47 replies to this topic

[wanderer]

This is the first Trial 'Mech I've seen that only shines in the hands of...a non-newbie.

But boy does it. The problem is you went and made it a Trial 'Mech. For newbies. Who now find the assault 'Mech experience is "death trap". You know the fan-made tutorial for this thing?

It should be linked on the homepage when you log into MWO with big neon letters saying "HOW TO USE THE TRIAL STALKER".

[Voivode]

1453 R, on 14 February 2014 - 05:18 AM, said:

This Stalker is a bloody disaster and Piranha should feel terrible over inflicting it on new players. Champion 'Mechs are supposed to come with good loadouts, or at least loadouts that don't actively smack their players across the jowls! Do you have any idea how many rampant rookies I've seen in this game in a trial Stalker shutting themselves down left and right by group-firing those fraggin' missile launchers?

It's gotten to the point where I honestly feel bad for shooting the damn things. There are so much better ways to do fire support Stalkers! And seriously, if there's one 'Mech in this game that just can not deal with harboring an XL engine in it...it's the Atlas. But if there's two of those 'Mechs, AND THERE ARE, the second one is the Stalker!

Shame on you, Piranha! I like champion 'Mechs as a general rule, they're a perfect fit in their intended role as excellent starter machines...except for this pile of garbage!

The point of trial mechs is to help new players understand game mechanics. There is no more basic a game mechanic in Mechwarrior/Battletech than heat management. It may be painful in the first few drops, but I've noticed plenty of people in trial Stalkers chain firing and holding back on their fire while their heat cools.

[Uri Brauer]

Koniving, on 11 February 2014 - 11:33 AM, said:

Possibly some things that a new ... player could pick up on.

Such as, how to screw 11 other people over by faffing around with your weapon groups in a live game, rather than in the training grounds?

[Koniving]

Uri Brauer, on 15 February 2014 - 03:51 PM, said:

Such as, how to screw 11 other people over by faffing around with your weapon groups in a live game, rather than in the training grounds?

Without 'thinking' about how to describe it in a live game it often takes me 2 seconds or less to set up an entire weapons array on a fresh mech.

Just loading into the training grounds takes 30 seconds, then the 2 to set up the weapons, then the time to get back to the mechbay, etc.

Btw you can do it from the new user interface.

[luxebo]

Koniving, on 15 February 2014 - 03:54 PM, said:

Btw you can do it from the new user interface.

Wait, you can set weapon groups on trials? How'd you do that?

[Koniving]

luxebo, on 15 February 2014 - 04:18 PM, said:

Wait, you can set weapon groups on trials? How'd you do that?

I haven't got any idea.

But it's a "feature." Shame I can't sit through a tutorial with the one NGNG guy otherwise I'd probably know.

[sabujo]

luxebo, on 15 February 2014 - 04:18 PM, said:

Wait, you can set weapon groups on trials? How'd you do that?

Of course you can. In game.

This mech is really badly constructed. Heats builds too fast, XL engine and LRM not matching missiles tubes. Not a good option for the newcomer, IMO.

[wanderer]

I'll say it again- the 'Mech was designed to be chain-fired. You do that, it can put a really impressive stream of missile fire down the line, enough to keep a target rattled pretty much continually until dead or in cover.

Groupfire the missiles and it burns itself up fast. In the hands of a non-newbie, it's actually solid. But it's incredibly tempermental in the hands of a newbie and frequently ends up useless when they pick it.

The game needs a tutorial that locks players out of matches until they get an overview of how weapons work- because I keep seeing newbies who don't even know how to lock LRMs, and they're getting put in high-ELO matches. May as well be one down when that happens.