1821 replies to this topic

[Lt Kataren]

Carl Avery, on 03 September 2014 - 05:07 PM, said:

Guys, it took me 800 matches to master all the weight classes on my stock account. Eight hundred miserable matches of getting my teeth kicked in unlocking sub-par 'mechs. Think careful before you do this to yourselves. : )

(Granted, you don't need to master the classes for the current stock events, only elite, but you never know -- the suggested Sunday one did allow modules, which would mean needing to master for maximum effect.)

I've actually been having a lot of fun. Finding out a lot about a stock locust! Like, did you know a single Gauss to the CT will kill you? And if a Direwolf so much as looks at you, you melt (they don't even need to use ammo!)? There is a reason I grabbed the LRM Locust...

As far as everything else, for the Unit, my stance on modules and thing is, bring whatever you can to help us out. Just because we don't customize our mechs doesn't mean we can't bring mods and consumables like everyone else! Heaven forbid, we all know we will need every edge we can get when the unit goes live and we start dropping in groups/CW. My hope is, Elo should help place us in matches more suited to our particular play style. If we do great, we might make a point that stock mechs are not as bad as people think. If we do bad, then it only proves the point that some things in the game could use an additional look (as we basically seem to already know on some things) to help balance out those options.

Also, I play completely for fun. Winning and losing is irrelevant to me in the end.

Though I agree with you. Using stock mechs in PUG matches, or even in team matches, isn't a walk in the park. But then again, half the fun I have is rising up to the challenge. What can I say. I like smashing my head against hard stone walls...

[BarHaid]

Argh! I do not need an alt account. I do not WANT an alt account! But. But... Your argument is compelling. Using the grind to master the different play style required for Stock appeals to me. I think I shall steal master Avery's "- in a stock mech" nomenclature.

Hey, maybe by the time I've mastered a few chassis I'll finally have voice coms and can actually participate!

[Tesunie]

BarHaid, on 03 September 2014 - 07:27 PM, said:

Hey, maybe by the time I've mastered a few chassis I'll finally have voice coms and can actually participate!

Can you download the Team Speak program? Then you would be good to go! You don't need to be able to talk to participate. Just want you to listen really. (And we form up and invite people as we see them in the TS servers...)

I just simply made a new e-mail account from the same one as my primary account, made the E-mail address as the same name with a couple letters in the front (X can work great), and created a new MWO account using the new e-mail address but the same password as my main account. This way, in the log in, I have it memorize my username (e-mail). Then I just add or remove the front letter or two to switch between the accounts.

I find the challenge of playing stock in the normal game a compelling and fun challenge. I'll admit it wont be for everyone, which is fine. (It also gives you 4 mech bays to use for events such as SMM, or a separate account to run in a different unit from your main too if the stock thing doesn't work out.)

[Tesunie]

Some ground rules I feel we should have for the unit (as always, subject to change, VETO, etc):
- We agree to always use stock mechs.
- We can use modules in any live matches with accounts from the unit. Just needs to be stock configurations otherwise.
- No set camo specs, unless we all agree to really look like a unit! (Unto which, I suggest blue and green. Each basic colors, helps with camo a bit, and easy to get.)

Only question would be, would we allow some "stock" refits? Such as someone running a "St. Ives Blue" on just any other Vindicator? Someone changing a Jenner into a Panther configuration? Or would we all resort ourselves to stock mechs that are stock within the game? (I vote the later, but the former might not be too bad either, just less clear to any opponents we fight that we are clearly stock...)

Any other "rules and regs" we can think of? I mean, I want the unit to be fun, but I want it to also remain true to it's standing of stock mechs only... So I don't want to drown people in "this has to be this, you can't use that, you can do this, you have to..."

[General Taskeen]

Too bad we can't paint Stock Mechs exactly like miniatures Give me a virtual paintbrush!

[General Taskeen]

Carl Avery, on 03 September 2014 - 05:07 PM, said:

Guys, it took me 800 matches to master all the weight classes on my stock account. Eight hundred miserable matches of getting my teeth kicked in while unlocking sub-par 'mechs. Think carefully before you do this to yourselves. : )

(Granted, you don't need to master the classes for the current stock events, only elite, but you never know -- the suggested Sunday one did allow modules, which would mean needing to master for maximum effect.)

Ouch, sounds like torture without a Stock Mode in the game. All my Mechs that I have stock are everything I obtained over the years from Beta. I haven't even bothered to elite or master any of them since I don't have the patience for that.

[General Taskeen]

Alistair Winter, on 03 September 2014 - 02:10 AM, said:

, since I've never participated in Stock mechm ondays

Dude, you need to check it out one of the stock days some time. Monday usually has the most pilots available.

[Carl Avery]

BarHaid, on 03 September 2014 - 07:27 PM, said:

Your argument is compelling. Using the grind to master the different play style required for Stock appeals to me. I think I shall steal master Avery's "- in a stock mech" nomenclature.

I changed it to "Carl Avery in an old mech", because the concept of stock 'mechs doesn't seem to be consistent with a canonical mechwarrior's thought process. Canonically, a Madcat Prime is a Madcat Prime, and if you see one of those rare ones which is running a different configuration of weapons than any of the "stock" variants, that one's denoted as a custom Madcat, not (e.g.) "a custom Madcat Prime running 2x LRM15 + 5x MPL + 2x MG." If it isn't running 2x LRM20s + 2x ERLL + 2x ERML + 1x MPL + 2x MG, then it isn't a Madcat Prime!

So, as far as I can tell, since custom 'mechs are unusual in lore, stock battlemechs are considered normal, to the point where they aren't called "stock," but rather just given their variant name. Since a Blackhawk S is thus always a Blackhawk with 6x MPL + 4x MG + 5x JJ, for an actual mechwarrior to call it "a stock Blackhawk S" would redundant. It would be about as odd as a USAF pilot calling his F-16 fighter "a stock F-16" because it doesn't have the conformal fuel tanks that the Israeli Air Force mods onto their F-16s. More likely, he'll call his bird simply "my F-16," and he'll rather note that the IAF one is modified.

The only time he'd likely use an adjective to note that his aircraft is factory spec' is during an extended comparison between the USAF one and the IAF one. So, for the purposes of my immersion, I asked support to change my stock account from "in a stock mech" to "in an old mech." Better fits the lore! FWIW. : )

Edited by Carl Avery, 04 September 2014 - 05:31 PM.

[Tesunie]

Going to be making the unit with Lt. Kataren. Stock Battlemech Corps (TRO). If people disagree, we can always disband the group and recreate. Right?

Edit: It isn't letting me make the unit... But the error code doesn't say why...

Edited by Tesunie, 04 September 2014 - 05:28 PM.

[BarHaid]

Carl Avery, on 04 September 2014 - 10:24 AM, said:

Snip )

I applaud your rigorous logic, and had wondered about the second name change. "in a stock mech" still tickles my fancy, so I shall retrieve your fallen mantle. o7

[Carl Avery]

By the way, in case you're interested in eliting/mastering your alternate account as efficiently as possible, I'm pretty sure you'll actually save C-bills by upgrading your 'mechs and then downgrading them to stock after mastering. You make so much fewer C-bills per match in a stock 'mech, because you'll typically lose more often and/or go down early and/or not get much damage/kill/assist scores. If you upgrade and put on a good build just to master it, it pays itself off and then some. (Not that think that most of you will take my advice ... I have a hunch you guys are going full-on pain.)

Edited by Carl Avery, 05 September 2014 - 07:46 AM.

[Tesunie]

Carl Avery, on 05 September 2014 - 07:45 AM, said:

you guys are going full-on pain.

Yup. Pure stock here. (Don't know about the rest.) I'm going to have this account use stock mechs only, no alterations. (Seen as the point of this account was to have Elo assign my stock mechs their proper Elo, and not the Elo of my custom rides influencing them.)

So far, I've been doing rather well with the Locust 1M. Doing between 100-150 damage each match, and have a few really productive matches! I think I fell back in love with the Locust now...

Still deciding what I want my 4 mechs to be (till they give out more mechbays). I've got the Locust 1M, the Hunchback 4J... I was thinking either a Nova Prime (I do rather well in it stock), Vindicator, Awesome (with two LL and two LRm15s)... or any other suggestions? Debating on the Nova Prime as a mech for when we do Clan vs IS (and if it isn't a trial mech anymore). But then again, that account is being geared more for CW than just stock mech matches...


Edit: Just did a match where I did over 200 damage in my 1M! Efficiency wise, I just did as much work as an Atlas who did over 1000 points of damage! (Per ton brought to the battlefield.) And that's the power of STOCK!

Edited by Tesunie, 05 September 2014 - 08:26 AM.

[Carl Avery]

Tesunie, on 05 September 2014 - 08:12 AM, said:

the point of this account was to have Elo assign my stock mechs their proper Elo

Unfortunately, PGI's averaged-Elo system doesn't work. Even if averaged Elo were consistently capable of fairly matching 12 random players against 12 random players (which, I maintain, it isn't), there simply aren't enough people who play MWO at most times of the day. PGI's matchmaker is always going to be having to make exceptions and knowingly pitting mismatched teams against each other, because of its refusal to split up pre-mades onto separate teams.

You get, say, a 6-man with a crazy high averaged Elo, and an 8-man with a crazy low AE -- such different AEs that the latter has no chance of defeating the former, despite the larger head count of the latter -- searching at the same time with at least one common game mode, and they will be pitted against each other (even though, because of their AE differential, from a competitive standpoint, they shouldn't be), if there aren't enough big groups playing to find a more appropriate match. And if there are nothing but average-Elo two-man groups to fill in the gaps on both sides, guess which premade's gonna get crushed.

This is even more true when you have a high-AE 12-man and a low-AE 6-man with some 2-man's to fill in the gap on the second team. Crushing defeat, mockery in chat, etc. etc. And it happens, because there often aren't enough people playing, so the matchmaker has to choose: fail to find a match, split up the 12-man, or make a rigged match? PGI's decided to not offer the first two choices, so the matchmaker has no choice but to provide a rigged match. Hence all the "ggcloses."

Tesunie, on 05 September 2014 - 08:12 AM, said:

I was thinking either a Nova Prime (I do rather well in it stock)

I run my Blackhawk Prime "stock-minus" in the public queues. It's the stock configuration, except I removed a heatsink to max the armor. It does all right at present (better than most of my tricked-out IS 'mechs, in fact), but today's patch is supposed to nerf the **** out of the cERML, isn't it? But, other than that worry, yeah, good choices. That LRM + LL Awesome is the best stock Awesome, IMO.

[Malleus011]

Carl Avery, on 05 September 2014 - 09:14 AM, said:

I run my Blackhawk Prime "stock-minus" in the public queues. It's the stock configuration, except I removed a heatsink to max the armor. It does all right at present (better than most of my tricked-out IS 'mechs, in fact), but today's patch is supposed to nerf the **** out of the cERML, isn't it? But, other than that worry, yeah, good choices. That LRM + LL Awesome is the best stock Awesome, IMO.

And I can attest that the stock minus Blackhawk runs quite well.

Edited by Malleus011, 06 September 2014 - 05:19 AM.

[Carl Avery]

Heh-heh. That was my Blackhawk S you saw yesterday; I'd dropped the cMPL to cERML (and ditched the AMS & TC for more armor and DHS), so that doesn't qualify as stock-minus. Unfortunately, I concluded yesterday that my stock-minus Blackhawk Prime was no longer viable in public matches, because of the new heat values, so I dropped four cERML for some heatsinks on that variant. Which isn't to say that one can't ever do well with a stock Blackhawk in public matches now, but it's much harder than it was pre-patch, and I've given up on it.

Edited by Carl Avery, 06 September 2014 - 07:52 AM.

[Carl Avery]

Being Tech 2, I won't be able to run it in the Tech 1 matches, but I've reverted my Blackhawk Prime to pure stock, now that it's been "Mastered." Although this downgrade was primarily for Stock Era Wednesdays, I may join you crazies for a few matches with your TRO public-drop group sometime, using this Blackhawk Prime. I've named it "Quicksilver," because it melts at room temperature. : )

Edited by Carl Avery, 06 September 2014 - 08:02 PM.

[ThatDamnWolf]

ThatDamnWolf reporting for duty!

I'm out of cadet school and have some nice credentials for the field:
First of my class in 'Overheating only at the most inopportune moment',
Master of the art of catching an AC20 to the face,
In the top ten of my class for 'Missing the enemy by a pixel',
and was voted 'Most likely to die by his own stupidity'.

[Lt Kataren]

ThatDamnWolf, on 07 September 2014 - 04:43 AM, said:

ThatDamnWolf reporting for duty!

I'm out of cadet school and have some nice credentials for the field:
First of my class in 'Overheating only at the most inopportune moment',
Master of the art of catching an AC20 to the face,
In the top ten of my class for 'Missing the enemy by a pixel',
and was voted 'Most likely to die by his own stupidity'.

Welcome to Stock Battlemech Corps (as soon as I can make the unit).

You've been assigned under my command, in the Stategic Armor Reserve lance. If they have to call us in, we've already lost!

I graduated with high comments on my LRM ussage! Everything else seemed to have received a facepalm. Facepalms are good, right? I was rated "Top in my class to die in a Brawl".

[Lt Kataren]

Finally got a unit name going. It was the TRO tag that was hanging it all up.

We are now Stock 'Mech Corps [-TRO]

Anyone wishing to join, just let me know here or in game.

[ThatDamnWolf]

Lt Kataren, on 07 September 2014 - 07:40 PM, said:

Welcome to Stock Battlemech Corps (as soon as I can make the unit).

You've been assigned under my command, in the Stategic Armor Reserve lance. If they have to call us in, we've already lost!

I graduated with high comments on my LRM ussage! Everything else seemed to have received a facepalm. Facepalms are good, right? I was rated "Top in my class to die in a Brawl".

Awesome! Nice to know there is no pressure on us.

At the moment I have a Locust 1-E for scouting and recon and a Catapult K2 for medium range direct fire support. I do have to say running these mechs stock you really appreciate what max armor felt like. Needless to say I am doing well with the K2 as long as I remember what my role is, mainly FIRE SUPPORT. I sometimes get trapped in a brawl due to me getting over eager, but if I stay back and use the mech as it was intended then I do fairly well. My best game yet was on Canyon with 4 kills 5 assists and over 500 damage. Better then my average of 0 kills 2 assists and 100 damage...