19 replies to this topic

[William Slayer]

I have had some of my best games ever in the last few days! Yes, I'm excited and having a good time with MWO. So as I look at my stats and think about how I'm trying to help my faction win this weekend... am I actually helping? When are you finally 'good'? (In a measurable sense of course, Kudos from fellow Pilots are AWESOME, but not quantifiable!)

[Koniving]

That's really hard to say. It requires a definition to "what is good" first.

You can be good solo, but terrible as a team player. You can be good as a team player and terrible on your own .
You can be good at this, good at that.. Good at getting damage, good at getting kills.

But if you're good or even great at getting damage it could very well mean that you're absolutely awful at shooting or killing things.

If you're good at getting kills and awful at damage then it could just mean you're handy at getting kill shots. My favorite score ever seen was by [Name Redacted], who got 2 kills and only registered as having dealt 1 damage. The second kill was less than 0.5 damage, thus rounded down. The shot used to be famous a year and a half ago so you might be able to find it.

In the end it's not what is good. It's "What really helped in that situation."

[William Slayer]

There is a lot of truth to that Kon. My "battlefield awareness" is rising alot as I have begun to lose my tunnel vision. If you are paying attention, the tactical situations unfold like a book in front of you. Though I don't have a huge ammount of time to devote to this game, the fact that I can "see" whats going on is making me play better, and thus, raising my kills\dmg dealt\assists. Good luck this weekend BTW. :-)

[Buckminster]

It really is hard to quantify - so much of it depends on the mech, the pilot and the situation. Because honestly, what's "good" most of the time isn't good all of the time. I have a screenshot floating around of a game I had in a Locust - I took on and killed a Cataphract 1 on 1. I had great damage numbers, got the kill on a mech that was significantly heavier than mine. But guess what - we lost. I probably should have spent more time seeking caps rather than doing the slow damage dance with a mech.

[IraqiWalker]

While koniving gives possibly the more accurate and perfect answers. I personally like to set checklists and goals for myself in matches.

If I'm in a light mech then I count me delaying an enemy lance for a good 1.5 minutes as doing my duty. If I'm trying to get kills then as long as I get a couple and actually help my team win, that's good enough.

However, all in all, the only way to know you're good is how you felt after the end of the match? Did you feel you did what you could and helped your team? Did you pitch in or not?

Of course there are the cases of getting shot dead with a 40 point alpha into the cockpit 20 seconds in. Those don't count, because things like that happen.

However, if you think you did your share and helped your team then that's it.

One of my best achievements in a locust was tying up an enemy heavy lance for a few minutes by myself. (They were AC20 jagers) that was all the time my team needed to finish off the rest of their team and seal the game in our favor. I finished with only 4 assists, no kills and about 150 damage, I think, but that was more than enough.

[JediPanther]

Being good in a match for me depends on what mech I'm using,my mood, and how derpy my team is acting. If I'm in a catapult or light I go for kill assists. If I'm in a bigger mech go for the kill and try and kill two mechs. For the most part I try and get just one kill per match as a goal.

[ThatBum42]

I just got back from a match where I took on a fresh Atlas with my Blackjack and won somehow. We circled each other in a far-off corner of HPG for a while, and my aim must have been much better than his because I got his left side torso as well as his center torso. Granted, I lost my right arm and nearly lost my left side torso too. After annoying some other enemies at range and blowing the missile rack off a Catapult, I finally ended up being the center of attention and was taken out by an angry Dragon. We lost 10-12, but I was still proud of that 603 damage match. GGs all around! These are the moments of camaraderie that we all seek while playing MWO.

Edited by ThatBum42, 22 March 2014 - 01:18 AM.

[William Slayer]

Great thoughts and stories guys. I agree with ur mentality in that each mech has its own place and roll on the battlefield. A good game is very situational and as I mainly enjoy the fire support role I am extremely happy when I get a bunch of assists. The teamwork aspect of the gameis 1 that truly can make or break for your side. I was on alpine peaks today and watched with pride as the front line pushed down off the mountain as we rained fire down on them to keep the enemies heads down as we crossed the danger zone. I got a bunch of assists and truly felt like I had to helped contribute to the win.

[IraqiWalker]

William Slayer, on 22 March 2014 - 09:19 AM, said:

Great thoughts and stories guys. I agree with ur mentality in that each mech has its own place and roll on the battlefield. A good game is very situational and as I mainly enjoy the fire support role I am extremely happy when I get a bunch of assists. The teamwork aspect of the gameis 1 that truly can make or break for your side. I was on alpine peaks today and watched with pride as the front line pushed down off the mountain as we rained fire down on them to keep the enemies heads down as we crossed the Danger Zone. I got a bunch of assists and truly felt like I had to helped contribute to the win.

Queue Kenny Loggins

That's actually a proper FSU (Fire Support Unit) play right there. Suppression, and assistance is what you're supposed to do. If you ever got the chance to read some of the books, look up how the Vulture is piloted. Actually Sarna has a good description right here.

As long as you rained hell on the enemy and even if you didn't do damage, because you forced them to spend 5 minutes behind cover, you've done your job.

[William Slayer]

In a word, contributing. That is what should make you feel like a good pilot I feel.

[William Slayer]

IraqiWalker, on 22 March 2014 - 09:54 AM, said:

Queue Kenny Loggins

That's actually a proper FSU (Fire Support Unit) play right there. Suppression, and assistance is what you're supposed to do. If you ever got the chance to read some of the books, look up how the Vulture is piloted. Actually Sarna has a good description right here.

As long as you rained hell on the enemy and even if you didn't do damage, because you forced them to spend 5 minutes behind cover, you've done your job.

Like that description of the VULTURE mech. Playing "mama bird" on the hill. Lol

[IraqiWalker]

William Slayer, on 22 March 2014 - 11:01 AM, said:

Like that description of the VULTURE mech. Playing "mama bird" on the hill. Lol

Yep.

That's how an LRM boat should function. Even though the game's focus is mainly on damage and kills. Suppression isn't rewarded (Mostly because calculating that is going to be a programming nightmare) directly, however, with your team winning or performing really well because of it, you get your own psychological reward.


My LRM boat is a BLR-1S I had a game with only 400 damage, but I had used all but 90 missiles in my bays. Our team cleaned out 12-3. Mostly because I was lobbing the LRMs like a wizard hopped up on PCP while shooting fireballs.

The suppression from that mech earned me many a "awesome job LRM boats" {I was the only LRM boat on our team XP} during that match, and even over comms with my lance I was being complimented by my lance mates for supporting them and helping the team in general.

[Mycrus]

If you manage to drop and have fun you are "doing" good.

[Nick Makiaveli]

Buckminster, on 21 March 2014 - 06:16 PM, said:

It really is hard to quantify - so much of it depends on the mech, the pilot and the situation. Because honestly, what's "good" most of the time isn't good all of the time. I have a screenshot floating around of a game I had in a Locust - I took on and killed a Cataphract 1 on 1. I had great damage numbers, got the kill on a mech that was significantly heavier than mine. But guess what - we lost. I probably should have spent more time seeking caps rather than doing the slow damage dance with a mech.

QFT.

[William Slayer]

IraqiWalker, on 22 March 2014 - 05:06 PM, said:

Yep.

That's how an LRM boat should function. Even though the game's focus is mainly on damage and kills. Suppression isn't rewarded (Mostly because calculating that is going to be a programming nightmare) directly, however, with your team winning or performing really well because of it, you get your own psychological reward.


My LRM boat is a BLR-1S I had a game with only 400 damage, but I had used all but 90 missiles in my bays. Our team cleaned out 12-3. Mostly because I was lobbing the LRMs like a wizard hopped up on PCP while shooting fireballs.

The suppression from that mech earned me many a "awesome job LRM boats" {I was the only LRM boat on our team XP} during that match, and even over comms with my lance I was being complimented by my lance mates for supporting them and helping the team in general.

Good story. :-) When I first got started with the game I picked blackjack and Jagger (Rifleman) mechs as the logical support role mechs, not knowing that the games meta had to turned them into primary threats in the game! I could not understand why I was being instantly focused down when I thought of myself as one of the less threatening units (using my old school thought process). Lol. Now that I have picked up a Cat I find myself more in the right zone of Threat Level. :-)

[giganova]

If you REALLY want to be good, you MUST follow these steps:

Step 1) Have a high ELO. Player's can't see ELO ratings, but you still need a high one.
Step 2) Join an elitist group of competitive gamers, they will carry you if you can't contribute.
Step 3) Review the myriad of personal Mech tier lists that people have constructed using tried and true empirical evidence.
Step 4) Sell all the Mechs in your garage that do not appear on the top tier of said Mech tier lists.
Step 5) Learn the meta, only use builds that exploit the current meta.
Step 6) Be proactive, watch the dev blogs, read the updates, try to anticipate what the new meta will be.
Step 7) Meta the meta.

That just about covers it...

[IraqiWalker]

giganova, on 28 March 2014 - 10:56 AM, said:

If you REALLY want to be good, you MUST follow these steps:

Step 1) Have a high ELO. Player's can't see ELO ratings, but you still need a high one.
Step 2) Join an elitist group of competitive gamers, they will carry you if you can't contribute.
Step 3) Review the myriad of personal Mech tier lists that people have constructed using tried and true empirical evidence.
Step 4) Sell all the Mechs in your garage that do not appear on the top tier of said Mech tier lists.
Step 5) Learn the meta, only use builds that exploit the current meta.
Step 6) Be proactive, watch the dev blogs, read the updates, try to anticipate what the new meta will be.
Step 7) Meta the meta.

That just about covers it...

I'm hoping that's a parody/joke.

Otherwise, that's a guide on how to have high elo/suck without your group to baby-sit you.

Granted my performance improves when I am playing with a lance instead of solo, but the improvement is about 10-15% only. If I followed your guide, I would be miserable since I will probably not be piloting my non-meta mechs, the ones that I not only have the most fun in, but perform best in. (seeing a COM-2D obliterate a JR7-F, or RVN-3L, or a FS9-A is always wonderful), and more importantly, I will SUCK solo.

[Barkem Squirrel]

Good is being able to read the battle, anticipate where the enemy is going to show up based on how your team is moving. Then in your LRM boat locust continue to fire after the Wang has blown off a leg in one shot. Then spend the rest of the match spamming LRM's while moving less than 40 kph, ducking fire and getting over 350 damage off of 2 tons of LRM ammo and the backup medium laser.

It could be the catapult with 150 damage from missiles, that keep the other teams heads down as the brawlers closed on the pop-tarts.

The Raven or locust that just sat behind the enemy team not firing but targeting for the LRM boats.

The atlas that dies gloriously with no kills, maybe 100-200 damage at less than 20% health. he took all the damage for us.

The medium that is covering the flank and sees an entire lance of assaults coming and fights a delaying action, just slowing them down enough.


So many ways to be good. Almost forgot, KDR for those that like to kill secure, a very important part of this game. Making sure the mech is down so it can not damage friendlies or cap.

[Roughneck45]

Knowledge, personal skill, teamwork skill.

You need to be up to date and knowledgeable with the strongest mechs, weapons, and loadouts. Quickly identifying what targets are going to be the largest threats is important. Being able to determine if they are using an XL engine by what weapons they carry or how fast they are moving. Knowing the details of the maps, escape routes, choke points, etc.

The two biggest personal skills IMO are aiming and shielding. Having good aim is an obvious advantage, picking off critical components instead of spreading damage. On the flip side, the way you soak damage is important too. Making sure you shield yourself by forcing your opponent shoot at components that still have armor or are non essential for your combat effectiveness.

Teamwork is the hardest one. Knowing when and where to support your teammates, how much you can rely on them to cover your back, pushing as a group, and general battlefield awareness. This stuff is very difficult because PGI gives some pretty terrible tools to work with when on a team with random players. This is where joining a merc group really shines. Playing with the same group of people often has its obvious advantages, the largest being communication and confidence in fellow pilots.

Those are the main things that stick out to me.

Edited by Roughneck45, 28 March 2014 - 01:37 PM.

[giganova]

IraqiWalker, on 28 March 2014 - 11:07 AM, said:

If I followed your guide, I would be miserable...

That is the appropriate response. I was just calling out 2 or 3 hypocrites in here that would agree with my "guide" while also maintaining that it comes down to pilot skill, and not what specific mech you may or may not be piloting.