219 replies to this topic

[Bishop Steiner]

My Primary LRMBoat is a Warhawk-B, with 45 tubes. No TAG, no NARC, no Artemis (mostly because I can't fit a LRM-15 in the CT with one). Am I expecting others to do my dirty work? Well, I also pack 2 ER MLasers and an LB-20X, and move at 70 kph, so you tell me.

I've thought about TAG, but my usual answer, is if they are under heavy ecm, I simply switch to my lasers and LB-X and kill them that way.

[Lefty Lucy]

Bishop Steiner, on 11 August 2014 - 07:27 AM, said:

My Primary LRMBoat is a Warhawk-B, with 45 tubes. No TAG, no NARC, no Artemis (mostly because I can't fit a LRM-15 in the CT with one). Am I expecting others to do my dirty work? Well, I also pack 2 ER MLasers and an LB-20X, and move at 70 kph, so you tell me.

I've thought about TAG, but my usual answer, is if they are under heavy ecm, I simply switch to my lasers and LB-X and kill them that way.

To be fair, there aren't any IS mechs that have the option to pack that much firepower at that speed.

[Satan n stuff]

Lefty Lucy, on 11 August 2014 - 07:38 AM, said:

To be fair, there aren't any IS mechs that have the option to pack that much firepower at that speed.

You can do 30-40 with artemis, TAG, BAP and one rather heavy ballistic and energy weapon on a Highlander 733, you even have the option of taking jump jets, but you'll be stuck with a 300 XL engine or lower.

[Killian De Morte]

The R key is a poorly used skill ( yes SKILL )

I ALWAYS hit R when there is a target - even if I cant "see" it

1) It gives me info on what is out there

2) often the unseen target runs round the corner in the distance trying to break lock - only to be picked up by me so the LRMs keep on coming.


How many times have I seen people running round a brawl with hollow triangles all over with no-one locked at all !
How do you know what to aim for if you dont know where the armour is already stripped ?

One complaint I do have on some LRM boats is their target selection - I often carry narcs and cry out when I tag a fat target, often the most dangerous in the group, only to have the LRM-ers waste salvos on poor locks popping in and out of cover.

I put my ass out there to nail a big "kick-me" target on the back of a Dire-Wolf/Atlas and you waste LRMs trying to hit a jenner popping in and out of the canyons

Then the tag runs out and the DW/Atlas happily plods along unhurt and looking for blood - plus I have wasted one of my limited supply of narcs to no effect.

In most cases - if it is narced and/or tagged LRM it !

[mogs01gt]

Lefty Lucy, on 11 August 2014 - 07:38 AM, said:

To be fair, there aren't any IS mechs that have the option to pack that much firepower at that speed.

A Battlemaster can come close......not to close though .

[Bishop Steiner]

Lefty Lucy, on 11 August 2014 - 07:38 AM, said:

To be fair, there aren't any IS mechs that have the option to pack that much firepower at that speed.

half weight missile launchers. Of course, blob fire missiles are a ton more effective than stream fired ones, unless the enemy is sitting out in the open with no AMS. So a LRM30 IS Mech is liable to do as much effective damage as a LRM45 Clan.

[Satan n stuff]

Bishop Steiner, on 11 August 2014 - 08:02 AM, said:

half weight missile launchers. Of course, blob fire missiles are a ton more effective than stream fired ones, unless the enemy is sitting out in the open with no AMS. So a LRM30 IS Mech is liable to do as much effective damage as a LRM45 Clan.

mogs01gt, on 11 August 2014 - 08:00 AM, said:

A Battlemaster can come close......not to close though .

Satan n stuff, on 11 August 2014 - 07:52 AM, said:

You can do 30-40 with artemis, TAG, BAP and one rather heavy ballistic and energy weapon on a Highlander 733, you even have the option of taking jump jets, but you'll be stuck with a 300 XL engine or lower.

[EyesBurn]

Scurry, on 11 August 2014 - 02:57 AM, said:

Whoa there, I'm talking about a certain specific case here - several times, in a close match, I've seen an LRM boat with no backup weaponry, and with very healthy armor, being the last one alive on the team, facing off against 1-3 enemy mechs with wide open torsi such that even a scratch would kill them. Then being picked to bits by backup weaponry that the other team had. That's incredibly frustrating. Honestly, even a single Small Laser would work, so that you're not totally non-functional after running out of ammo/forced into CQC.

Eh,i really got to stop taking things personally,i will never learn,but you folks dont help either,when i read your posts i have a feeling you take us all in same bucket,thats why i am defending myself and others who have enough brains to drive those damn lrm boats ... btw,i am not saying i got lot of brains just enough to drive that thing,i so suck in gauss weapons that you wouldnt believe ... Either way ,thats why i take missiles as a support weapons,i am there to support my team,to soften enemy up and to try too keep them at distance,yes,they are powerful but thats why downsides exists,ammo is limited and no close damage.I lurm,brawlers are there to kill.
And if a good lrm pilot is there last and without ammo,its safe to assume that in a worst case scenario he did his job at least by damaging opponents but the other team was just better,not because he had no good backup weapons or because his team sucked,so many games my team lost and yet it was a great fight,there werent noobs in those matches for sure.

Edited by EyesBurn, 11 August 2014 - 08:17 AM.

[Big Tin Man]

It's funny, I look through my stats on my highest win/loss ratio mechs, and my three missile boats are in my top 5 w/l. And they are:

TBT-Loup de poop. 4 x lrm5, XL325 engine. Run fast, jump, and stay right behind the brawlers. Watch what they're focused on and apply a constant stream of screen shake and bitchin betty missle warning messages. Psy-ops FTW. Best at 200-400m from target.

Summoner B-- 2x SRM 6, 1 LRM 10, 1 LRM 15. Alpha's at 200m end mechs, even more fun to chain fire against them if they don't have AMS (LOL constant screen shake). And adding 25 mobile tubes and keeping up with the team counts

Missilemaster 1S--2xLRM 10, 2xLRM 15, 4 ML. Haven't driven this in a while, best with a coordinated team. My group occasionally runs big tube nights, and with a spotter and 200+ tubes, we make it hail. The results are very one sided.

The long and short of this: successful LRM boats stay with the brawlers. You will take fire, but you need to spread it and twist. Slow boats get sunk as you sit still and hold your target while an spider/ember/jenner drills a hole in your back.

[Bishop Steiner]

Big Tin Man, on 11 August 2014 - 08:42 AM, said:

It's funny, I look through my stats on my highest win/loss ratio mechs, and my three missile boats are in my top 5 w/l. And they are:

TBT-Loup de poop. 4 x lrm5, XL325 engine. Run fast, jump, and stay right behind the brawlers. Watch what they're focused on and apply a constant stream of screen shake and bitchin betty missle warning messages. Psy-ops FTW. Best at 200-400m from target.

Summoner B-- 2x SRM 6, 1 LRM 10, 1 LRM 15. Alpha's at 200m end mechs, even more fun to chain fire against them if they don't have AMS (LOL constant screen shake). And adding 25 mobile tubes and keeping up with the team counts

Missilemaster 1S--2xLRM 10, 2xLRM 15, 4 ML. Haven't driven this in a while, best with a coordinated team. My group occasionally runs big tube nights, and with a spotter and 200+ tubes, we make it hail. The results are very one sided.

The long and short of this: successful LRM boats stay with the brawlers. You will take fire, but you need to spread it and twist. Slow boats get sunk as you sit still and hold your target while an spider/ember/jenner drills a hole in your back.

and none of your LRMboats are uberdecidcated, with no back up weapons, it sounds like, except apparently your highly mobile TBT.

[Big Tin Man]

Bishop Steiner, on 11 August 2014 - 08:52 AM, said:

and none of your LRMboats are uberdecidcated, with no back up weapons, it sounds like, except apparently your highly mobile TBT.

Well these days the BLR with 4 ML doesn't feel like much of a threat under 180m given the other boats you'll run up against. And no, I didn't list my unsuccessful mechs, specifically the TBT-7M (first mech and I didn't know what I was doing) and trial stalker (LOL XL, GG).

I was more noting that 3 of my top 5 winningest mechs are based on having LRM's as the primary weapon.

Edited by Big Tin Man, 11 August 2014 - 09:07 AM.

[Escef]

Big Tin Man, on 11 August 2014 - 09:06 AM, said:

Well these days the BLR with 4 ML doesn't feel like much of a threat under 180m given the other boats you'll run up against. And no, I didn't list my unsuccessful mechs, specifically the TBT-7M (first mech and I didn't know what I was doing) and trial stalker (LOL XL, GG).

I was more noting that 3 of my top 5 winningest mechs are based on having LRM's as the primary weapon.

Run my ALRM50 BLR with 4xML and a 340XL. But you are right, many LRM boats out there make that look kinda' weak. An LRM boating Timber Wolf can pack just as many ALRMs, comparable ammo, 4 clan ERMLs, only slightly less armor, and superior speed.

Also, a side note on the trial Stalker. The XL engine on that mech is less of a drawback than it looks, given its role on the field and the ability to torso roll and spread damage around. However, making that build a trial mech is a less than stellar idea, as asking a new player to cut their teeth on something slow with an XL engine is not going to end well most of the time.

[Almeras]

"R/hold your targets" is normally the mating call of the inexperienced pilot.

When not part of a setup team you have to make your own targets, that means tag'ing and standing right next to the brawl line. Even then if your team is pinned and the other has multiple ecm your not going to have a good game.

But a setup team with a few boats an a few lights with narc, UVA works even then I don't expect lights to 'hold locks' because it gets them killed. Rather just UVA and a narc if they are feel esp nice. Tag is meant for you.

[scruffy416]

Jman5, on 11 August 2014 - 05:40 AM, said:

...

Telling us you're an LRM pilot is basically pointless. No one is going to play any different and most wont even remember you said it 2 minutes from now. When they see the LRM icon on a target people will try to hold locks, but otherwise, not.

Untrue - when I know there are LRM's in the backfield, I'll take more chances deploying UAV's, slow down to try to TAG and take and hold locks on enemy assaults that I might otherwise avoid. I won't bother otherwise... it's truly crappy running the gauntlet thru a solid pack of Assaults and Heavies to deploy an UAV lose a third of your armour and then see zero benefit.

I'll agree with OP's point about the whining at the end of a game, etc. no-one needs that. But the whole post here, and the responses telling the LRM folks to "get their own lunches" well, those are honestly never going to affect the whiners... they'll just keep on whining and blaming the rest of the world for their woes. But it'll also stop all the other LRM carriers from announcing their loadouts. And seriously, does LESS COMMUNICATION help? Really?

PGI gives us no tools to tell how our teammates are loaded out at the moment. Lets not remove another just 'cause we're annoyed.

[poopenshire]

Ok some points:

• Why do people ask others to press "R"? Because its a habit of some players to never press "R", or they reassigned it to a key that is less likely to be useful to move something else into a more readily available key.
  
• I have watched players actively un-lock targets during prolonged battles. They approached a target, started firing, when they achieved lock by firing on the target they actively removed target and remained firing. There is no reason to do this.
  
• Why tell people what your running? Well you do that so people know whats in the mechs they run with. We can see more about what the opposition is running than our own teammates. Thats not a good thing. As well, it lets those who have NARC/TAG know they will make big bucks and EXP for their hard work, I run this often for my team and love the pay days I get from this.
  
• Its communication, something is rare in game. We dropped as a 8-man once and had an 4-man drop with us. We were waiting to drop and tried to communicate with them. We asked them who they were, what they wanted, and ideas before dropping. Not a word in response. Then as we drop and start playing, our scouts are relaying enemy position, they run another direction while we type our instructions to our team in game chat so they can see it. The entire game we are typing giving instructions through in game chat so they can see it, and they always are off running doing their own thing. We think they don't speak English (seems reasonable). Well we end up last 5 minutes of the match in the lead 6 mechs left to 4. Finally after them losing 1 of their members and the remaining enemy closing fast on them decide they should scream in all caps for help and demanding to know why we weren't jumping to get to them fast enough to help...... We ended up winning but not as a team.

Take it for its worth, try/don't try, doesn't matter. people are gonna do what they want to do anyway

Edited by poopenshire, 11 August 2014 - 11:15 AM.

[Gallowglas]

Sure, I'll agree it's not as simple as LRM boaters make it out to be for the reasons you outline. However, while spectating I have also witnessed a mind-boggling number of players who don't ever target their opponent, so that does contribute not only to lack of LRM support, but also poor tactical awareness in general too.

[KamikazeRat]

Tl:Dr

I'm on both sides of this, one the one hand, yes... people who don't hold their locks drives me nuts, watching them fire at the mech in front of them, with no idea what part of it is weak, i just incomprehensible.

flip side: its like reminding people to use cover, not run off on their own, brush their teeth, and wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, you can tell them all you want, but if they weren't going to do it before you reminded them, they still aren't going to do it after you do.

So if you lurmboat, count on getting your own locks. and don't annoy the rest of us with "hold lock please" or "Lrmbazillion here"

Edited by KamikazeRat, 11 August 2014 - 01:41 PM.

[MischiefSC]

Lrms aside, people who dont hit R are bads. They are a burden to the team. It isnt hard and dramatically improves a pug teams overall performance. People who dont hit R or even untarget should be eligable for tk like anyone else who trolls their own team.

[Bishop Steiner]

MischiefSC, on 11 August 2014 - 02:12 PM, said:

Lrms aside, people who dont hit R are bads. They are a burden to the team. It isnt hard and dramatically improves a pug teams overall performance. People who dont hit R or even untarget should be eligable for tk like anyone else who trolls their own team.

i think a lot of people intentionally avoid it because they are afraid someone will swoop in and "steal" their kill. Especially on the challenge and tournament weekends.

[Bartholomew bartholomew]

Killian De Morte, on 11 August 2014 - 07:55 AM, said:

The R key is a poorly used skill ( yes SKILL )

I ALWAYS hit R when there is a target - even if I cant "see" it

1) It gives me info on what is out there

2) often the unseen target runs round the corner in the distance trying to break lock - only to be picked up by me so the LRMs keep on coming.


How many times have I seen people running round a brawl with hollow triangles all over with no-one locked at all !
How do you know what to aim for if you dont know where the armour is already stripped ?

One complaint I do have on some LRM boats is their target selection - I often carry narcs and cry out when I tag a fat target, often the most dangerous in the group, only to have the LRM-ers waste salvos on poor locks popping in and out of cover.

I put my ass out there to nail a big "kick-me" target on the back of a Dire-Wolf/Atlas and you waste LRMs trying to hit a jenner popping in and out of the canyons

Then the tag runs out and the DW/Atlas happily plods along unhurt and looking for blood - plus I have wasted one of my limited supply of narcs to no effect.

In most cases - if it is narced and/or tagged LRM it !

I always try to hit tagged/narced targets. You went through all the effort. So me lobbing at them for you to get the bonuses for that is no problem.

And thanks for getting out there to do that. It does help.