69 replies to this topic

[BUDFORCE]

I wouldn't consider myself a complete novice neither would I consider myself anywhere near the top end of the skill pile. I took a reasonable long break from MWO (although after the gauss changes) and I have noticed more dual guass builds around, particularly Dire Wolfs.

For those who started a while go, you will remember that gauss cannons didnt have the "charge up" mechanic they do now, you could just point a click and they would fire. Back then, the game was a horrible meta jump snipe long range game, and PGI made a lot of balance changes to try and make the game more "brawly" which is good. One of them was to add the "charge up" time on the gauss cannons to make them harder to use.

That is all good in theory but what I think has happened is that the more elite players, have either practiced enough to get good with them anyway, or are using scripts (I would guess more the latter, but people will never admit that on public forums) and the average jo novice player, like me, who find them impossible to use, are being excluded from using this weapon.

Or to put it another way, you've got a powerful weapon, that now only the more elite players can use effectively.

Now a single guass is not an issue, yes if you get caught out by one, it hurts, you make a note of it, if you get caught out again, its your own fault. I dont have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is popping out of cover with my medium mech to take a look, getting popped by dual guass in the CT and have to try and play the rest of the game in structure damage off the bat, its just not fun.

What I suggest? Actually I am not sure, but I dont think the current method is working at all, maybe making the single guass back to how it was, and either making it impossible, or with a significant nerf to be able to mount 2 at once.

[Duke Nedo]

I play all classes, so I see both ends of it.. but I have to say I kind-of enjoy being afraid to step in front of Direwolves and the rush when you accidentally blunder into one around a corner... I struggle more with dual-gauss Jagers though, they are faster and can snipe you while only exposing some pixels from 1000m away. These are the guys I am afraid of... but I wouldn't like to nerf any of them really. I would instead add some more agility to the mediums and lights, like turn radius mainly I think.

[meteorol]

You literally have to do nothing but hold down a button and release it after 0.75.
It is dirt easy. It takes like 1 try to learn. Really. I'm losing faith in humanity whenever someone brings up the "gauss is hard to use".

What happend to gamers? Years ago there where many games so difficult you wanted to bite your keyboard. Nowadays pressing a button for less than a second and then releasing it is called a "complicated mechanic" that is "difficult to use" for new players. Seriously? Seriously? It's pressing ONE button.

Edited by meteorol, 06 October 2014 - 11:49 PM.

[Ens]

meteorol, on 06 October 2014 - 11:47 PM, said:

...I'm losing faith in humanity whenever someone brings up the "gauss is hard to use"....

What happend to gamers? Years ago there where many games so difficult you wanted to bite your keyboard.

amen brother

[Lyoto Machida]

Only the elite players able to use Gauss is stretching it a bit. Just practice with it and you'll be able to brawl with it eventually (without a macro).

[Valore]

Use AC20 or AC10 and shoot people at short range until you get used to the feel of ballistics.

Switch to Gauss, practice in training grounds.

Use Gauss.

Problem solved.

[Hades Trooper]

BUDFORCE, on 06 October 2014 - 10:48 PM, said:

I wouldn't consider myself a complete novice neither would I consider myself anywhere near the top end of the skill pile. I took a reasonable long break from MWO (although after the gauss changes) and I have noticed more dual guass builds around, particularly Dire Wolfs.

For those who started a while go, you will remember that gauss cannons didnt have the "charge up" mechanic they do now, you could just point a click and they would fire. Back then, the game was a horrible meta jump snipe long range game, and PGI made a lot of balance changes to try and make the game more "brawly" which is good. One of them was to add the "charge up" time on the gauss cannons to make them harder to use.

That is all good in theory but what I think has happened is that the more elite players, have either practiced enough to get good with them anyway, or are using scripts (I would guess more the latter, but people will never admit that on public forums) and the average jo novice player, like me, who find them impossible to use, are being excluded from using this weapon.

Or to put it another way, you've got a powerful weapon, that now only the more elite players can use effectively.

Now a single guass is not an issue, yes if you get caught out by one, it hurts, you make a note of it, if you get caught out again, its your own fault. I dont have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is popping out of cover with my medium mech to take a look, getting popped by dual guass in the CT and have to try and play the rest of the game in structure damage off the bat, its just not fun.

What I suggest? Actually I am not sure, but I dont think the current method is working at all, maybe making the single guass back to how it was, and either making it impossible, or with a significant nerf to be able to mount 2 at once.

Yes you are right, a lot of pathetic people who call themselves elite, use scripts and macro's to do the button clicking for them as they lack the skills to do this without an aid

[zortesh]

Guass is pretty easy to use, takes maybe two games to learn to charge as you step out to fire... It actully encourages good pop and shoot behaviors as you have to fire immediately after stepping out, and theres no reason to stay out once you've fired or failed to fire.

Hard to use is laughable, sure it maybe takes few more games to figure out the charging... but it is much much much much easier to lead for guass then any other ballistic.

And the macros, all they do is fire ppc's at the exact second you release the guass, the more advanced ones have beep when its charged.. they don't really alter the skill level required, just maybe lower to twitch reflex requirement on your second finger.

[KingDavid]

How does this macro/script work anyway ? cause i have seen a view players shooting gauss like instant.

[zortesh]

KingDavid, on 07 October 2014 - 12:48 AM, said:

How does this macro/script work anyway ? cause i have seen a view players shooting gauss like instant.

When you view other players you don't see them charging.

macro works like this.
You have guass on right click, you charge guass, when you release guass button it also presses the ppc button (usally number 6).

More advanced ones beep when its charged, when it loses charge, and when its ready to charge again.

The macro is for ppc/guass, its useless if your just using guass... well less u want a bunch of annoying beeping.

Edited by zortesh, 07 October 2014 - 12:54 AM.

[-Natural Selection-]

Press and release has been a function of "many" video games. Millions of kids across the world scream "nerf wii golf!"

[Keira RAVEN McKenna]

I'm totally appalling with the gauss!

its press and release within a sec or 2 or lose the charge though... thats what messes me up

Edited by AH Keira_NZ, 07 October 2014 - 01:00 AM.

[Lily from animove]

meteorol, on 06 October 2014 - 11:47 PM, said:

You literally have to do nothing but hold down a button and release it after 0.75.
It is dirt easy. It takes like 1 try to learn. Really. I'm losing faith in humanity whenever someone brings up the "gauss is hard to use".

What happend to gamers? Years ago there where many games so difficult you wanted to bite your keyboard. Nowadays pressing a button for less than a second and then releasing it is called a "complicated mechanic" that is "difficult to use" for new players. Seriously? Seriously? It's pressing ONE button.

years ago? games had some big fat manuals explaining how they work. Where is the gauss mechanic explained? Oh wait, nowhere ingame. Thats the issue, lack of documentation. How shoudl newbies know about it?

[TyphonCh]

Yes yes and yes. I have been having the same experiences and it's frustrating to be cored/crippled with one shot... It doesn't seem right and it's definitely not fun.
I saw a suggestion on a different thread, which was to not allow two guass rifles to charge simultaneously. IMO this is a bit harsh. A sniper build makes for a good niche in this game. I would suggest to simply doubling the charge time if you plan to fire them both.

[zortesh]

Lily from animove, on 07 October 2014 - 01:03 AM, said:

years ago? games had some big fat manuals explaining how they work. Where is the gauss mechanic explained? Oh wait, nowhere ingame. Thats the issue, lack of documentation. How shoudl newbies know about it?

I seem to remember all us gamers ignoring those big manuals and just pressing every button in every way till we figured stuff out, the green bar going across when you charge the guass is sortof self explanatory.

Thou you are right, there are alot of mechanics in this game not explained and we could really use a manual.

[4b4dd0n]

@Budforce, for me it was similar to you. I toke a long break until the clans arrived. I have a Ilya with dual gauss and in the first day it was very hard to play with it. I make the mistake to look at the weapon group "screen" to see when the gauss is "ready". So aiming and hitting was really hard.
For me the tip to group the gauss with all weapongroups which are unused helps me alot. Because you get a bigger visiual feedback near the cross hairs. 3 to 5 small green blocks is better then 1. So you dont have to look at the weapon group "screen" anymore.
So in my Ilya i have only 2 weapon groups really used. So i can fill group 1 and 3-6 with the gauss. Its really easy to see when the gauss is ready now. This works similar to my dw.

[Feindfeuer]

Why would I use a script that forces me too shoot even if the enemy gets covered by an advancing friendly, moves into cover or fails to come out of cover as I expected. Keeping a button pressed is hardly something only veteran players can master. The only thing making it unfriendly to novices is the lack of introduction of how those weapons actually work with some kind of ingame tutorial. This needs improvement, in general, but is not a problem exclusive to the gauss rifles.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

Lol, macros? Really? If people truly needed macros to use gauss+ppc then no one would make music ever.

Besides, the gauss charge mechanic is no different than archery in Skyrim.

[Elizander]

Gauss is okay really. Pop around a corner and get hit for 30 damage and the user has to charge before he gets the shot off. I can do instant 40 damage with dual AC10 dual ER PPC Ilya from around 500m or a BoomJager/Cat will do the same to you if you are close enough.

I suggest learning how to play with around 4 back armor. It alleviates a lot of the problems medium mechs have against 30-40 point alphas since a centurion will have 44 side torso armor and 60 CT armor. Just get used to not getting shot in the back. The only time I died due to low back armor in the last few games was shutting down as an Ilya with 2 back armor that got stripped from LRMs and some 4MG light mech ripped my CT but other than that it's mostly not an issue. If you're dying to back hits often anyway that's another problem entirely.

Edited by Elizander, 07 October 2014 - 01:21 AM.

[Pjwned]

Part of the problem that makes it hard to use, as I have now mentioned several times in various discussions over the past while now and it's still not changed or showing any signs of being changed, is that after charging up the gauss rifle for 0.75 seconds you only have 1.25 seconds to shoot before the charge dissipates. That's a really low amount of time to hold the shot, so if you feel that you need a little longer to adjust your shot before firing (because firing the gauss rifle haphazardly is a terrible idea, at all times) then that's just tough crap, and during that period of needing to charge the gauss rifle for 0.75 seconds again you can easily lose the opportunity you would've had if you could've just held the shot a little longer.

The time to hold the shot needs to be doubled (at 2.5 seconds) to make it more reasonable, or if not doubled then at the very least set to 2 seconds, then people can start using it more like the souped up sniper rifle that it is.