22 replies to this topic

[Latex]

So I started playing just now, I did the tutorial and I figured I had all the controls down and I could play the game but no, I can't do anything still.

Nothing is explained!

How do I:

Lock on to targets
Use my weapons (how do missiles even work?)
Why can't I hurt other mechs but I die super easily?
How do I equip my mech?
Is there leveling?
Why does jump jets work sometimes but not other times?
Seriously, how do you kill other mechs this isn't explained at all!
Can you build your own mech?
Why do mechs disappear sometimes?
Why in third person mode does my mech vibrate and become hard to look at?
Why is this game so much more difficult than the previous mech warrior games?
How are you suppose to see people at night?
What is the easiest weapons?
Why does my SRMS not work?

These are some basic questions, some of which are super important, like locking on for example!

[Modo44]

Yes, we know. The community created guides put PGI's efforts to shame. That is what you get in a beta, I suppose.

[AlmightyAeng]

Edit: Apparently you can only have 10 uses of the 'quote' function per post. Good to know. Some quotes Italicized.

Latex, on 28 April 2014 - 12:02 PM, said:

Lock on to targets

Press R

Use my weapons (how do missiles even work?)
That's rather broad, since there are lots of weapons and 3 kinds of missiles. Are you using SSRM's, SRM's, or LRM's?

Quote

Why can't I hurt other mechs but I die super easily?

This is likely a result of either your playstyle, or your unfamiliarity with your weapons. What mech are you playing in?

How do I equip my mech?
Until you buy your own, you can't. The trial mechs have set loadouts. At the end of 25 matches you'll have around 10 million C-Bills to buy your own mech, that you can upgrade and outfit as you like.

Is there leveling?
Not yet, no, though PGI says "Soon ™." In trial mechs, you don't gain experience. With mechs you purchase you do, and can use that experience to upgrade your mech skills in the 'Skills' tab at the top of the home screen.

Why does jump jets work sometimes but not other times?
Not all mechs have jumpjets. The ones that do only have so much fuel, that then recharges. Look at the meter to the left of you minimap, bottom center of your screen.

Quote

Seriously, how do you kill other mechs this isn't explained at all!

A mech is destroyed if you destroy the cockit, center torso, side torso (if it has an XL engine) or both legs.

Quote

Can you build your own mech?

You can change what goes ON your mechs...you can't actually BUILD your own mech.

Quote

Why do mechs disappear sometimes?

Please explain. On the minimap? You or your team has lost line of sight and/or they're out of sensor range. They've walked within 180m of a friendly mech carrying ECM, which makes them invisible to sensors.

Quote

Why in third person mode does my mech vibrate and become hard to look at?

Mechs have a slight movement while moving in 3rd person mode. 3rd person mode is pretty useless, honestly, because PGI didn't want it to be overpowered. Hit F4 and play in first person.

Quote

Why is this game so much more difficult than the previous mech warrior games?

What's your previous experience with mechwarrior? Most people wouldn't agree with your statement.

Quote

How are you suppose to see people at night?

Hit 'H' to turn on Heat Vision. Hit 'N' to turn on night vision.

Quote

What is the easiest weapons?

To use? Probably LRM's. To use and be really effective with? PPCS and AC5's (if you can aim).

Quote

Why does my SRMS not work?

Please explain? Like, at all? Check your weapon groupings on the bottom right of you screen. Move around using the arrow keys and assign weapons by using the Right-Control key. If you mean, why is there a slight delay, it's because your mech has missile-bay doors that are closed. Hit '/' to open them. If you mean why aren't they tracking, SRM's are dumbfire in MWO.

Edited by Ghost Badger, 28 April 2014 - 12:14 PM.

[Latex]

I am using the catapult, the other mechs I can't hit anyone with their guns.

How do I tell if I'm hurting the mech I'm firing at? I'm sitting there shooting another mech with over 200 lrms and they don't even die, I then get zero kill assists and zero kills. I am literally not helping to win my match at all.

This is seriously the hardest game I've ever played and I've beaten Dark Souls 1 and 2, I've also beaten the entire King's Quest series which are regarded as some of the most difficult thinking games of all time.

[AlmightyAeng]

Latex, on 28 April 2014 - 12:19 PM, said:

I am using the catapult, the other mechs I can't hit anyone with their guns.

How do I tell if I'm hurting the mech I'm firing at? I'm sitting there shooting another mech with over 200 lrms and they don't even die, I then get zero kill assists and zero kills. I am literally not helping to win my match at all.

This is seriously the hardest game I've ever played and I've beaten Dark Souls 1 and 2, I've also beaten the entire King's Quest series which are regarded as some of the most difficult thinking games of all time.

Well, hitting 'R' will help a lot. When you do you'll see a wireframe mech in the upper right of your screen (just like the wireframe of YOU in the bottom left). It'll show you damaged armor and internals by varying shades of yellow, and then orange, then red. When you hit parts of a mech, those parts will flash on that wireframe.

LRM's don't hit beyond 1000m. They also don't explode INSIDE of 180m. They have a minimum and maximum range.

If your crosshair turns red, that indicates a hit. If they are in cover, it could be that your LRM's are hitting the side of a building, or terrain, even though you have them targeted.

LRM's aren't terribly powerful. You sacrifice the ability to consistently hit a single component of a mech by having a weapon that auto-targets. LRM's spread damage out.

If you have issues hitting mechs with other weapons, I'd suggest giving the Training Grounds a try, and practicing shooting/moving a bit.

You can find it on the left-hand side of the home screen.

Edited by Ghost Badger, 28 April 2014 - 12:25 PM.

[Jody Von Jedi]

Latex, on 28 April 2014 - 12:19 PM, said:

I am using the catapult, the other mechs I can't hit anyone with their guns.

How do I tell if I'm hurting the mech I'm firing at? I'm sitting there shooting another mech with over 200 lrms and they don't even die, I then get zero kill assists and zero kills. I am literally not helping to win my match at all.

This is seriously the hardest game I've ever played and I've beaten Dark Souls 1 and 2, I've also beaten the entire King's Quest series which are regarded as some of the most difficult thinking games of all time.

LRMs are only effective between 180m and 1000m. If you are closer than 180m, then they just bounce off. At 1000m they explode in flight.

[Koniving]

I agree Latex. The in game tutorial is awful.

Latex, on 28 April 2014 - 12:02 PM, said:

How do I:

• Lock on to targets
  
  • R is the default key to select a target. Once selected hold the crosshair on the target to begin locking.
• Use my weapons (how do missiles even work?)
  
  • Cannons you lead to hit. Lasers you point at the enemy to hit. SRMs you lead to hit. Streaks and LRMs you lock on and then fire.
• Why can't I hurt other mechs but I die super easily?
  
  • Concentrated fire. Keep hitting the same body part to be more effective.
• How do I equip my mech?
  
  • You need to own your own mech first. After that it is as easy as selecting it and choosing "configure."
• Is there leveling?
  
  • There will be. It is part of the features coming after June in what is called Community Warfare. At the moment you can level up your mech through the "Skills" system.
• Why does jump jets work sometimes but not other times?
  
  • Not every mech has jumpjets. Jumpjets need to recharge.
• Seriously, how do you kill other mechs this isn't explained at all!
  
  • There are 12 ways to kill a mech. The simplest ways are to hit them in the center of chest (takes a while) or destroy both of their legs. The quickest is to hit their cockpit; but this shot is harder than it looks.
• Can you build your own mech?
  
  • Rebuild a mech within limitations? Yes. See "how do I equip a mech" above.
• Why do mechs disappear sometimes?
  
  • Target or mech itself? If target, then ECM (radar jamming). If mech itself, this sounds like a graphics draw distance limitation on lower graphics settings. Raise "Mech" in the Advanced options.
• Why in third person mode does my mech vibrate and become hard to look at?
  
  • This is also true of first person when under fire. Or do you mean the 'blur'? Turn off anti-aliasing or use the DX 11 setting's "MSAA."
• Why is this game so much more difficult than the previous mech warrior games?
  
  • Lots of precision damage and a non-omnipresent radar that only scans in front of you.
• How are you suppose to see people at night?
  
  • Press N or H. Nightvision or Thermal.
• What is the easiest weapons?
  
  • Streaks and AC/20s.
• Why does my SRMS not work?
  
  • Tricky question, see the answers others give.

Latex, on 28 April 2014 - 12:19 PM, said:

I am using the catapult, the other mechs I can't hit anyone with their guns.

How do I tell if I'm hurting the mech I'm firing at? I'm sitting there shooting another mech with over 200 lrms and they don't even die, I then get zero kill assists and zero kills. I am literally not helping to win my match at all.

If you hit "R" there will be a target indicator in the upper right with their health. Bronze means fine. Yellow means slightly damaged, red means almost destroyed. Black means destroyed.

As for the "Streak" SRMs, they also require a lock to fire. So follow the "lock on targets" bit at the top.

I included a Video here with the Catapult A1 build that I call the ROFLpult (it has VERY poor armor but nasty firepower). I use both dumbfired LRMs and locked on LRMs and will use this video to demonstrate how it is done.


I also pulled up this Hunchback match which has a lot of direct fire and kills dealt. It also has a near-death situation (though sadly I don't speak in it). Keep an eye on the upper right side whenever I go to shoot at someone, it gives their health indicators. I also chose it because it begins in the middle of me rebuilding it from a 3 PPC + small pulse laser mech to a 2 PPC + medium laser and a TAG mech.


And finally I included this video because it has a few moments of "sectionally" disecting enemies for kills (headshot, ripping off legs, side torso shots, etc.) and I inserted a computer voice that describes EXACTLY what I'm aiming at and approximately what damage was done. It also has other mostly unknown tricks such as how to cool faster (when possible), capturing bases, etc.


I hope those 3 videos will both help you out and perhaps even inspire your questions to be about more specific (and thus easier to answer) situations or aspects of gameplay.

Edited by Koniving, 28 April 2014 - 12:41 PM.

[AlmightyAeng]

Koniving, on 28 April 2014 - 12:25 PM, said:

All the answers I gave

Psssht....11 minutes late man...come on Hehehe.

Any particularly helpful vids, based on the responses he gave me? Your upload ability far surpasses mine on vids

[LauLiao]

Latex, on 28 April 2014 - 12:02 PM, said:

Seriously, how do you kill other mechs this isn't explained at all!

Quote

Why is this game so much more difficult than the previous mech warrior games?

I smell troll

[SethAbercromby]

1) The default key is R. It will lock onto the next available enemy 'Mech (not always the one you want on first try though)

2) Weapons are bound to up to 6 groups. These can be toggled with your numerical buttons or whatever buttons you'd like to use. Hop into Options->Keyboard and use whatever you like (your Middle mouse button (pressing mouse whee down) can be set to an action, scrolling however can not)). You can change your groups in game (or the testing grounds) by selecting a weapon and group with your arrow keys and toggle the selected weapon group for that weapon on or off with right control. This will affect whether the weapon will fire on triggering the specific group or not. Pressing Backspace will toggle the selected weapon group for Chainfire. In chainfire, your weapons in a group will be fired one after another rather than simultaneously.
LRMs and SSRMs require a missile lock. When you point your crosshair over a locked enemy, you will see a yellow circle becoming smaller. On its smallest point, it will turn red and your missiles will now follow that target as long as it's targeted. Losing the target will cause the missiles to enter dumb fire which will cause them to home into the last targeted position.

3) Did you allocate armor? When running the trial 'Mechs, you need to be aware that this is not CoD. Damage received is irreversible and you will have to play against people with at lest some moderate knowledge of the game mechanics. I won't go too much into detail but there are a lot of helpful guides around here that will teach you the rules of engagement for this game.

4) You are probably still running Trial 'Mechs. The 'Mechs cannot be customized and you will have to save up for your first own 'Mech before you can customize anything. Be careful though as the first cash you will make is greatly increased to quickly afford your first 'Mech but you won't ever get that much cash at one time ever again. Make your choice wisely.

5) Nope, but you get Exp for the 'Mechs you own as you use them and can give them minor performance improvements. They are not game-breaking but can make a great difference on the field.

6) Jump Jets have fuel that refills after you have landed. You cannot permanently use them and they won't refill instantly.

7) Damage. The most common way to kill an enemy is by destroying the engine mounted in the Central Torso. Some 'Mech use an XL (Extra Light) that extends into the side torsos and will cause the engine to be destroyed if either is lost as well. The fastest way is by destroying the cockpit but that is difficult to hit and getting a kill that way is more luck than anything else. The last and least common way is by destroying both legs of a 'Mech. This is rarely used as focusing on the legs will not cause damage on the areas that carry the weapons that will be hurting you as well. Most players will rather go for the torsos of a 'Mech instead as destroying a side torso will also destroy the connected arm, if it hasn't already been lost and might kill the 'Mech if it was running an XL engine. Weapons mounted on destroyed components are of course lost as well, weakening the enemy 'Mech.

8) You can customize the variants but you can't build a completely unique 'Mech. Your loadout is restricted to specific hardpoint restrictions and locations and every 'Mech has its personal quirks.

9) You are likely referring to the Lock system. When no one in your team can see an enemy directly, you cannot get a lock. Sometimes, a lock cannot be achieved because of range or ECM canceling, disrupting your targeting sensor.

10) I believe that is caused by the AA setting. In Options->Graphics/Video (not sure how it's called right now) and click advanced settings on the bottom. The setting with POSTAA needs to be set to Disabled/Off. That has helped me with the weird after-effect. (Btw, I recommend disabling "Start in 3rd person mode" in the options).

11) It is not really more difficult than the other games. You might just not be used to the game any more and keep in mind that you are playing against real players here. There is no AI pulling its punches for you.

12) Pressing N for Night Vision and H for Thermal Vision will allow you to see better in environments with bad natural vision. Mind you, the modes aren't 100% realistic but they work for what they were made for.

13) LRMs are no-brainers in their use. Keep your mouse on target, wait for lock, pull trigger, observe. There is of course a lot of strategic depth to the most efficient use of LRMs but in general, they would be the least difficult weapon to just pick up and play. Lasers also work pretty intuitive. You look at the target, pull the trigger and a beam comes out. Every type of laser has a specific range limit and will generate quite some heat, but they are among the easiest to use direct fire weapons.

14) SRMs are ammo dependent and dumb fire. SSRMs (Also referred to as Streaks) need to achieve a missile lock just like LRMs do prior to firing.

EDIT: Fixed terribad spelling.

Edited by SethAbercromby, 28 April 2014 - 12:57 PM.

[Redshift2k5]

It's labelled as a movement tutorial, and basic movement is the extent of it.

To answer all of the questions you present would take at least a solid hour of tutorials(and nobody is going to actually sit through an hour of tutorials), and some of your questions are distressingly vague such as "Why can't I hurt other mechs but I die super easily?", which is primarily due to a large volume of rookie errors and correcting all of those errors would take significant amount of tutorials and would be unable to address every issue for every player.

Should there be more tutorials? Absolutely.

[AlmightyAeng]

Redshift2k5, on 28 April 2014 - 12:53 PM, said:

It's labelled as a movement tutorial, and basic movement is the extent of it.

To answer all of the questions you present would take at least a solid hour of tutorials(and nobody is going to actually sit through an hour of tutorials)

They would if PGI gave you achievement goodies to complete them.

[Felio]

Fortunately, the New Player Help forum here is pretty active. We have a few regulars and a lot of visitors helping out. Don't hesitate to stop by, and the Short Question, Short Answer thread really does work if you have something good for that.

To find your question again (or any post of yours), go to the Profile link up top, next to Logout.

Then click Forum Profile. It's right under the Support button. Now look down and to the left and click on Posts. Those are direct links to your posts within a thread.

I bookmark my forum profile so I can easily revisit recent discussions.

[Koniving]

Ghost Badger, on 28 April 2014 - 12:54 PM, said:

They would if PGI gave you achievement goodies to complete them.

I personally like the approach done in H. It gives you a generic tutorial movement/combat tutorial, and as you reach certain points or do certain things on the menus (such as enough funds to get your own unit), a tutorial then pops up about how to purchase. When you go to equip it, then a tutorial on how to equip it comes up.

This way it helps you through a complicated game but doesn't bombard you with back to back tutorials.

PGI already has a choosing menu for its tutorial, which means it is planned to have multiple tutorials to choose from when you feel you 'need' them. However I doubt PGI will ever cover 50% of the game's mechanics in it.

(To Seth below, I admit I did the same in H. I skipped through some of them. Though I confess if it was voiced I'd be more open-eared. What I hate most is when the tutorial obstructs me from trying things by limiting my controls or freezing the game while telling me something. I absolutely hate that. Tell me information and lemme press a button to proceed but let me try it out at my own pace instead of taking control away from me.)

Edited by Koniving, 28 April 2014 - 01:08 PM.

[SethAbercromby]

While that certainly works, I remember in Endless Space, the Tutorials would get triggered by opening certain menus, but the tutorial pupups were too detailed and boring and I skipped more than half of them the instant they popped up. That is not how to tutorial either. Finding a solid middle ground can be more difficult as some might think.

[CCC Dober]

OP, that's some good feedback there, keep it up.

PGI wants to sell you on something, so it is only right that they provide you with all the things needed to succeed in their game. Their newcomer introduction needs to be bullet proof like other successful games have demonstrated before. There is absolutely no excuse for what you and other new players are required to go through right now. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. You have a right to enjoy this game as much as anybody else.

[CT Tarantula NL]

Because of the great WG booboo (constant CTDs) , i thought i try this game again, cant even remember when i became legendary founder , but its REALLY ridicilous that in tutorial aswell as in Testing grounds i still get the fraggin OUT OF BOUNDS error, SERIOUSLY???? I see stuff being added constantly but still the begin error in this game??? Why not just tear it out as its obvious not working !

Or is that somethin on my end???? Since i've been browsing the forum but cant find anythin on it.If anyone knows how to get it workin lemme know.

Greetz

Edited by CT Tarantula NL, 28 April 2014 - 05:54 PM.

[Dredhawk]

This game harder then previous mechwarror game????Really seem about the same to me well up until this UI 2.0 crap...they need to switch back to 1.5 or do something with 2.0..

Edited by Dredhawk, 28 April 2014 - 06:10 PM.

[Buckminster]

LauLiao, on 28 April 2014 - 12:29 PM, said:

I smell troll

If he's dropping in the trial Catapult and he doesn't know about target locks, then I totally understand his frustration. Dumbfired LRMs and SSRMs that won't fire without locks - I'd be pretty angry too.

And to the OP - in case it's been lost in all the other info up there - your SSRMs on the trial Catapult REQUIRE target lock before they'll shoot. If you don't have lock and try, you'll get a little buzzing sound, and that's about it. LRMs can fire with or without lock, but your odds of hitting improve significantly with lock. If you have (and maintain) target lock, your LRMs will track to the target. If you don't have lock, they just fire straight.

[dragnier1]

Ghost Badger, on 28 April 2014 - 12:14 PM, said:

Not yet, no, though PGI says "Soon ™." In trial mechs, you don't gain experience. With mechs you purchase you do, and can use that experience to upgrade your mech skills in the 'Skills' tab at the top of the home screen.

Trial mechs do earn xp points, if nothing have been changed thus far. You have to own either the original or champion* mech to use the earned xp.

*champion mechs are upgraded versions of the originals. They come with 10% xp boost and can only be bought with MC (mechwarrior credits, aka. real cash). You can achieve the same build by using cbills (in-game currency).