 500-ish damage with 6 or 7 assists with or without an organized group. My greater matches tend to have 6+ kills and over a thousand damage with assists on every enemy I didn't personally kill (solo games). However I consider my best match ever has 7 kills, 711 damage and a few assists (2 man premade driving a Hunch 4G and teamed up with a 'camera' Commando 2D). The exclusive reason I died there was I bragged about having an XL engine in my Hunchback. Real stupid mistake but I was far too over confident. I then took a Gauss round aimed specifically for it, taking out my weaker left side.

Other random chase cams by Lordred following me. Atlas joke build. (Combat chatter aside from my voice is from another battle; we're sharing the teamspeak channel). IKBoSy (Lordred/Koniving designed brawling Illya Muromets [Cataphract hero mech]). Founder's Catapult (old vid). Kon's unique FlamerJager.

Good luck. (Also on that Kintaro 20 build, today I swapped the 2 LRM-10s for an LRM-20, and I can't recall what else I traded but in its place I threw in a second streak and it has made a world of difference when enemies get too close. Has also kept the heat down a bit.)

[Barrowton]

thanks kon, a great read this was, thanks mate, yeah i had a few games doing 150,
i have not played alot of games, i usually just yolo and get caught out by myself, or find my self in front line,
i also find it extremely hard aiming and actually seeing the robot, its almost invisible only thing i do is target lock and aim for middle, how do you learn this part early game, its extremely hard hitting things that are far , i saw people using this zoom in mod that brings a rectangle like a mirror and its close up. i rebuilt my mech to what you suggested so ill keep on cracking,

another thing is for some reason i cant re group the weapons,
even when i scroll down the weapon and choose number 2 for LRM and press right click it doesn't assign it

also i upgraded engine to a STD 195 it says i have 10 dbl heatsinks,
also got that anti missle thing installed lol such a noooob

Edited by Barrowton, 16 December 2013 - 02:57 AM.

[Robin Wolf]

Barrowton, on 14 December 2013 - 09:43 PM, said:

i was watching a guy on youtube and he just kept pumping out a tone of missles

Please be aware that this game has gone through several changes over the months. What you see in several videos may not be viable nowadays.