14 replies to this topic

[Koniving]

Just now I was in a match and I cornered a Jenner champion piloted by someone who was obviously new. I didn't know it at the time as truth be told new players don't really belong in matches with me. Checking his name though he's literally fresh day new.

Anyway I turned my attention away because I couldn't see him (despite being in front of me), where I LRM'ed an enemy to death from in one of the pits of Tourmaline Desert. When I looked back, the Jenner was dumbfounded, didn't seem to know what to do. Since I had him lined up though he fired. 3 medium lasers streaked across my mech's body. It was done so fast that ZERO damage was registered. He did it again with the small lasers. This registered damage but the upward stream made me wonder if he thought he was playing a fighting game with a right hook followed by a left upper cut.

I fired at him, then I went to typing. "Pick a body part and focus your fire. You won't do anything firing like that."

He ran off and died seconds later.

-----------
The moral of the story is that it is not enough to simply hit your target.

Pick one specific area on one body part focus your fire until it explodes. If you fire randomly you will, inevitably, die having done almost nothing. If you've played Dead Space it works much the same way. Cut off the body parts and eventually it will die. It's not enough to just shoot it.

What works best against what target really depends and is pretty advanced, you're free to ask here if you want. But in general, if you are in doubt shoot the legs. Shoot them until they break with bits flying off and that lovely electrical-ish-explosion that doesn't sound like an explosion rings out, then shoot the other leg.

Good luck, and please... Lasers need some time spent concentrating on the enemies. They aren't streamers, and don't worry about crossing the beams.

[990Dreams]

Also, if you know you won't kill your opponent, aim to hurt. Take out weapons, side torsos, legs, anything you can get your aim on. I have scared pilots away many times just by blowing off their Mech's parts. I've killed people by disabling them first, or my allies killed a Mech I disabled.

On the flip side, make sure your Mech has max armor (or close to it) on the vital parts. Lights should keep armor on their legs. Stalkers should keep armor on their side torsos (because it is easier to hit that than your arm). But regardless of your Mech, always armor on your center and side torsos. Those are the largest areas (center-of-mass) and the easiest to hit.

Edited by DavidHurricane, 24 August 2014 - 11:51 AM.

[Toffa]

Furthermore, If you can spare a moment, take a quick peek a the paper-doll in the top right of your screen. If you can see a part that is orange or even red.... Shoot it. Shoot it now!

And remember, if your target is facing you, left and right are reversed!

Toffs
( '-')7

[Koniving]

Toffa, on 24 August 2014 - 08:48 PM, said:

Furthermore, If you can spare a moment, take a quick peek a the paper-doll in the top right of your screen. If you can see a part that is orange or even red.... Shoot it. Shoot it now!

And remember, if your target is facing you, left and right are reversed!

Toffs
( '-')7

The display is actually set up so that the enemy front-side as if they are facing you goes Right then Left, and the enemy rear display as if their rear is facing you goes Left then Right.

So the display will be accurate (instead of reversed) for which side is which.
Upper right. Front is R, L. Rear is L, R. Bottom left for self, display is L, R and L, R.

[RazorbeastFXK3]

It's still weird to me how regular lasers in this game work like pulse lasers back in Mechwarrior 3 and the pulse lasers in this game work like the pulse lasers did in Mechwarrior 3. But yeah.. it's best to hold the lasers in one spot as long as possible even if you're strafing to deal the most damage and try to pick a point that's already weak which is the reason why players usually yell "HIT R TO LOCK!" 'cause if you don't know where to hit, you don't know what's lacking armor and your team can't support you with their LRMs.

I've fallen victim to not hitting the lock button to target the mech I'm fighting 'cause if you have a mech locked and engage another mech, for some reason the targeting computer doesn't switch over by itself and the mech I have targeted may have a weak shoulder so I'm targeting the mech I'm engaged with in the shoulder but it's not glowing or anything and before I snap back to reality I'm usually dead or really hurting 'cause I didn't cripple my target.

[RANT]Why the hell do I need to cycle through all the enemies which are behind me before I target the only enemy that's infront of me anyway? It's annoying having to hit the lock button repeatedly so I could use my lrms or get an armor readout on the mech I'm closest to.. Can't we have a 'Target Nearest Enemy' button like Mechwarrior 3 has?[/rant]

That's got me curious about armor placement now.. So.. on a Stalker mech it's wise to put more armor on the front of the L/R Torsi instead of the front of the CT?

[990Dreams]

Koniving, on 25 August 2014 - 09:23 AM, said:

The display is actually set up so that the enemy front-side as if they are facing you goes Right then Left, and the enemy rear display as if their rear is facing you goes Left then Right.

So the display will be accurate (instead of reversed) for which side is which.
Upper right. Front is R, L. Rear is L, R. Bottom left for self, display is L, R and L, R.

What is in front of your view?

RazorbeastFXK3, on 25 August 2014 - 09:39 AM, said:

That's got me curious about armor placement now.. So.. on a Stalker mech it's wise to put more armor on the front of the L/R Torsi instead of the front of the CT?

Your CT should have armor, but actually that is a good point. most people who aren't noobs will try to take our your sides, which is where the missiles are. So you might be onto something

[Tesunie]

RazorbeastFXK3, on 25 August 2014 - 09:39 AM, said:

It's still weird to me how regular lasers in this game work like pulse lasers back in Mechwarrior 3 and the pulse lasers in this game work like the pulse lasers did in Mechwarrior 3. But yeah.. it's best to hold the lasers in one spot as long as possible even if you're strafing to deal the most damage and try to pick a point that's already weak which is the reason why players usually yell "HIT R TO LOCK!" 'cause if you don't know where to hit, you don't know what's lacking armor and your team can't support you with their LRMs.

I've fallen victim to not hitting the lock button to target the mech I'm fighting 'cause if you have a mech locked and engage another mech, for some reason the targeting computer doesn't switch over by itself and the mech I have targeted may have a weak shoulder so I'm targeting the mech I'm engaged with in the shoulder but it's not glowing or anything and before I snap back to reality I'm usually dead or really hurting 'cause I didn't cripple my target.

[RANT]Why the hell do I need to cycle through all the enemies which are behind me before I target the only enemy that's infront of me anyway? It's annoying having to hit the lock button repeatedly so I could use my lrms or get an armor readout on the mech I'm closest to.. Can't we have a 'Target Nearest Enemy' button like Mechwarrior 3 has?[/rant]

That's got me curious about armor placement now.. So.. on a Stalker mech it's wise to put more armor on the front of the L/R Torsi instead of the front of the CT?

It probably doesn't auto-lock what is in front of you for several reasons, but I'll mention one here which I find relevant. I tend to use LRMs a lot on my mechs, and often times, I will have my LRM target locked for LRMs, and someone will get close. If I can, I'm going to shoot the close target with my defensive weapons, while at the same time still try and lob missiles at my "primary" target. If it auto-changed to the unit I fired (say, my medium lasers) at, I would lose my missile lock, which may be more important at that time for the team.

DavidHurricane, on 25 August 2014 - 09:43 AM, said:

What is in front of your view?



Your CT should have armor, but actually that is a good point. most people who aren't noobs will try to take our your sides, which is where the missiles are. So you might be onto something

A single LRM, caught bouncing off his mech from being fired at too close of range is my guess...
Edit: Or is going across their view from them being fired from the side, possibly at a different target.

Edited by Tesunie, 25 August 2014 - 09:49 AM.

[RazorbeastFXK3]

That makes sense. I never was able to engage more than one mech at one time at long and short range. I've normally just gave 100% attention to whatever could take me out at close range and if I wasn't engaged I'd give 75% attention to my target and 25% attention to my surroundings.

I guess a situation I'm frustrated over is if you're using a mech that had LRMs for long range and Streaks for short, you'd want to immediately target the enemy that is in your face with your streaks instead of cycling through a number of targets to lock onto the one you want. It's a rare situation but still a function I'd like to see added to mwomercs.

Target Nearest Enemy
and
Unselect Target (If there is one I'll have to add it to my key functions)

Tesunie, on 25 August 2014 - 09:48 AM, said:

It probably doesn't auto-lock what is in front of you for several reasons, but I'll mention one here which I find relevant. I tend to use LRMs a lot on my mechs, and often times, I will have my LRM target locked for LRMs, and someone will get close. If I can, I'm going to shoot the close target with my defensive weapons, while at the same time still try and lob missiles at my "primary" target. If it auto-changed to the unit I fired (say, my medium lasers) at, I would lose my missile lock, which may be more important at that time for the team.

[Riverboat Sam]

Koniving, on 24 August 2014 - 11:37 AM, said:

Just now I was in a match and I cornered a Jenner champion piloted by someone who was obviously new. I didn't know it at the time as truth be told new players don't really belong in matches with me. Checking his name though he's literally fresh day new.

Anyway I turned my attention away because I couldn't see him (despite being in front of me), where I LRM'ed an enemy to death from in one of the pits of Tourmaline Desert. When I looked back, the Jenner was dumbfounded, didn't seem to know what to do. Since I had him lined up though he fired. 3 medium lasers streaked across my mech's body. It was done so fast that ZERO damage was registered. He did it again with the small lasers. This registered damage but the upward stream made me wonder if he thought he was playing a fighting game with a right hook followed by a left upper cut.

I fired at him, then I went to typing. "Pick a body part and focus your fire. You won't do anything firing like that."

He ran off and died seconds later.

-----------
The moral of the story is that it is not enough to simply hit your target.

Pick one specific area on one body part focus your fire until it explodes. If you fire randomly you will, inevitably, die having done almost nothing. If you've played Dead Space it works much the same way. Cut off the body parts and eventually it will die. It's not enough to just shoot it.

What works best against what target really depends and is pretty advanced, you're free to ask here if you want. But in general, if you are in doubt shoot the legs. Shoot them until they break with bits flying off and that lovely electrical-ish-explosion that doesn't sound like an explosion rings out, then shoot the other leg.

Good luck, and please... Lasers need some time spent concentrating on the enemies. They aren't streamers, and don't worry about crossing the beams.

I think that was...me. Or it could have been anyway. I just bought a -D a day ago and went right into battle not even knowing what weapons it had on it.

If it's any consolation - I did get a bit better.

Thanks for the advice!

[Koniving]

Enlil09, on 25 August 2014 - 10:21 AM, said:

I think that was...me. Or it could have been anyway. I just bought a -D a day ago and went right into battle not even knowing what weapons it had on it.

If it's any consolation - I did get a bit better.

Thanks for the advice!

Wasn't you.

DavidHurricane, on 25 August 2014 - 09:43 AM, said:

What is in front of your view?

An LRM.

RazorbeastFXK3, on 25 August 2014 - 09:39 AM, said:

[RANT]Why the hell do I need to cycle through all the enemies which are behind me before I target the only enemy that's infront of me anyway? It's annoying having to hit the lock button repeatedly so I could use my lrms or get an armor readout on the mech I'm closest to.. Can't we have a 'Target Nearest Enemy' button like Mechwarrior 3 has?[/rant]

The targeting system tries to target the enemy closest to the crosshair, regardless of distance.

[Inflatable Fish]

DavidHurricane, on 25 August 2014 - 09:43 AM, said:

What is in front of your view?

a bowling pin, obv.

[Koniving]

RazorbeastFXK3, on 25 August 2014 - 09:39 AM, said:

That's got me curious about armor placement now.. So.. on a Stalker mech it's wise to put more armor on the front of the L/R Torsi instead of the front of the CT?

This depends, but typically the side torsos will always go first, except when the rear is involved. So it's a good idea to have a good amount of rear armor on a Stalker (in part due to its slow turn around). The rear CT is huge and the rear side torsos are tiny. The front CT is pretty small but the front STs are big. To note, though, LRMs have a devastating habit of finding the front CT since it runs like a strip along the body.

[Dawnstealer]

It took me a few matches to figure out that the main difference between the high-damage, high-kill folks and everyone else, was the ability to aim. I've taken out much larger mechs with just a second's pause to put the shot where I want it, while they answer with a "IT'S A LIGHT - HIT IT ANYWHERE"- mentality. It's true: a Light can't take as much punishment, but when you spread that 70 points across a whole of a mech, and I put my 20 EXACTLY where I want it to go, I'll usually win that fight.

[LauLiao]

Inflatable Fish, on 25 August 2014 - 10:44 AM, said:

a bowling pin, obv.

He must be piloting his Jugglermech.

[RazorbeastFXK3]

So it really needs to be fixed. Can't remember how many times I've had my crosshairs directly ontop of the red triangle infront of me only to cycle through two or three enemy mechs behind me that weren't even within LRM hitting range.

Koniving, on 25 August 2014 - 10:34 AM, said:

The targeting system tries to target the enemy closest to the crosshair, regardless of distance.