79 replies to this topic

[Alaskan Nobody]

LordKnightFandragon, on 24 May 2014 - 04:13 PM, said:

But im sure, as per PGI logic, we cannot do such a thing...

Put them in two groups - one firing all the other chainfire.

The button for that is, if I remember right, backspace.

[Buckminster]

'backspace' sets chainfire. You'll be able to tell because the weapon group will have a black box that tracks down when it is activated.

I have easy access to 5 weapon groups, and I'll often try and mix and match what I'm firing so that I can manage heat. On my Battlemaster, LMB is the 3 left MLs, RMB is the 3 right MLs, one group is the MGs, one group is the SRM6 and one is the PPC. It makes it a lot easier to shoot more when you need to, but back off when heat is an issue.

And seeing as I just saw a "someone replied", I'm assuming I was ninja'd on the chainfire answer.

And on my quad AC5 Jager, one group is the left two, one group is the right two, one group is all alpha, and one group is all chainfire. Being able to pick exactly how I'm shooting is the key to it's effectiveness.

Edited by Buckminster, 24 May 2014 - 04:22 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Buckminster, on 24 May 2014 - 04:20 PM, said:

And seeing as I just saw a "someone replied", I'm assuming I was ninja'd on the chainfire answer.

Nice to know I got the button right at least

[Xoxim SC]

ll eNeRgY ll, on 19 May 2014 - 11:24 PM, said:

Disagree with that one. Most FPS tactics transfer and are successful here in MechWarrior. Actually, the whole premise behind what everyone hates about "jump sniping" or "pop tarting" is to shoot and get behind cover. You'll see this any FPS. Map awareness and putting crossfire on the same target as-well.

The best players in MechWarrior play MWO as if it were an FPS.

Agree with you 500% here.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Dang, made it to 25 games lol.

Anyway, about PPC, I know the standard PPC has a minimum damage of 90m or so, does this also apply to the ER PPC?

Also, on sensitivity, do you guys play with it low or what? I have it a little bit below half and for distance aiming and tracking it always seems to be to high and to touchy. Plus I am seemingly horrid at judging my lead for weapons on moving targets in this game. Idk if I need a little or alot. Having a hard time judging weapon velocity...lol.

[Saryonarve]

The standard PPC has a minimum range of 90m, it'll do 0 damage before that. The ER PPC does not have that restriction(just be careful of the higher heat).

As for sensitivity, I believe I have mine turned down a bit from default. You'll definitely want to play around with that until you find a mouse speed that's comfortable for you.

Judging lead time will come with practice as you get more used to how fast the projectiles fly and how quickly certain mechs can go.

[Eximar]

LordKnightFandragon, on 25 May 2014 - 07:04 AM, said:

Dang, made it to 25 games lol.

Anyway, about PPC, I know the standard PPC has a minimum damage of 90m or so, does this also apply to the ER PPC?

Also, on sensitivity, do you guys play with it low or what? I have it a little bit below half and for distance aiming and tracking it always seems to be to high and to touchy. Plus I am seemingly horrid at judging my lead for weapons on moving targets in this game. Idk if I need a little or alot. Having a hard time judging weapon velocity...lol.

PPC minimum is 90m exactly, but no, there is not a minimum range for the ERPPC.

Low sensitivity is better for smooth tracking and staying precisely on target. It's something you need to experiment with in the training grounds until you find the setting you like best.

[Modo44]

If you have the 3rd person view enabled, the reticule jumps to where your mech's weapons are pointing. It tracks the movement, not the cursor (unlike what you'd typically see in an all-3PV game). For easier aiming, switch to the 1st person view (F4 in a match or permanent toggle in game settings). For even better tracking with arm weapons, disable the Arm Lock option -- this will free your arms for fast, precise shooting.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Oh and on AMS, how effective is it? I know it has a 120m range or something. If a dual salvo of LRM20 is flying my way, is it even going to knock out any worthwhile amount of rockets to really justify carrying it?

[Buckminster]

I want to say it typically hits 3-4 missiles per salvo. So it's not really effective against the LRM80 mechs, but does is job against smaller LRM salvos. Where it really shines is when most of a lance is carrying it.

I typically find that it's worth the weight, and mechs that can carry two should.

[Eximar]

If you're Blue, AMS is a must. If you're red, don't bother.

[Alaskan Nobody]

Buckminster, on 25 May 2014 - 05:01 PM, said:

I want to say it typically hits 3-4 missiles per salvo. So it's not really effective against the LRM80 mechs, but does is job against smaller LRM salvos. Where it really shines is when most of a lance is carrying it.

I typically find that it's worth the weight, and mechs that can carry two should.

Seconding this - the group bit because it not only covers you - but also any teammates within the radius.

Also - AMS works against SSRM and SRM as well as LRM (though the SRM family tends to be fired close enough to severely reduce effectiveness)

[AzureDragoon]

Third that. Remember, even versus LRM 15s and 20s (and the inevitable salvo that comes with them), they're damage relies entirely on getting as many hits on the target as possible. if you can force your enemy to have to fire another salvo or two to destroy you, that's another salvo or two you protect your team from, and there are few weapons in MWO that are as Ammo hungry as a missile boat

That and as Shar Wolf mentions, you can form a "Phalanx net" (based off the name of the ancient combat tactic this is roughly based on, as well as the name of the defense system AMS is based off of, the Phalanx CIWS), with your team. 1 AMS is alright... 4 will have any non-K2 Catapult or Stalker pilot frustrated as they watch half their missiles get shot down.

That said, if you've got a missile lock on you, the two best evasion tactics still stand, Keep moving if you're in the open, and get some overhead, or high cover.

Some other advice:

1. Study mech designs in the mech bay: While the majority of the players you play against will have modified the mech designs from their stock characteristic, the stock configurations can clue you in as to how a mech might be used, it's vital components, and so on. For example, on an Atlas, typically you want to aim for it's Right Torso, as the heaviest weapons (typically an AC/20, Gauss, and occasionally Dual (U)AC/5s,) is mounted there. On a D-DC Atlas however, you may want to target it's Left Torso, as that's where the ECM is mounted, and destroying that can allow your LRM support to start supporting you more.

2. If you see Ballistics (minus Gauss rifles), or Missiles on a Heavy or Assault's readout, target it's Legs. Why? Well, we Mech warriors of MWO, despise C.A.S.E. In Table top Battletech, C.A.S.E. is somewhat important, as a lucky dice roll when checking for hit locations may cause a critical even through armor and thus hit an ammo storage location.

Here in MWO though, criticals only happen when you're unarmored, and combined with the ammo storage using the highest mounted ammo first, then going down the mech, makes C.A.S.E. a bit of a wasted use of tonage and space. We tend to store ammo that will take a while to fire all of it in the leg critical slots, or to make room for heavier weapons like the LRMs and ACs. if you can hit the internal structure of the legs on these mechs, you may hit an Ammo bin. Deal 10 or more damage to them, and all remaining ammo in that location explodes, which is then dealt to the limb it was stored in. Excess damage then get's transfered (as per damage transfer rules) to the next viable internal structures (even if they have remaining armor), this in turn causes further Critical hit rolls, meaning you can set off further chain reactions on any ammo stored in those locations, or destroy weapons and equipment mounted in them.

plus it's completely awesome, and hilarious when it occurs, and your score feed starts reading like this:

"Enemy Component Destroyed"
-1 second latter as damage is calculated and chain reactions occur-
"Enemy Component Destroyed"
"Enemy Component Destroyed"
"Enemy Component Destroyed"
"Enemy Killed"

3. If you see an enemy mount a Gauss Rifle, Target the Gauss Rifle's location. In this case, Gauss rifles explode, not their ammo (ammo instead is lost if the ammo storage is hit, cited as the ammo bin/feed mechanism is ruined). A destroyed Gauss Rifle inflicts 20 damage from the discharge from it's capacitor to internal structures.

4. Some Missile using mechs have Weapon doors, know how and when to open them. You can open and close them with the */* key by default. Closed missile doors lowers damage to only 90% received (Particularly vital to know for mechs like the Catapult and Stalker, since their "arms" are particularly large and somewhat rather easy to hit). The cost is however, that they take a half second longer to launch the missiles after you press the fire button.
In case what this means hasn't quite dawned on you yet it boils down to this.
LRM Boats (I.E. Stalker and Catapult): If safe from enemy attack and providing support, keep the doors open to make sure you can fire as fast as possible. Close the doors when you're in the middle of a fight, and need to haul your rear end out of there.

On SRM focused mechs, like the Kintaro or Centurions, you may actually want to keep it closed up until you're about to engage at SRM range.

Edited by AzureDragoon, 26 May 2014 - 01:26 PM.

[Alaskan Nobody]

AzureDragoon, on 26 May 2014 - 01:07 PM, said:

3. If you see an enemy mount a Gauss Rifle, Target the Gauss Rifle's location. In this case, Gauss rifles explode, not their ammo (ammo instead is lost if the ammo storage is hit, cited as the ammo bin/feed mechanism is ruined). A destroyed Gauss Rifle inflicts 20 damage from the discharge from it's capacitor to internal structures.

A note on that - since Gauss ammo doesn't explode - try to store it with the Gauss rifle

The crit is still more likely to hit the Gauss (since it takes so manly crit slots) but it may save you that explosion.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Few more random questions

Skills, like 7.5% heat eff for mechs and stuff like that....I have unlocked a few of those on my Vic and am wondering, those automatic passive upgrades or something?

And, the Cockpit items, I can unmount them and put them in another mech right?

[Modo44]

Unlocks are passive, yes. Once on, they always work for that mech variant.

Cockpit items can be moved between mechs, just like weapons, engines, etc.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Can we no longer edit the FoV settings? There is no user.cfg file in the MWO folder and when I made one and put it in there the changes certainly didnt work.

[Modo44]

These work fine for me:

cl_fov = 80
gp_option_ShowCockpitGlass = 0

Maybe you misspelled something or put the file in the wrong folder. It needs to be in the same folder where system.cfg sits.

[LordKnightFandragon]

Modo44, on 27 May 2014 - 03:55 AM, said:

These work fine for me:

cl_fov = 80
gp_option_ShowCockpitGlass = 0

Maybe you misspelled something or put the file in the wrong folder. It needs to be in the same folder where system.cfg sits.

its in the MWO online folder, right below the system.cfg file, I have checked the spelling, but its not changing anything in game.

[Modo44]

Then it is time to run the repair tool, and if that will not help, contact support. Only some advanced user.cfg settings are blocked -- the basic stuff is officially supported by PGI and should always work.