4 replies to this topic

[Magna Canus]

I am sure we have all had those moments where you see somebody rub two sticks together and make a fire and the "AHA!" light goes on. You then ask yourself "why didn't I think of that"?

Yesterday, I had one such experience and immediately smacked myself on the forehead thanks to a guy I met in game (let's call him Joe). I was gaming at a time (German time zone, 10 in the morning) where most of my Unit is not online, thus I was forced to drop solo (further muddying the "stats" on solo/group drops).

In game Joe drops a message to the team "does anybody want to group up after this match"? So simple, but I never thought to do it. Myself and another replied that we were interested, so after the match was over we sent out friend requests and got the group invite. Joe was not a person looking to recruit people to his unit, he was just out there to "pick up a group" e.g. to PUG.

Over the course of several matches our little group of 4 randoms dropped together as a team. For various reasons we did not use comms (one had no headset, the wife of the other was sleeping, etc.), but still talked about tactics and random stuff in the group chat between matches, and made use of the team chat in game the best we could. With the few chat cues and an "instinctual group combat mind" we had several great games together. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost, but in general we had a ton of fun. Every now and then someone would drop out to take a break, or sign off for the night, etc. so we either picked up somebody on the friends list of people currently in the group, or we dropped a note in game the next drop just the was Joe did the first game I decided to join the group.

At some point in time Joe had to sign off for the night, but even after he left the group remained and the rest of us "carried the torch". It was a singular and remarkable experience.

So, for those of you/us that prefer to be in a group rather than solo, but who either can't drop with their unit for some reason or who do not want the kind of "commitment" being in a unit may or may not require, try this out.

I know I will be doing this from now on whenever I am forced to drop solo.

[PremithiumX]

That's what MMOs should be about. Not nerd rage or screechers, just a few like-minded people getting together to blow shit up.

[ThatBum42]

I had a similar experience after soloing for about 600 matches. After all that time I finally noticed the social button, and that it was blinking. A couple players in matches where I performed well took it upon themselves to friend me. So I accepted the invites and played with both of them the next day, it was amazing. I agree that I should try this as well.

[Keeshu]

Grouping up with random people. I usually don't do that unless I find the person to be pretty awesome by being chatty and nice.... being good at the game not required, but it certainly helps (though sometimes hearing how terrible they are can make it more amusing).

Grouping with good players is almost like activating cheats to me in any game. It's always strange whenever I get paired up with someone in any game (not just MWO) and then they perform better than 3 randoms combined, because I'm used to being the one that carries people. So it feels like 7 or 8 people taking up 2 slots (Feel sorry for newbies that encounter 2 or more good players in a co-op PVE game though, they don't get much to do).

So because of this, I tend to always PUG in just about every game unless I have a friend on. Yeah, not the best for win/lose ratio but I couldn't give a flying feather about that. I generally just stick with allies, seeing if I can get someone to help me, or I can at least protect the LRM boats/other slow walkers so they don't get singled out from an ambush. It also makes me enjoy random teamwork (especially focused fire) much more since I almost never see it in PUGs.

Mandatory "Teamwork is OP, nerf Teamwork".


As for learning anything from seeing other people doing something, there's not much I can think of off the top of my head. Though seeing people use other enemies as cover to protect themselves from other enemies is one thing I loved. Before then I was always hiding behind cover, and would never have the courage to do something like that, which sometimes lead to some allies taking much more damage because enemies didn't have enough targets to distract.

[Ghostchips Condensate I and II]

PremithiumX, on 15 April 2014 - 08:08 AM, said:

That's what MMOs should be about. Not nerd rage or screechers, just a few like-minded people getting together to blow shit up.

i can only like this comment once, needs more liking.