10 replies to this topic

[AUSSIETROOPER4]

Have I just been unlucky or am I causing the entire team to lose constantly?
I have won maybe two games and tonight its a constant beating for 5 games in a row with the other side seemingly staying together and co-operating.

I immediately thought to myself. If game clans create groups they should be able to join the same side and stack it. But who can tell? Nobody is allowed clan tags due to not being able to change ones name and their is no skill level indication. In principle I like that everybody is equal but in practice I am not sure about it. I see guys in pretty mechs on my side but none seem to talk or co-operate.

I have heard this game uses some kind of auto matching system that is supposed to make the sides equal. Is this true and if so how.


Another stange thing is that their are no local servers. I can see a huge variety of pings usually on the same server.

War of the Roses which I am the top tier level at depends being a melee game very heavily on ping being low. High ping means advantage to high pinger usually. Is this game the same?
Is a low ping an advantage or a disadvantage.

P.S. My reticle depresses to the ground if I let go of it and my mech always seems to start running. Is this normal.

P.S.2. How do you tell when you unlock the centurion?

P.S.3 I just noticed that when we get smashed 99% of one side has faction tags while my side has almost zero. It is probable that the people who have actually chosen faction symbols are in fact the people who play more ore at least are more inclined to co-operate?

Edited by 116th NorskaFresh, 25 February 2014 - 04:14 AM.

[Psykikk]

hey there,

I am also a noob and find myself in PUGs everytime I play.
The biggest "group" that ever was in the same drop as me (and in my team) was a full lance of four.

the dilemma is that you (and I do the same) assume a lot about the abilities and setup of the opposing team.
from what I can tell, is almost always a stomping. 12 - 3 (or 3- 12 depending on the perspective) seems to be far more common than a 12-9 result.

I just think that because in my drop team nobody ever uses chat (or seldom), takes drop command and issues orders, or even targets enemy mechs so the team knows where the enemy actually is) that the same happens in every team (so even on the stomping red team that just kicked me in the groin).

but at least they stayed together, and knew how to focus fire more efficiently.

and everytime I end up on the winning side, we basically did nothing of the "good stuff" like TS, chat or something, but just stayed together, pressed R consistently and focused fire (and I think more by accident then by great teamwork)

[BlackDeathLegion]

I play PUG matches too. I solo drop 90% of the matches I play. Except when my brother or I notice a handful of friends are online, then we drop together as a 4man.

Yes, either way, MWO in terms of Winning a match has BECOME: "Who Won the Pug Lottery:Online". No matter how badass my 4man team is, if the Enemy has 12 good players that play together... they just WAFFLESTOMP our other 8, leaving 4v12. Or say 4v9. = LOSS!

You think PUG match losses are painful? Try dropping into a 12man vs 12man premade teams!

Your team will get WAFFLESTOMPED even faster..UNLESS your team is 12 Highlanders/Victors with PPCs + AC/5(UAC/5)'s.
Oh I forgot, through in 1-2 ECM Atlases too!

[Dexter Tripod]

I'm a super noob too, but in reference to your 'PS-2' ..you can check your progress on the Centurian by going to Profile - Stats, then click on the Challenges tab. Hurry, only 4.5 hours left to complete it! If it says you have 100%, then it should be in your Mechbay.

[CommiBastard]

I think that due to the nature of MWO that once your team gets a few mech's behind it is easier to get steamrolled than to fight back and end the game 12-9 vs. 12-3. So the teams may not be as unbalanced as your feel, it's just he nature of being a few mechs up lets you kill the enemy faster, thus taking less damage, thus losing fewer mechs, thus steamrolling.

[Wrathful-Khan]

Hello!

First of all I would like to say welcome to MWO.

First I'll start with matchmaking:

Every player in MWO is graded into an Elo ranking system. This number is hidden, basically to prevent epeen/bragging/bullying type behavior (In fact you have 4 Elo ranks - one for each weight class - light/medium/heavy/assault).

Now when you first start, it puts you into the middle rank and you'll need to play a few matches for it find your correct skill level. The more matches you play, the more accurate the ranking (theoretically).

So just hang in there, the game is notoriously tough on new players.

As for ping:

Correct, there are no local servers. Personally I live in Australia, which gives me a high ping of around 300ms. Certainly for most games of this type a ping of this magnitude would be most unplayable, but luckily MWO uses a few cheeky technologies (HSR - Host State Rewind) to try and make it at least bearable.

I won't go into the details of how it works and I will say it isn't perfect - however it is better than nothing. Also because the gameplay is actually quite slow and it's a war of attrition, ping isn't as imporant as it is in other shooters or melee games. I used to play a lot of Mount & Blade Warband, and if you didn't have under 60ms you were screwed basically. Playing MWO most of the time I don't even realise I have a ping.

Movement:

I'm not sure which throttle mode you are using - there are two (there is a "Throttle Decay" check box in the settings menu):

When the box is checked: You have to hold down the forwards key to move (like a regular shooting game). When you let go you will stop.

Box Unchecked (Recommended): It works like a throttle - pressing forwards will increase the throttle, backwards will decrease the throttle (Negative throttle for reverse). This allows you to "Cruise" at lower speeds than max. Also remember that pressing 'x' will bring you to a full stop (by setting your throttle to zero).

There is a movement tutorial you can do if you are unsure. Try practising in the proving grounds if you need to.

The centurion:

As soon as you win 5 matches (doesn't have to be in a row) you will automatically get your centurion. Although I'm pretty sure the offer is going to end soon.

"Clans"

This is a tough on to explain, because in Battletech (Mechwarrior) lore there is actually a faction called "The Clans" or "Clanners" - Therefore in order to avoid confusion organised groups of players aren't referred to as "Clans" but are in fact called "Units".

Many upon many Units exist in MWO. Some are affiliated with factions. Some are independant. Some are competitive. Some are casual. Most (If not all) communicate using a free 3rd party voice com software called Teamspeak 3. This is often why you will not see people typing communications, because its much easier to talk on a mic than it is to type.

Groups of players are, however, limited to dropping in groups of 4 players maximum.

Go to the recruitment section of the forum if you wish to find a unit to join - it's highly recommended.

http://www.nogutsnogalaxy.net/ also hosts a public Teamspeak 3 server that anyone can go on.

Being a Marik player, I use: http://housemarik.enjin.com/ - All players are welcome

MWO is Hard

MWO is a hard game to master. I'd say it took me 50-100 matches to understand what was happening. Maybe another 200 after that to really feel like I had the hang of it.

Practice is the only way to get better unfortunately - But don't let this deter you. Stick with it. It's a fun game and very rewarding when you get there.

------

There are many guides and advice sections in the forums.

Definitely recommended is the site: http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/

It's a mechlab that lets you tinker with ideas, without having to spend hard earned c-bills making mistakes.

Also feel free to ask for help, most people on the forums like to help newbies get up to speed.

----

Nice to see you around mate

Hope the advice helps.

[Redshift2k5]

If your reticule is dropping by itself, it sounds like you have a joystick or other type of peripheral plugged in, but you're either not using it for MWO or haven't set it up correctly. If you're not using a joystick, remove it from your machine when you play MWO or it will continue to send unwanted input to the game.

If you're wondering about "unlocking" the free Centurion from this weekend's event, check your Challenges progress on the website https://mwomercs.com...type=challenges You have two hours 45 minutes remaining as of this writing, good luck of you haven't finished your challenge yet!

A lot of non-grouped players do still use faction tags, but if you see 4 players with the game faction tag, it's a pretty good chance (but not 100%!) that they are a group playing together. If you have a microphone I'd suggest looking for a group of your own to join!

Edited by Redshift2k5, 25 February 2014 - 07:15 AM.

[Bront]

Currently, grouping is either 2-4 man lance groups, or 12 man groups. 12 man groups are in a unique queue, and 2-4 man groups mix with PUGs.

Generally, if there's a group on one side, there's a group on the other. Groups tend to be in the upper lances, so when I'm in a 4 man I'm often in Alpha lance (and if I'm in Charlie lance, there's a good chance it's 2 other 3-4 man teams). They're still "balanced" by ELO, but that only balances to a point, often by putting lower ranked players to even out good players on one team (at least so the theory goes). But outside of getting lucky and synch dropping successfully, you rarely get more than 4 men on any one team on the same comms.

[Furiel]

Several of these points have already been made but as someone who's still pretty fresh to the game myself you just have to remember a few things...

1)Teamwork is OP. It may seem like a joke but especially in PUG drops it's 100% true. Example was Sunday night I was in a PUG drop Skirmish in Caustic Valley, up 8 mechs to 5 in the first few minutes and we lost. We lost because once we got a healthy lead people started running off on their own thinking the enemy was still scattered. Instead the enemy consisted of 2 two-mech fire teams working in concert and they cut us to ribbons because they worked as a team and we were all running around as individuals.

2) Knowledge = skill. As people said above, MWO is hard. At a very basic level it's point at the bad guy, shoot til dead, etc. But to actually get to be any good there is a TON to learn. Offensive movement, defensive movement, heat management, weapon effectiveness, mech strengths, mech weaknesses, tactics. And that's just the stuff about your mech. None of that has anything to do with the all the different maps as the terrain effects most of the previously listed factors as well. Like a LRM boat (at least for me) is a lot easier to play and be more effective with on an open map like Caustic Valley than a place like Manifold that has a lot of cover.

3) Don't be shy. If you want to work as a team and no one is talking, then you start and people will generally follow. That doesn't mean you have to take leadership and start ordering people around, but even just asking in team chat at the start of the match "Hey, what's the plan?" will start the teamwork ball rolling. Maybe everyone ignores you and then you know it probably won't be a great match. But maybe they don't and someone steps up and lays out a basic plan. And if that happens then you are starting to work as a team and if the other team isn't doing that, well, see point #1.

And remember it doesn't matter how good you get, sometimes you are going to die and your team is going to get rolled. Fortunes of war and all that. The thing is, especially when you are new, is that you leave each match having learned something you can apply to your next match. Which makes it that much more likely to make that next match a win.

[Wrathful-Khan]

Good points Furiel.

I like your bit about "leading by example". People will follow a guy whos doing "something".

Some of the most fun matches i've had are where me and one or two completely random other guys just start working together without a word being said. We all know what each other wants and we're simpatico. It's beautiful.

Of course other times the team is a shambles and we get rolled.

Thats how it goes in PUG life.

[Baron Cunedda Kell]

Furiel, on 25 February 2014 - 08:42 AM, said:

Several of these points have already been made but as someone who's still pretty fresh to the game myself you just have to remember a few things...

1)Teamwork is OP. It may seem like a joke but especially in PUG drops it's 100% true. Example was Sunday night I was in a PUG drop Skirmish in Caustic Valley, up 8 mechs to 5 in the first few minutes and we lost. We lost because once we got a healthy lead people started running off on their own thinking the enemy was still scattered. Instead the enemy consisted of 2 two-mech fire teams working in concert and they cut us to ribbons because they worked as a team and we were all running around as individuals.

2) Knowledge = skill. As people said above, MWO is hard. At a very basic level it's point at the bad guy, shoot til dead, etc. But to actually get to be any good there is a TON to learn. Offensive movement, defensive movement, heat management, weapon effectiveness, mech strengths, mech weaknesses, tactics. And that's just the stuff about your mech. None of that has anything to do with the all the different maps as the terrain effects most of the previously listed factors as well. Like a LRM boat (at least for me) is a lot easier to play and be more effective with on an open map like Caustic Valley than a place like Manifold that has a lot of cover.

3) Don't be shy. If you want to work as a team and no one is talking, then you start and people will generally follow. That doesn't mean you have to take leadership and start ordering people around, but even just asking in team chat at the start of the match "Hey, what's the plan?" will start the teamwork ball rolling. Maybe everyone ignores you and then you know it probably won't be a great match. But maybe they don't and someone steps up and lays out a basic plan. And if that happens then you are starting to work as a team and if the other team isn't doing that, well, see point #1.

And remember it doesn't matter how good you get, sometimes you are going to die and your team is going to get rolled. Fortunes of war and all that. The thing is, especially when you are new, is that you leave each match having learned something you can apply to your next match. Which makes it that much more likely to make that next match a win.

I concur with the above post... Just try to remember its a game and takes time to get the hang of it...

Example: I joined in oct/nov...for 2 weeks couldn't hit any and died doing no damage...week 3...I was joyous when I did 10 points of damage before dying and threw a party when I made my 1st kill weeks later... now its end of Feb and I usually do high damage, a kill or two before I die or make it to the end...

Only recently have I begun to use teamspeak and found I hope a great bunch of guys in Clan Wolf that have decided dispite myself, I might be worth something and let me roll with them on teamspeak and in 12 vs 12 matches and lance groups...

The point is...have fun, you always welcomed to roll with us on teamspeak, as my handle is the same on their..

Humbly,
Baron