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How do you choose?
First: Know the "roles" in mechwarrior online, this is paramount in playing the game. There are other posts about this "role warfare" in the new players sections.
Second: Your first battlemech should revolve around your skill level. Its that simple. Because your skill level will dictate which playstyle your going to be good at in the beginning. Support mechs are often the easiest to play in the beginning. Where as, a fast scout or striker mech can be harder to pilot. Also the largest mech, the Atlas, is actually a hard mech to pilot as it can be outmaneuvered by every other mech, leaving you vulnerable. Brawler mechs are good medium skill mechs.
Thirdly: Trial Mechs (free mechs) take advantage of these mechs to get use to driving and targeting before buying your own. They're not the best mechs; they tend to overheat, they come equipped for playing multiple roles, and are simply not "your" mechs. But you can make good use of them to practice and hone your skills. Also the trial mechs change every week (i think?) so theres lots of different mechs to try. The medium or heavy mechs are a good starting point.
Finally: Once you have played for some time. Hopefully you have learned about the game, and are now are a half-decent pilot. It may be time to focus on your first mech. Don't be afraid of actually "buying" your first mech with MC (mechcredits). How much do you normally spend on a video game anyway? Once you have this mech you can use your winnings (which will be greater now) to customize your new mech and buy other mechs overtime. The keyword being "overtime" take your time perfecting your first baby. Also save your MC for things that you can't buy with CBills. Remember this is a "free to play game" meaning there will be lots of cool things that one can only buy with MC / real hard cash in the future.
On another note:
One of the most important aspects of MechWarrior Online is being able to communicate quickly with your lance mates. If your unable to do this, your not going to be winning or enjoying this game as those that can communicate quickly. Its that simple. Use a headset (buy one if you have too), and get on to the free TeamSpeak servers. Search these forums for the Comstar EU and Comstar NA servers. If you can't get or use a headset, then you can still play on TeamSpeak with others that do have headsets.
Although its not required to have good time in MWO, but keep your eye out for a group to play with. MechWarrior Online has one of the most diverse followings for a MMO, so there's all sorts of people to play with:
There's young punks, old farts, and everything in between.
There's people from the Americas, Europeans, and Oceanic.
There's people that like to roleplay the battletech lore, others that are hardcore and must win, and others that only pilot their battlemechs while half intoxicated.
Then there's the groups alignment; they can be true Mercenaries, or Mercenaries that will only support a certian house(s), or those that are tied to one of the Great Houses.
Good places to look for groups are in the Merc forums and each of the House forums. Every group will have a posting trying to attract new people somewhere in these forums. Also you can post your resume up in the merc Hiring Hall. And when your in TS there'll often be others (the ones sporting a tag "<ABC>JohnSmith") in your dropship that will be tied to a group.
Edited by Slater01, 02 November 2012 - 01:25 PM.
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