31 replies to this topic

[Tereva]

Hi there,

I started playing MechWarrior on a board (yes I am that old ), and tried a couple of the video games that came after. It feels good to be back in the cockpit.

As said I play World Of Tanks and looks like skills don't transfer as much as I though

First there is no rebound of bounce here correct ? You don;t need to angle your mech, correct ?

There isn't any weak spot either right ? You aim for parts of the mech (legs, arms, torso...), but you don't need to aim for a specific place on those part.

Camo / visibility : is there a way to make your mech less visible by being in a tree or doing something ?

Also what mech class do you advise to learn ?
My experience of WoT tells me that light and medium needs more skills (good positioning and piloting, as well as knowing the possibilities of the mech you are facing).
So I was thinking of going for a Heavy to learn the rope
Any comment of this ?
And any advice for a good heavy ? (in Wot I love my T32, ST-I, KV1S, Churchill III)

Also, for a serious player, when do you recommend to buy a Hero ?

Thx

Tereva

[Modo44]

Welcome to MWO.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

First there is no rebound of bounce here correct ? You don;t need to angle your mech, correct ?

No. According to lore, mech weapons are stabilized specifically to prevent recoil from being an issue. You do get shaken when you are shot with missiles or ballistics, a mech falls/drops near you, or gunshots impact the ground near you.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

There isn't any weak spot either right ? You aim for parts of the mech (legs, arms, torso...), but you don't need to aim for a specific place on those part.

Actually, those are weak spots. Depending on the mech and build, you may get an easy kill by blowing up a leg (and the ammo, which many players put in legs), or make an enemy almost useless by destroying the left/right torso. As you build your mechs, you will notice that certain locations are naturally weaker while others can be lost without issue.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Camo / visibility : is there a way to make your mech less visible by being in a tree or doing something ?

Only via ECM and direct terrain cover. The colours all turn to grey at longer distances, so going to battle in bright pink is not an issue. However, a veteran player can effectively troll others by going all green. Various dazzle-like ideas can help by making it slightly more difficult to hit specific mech locations (see above) at close range, but this is of minor importance.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also what mech class do you advise to learn ?

Any you like based on the trial mechs. The mech tier list will help you choose competitively strong variants if you so wish. Note that it is not updated with all of the most recent mechs.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

My experience of WoT tells me that light and medium needs more skills (good positioning and piloting, as well as knowing the possibilities of the mech you are facing).
So I was thinking of going for a Heavy to learn the rope
Any comment of this ?

All classes have their own skills, but the heavies and mediums are probably the easiest to get into. Again, try the trials, see what sticks.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

And any advice for a good heavy ?

For power, Cataphract 3D is king. For ease of use and varied loadouts, Orion 1K.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also, for a serious player, when do you recommend to buy a Hero ?

Maybe if you feel like you need to have a specific variant. The hero mechs are not automatically stronger, and sometimes actually weaker than the free variants. Their main use is permanent grind reduction with more Cbills per match.

Edited by Modo44, 29 March 2014 - 05:04 AM.

[Garegaupa]

Welcome to MWO from another old WoT player! Modo44 has given you some good answers, but I thought I'd offer my take as well.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

First there is no rebound of bounce here correct ? You don;t need to angle your mech, correct ?

Correct. A hit is a hit, unlike WoT where angling can make quite a difference. What you will often do in MWO, however, is to twist your torso and move your 'Mech around to spread damage over as large an area as possible - this is especially relevant for weapons like lasers, as they deal damage over time (as long as the beam lasts).

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

There isn't any weak spot either right ? You aim for parts of the mech (legs, arms, torso...), but you don't need to aim for a specific place on those part.

Also correct. You can take out an arm, a leg, a side torso and so on, but where you hit on that specific component does not matter.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Camo / visibility : is there a way to make your mech less visible by being in a tree or doing something ?

I've got nothing to add to Modo44's answer, I think he's covered the basics on this one.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also what mech class do you advise to learn ?
My experience of WoT tells me that light and medium needs more skills (good positioning and piloting, as well as knowing the possibilities of the mech you are facing).
So I was thinking of going for a Heavy to learn the rope
Any comment of this ?

I started in heavies, and as Modo44 says, heavies and mediums seem to be considered the best starter choices. I'd go for a heavy, especially based on your tank preferences from WoT. I don't have any good recommendations, though, as the only heavies I've played much in are the Catapults, and they are more like arty from WoT, so probably a bit different play style from what you're looking for.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also, for a serious player, when do you recommend to buy a Hero ?

As Modo44 says, when you find a 'Mech variant that you like. But it's a good idea to search a bit on these forums, as some Hero variants are considered to be quite good, while others may not be worth what you pay for them.

Again, welcome to the game - may your aim be true and your armor solid!

Edited by Garegaupa, 29 March 2014 - 05:49 AM.

[Kakebaronen]

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Hi there,

My experience of WoT tells me that light and medium needs more skills (good positioning and piloting, as well as knowing the possibilities of the mech you are facing).
So I was thinking of going for a Heavy to learn the rope
Any comment of this ?

it is actualy more alike wot then you would think.

as i am rookie myself who is a wot vet, the classes here do play the same as in wot, but they can be played different when you have the skills.
basicly light=scouts/harassment, medium=flank/support, heavy=tanky/support/long range, assult=tanky.

there is no long range high alpha like the 704 and 183 where 1 shot takes away 50% of your hp or 1 shot kills you, but missile boats are like spg, but luckey some counter measure for that exists.

first try all the trials in the testing ground, see what fits you.
i personly liked the trial missile boat but only cuz the heavy did not have the range i liked.

Edited by Kakebaronen, 29 March 2014 - 05:49 AM.

[rolly]

Hello and welcome to the game!

First off, this game is pretty different than WoT. WoT is highly polished and has stepped away from monetization of everything. Secondly WoT has a lot of time to work out its bugs. MWO, though released, still has many issues. So you'll need to shift eventually from the "wow its so new" to the "oh my god. Crash/bug again? When are they going to fix this.... sigh I still love Battletech."

Teaming up:
Secondly, to last longer I do recommend finding a group to run with. You'll learn the ropes faster and survive longer.

Recommendation on a Heavy:
Based on your tank choices, I'm assuming you like a heavy with good hull down ability and one that can take punishment. For this reason I'd stay away from the following heavies:

Catapult - Firesupport and poor brawling, with narrow firing arcs
Jager - Medium armor for heavy, fire support, high rebuild cost to be more survivable

I do recommend the Thunderbolt - either SS or SE -

The SE can literally "tank" with its heavy armour and respectable weapons load "out of the box" It doesn't take much to set it up the way you want. Which I recommend as a long range hull down sniping. The jump jets will also give you options for moving around and thinking laterally. The heat management will train you to be an effective pilot too.

SS is the non-jump jet energy version, again higher heat good survivability, may need some work to get it better in terms of credits and loadout

I can't say much on the Orion or Cataphract - both I find are hard to kill and the Cata just seems to favour the flavour of the month/meta build of AC's/PPCs.

Comparing WoT to MWO:
This isn't like WoT in that in WoT you can snipe from partial cover. Sadly though these mechs have arms, they're completely useless in shooting over cover, meaning you'll likely have to run out, shoot and duck back. ie. Shoot n' scoot like in WoT.

This is in a way like WoT due to mitigating damage. When face hugging with the T32 you can turn the turret to create a higher chance of bounce. Here you need to torso twist and position your mechs body to mitigate damage. Otherwise going full on frontal facing will kill you. Its not like WoT where deflection and angling your front armor will make you last longer. Its the opposite. Better to take a shot in the intact side or back to protect a hole or damaged front, then turn back and fire.

Ween yourself off the 3rd person view and unlock the arms and throttle decay in the options settings menu. Its harder but will get you to out of thinking that the mech is a tank. Think robot.

Avoid open spaces and being alone. Unlike WoT, you can't solo as well as you can in WoT. Isolation and smaller unit numbers and overloaded firepower means you're armor won't last against anything more than 2 mechs.

Lights easily dominate this game due to hit registry.

Caveat:
Missing content/features and everything that is broken in this game or is promised is labelled "coming soon". When they are expected to actually be delivered/fixed/addressed, is anyone's guess.

Wait for the next patch coming April 1st. - Everything is likely going to change, (again) including the meta (weapon build/flavour of the month)

Right now its LRM-fest due to the changes to the missile speed. As soon as you can save up 202,000 c-bills put an AMS on any mech you have, unless its a fast light mech and you're good at dodging, you'll likely get lit very quickly.

Please feel free to send me a message via this forum if you have any other odd questions that come up. I'll try to address them when I can. I'm also usually on MWO after 8-9pm EST (GMT -5)

Again, welcome to the game. Try not to burn out. If all else fails, WoT is still there.

Edited by rolly, 29 March 2014 - 06:18 AM.

[Draknos]

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

As said I play World Of Tanks and looks like skills don't transfer as much as I though

Actually skills, maneuvering are even more important than wot because your shots (bounce or hit) aren't determined by a roll of the dice like in wot. That's one reason I hate that game because you can hit a sweet spot on a tank and it still bounces due to a roll of the dice. So it's luck more than skill in wot. When you are hit in a spot on your mech you need to twist your mech so that the damage is mitigated from that spot you just got hit. On offense, if a player gives you the same spot you just hit, well you need to try and hit that spot again and again to pierce the armor and accomplish a crit.

Edited by Draknos, 29 March 2014 - 06:46 AM.

[CSHubert]

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also what mech class do you advise to learn ?
My experience of WoT tells me that light and medium needs more skills (good positioning and piloting, as well as knowing the possibilities of the mech you are facing).
So I was thinking of going for a Heavy to learn the rope
Any comment of this ?
And any advice for a good heavy ? (in Wot I love my T32, ST-I, KV1S, Churchill III)

Also, for a serious player, when do you recommend to buy a Hero ?

Hi Tereva and welcome to MW:O. Im a WoT player too, though I've been neglecting it for a while now, as MWO seems more interesting to me. One little note here: If you go play WoT again after MWO you will feel out of place, noobish and really suck for a couple of games, before you get the feeling back. Its very odd.
Anyway: Last question first. Im a big spender so I've bought some Heroes purely on the notion that it looked awesome. After a while I find that its fun and expand on the line, or that it is what it is: a cbill pinata... Its up to you. They work like premiumtanks with increase in earning, though not xp wise.
On the researching thing you'll find the grind here less aggrivating and alot smoother. Weapons, engines and stuff all fits all chassis (within limits) and there is a whole world of tweaking and adjusting to look into here.
So for a Heavy starter Id recommend the Cataphract IM hero. The 'phracts are really fun and hardnosed (some actually calls them op). They fit the T32/T34 heavytank consept. On the med side the Centurion line is great fun, their Hero YLW is the most rewarding suckerpuncher I've come across here.
Good luck mate. And enjoy the friendly community here. Ask them for anything, they are really helpful here

Kakebaronen, on 29 March 2014 - 05:47 AM, said:

there is no long range high alpha like the 704 and 183 where 1 shot takes away 50% of your hp or 1 shot kills you, but missile boats are like spg, but luckey some counter measure for that exists.

Ahhh... you havent been tapped with a tripple Gauss psycho setup ?!?

[Modo44]

Kakebaronen, on 29 March 2014 - 05:47 AM, said:

there is no long range high alpha like the 704 and 183 where 1 shot takes away 50% of your hp or 1 shot kills you,
[...]

Well, you can technically do that. Triple Gauss or quad PPCs Stalker will kill a lot of stuff in a shot or two. They are not very useful overall, but still, doable.

[IraqiWalker]

First check this website:
Smurfy's It will help you experiment with builds, and figure out what mechs have and don't have without having to buy them or look for them in the store. It saved me countless millions of C-Bills, and a lot of heart ache too.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

First there is no rebound of bounce here correct ? You don;t need to angle your mech, correct ?

No there is no recoil like that.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

There isn't any weak spot either right ? You aim for parts of the mech (legs, arms, torso...), but you don't need to aim for a specific place on those part.

The parts themselves have no specific magic zone where you can deal extra damage by firing at. Once a mech loses armor in a particular location though, things change. You could destroy weapons and equipment in that location,(You still don't need to aim at a specific pixel, just hit that section, and everything there receives damage) or possibly the entire location thus crippling/destroying the enemy mech by focusing on one zone.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Camo / visibility : is there a way to make your mech less visible by being in a tree or doing something ?

There are camos in the shop that can /help/, but honestly more often than not, you want to use natural cover and terrain.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also what mech class do you advise to learn ?
My experience of WoT tells me that light and medium needs more skills (good positioning and piloting, as well as knowing the possibilities of the mech you are facing).

Each weight class has it's own requirements of "skills", however, I would recommend you start out with a medium, they are the perfect balance of speed, firepower, and mobility that would allow you to work your way afterwards up and down the weight chain.

I'm personally old school and will recommend the Hunchback 4SP, because it is one of the more balanced of the mediums, and has all types of hardpoints for you to experiment with. Which helps when figuring out what weaponry you prefer.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

So I was thinking of going for a Heavy to learn the rope
Any comment of this ?
And any advice for a good heavy ? (in Wot I love my T32, ST-I, KV1S, Churchill III)

The heavy class has some seriously good mechs in there.

Depending on what you want to do with it.
Here's a quick summary of each of the heavies:
1-Dragon: lightest of the bunch, this mech moves as fast as mediums, and handles more like a light. It is designed as a flanker mainly, in front line combat it's big center torso becomes a fire magnet, so you should always be moving and hitting your enemy without giving them a chance to retaliate. hardpoints are mostly ballistic and energy (there are a couple of missile points, but are mostly negligible)

2-Quickdraw: The energy/missile to the energy/ballistic of the Dragon, the quickdraw has Jumpjets to help it maneuver the field and is quite fast for a heavy, moving at similar speeds as the Dragon. It's main drawback is that half it's firepower is useless beyond 300 meters(max range for most missiles, unless you install LRMs).

3-Catapult: Mobil missile platforms mostly, and the most iconic missile boat out there. Except for the K2, that's the direct fire support one, which has energy, and ballistic mounts instead of missile and energy, like the other variants do. They are exceptional as second line mechs, and Fire Support Units, the K2 can even brawl with the best of them and has a solid chance of winning. Can also be set up with Gauss for sniping from extreme range. The Jester Hero mech is also one of few mechs that can mount 2x AMS, it's also an energy only mech.

4-Jagermech: Shoulder mounted weapons, and are almost exclusively ballistic weapons platforms (one variant adds missiles to the mix, and they all have a few energy hardpoints, but they have a LOT of ballistic hardpoints and can bring great amounts of dakka to a fight.) They are great for sniping, suppression, and close range are famous for playing a twisted version of "chicken" involving splats with a 2x AC20 set up (watch out for the very short range on that one). The hero mech is the Firebrand which has more energy slots than most jagers do.

5-Thunderbolt: broad as a barn, and damn near as tough. Thunderbolts are mainly an energy/missile mix, which in my opinion work best either at long range or short range, medium is not comfortable enough for them. The 9SE happens to have Jumpjets, which makes for some very fun play with it.

6-Cataphract: one of the undisputed kings of dakka tactics, they have low slung arms which means they can't shoot over hills easily, but if a cataphract gets you in it's sights, you're gonna have a bad day because how many ballistic and large laser shots they can put into you. The 3D variant has jump jets and is quite famous as poptarts go. The hero mech is the Ilya Muromets, one of the best hero mechs out there, and capable of dispensing a lot of bullets.

7-Orion: The poor man's Atlas, The mini Atlas, and other names that imply it's almost an atlas without being one. That's how good the Orion is, it can mount firepower equivalent to that of an atlas (25 ton difference in weight). It can't tank as well as an atlas, unless you build it for that, but it is very maneuverable, and I've seen them excel in long range engagements and in ambush tactics, as they can unload unholy hell at close range.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

Also, for a serious player, when do you recommend to buy a Hero ?

Once you are comfortable with a chassis, and you feel you would enjoy playing it a lot, I'd recommend getting their hero mech. Keep in mind that hero mechs cost real money, and as such you should buy them with some care. Some of my friends have almost every hero mech in the game. While other like myself only have a couple for the mechs that we REALLY like.

Hero mechs help you make C-Bills faster, and if you pair it with premium time, you'll make a lot of money fast. They also do have unique hardpoints and paint schemes, however they are NOT pay-to-win. Just a different set up.


EDIT: also, if you want more information on any variant of any mech, we'd be happy to help discuss them in detail, pros, cons and all. Just ask. Since the summary I gave is just that, a summary.

Edited by IraqiWalker, 29 March 2014 - 08:14 AM.

[Charronn]

WOT and its rigged mm,I know it well .And welcome to MWO.

[CG Chicken Kn]

As a long time WoT player, (16000 battles, CW FC, blah blah) , and even longer time Mech pilot,(14 years and climbing) The very first thing you will need to adjust to is the speed of combat. Big slow assaults do 50 kph. Or the speed of meds in WoT.
Lights do 140-150 plus kph. The maps are a LOT bigger. And there are no broken spotting mechanics. If you can see it, you can hit it, if your weps have that much range. Like over 1 k for gauss and other things.
Mechs will not magically disappear in the middle of open terrain because a 3 foot tall bush was between you and them.

Stay with your group at all times. A lone mech is a dead mech. As others said, the mediums or heavies are the most versatile.

WoT is incredibly simple compared to how much variation there is in MWO.

MWO is FAR less grindy than WoT. Like 10% or less. Like this weekend you can get a free mech bay (garage slot) for ANY 5 wins. Couple weeks ago they gave away a Champ Centurion and a mech bay for 5 wins. Money comes much easier.
So play, and have some fun.

The only reason I still have WoT installed is for clan wars. The grind and badness of pubs in the last 6 months makes me cry.

Oh and when some says GLHF or GG in MWO, they actually mean it, as opposed to the sarcastic troll in WoT.
And there is no XVM garbage, your stats can only be seen by you.

Step away from the badness and in to the light! Though that light may be my lasers shining on your cockpit glass. In that case, step back..

[Tereva]

Hey guys,

Thx for all the answers ! Didn't expect that many so fast, so thx again.

Will keep playing with the trial for a bit to see how it goes.
Have ran around http://mwo.smurfy-net.de/ before, but to be honest I still don't get much out of it.
I got that the variant are just the same chassis with different mount points + some options (jet pack or so), but I am totally lost with the possibilities and personalization possible.
Haven't found where you do that in game, but I guess you need to buy the chassis first.

Also I haven't figured out what skills / elite / master are exactly. Guess for now I just need to play to get a feel of everything.

In WoT I have fun playing slow tanks but with great gun like : AT15 / JgTg 8.8 / T95 (yes all TD with great gun).
Anything here that has that kind of playstyle ?
I am thinking Jaggermech , Cataphract (the flavor of the month it seems), or Thunderbold like suggested by @rolly
If I understand you cannot find a position and shoot from there. You have to move out cover and back in all the time , correct ?

Like said above I will wait for the next patch anyway before sending anything and see how it goes.

See you on the battle field

Tereva

PS : If someone know of a good mature / casual clan witgh members in the PST time zone let me knoe (as a reference in WoT I am with NAG : great bunch of guys that like playing , teach you instead of yelling when you do a mistake, and just enjoy having a good game even when we lose)

Edited by Tereva, 29 March 2014 - 01:09 PM.

[Modo44]

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 01:06 PM, said:

Haven't found where you do that in game, but I guess you need to buy the chassis first.

You do. The free trial mechs have locked loadouts.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 01:06 PM, said:

In WoT I have fun playing slow tanks but with great gun like : AT15 / JgTg 8.8 / T95 (yes all TD with great gun).
Anything here that has that kind of playstyle ?

Most heavy mechs can do that, and some assaults fit well. You generally take a small engine with lots of big weapons. Yes, the Jagermech fits, although it requires XL engines for glorious firepower, making it kind of a glass cannon. The Cataphract 3D is probably a better fit.

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 01:06 PM, said:

If I understand you cannot find a position and shoot from there. You have to move out cover and back in all the time , correct ?

Yes. You need positioning and movement combined. That is why jump jets are crucial, especially until you learn the maps.


After your first 25 matches, you will gain access to other forum parts. This includes the faction subforum with recruitment threads. There are many teams -- from mostly casual to strictly competitive -- that you can join. Note that the word Clan has a special meaning in MWO, as it is connected to BattleTech lore.

[dragnier1]

Run the trial mechs a couple of times each to get a feel of them, they are free after all. Do note though, that the cicada runs like a light mech and the other mediums don't go that fast. Once you're done with the first 25 matches and collected your cadet bonus (will be indicated in your achievement list, menu bar on your left) you can also check out youtube videos to see how each mech chassis work. Don't worry too much about the weapons config, there is an online "list" you can reference (smurfy main page, click "mechlab" tab at the top, then "discuss custom mechs" at top right).

[Koniving]

Tereva's questions and their numbers in spoiler.

Spoiler

Tereva, on 29 March 2014 - 04:48 AM, said:

1) First there is no rebound of bounce here correct ?
2) You don;t need to angle your mech, correct ?
3) There isn't any weak spot either right ?
4) You aim for parts of the mech (legs, arms, torso...), but you don't need to aim for a specific place on those part.
5) Camo / visibility : is there a way to make your mech less visible by being in a tree or doing something ?
6) Also what mech class do you advise to learn ?
7) And any advice for a good heavy ?
8) Also, for a serious player, when do you recommend to buy a Hero ?

So I started on a reply earlier today but lost power. I've numbered your questions.

1) Correct.
2) Incorrect. There are three responses to this.

• In third person, certain mechs literally 'attach' to terrain, creating interesting angling for firepower. Stalkers are especially guilty of this phenomena. On a hill, in third person, you can use this to aim extra high or low. This is not true in first person or of humanoid mechs. This is still limited to the ranges of normal arm elevation which in third person you cannot move the arms and is only useful as an exploit to aim slightly higher or lower with torso mounted weapons. (The problems that amount from doing this however make the deed worthless.)
  
• You have torso elevation and arm elevation, which with armlock turned off can allow you to aim up high or down low. (Technically you can even aim these independently to hit two targets at the same time). This however isn't quite what you meant.
  
• Autocannons at ranges near two times the optimum require an elevation adjustment due to bullet drop. But barely. It's near 3 times the range that they need a serious adjustment and if you are firing that far away you're wasting your ammo anyway due to the significant damage reduction.

3) There isn't any weak spot either right ?

There are two kinds of weak spots. Player set, and hitbox related.
Player set weak spots are through armor allocation.
For Examples:

• Many newer players tend to weaken the leg armor (as so few people shoot at legs) in order to gain a lot more tonnage to use for weapons, ammo and heatsinks.
  
• Commonly rear spots are weaker than front due to armor allocation.
  
• Crossbacks, an age old Hunchback and Centurion technique to preserve themselves in the days of 64.8 kph or less medium mechs. These used to put a lot of armor on a front side torso (left for Centurions, right for Hunchbacks) and a lot of armor on the opposing rear side torso (right rear for Centurions, left rear for Hunchbacks) so that advancing and retreating both had a separate side of the body to face to the enemy.
  
  • It was left front for Centurions due to the shield arm, many Centurions would twist 45 degrees right, then arm-aim 45 degrees left, and advance with their cannon (right arm) hidden underneath or slightly above their left arm (shield). This coupled with LRMs, allowed them to constantly hammer a target while rushing at the ever so slow 64.8 kph (often slower than 55 kph).
    
  • It right right front for the Hunchbacks due to the hunch which needed protection. The large fuel tank on the left provided enough of a bullet stopper to protect the hunch from the left rear.
• Turtlebacks, now all but extinct, were another interesting sight on the battlefield. These mechs relied heavily on powerful weapons that fired once every 4 or more seconds. That long period of time required a lot of time being hit by small arms fire before they were ready to fire again and at the time the fastest mechs were barely 97 kph. So while assaults and slower heavies developed strategies of using arms to block shots and lights could jump or duck under shots, the Hunchback and the Catapult were screwed. Thus came the Turtlebacks. AC/20 + 3 ML was 35 damage in a single strike. Or 30 to 40 damage in a single strike with GaussCat and BangCat. So they begin circling the enemy. Fire. Look away and continue to circle while giving only their back (which everyone thinks is easy to destroy and the person they are fighting must be really stupid or paranoid and so they blast away). Once the Turtleback's weapons are ready again, look back at the enemy really quick and fire again. Usually two or three times of this will kill any foe.

The mech in this video is an example of an intentionally set weakness.
1 point of rear armor.


Another, link to view here, shows you how to build the Roflpult which is a Catapult that has less armor than a stock Locust, yet survives amazing abuse. Taking abuse til death.

Hitbox related.
Various mechs have certain quirks. Some of these are intentional. Some I suspect is due to incompetence. An example of the latter; there was once a time where hitting the lower part of the Centurion's Mohawk would cause cockpit damage. Hitting the upper part of the mohawk would cause leg damage.
Examples of the prior:

Raven. The Raven features a very small, very narrow, lengthy beak that is considered the center torso. Sections of it (the panels) are considered Left Torso and Right Torso. This causes problems especially for beam, MG, and Flamer style weapons which cannot focus their damage on its torso. A Raven fighting with a standard engine would be nearly impossible to kill, actually. That is if not for its legs. A Raven's leg hitboxes are actually larger than the actual legs, making them exceptionally easy to hit. The same is/was true for the Locust, whose leg hitboxes recently got reduced because it was 'too easy'.

Jenner. The Jenner is the polar opposite of the Raven. Instead of a nearly invincible torso, its legs are nearly invincible. Short, stubby, and frequently body parts like arms or the torso take damage instead of the legs with general attempts to shoot them. Instead, aim for the center torso. Unlike the Raven whose body length is split into 3 sections, the entire body of the Jenner is one armored section and its shoulders count as the side torsos.


Stalkers and old-style Centurions share a Raven-like syndrome, where the side torsos are used to protect the center torso immensely well. In the case of the Centurion aim for the connection between torso and pelvis for best effect. Against the Stalker that trick is difficult, but the side torsos do not split damage well so simply take out the side and then rip through it to get to the center (note hitting a side torso after it is destroyed reduces damage by 50% as it transfers to the next most inward body part).

Some mechs have odd flaws in their hitboxes that either got missed in testing or are intentional. For example the 'fuel tank' on a Hunchback. This relatively unnecessary design feature, presumably a compartment to hold ammunition, counts as a left rear side torso even when hit from the front, top, or bottom and is always visible from the front. Since most medium mechs nearly strip all rear armor to survive the latest direct fire and LRM meta-games, a single shot to this would kill an XL engine Hunchback (the really fast ones with big weapons).

3 PPCs, , 2 PPCs and an AC/10, 2 Gauss Rifles, or 2 AC/20s will instantly kill the Hunchback from the front, if fired at that circled 'drum' tank. Minimum damage required 24 (not counting any rear armor. Rear armor ranges from 1 point to 12 at the highest in a realistic scenario).

4) You aim for parts of the mech (legs, arms, torso...), but you don't need to aim for a specific place on those part.
For this, you are correct yet not. For example if you go for a leg, contrary to lore hitting the Quickdraw in the ankle won't do any extra damage. So it won't matter where you hit the leg.
However, in the case of aiming for the cockpit you need to hit specific places for it to register. And depending on the mech the 'side' is not always the side. And twisting away to protect your front in some mechs may make it more vulnerable than looking directly at an enemy (i.e. Awesome and Dragons have frontward jutted center torsos that are easier to hit from the side than from the front).

5) Camo / visibility : is there a way to make your mech less visible by being in a tree or doing something ?
Not in the way you are thinking. You do not become magically invisible. But there are tricks. For instance powering off hides you from radar (except against BAP equipped mechs).

Being out of sight as an enemy passes often helps too. Example:
Hidden out of sight and completely unseen getting there, I let enemies walk by and then strike them in the back from behind. But then I get spotted.


Camo helps.

But enemies can overcome that at shorter ranges with Thermal vision (H) or Night Vision (N).

However, camo isn't that important. Some people blatantly stand out just for fun. Like me in this Flamer Muromets (also known as the IkBoSy. Illya Killya Balls of Steelsya. Aptly named because it took balls of steel to wield flamers and LB-10s as primary weapons.)


6) If you get one before the patch, mediums. After the patch perhaps heavies. Reasoning is to be able to evade missiles while they are insanely fast. Won't matter so much after they are renerfed into the ground.

7) Because of the nature behind what's necessary to make the mechs compete in an environment where the old repair and rearm was completely removed, the mechs have to be 100% upgraded and maxed out to even have a chance in MWO. It's something that disgusts me to the core.

That said, Orions may not be cheap to get at the door, but by the time you finish with the upgrades it needs, it's cheaper than all of the smaller heavies. It doesn't need an Extra Light engine to get good speed and great firepower. It can carry that weight. Unlike the 80 ton mechs, it doesn't lose a lot of speed with lower engine ratings either. All you really need in most of their cases is 1.5 million (2 mil to be safe) cbills more to switch to double heatsinks and slap some quick changes on it before it's viable.

Orions are largely unused by players, likely due to their height compared to the unit just below them in weight, Cataphracts. However, Orions do not share the Cataphract's double-screwed nature against LRMs (any missile at long range hitting the top does damage to the front and back; triggering the mostly removed splash damage and multiplying the damage dealt).

Just avoid the Orion K at first. It's the hottest running of all Orions due to its high number of energy hard points.

8) Whenever a sale hits.

Edited by Koniving, 29 March 2014 - 07:10 PM.

[Koniving]

Sorry that took so long to update.
Image credits to Lordred on all screenshots of my mechs. Jenner shot is also Lordred's
Jenner hitbox coating is my doing, and the Mechbay shots are my own.

[IraqiWalker]

Koniving, on 29 March 2014 - 07:13 PM, said:

Epic post

And that ladies and gentlemen, is why Koniving is king of the help forums.

[CSHubert]

Thats why you just have to ask... and have a good deal of time to read the reply

[ZeProme]

IraqiWalker, on 29 March 2014 - 08:30 PM, said:

And that ladies and gentlemen, is why Koniving is king of the help forums.

#Koniving_sensei_best_helper_of_MWO_new_players_section

Sensei \o/

[Stunner]

The differences I like between this game and WoT is the fact that there are no tiered mechs. The smallest mech in the game can inflict damage in the biggest mech in the game plus scout as well for those long range teammates. In fact some really good mech pilots will take advantage of slow lumbering assualts and heavies and will stay behind them and shoot them in the rear where armor is lighter.


Now I haven't seen anyone mention to you how the XP works in this game to level up your pilots efficiency in the mech. Now in WoT you had seperate crews for each tank. You are the same pilot for each mech but you get familiar with them as you grind up XP in the mech. That's where the skills tab will be. Right now in trial mechs you are earning xp for those mechs but since you don't own them you can't apply it. Also there are basic skills and elite skills. One of the most prized skills in Elite is Speed tweak which helps your mech move faster. You can only reach the elite skill tree if you maxed out the basics for 3 mechs of the same chassis. So while your favorite mech might be one variant of the chasis you need to level up two other chassis. One you max out Elite on that chasis your basics skills are then multiplied by 2. You'll be suprised how much that helps. Your basics have skills for heat management, turning your mechs legs, torso, arms, speeding up and slowing down. When you get a new mech it may feel a little slugish but after unlocking some of those skills you can notice the difference.